Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Spoilers The Doctor Who Thread
- Thread starter Jaffa Cake
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Geronimo!
The Time of Angels is an episode with elegant structure, created by a writer in control of his craft. You can see what Moffat is trying to do in this one: manipulate our fears with horror tropes, and to reprise the most popular elements of both Blink and Silence in the Library. He himself compared Blink and The Time of Angels with Alien and Aliens, and Silence shares Bernice Summerfield clone River Song, a "largest library [museum] in the universe," and its plot with this week's enterprise. I respect the master's parallels and his artistry, but I suspect his motives. The Time of Angels is a cynical creation, like a "Best of" CD released by the band itself.
A return of the popular weeping angels was inevitable, but are these really the same monsters that made their original episode so memorable? Moffat takes them out of context (the overgrown garden and cemetery of Blink) and gives them an arsenal of new abilities: being able to climb out of images, lock doors telekinetically, get into your head through the eyes, make lights flicker, and most confusingly, "reanimate a version of someone's consciousness" in order to speak with their voice and personality. Giving such a plethora of powers to a monster makes them hard to second-guess. This is a bad thing because it makes it impossible to estimate the menace of the angels. The analogue here is the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, a magic wand that has unspecified abilities. When Amy is locked in the container by the angel, the two come into conflict: the screwdriver can't cut the power to the video inside because of the angel's ability to produce "deadlock force." Magic versus magic like this becomes a suspenseless battle solved only by the whimsy of the plot. It's suspenseless because we can't guess what the outcome might be or be surprised by it.
Like the mechanical faces in The Beast Below, a lot of the horror in this episode comes from the inert, scowling faces of the monster. It's very effective "nightmare fuel," and the many angels the party must face should have multiplied their threat, like Aliens did for Alien, but Moffat necessarily has to water them down because he's given them too much power. This army of angels is, conveniently, slower and essentially zombielike. They're also far less horrific for it.
What gets me is that I can really see what Moffat is trying to do here. The angels' ability to come out of an image is a very clever scare tactic that targets everyone watching the episode that very moment. The voice of Dead Bob over the radio is the definition of a ghost, but was it ever considered that it might ruin the angels' creepy, inscrutable silence? (Perhaps Bob would have been more effective if he had remained alive; the accusation "you made me trust you and you let me down" would have had more weight coming from a real person.) The flickering of the soldiers' lights is a classic horror device, but it feels pilfered from Silence in the Library and was perhaps not necessary at all to heighten their menace. In comparison, the cave hunt in the original series episode Earthshock lacks many of these devices, but is more horrific; in it, soldiers with a scanner above ground watch helplessly as the heat signatures of their comrades wink out rapidly onscreen.
Moffat's dialogue is as strong as ever, when the characters aren't just babbling. "Blimey, your teeth - have you got Space Teeth?" is part of a precious scene when the Doctor bites Amy's hand to convince her it's not made of stone. Unfortunately, she's still relatively useless. Her one active moment in this episode, when it strikes her how to banish the angel from the container where she's trapped, is another example of the Sudden Realization Effect that plagues the show and her in particular. River Song assures her, "you're good," but besides these convenient moments of genius, we see very little evidence of this. Amy mostly just tags along, soaks up exposition, and quips. The Doctor is well-performed, but there's nothing new in his role here. He just glides through, supremely confident that he's too much of a badass to get hurt. He claims at the end, "there's one thing you should never put in a trap… me." It's so hyperbolic that you almost root for a monster to humble him a little.
It's such a relief not to have to dedicate a huge part of the review to logic holes, but a few nag at me. Perhaps someone can put me straight about the following quibbles: why oh why were the angels at the end "trying to make him [the Doctor] angry??" Is there any conceivable reason why this might be a good thing to do? Do they mock all of their victims, or just omnipotent Time Lords? Well, okay, whatever.
Secondarily, as experts, somewhat, on the subject of the weeping angels (in the sense that they have a book about them inconveniently written in riddles by a madman), what was the soldiers' plan to eliminate the single angel they expected to find? We find out that shooting at stone doesn't seem to do much of anything half way through the episode, so their plan seems to consist more or less of "bring the Doctor along on our headlong rush into terrible danger - maybe he'll think of something." Why do the weeping angels need this "defence mechanism" that turns them into stone when they're the "deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced?" [Have we ever heard that before in Doctor Who, hmm?] It seems more like their only weakness to me.
I'm getting carried away. I should have started with this episode's truly odd opening, but I still can't figure out what it's there for. The first scene is a dizzying shot of someone drugged in a sunny field. The first three lines, "it's a beautiful day," "hallucinogenic lipstick," and "she's here" give us the impression that this episode is going to be about River Song (far more than it is), and though colourful, the spinning shot of the drugged guard only confuses us when it turns out we're actually in a spaceship following a woman with a weird revolver/welder hybrid. Yes, we get a great crash into the credits, but the episode opened too early and too messy for it to matter much.
The pace of the episode accommodates clear peaks and valleys, but it still feels rushed. A two-parter of the new series inhabits roughly the same amount of time as a four-parter of the old, yet how it manages to seem more cramped and breathless is curious to me. Ironically, the hyperactive nature of the new series seems to truncate time and gives The Time of Angels, at least for me, a sense of being shorter and smaller scale. A four-part episode of the original series would frequently have two or three times as many important characters, increasing the complexity of the story and giving it a depth of perspective that Nu Who has rarely reached for (Human Nature has more major characters than usual and look at the difference in pace; and ironically, so does Blink).
True conclusions about the story must wait until next week, but on the whole, I'm hoping for Flesh and Stone to take up one of the tattered themes of part 1: when Amy slyly picks on the Doctor for "running away from the future" near the beginning of the episode, my ears pricked. Could Nu Who actually be pursuing a metaphor, let alone one that applies to the Doctor, to Amy, and to Doctor Who as a whole? For an episode deliberately steeped in mythology, notions of history, and religion (can it possibly be just a gimmick that we have Clerics hunting Angels?), all the next episode needs to become memorable is a little substance, from this idea or another.
The Time of Angels is an episode with elegant structure, created by a writer in control of his craft. You can see what Moffat is trying to do in this one: manipulate our fears with horror tropes, and to reprise the most popular elements of both Blink and Silence in the Library. He himself compared Blink and The Time of Angels with Alien and Aliens, and Silence shares Bernice Summerfield clone River Song, a "largest library [museum] in the universe," and its plot with this week's enterprise. I respect the master's parallels and his artistry, but I suspect his motives. The Time of Angels is a cynical creation, like a "Best of" CD released by the band itself.
A return of the popular weeping angels was inevitable, but are these really the same monsters that made their original episode so memorable? Moffat takes them out of context (the overgrown garden and cemetery of Blink) and gives them an arsenal of new abilities: being able to climb out of images, lock doors telekinetically, get into your head through the eyes, make lights flicker, and most confusingly, "reanimate a version of someone's consciousness" in order to speak with their voice and personality. Giving such a plethora of powers to a monster makes them hard to second-guess. This is a bad thing because it makes it impossible to estimate the menace of the angels. The analogue here is the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, a magic wand that has unspecified abilities. When Amy is locked in the container by the angel, the two come into conflict: the screwdriver can't cut the power to the video inside because of the angel's ability to produce "deadlock force." Magic versus magic like this becomes a suspenseless battle solved only by the whimsy of the plot. It's suspenseless because we can't guess what the outcome might be or be surprised by it.
Like the mechanical faces in The Beast Below, a lot of the horror in this episode comes from the inert, scowling faces of the monster. It's very effective "nightmare fuel," and the many angels the party must face should have multiplied their threat, like Aliens did for Alien, but Moffat necessarily has to water them down because he's given them too much power. This army of angels is, conveniently, slower and essentially zombielike. They're also far less horrific for it.
What gets me is that I can really see what Moffat is trying to do here. The angels' ability to come out of an image is a very clever scare tactic that targets everyone watching the episode that very moment. The voice of Dead Bob over the radio is the definition of a ghost, but was it ever considered that it might ruin the angels' creepy, inscrutable silence? (Perhaps Bob would have been more effective if he had remained alive; the accusation "you made me trust you and you let me down" would have had more weight coming from a real person.) The flickering of the soldiers' lights is a classic horror device, but it feels pilfered from Silence in the Library and was perhaps not necessary at all to heighten their menace. In comparison, the cave hunt in the original series episode Earthshock lacks many of these devices, but is more horrific; in it, soldiers with a scanner above ground watch helplessly as the heat signatures of their comrades wink out rapidly onscreen.
Moffat's dialogue is as strong as ever, when the characters aren't just babbling. "Blimey, your teeth - have you got Space Teeth?" is part of a precious scene when the Doctor bites Amy's hand to convince her it's not made of stone. Unfortunately, she's still relatively useless. Her one active moment in this episode, when it strikes her how to banish the angel from the container where she's trapped, is another example of the Sudden Realization Effect that plagues the show and her in particular. River Song assures her, "you're good," but besides these convenient moments of genius, we see very little evidence of this. Amy mostly just tags along, soaks up exposition, and quips. The Doctor is well-performed, but there's nothing new in his role here. He just glides through, supremely confident that he's too much of a badass to get hurt. He claims at the end, "there's one thing you should never put in a trap… me." It's so hyperbolic that you almost root for a monster to humble him a little.
It's such a relief not to have to dedicate a huge part of the review to logic holes, but a few nag at me. Perhaps someone can put me straight about the following quibbles: why oh why were the angels at the end "trying to make him [the Doctor] angry??" Is there any conceivable reason why this might be a good thing to do? Do they mock all of their victims, or just omnipotent Time Lords? Well, okay, whatever.
Secondarily, as experts, somewhat, on the subject of the weeping angels (in the sense that they have a book about them inconveniently written in riddles by a madman), what was the soldiers' plan to eliminate the single angel they expected to find? We find out that shooting at stone doesn't seem to do much of anything half way through the episode, so their plan seems to consist more or less of "bring the Doctor along on our headlong rush into terrible danger - maybe he'll think of something." Why do the weeping angels need this "defence mechanism" that turns them into stone when they're the "deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced?" [Have we ever heard that before in Doctor Who, hmm?] It seems more like their only weakness to me.
I'm getting carried away. I should have started with this episode's truly odd opening, but I still can't figure out what it's there for. The first scene is a dizzying shot of someone drugged in a sunny field. The first three lines, "it's a beautiful day," "hallucinogenic lipstick," and "she's here" give us the impression that this episode is going to be about River Song (far more than it is), and though colourful, the spinning shot of the drugged guard only confuses us when it turns out we're actually in a spaceship following a woman with a weird revolver/welder hybrid. Yes, we get a great crash into the credits, but the episode opened too early and too messy for it to matter much.
The pace of the episode accommodates clear peaks and valleys, but it still feels rushed. A two-parter of the new series inhabits roughly the same amount of time as a four-parter of the old, yet how it manages to seem more cramped and breathless is curious to me. Ironically, the hyperactive nature of the new series seems to truncate time and gives The Time of Angels, at least for me, a sense of being shorter and smaller scale. A four-part episode of the original series would frequently have two or three times as many important characters, increasing the complexity of the story and giving it a depth of perspective that Nu Who has rarely reached for (Human Nature has more major characters than usual and look at the difference in pace; and ironically, so does Blink).
True conclusions about the story must wait until next week, but on the whole, I'm hoping for Flesh and Stone to take up one of the tattered themes of part 1: when Amy slyly picks on the Doctor for "running away from the future" near the beginning of the episode, my ears pricked. Could Nu Who actually be pursuing a metaphor, let alone one that applies to the Doctor, to Amy, and to Doctor Who as a whole? For an episode deliberately steeped in mythology, notions of history, and religion (can it possibly be just a gimmick that we have Clerics hunting Angels?), all the next episode needs to become memorable is a little substance, from this idea or another.
I have a vague feeling that a lot of people will have hated this scene (and it'll have gone straight over kids' heads) but I loved:
"I'm 900 years old!"
"So, it's been a while then?"
"Yes, NO!"
I liked that episode although there were a few niggles
1. The angels should have had plenty of time to kill them the amount of times they all looked away
2. The scene at the end while funny was a bit random. And all the emphasis on the word "who" just before she jumped him. His name isn't Doctor Who.
