Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E07 Amy's Choice

"Dream Lord: Tweet, tweet! Time to sleep!... Oh! Or are you waking up?"

This episode was written by Simon Nye, who is mainly known for Men Behaving Badly. While there are some recognisable elements of his comedy, this episode was not what many expected from his pen.

It's five years since Amy and Rory travelled with the Doctor. They're back living in Upper Leadworth. (A bit more upmarket than Leadworth, according to Rory.) Amy is pregnant. Rory has grown a stupid ponytail. Life is good, if a little humdrum. Until the Doctor drops by for a visit. Firstly, he crushes their flower garden with the TARDIS. Secondly, he doesn't seem to cotton on to the fact that Amy is pregnant -- which is a little irritating for her, since he cottoned on quite quick to the fact that she's increased in size. Thirdly, outside of the company of his friends he finds the village unbearably dull, and ponders what they do to stave off the boredom. Rory points out that it's relaxing, and peaceful, as evidenced by the bird song -- which seems to have a dulling effect on the three, gradually sending them to sleep...

In the TARDIS, the Doctor wakes from a horrible nightmare, having apparently fallen asleep under the console. It involved Amy and Rory being married in a dull village, with Amy being heavily pregnant. Thing is, Amy and Rory appear to have had the exact same "really good... mare". And there's something going wrong with the TARDIS console. And it seems to be getting slightly cooler in the TARDIS, with their breath gradually misting up -- something that no one appears to have noticed... The Doctor dismisses it as a shared psychic incident in which they jumped a time-track -- except that there's suddenly the sound of birdsong in the TARDIS.

And Amy, Rory and the Doctor wake up back on the village bench where they drifted off only moments before. As Rory and Amy realize they've had the same dream again, the Doctor is inspecting his surroundings suspiciously, noting that his bow-tie and braces have changed, and warns the two not to trust anything around them; they may seem to be awake now, but then, they were also convinced that they were awake back on the TARDIS. They're dreaming, somewhere -- but are they dreaming of the past or the future? Which one's the real world and which one's the dream?

"This is going to be a tricky one..."

The trio wake up back on the TARDIS. The Doctor's a bit cross about all of this, which leads him to lash out at the TARDIS, which only ends badly for him and his foot. And unfortunately, he threw the TARDIS manual into a supernova the last time it disagreed with him, so no help there. Amy and Rory, meanwhile, are still struggling with the whole "awake / dream" problem they seem to be facing; their surroundings feel perfectly real to them. But then, a dream always feels real when you're in the middle of it. The Doctor urges them to keep a watch on their surroundings and look out for anything that doesn't ring true, something a lot more easily said than done when you happen to be on a dimensionally transcendental time machine piloted by an alien in a bow-tie. A big clue presents itself, however, when the TARDIS suddenly switches off. Dead. And then there's suddenly the birdsong...

Back in the village. It's revealed that Rory is the local doctor. Along with his pregnant young wife, something he's always dreamed of, a fact that the Doctor takes notice of. Rory points out that it's Amy's dream too (something that Amy is a bit more hesitant in admitting), but the Doctor has moved on, taking interest in a nearby old people's home -- whose occupants seem to be taking an interest in the Doctor as well. People around here live into their nineties, which intrigues the Doctor; the trio run off (well, Amy sort of shuffles) into the home. The residents inside seem perfectly normal and the Doctor gets to try on a hideous sweater, but he's noticed something odd about them; they're incredibly old...

The Doctor doesn't have a chance to elaborate on this apparently amazingly obvious fact before the three once again hear birdsong, waking up back in the TARDIS. Or are they falling asleep? Either way, everything is off in the TARDIS, including the heating. And the scanner. They could be anywhere, and someone is overriding the Doctor's control of the TARDIS.

That someone suddenly appears out of thin air, right behind them. A little man in a dark suit and a bowtie. He's pretty scathing about how long it took the Doctor to figure it out, seeing as he'd heard such incredible things about the last of the Time Lords, whom he intends to challenge. As such, call him the Dream Lord.

