DOCTOR WHO - My review of "The Time Of Angels"
Late last night, I posted my review of "The Time Of Angels" on my site, and you can read that there, or you can read it right here if you like, as per usual :D
After my disappointment with "Victory of the Daleks“, I was eager to get to another story that I’ve really been looking forward to, and yet another written by Moffat. The Weeping Angels are back folks, and this time, its personal!
…
Okay, not really. I just threw in that last bit because I’ve been watching a lot of episodes from the Peter Davison and Colin Baker eras, and my mind was stuck in the1980’s and jumped into an 80’s action-movie advert groove. But hey, I’m better now!
Seriously though, the return of the Weeping Angels AND Professor River Song in a new two-part story? Very, very promising. So, let’s get to that review!
The Story…
I’ll keep this bit a bit more brief than I did last time. Pinky swear!
The story opens in awesome fashion. A woman, soon revealed to be River Song, is on the (very casual) run from some armed guards and a guy in a very swank tux. She blasts her way into a chamber containing a black box, and there she begins to burn a message into its metal surface.
12,000 years later, Amy and a very animated Doctor are in a museum, where he comes across a box, corroded and ancient. The Doctor explains that its a “home-box” from an old Starliner, a very sophisticated version of what we today call a black-box, and there’s a note carved into the top of it, written in Old-High Gallifreyan. A note that says “hello sweetie”
In the past, River Song exits the chamber and winks to a mounted surveillance camera, and is soon cornered by the dangerous trio of men on her trail.
The Doctor and Amy steal the artifact and dash into the TARDIS, where the Doctor hooks it up, and views the video footage from so long ago. As they watch, River Song confronts her pursuers, led by a man named Alistair. She speaks of what they had secreted in their vault and says that the ship will never reach its destination. As Alistair orders the men to wait for her to flee before shooting her, River recites a line of co-ordinates which allows the Doctor to discern her exact location. She blows the airlock, blowing a kiss at her would-be assassins as she hurtles through space towards the arriving TARDIS. The Doctor opens the doors and catches her as they fall to the floor.
The Starliner blasts away, and River quickly tells the Doctor to follow it. Soon they are off again in pursuit, and River annoys the Doctor with her piloting skills. They arrive at their destination, to find that the ship, the Byzantium, had crashed into an ancient temple, which the Doctor had already discerned from the home-box. He is determined not to get involved, but when River says that there was something in the belly of that ship that can never die, his curiosity is piqued.
Soon they are joined by a small squad of soldier-clerics led by a commanding bishop, one Father Octavian, who explains that River has been helping them with a covert mission. When River asks the Doctor what he knows of the Weeping Angels, his course is set, and he’s involved. The mission of the church-troops is to get inside and neutralize the Angel. But with all the leaking radiation and wreckage, its no easy task, especially since the Angel can feed off the radiation and grow stronger.
River shows them all the brief 4-second clip of the Angel that was held within the belly of the Starliner, so they all know what to look for, and as they make their final preparations, Amy remains behind inside their temporary base, intrigued by the footage. Thanks to a volume River has brought along, the Doctor finds out that the Angels have the ability to project themselves through any image that depicts them, and he quickly realizes that Amy is in grave danger.
What follows is arguably the most effective sequence in the entire episode, as Amy finds herself stalked and cornered by the flickering image of the Angel, which has projected itself beyond the confines of the video screen. Fortunately, she’s a very clever girl, and she stops the recording at the key moment when the image cuts out and the screen is filled with static, a move which does away with the projection. However, its effects on her will linger on and become apparent later.
Soon after, the squad illuminates the vast chamber with a gravity-globe, and the group is off. They will have to navigate their way through the ancient catacombs within the temple in order to find their quarry, and as a kicker, there are stone statues everywhere. Lovely! A handful of Clerics are left to guard the approach, but they quickly get picked off, their necks snapped in a turnaround from what we know of the Angels from before. As that sinks in, the Angel reveals the chilling ability to use the voices of the deceased in order to draw in the others. Not good.
As the group climbs higher, they find that their lights are starting to lose power, and worse still, the Doctor discovers that the statues that line the catacombs are not statues, but rather the weakened, eroded remains of hundreds of Weeping Angels. The group finds itself trapped by dozens of creeping statues, slowly advancing as the lights begin to fade, and taunted by the voice of Bob, one of the dead clerics. However, it makes the mistake of berating the Doctor and irritating him. Galvanized, he takes action, ordering everyone to jump when he gives the signal, and raises Octavian’s pistol. As the lights flicker, the Doctor fires, shattering the illuminating gravity-globe, as the electronic scream sounds the end-credits. Cliffhanger time folks!
The Critique…
First off, as I said in my blog, this is a cracking-good episode. The dialogue is great, the performances are very good, and the plot is strong and engaging. It is, however, hard for me to fully judge, since this episode is the first half of a two-part story. That said, there’s still quite a bit to talk about here.
The episode benefits heavily from the mere presence of the Weeping Angels, who are arguably the most memorable creatures that have been created for the new series. Visually they are striking but very simple, and easily realized, and in manner they are very creepy. A lot has been said about them due to their very creepy showing in the hugely popular “Blink“, from series 3, and Moffat is looking to add to their legend AND sense of menace. After all, there’s no way to top their initial impact, and as such, you have to up the ante and ramp up the danger quotient.
As such, we’re seeing that the Angels have more powers than we initially suspected. The ability to manifest from mere images of their form? That’s spooky, and a very nice mini-homage to “Ringu“/”The Ring“, and another moment that is sure to send some kids scurrying for a “safer” view. That entire sequence was very well done, and made for some very gripping moments. Karen Gillan played that entire scene to perfection, and it shows yet again just how clever Amy is. I really enjoyed it a great deal.
Also, we got the barest hint in “Blink” of the possibility that the Angels have more powers than we know about. The flickering light-bulb anyone? And the use of the slain Clerics to draw in others was creepy. A bit too reminiscent of “Silence in the Library” in ways, but still effective. I do wonder what the Angels are up to, as we haven’t got all the pieces in place just yet.
Then there’s the matter of Amy being so affected by looking into the Angel’s eyes for so long. The Doctor says that its simply getting into her head, but could there be more to it than that? And if so, is any of it a comment on what may be Amy’s true nature? I’m looking forward to finding out, because her character really intrigues me, and there’s a deeper mystery locked within her somewhere. I really think a lot of it revolves around that ominous crack in the Universe, but we’ll have to wait and see.
We also have River Song and her mysteries to contend with. She’s working with the Church, and evidently she’s been in prison, but for what exactly? Interesting to be sure, but there’s a caveat in the form of her frequent jibes at the expense of the Doctor. She sure hurls a lot of rather pointed cracks his way, and while its supposed to be akin to the bickering of a married couple, it really grates on the nerves after a while, and I’m really glad when she stops. At this point I’m hard pressed to see what it is he likes about her, although its clear that she annoys him a great deal at this point. Still, I’m intrigued about the nature of the deal she’s struck with the Church, and how that will affect the Doctor and Amy, and it very well could because Octavian expresses the concern that if the Doctor finds out the truth about who and what River Song truly is. Ooooer, intrigue!
This also leads to a sequence that made me chuckle upon the first viewing, but later it just made me roll my eyes in annoyance. The sequence in question would be River’s assertion that the TARDIS isn’t supposed to wheeze and groan when it materializes and dematerializes, and that it does so because the Doctor flies it with the equivalent of its “brakes” on.
Um, what? Come again?
If that’s the case, then someone should have clued in the Time Lords who built the machines into that little secret, since evidently the Master and the Rani also piloted their TARDISes with the “brakes” on, and Romana either didn’t notice or simply found it amusing to allow it to persist. The sound effect that heralds the TARDIS and its arrivals and departures has been used for pretty much every TARDIS in the show’s history. Heck, even the SIDRATs in “The War Games” use the sound effect. While this one-off joke is mildly amusing at first blush, it becomes more annoying the more you think about it. I wager that an actual explanation is that the TARDIS has some sort of silent mode that the Doctor either didn’t discover, or has forgotten about. That’s much more palatable IMHO.
Lastly, a little message to whomever at the BBC cooked up the brilliant idea to display a little animated bumper from Graham Norton’s “Over the Rainbow” talent-show during the episode’s closing moments: Knock it off, and don’t do it again! As the many complaints will attest, you cheesed off a lot of viewers with your little stunt, and it doesn’t seem to have helped Norton’s viewing figures either. So, please, refrain from such stunts in the future, kay?
The Performances…
After an episode where his performance felt a little off, Matt Smith is back in VERY fine form in this week’s installment, realizing all the promise he showed in the first two episodes. In terms of mannerisms he definitely draws or simply echoes elements of past incarnations, and you can see hints of Troughton, touches of Colin Baker, and yes, bits of Tennant as well. Its a good mix, and he makes it work very well. I’m really enjoying him a lot overall, and I hope his tenure is a long one.
