Doctor Who: The Time Of Angels
Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 4 - The Time Of Angels
Oh, look, Steven Moffat has returned in another brilliant episode and arrived with one of his cliffhangers in tow! As I have heard him say in an interview, he does love cliffhangers. Crafty, crafty man!
As opposed to bringing back only one of his creations from the past series, Moffat has brought back two. First, the enigmatic River Song, who opens the episode with a certain amount of bad-assery and hallucinogenic lipstick. Second, the horrifying, get-thee-behind-the-couch atrocities that are the Weeping Angels. Oh, cripes. On both accounts.
The episode begins with River Song on the run, dressed in a slinky black dress and hooker shoes. Not very sensible, but the fellow chasing her is in a tuxedo, so who am I to judge? Meanwhile, Amy and the Doctor are visiting a museum. Honestly, if I were time-travelling, I would want to see a museum. Or a library. Preferably not one occupied by the Vashta Nerada. (I know, I digress. Seeing as this is a two-part episode, I think a lot of this particular review will be digressing.)
Due to a sharp bit of cleverness on River’s part, the Doctor rescues her via the TARDIS in a fun flying sequence through space. Lots of wire action in these two episodes. They chase after the ship she has just left, the starliner Byzantium, which crashes into an ancient temple for unknown reasons.
As it turns out, the Byzantium held a very unusual prisoner: one of the Weeping Angels, or Lonely Assassins. I had mixed feelings on this one. For one thing, Blink is one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes of all time, and that is largely due to the Weeping Angels and their unusual breed of evil. Going into The Time of Angels, I worried Moffat would ruin his own creations somehow.
He didn’t. He has only made them more terrifying. They have been fleshed out further into an all new dimension of pure, unadulterated creepy. This episode isn’t even the tip of the iceberg; the next one is much worse. (Because, yes, I’ve watched the next episode already. Shh.)
I will be upfront and admit that The Ring is one of my favourite movies ever. Discovering the Weeping Angels could exist in videotapes was not quite as frightening, but it was close. If it had actually slithered out of the television screen in some sort of horrible stop-motion fashion, I think that would have made it worse.
This review is getting long (and rambling), but there will be another next Saturday for Flesh And Stone, wherein I will include my thoughts on River.
Random junk that doesn’t fit in the review:
- The Doctor mimicking the unusual noises made by the TARDIS when it lands was hilarious. I would want it for my cellphone’s ringtone but, unfortunately, I neither use my phone nor do I think it would be quite as funny out of context.
- Steven Moffat is on my bucket list of Doctor Who people I would love to meet, and he’s very close to the top.
- While watching Blink, I always try the shut-one-eye-keep-other-open method of “not blinking.” Thank you, Amy, for being on the same wavelength! I hope to master this method by the time the Weeping Angels invade Earth.