Review: Doctor Who - The Time of Angels

[angelophile]

Doctor Who time, and the much hyped return of the Weeping Angels. They've been nu-Who's creepiest new villains and appeared in one of the finest Doctor Who episodes, despite the Doctor himself barely appearing. And the idea of villains whose main power is quantum uncertainty is wonderfully surreal. But it was hard to see how they could successfully bring back the Angels without them being a shadow or reflection of the former story.

What I should have remembered is to trust the Grand Moff.

Moffat described the piece as being like Aliens to the original Aliens movie and that seems a very appropriate comparison. The original episode was all creeping dread and effective moments to make you jump. This episode was action, the Angels en-masse and gun toting space marines churchmen.

The episode started nicely - a fun, tongue in cheek Bond-esque stand off between the dinner suited villain of the piece and River Song, but it's once Father Octavian and the ass kicking churchmen turn up that the plot starts to kick in.

I have to note that Father Octavian's a joy. We saw the Doctor's sudden distaste for anything military under RTD's pen and UNIT reduced to be near-villains of the piece, so it's nice to see a commanding officer here who's competent, respectful without kissing ass and compassionate, rather than the stereotypes and black and white "guns bad, officers bad" we got under RTD. I loved the moment when, heartbroken at the death of his men, Father Octavian talked about how, when the Doctor had waltzed off in his blue box, it would be him who had to inform the families. A powerful moment.

Inevitably, perhaps, the angels didn’t quite have the same impact here as in Blink, a by-product of bringing them back for a second outing. But that’s not to say Steven Moffat doesn’t find ways to squeeze every bit of tension out of them. There’s some really unnerving stuff in the episode, although fewer jump out of your seat moments. But Moffat's turning of a plot hole (an alien planet where there's a labyrinth of statues that look conveniently similar to the Angels) into a plot point, the incredibly creepy "the makers of The Ring may sue" security tape moment, the voice of Bob echoing from beyond the grave in matter-of-fact tones... brrrr!

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan's performances are stronger in this episode - the chemistry more apparent than it was in last week's Dalek outing and the banter between them, with River Song providing much amusement for Amy at the Doctor's expense, was wickedly entertaining. Smith got to play more with the Troughton-esque clowning and a very slapped-down, husbandly sulk, coming to life when needed. He's sadly still not as effective as Tennant at the "do not fuck with me" moments, who in turn was weaker than Eccleston, but the clumsier, not-quite-as-all-knowing Doctor's a welcome change after Tennant's "lonely god".

Finally, we get to River Song. They appeared to have ramped up her cockiness several notches this episode, playing on her relationship with the Doctor and pushing her firmly into Mary Sue territory. It doesn't actually make sense set against the original story, Silence in the Library, where River was more subdued, more surprised to realize that the Doctor who turned up wasn't her Doctor - his timeline not being as linear as hers. But here River's shown as taking it in her stride. Which would make perfect sense if this was River Song from after that time. Except, chronologically, she's supposed to be younger and without those experiences. As such, her attitude didn't exactly ring true. If she's used to meeting the Doctor out of sequence all the time, why show surprise when she meets him later in her life?

The ramping up of her Mary Sueishness will probably make her unappealing to some - I didn't mind her smug, cockiness because I usually enjoy Alex Kingston's performances and it appeared to be played tongue planted firmly in cheek this time. However, speculating on the next episode - I don't think River's coming out of this alive.

It's established that time's totally fubared, with cracks appearing all the way through history. The trailer showed even more violent cracks appearing in the next episode. I predict that River's going to bite the big one. The Doctor touches on it this episode - that nothing's certain and just because she was alive in his past, doesn't necessarily mean that she has a future. If she dies, linear time starts to crack even more. And it strikes me as something Moffat would do - he's set River up as a big important player in the Doctor's future and I can totally see him pulling that particular rug out from under the audience.

Looking forward immensely to next week's follow-on and it'll be interesting to see if I'm right.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

I never really got the impression in River's last appearance that she was surprised she was meeting him out of order. I think the 'spoilers' book indicated that happened a lot. The surprise, I think, came from her realization that it was the FIRST time he met her, from his perspective (a moment she had to have known would come, but never quite sure when).