NuWho Review Redux: The Time of Angels
Re: Rate / Review "The Time of Angels"
I watched this three times before rating in case I eventually discovered some reason not to give it a 10. I didn't find one.
My husband called it "Steven Moffat's greatest hits" in terms of recurring story elements, but I would add that those elements were handled in new ways and cranked up to 11. The dead cleric soldiers enticing the next victim were reminiscent of RTD's Cyberized Torchwood staff, by way of Miss Evangelista and the two Daves, but really interesting in the way they were handled, especially Sacred Angel Bob with his apologies and deference. And now we know that the Angels can manipulate a lot more than a basement light bulb, which neatly answers the Moff's self-mockery at Gallifrey two years ago, wondering whether the Angels paid the electric bill at Wester Drumlins. And wow, were the Angels themselves ever ramped up in their power and scariness! I was quite tense throughout, especially for Amy.
I'm not a big fan of River insofar as she's such a smug know-it-all, but she has such style and is so funny that it's easy to forgive her, especially when her bickering with the Doctor leads to such comedy gold as the scene in the TARDIS. (It's worth cheekily messing with the mythology of the show and the TARDIS, just to hear Matt's imitation of the engine wheeze. We can always explain away any discontinuities, and say that River's description of why the TARDIS makes that sound is inaccurate, or that only with this rebuild does the TARDIS gain the ability not to make that sound, or Time Lords generally love that sound and deliberately let it be made. Or something. ) I love that the Doctor isn't keen to hang out with River, who constantly throws him off balance with her knowledge and lack of deference, and that Amy teases him about River and makes him stay.
The payoff is that the Doctor reasserts his superior knowledge at the TARDIS door, putting an end to his failures of the past few weeks both there and at the end. Yes, Amy rescues herself, but that's perfectly all right. She isn't the hero of the day this time; the Doctor is, despite the (still offscreen) deaths. That too is as it should be; the Doctor suffers losses, nearly everywhere he goes, which is what makes the occasional "everybody lives" story stand out. And hooray! Next week the Doctor and Amy finally get to notice the darn crack. I was starting to get really annoyed about their obliviousness to that.
I still have questions about little plot niggles, but unlike in the previous two stories I'm confident that answers exist. When did Amy learn of the Doctor's aversion to being called Sir? I don't recall anything like that in VotD but perhaps I missed it or, more likely, it happened off screen. And I'm not at all sure a spotter's guide is sufficient to solve the timing issues surrounding River's knowledge of the Doctor - but again, I trust that Moffat has worked it though in his head.
And how great were Matt and Karen, right from Day One, shot one of filming? There isn't the slightest hint of hesitance or unfamiliarity with their characters. The Doctor is very much the Doctor as we've come to know him over the past several weeks (and in the decades before that), and Amy is very much Amy.
This is soooo much better than last week, right up there with The Eleventh Hour. Got to be a 10. Got to be. YMMV - it always does, across the spectrum of Doctor Who fandom, but as far as I'm concerned, this is about as good as it gets, an absolutely flawless episode. I'll say it again: hooray!
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About River's wibbly wobbly relationship with the Doctor:
Two things:
1. Somewhere in the different interviews around the time of the New York launch, Moffat says that we're going to get River's whole story. I assume he doesn't mean that we will literally see dozens of meetings, but rather how it begins, who she is and what she becomes to him, and possibly the new suit and gift screwdriver encounter.
2. In this week's Confidential, Moffat says that the Doctor's "only had one major encounter" with River before this. I'm guessing that means Ten took her for that Picnic at Asgard during the gap year, but it wasn't a major adventure, more like a date. It seems clear from the way she flipped the pages in SitL that she keeps the diary in her best guess at his timeline, the better to keep track. It's probably easy for her to remember that their adventure on the Planet of Hats was before she went to Zog; but remembering that from his pov he went to Zog and then Shallacatop and then the Planet of Hats requires recordkeeping. Hence the diary.
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