History Recap / DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited

* [[CallingTheOldManOut Calling the Doctor Out]]: Rory points out that picking up a history book and looking up disasters before the TARDIS lands would help avoid going into harm's way. The Doctor flippantly responds that he doesn't travel that way. To be fair, there are explicit times when the Doctor has read the history and still doesn't know what happened (Pompeii, the first colony on Mars, etc.), but this is probably one he could have avoided with a little research.

Amy, taking the Doctor's advise, steps through into the Two Streams facility proper, and is introduced to Interface, the vocal system that operates the facilities. Encountering a group of Handbots, she leaves a message for the Doctor and Rory with her lipstick on a door, and then escapes into the bowels of the facility, where the emissions from the time drives interfere with the Handbots' ability to detect her. She finds a quiet cache behind an engine and waits.

* BottleEpisode: This episode takes place only within Apalapucia and the TARDIS and features primarily only the three main characters.

* OmegaCast: The Doctor, Amy and Rory are the '''only''' physical characters here. The only exceptions are the Handbots, the holographic Check-In Girl and the Interface voice.

Teaser plot summary, courtesy of the BBC: Amy is trapped in a quarantine facility for victims of an alien plague – a plague that will kill the Doctor in a day. The Doctor can use the TARDIS to smash through time and break in, but then Rory is on his own. He must find Amy and bring her back to the TARDIS before the alien doctors can administer their medicine. Rory is about to encounter a very different side to his wife. Can he rescue Amy before she is killed by kindness?

* CruelMercy: Unfortunate and unintended; the Apalapuchian mercy traps Amy in a time-shifted paradise, and their medicine will kill.
* CruelToBeKind: The Apalapuchian mercy that separates a person from their loved ones and making them live a lifetime in a day is actually the inverse of what it first appears to be. It gives victims of a twenty-four hour death plague a full life to live and lets their loved ones see it all. In a day.

** Never mind ''that''. Consider this: Older!Amy has been stuck in the facility defending herself from the Handbots for 36 years. The inhabitants of the planet evidently never deactivated them when the quarantine ended. This leads to 3 possiblites (in order of horror): 1-the inhabitants never discovered a non-inhabitant in the facility. 2-the plague is still going on after 36 years. 3, and worst of all - all the inhabitants died of Chen 7, and the handbots are still performing their duty even though there's no-one left to look after.

* ActingForTwo: Older and younger Amys.

* CompanionCube: Rory the Handbot, the eternally faithful pet. Even young!Amy is surprised that the other Amy didn't call it the Doctor or their favorite cat, Biggles.

* InherentlyFunnyWords: Apalapucia.
** It also sound remarkably like some butcherings I've heard of "Appalachia" from people who've never heard it how it's prounounced before.

* [[JustFollowingOrders Just Following Programming]]: The handbots aren't ''trying'' to hurt anyone, it's just that their medicine isn't made for humans and would be lethal to Amy. This is the second time this season [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E3TheCurseoftheBlackSpot a literal-minded medical programme has unintentionally caused problems.]]

** Well, if one of them gets a virus or a glitch, wouldn't you want a quick and easy way to stop them before things went all pear-shaped. Maybe what we see as a "weakness" was their version of a "killswitch."

-->'''The Doctor:''' I don't know... [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean It's your marriage.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: If Rory had specified ''which'' button to press, none of the problems in this episode would have happened.

* GenderFlip: Arguably an inversion of what happened to Amy and Rory in "The Doctor's Wife", although that was just an illusion.
** It could also be a flip of "The Big Bang," namely both taking a large level in badass after years of solitude, only this time it's Amy waiting for Rory instead of Rory waiting for her. It also shows some insight into the psyches of Amy and Rory. Rory waits 2,000 years and his love of Amy is only strengthened, while Amy waits 36 years, and has become angry and bitter. Of course, since Amy's been fighting for her life and Rory's biggest concern was going mad from boredom, you can't really blame her.

* [[JustFollowingOrders Just Following Programing]]: The handbots aren't ''trying'' to hurt anyone, it's just that their medicine isn't made for humans and would be lethal to Amy, this is the second time this season [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E3TheCurseoftheBlackSpot a robotic doctor has unintentionally caused problems.]]

** It could also be a flip of "The Big Bang," namely both taking a large level in badass after years of solitude, only this time it's Amy waiting for Rory instead of Rory waiting for her. It also shows some insight into the psyches of Amy and Rory. Rory waits 2,000 years and his love of Amy is only strengthened, while Amy waits 36 years, and has become angry and bitter(of course, since Amy's been fighting for her life and Rory's biggest concern was going mad from boredom, you can't really blame her.)
** Not that I'm excusing an obvious DoubleStandard, but in fairness to Amy...Rory spent 2000 years faithfully guarding her body, waiting for the day (and knowing full well how far ahead it was) when the Doctor would save her. Amy spent nearly four decades waiting for them to come get her, expecting it to have happened literally minutes after she was separated from them. Also, she's a neurotic ex-orphan with abandonment issues.
** Also Rory ''chose'' to wait 2000 years (despite the Doctor suggesting they both take the quick path by using the Vortex Manipulator). Amy never gets any choice when she has to wait for years. So Rory is The Boy Who Chose to Wait whereas Amy is The Girl Who Gets Accidently Abandoned.

** It could also be a flip of "The Big Bang," namely both taking a large level in badass after years of solitude, only this time it's Amy waiting for Rory instead of Rory waiting for her. It also shows some insight into the psyches of Amy and Rory. Rory waits 2,000 years and his love of Amy is only strengthened, while Amy waits 36 years, and has become angry and bitter.

* GoodIsNotNice: [[spoiler:The Doctor shows himself to be [[ManipulativeBastard unrepentantly manipulative]], getting both Amys and Rory to believe that he could save all three of them, knowing full well that he was never going to bring the Older Amy with them. Worse still, to the Doctor there isn't a choice; he intended from the start to leave the Older Amy behind. He forces Rory to make the choice when he protests.]]