The Doctor quickly figures out that he's incorporeal by chucking a ball at him, but the Dream Lord is hardly impressed; being there and yet not there in a spooky fashion is kind of in the job title. Amy is quick to figure out that the Dream Lord creates dreams and illusions, to which the Dream Lord counters that they haven't given "the gooseberry" a chance to have a turn guessing at him. Rory retorts that Amy is his girlfriend... but, as the Dream Lord notes, Amy is a little hesitant in confirming that. Looks like she's going to have to make a choice...

However, the Dream Lord is much more interested in calling out the Doctor... so much so that he forgets where he was actually going with all of this. Oh, yes -- a challenge. Two worlds, an impossible time machine and a quaint little village that time has forgotten. And in each, a deadly challenge. But only one of them is real; the other is mere illusion. If they die in the dream, they wake up in the real world. And if they die in reality... well, there's a reason they call it reality, Rory. Time for them to go back to sleep... or are they waking up?

Based on some of the remarks made by the Dream Lord, Amy has pegged that he has a history with the Doctor -- but there's little time for that, as the pensioners in the Leadworth retirement home appear to have vanished. The Doctor is trying to figure out exactly how the realities are connected -- and why the old people strike him as so odd -- but he angrily claims that his mind has been blunted by the dullness of his surroundings, and he's 'slowing down' like Rory and Amy. Suddenly, Amy yells in pain, apparently going into labour, a fact that causes no small amount of flapping from Rory and the Doctor... until Amy reveals that it was a false alarm. Turns out, she just didn't particularly appreciate the Doctor's snide little quip there.

Amy and the Doctor take a small break from the adventure on a set of swings.

"The Doctor: There is an elephant in the room.

Amy: I'm having a baby, I have to be this size!

The Doctor: No, not that... Rory... has a ponytail. ... I hold him down, you cut it off."

One of the old age pensioners is taking a keen interest on a group of school children playing around the ruins of a local castle. Birdsong interrupts.

It's getting gradually colder on the TARDIS, and the Doctor sends Rory and Amy off to find some warmer clothing while he... constructs a thing out of kitchen utensils. Rory admits that he wants the other life to be real, where he and Amy are married, happy and expecting a baby. Except, he's a bit riled to notice, Amy seems a lot less happy with the other life, and is a lot more hesitant to give up life on the TARDIS. Since part of this giving up on that life involves getting married to Rory, this causes a certain amount of bickering; Rory believes they have to grow up eventually. Amy disagrees.

The Doctor has put together a wind-up contraption allowing them to turn on the scanner and see what's outside -- and what they see doesn't make them very happy. A cold star, a frozen ball of ice 'burning cold'. Since such a thing should be impossible, this is a fairly big clue that they aren't in reality -- but it's a big universe, and something that should be impossible isn't necessarily so. And they've only got fourteen minutes until they crash into it, which isn't the problem it may seem since they'll have frozen to death long before then. Rory is pissed off, since this particular threat just seems tailor-made for the Doctor -- the race against time, one man required to save the day -- and all he wants is the quiet village. Not a good moment for the Dream Lord to pop up and lampshade the growing dissent in the ranks -- or for them to drop off again.

Rory is relieved to be back in the village, confident that that's the real world. Tranquil, peaceful and relaxed, he's positive that nothing bad could ever happen here. Unfortunately, he's quite wrong; the playing children have disappeared, replaced by piles of dust, and the Doctor solemnly confirms that for them playtime is definitely over -- permanently. And there's a sinister group of old age pensioners approaching. Very old age pensioners, according to the Doctor.

Of course, as the Dream Lord posits, a crowd of threatening pensioners is absurd; surely this must be the dream? But what does Amy think? The Doctor definitely does not appreciate the Dream Lord's taunts, which only tickles the Dream Lord, particularly in comparison to Rory's comparatively feeble reaction. Of course, all of this has just served to confirm the Doctor's suspicions about who the Dream Lord really is -- since there's only one person in the universe who hates the Doctor this much...

