[Contains Spoilers]
In this 7th episode of series 5 of Doctor Who (or series 1 in the UK, season 31 for old school fans), “Amy’s Choice”, the Doctor, Amy and Rory are trapped by a man calling himself the Dream Lord, and gives them a difficult choice; choose the real world. In one world, it is 5 years later, and Rory and Amy are married, living in a quaint country village where Rory is a doctor, and Amy is pregnant. In the other, they are still traveling in the TARDIS. Both face dangerous situations. They must decide which world is the dream and which is reality.
I liked the idea for this episode when it started, with the Doctor going back and visiting an old companion and all. Amy and Rory are living in the English country side in a quiet town. Their home is a quaint stone house with ivy and roses climbing around it, and geese running around in the yard. The scenes in this town had some good moments, including Amy trying to run whild pregnant (something I can relate to), and having old people as the enemy was just awesome. But these moments weren’t enough to balance out the problems I had with it.
The first problem I had with it was that it continues the guilt trip on the Doctor. All through the 
episode, when the Dream Lord appears, he taunts the Doctor about what he does, the companions he chooses, and the effect he has on them. At one point, the Dream Lord taunts that the Doctor doesn’t know who he is. The Doctor responds that he does; he is the one person he hates most in the universe. That is a curious comment if you have been following the series, and seen all the Doctor’s personal enemies knocked off one after another (the Master, Davros, etc). It’s explained at the end, and that explanation just pissed me off. The Doctor is not, and should not be portrayed as someone filled with self-loathing. It’s all just so completely wrong about the character. He can have self-doubts, but in the end he has to be sure he is doing the right thing, otherwise all his journeys in time and space become pointless. I ABSOLUTELY HATE this direction Moffatt has continued the Doctor in.
The other problem I had with this episode became apparent at the end, and related to the title. It came down to Amy to choose which reality was the right one. She made her choice only after Rory “died” in the village world, because she didn’t want a reality where she couldn’t be with Rory. So the whole point of the episode seems to have been to prove to Rory and the audience that Amy really did love Rory. The joy she found with the Doctor and traveling in the TARDIS is purely platonic. Her heart belongs to Rory. Did we really need a whole episode to explain that to us? Really? We’ve already seen that the Doctor and his companions can just be friends. They all aren’t Rose and Martha. We get it. So please stop hitting us over the head with it!
The next two episodes are a two-parter and updates an old enemy from the Classic Series, the Silurians, which hasn’t been seen since the 80’s. An update of them will be very interesting visually with 21st century special effects.
