Sunday 25 April 2010

Doctor Who, The Time of Angels


With the fourth episode of the new series Steven Moffat could be accused of revisiting past glories. But when said past glories involve the Weeping Angels from the superlative "Blink" and also tying in with "Silence in Library" I'm not going to complain too loudly.

The episode opens enjoyably with River Song up to something on a spaceship, juxtaposed with the Doctor and Amy in a museum subtitled "12,000 years later". The Doctor spots an artifact with Gallifreyian graffiti that translates as "Hello Sweetie" and off he goes to mount a rescue 12,000 years in the past.

One of my favourite moments of the episode comes early on when River lands the Tardis silently. The Doctor complains that it didn't make the "brilliant" noise, which he attempts to recreate vocally. River explains it only makes that noise as he leaves the hand-break on.

Then we are on an alien planet where the last of the Weeping Angels is hiding in the catacombs. Amy is introduced to the Weeping Angel by watching a four-second recording on a loop. One of the creepiest sequences of the episode follows when she is alone in the room and notices the Angel changing position on the recording every time she looks away.

Later they enter the catacombs to go looking for the Angel. Some of these sequences reminded me of the early Peter Davidson story called "Earthshock" which I can remember creeping me out all those years ago.

Then the Doctor realises he's made a mistake: They are not dealing with just one Angel. In true Doctor Who style we get a cliff-hanger and the preview of the next episode suggests the mythology of the Weeping Angels will be expanded in the concluding part.