Weeping Angels And The End Of The Universe Chase Doctor Who Through "Flesh And Stone!"

The Good: Good characterization of River Song, Decent exploration of the crack in the universe, Moments of performance
The Bad: Matt Smith's performance undermines the entire mood of the episode, Stretched concept
The Basics: Doctor Who makes an upside-down episode with "Flesh And Stone," which awkwardly resolves the threat of the Weeping Angels and explores the natures of River Song and the crack in the universe.


There are very few shows that I have encountered that belabor a two-part episode like Doctor Who. "Flesh And Stone" is the second part of a two-parter begun in "The Time Of Angels" (reviewed here!) and, as such, it is impossible to discuss the second part without some references to where the first part ended. When I write that Doctor Who belabors the two-part episodes, "The Time Of Angels" is actually an excellent example. Objectively viewed, "The Time Of Angels" stretched a number of plot points out in order to make it a two-parter with "Flesh And Stone." Indeed, a good portion of the episode is spent with The Doctor and River Song finally working up to the realization that everyone is surrounded by Weeping Angels.

"Flesh And Stone" picks up with the menace of a Maze Of Death filled with Weeping Angels and The Doctor, River Song, Amy Pond and the religious/military force led by Father Octavian fleeing them. Amy Pond is, essentially, infected by a Weeping Angel and the entire episode is a race through the downed ship that had been carrying the lone Weeping Angel.

Picking up seconds after The Doctor fired his gun, The Doctor, River, Amy and the surviving soldiers effectively make the leap onto the hull of the crashed ship. Stuck in a corridor in the ship's outer hull, the team finds themselves pursued by the Weeping Angels and The Doctor needs to power off the lights in order to divert power to the door. The Doctor, then River, notice that Amy has begun a countdown from ten, which does not appear to correspond to anything going on around them. The Doctor wants to make an escape through the ship's oxygen factory - which is a forest connected to ship's life support.

When the Weeping Angels make contact with The Doctor, he learns that there is a Weeping Angel in Amy's eye and the crack from Amy Pond's childhood bedroom has followed them to the crashed ship. The Doctor believes that the crack is a visualization of the end of the universe and barely escapes with his team into the forest. When The Doctor, Octavian and River have to head for the command center of the ship, Amy is left in the forest with the rest of Octavian's forces. Octavian reveals the truth of River Song's relationship to The Doctor, much to his chagrin. As the people defending Amy investigate the crack in the ship, they disappear and the surviving soldiers forget all about their comrades and the Weeping Angels descend upon The Doctor. Getting to the flight deck, the Doctor and River work to save Amy from the Weeping Angels!

"Flesh And Stone" continues to play The Doctor as somewhat ridiculous. Matt Smith's incarnation of The Doctor is a generally humorous iteration of the character and in "Flesh And Stone" the silliness and lack of professionalism plays poorly. The concept of the Weeping Angel reproducing through a live host like Amy is a pretty terrifying notion. Unfortunately, The Doctor combating the frightening Weeping Angels is a clown, which undermines the horror that is the Weeping Angels. Unlike "The Time Of Angels," which continued the frightening nature of the Weeping Angels from "Blink" (reviewed here!), "Flesh And Stone" undermines their menace. In "Flesh And Stone," the Weeping Angels are transformed from a specific time-feeding entity into a pretty generic killing machine monster.

What "Flesh And Stone" does well is continue the characterization of River Song. River Song in "Flesh And Stone" is revealed by Octavian to be his prisoner. River Song, as it turns out, is a prisoner in Storm Cage Prison in the native time of the episode. Song is currently paroled, which does not entirely jive with the events of "The Time Of Angels." Song is first seen on the ship (before it crashes); it is not at all clear within the two-parter why Octavian let Dr. Song loose on the ship without his supervision. Octavian and his people know there is a Weeping Angel on the ship and they enlist Dr. Song to help them get the angel, but when they seed her onto the ship (apparently about four days earlier than the events of "Flesh And Stone"), they don't go with her to get the Weeping Angel themselves?! It reeks of contrivance.

That said, the further characterization of River Song is well done. Dr. Song is presented as professional, smart, and brilliant - on par with The Doctor. As The Doctor hatches his plan, she figures things out with him. Alex Kingston plays River Song wonderfully.

Unfortunately, the portrayal of The Doctor makes for a very fractured episode in a lot of ways. Matt Smith plays The Doctor as silly and amid the menace of the time crack and Weeping Angels, that is a poor counterpoint for the mood of "Flesh And Stone." When Smith's Doctor has a temper tantrum, the episode seems suddenly banal and dull; the inconsistency is upsetting.

