"The Girl Who Waited" is the tenth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC America on 10 September 2011. It was written by Tom MacRae and was directed by Nick Hurran.
In the episode, the alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) takes his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill) to the planet Apalapucia for a holiday, but they find that the planet is on quarantine as the two-hearted natives are susceptible to a deadly plague. Amy accidentally gets separated from the Doctor and Rory but, when they try to rescue her, they arrive 36 years later in her timeline. The older Amy does not trust the Doctor, who is forced to remain on the TARDIS as he also has two hearts, and will not allow the Doctor and Rory to leave and rescue her at the correct point in her timeline.
Gillan played the older version of herself and prosthetics were applied to make her appear older. The episode was filmed on a lower budget, and MacRae decided to make the main sets all white in colour. "The Girl Who Waited" was seen by 7.6 million viewers in the UK and received positive reviews from critics.
Plot
The Eleventh Doctor takes Amy and Rory on a holiday to the planet Apalapucia, unaware that the planet is suffering from a fatal plague called “Chen 7” that affects beings with two hearts, including the Doctor, and can kill them within a day (in the Doctor's case, it prevents him from regenerating). The population has created "kindness facilities", where those infected by the plague are placed in one of several thousand accelerated time streams, allowing them to live out their lives whilst in communication with their loved ones through a large glass lens in the waiting room. On their arrival, Amy is separated from the Doctor and Rory, and becomes stuck in an accelerated time stream. As the Doctor and Rory discover Amy's location, they are approached by one of the facility's "Handbot" robots. The Handbot explains the plague and, failing to recognise the Doctor or Rory as alien, attempts to administer medicine that is fatal to them. The Doctor uses the glass lens to warn Amy of this, and tells her to wait for him in the facility, promising to rescue her. The Doctor locks onto Amy's time stream.
The Doctor, unable to leave the TARDIS due to the plague, gives Rory the lens, his sonic screwdriver, and a pair of glasses through which the Doctor can see and communicate with Rory. Rory explores the complex, and finds an older and bitter Amy, who has been waiting to be rescued for 36 years while hiding from the Handbots. The Doctor realises they have mistakenly latched onto the wrong time stream, and urges the older Amy to help find her younger self. She refuses, knowing that if the younger Amy is rescued, she will cease to exist. The Doctor warns Rory that, by taking the older Amy aboard the TARDIS, they will forgo any chance of rescuing the younger Amy. The younger Amy convinces the older Amy to change her mind by asking her to consider Rory. The older Amy agrees to help, if the Doctor would take her, too.
The Doctor temporarily brings the two Amys into the same time stream. Rory takes the younger Amy into the TARDIS. Once they are inside, the Doctor slams the door before the older Amy can enter and admits that it is impossible for both Amys to exist in the same time stream. Rory and the older Amy say goodbye at the TARDIS door before the older Amy tells him to move on without her.
Continuity
The episode title "The Girl Who Waited" is a reference to Amy having waited 12 years (and later 2 more years) for the Doctor to return to her in "The Eleventh Hour". When describing the facilities in the Two Streams Facility, the interface says they have a replica of the amusement park at Disneyland on Clom. The planet Clom was first mentioned in "Love & Monsters" as the home planet of the Abzorbaloff and the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius.