Translate

Saturday 19 May 2012

Doctor Who - 5.4: "The Time of Angels" Review


The weeping angels return, only this time they appear to be more sinister and have an agenda. River Song also appears and we seem to be a step closer to finding out why she's in prison, or do we?

A man has hallucinogenic lipstick used on him, courtesy of River song (Alex Kingston) aboard a spaceship.

12,000 years later:  Amy (Karen Gillan) and the Doctor (Matt Smith) are in a museum.   Amy is eager to see a planet and the Doctor comments this is the resting place of the Headless Monks, whom we will meet in season 6.7 A Good Man Goes to War.  He stops by an old box, "a Home box" which is akin to a Black Box.   The writing on it is Gallefrayian and this Box says, "Hello Sweetie." He steals it.   Someone on a ship, 12,000 years ago requires his attention, being River, since that's what she calls him and no one else speaks like that.

River tells the man (Simon Dutton) their ship won't reach its destination.   River relays co-ordinates to the Doctor once she's transported from the ship and wants him to follow it.   River wants him to use the blue button for the stabilizers, they're blue "boringers." Amy asks how she can fly the TARDIS.   The Doctor tells River it didn't make the TARDIS noise and River replies it's not meant to, the noise comes form his leaving the brakes on.   So now we know.   Doctor: "Well I love that noise."

River: "He thinks he's so hot when he does that."   River had lessons from the best but not the Doctor.   She's his future and the Doctor ran away from River.   The ship she was on, The Byzantium was sabotaged and crashed.   The Doctor introduces her as 'Professor and not Doctor song.   River: "How exciting, spoilers." River comments two things always turn up in a museum, the Home Box and the Doctor.   (Yes as in the season finale.)  River tells him there's something in that ship "that can't ever die."

Amy: "Oh Doctor, you Sonic-ed her."  River has her diary, it's her past and his future and "we keep meeting in the wrong order." Father Octavian, (Iain Glen) a military man, arrives saying the Clerics (dressed as soldiers) are in charge.   They're dealing with the weeping angels.   Amy comments the Doctor let them call him 'sir.'  He never does that. "A weeping angel is the most deadliest." Amy just can't get enough of the third degree, well not only is she curious, but she also seems to have designs on the Doctor.   Amy: "Is River Song your wife?"  As she's never seen anyone talk to the Doctor like that and asks if River will be his wife one day.   Doctor: "Yes, you're right I am a grumpy face today."  They love doing this, he answers but he's not answering the question being asked, just to keep us on our toes and not give anything away.  Ambiguous answers are the norm, usually.

The Doctor met the angels on Earth before, they're just statues when you look at them.   River: "...only move when they're unseen and stone until you turn your back." The Doctor woes humans are everywhere, he'll never save them all.  Radiation is being emitted from the ship and of course Amy had to go on board.   River has a book written about the angels, but the Doctor claims the book is incorrect.   River: "It's so strange when you go all baby face." She has photos of all his faces.   ( A reference to Matt smith being the youngest to play the Doctor.)  The Doctor doesn't turn up in the right order, so he doesn't know who River is yet.   The Doctor can't see any pictures in the angels book.

Amy says the angel is a recording so it can't move, but it can.   The Doctor reads, "that which holds the image of an angel -becomes itself an angel." Amy is locked on the ship.   Doctor: "Don't even blink...the eyes are doors." Amy freezes the tape and gets rescued.   The Doctor tells River to hug Amy as he's busy.   They venture to the catacombs, aka 'the Maze of the Dead, a perfect hiding place for angels.   Octavian comments The Doctor doesn't know who or what she is yet or he won't help them.   (He'll say that again next episode too."  River doesn't want to return to prison.   (Anyway it was obvious as all along, she's going to kill the Doctor - but perhaps not if he can help it.)

Amy asks what he's like in the future.   River tells him they're talking about him and he claims not to be listening; that's why he was holding the gadget the wrong way round.   Amy: "You're so his wife."  But things can't be that easy.   River thinks Amy is good, she's not admitting Amy is right, but she is good.   The Doctor didn't notice the low-level perception filter (lots of those floating around lately since episode 1 and beyond.)    The statues in the catacombs are meant to have two heads, but these ones don't thus they're angels.   No one bothered radioing the other Clerics and cluing them in.   Angelo (Troy Glasgow) lures Bob (David Atkins) into a trap. The Doctor thinks the radiation was streaming out of the ship, the angels are an army.   A bit late radioing them now.  The angel killed Bob and is communicating with the Doctor via Bob's subconscious.   Amy sees her hand turn to stone but he insists it's all in her mind.   Amy can't die here, he's got "all that stuff with River."

The Doctor comments it's not the right time and "time can be re-written."  Which he'll also repeat a lot.   (So he can't really die in his future.)  Doctor: "There's always a way out" and he wouldn't be the Doctor if he never tries.   Bob died in fear, he trusted the Doctor and he let him down.   River realizes the angels want to make the Doctor angry.   They all trust the Doctor and he tells them to jump on his signal.   Bob made a mistake he should never have snared the Doctor in a trap.

Plenty of spoilers in this episode if you really think about them, like River being in prison and the Doctor not helping if he finds out who she really is.   Amy and her hang-ups about River being the Doctor's wife.   Then the weeping angels again, but somehow they're even more menacing here and seem to have evolved, cos they're no longer weeping, but ruthless.

The crash of the Byzantium was mentioned in the episode Silence in the Library, which was in River's past, but yet to happen in the Doctor's future, which is now his present.   River's diary has pics of the Doctor which is why she recognizes him in Silence in the Library episode.   Also the message River left for him on the Home Box, "Hello sweetie," is what she says to him when she meets him in the same episode for the first time, at least the Doctor's first meeting with her.

No comments: