History Recap / DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice

* SelfParody: The dream adventure with the [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever evil old people]] and general [[invoked]]ClicheStorm is quite possibly a parody of the average ''Doctor Who'' episode; displaced aliens hiding out on Earth and randomly deciding to take it out on the locals for no real reason has been a running theme since the 70's. Likewise, the "cold star" could also be seen as a parody of the [[ArtisticLicensePhysics abuses of science]] often committed on the show.

* SpottingTheThread: The Doctor insists they all try to do this; he waves his hands in front of his face looking for scan-lines or motion blur. Rory and Amy point out it's kind of hard to spot what doesn't ring true when you're on a time machine that's bigger on the inside with a bowtie-wearing alien. (Though the cold star is pretty darn impossible even by the standards of the show.)

The one where Rory died. [[DeathIsCheap And got better.]]\\

* SmallTownBoredom: Amy eventually admits this to Rory about Upper Leadworth, saying it's not what she had in mind for herself. Even when they're sitting on the bench early on, all three are clearly bored and have nothing to say to each other for a few moments before the Doctor asks what they do to stave off the boredom (Amy says that, he says self-harm).

-->'''Dream Lord:''' You ran away with a handsome hero; would you really give him up for a bumbling country doctor who thinks the only thing he needs to be interesting is a ''ponytail''?
* BlackComedy: There's something morbidly hilarious about watching the ''[[TechnicalPacifist Doctor]]'' unhesitatingly shove an old lady off a roof.

** "I’m surprised you haven’t got a little purple space dog." K9 wasn't ''purple''...

** Rory's death — the whole scene is identical to the scene in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' series one when Rhys died ([[ResetButton well, kind of]]).

* DescriptionCut: Rory tells Amy not to worry about the Doctor, saying "Hey, he’ll be fine. You know the Doctor — he’s Mr. Cool." Cue the Doctor stumbling down the street like a drunk giraffe, trying not to fall asleep.

* DreamEmergencyExit: The Dream Lord explains that if you die in the dream, you wake up perfectly healthy in real life. The only risk is trying to figure out ''which'' is the dream and which is reality, because if you die in reality... well, you just die. The Doctor eventually realizes that [[TakeAThirdOption neither realm is reality]] as the Dream Lord doesn't have the power to affect the real world.

* EroticDream: According to the Dream Lord, Amy's been having some about the Doctor that make him blush. Given that the Dream Lord ''is'' the Doctor, this gets all kinds of interesting.

* FanDisservice: The Dream Lord dressed in a ReadyForLovemaking style.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The Dream Lord. He's having so much ''fun'', with all his different costumes. Notably, though, he is genuinely AffablyEvil around Amy; unlike Rory and the Doctor, who he constantly hurls insults at, he is never verbally abusive towards her and actually treats her rather nicely. It is, of course, quite a bit of {{foreshadowing}} about both his true identity and intentions.

** The Doctor offered Amy effectively the same choice early in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow The Beast Below]]". Namely: This or Leadworth.

** When Rory is killed in Upper Leadworth Amy immediately chooses to kill herself in that reality to have a chance to be with him again. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan When Rory is sent back in time (again) and Amy sees evidence that he has already died in the present]]. She immediately chooses to go back with him even though it means she never sees The Doctor again.
* GagHaircut: In the village dream, Rory sports a truly atrocious ponytail. The Doctor does not hesitate to point this out.

** Rory, when he happily sighs that [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong nothing bad could ever possibly happen]] in his idyllic life in Upper Leadworth. Rory, even discounting the possibility that this could be a dream designed to torture you (and for further {{Face Palm}}ing value he's saying this ''after'' the Dream Lord has ''explicitly stated'' that there's going to be a deadly threat in both worlds), you're ''still'' in a science-fiction series, remember?
** Amy also takes ten minutes to catch on to the fact that it feels really definitely real in ''each'' dream.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HomemadeSweaterFromHell: An old woman asks the Doctor to try on a truly ''atrocious'' sweater she's knitting that makes the Sixth Doctor's coat look like the epitome of good taste.

* HurlItIntoTheSun: The Doctor ''really'' doesn't like the TARDIS manual. It disagreed with him!

* MonsterOfTheWeek: Parodied. The Doctor can predict what race the elderly REALLY are and why they're on Earth without them even having to say anything. They're all part of the dream anyway.

* ReadTheFreakingManual: Well, actually, the Doctor threw the TARDIS manual into a supernova because he disagreed with it.

** "If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a tawdry quirk shop..." The Dream Lord talks to the Doctor ''entirely'' in these, to the point that sometimes he has to ''remember'' that he's got this SadisticChoice scheme to push along. Once you realise that he, "the one person in the universe" who hates him quite ''that'' much, is part of the Doctor, you ''really'' want to hug him.

** More casual fans might suspect the Dream Lord to be the ''Master'', when the Doctor says "only one person in the universe hates me as much as you do".

* SadisticChoice: Amy's choice to give up either her life in the TARDIS (Doctor) or one in Upper Leadworth (Rory).

** The first line of the episode. Amy screams "RORRRRRRY!" when she thinks she's going into labour, and the screams seems to resonate across the countryside before cutting to — who else? — Rory.

* SchrodingersButterfly: The "Dream Lord" traps the Doctor and his two companions in two deadly situations which they switch between by falling asleep every five minutes or so, claiming one of them to be real and one of them to be a dream, and that if you die in the dream you wake up in reality, while if you die in reality, "you die, stupid, that's why it's called reality". In the end, the Doctor, in a twist of genius, realises that the Dream Lord gave them a choice between two dreams, because he "conceded defeat" and revived the dead TARDIS, while the Dream Lord is supposed to have no power over reality. He subsequently blows up the TARDIS to kill them all, and they all get returned to reality, where they were brought into a collective hallucination by a few grams of psychotropic dust, and the Dream Lord is just an inner demon within the Doctor.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Some fans wonder if the Dream Lord is just a glorified figment of the Doctor's imagination, or an intended CallBack[=/=]CallForward of the Doctor's incarnation as the Valeyard, considering the Twelfth Doctor's first appearance was at Christmas 2013. Bit of FridgeBrilliance, as the Dream Lord might in fact ''be'' the true origin of the Valeyard, since it's later established that [[spoiler: the Doctor is on his last--for now--incarnation]]. And the fact that the Dream Lord appears to survive the end of the episode.[[invoked]]

* TakeCareOfTheKids: Rory's last words as he disintegrates are "Take care of our baby."

** A rare case of the hero doing it to himself. The Dream Lord spends the entire episode telling the Doctor that he's a horrible person: he doesn't keep in touch with his Companions, he puts them in danger, he hides things, he never apologizes for anything, etc.

* WouldHitAGirl: Twice. First time, Rory whacks one of the elderly alien-ladies that's about to kill him. Second time, the ''Doctor'' [[BewareTheNiceOnes of all people]] whacks an old woman ''with a lamp'' when she comes through the window and kills Rory, making her fall off the roof of Rory and Amy's house. Although, in a way they really didn't, since all of that was a dream.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Some fans wonder if the Dream Lord is just a glorified figment of the Doctor's imagination, or an intended CallBack[=/=]CallForward of the Doctor's incarnation as the Valeyard, considering the Twelfth Doctor's first appearance was at Christmas 2013. Bit of FridgeBrilliance, as the Dream Lord might in fact ''be'' the true origin of the Valeyard, since the Valeyard no doubt lied to the Sixth Doctor about being created when his thirteenth regeneration was experimenting with ways to break the twelve-regeneration limit. And the fact that the Dream Lord appears to survive the end of the episode.[[invoked]]

* SelfParody: The dream adventure with the [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever evil old people]] and general ClicheStorm is quite possibly a parody of the average ''Doctor Who'' episode; displaced aliens hiding out on Earth and randomly deciding to take it out on the locals for no real reason has been a running theme since the 70's. Likewise, the "cold star" could also be seen as a parody of the [[ArtisticLicensePhysics abuses of science]] often committed on the show.

* GreatGazoo: The Dream Lord is almighty within the dream world, and he uses this power for taunts and {{shipping}}.

* AlmostDeadGuy: Rory begins a fine tradition by having just enough time to deliver a TearJerker.

* RealityEnsues: The Dream Lord traps the Doctor, Amy and Rory in two different and dangerous worlds, claiming that one is a dream and the other is reality. (They're both dreams.)

* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Rory at one point insists that nothing bad could ever possibly happen in his idyllic life in Upper Leadworth... seconds before the Doctor discovers, via an aversion of InfantImmortality, that things ''have'' gone badly wrong in his idyllic life in Upper Leadworth.

* InfantImmortality: Averted, as the school children are vaporized by the aliens. At least, it would have been if the schoolkids weren't a dream.

** When Rory is killed in Upper Leadworth Amy immediately chooses to kill herself in that reality to have a chance to be with him again.[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan When Rory is sent back in time (again) and Amy sees evidence that he has already died in the present]]. She immediately chooses to go back with him even though it means she never sees The Doctor again.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** It's so cold the Doctor can't feel his feet... "and other parts."
** Rory, about the eyeballs: "They're not gonna be peeking out of anywhere else, are they?"
** "Did he tell you about Elizabeth the First? Well, she ''thought'' she was the first."
** The Dream Lord says to Amy "The Doctor left you alone with me. ''Anything'' could happen." And as he says those last two lines he transforms into wearing basically a bathrobe and has a very creepy expression on his face.

Having returned to the world of the village, Amy is in time to witness Rory make a symbol of his devotion to her... by sacrificing his ponytail. Unfortunately, it also appears that her labour has started. Having also had to endure the taunts of the Dream Lord, the Doctor arrives to perform a rescue, but before they can escape, Rory is surprised by one of the possessed pensioners and hit with a jet of gas. The Doctor and Amy can only watch as Rory, fatally wounded, crumbles to dust in Amy's arms. Despite Amy's pleas, there's nothing the Doctor can do. "Then what," Amy screams at him, "is the point of you?"

* SharedDream: The Doctor, Amy and Rory are trapped in such a dream. Discussed at the beginning of the episode where they realise they were all having [[ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou a very similar dream involving the other two]].

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Some fans wonder if the Dream Lord is just a glorified figment of the Doctor's imagination, or an intended CallBack[=/=]CallForward of the Doctor's incarnation as the Valeyard, considering the Twelfth Doctor's first appearance is at Christmas 2013. Bit of FridgeBrilliance, as the Dream Lord might in fact ''be'' the true origin of the Valeyard, since the Valeyard no doubt lied to the Sixth Doctor about being created when his thirteenth regeneration was experimenting with ways to break the twelve-regeneration limit. And the fact that the Dream Lord appears to survive the end of the episode.

* TranquilFury: Amy is very calm whens he says this line, but the line of angry is crystal clear; "Then what is the point of you?"

--->'''Dream Lord:''' Now then, the prognosis is this. If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality? \\
'''Rory:''' What happens? \\

* ICantLookGesture: The Dream Lord mockingly does one in the butchers as the elderly close in on the Doctor.

** Taking a closer look at the Dream Lord's outfit can clue you in as to who he is before TheReveal at the end, because his outfit resembles the Doctor's. Calling himself the Dream Lord (the Doctor is a Time Lord) performs the same purpose. He also has an X-ray film in the second Leadworth dream he appears in, and some of his lines resemble those of a doctor ("Take two and call me in the morning.").