Amy ' s Choice ( TV story ) Amy ' s Choice was the seventh episode of the fifth series of BBC Wales " Doctor Who " . It focused on Amy ' s relationship with the Doctor and Rory as well as the darker side of the Doctor . It brought up absurd possibilities of the universe as well , with a star burning cold being the danger in the TARDIS dream . No reference to the Silence or an appearance of the Cracks occur during this episode . Although the appearance of the Dream Lord brought up the darkness within the Doctor , something that would be expanded upon in due time . Synopsis . It has been five years since Amy Pond last travelled with the Eleventh Doctor . However , when he arrives by accident and they have a reunion , Amy is left questioning what is real . Is she actually living with her husband Rory in Leadworth , 2015 , or is she still travelling with Rory and the Doctor in the TARDIS ? Which is real and which is fake ? Dream or reality ? Only one thing is clear : it ' s Amy ' s choice . Plot . In Upper Leadworth , 2015 , a hugely pregnant Amy Pond is in her kitchen , baking , when she hunches over in pain . A pony - tailed Rory Williams returns home on his bike , and rushes inside when he hears Amy screaming his name , believing her to be in labour ; however , it is merely a false alarm and he finds her sitting on the kitchen floor , happily eating from the bowl of cake batter that she has just prepared with a cake spatula . They are about to resume their activities as normal , when they suddenly hear the TARDIS materialising in the garden outside their window ; Rory at first thinks it ' s the sound of a leaf blower . The Eleventh Doctor steps out of his ship , and is greeted first by Rory , then by Amy , who ambles out of the house at a slower pace . He comments on how happy they both look after five years , commenting Amy ' s weight gain multiple times , despite being told repeatedly that she is pregnant ; apparently not listening , the Doctor asks if she ' s pregnant . The couple takes him on a tour of Upper Leadworth , explaining that most of the people in the village are elderly ; hence , they live a quiet life . Sitting down on a bench , the Doctor fails to hide his exasperation with the dull tedium of the village : " How do you fight off the self - harm ? " They tell them the boring things they do as birdsong chimes in the background , and they all slowly fall asleep . The Doctor awakes on the floor of the TARDIS , confused as to how he happened to fall asleep so suddenly and believing everything that happened in regards to Leadworth was a dream ; he is relieved when Amy and Rory step into the control room , confused expressions on their faces . Rory describes a dream he ' s just woken up from , with Amy chiming in that she dreamt something similar ; as they both divulge details , it quickly becomes apparent that all three of them had the same dream . Something is wrong , but before they can decide what it is , birdsong sounds throughout the TARDIS . They fall asleep and find themselves back in Upper Leadworth . In Leadworth , the Doctor warns Rory and Amy not to believe anything they see , hear , or feel — from now on , they cannot be sure which world is real . The Doctor quickly deduce s that they are not experiencing virtual reality ; they really must be awake or dreaming , but is Leadworth the dream ? Stopping outside the village retirement home and remembering Amy and Rory ' s previous explanation that many senior citizens in the town live well into their 90s , the Doctor goes inside to investigate — " Something ' s wrong ; let ' s go poke it with a stick . " The residents all appear to recognise Rory , addressing him as " Doctor Williams " ; the Doctor , meanwhile , notices something suspicious about each one of them , especially Mrs Poggit , who makes him try on a jumper she is knitting for her grandson . The three fall asleep again , waking in the TARDIS as alarms blare . The Doctor tries to figure out what is happening as the power dies . " We ' re in a dead time machine " . Trying to bring the power back on , the Doctor realises someone is interfering with the TARDIS . A strange man who calls himself the Dream Lord materialises and reveals that he is testing them : one of the worlds they are drifting between is fake , and one is real . In each , they will face a deadly danger . They must decide which world is which ; if they are killed in the dream world , they will simply wake up in the real world , but if they are killed in the real world , they will actually die . They are put to sleep again . The trio wake up again in Leadworth and immediately begin arguing over which world is real ; the Dream Lord appears again , this time as a doctor , making fun of how he always sees through the Doctor . He then poses this " If you die in a dream , you wake up in reality , healthy recovery in next to no time ; ask me what happens if you die in reality . " When Rory asks , the Dream Lord responds " You die , stupid ; that ' s why it ' s called