While they're arguing, however, the pensioners attack -- quite literally. With reinforcements. And eyes in their mouths. Eyes that spew lethal green gas. Yeah, definitely aliens. Specifically Ednodines, a proud race who were chased from their homeworld by "upstart neighbours" and have decided to pay it forward by doing the same to the humans by possessing their elderly. Starting with an unfortunate postman who wanders into the scene solely to get turned into dust by green gas. Time to run.

Rory and an exhausted Amy make it back to their cottage, but possessed pensioners have made it there first. Rory takes some persuading, but eventually manages to take the fight to one of them with a lump of wood. Once inside, Amy laments that they left the Doctor behind; having not seen him in years and struggling to reconnect, he's nevertheless taken the bullet for them. Rory is optimistic about the Doctor's chances -- perhaps incorrectly so, as he's struggling to remain conscious while chased by the possessed. The Doctor struggles his way into a local butcher's, all the while taunted by the Dream Lord, managing to lock himself into the storeroom as the pensioners break in -- and sleep falls...

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor insists that they have to decide here and now which is the real world and which is the dream. Rory is adamant that it's the world of the village, but the Doctor is equally adamant that the universe can contain a seemingly impossible ice-star. The Doctor challenges Rory that their disagreement may be more about competitiveness than certainty -- specifically, competing over Amy. Amy is less-than-impressed, managing to make some ponchos for them the wear out of old blankets; if they have to go out looking like a Peruvian folk band, so be it. The Doctor suggests that they divide up, noting that the logic of the dream-world has so far kept them waking / falling together -- unfortunately, the Dream Lord agrees, and Rory and the Doctor fall asleep as Amy remains in the TARDIS...

As the pensioners break into Rory and Amy's cottage, Rory drags the still unconscious Amy upstairs. The Doctor, liberating himself from the butcher's shop, manages to rescue a man being attacked; commandeering his van, he goes on to rescue as many remaining survivors as he can find and take them to the relative safety of the local church before rushing to Rory and Amy's rescue.

Back on the TARDIS, Amy must endure the Dream Lord's taunts about the Doctor -- about how he always leaves her, and never apologises for it. Amy challenges him, asserting her faith in the Doctor and demanding to know who the Dream Lord is, but the Dream Lord counters with one simple question -- has the Doctor told Amy his real name? He once again asserts that she needs to make a choice between the Doctor, the dashing and charismatic but unreliable hero, and Rory, the dull but dependable boyfriend. They're Amy's men -- it's a Sadistic Choice... Amy's choice.

Having returned to the world of the village, Amy is in time to witness Rory make a symbol of his devotion to her... by sacrificing his ponytail. Unfortunately, it also appears that her labour has started... for real, this time. Having also had to endure the taunts of the Dream Lord, the Doctor arrives to perform a rescue -- but before they can escape, Rory is surprised by one of the possessed pensioners and hit with a jet of gas. The Doctor and Amy can only watch as Rory, fatally wounded, crumbles to dust in Amy's arms. Despite Amy's pleas, there's nothing the Doctor can do; he can't always save everyone.

Broken, Amy has decided that this world has to be the dream -- and even if it's not, she's not prepared to live in a world which doesn't have Rory in it. The pensioners have stopped attacking, perhaps sensing what Amy plans to do... or perhaps because it's just a dream. Less certain, the Doctor asks Amy if she's sure about what she wants to do... and when she affirms she is, hands her the keys to the van. As the Dream Lord watches, Amy and the Doctor strap themselves in... and drive into the side of the house.

And wake up back on the TARDIS, moments away from plummeting into the cold star. But, the Dream Lord assures them, fair's fair -- and he takes control of the TARDIS, steering them away from the cold star and turning the ship's power back on. Accepting defeat gracefully, the Dream Lord leaves them to ponder on the results and implications of their dreams, and fades away. Rory is alive, and he and Amy celebrate their survival... but the Doctor isn't quite so ready to celebrate. In fact, he begins to overload the TARDIS engines, confident in the belief that this too is a dream -- because the Dream Lord operates through deception and misinformation, because the Dream Lord has no power in the real world, and because he knows who the Dream Lord really is. And the TARDIS suddenly goes white...

They're all right, of course; Amy and Rory burst into the console room to find the Doctor musing over the true culprit of their recent exploits, a handful of psychic pollen specks which made their way into the time rotor and overheated, sending the trio into a dream state. As for the Dream Lord, he was the Doctor -- or rather, a manifestation of the Doctor's darker and more malevolent impulses given form by the pollen so they could feed on them. In 907 years, he's built up a lot, and cheerfully insists that his friends were too decent to give the pollen a decent meal.

Considering the nature of the Dream Lord's taunts against the Doctor, Amy is given to wonder whether the Doctor truly believes those things about himself -- which the Doctor refuses to confirm, instead directing Amy to answer Rory's question about what happened when he was out of action. Amy reveals that she ended things in the village world not knowing whether it was the dream or not, because she couldn't bear to live without Rory and loves him; elated, Rory kisses her. Pleased, the Doctor prepares to take his friends on adventures new... but not before catching a final glimpse of the Dream Lord in a reflection on the console, taunting him once more.

-

Tropes
"Oh, is that who you think you are? The one he trusts? The only girl in the universe to whom the Doctor tells everything? So what's his name?"
 * All Just a Dream:
 * Almost Dead Guy: Rory begins a fine tradition by having just enough time to deliver a Tear Jerker.
 * Armor Piercing Question: The Dream Lord delivers quite a few of these.

""Then what is the point of you?""
 * Amy gives one to the Doctor :

"The Dream Lord: If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality.
 * "Who are you? What do you want?"
 * Ask a Stupid Question:

Rory: What happens?

The Dream Lord: You die, stupid. That's why it's called "reality"."

""You ran away with a handsome hero; would you really give him up for a bumbling country doctor who thinks the only thing he needs to be interesting is a ponytail?""
 * Babies Ever After: The village is more or less Rory's dream for the future. And Amy's very pregnant.
 * Bavarian Fire Drill: The driver of the camper van lets the Doctor take the wheel after the Doctor greets him like an old friend even though they have never met before.
 * Berserk Button: Amy is very touchy about her size when she's pregnant. Although in her defence, her two male friends don't seem to be willing or able to stop making insensitive remarks about it.
 * Betty and Veronica: The whole core of the story. As the Dream Lord aptly points out:

"Rory: Are you sure?
 * Call Back
 * Possibly a coincidence, but Amy, it is remarkably similar to the when the Ninth Doctor says to the Dalek if it can't kill. "If you can't kill then, what are you good for? What's the point of you?"
 * And probably more on purpose, the whole scene is pretty much identical to the scene in Torchwood series one when Rhys died (well, kind of)
 * The Sarn Nursing Home.
 * The Mention of The TARDIS manual which was last seen in Vengeance On Varos
 * Continuity Nod
 * The Dream Lord calls the Doctor "the oncoming storm".
 * "Bow ties are cool."
 * "You're probably a vegetarian." (He stopped being one by "Boom Town")
 * The Doctor builds a "weird kitchen-y wind up device."
 * "I’m surprised you haven’t got a little purple space dog." Well, K-9 wasn't purple...
 * Crapsack Only By Comparison: The Doctor's reaction to Leadworth.
 * Crying Wolf: Amy has a tendency to either experience false labour pangs or fake it, leading to confusion at the end when it looks like she actually is giving birth:

Amy: Would I make it up at a time like this?!

Rory: Well, you do have a history of... [Amy Death Glares him] ... being very lovely."