3. It almost feels like Amy's being set up as another companion who's the most important person ever ever ever. Sigh.
4. River Song killing the Doctor would be slightly too obvious so I hope that's not where we're heading
5. The crack being satiated or whatever by the angels was both predictable and an anticlimax. Then again, I usually find the endings disappointing.
Probably other things as well. I found it more immersive than last week's though. Definitely enjoyed it overall.
"I'm 900 years old!"
"So, it's been a while then?"
"Yes, NO!"
I liked that episode although there were a few niggles
1. The angels should have had plenty of time to kill them the amount of times they all looked away
2. The scene at the end while funny was a bit random. And all the emphasis on the word "who" just before she jumped him. His name isn't Doctor Who.
3. It almost feels like Amy's being set up as another companion who's the most important person ever ever ever. Sigh.
4. River Song killing the Doctor would be slightly too obvious so I hope that's not where we're heading
5. The crack being satiated or whatever by the angels was both predictable and an anticlimax. Then again, I usually find the endings disappointing.
Probably other things as well. I found it more immersive than last week's though. Definitely enjoyed it overall.
One thing that puzzled me is...
[perception filter]The crack essentially wipes from existence anything that falls into it, they never existed. If the crack is somehow connected to Amy, then what would have happened if she had have been consumed by it? She would cease to have existed, so she would never have prompted it's creation, if she did of course. Or something.
On that note, how is River going to receive a pardon for her actions in this episode? She would apparently have done so for neutralising the Angel on the Byzantium, but by falling into the crack this Angel (along with the others) never existed in the first place, and is only remembered by the three time travellers. To everyone else she's done nothing to earn her pardon.
Also, I noticed that the Doctor was wearing a tweed jacket when he had his brief talk with Amy before he headed off with Song and Octavian – he had of course lost this jacket a few moments earlier while fleeing the Angels. Continuity error, or something more?[/perception filter]
[perception filter]The crack essentially wipes from existence anything that falls into it, they never existed. If the crack is somehow connected to Amy, then what would have happened if she had have been consumed by it? She would cease to have existed, so she would never have prompted it's creation, if she did of course. Or something.
On that note, how is River going to receive a pardon for her actions in this episode? She would apparently have done so for neutralising the Angel on the Byzantium, but by falling into the crack this Angel (along with the others) never existed in the first place, and is only remembered by the three time travellers. To everyone else she's done nothing to earn her pardon.
Also, I noticed that the Doctor was wearing a tweed jacket when he had his brief talk with Amy before he headed off with Song and Octavian – he had of course lost this jacket a few moments earlier while fleeing the Angels. Continuity error, or something more?[/perception filter]
You want continuity errors? What happened to the Weeping Angels not being able to look at each other?
Oh and another possibly huge thing did anyone notice the date on Amy's alarm clock when it rolled over to midnight? 6/26/10 a Saturday if you look up the episode schedule on wikipedia that should be the date of the series 5 finale.
"I'm getting married in the morning"
"And for those of us who can't read the base code of the universe?"
"Amy's time"
The computer the Doctor uses to scan the crack reads back... 26 06 2010
Oh and another possibly huge thing did anyone notice the date on Amy's alarm clock when it rolled over to midnight? 6/26/10 a Saturday if you look up the episode schedule on wikipedia that should be the date of the series 5 finale.
"I'm getting married in the morning"
"And for those of us who can't read the base code of the universe?"
"Amy's time"
The computer the Doctor uses to scan the crack reads back... 26 06 2010
I don't think Amy is being set up to be the most important person ever. It's more that....
...because she has been taken out of normal events by The Doctor, her lack of attending her wedding is causing ripples through time. Time travel is obviously reasonably common in humanity's future, which we know from Captain Jack etc. Is it possible that one of Amy's far descendants is actually also one of her own ancestors, and that by meeting The Doctor and deciding not to marry she breaks a massive arc of space-time? So in a Back to the Future mould The Doctor has to restore the events to their original state, otherwise the crack will remove the entire loop of time and all of Amy's descendant-ancestors from the Universe to prevent a paradox? Could this arc of time also be so large that removing it will radically change later events such as Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor defeating the Daleks back in series 27, therefore changing all the Dalek related events of the past five series so that only the Doctor will remember them? So is the message of this series that time can be changed, but the consequences are so massive it should not be attempted?
...because she has been taken out of normal events by The Doctor, her lack of attending her wedding is causing ripples through time. Time travel is obviously reasonably common in humanity's future, which we know from Captain Jack etc. Is it possible that one of Amy's far descendants is actually also one of her own ancestors, and that by meeting The Doctor and deciding not to marry she breaks a massive arc of space-time? So in a Back to the Future mould The Doctor has to restore the events to their original state, otherwise the crack will remove the entire loop of time and all of Amy's descendant-ancestors from the Universe to prevent a paradox? Could this arc of time also be so large that removing it will radically change later events such as Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor defeating the Daleks back in series 27, therefore changing all the Dalek related events of the past five series so that only the Doctor will remember them? So is the message of this series that time can be changed, but the consequences are so massive it should not be attempted?
^ Probably this. Whatever happens, Amy better survive to the next series, or I'm kicking off.
Why are you 2 using white text? instaxgirl already spoiled everything you two are talking about. Any Americans watching on the 2 week delay probably shouldn't be reading this or just watch it online. Episodes aren't that hard to find. And before anyone says anything I am paying for the show on iTunes and watching the show online in time with the UK broadcast. iTunes HD season pass is cheaper than the ridiculously expensive DVD sets. $75 to $60 for 13 episodes. I should have bought that gold box deal on Amazon when I had the chance. All 4 series for the price of 1.
I saw my first episode with Matt Smith last night - Re-invention of the Daleks in WWII.
I don't like it at all. The show has bad acting from both Smith and Gillan and inferior writing than the previous two Doctors. The cliché soundtrack makes it cheesy also. It's lighter, fluffier, less serious than Eccleston and less charming than Tennant. Rose was about as tarty as they should get - Gillan has nice legs and I don't mind seeing them at all, but miniskirts and cowboy boots on Doctor Who?
...and Daleks would never go for bright paint jobs. They just look silly now; in the previous iterations they actually looked believable when they tried to be menacing.
Doctor, I am disappoint. ime I don't see Matt Smith lasting longer than this season.
I don't like it at all. The show has bad acting from both Smith and Gillan and inferior writing than the previous two Doctors. The cliché soundtrack makes it cheesy also. It's lighter, fluffier, less serious than Eccleston and less charming than Tennant. Rose was about as tarty as they should get - Gillan has nice legs and I don't mind seeing them at all, but miniskirts and cowboy boots on Doctor Who?
...and Daleks would never go for bright paint jobs. They just look silly now; in the previous iterations they actually looked believable when they tried to be menacing.
Doctor, I am disappoint. ime I don't see Matt Smith lasting longer than this season.
Yes it's all wrong.
I never watched the old ones, I'm only going by the recent ones. So sue me.
I thought yesterdays episode was sheer brilliance and I'm ready to buy into wherever The Crack/time able to be rewritten storyline leads.
I especially loved the ending!
- "The single most important thing in the history of the universe is that I get you sorted out right now."
- "That's what I've been trying to tell you."
I lol'd!
I especially loved the ending!
- "The single most important thing in the history of the universe is that I get you sorted out right now."
- "That's what I've been trying to tell you."
I lol'd!
I'll pass on suing. Just pointing out that the new series has a lot of similarities to the original Doctor Who. It was very campy and fakish because it was a family/childrens show. The current show is trying to go back to the roots of Doctor Who imho.
It actually wouldn't surprise me if the producers made Amy Pond a Time Lord sometime in the future.
I couldn't disagree more. I love the new series, and haven't enjoyed it as much since the Christopher Eccleston days.
I think the plots are much are realistic and gripping than the older ones, they lack the silly "let's drag a planet back into place with the Tardis" and what usually ends in David Tennant crying over his loneliness.
Matt Smith is a much better Doctor than Tennant ever was, he isn't happy all the time, he isn't silly. Smith has the great knack of being sinister at times, which is what I think was missing from when Tennant was the Doctor.
The soundtrack is a brilliant step back to a modernised version of what it used to be like before Russell T Davis brought back Doctor Who. A simple monophonic tune on top of a repetitive synthy background. A lot better than the full blown orchestra with added bells and whistles like before.
I agree with the silly Dalek paint job though, I prefer their smaller and more metallic look. They seem somewhat more scarier as smaller beings, especially when the eye-stalk is looking up to people. Now that the eye-stalk looks down its a little strange.
But apart from that, and a few unrealistic bits in the Weeping Angel's episode's, I think Doctor Who is currently the best it has been since Eccleston.
Oh Jeez, that episode sucks. Watch a different one. I think the most recent two parter's the best thus far.
They've done that before? (I'm too lazy to watch the old ones, and too young to have seen them originally)
I do think these episodes are much better than they have been in a good while (especially those specials, urgh) but I still really liked Tennant. He was kinda charming, just weighed down by some truly crap episodes. Especially his exit ones. Saying that, I think Matt could well out do Tennant in time
To be fair, if we're saying that about Susan we could really say the same about the Doctor.
They mentioned the duck pond again last night. A duck pond without ducks which – as our man on the spot DAC47 says – was specially put in for the episode. Maybe the Pond isn't what it seems to be...
Didn't like this one much. I thought Moffat might have been able to pull off a good climax, because it was certainly a good build up. Overall the writing is a lot better I think. Especially in these last 2 episodes.
Still not sure on Matt or Karen either. They just seem like they shouldn't be there. That ending with the kissing... what. Not sure what to make of it all yet. Both Eccleston and Tennant grabbed me by the nackers.
Nice to see them addressing the crack so early on though. One thing I didn't like about RTD's arcs is how they weren't highlighted at all until the finale.
Still not sure on Matt or Karen either. They just seem like they shouldn't be there. That ending with the kissing... what. Not sure what to make of it all yet. Both Eccleston and Tennant grabbed me by the nackers.
Nice to see them addressing the crack so early on though. One thing I didn't like about RTD's arcs is how they weren't highlighted at all until the finale.
Moffat is nothing if not clever. This week it's Amy Pond without her memories juxtaposed with the duck 'pond' without the ducks, and one giant excuse for RTD's many indulgent invasions of Earth. For a show that prides itself on 'not needing explanations' for its many irrational aspects, I find it archly hilarious that this season's runner (the 'crack in time') is a rationalization. The "time energy" phenomenon itself is reminiscent of another fairy tale, The Neverending Story, where a mysterious, hungry 'nothing' is tearing across the world of fantasy, causing what crosses it to cease to exist. What remains to be seen is whether this crack in time is really a metaphor, just as the nothing in Neverending is a metaphor for lost hopes and dreams.
Whatever the case, I am highly grateful to see this series's arch highlighted so early in the season. That is pretty much the definition of 'development,' and if there's one thing that Nu Who could use more of, it's that.
I thought this episode was perhaps the first of any genuine interest this year, which a pity because now all we get to look forward to Toby Whitehouse and Chris Chibnall for a while. There were some fabulous set-pieces this time around, such as the angels moving in steps to gunfire (which could have been shot better, but whatever), the stone angels beginning to twist and move (even if it really makes no sense - I thought they were only stone when they were visible?), the Doctor facing a ton of angels on his own, leaping sideways into a spaceship, and for that matter the resolution to a cliffhanger that I was sure was going to be lame but wasn't: the ability of an explosion to cause an 'updraft' and just for our heroes is convenient, but artificial gravity seems plausible, and less irritating than River suddenly getting her teleporter working (cop out), or the Doctor escaping the angels in the control center because they basically lost interest.
Moffat's dialogue is so damn good, and Matt Smith in particular plays his one-liners with unusual sensitivity. "I am good with time," he says in an odd, autistic way that brings attention to both the pun and his alien qualities. We see his disregard for Amy's feelings when she's close to death in the forest (although this jarrs a little with his tender concern on other occasions that she not accompany him into danger). We see that same disregard when she tries to push herself on him at the end of the episode. It's a nice assertion that the Doctor's mind is a deep one, preoccupied with great, not human-size things, even if the writers can't always prove it.
