Amy's Choice (TV story)

Amy's Choice is the seventh episode of Series 5.

Synopsis
It's been five years since Amy Pond last traveled with the Doctor, and when he lands in her garden again, on the eve of the birth of her first child, she finds herself facing a heartbreaking choice – one that will change her life for ever. They will have to choose which is the dream world and which is reality.

Plot
Five years after she last travelled with the Doctor, Amy is now pregnant and living in Upper Leadworth married to Rory. The Doctor lands the TARDIS outside their house, and seems just as astonished by Rory's new ponytail as Amy's pregnancy. While sitting on a bench in the village, the three fall asleep - only to wake up back inside the TARDIS. When they all figure out that they have just had the same dream, they decide that strange forces are at work, but fall asleep again and awake in Leadworth.

The Doctor points out a retirement home where a large number of the village's population are living. When Rory and Amy take him inside, the Doctor seems to find something a little odd about all of the residents, particularly the elderly Mrs Poggit (Audrey Ardington). The three collapse again in the middle of the room and wake in the TARDIS - but this time they are confronted by a strange figure calling himself the 'Dream Lord' who shuts off the TARDIS' power supply. The Dream Lord gives the three a challenge: one of the two worlds they are drifting between is real, while the other is fake. In each world, they will face 'a deadly danger', and if they are killed in the fake world, they will wake up permanently in the real one. Of course, death in the real world will be permanent, so the Dream Lord advises them to take their pick very carefully. Back in Leadworth, the Doctor notices that all of the elderly residents have moved away from the room. After spotting Mrs Poggit watching over a group of children, he moves in for a closer look, but collapses before he can reach her. Inside the TARDIS, they see the first danger: they are slowly drifting towards a freezing cold star, and they only have a short time to save themselves. After waking up in Leadworth, they find that the children have been somehow reduced to dust. When they turn around, a large group of residents are heading towards them. The elderly reveal themselves to be aliens known as the Ecnodeen, small green eye stalks which use humans as hosts. Poggit explains that their race was very nearly killed off, and that they plan to do the same to other races. The Ecnodeen try to turn the three into dust like with the children simply by breathing on them, but they manage to get away.

The Doctor leads away the large group of aliens, and locks himself in the storage room of a butchery when he starts to fall asleep. Amy and Rory escape to their house and fall asleep on their staircase. In the TARDIS, the Dream Lord tells them that they do not have long in either of the two worlds, and that they must decide which of the worlds is real soon. Amy stays in the TARDIS while Rory and the Doctor try to defend themselves from the Ecnodeen in Leadworth. The Dream Lord questions Amy as to who she would choose between Rory and the Doctor; he states that she should choose between the worlds, because one leads to a peaceful married life with Rory while the other leads to adventure and excitement with the Doctor.

Waking up on the staircase, Rory drags the sleeping Amy up into what will be their baby's room. The Doctor escapes from the butchery and takes a camper van towards Amy's house, rescuing a number of civilians on the way. Amy falls asleep and wakes up beside Rory in their house. The Doctor arrives at the house just as Mrs Poggit climbs up to the window; in an attempt to protect Amy, who is going into labour, Rory tries to fight her off, but she breathes on him and knocks him back. The Doctor pushes her back and she falls to the ground below, but Rory turns to dust when he turns back round.

Amy decides that she will always value Rory more than the Doctor, despite the fact that she was visibly unsure before his death. Amy decides that the world in Leadworth with the Ecnodeen is the fake, and that if they all die there they will be able to save themselves in reality and she will be reunited with Rory. Even if Leadworth is the real world, she doesn't care if she dies there because she now knows that she can't live without Rory. The Doctor and Amy storm outside past the Ecnodeen and climb into the camper van; Amy then crashes it into the house at full speed, killing them both.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory all wake up in the TARDIS and reactivate it mere seconds before it was to crash. The Dream Lord states that they have made the correct choice and that he has been defeated, and he then leaves. However, Amy and Rory are shocked when the Doctor sets the TARDIS to explode. When they ask him why, he says that it is because both worlds are not real and that he knows this because he knows who the Dream Lord really is.

The three awake for the last time in the real TARDIS. Amy and Rory find the Doctor holding several specks resembling crystals. The Doctor tells them that they are specks of psychic pollen which had fallen into the TARDIS and heated up, which then made them fall asleep. He blows them out of the door and into space. He then claims that the Dream Lord was actually a physical incarnation of his darker side, as the pollen acts as a parasite which feeds on people's dark sides and builds them into physical forms. Rory asks Amy why she was so sure that Leadworth was the fake world after he died; Amy replies that she wasn't sure at all as she just wanted to be with him again, which Rory is delighted to hear. The Doctor begins to fly the TARDIS away, and sees an image of the Dream Lord smiling slyly at him in his reflection.

Cast

 * Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Dream Lord - Toby Jones
 * Mr Nainby - Nick Hobbs
 * Mrs Poggit - Audrey Ardington
 * Mrs Hamil - Joan Linder

Production crew
to be added

Story notes

 * The enemies the old folks play are a race known as the Ecnodeen.
 * The Dream Lord traps the Doctor, Rory and Amy in an alternative world and Amy has to decide what is the real world.
 * Technically, the entire episode took place in the TARDIS.
 * The box under the TARDIS console the Doctor opens has the words: "TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Build Site: Gallifrey Blackhole Shipyard. Type 40. Build date: 1963. Authorised for use by qualified Time Lords only by the Shadow Proclamation. Misuse or theft of any TARDIS will result in extreme penalties and permanent exile." written on it.
 * There is no indication of how much time has passed since DW: The Vampires of Venice.
 * The sign outside the old peoples' home reads "SARN Residential Care Home". Sarn was the setting for DW:Planet of Fire.

Ratings
to be added

Rumours

 * The 'Dream Lord' was rumoured to pretend to be the Doctor because of a shot of him inside the TARDIS wearing the Eleventh Doctor's costume in the trailer. He was, in fact, the Doctor himself - at least, his dark side.
 * Aunt Sharon will appear. This was false

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * When Rory and Amy are running from the Ecnodeen you can clearly see no mud on his back, but he was thrown on his back, into mud, a minute before.

Continuity

 * The Doctor mentions again that bow ties are cool. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * The Dream Lord refers to what happened between the Doctor and Queen Elizabeth I. (DW: The Shakespeare Code, The End of Time, The Beast Below)
 * The Doctor initially assumes that the TARDIS has jumped a time track (DW: The Space Museum)
 * The Doctor tries to jump start the TARDIS by kicking it. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)
 * The Dream Lord accuses the Doctor of abandoning his companions in favor of younger friends, echoing remarks by Sarah Jane Smith about the Tenth Doctor and his relationship with Rose Tyler. (DW: School Reunion)

DVD and Blu-ray release
BBC Video - Doctor Who Series Five - Volume Three will feature Amy's Choice, The Hungry Earth, Cold Blood and Vincent and the Doctor. It will be released on Monday 2nd August 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray.