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Love love LOVED the Dream Lord. He was completely fantastic. I loved seeing a different side of the Doctor, albeit incredibly depressing.

All around I really enjoyed the episode but it didn't really sit right with me that Amy only chose Rory because he died.

For one, she didn't really know which one was the reality, and making a decision to off yourself because the supposed love of your life just died was kind of brash seeing as his last request was for her to take care of the baby. Wouldn't any self-respecting mother (to be, even) want to live for their child? It seemed a little OOC for Amy. And the comment to the Doctor like "Then what is the purpose of you?" was really odd to me. I mean, I know she was really upset about Rory but turning it on the Doctor doesn't seem like a thing she'd do.

And damn that's with my 11/Amy shipper goggles off.

I tend to agree with this. As much as I like Amy, she can be fairly selfish, so I don't think it was out of character for her to commit suicide despite being pregnant. (For one thing, consider, did she ever once in the episode mention the baby's safety or how happy she was to be a mother? Nope. Not that I recall. She used her pregnancy to get the Doctor to do what she wants (consider when she fakes going into labor) and the rest of the time when her pregnancy is brought up, all she ever really does is talk about how she is not a boat. XD I don't mean this to be critical of Amy. I hate it when in fiction it's always assumed that as soon as a character becomes pregnant, they have to give up their own life and all their dreams and aspirations to be a mother. (Or... y'know... father.) People aren't perfect parents so characters don't have to be either.

Um... so where was I going with this. O_o Oh yes. Amy uses people. It's demonstrated repeatedly that she is perfectly comfortable ordering people around and doing things how she wants. I think it may be significant that all of RTD's main companions (Rose, Martha, and Donna--but not Jack, Mickey, etc.) parents and families figured very prominently. But we have not yet seen Aunt Sharon, who is the only parental or adult figure in Amy's life that we're aware of. Her life revolves around the Doctor and everyone in her village knows about the Raggedy Doctor. She has very much mythologized him into something more than a person. He is a character who should answer to her beck and call, and she does seem to believe she knows him intimately, when in fact she had only met him twice in her life, briefly, before she became a companion. She needed to learn he wasn't just a character or a thing to do what she wanted. He's a person, and sometimes he's going to fail. Would it seem normal for any reasonable person to ask any other reasonable person "What's the point of you?" Nope.

...And that ended up being quite a lot longer than I intended. Sorry. sweatdrop

The one thing this episode really opened my eyes to is just how vulnerable a companion Amy is. Whereas before I was rather inclined to view her as a sterotypical selfish, sarcastic sassmonger who couldn't care less about cavorting across time and space with another man behind her fiancee's back this episode convinced me I've probably been wrong in being so quick to judge the poor lass.

Amy does do incredibly impulsive, selfish, things-but almost without exception they seem only to happen when she's pushed to desperation. Marriage terrifies her? She runs away. Worried she's going to lose her life to some ungodly alien monstrosity the next time she steps out the door? She snogs the doctor. Her one apparent chance at a happy and fulfilling life just crumbled to dust before her very eyes? Better believe she'd be willing to drive a campervan into a bunch of pensioners and go out in a pyrotechnic blaze of glory :/

What really got me was how quick the doctor was to jump in said campervan with her and give up his life, too. She's got her poncho boys well-trained, that Amy has.

On the question of having the Dreamlord back I say yes, yes-a thousand times yes! By far the most entertaining guest villain on the show since Anthony Head way back in season 2. Alas, I can't see how they could really justify bringing him back without some serious issues of plot redundancy. Ah, well. Sometimes these things must be sacrificed in the name of guilty pleasures ;D

I must say though, I liked the part where the Doctor was fighting to stay awake. I used to have nightmares about being chased by something while I'm dozing off.

See, that's what I dreaded when I first saw the episode title. Funny thing is, I don't think this episode was especially Amy-heavy in the end. She gets a few scenes of her own with the Dreamlord, sure, but other than that it's the combined interaction of the three main characters that made the episode sparkle. And there's plenty of doctor running around the place like a loon fighting off crazed pensioner alien action to go around, too.

Maybe the series is being played a little too much from *her* point of view. But then again hasn't that really been the trend for all series of new Who?

Uhhh. That episode made me think hard.

[Swift] - You just got about a million bonus points from me for linking to TV Tropes. I love that site, though it's such a time-consumer.

I figured the DreamLord must've been some version of the Doctor when Eleven said that there's only "one person that hates him that much". At the end of it all, the Doctor's the one constantly reminded of and living with his own decisions, and we know not only does he not like some of those choices, but he's reminded constantly about those that have died or consequences of his actions in the process. And how he gets to leave all of those problems behind after the day is saved.


About Amy... I saw the episode as ultimately making her choose between the Doctor and his lifestyle, or a life with Rory. I figured she'd ultimately pick the town and Rory as the reality (and thus her adventures with the Doctor are but a dream/escapist fantasy), but the manner in which she made her decision completely turned me over.

I'm not a 100% fan of Rory yet, but this episode is making me like him more.

It was definitely an amazing episode, plot/structure-wise. I'd love it if they had the Dreamlord come back later on (who else would be a suitable opponent of the Doctor than the Doctor himself? OHAI THERE VALEYARD) and I loved that it made my brain all twisty-turny.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a browser full of TV Tropes pages to go through. TGIF.

Okay, triple-posting now but I caught this during the BBCA airing.
This is a great episode with great rewatch value.

What the Dreamlord says to Eleven - it's how Eleven views himself, and what he hates in himself to admit. His companions eventually leave (or are left) once they've had their fun and "grown up". He prefers the company of the young, I believe, because they haven't quite lived their life yet and so they still have the innocence of youth in them that the Doctor now lacks. Perhaps he's somewhat living through them as well, seeing the universe through their eyes.

The Doctor now is compared to Peter Pan, another fairytale. (Hey, and he was Tinkerbell!Doctor a while ago, in the S3 finale. Hah. xd )