Amy's Choice
In the episode, the Eleventh Doctor, a time travelling alien played by Matt Smith, and his human travelling companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), are in a trap set by the mysterious "Dream Lord" (Toby Jones), wherein they repeatedly fall asleep and wake up in a different reality.
In one, Amy and Rory are happily married but pursued by elderly people possessed by aliens, while in another they are on board the Doctor's time machine, the TARDIS, where they anticipate being frozen to death by a nearby astronomical phenomenon.
The Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves flickering between two realities, falling asleep at the sound of birdsong in one and waking in the other.
In the first reality, Amy and Rory are traveling with the Doctor in the TARDIS, and in the second, five years later, they are happily married in Leadworth and expecting their first child.
The Dream Lord questions Amy as to which world she would choose: a peaceful married life with Rory or adventure and excitement with the Doctor.
The Doctor realized that both realities were false since the Dream Lord had no power over the real world and was in fact a manifestation of his darker side.
This began in "The Shakespeare Code" where Elizabeth I wished to behead the Doctor[5] and continued in "The End of Time", which alluded to the possibility the two were married.
Showrunner Steven Moffat originally gave Nye the premise of the episode for it to fit in the series arc, which was to challenge the Doctor and Amy's relationship.
Hobbs has also previously appeared as a lorry driver in The Claws of Axos and operated the Wirrn prop for The Ark in Space.
[20] "Amy's Choice" was released in Region 2 on DVD and Blu-ray format with the following episodes "The Hungry Earth" and "Cold Blood" on 2 August 2010.
[23] Gavin Fuller, writing for The Daily Telegraph, was positive about the episode, calling it "probably the strongest all-round script we've had this year, chock full of good lines".
He added, "The concept of aliens inhabiting elderly people and turning them psychotic was wittily realised, particularly the bizarre sight of them laying siege to Amy and Rory's cottage with household and gardening implements".
He concluded that it "was one of those stories that you would only find in Doctor Who, and shows once again that the series can provide genuine thought-provoking, interesting drama alongside its thrills and spills".
[24] Matt Wales of IGN rated the episode 8.5 out of 10 and described it as "surreal, fantastical, intriguing, witty, emotional and, at times, genuinely unsettling".
However, he thought its weakness was the pace and "the retirement home-dwelling bad guys, who ultimately seem like a geriatric, and not that frightening, variation on the same old shambling zombies.
[12] Patrick Mulkern, writing for the Radio Times, was "distinctly underwhelmed", comparing it to "one of the more disappointing episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures".
Upon rewatching, however, although "previous gripes" remained, he did appreciate some the "more subdued" background music from Murray Gold, the script's "tight structure and several amusing lines", and "the realisation that, for the first time, the Doctor is travelling with a couple in love".
[15] SFX Magazine's Jordan Farley gave the episode 3 and a half out of 5 stars, saying the direction "never quite [struck] the right balance between absurdist humour and sinister nightmare" and the camera was "a little flat" with a strange angle.