reality . " However , the Doctor quickly notices that the senior citizens have disappeared ; the Dream Lord vanishes , leaving them to search around . They venture outside and see Mrs Poggit approaching a group of schoolchildren playing inside the local castle ruins . As the Doctor continues to poke fun at Amy and Rory ' s new life , Amy cries out in pain ; both the Doctor and Rory react in terror at the prospect that she is going into labour , but Amy quickly reveals that it was simply a prank to remind the Doctor that her world " just turned him white as a sheet " and he shouldn ' t make fun of it anymore . Before they can approach Mrs Poggit , though , they fall back asleep . Back in the TARDIS , the Doctor pulls out a spare generator from below the console , and has Rory wind it up to power the circular monitor . Amy wonders why the Doctor is so suspicious of Mrs Poggit , but the monitor turning on diverts their attention . They find the Dream Lord is propelling the TARDIS towards a cold star , and they only have forty minutes before they freeze to death . The Doctor is at a loss for an explanation about the cold star , yelling that he can ' t know everything about the universe . Rory suggests that they call for help , but the Doctor points out that it is an idiotic idea as the universe is big , highly unlikely there will be anyone nearby a cold star to help them . The Dream Lord appears and taunts the Doctor with a rhyme about the danger in both worlds , before sending them back to sleep . They wake up in Leadworth to find the children missing ; while the Doctor investigates , Amy contemplates whether or not life in Leadworth is something she would settle for , prompting some insecurity to arise in Rory , who insists that the Leadworth world is the real one . The Doctor spots small piles of ashes scattered around the ruins , and he and Amy quickly deduce that the children have been vaporised by Mrs Poggit . They look back to the village and see the senior citizens — led by Mrs Poggit — walking towards them . As they approach , the Dream Lord appears , taunting that the the " Attack of the Old People " is a dream , and for everyone to " jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS " . Amy tries to defend the Doctor , but the Dream Lord points out , " loves a red head , our naughty Doctor " , before mentioning his relationship with Elizabeth I . The Doctor stops the Dream Lord ' s taunts by telling him he knows who he is — there is only one person in the world who hates him enough to do this . Amused the Doctor figured it out , the Dream Lord tells them to worry about the senior citizens , then vanishes . The seniors reveal they are possessed by Eknodine s , aliens who are using them as hosts , completely hidden apart from eyestalks which they can reveal at will through their mouths . Their homeworld was destroyed , and so they ' ve come to destroy the human race and make a new home for themselves on Earth . The Eknodines try to kill the trio , but the Doctor steps in to protect Amy and Rory while the couple escapes ; the Doctor accepts that Leadworth " could " be real , failing to try reasoning with the Eknodine . Fleeing to their home , Rory is forced to whack an elderly woman who is waiting for them outside the house with a piece of wood . Inside , Amy rests on the stairway while Rory barricades the door . Amy feels bad that , after having gone so long without seeing the Doctor , she has let him sacrifice himself to save them ; Rory is less concerned , assuring her that the Doctor will be fine . " He ' s Mr Cool ! " However , the Doctor — dazed by drowsiness — stumbles through the streets of the village as an army of senior citizens pursues him . He is about to fall asleep as birdsong is heard . He enters a butcher shop and searches madly for a means of escape ; however , the " proprietor " of the shop is the Dream Lord , who allows the senior citizens to come in while simultaneously putting the Doctor to sleep . Unwilling to leave himself for the Eknodines , the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to unlock a back freezer , closing himself inside before allowing sleep to take him . The trio awake in the TARDIS , and argue about which of the worlds is real . The Doctor believes it ' s time to choose . He personally believes the TARDIS world is real : " It ' s a big universe ; star s can burn cold , sofas can read " . Rory , however , insists the Leadworth world is real , prompting the Doctor to angrily wonder whether they ' re really disagreeing or competing . Amy wonders what they ' re competing over and both give her a look . Annoyed , Amy retrieves some blankets from a lower storage area of the TARDIS and turns them into ponchos , which according to Rory is " the greatest crime against fashion since leaderhosen " . The Doctor decides if they split up in each world , the Dream Lord will have a harder time putting them back to sleep . The Dream Lord materialises , thinking " Veggie ' s " idea is good ; with that , he sends the Doctor and Rory back to Leadworth and keeps Amy awake in the TARDIS . Before falling asleep , the Doctor promises Amy that he will come back . Rory wakes to find the house under siege . He quickly pulls the unconscious Amy upstairs to their unborn child ' s nursery , locking the door behind him . The Doctor , meanwhile , calmly primes his sonic screwdriver and opens the freezer door , supercharging the lightbulb to blind the Eknodines and enable his escape . He then commandeers a van , saving a man from attack , and drives through the town , picking up various citizens along the way . After dropping them off at the town church , he goes off to find his friends . The Dream Lord materialises in the backseat of the van and taunts the Doctor ' s waning relationship with his past companions as they mature after their adventures with him , never to see him again ; a good friend would stay in contact , but the Doctor is an " old man " who " prefers the company of the young " . The Doctor ignores him , prompting the Dream Lord to see that he can no longer affect the Doctor ; he vanishes to taunt another of the trio . Meanwhile , the Dream Lord confronts Amy aboard the TARDIS ; anything could happen now that they ' re alone . Defiant , Amy ignores his lechery . He makes it clear to her that she is not the first woman to travel with the Doctor , and questions her romantic inclinations , claiming Rory is nothing compared to the excitement the Doctor can offer her ; however , he also suggests settling for Rory would be better than loving and losing the Doctor . He tells her that they ' re waiting for her to decide which world is real — " Amy ' s men , Amy ' s choice . " She decides to return to Leadworth to join Rory and the Doctor . She finds out what has happened as the Doctor climbs into the nursery via a window ; he reveals that while he was once sure that the TARDIS was reality , he is now uncertain . Mrs Poggit breaks into the nursery ' s second window , and Rory immediately stands to action , determined to protect Amy and their baby ; however , he is promptly hit by the deadly gas secreted from her eyestalk . The Doctor promptly jams a nearby lamp into Mrs Poggit ' s face , causing her to fall to the ground outside . Telling Amy to look after their baby , Rory dissolves into dust . Amy begs the Doctor to save Rory , but he sadly says that he cannot — " then what is the point of you ? " . Distraught , Amy decides that Leadworth is the dream ; it cannot be real because Rory isn ' t there with her . She and the Doctor make their way outside , past the suddenly docile Eknodines , and approach the van ; the Doctor explains that if they ' re in a dream , their attackers know what they ' re about to do . Before giving her the keys , the Doctor asks her if she ' s sure of what she ' s about to do ; Amy replies that she is , and that even if it is real , she doesn ' t want to live in a world without Rory . As the Dream Lord watches , the two drive the van straight into the house , kill ing themselves and several Eknodines in the process . The Doctor , Amy , and Rory awake in the TARDIS , almost frozen , but alive . The Dream Lord appears , congratulating them on their success ; in a show of benevolence , he steers the TARDIS away from the cold star , and turns the power back on before vanishing . The Doctor , however , is not convinced , and sets the TARDIS to self - destruct despite Amy and Rory ' s protests . The Doctor explains that the Dream Lord would have had no power in the real world ; he was offering them a choice between two dreams . Amy asks him how he knows that , to which The Doctor replies , " Because I know who he is " . A blinding white light floods the control room . The three wake up in the TARDIS once more . The Doctor presents his companions with a speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava ; it had fallen into the time rotor and heated up , creating the dream state . After blowing the pollen into space , the Doctor reveals that the Dream Lord was a manifestation of the dark side of his personality . He sets the TARDIS on a new course . Rory asks Amy what stopped the Leadworth dream , having forgotten his " death " ; Amy tells him , confessing that she did not know which world was real , but that no matter what , she could not live without him . The couple share a kiss ; Rory , when asked by the Doctor where they ' d like to go next , tells him it ' s Amy ' s choice . As the Doctor works the TARDIS controls , he briefly sees the Dream Lord ' s face within his reflection on the console , giving a sinister smile . This troubles the Doctor enough to look around ; when his reflection is shown again , it is his own — the Dream Lord is no longer there . Story notes . Filming locations . Skenfrith , Wales , UK Home video releases . BBC Video - " Doctor Who Series Five - Volume Three " was released on Monday 2 August 2010 ( UK Only ) on DVD and Blu - ray , featuring " Amy ' s Choice " , " The Hungry Earth " and " Cold Blood " .