The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond

"My best friend is the raggedy Doctor."

Writer: Steven Moffat

Format: Webcast

Released: 3 April 2020

Series: #DoctorWhoLockdown

Featuring: Amy

Synopsis

Amelia Pond tells a story some time after she is left waiting in her garden by the Eleventh Doctor. She narrates some pages from her diary dealing with the hopes of the Doctor's return, her friend Mels and her future husband Rory...

Verdict

The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond was a tremendous little webcast to go alongside the #FishCustard watch-along of The Eleventh Hour! It's really great that this watch-along occurred on the story's tenth anniversary, but saying that alone just makes me feel incredibly old! And I'm only 23. Where does the time go? It really does beggar belief that it's been a whole decade since the Eleventh Doctor's full debut. Anyway, onto the story at hand and it was a wonderful three minutes or so. The format was sublime with the animation and writings and I loved that we got to hear Caitlin Blackwood again reprising her role as Amelia Pond. She is obviously ten years older now from when she appeared on screen as the younger version of Amy who would go on to become the companion, but she told the story so well and settled back into her character's role in such a lovely way. I was really impressed with the performance and it was just tremendous to hear her again. It was clear that she was playing Amelia as slightly older with the mentions of Mels and playing hide and seek with Rory which we would see recounted on screen in Let's Kill Hitler amongst other episodes. The continuity was good and everything that was written in the book just felt real. It was clear just how much Amelia liked Rory without potentially realising it. I'm not even sure if it's a case of her not wanting to admit it, I genuinely don't think she knows how much she loves Rory. Even at this early stage. She doesn't even call him a friend. She has 27 of them, but of course Rory is a lot more than a friend. That's such a clear and good distinction which is so simple but says so much in subtlety. It's quite sad though that for Rory he gets left hiding when Amelia and Mels forget about him in games of hide and seek or blind man's buff. But still he persisted with hanging out with them. He's such a nice guy. I have to say, the illustrations were absolutely brilliant and the fact that all of this was produced whilst in lockdown with such a quick turnaround is sublime. Emily Cook is doing a stellar job organising all of these watch-alongs it has to be said. I'm loving going through these additives to the mass gatherings and I haven't actually joined in with a televised one yet! That will be changing very soon though. The drawings of Rory blindfolded and of the Eleventh Doctor eating fish fingers and custard were tremendous and whilst they were so good and accurate, they also felt like they were drawn by Amelia herself. As if that wasn't enough, the desk setting in which the diary that was being recounted was placed upon was just marvellous. The framed picture of Amelia and a coloured in drawing of the TARDIS. Wow, it was just so so good. I really did love and much like other mini-stories to go alongside the watch-alongs, it all felt very poignant. Amelia calling the raggedy Doctor her best friend was touching and it's incredible to think how much of an impact he made on her life in such a short space of time. Overall, a quite wonderful little story. 

Rating: 10/10