The Girl Who Waited
| 221 – "The Girl Who Waited" | |||||
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| Doctor Who episode | |||||
Amy talks to the older version of herself.
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Others
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| Production | |||||
| Directed by | Nick Hurran | ||||
| Written by | Tom MacRae | ||||
| Script editor | Caroline Henry | ||||
| Produced by | Marcus Wilson | ||||
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| Incidental music composer | Murray Gold | ||||
| Series | Series 6 | ||||
| Length | 45 mins | ||||
| Originally broadcast | 10 September 2011 | ||||
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"The Girl Who Waited" is the tenth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC America on 10 September 2011. It was written by Tom MacRae and was directed by Nick Hurran.
In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) takes his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill) to the planet Apalapucia for a holiday, but they find that the planet is on quarantine as the two-hearted natives are susceptible to a deadly plague. Amy accidentally gets separated from the Doctor and Rory but when they try to rescue her they arrive 36 years later in her timeline. The older Amy does not trust the Doctor, who is forced to remain on the TARDIS as he also has two hearts, and will not allow the Doctor and Rory to leave and rescue her at the correct point in her timeline.
"The Girl Who Waited" featured little of the Doctor, due to multiple episodes being filmed at the same time. Gillan played the older version of herself and prosthetics were applied to make her appear older. The episode was filmed on a lower budget, and MacRae decided to make the main sets all white in colour. "The Girl Who Waited" was seen by 7.6 million viewers in the UK and received positive reviews from critics.
The Doctor takes Rory and Amy to the planet Apalapucia, claiming it is a top holiday destination, but is unaware that the planet is suffering from a fatal plague, Chen7, that affects beings with two hearts and can kill them within a day. The native population has created "kindness centres", where those infected by the plague are placed in one of several thousand accelerated time streams, allowing them to live out their lives whilst in communication with their loved ones through a large glass lens in the waiting room. On their arrival, Amy is separated from the Doctor and Rory, and becomes stuck in an accelerated time stream. As the Doctor and Rory discover Amy's location, they are approached by one of the facility's Handbots, a faceless white robot with human-like hands. The Handbot explains the plague, and failing to recognise the Doctor or Rory as alien, attempts to administer a dose of medicine that would be fatal. The Doctor uses the glass lens to warn Amy of this, and tells her to wait for him in the kindness centre, promising to rescue her. The Doctor and Rory return to the TARDIS with the glass lens, which the Doctor uses to lock the time machine onto Amy's timestream. Meanwhile, Amy discovers Interface, providing vocal control over the complex's computer systems, and learns she can mask her presence from the Handbots using the emissions from the time engines driving the accelerated time streams.
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