"How's life?" "...sorry, bad subject" is a classic Moffat pun. Other lines, like "I made him say 'comfy chairs'!" wouldn't have been out of place in an RTD, but Smith saves it by leaving out the Tennant-style smug. "Doctor, I'm five [fine]" is a lovely slip, but my favorite is the exchange: "Trust me..." "But you don't always tell me the truth." "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me." It's sweet and clever, and part of one of the first 'character moments,' what Frensham calls a "focus point," that the 2005 show has ever done well. It's been a long time coming.
What lets the episode down are the angels, still. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that, later in the season, we learn that they are made of pure contrivance. They were once a great idea, but like I said in the previous review, they have inherited too many characteristics in The Time of Angels to be measurable as enemies. This time, we learn that they also have a sense of humour, minds capable of "calculating" how complex of a time-event will be necessary to solve the story's bigger-bad, do things just for the fun and cruelty of it -- such as forcing Amy to count down -- and now they can emerge from a mental image as well as a representative one. They move super slowly when zeroing in for the kill, and surprisingly fast when vacating the scene. It's just a mess of powers.
Originally, the weeping angels were animalistic creatures that were basically hunters. Their flaw -- freezing when they were in someone's sight -- was also their strength; it mirrored similar behaviour in predatory animals, made sense as a defence mechanism, and neatly reversed a lot of mythological associations like the medusa and basilisk. Now, they are this omnipotent threat that one can't really imagine needing protection from anything. I hate how one's not supposed to look in their eyes, because it deflates the simple terror of needing to keep one's eyes open at all times and not blink.
Cutest of all the lines in this episode is Moffat's mission statement: "That's a fairy tale!" "Aren't we all?" I really like that ambition, but I don't know if it's really genuine. Fairy tales still have a deeper, simpler, stronger heart than this Doctor Who. They have meanings and messages. Subtleties and sad endings. Until it gains what I want to call a "soul," it's still just going to be another glossy BBC1 production. Ironically, the original series of Doctor Who never had much gloss, but it made up for it many times over by the other thing.
Whatever the case, I am highly grateful to see this series's arch highlighted so early in the season. That is pretty much the definition of 'development,' and if there's one thing that Nu Who could use more of, it's that.
I thought this episode was perhaps the first of any genuine interest this year, which a pity because now all we get to look forward to Toby Whitehouse and Chris Chibnall for a while. There were some fabulous set-pieces this time around, such as the angels moving in steps to gunfire (which could have been shot better, but whatever), the stone angels beginning to twist and move (even if it really makes no sense - I thought they were only stone when they were visible?), the Doctor facing a ton of angels on his own, leaping sideways into a spaceship, and for that matter the resolution to a cliffhanger that I was sure was going to be lame but wasn't: the ability of an explosion to cause an 'updraft' and just for our heroes is convenient, but artificial gravity seems plausible, and less irritating than River suddenly getting her teleporter working (cop out), or the Doctor escaping the angels in the control center because they basically lost interest.
Moffat's dialogue is so damn good, and Matt Smith in particular plays his one-liners with unusual sensitivity. "I am good with time," he says in an odd, autistic way that brings attention to both the pun and his alien qualities. We see his disregard for Amy's feelings when she's close to death in the forest (although this jarrs a little with his tender concern on other occasions that she not accompany him into danger). We see that same disregard when she tries to push herself on him at the end of the episode. It's a nice assertion that the Doctor's mind is a deep one, preoccupied with great, not human-size things, even if the writers can't always prove it.
"How's life?" "...sorry, bad subject" is a classic Moffat pun. Other lines, like "I made him say 'comfy chairs'!" wouldn't have been out of place in an RTD, but Smith saves it by leaving out the Tennant-style smug. "Doctor, I'm five [fine]" is a lovely slip, but my favorite is the exchange: "Trust me..." "But you don't always tell me the truth." "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me." It's sweet and clever, and part of one of the first 'character moments,' what Frensham calls a "focus point," that the 2005 show has ever done well. It's been a long time coming.
What lets the episode down are the angels, still. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that, later in the season, we learn that they are made of pure contrivance. They were once a great idea, but like I said in the previous review, they have inherited too many characteristics in The Time of Angels to be measurable as enemies. This time, we learn that they also have a sense of humour, minds capable of "calculating" how complex of a time-event will be necessary to solve the story's bigger-bad, do things just for the fun and cruelty of it -- such as forcing Amy to count down -- and now they can emerge from a mental image as well as a representative one. They move super slowly when zeroing in for the kill, and surprisingly fast when vacating the scene. It's just a mess of powers.
