(760) The Time of Angels

Having been a fan of The Weeping Angels when they made the debut back in 2007, it was great news when it was revealed that they would be appearing in the new series. Blink was a superb story and is most likely to remain at the number four spot of top rate stories. This story also sees the return of River Song who when we last saw her was quite happy in her ‘heaven’. Due to the complex timeline for her this is obviously before that story for her. The pre-title scene is totally mad but its great. It centres largely around River Song and how she escapes from the ship that she’s on. She has managed to engrave on a stone box that would be read 12,000 years later by the Doctor and the Doctor arrives just at the time that River gets ejected out of the ship.

I love the idea of an army of religious people. The church in the 51^st as the Doctor says has moved on and thankfully the characters aren’t frustratingly preachy. Octavian is the Bishop and is well played by Iain Glen. He does act like he’s in charge but is willing to trust the Doctor and listen to what he says.

The Weeping Angels seen in Blink were scavengers and that means that the weeping angels in this story are much stronger and much more dangerous. One of the new advances in the character since Blink comes during the scene where The Doctor, River and Amy are watching the Angel on the screen on a four second loop and there is the moment where it is coming out of the screen and is going to attack Amy. This is a great little scene causes it basically says that an image of an angel becomes an angel. That is why you will never see a Weeping Angel selfie. Another development of the Weeping Angels is that statues that people think are the Aplans are in fact the Weeping Angels evolving because they were dying before the Byzantium crashed.

Amy asks the Doctor if River Song is his wife and obviously we know that they do get married. Amy does get stuck in the traditional companion role in this story which isn’t a bad thing but she slowly becomes stone after dealing with the Weeping Angel.

The sets used as the caves are really good because they are claustrophobic and dimly lit and I am reminded of how brightly lit things were during the classic era. The whole caves section is a mixture of actual caves and CGI and they work well together.

The build up to the cliffhanger is good and infamous. The Angels are about to circle the Doctor and the others and the Doctor is going to shoot a gun into the engines of the Byzantium which even I know isn’t a good thing to do. The episode ends with the explosion happening and watching it now I am able to enjoy it for what it is. Sadly in 2010 this was spoilt by Graham Norton inserting himself in Doctor Who yet again. After his unexpected appearance in the Rose episode back in 2005, this was far more obvious of a problem with TV itself as there is a desperation on the part of the TV channels to point out what’s coming up next and in the case of this episode it’s a desperation to tell us what’s coming up next while the current programme is on and the appearance of the Graham Norton indent appearing while Smith is pointing the gun in the air. This does ruin the ending somewhat and since then I don’t recall that this has happened.

This is a good episode. I think that the ganging up between Amy and River is somewhat annoying but apart from that it’s a very well written and well directed and things look good for the next episode.

(757) The Eleventh Hour

This period of Doctor Who is quite similar to Peter Davison’s time because following someone immensely popular isn’t the most enviable of tasks. Like Tennant’s opening story, this one gets an hours running time which only seems fair. With Steven Moffat now the Head Writer it means he gets to write the first story of the Smith era.

The new title sequence seems like a breath of fresh air after five years of the same one. It looks nice and the change shows that its not just the Doctor that has changed. Also the theme tune is new but I’m not quite sure about that.

The story arc is started quite quickly when Young Amelia talks about a crack in her wall. Young Amelia is played by Caitlin Blackwood who is Karen Gillan’s cousin and it’s a good performance from her.

The humour at the beginning of the episode is quite good. The whole scene in the kitchen is funny to me for some reason. Had this been done on the RTD episodes then I might have found fault with it. The whole Fish Custard thing is something that I thought was going to be a thing. It’s such a mad thing that would normally have caught in the

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the change in this episode is the look of it. The RTD era seemed to have a warm glow to it whereas this episode starts the less warm feel.

Karen Gillan makes her second appearance and starts off appearing to be a police officer but then is revealed to be a kissogram. When the Doctor returned he had done so 12 years after their first meeting and not 5 minutes. Gillan is impressive in this series because she isn’t Billie Piper. It’s quite refreshing to not have a companion that has such a complicated history. That will change of course but at the moment it give Gillan the chance that Agyeman had in Smith and Jones. The interaction between Gillan and Smith is good from the very beginning which is quite an impressive feat.  

Arthur Darvill makes his debut as well as Rory. Rory is introduced as a loveable buffoon and at this stage its unclear why he would be considered a regular character.

Matt Smith shows during this episode how he was a good choice as the Doctor. The scenes where he is facing Prisoner Zero (played at this point by Olivia Coleman) and the Atraxi are two big scenes are ones that Matt Smith shows that he can be good when he’s required to be. The Atraxi scene where he announces that he is the Doctor is a fantastic moment. The design of the Atraxi isn’t one of the success of the episode. It looks a bit cheap and I can see what they were trying to achieve but it will have to go down as a mistake.

It’s not just the Doctor, title sequence and theme tune that’s new. The TARDIS interior gets it first update since its 2005 return and I thought that it was really good. I like the different levels because it just gives the interior scenes a bit of freshness. It makes the Eccleston/Tennant interior look rather drab in comparison.  

The Pandorica Opens and Silence will fall along with the crack in the wall bit all come together to form the story arc and it’s a great bit of mystery in 2010 to wonder what this all meant. There is also the final scene of the episode where Amy needs to be back in the morning for an event she doesn’t tell the Doctor but the viewer gets to see that it’s her wedding. This bit I don’t find as interesting as the Pandorica stuff but I suppose the show has to lean towards mellow-drama just a little bit.

This was a very strong opening episode and despite the longer than usual running time was well used by Steven Moffat. The performances from Matt Smith and Karen Gillan help show that the show can survive without Russell T Davies and David Tennant. One of my friends says that Matt Smith was close to bringing the show to its knees. I know its meant in a jokey fashion (though he wont admit it) but I think that the show has a freshness that it desperately needed.