Story #206 - The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (2010)

Sarah -

I love it when a story turns out to be as good as I remembered!

Harry -

I love it even more when the story turns out better than I remembered!

My overarching memory of the Weeping Angels as a Who monster is that they blew everyone away when they were first introduced in "Blink", then brought diminishing returns to each subsequent appearance. An unfortunate case of overuse. By the time they showed up on the Class season finale I practically yawned.

However, the Angels were fantastic here, in many ways. While they were mysterious and terrifying in "Blink", here we see the Angels upping their villainy by being diabolical, murderous and arrogant. Watching the first Angel attempt to take possession of Amy was scary as hell. The way they violently picked off the military clerics one by one, then used cleric Bob's voicebox to taunt and frighten the Doctor and friends had me seething at them. I don't often seethe at a Who villain. Moffat got me again.

Sarah -

I think the Angels are way scarier in this story than they were in "Blink". In that story, the Doctor describes the Angels as “the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely.” There’s nothing nice about the deaths this time around. They’re utterly terrifying and horribly cruel.

Harry -

For sure, back then the Doctor didn't seem to realize how monstrous the Angels could be. Either that or they have made an attitude adjustment for the worse. In my notes I kept writing the word "morbid" whenever the Angels used cleric Bob's voice to taunt the Doctor. That really got under my skin.

Sarah -

I didn’t realize before now that this was the first story filmed in series five. It’s even more impressive how Matt Smith hit the ground running in this story. And Karen Gillan, OMG, could she be any more spectacular?

And then we have the return of River. I remember how surprised I was when she returned after we saw her die. But more than surprised, I was delighted to have her back.

Harry -

What a return! River got her own mini-episode to kick off this story and it was spectacular. Her laser pistol matched her Louboutins perfectly.

Sarah -

Coordinating your accessories is essential!

Harry -

She was still very much a mysterious character in these days, and continued to tease the Doctor. I loved when he got schooled on the TARDIS parking brake.

Sarah -

I love that moment. Wait until he finds out about the drinks cabinet!

Harry -

Amy looked on in bemusement, wondering aloud if River was the Doctor's wife.

Sarah -

SPOILERS, Mom! Oh, wait, spoilers, Sarah! I expect I’ll find myself watching the timeline from River’s perspective this time around. It will be a whole new story.

Harry -

It is wild when you realize how many spoilers River is holding back. I'd have exploded!

The pregnant pause that followed Amy's question felt long enough to make this a three-part story, but after the fun and games River donned the clerics' military garb and everyone got to work. The task of tracking the solo Weeping Angel that was aboard the crashed ship that everyone followed was straightforward at first. It was when Moffat began to throw twists at everyone that the story really took off.

Right away, Amy was terrorized by the first Angel that used its own image held in her eyes to break loose. Wild stuff. Then the business with killing off the clerics. Finally the terror builds to the frightening realization that all the statues on this planet are "hibernating" Angels.

Sarah -

The realization that the native Aplans had two heads and the statues only have one is chilling. The humans are in the middle of a nest of Angels when the Doctor realizes that the prisoner Angel intentionally crashed the Byzantium to restore the other angels with the ship’s radiation.

I was seriously ready to hide behind the sofa at this point.

Harry -

As if that weren't enough, in part two Moffat dials up some more terror by letting us the viewers see the Angels moving. In Blink, Moffat had established a bond between his characters and the audience that so long as any of us looked at an Angel it would not move. To see them turning and reaching out broke that bond and brought with it a feeling of helplessness that I can't really compare with any other viewing experience.

Sarah -

I love, and dread, those moments in horror stories when you suddenly discover that you don’t know as much as you thought. The rules have been tossed out the window and I found myself completely confused and terrified.

Harry -

A slow-moving chase scene ensues as the Angels close in on the Doctor and friends. It was agonizing to watch Amy struggle through the increasingly weird settings of the ship, eyes pressed shut, as one-by-one the people around her began to disappear. When it seems that Amy's done for and the Doctor is unable to save her, the Angels suddenly turn and run. The far greater menace of the "crack in time" put the Angels to flight.

In the nick of time, it's River who saves Amy by teleporting her to safety.

Song 1

Doctor 0

Sarah - 

In retrospect, it’s emotionally overwhelming to see River rescue Amy -- and no one else knows about their relationship. That really blew me away this time around. Karen Gillan’s performance is amazing in this episode. The clerics being picked off one by one is terrifying, but the dust coming out of her eyes is the most frightening thing in this story. 

Harry - 

I really loved the chaos at the end, with the Doctor barely keeping it together, the Angels plummeting into the crack, and River and Amy safely reunited. What a hell of a story!

Sarah - 

It’s so, so good!

