When Steven Moffat took over Doctor Who and had to create a brand new companion to travel with probably a brand new Doctor (although this wasn't certain at the time), there are some directions it would have been very safe to go in. Amy Pond is not what you might expect from a new showrunner with a huge amount of pressure on him to prove the show could still work. Because Amy is not the immediately likeable and perfect and family friendly companion you might expect.
Amy's early treatment of her boyfriend Rory is not the ideal girlfriend with a worthless boyfriend that you would expect a family show to go for in this situation. Instead she has the ideal boyfriend, and she's the one who runs off with a stranger the night before they're supposed to get married, and tries to cheat on him with the Doctor. She seems to take advantage of his gentle nature to get away with whatever she wants and has pretty complete control over him from how much he clearly loves and needs him. This isn't sounding like the most likeable companion in the world, so why is she written this way?
Because it makes it so much more emotionally satisfying when about halfway through the season she realises how much she needs and loves him too. She turns around and chooses him not just over the Doctor but literally over being alive in Amy's Choice, and by adding struggle to their relationship and a need to realise how much they need each other, Moffat has crafted a very human relationship and one that the viewers can really feel and be invested in - Amy and Rory might be the strongest romantic relationship portrayed on the show as a result.
It was a risk to take that might have led to people turning off out of dislike for Amy before they reached that point, but it paid off. Moffat minimised the risk as much as he could by keeping Rory out of the way until just before the relationship was ready to reach that point so viewers were only confronted with moments of that aspect of Amy's character rather than defining her by it. It's an impressive balancing act in Series 5 but it leads to some of the strongest character based storytelling of the show.
Her treatment of Rory is really part of a larger character trait that Moffat builds into her in that first season though that is a risk in itself. He generally tries to write her as the girl who never grew up, because of her interaction with the Doctor as a child, and he embraces all that comes with. Children can be bluntly honest with people when they shouldn't be, and they can often have a sense of entitlement to things they want and little appreciation of consequences. It's definitely quite a risk to include all that in Amy's character.
These character traits were also present in Rose though and she was a hugely popular character so maybe he wanted to replicate that success. Crucially, these traits aren't treated as a good thing though and she grows and develops past them. Being able to grow out of these traits is a natural part of development, and something that children can learn from watching Amy throughout the series. Doctor Who's main audience has always been children, and Moffat has always emphasised this by including children and childlike characters as crucial players in the Doctor's story. Amy is a character that children can relate to and learn from because she's not perfect like them.
He makes sure to include the postive aspects of childhood as well: curiosity, wonder, excitement, protectiveness. There are enough of these positives that while not perfect, Amy is still largely likeable. Flaws makes people interesting, positive traits make people likeable. A character needs to be likeable and interesting to be watchable, so again Moffat goes for a balancing act to achieve the greatest character he can. It could have failed spectacularly but he took the risk and for most people, it paid off.
Amy's more overtly sexual nature than previous companions was a problem for some viewers who saw it as inappropriate for a program aimed at children. Interestingly, the decision to 'sex up' Amy's wardrobe was actually Karen Gillan's and not Moffat's. Being a kissogram, and dressing as a police woman for her first episode was Moffat's decision though. There is the obvious decision making there that of course that's going to draw in a large number of a certain type of viewer.
It also does fit with what the Eleventh Hour is trying to achieve as an episode in part - showing off a sleeker, cooler, more modern and more sexy Doctor Who. It's not just for kids, it's a show for all the family with something for everyone. In the same episode we get Matt Smith taking his clothes to change into his costume, so it's not just a single gender gaze.
From a writer's perspective, there are thematic justifications as well. It actually adds to the child image through the idea of dressing up, and links to how she used to dress up with Rory as a child to act out adventures with her raggedy Doctor. It's also a way of showing she's pretending to be something she's not: literally a police woman, thematically a grown up. Her abandonment of the more adult role of kissogram to travel with the Doctor is another show of how she gives up pretending to be grown up with the Doctor and with him is allowed to just be herself. Ironically, through it's through actually being herself with the Doctor that she genuinely learns to grow up and becomes a woman ready to be in the same position in life as Rory.
The other controversial Amy decision that Series 5 makes is the scene at the end of Flesh and Stone where Amy tries to sleep with the Doctor. He's attempting to show something that is quite important to deal with: the exploration of romantic possibility in a relationship that close. The most obvious way that could have been addressed was simply pointing out that Amy already has a boyfriend and then not needing to address it further - Donna proved a non-romantic Doctor-companion relationship was definitely possible.
What Moffat's asking here though is how can a young impressionable girl meet someone so impressive and attrative and be taken away and told how special she is and not develop a bit of crush that needs to be addressed more than that. Particularly in the adrenaline-pumping life or death situations that experiences that episodes like the episode they've just had put them in. It's a fair question and Amy has been written as the kind of girl who would act on it in some way. It's definitely not her finest moment, but it is to some extent understandable, and very human. Lots of people do have moments of weakness like that. Whether that's a good thing to have a role model do on a kid's show is perhaps an entirely different matter though. Lots of people do lots of things that are best not shown.
For me, the tone of that scene is so different from the rest of the episode, it feels out of place and forced. It doesn't feel right for that episode, so it's hard to tell if it could ever feel right for the series as whole. Moffat has actually said that the main thing he wishes he could change is that scene because he thinks it's an important part of a relationship like that to show and he wishes he hadn't played it for comedy and had explored that moment seriously.
"There's one mistake that rankles me to this day because it's just wrong. There's a scene at the end of a season 5 episode called 'Flesh and Stone' where Amy comes on to the Doctor and it's a very good idea for a series because she's been through this traumatic experience and she doesn't quite know who or what the Doctor is or what his interest is in her. There's a brilliant scene to be written there and I entirely avoided writing it. I played it for laughs and it's so wrong." - Steven Moffat, 2017
The point of the scene for the series is that it pushes the Doctor and Amy's relationship beyond that ever-present romantic possibility and creates a narrative reason for Rory to come aboard the TARDIS too. Played for laughs though it doesn't close the door on that possibility firmly enough, and a more serious tone would have fitted the episode it's part of better, but also could have made Amy a more sympathetic character in that moment, highlighting her confusion in the situation rather than just emphasising her insatiable lust for Matt Smith in that moment. I mean that lust is understandable but not really what the show needed to be showing at that moment.
One scene screwed up but the rest of the risks paying off and forming a companion who stuck around for three years and is still remembered very fondly by many is really not a bad showing from Moffat though. If only every risk writers take worked out that well.
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