Like Smith, Karen Gillan continues to shine. Amy is a very intriguing companion, and Karen is one of the biggest reasons why. Her performance is both natural and nuanced, and this episode was no exception. As mentioned above, the scene where she is stalked by the video-borne projection of the Weeping Angel is excellent, and a lot of it hinges on how Amy played out the scene, and she was pitch-perfect IMHO. I was also very amused by her indignation at being bitten on the hand by the Doctor, as a means to save her from the perception that her hand had turned to stone. Funny stuff!
Alex Kingston was also intriguing at River Song. as I said above, her manner can grate after a while, but this time she’s a bit more mysterious, and she plays River a bit differently than she did in “Silence in the Library“/”Forest of the Dead“. Obviously, we’re at an earlier point in her history (or so one would suspect), and she seems to be carting around even more secrets than she did last time, and evidently some troubles as well. She’s a little more smug and a little harder, and Kingston makes the transition smoothly.
Kudos also to Iain Glenn who gave the Bishop/Soldier Octavian the requisite amount of disciplined bravado to convince us he’s a good military commander, and yet enough humility to also convince us he’s a dedicated man of the church as well. I also have to give some props to Simon Dutton for his brief role as Alistair, the well-dressed man who seemed determined to do away with River Song in the opening sequence. A small role, but he conveyed a nice sense of smooth, arrogant menace. A nice guest-spot.
Getting Technical…
Last week I was disappointed in the interior of the Dalek Saucer, and the nu-Daleks themselves. However, no such grousing this week.
I absolutely love the wickedly-retro “Starliner” rocket-ship in the opening scene. It looked as if it would have been very much at home in a “Flash Gordon” comic or serial, rocketing away from the planet Mongo. The stark corridors were appropriate for the setting here, unlike the empty Dalek saucer interior from last week. An, although we’ve seen it in the previews a few times before, I really did enjoy River Song’s escape from the Starliner: shades of “Four to Doomsday” there.
Also, kudos to the FX team for putting together the creepy, eroded versions of the Weeping Angels, creatures which may be more unsettling than the originals. Nicely spooky!
The Verdict…
EXCELLENT
For the first time so far this series, an episode has earned the coveted excellent rating. This episode contained the right mix of a strong plot, engaging performances, effective and non-intrusive FX, and the right atmosphere. As such, it edged itself up there and I consider it to be the best episode of the season so far. Now, the tricky bit will be making sure that the second chapter delivers on the promise of the opening half. Nothing like a good two-parter to whet the appetite for next-week’s entry!
After my disappointment with "Victory of the Daleks“, I was eager to get to another story that I’ve really been looking forward to, and yet another written by Moffat. The Weeping Angels are back folks, and this time, its personal!
…
Okay, not really. I just threw in that last bit because I’ve been watching a lot of episodes from the Peter Davison and Colin Baker eras, and my mind was stuck in the1980’s and jumped into an 80’s action-movie advert groove. But hey, I’m better now!
Seriously though, the return of the Weeping Angels AND Professor River Song in a new two-part story? Very, very promising. So, let’s get to that review!
The Story…
I’ll keep this bit a bit more brief than I did last time. Pinky swear!
The story opens in awesome fashion. A woman, soon revealed to be River Song, is on the (very casual) run from some armed guards and a guy in a very swank tux. She blasts her way into a chamber containing a black box, and there she begins to burn a message into its metal surface.
12,000 years later, Amy and a very animated Doctor are in a museum, where he comes across a box, corroded and ancient. The Doctor explains that its a “home-box” from an old Starliner, a very sophisticated version of what we today call a black-box, and there’s a note carved into the top of it, written in Old-High Gallifreyan. A note that says “hello sweetie”
In the past, River Song exits the chamber and winks to a mounted surveillance camera, and is soon cornered by the dangerous trio of men on her trail.
The Doctor and Amy steal the artifact and dash into the TARDIS, where the Doctor hooks it up, and views the video footage from so long ago. As they watch, River Song confronts her pursuers, led by a man named Alistair. She speaks of what they had secreted in their vault and says that the ship will never reach its destination. As Alistair orders the men to wait for her to flee before shooting her, River recites a line of co-ordinates which allows the Doctor to discern her exact location. She blows the airlock, blowing a kiss at her would-be assassins as she hurtles through space towards the arriving TARDIS. The Doctor opens the doors and catches her as they fall to the floor.
The Starliner blasts away, and River quickly tells the Doctor to follow it. Soon they are off again in pursuit, and River annoys the Doctor with her piloting skills. They arrive at their destination, to find that the ship, the Byzantium, had crashed into an ancient temple, which the Doctor had already discerned from the home-box. He is determined not to get involved, but when River says that there was something in the belly of that ship that can never die, his curiosity is piqued.
Soon they are joined by a small squad of soldier-clerics led by a commanding bishop, one Father Octavian, who explains that River has been helping them with a covert mission. When River asks the Doctor what he knows of the Weeping Angels, his course is set, and he’s involved. The mission of the church-troops is to get inside and neutralize the Angel. But with all the leaking radiation and wreckage, its no easy task, especially since the Angel can feed off the radiation and grow stronger.
River shows them all the brief 4-second clip of the Angel that was held within the belly of the Starliner, so they all know what to look for, and as they make their final preparations, Amy remains behind inside their temporary base, intrigued by the footage. Thanks to a volume River has brought along, the Doctor finds out that the Angels have the ability to project themselves through any image that depicts them, and he quickly realizes that Amy is in grave danger.
What follows is arguably the most effective sequence in the entire episode, as Amy finds herself stalked and cornered by the flickering image of the Angel, which has projected itself beyond the confines of the video screen. Fortunately, she’s a very clever girl, and she stops the recording at the key moment when the image cuts out and the screen is filled with static, a move which does away with the projection. However, its effects on her will linger on and become apparent later.
Soon after, the squad illuminates the vast chamber with a gravity-globe, and the group is off. They will have to navigate their way through the ancient catacombs within the temple in order to find their quarry, and as a kicker, there are stone statues everywhere. Lovely! A handful of Clerics are left to guard the approach, but they quickly get picked off, their necks snapped in a turnaround from what we know of the Angels from before. As that sinks in, the Angel reveals the chilling ability to use the voices of the deceased in order to draw in the others. Not good.
As the group climbs higher, they find that their lights are starting to lose power, and worse still, the Doctor discovers that the statues that line the catacombs are not statues, but rather the weakened, eroded remains of hundreds of Weeping Angels. The group finds itself trapped by dozens of creeping statues, slowly advancing as the lights begin to fade, and taunted by the voice of Bob, one of the dead clerics. However, it makes the mistake of berating the Doctor and irritating him. Galvanized, he takes action, ordering everyone to jump when he gives the signal, and raises Octavian’s pistol. As the lights flicker, the Doctor fires, shattering the illuminating gravity-globe, as the electronic scream sounds the end-credits. Cliffhanger time folks!
The Critique…
First off, as I said in my blog, this is a cracking-good episode. The dialogue is great, the performances are very good, and the plot is strong and engaging. It is, however, hard for me to fully judge, since this episode is the first half of a two-part story. That said, there’s still quite a bit to talk about here.
The episode benefits heavily from the mere presence of the Weeping Angels, who are arguably the most memorable creatures that have been created for the new series. Visually they are striking but very simple, and easily realized, and in manner they are very creepy. A lot has been said about them due to their very creepy showing in the hugely popular “Blink“, from series 3, and Moffat is looking to add to their legend AND sense of menace. After all, there’s no way to top their initial impact, and as such, you have to up the ante and ramp up the danger quotient.
As such, we’re seeing that the Angels have more powers than we initially suspected. The ability to manifest from mere images of their form? That’s spooky, and a very nice mini-homage to “Ringu“/”The Ring“, and another moment that is sure to send some kids scurrying for a “safer” view. That entire sequence was very well done, and made for some very gripping moments. Karen Gillan played that entire scene to perfection, and it shows yet again just how clever Amy is. I really enjoyed it a great deal.
Also, we got the barest hint in “Blink” of the possibility that the Angels have more powers than we know about. The flickering light-bulb anyone? And the use of the slain Clerics to draw in others was creepy. A bit too reminiscent of “Silence in the Library” in ways, but still effective. I do wonder what the Angels are up to, as we haven’t got all the pieces in place just yet.
Then there’s the matter of Amy being so affected by looking into the Angel’s eyes for so long. The Doctor says that its simply getting into her head, but could there be more to it than that? And if so, is any of it a comment on what may be Amy’s true nature? I’m looking forward to finding out, because her character really intrigues me, and there’s a deeper mystery locked within her somewhere. I really think a lot of it revolves around that ominous crack in the Universe, but we’ll have to wait and see.
We also have River Song and her mysteries to contend with. She’s working with the Church, and evidently she’s been in prison, but for what exactly? Interesting to be sure, but there’s a caveat in the form of her frequent jibes at the expense of the Doctor. She sure hurls a lot of rather pointed cracks his way, and while its supposed to be akin to the bickering of a married couple, it really grates on the nerves after a while, and I’m really glad when she stops. At this point I’m hard pressed to see what it is he likes about her, although its clear that she annoys him a great deal at this point. Still, I’m intrigued about the nature of the deal she’s struck with the Church, and how that will affect the Doctor and Amy, and it very well could because Octavian expresses the concern that if the Doctor finds out the truth about who and what River Song truly is. Ooooer, intrigue!