Harry - 

So this crack in time is having a huge impact on the season arc. It is capable of erasing people and events from existence, and the Doctor remains baffled. I'm keen to learn more, let's get off this planet and see where our friends are headed next.

Oh, it's back to Amy's place, and it's a very important date…

Sarah - 

“Oh, did I forget to mention that I’m getting married in the morning?” The first time I watched, I started yelling at my television when Amy way trying to get it on with the Doctor. This time, I knew not to panic.

Harry - 

Best Line:

DOCTOR: Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them some time.

AMY: I thought they were all dead?

DOCTOR: So is Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team.

Favourite Moment: River's mini-episode at the opening.

Lasting Image: The Angels moving before our eyes.

7/10

Sarah - 

Best Line: 

DOCTOR: Parked us? We haven't landed.

RIVER: Of course we've landed. I just landed her.

DOCTOR: But, it didn't make the noise.

RIVER: What noise?

DOCTOR: You know, the (wheezing).

RIVER: It's not supposed to make that noise. You leave the brakes on.

Favorite Moment: River’s entrance to the TARDIS.

Lasting Image: Amy rubbing dust out of her eye. 

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #207: The Vampires of Venice...

Story #186 - Blink (2007)

Harry -
By 2007, fans knew that a Doctor Who story penned by Steven Moffat was event viewing. He had already given us "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" and "The Girl in the Fireplace". We knew that something amazing awaited us as the third season of Nu Who ticked around to The Moffat Episode. And "Blink" surpassed all expectations.


Sarah -
If "Human Nature/Family of Blood" is peak RTD, "Blink" is peak Steven Moffat. If he never wrote another story after "Blink" (and I’m so grateful he wrote many more) he would have more than made his mark on Doctor Who history. I still remember watching "Blink" for the first time and being completely blown away.


Harry -
It starts innocently enough, with an urban explorer type sneaking into an abandoned house for a look around. There's the usual dust and decay inside. She notices something behind a peeling corner of wallpaper. Tearing it away, an unexpected message for her is revealed:

BEWARE THE WEEPING ANGEL. OH, AND DUCK! REALLY, DUCK! 

She glances around and looks out the windows. There's nothing out in the yard except a forgotten statue of a weeping angel. She turns back to the wall.

SALLY SPARROW DUCK NOW!

--LOVE FROM THE DOCTOR 1969

Sally ducks just as a flower pot smashes through the window and shatters. She's stunned. It's the beginning of the timey-wimeyest Doctor Who story yet.


Sarah -
Sally Sparrow really takes everything much more in stride that I ever could!


Harry -
She doesn't stick around though. Scrambling to a friend's house, she rousts her mate Kathy Nightingale -- after an unexpected kitchen encounter with Kathy's nude brother. Sally and Kathy return to the house and look around together. They think themselves caught when someone knocks on the front door. It turns out to be a young man with an envelope for Sally, from his grandmother Kathy Nightingale.

As Sally tries to wrap her head around what the man is telling her, Kathy continues looking around the house and we see the first signs that the weeping angel statue is actually moving. Hair-raising moments!


Sarah -
While Sally is talking to Kathy’s grandson, the angels send Kathy to Hull in 1920 and Sally reads about it just moments later. This is the point when I would have completely lost it.


Harry -
"Blink" gets better and better with each twist.


Sarah -
And, then, just to ramp up the tension, Sally runs upstairs only to find a gaggle of angels, one of which is holding a familiar-looking (to us) Yale key. She grabs the key and runs out of the house, while I was preoccupied with not blinking to keep those angels in place. Steven Moffat is a genius when it comes to making ordinary things - like blinking - absolutely terrifying.


Harry -
Sally's dangerous explorations of the house are so riveting that it's almost a quarter of the way through the story and the Doctor has only appeared in brief background video snippets. We first see him issuing strange instructions -- hammering home a point about not blinking -- on a telly at Kathy's place, and later inside the video store where her now-clothed brother Larry works. After the bonkers experience at the old house, Sally is there to tell him that Kathy has gone away.  She cannot help but ask about the curious man on the video.

Larry comes alive and explains that the video snippets are hidden as Easter eggs on 17 different DVDs. They watch some more as the video man continues his odd one-sided conversation. It's unnerving but also compelling to watch the Doctor go on, like a prof lecturing on some esoteric subject.


Sarah -
It’s confounding for everyone, from the characters to the first time viewer. My daughter kept asking, “What the heck is going on?” I, of course, merely responded, “Spoilers.”

I’d like to give a shout-out to Ian Boldsworth who plays Larry’s coworker, Banto, for the greatest performance of a video nerd ever.


Harry -
Very true to life.


Sarah -
He also inspires her next move when he yells at the movie he’s watching, “Why does nobody ever just go to the police?”

Sally heads to the police station, where the angels are keeping an eye on things. She meets the handsome DI Billy Shipton, who takes her to the parking garage that holds a collection of cars that were all left outside the Wester Drumlins house with no sign of their drivers. In the middle of the cars, is an abandoned Police Box found at the house. Sally has never seen one, of course, but Billy explains “they used to have them all over. But this isn't a real one. The phone's just a dummy, and the windows are the wrong size.” Bless you, Steven Moffat, for speaking for the fans on the pressing window-size controversy.


Harry -
An innocuous throwaway line for the casual viewer, but I remember people freaking out every time the TARDIS design changed shape or size.


Sarah -
So. Much. Discussion.


Harry -
DI Shipton charms Sally into giving him her phone number before she departs.


Sarah -
Billy manages to make “Because life is short and you are hot” charming, rather than creepy.


Harry -
Having stayed back in the garage, he spots the angels surrounding the police box, trying to break in. He tries to intervene but gets zapped back to 1969. There he meets the Doctor and Martha, who explain to him just what the heck is going on.


Sarah -
It’s a very enlightening explanation for both Billy and the audience.


Harry -
As if her day could not get any weirder, Sally receives a call from the DI, asking him to meet her at a hospital. There, she meets a Billy who has aged 38 years seemingly instantaneously. He reveals to her that he ran a video production company, and is the man behind the Easter eggs. The messages, hidden on those 17 DVDs, are meant for her. Sadly, Billy cannot impart much more information. His task has been to carry this message across the decades, knowing that he will pass away on this very day, when the rain outside stops. For a show that takes place in Britain a lot, there is a notable lack of rain from story to story in Doctor Who. Here the rain became a minor plot point, but a good one.


Sarah -
This scene makes me so sad.


Harry -
Sally returns to the house with her DVDs and Larry with his portable TV and DVD player in tow. They watch the Easter eggs, and the Doctor's alarming lecture plays out in full, as a real-time conversation between himself and Sally. 

"The angels have the phone box," is the line that Larry loves best.  I also got it put on a t-shirt shortly after "Blink" was first broadcast.

The Doctor is responding to Sally's words, as transcribed by Larry and somehow sent back in time for the Doctor to read in 1969. At this point during my first viewing of "Blink", I would have lost track of how many times my mind had been blown.


Sarah -
Right? It’s nice to sit back and watch the story unfold, admiring the structure and wondering how Moffat managed to pull it all together, but it was a whole other story on the first watch. I was gobsmacked over and over again. 

While our minds were being blown, the angels have been closing in on Sally and Larry. Larry keeps his eyes on the angel, while every viewer helps him out by NOT BLINKING AT ALL. Sally finds a door to the cellar, hoping it will lead to a way out. Instead, it leads them to the TARDIS -- and more angels. They keep their eyes on the angels as the lights flicker and Sally manages to open the TARDIS. The angels are shaking the TARDIS as Larry puts the DVD into the console. The TARDIS starts to dematerialize, leaving them behind in the middle of a circle of angels… who are looking at each other and unable to move! The day is saved by Sally Sparrow and her sidekick, Larry. Hooray! 

It’s safe to blink now.  


Harry -
They make a cute team.


Sarah -
Cut to a year later, Sally and Larry are running the DVD store together. Sally can’t let go of the events at Wester Drumlins, to Larry’s disappointment. When he leaves the shop to get some milk, who should Sally see on the street but the Doctor and Martha. She rushes out to talk to him and realizes that he doesn’t even know who she is. He has yet to experience the event that changed her life, so she gives him her folder of information, including the DVD transcript, and sends him on his way. 

Timey Flipping Wimey!


Harry -
Oh Moffat you genius.  Everything is brilliantly tied together in the end.  

I liked how the Doctor took it all in stride that this strange woman knew him but he hadn't the faintest idea.  He'll be meeting another strange woman of an even greater magnitude of importance soon.  For now, he takes the folder from Sally, and he and Martha dash off with their long bow and quiver full of arrows -- a weaponry kit that delighted me to no end.


Sarah -
We end with a montage of public statuary, just to make sure we can never look at a statue in the same way again.


Harry -
On a personal note I'm glad I haven't overwatched this episode, so that it's still brilliant and surprising on a rewatch.


Sarah -
Best Line: “You've only got seventeen DVDs?” It makes me laugh every time. 

Favorite moment: It’s hard to pick just one. I’ll go with Sally finally meeting the Doctor, but there are so many. 

Lasting Image: The Angels, of course. 

10/10


Harry -
Best line: 
KATHY: "What's good about sad?"
SALLY: "It's happy for deep people."

Favourite Moment: Sally's mind-bending encounter with Kathy's grandson.

Lasting Image: the Doctor's video bits.

9/10

Our marathon continues with Story #187a: Utopia...