"Rory: How did you know it was a dream? Before you crashed that van. How did you know you wouldn't just die?
 * Cuckoos Nest
 * Description Cut: Rory tells Amy not to worry about the Doctor, saying "Hey, he’ll be fine. You know the Doctor. He’s Mr. Cool." Cue the Doctor stumbling down the street like a drunk giraffe, trying not to fall asleep.
 * Dreaming of Things to Come: By the end of Season Six,  had come true.
 * Dream Land
 * Dream Weaver
 * Dream Within a Dream
 * Empty Piles of Clothing: This and a pile of dust are a very nasty indicator of what's coming.
 * Erotic Dream: According to the Dream Lord Amy's been having some about the Doctor...
 * Which, given that
 * Evil Old Folks
 * Eyes Do Not Belong There - Poking out of the mouths of the elderly.
 * Fan Disservice: dressed in a Ready for Lovemaking style.
 * Faux Affably Evil: The Dream Lord. He's having so much fun, with all his different costumes.
 * Well, considering who he really is, it comes as no surprise...
 * Foreshadowing: The Doctor offered Amy effectively the same choice early in The Beast Below. Namely, This or Leadworth.
 * "And you could be giving birth right now. This could be the dream, I told you."
 * Genre Blindness: Rory, when he happily sighs that nothing bad could ever possibly happen in his idyllic life in Upper Leadworth. Rory, even discounting the possibility that this could be a dream designed to torture you (and for further Face Palming value he's saying this after the Dream Lord has explicitly stated that there's going to be a deadly threat in both worlds), you're still in a science-fiction / horror series, remember?
 * Amy also takes ten minutes to catch on to the fact that it feels really definitely real in each dream.
 * Genre Savvy: The Doctor, conversely to Rory, has figured out that they're stuck in a Schrodingers Butterfly plot while Amy and Rory are still trying to figure out what's going on.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar - It's so cold the Doctor can't feel his feet..."and other parts."
 * Rory: about the eyeballs "They're not gonna be peeking out of anywhere else, are they?"
 * "Did he tell you about Elizabeth the first? Well, she thought she was the first."
 * Graceful Loser -.
 * Great Gazoo - The Dream Lord.
 * Hannibal Lecture: Delivered to the Doctor by, . Amy also gets Hannibal Lectured.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: Rory saying he just wants a village and a family.
 * Held Gaze: Rory and Amy at the end when she is trying to tell him that she loves him as they gaze into each other's eyes, finally realising what both know before they Big Damn Kiss.
 * Hell Is That Noise: Every transition from village to TARDIS or back is accompanied by a specific clip of bird song.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: The Dream Lord taunts the Doctor with this.
 * How Did You Know I Didn't:
 * Hell Is That Noise: Every transition from village to TARDIS or back is accompanied by a specific clip of bird song.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: The Dream Lord taunts the Doctor with this.
 * How Did You Know I Didn't:

Amy: I Didn't."

"The Dream Lord: We've got lots of steak here this week. Get it? Lots at stake?... This joke's wasted on you."
 * Ho Yay: In the Leadworth dream, the Doctor and Rory "wake up" to find themselves in the middle of a Headbutt of Love, then jump away from each other in embarrassment.
 * Also, at one point the Dream Lord sends the Doctor and Rory back into the alternate reality together, offering to "keep" Amy and let the Doctor have Rory all to himself... for all eternity. Rory and the Doctor then proceed to fall asleep entangled together on the floor of the TARDIS.
 * Important Haircut: Rory
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: At the butcher's shop:

"Rory: (grabbing the phone) Can’t we call for help?
 * Infant Immortality: Subverted
 * Love Triangle: Rather obvious as the Dreamlord actually taunts Amy with it
 * Betty and Veronica: Gender-flipped, but otherwise fitting: We have the nice, reliable but dull village Boy who'd do anything to impress and protect Amy, and the adventurous, eccentric, but sporadic Alien with a long, uh, backstory...
 * Mind Screw
 * Monster of the Week - Parodied. The Doctor can predict without them even having to say anything. Of course,
 * Names the Same: No, not that Dream Lord...
 * Panicky Expectant Father And Time Lord: Both Rory and the Doctor engage in a certain amount of useless flapping when they think Amy's about to give birth. It culminates in the Doctor cupping his hands under the area where it's expected to come out like he's preparing to catch a football.
 * The Reason You Suck Speech: "If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a tawdry quirk shop..."
 * He pretty much talks to The Doctor entirely in these, to the point that he sometimes he has to remember that he's got this Sadistic Choice scheme to push along. Once you realize that he, "the one person in the universe" who hates him quite that much,.
 * Also inverted twice. First by the Doctor, when he explains that the psychic pollen chose his darkness because, effectively, Amy and Rory have none; "I choose my companions with great care." Second when Amy explains why she made her choice, stunning Rory.
 * Red Herring: In a show that's less aware of its, err, dedicated fanbase it's unlikely this would be deliberate, but the Dream Lord's parting words about 'fictions' (with emphasis put on that word) might have made a longtime viewer think he was the Master of the Land of Fiction.
 * More casual fans might suspect the Dream Lord to be a different Master when the Doctor says "only one person in the universe hates me as much as you do."
 * Running Gag: Amy keeps insisting that whichever reality they're in currently is the real one, despite insisting just as strongly whenever they switch to the other one.
 * Scenery Porn: We get a good look at the new TARDIS set, covered in ice and snow, and cast in a beautiful gloomy lighting. It puts every other iteration of the ship to shame.
 * The exterior scenes of the TARDIS frosting over, backlit by the cold star, are quite beautiful, too.
 * Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The Doctor mocks Rory for this.
 * Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The Doctor mocks Rory for this.

The Doctor: Yeah, ‘cause the universe is really quite small and there’s bound to be someone nearby."


 * Sadistic Choice
 * Schrodingers Butterfly: Used so much in this episode, it could be the Dreamlord's pet.
 * Self Parody:
 * Shipper On Deck -
 * Which makes the Doctor all the more tragic.
 * Shout Out: Elders in a rural village killing residents to keep up their façade and the heroes facing them off? Well...
 * Amy's "what's the point of you?" is the same line, albeit minus an F-bomb, that Gwen said in the Torchwood first series finale, in a similar situation.
 * The Dream Lord appears in the camper van holding a white racing helmet with a dark blue visor.
 * Spot the Thread: The Doctor insists they all try to do this; he waves his hands in front of his face looking for scan-lines or motion blur. Rory points out it's kind of hard to spot what doesn't ring true when you're on a time machine that's bigger on the inside with a bow-tie-wearing alien. (Though the cold star is pretty darn impossible even by the standards of the show.)
 * Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: The Dream Lord keeps pulling this. "Two worlds: Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real, the other's... fake."
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
 * Take a Third Option:.
 * Take That: In-universe, when Amy gets tired of the Doctor calling her village life dull. She fakes going into labour and both Rory and the Doctor freak out. She tells him to stop calling it boring because thinking she was in labour turned him white as a sheet.
 * Teleport Spam: The Dream Lord keeps popping in and out of existence mid-conversation. Props to the special effects department for making it impossible to tell beforehand when he's going to.
 * Title Drop - Twice, in slightly different contexts.
 * This Is Sparta: "THIS VILLAGE! IS SO! DULL!!!"
 * Together in Death:
 * Tranquil Fury: "Then what is the point of you?"
 * Uncanny Village: Rory and Amy live in a beautiful, quiet English village.
 * What Could Possibly Go Wrong: Rory at one point insists that nothing bad could ever possibly happen in his idyllic life in Upper Leadworth... seconds before the Doctor discovers that  things have gone badly wrong in his idyllic life in Upper Leadworth.
 * What the Hell Hero:
 * When Elders Attack: "Oh, that's ridiculous."
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes: Very pregnant Amy would rather not have to run.
 * Why Don't You Just Shoot Him: Rory's having trouble hitting a pensioner with a fence post. Amy yells at him to just "Whack her!"
 * Would Hit a Girl: Twice. First time, Rory whacks one of the elderly alien-ladies that's about to kill him with a board. Second time, The Doctor, of all people whacks an old lady with a lamp when she comes through the window and, making her fall off of the roof of Rory and Amy's house. Although,
 * Xanatos Gambit - It can also qualify as a Batman Gambit if the Dream Lord's true purpose really was