This also leads to a sequence that made me chuckle upon the first viewing, but later it just made me roll my eyes in annoyance. The sequence in question would be River’s assertion that the TARDIS isn’t supposed to wheeze and groan when it materializes and dematerializes, and that it does so because the Doctor flies it with the equivalent of its “brakes” on.
Um, what? Come again?
If that’s the case, then someone should have clued in the Time Lords who built the machines into that little secret, since evidently the Master and the Rani also piloted their TARDISes with the “brakes” on, and Romana either didn’t notice or simply found it amusing to allow it to persist. The sound effect that heralds the TARDIS and its arrivals and departures has been used for pretty much every TARDIS in the show’s history. Heck, even the SIDRATs in “The War Games” use the sound effect. While this one-off joke is mildly amusing at first blush, it becomes more annoying the more you think about it. I wager that an actual explanation is that the TARDIS has some sort of silent mode that the Doctor either didn’t discover, or has forgotten about. That’s much more palatable IMHO.
Lastly, a little message to whomever at the BBC cooked up the brilliant idea to display a little animated bumper from Graham Norton’s “Over the Rainbow” talent-show during the episode’s closing moments: Knock it off, and don’t do it again! As the many complaints will attest, you cheesed off a lot of viewers with your little stunt, and it doesn’t seem to have helped Norton’s viewing figures either. So, please, refrain from such stunts in the future, kay?
The Performances…
After an episode where his performance felt a little off, Matt Smith is back in VERY fine form in this week’s installment, realizing all the promise he showed in the first two episodes. In terms of mannerisms he definitely draws or simply echoes elements of past incarnations, and you can see hints of Troughton, touches of Colin Baker, and yes, bits of Tennant as well. Its a good mix, and he makes it work very well. I’m really enjoying him a lot overall, and I hope his tenure is a long one.
Like Smith, Karen Gillan continues to shine. Amy is a very intriguing companion, and Karen is one of the biggest reasons why. Her performance is both natural and nuanced, and this episode was no exception. As mentioned above, the scene where she is stalked by the video-borne projection of the Weeping Angel is excellent, and a lot of it hinges on how Amy played out the scene, and she was pitch-perfect IMHO. I was also very amused by her indignation at being bitten on the hand by the Doctor, as a means to save her from the perception that her hand had turned to stone. Funny stuff!
Alex Kingston was also intriguing at River Song. as I said above, her manner can grate after a while, but this time she’s a bit more mysterious, and she plays River a bit differently than she did in “Silence in the Library“/”Forest of the Dead“. Obviously, we’re at an earlier point in her history (or so one would suspect), and she seems to be carting around even more secrets than she did last time, and evidently some troubles as well. She’s a little more smug and a little harder, and Kingston makes the transition smoothly.
Kudos also to Iain Glenn who gave the Bishop/Soldier Octavian the requisite amount of disciplined bravado to convince us he’s a good military commander, and yet enough humility to also convince us he’s a dedicated man of the church as well. I also have to give some props to Simon Dutton for his brief role as Alistair, the well-dressed man who seemed determined to do away with River Song in the opening sequence. A small role, but he conveyed a nice sense of smooth, arrogant menace. A nice guest-spot.
Getting Technical…
Last week I was disappointed in the interior of the Dalek Saucer, and the nu-Daleks themselves. However, no such grousing this week.
I absolutely love the wickedly-retro “Starliner” rocket-ship in the opening scene. It looked as if it would have been very much at home in a “Flash Gordon” comic or serial, rocketing away from the planet Mongo. The stark corridors were appropriate for the setting here, unlike the empty Dalek saucer interior from last week. An, although we’ve seen it in the previews a few times before, I really did enjoy River Song’s escape from the Starliner: shades of “Four to Doomsday” there.
Also, kudos to the FX team for putting together the creepy, eroded versions of the Weeping Angels, creatures which may be more unsettling than the originals. Nicely spooky!
The Verdict…
EXCELLENT
For the first time so far this series, an episode has earned the coveted excellent rating. This episode contained the right mix of a strong plot, engaging performances, effective and non-intrusive FX, and the right atmosphere. As such, it edged itself up there and I consider it to be the best episode of the season so far. Now, the tricky bit will be making sure that the second chapter delivers on the promise of the opening half. Nothing like a good two-parter to whet the appetite for next-week’s entry!