What about the boy who waited?

The Girl Who Waited explored another lesson in the downsides of time travel for the Tardis' husband/wife team of Rory and Amy.

This time we saw Amy stumble into a different time stream to 'her fellas' and age 36 years before the boys could catch up and save her.

The first thing to say about this tale is that it certainly conjured up some memorable imagery. The stark whiteness of Apalapucia's 'kindness centre' is simple but effective, as are the sinister 'handbots'. Over and above the scenery we get to see 'Old Amy'. Here the makeup team earn their corn by ageing the show's youthful leading lady with remarkably good attention to detail.

The makeup is one thing though, but it is up to Karen Gillan to pull off a pretty difficult dual role - something she manages very well. I haven't felt this has really been her series - with the focus on her diluted by excellent companion roles from Rory and River - but Karen does revel in the chance to reclaim centre stage here.

The concept of her being stuck for all those years is certainly excellent story fodder but, like with Night Terrors, i'm not quite sure the screen time was there to explore the drama properly. We don't really see enough of the wilderness years to appreciate Amy's transformation from happy-go-lucky traveller to embittered loner.

Plus I couldn't help thinking that, bad as Amy's confinement was, what about Rory? I was urging him to remind his wife about the time he waited for 2,000 years to make sure she was safe. 36 years is a mere half an hour at the bus stop compared to Rory's 'Lone Centurion' effort.

Perhaps I let that cloud my judgement too much but I struggled to enjoy this. I wanted to, and the ending was suitably emotional and in fitting with an intriguing "The Doctor Lies" theme of this half of the series, but I felt again that this was a 60s four-parter struggling to work out which bits to drop in 45 minutes.

The emotional stories are fine but what about a standalone romp? Or a simple yet effective base under siege story? It's great to be challenged but I'm sure the kids (and us adults) might fancy a week off for some straightforward monster-fare...

5/10