Originally, the weeping angels were animalistic creatures that were basically hunters. Their flaw -- freezing when they were in someone's sight -- was also their strength; it mirrored similar behaviour in predatory animals, made sense as a defence mechanism, and neatly reversed a lot of mythological associations like the medusa and basilisk. Now, they are this omnipotent threat that one can't really imagine needing protection from anything. I hate how one's not supposed to look in their eyes, because it deflates the simple terror of needing to keep one's eyes open at all times and not blink.
Cutest of all the lines in this episode is Moffat's mission statement: "That's a fairy tale!" "Aren't we all?" I really like that ambition, but I don't know if it's really genuine. Fairy tales still have a deeper, simpler, stronger heart than this Doctor Who. They have meanings and messages. Subtleties and sad endings. Until it gains what I want to call a "soul," it's still just going to be another glossy BBC1 production. Ironically, the original series of Doctor Who never had much gloss, but it made up for it many times over by the other thing.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
That's the worst episode of the 5 that have been broadcast in the UK so far, but only the latest broadcast in the states. Episode one is a good introduction and the 2 parter of "Time of Angels" and "Flesh and Stone" isn't bad though I was expecting more.
One thing I don't get is that I thought Weeping Angels had the ability to send people back in time, and that was how they fed themselves, off the potential energy of someone. Now all of a sudden they feed off radiation and the end of time or whatever... I'm rather confused. I prefer the sending back in time business, because then, they are not killers, they are just a rather scary prospect.
I also feel it was rather ruined when the viewers could actually see them move. Not just getting closer in flashing light.
But apart from that, a brill episode, and an actual logical ending based on the mistakes of the enemy for once, not some far fetched idea from the Doctor that happens to work.
I also feel it was rather ruined when the viewers could actually see them move. Not just getting closer in flashing light.
But apart from that, a brill episode, and an actual logical ending based on the mistakes of the enemy for once, not some far fetched idea from the Doctor that happens to work.
Here's something odd about that episode...(didn't spot this myself but)
In the scene where the Doctor leaves Amy in the woods with the soldiers.
and then comes back to tell her to trust him.
Is it a Doctor from a different time? Only he's clearly wearing a jacket. Its a tight shot but you can see his shoulder.
Now this might be continuity error but it seems a pretty big one as none of the scenes in forest feature MS in the jacket & we know how much Moffat likes messing about with the timeywhimey stuff
its at about 17 minutes in see what you think
In the scene where the Doctor leaves Amy in the woods with the soldiers.
and then comes back to tell her to trust him.
Is it a Doctor from a different time? Only he's clearly wearing a jacket. Its a tight shot but you can see his shoulder.
Now this might be continuity error but it seems a pretty big one as none of the scenes in forest feature MS in the jacket & we know how much Moffat likes messing about with the timeywhimey stuff
its at about 17 minutes in see what you think
I refer you to my previous post...Here's something odd about that episode...(didn't spot this myself but)
In the scene where the Doctor leaves Amy in the woods with the soldiers.
and then comes back to tell her to trust him.
Is it a Doctor from a different time? Only he's clearly wearing a jacket. Its a tight shot but you can see his shoulder.
Now this might be continuity error but it seems a pretty big one as none of the scenes in forest feature MS in the jacket & we know how much Moffat likes messing about with the timeywhimey stuff
its at about 17 minutes in see what you think
Now, in that scene he tells Amy that she has to remember what he said to her that night when she was a little girl. If I remember rightly, she sat waiting, thought she heard the Tardis – but nothing. It was all a bit dreamlike.
What if she did meet the Doctor again that night, and for whatever reason can't fully remember it? Perhaps it wasn't the Doctor who had just promised to return to her, but the Doctor from the future who is also visiting her throughout her time with him? That might explain the jacket anomaly, as well as the fact that when we cut to the Doctor with River and Octavian it doesn't seem like he's just caught them up, having nipped back to say a few words to Amy.
Either that, or it's a continuity gaffe.