Throughout the history of Doctor Who there have always been episodes or serials that veered from its sci-fi obsession with monsters and ancient high-tech civilizations over to the edge of fantasy -- often with the result that the young female companion would be dressed in a catsuit and the camera would shoot her from behind or the Doctor would meet Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Most recently, in Season Four of the revived series, we had the weird and wonderful melange of TURN LEFT.
Personally I have enjoyed these illustrations of Clarke's Third Law -- a sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic -- and the way they give the dedicated fan a change from the usual fare and, one hopes, some insight into the character of the Doctor and his companions as they react to situations which are not about a problem so much as about themselves.
That is what we have in AMY'S CHOICE. Oh, there is a problem to be solved: how do you tell the difference between reality and dream? But for fans of Dr. Who, it is about the Dream Lord, played by the inimitable Toby Jones as he teases and torments the Doctor, Amy and Rory about the reality of their relationships and forces them, and the audience, to understand their characters a bit better.
Simon Nye, in his first script for DOCTOR WHO, offers us those insights, throws in some amusing lines and contrasts versions of two typical Dr. Who adventures to make choices against: a quiet English village where monsters have popped up and a pseudo-science adventure worthy of an early 1930s pulp in which the TARDIS is about to crash into a sun which radiates cold.
Structurally and symbolically, this is brilliant. but structure and symbol, while always important to Doctor Who -- episodes in the 1970s tackled current issues such as the ecology and toleration in such terms -- so too is the surface execution of the story. There are enough funny lines to amuse the adults and thrills for the children. While the purpose and plot of this story may confuse the casual viewer who's looking for meat on the bones, for those of us who are willing to crack the bones open, there's plenty of succulent marrow.