Well worth the wait.
Crikey. That was remarkable. The first episode since The Doctor’s Wife that I’ve enjoyed unreservedly (or at least, as close to unreservedly as I can manage*). The highest compliment I can pay this episode, I think is that the thought “Oh look, a white-box-on-the-cheap episode” only passed my mind when the TARDIS first landed (that and ‘oh look, the Doctor’s switched back again to the new coat’, though that’s a broadcast-ordering issue). I was honestly surprised how much the episode managed to pack into its running time – the minimalism of the initial sets (and cast, this being a Doctor-light episode) belied the depth and intricacy of the story.

After the last two episodes, which I disliked so much on initial viewing, I had to retrospectively re-evaluate them in my head afterward to try to find some redeeming features (which goes some way to explain why those reviews read like they do), I liked this episode so much that my brain is refusing to believe it and is retroactively finding problems with it, or rather, is negatively reassessing things I noticed were problematic at the time but I simply didn’t care about, carried along as I was on a wave of enjoyment. For instance, though he didn’t age while doing it, Rory waited 2000 years for Amy at the end of the last series, and he gets shouted at because he took 36 and a bit years? Really? The robots were interesting – the stuff with the hands especially, though I thought if they were really intended to be kind, their open heads looked rather worrying – but terrifically flimsy – one was destroyed by having a painting smashed over it (though it was the Mona Lisa)  I also found the ending (for Old Amy) predictable, though that would have been nigh-on impossible to circumvent and in no way undermines its emotional impact.

I criticised Let’s Kill Hitler for resembling Boom Town in the wrong ways, but The Girl Who Waited did it the right way – taking the key concept of Boom Town i.e., asking ‘why does he think he has the right to do these things’ and doing it properly – not through the prism of his enemies, but rather his companions – questioning how he treats those who matter most to him rather than those who matter least. Old Amy’s line about the Doctor “… flying through time on whimsy.” and Rory’s “You should look in a history book once in a while – see if there’s an outbreak of plague or not!” remind us, that the Doctor’s merry dance through time might seem quirky and charming, but has real consequences**, and not just for those who happen to cross his path, like  Better yet, this manages to be properly considered without taking a whole episode, indeed, not even being the main focus of the episode – since this is a Doctor-light episode, as I mentioned, the primary focus is the relationship between Rory and Amy.

I don’t usually comment on acting in these reviews unless someone’s been monumentally awful so it’s nice to make an exception here and say wow! Karen Gillen pulling double-duty as Young and Old Amy was truly astonishing (I’m almost out of my hyperbole key words here) – I believed that Old Amy was distinct from Young Amy, and this was especially noticeable in their scenes ‘together’ (I’ll give the makeup team credit for some of that – but despite the  tremendously convincing face, no grey hair? Really?) and the vocal and posture coaching clearly didn’t go to waste. Equally strong here was Arthur Darvill – Rory being the keystone on which this episode rests – going ably from anger to sadness to utter despair, especially at the end when he was faced with his dilemma, he says to the Doctor  ”This isn’t fair. You’re turning me into you” – followed by his unwitting use of the Tenth Doctor’s “I’m so sorry” catchphrase. Pretty much the only other ‘character’ in the whole thing was the Interface, voiced by Imelda Staunton (This is the series’ second superb standalone episode in which a very respected and well-known actor appears in voice only. Weird, huh?) which was fine, and served its purpose without being overly obtrusive.

The first thing that occurred to me after the frankly inspired downbeat cold close (though I suspect there’s a DVD extra for that’ll add an extra-unnecessary coda to that) was that Moffat wouldn’t have been able to write that. The way Tom MacRae*** dealt with Rory and Young and Old Amy’s relationship was remarkably adept – being able to write a ‘feelings’ episode without having it descent (too much) into tiresome schmaltz and bad dialogue is very impressive. The interactions felt genuine. Had Moffat written it, the episode would’ve been entertaining enough but all the emotional depth, heart and impact would’ve been undermined by his tiresome tendency to slip into lazy sitcom writer territory by stuffing it with smutty remarks (cf. Space /Time and any River Song episode where she’s required to meaningfully interact with the Doctor). While I think he’s a marvellous writer and showrunner, I don’t think he’s quite able to write a story with this much sincerity. There were so many moments – the lipstick thing, for instance, just… happened, but no attention was called to it, and it wasn’t mentioned again, it was there, then it was done – that felt authentic, that conveyed a genuine emotion. This is weird for me – usually I’m on the Moffat side of the divide – I have an aversion to this sort of thing, since it’s so often terribly done, but here it was done well enough that I was completely with it.

This episode was the best this series. Better than The Doctor’s Wife. Better than The Big Bang, Vincent and the Doctor, maybe The Eleventh Hour, possibly even better than Blink. It was just superb. I’ll leave you with something to think about for the series finale that the Doctor said as a casual aside toward the end of the episode. ”Sometimes knowing your own future is what enables you to change it”.

Doctor Who: The Girl Who Waited can be watched on the iPlayer here.

EDIT : There were a few other things which didn’t quite fit in the review, so I’ve given them an addendum here

*funnily enough the worst thing about this episode wasn’t actually in the episode. it was the continuity announcer’s attempt to ‘join in’ with the beginning. When I come to power, this will be banned.

**Well, in-the-story real consequences. Oh, you know what I mean.

***Incidentally – Tom MacRae, man! Is this really the same man who wrote The Age of Steel?