At the other end of the spectrum, "Flesh And Stone" does a decent job of continuing exploring the nature of the crack in the universe that is following Amy Pond around through time and space. The rupture is clearly linked to Amy Pond and The Doctor manages to use the crack to work to defeat the Weeping Angels. But, the episode's horror is undermined by a problematic rendition of The Doctor; he is hardly the hero of "Flesh And Stone" and it holds up poorly.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fifth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of Matt Smith as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Karen Gillan, please check out my reviews of:
The Big Short
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Oculus

5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Two Favorites Return In "The Time Of Angels!"

The Good: Good performances, Interesting character moments, Mood, Effects
The Bad: Creature inconsistencies, Some predictable plot elements
The Basics: River Song and the Weeping Angels return for a tense, smart episode with "The Time Of Angels!"


When it comes to science fiction, when there are serialized elements, it is very tough for producers and storytellers to continue disparate elements of a narrative without weakening the initial thrill of the origin stories. In the case of Doctor Who, there were few creatures created by Steven Moffat that were as terrifying as the Weeping Angels in "Blink" (reviewed here!) and Moffat created one of the most intriguing lingering mysteries of the franchise with the embodiment of River Song in "Forest Of The Dead" (reviewed here!). There is something impressive and ambitious about returning both River Song and the Weeping Angels to the Doctor Who narrative at the same time. The episode in which they return is "The Time Of Angels."

"The Time Of Angels" is one of the rare episodes that lives up to the expectations one might have based on the quality of the episodes that introduced the elements it includes. As well, "The Time Of Angels" might well be the first Doctor Who episode since Matt Smith took over as The Doctor where The Doctor seems like the smart, clever, advanced character who is not sublimated to the ridiculous or the prioritization of the comic elements for the character. In "The Time Of Angels," The Doctor, River Song and Amy Pond all have interesting arcs which satisfactorily advance the first part of a story that is intriguing and freaky.

Opening with a guard, drugged by a lipstick hallucinogen, leading a chase for River Song through a ship, The Doctor and Amy Pond find themselves in an alien museum 12,000 years later. There, they find an artifact which is essentially a Gallifreyan black box, with a message for The Doctor. Stealing the artifact and hooking it up to the TARDIS computer, the pair witnesses River Song's escape from the ship, complete with her request for a rescue from The Doctor. Arriving at the right time and place, Dr. River Song enters the TARDIS and displays an ability to fly the TARDIS and bring it to a safe landing next to the ship from which she escaped.

The other ship crashed on an alien world, now terraformed by humans, atop a building. Dr. Song contacts another ship, in orbit, and the military religious leader of the ship teleports down. Father Octavian is leading a search team sent to recover an entity from the wreckage of the ship, using Dr. Song to get the Doctor on board. When River Song reconnects the downed ship's video record, The Doctor and Amy realize that Bishop Octavian's target is a Weeping Angel. While Amy begins to suffer the effects of watching the footage of the Weeping Angel, The Doctor, River Song, Octavian and his team enter the Maze Of The Dead to hunt the Weeping Angel . . . with the search quickly becoming lethal!

In order to make "The Time Of Angels" work, Steven Moffat seems to mix up his own creations and he is forced to rework the Weeping Angels in order to enhance the menace of the alien creatures. When River Song was introduced in "Silence In The Library" (reviewed here!), she and The Doctor encounter the Vashta Nerada, who use the technology of the day to communicate using the voices of dead people. The Weeping Angels from "Blink" had no such ability, yet in "The Time Of Angels" they suddenly have that ability. There is little evolutionary sense to creatures who cannot communicate with one another whenever they even attempt to look at each other developing a language. "The Time Of Angels" pays lip service to this concept by reworking the Weeping Angels to suddenly have the ability to absorb the cerebral cortex of their victims and then speaking through their voices, utilizing their memories. There is no logical mechanism for the ability or the technological leap needed to exploit the ability within "The Time Of Angels."

In a similar fashion, "The Time Of Angels" alters the nature of the Weeping Angels. In "Blink," the Weeping Angels displaced their prey in time and essentially fed on the potential energy of the life wasted by the displacement. In "The Time Of Angels," the Weeping Angels are flat-out killers, snapping the necks of their victims. The explanation within the episode is half-assed; the Weeping Angel needed a body (?!). That being the case, there would only be one Weeping Angel within the episode that needed a body, yet there are three casualties . . . Making the Weeping Angels physically dangerous makes the episode scarier, but it undermines the real terror of the enemy. In fact, within "The Time Of Angels," one of the scariest potential concepts would have allowed the Weeping Angels to seem both flawed and scary - the planet the episode takes place on was terraformed; if the Weeping Angels sent victims back in time, the humans would (presumably) die right away in agony from the inhospitable atmosphere! Come to think of it, a neat idea that would have allowed the Weeping Angels to exist undiminished would have been that after the first person was sent back and died fast, the Weeping Angels start sending people back only a few days, resulting in multiple versions of the characters working together to try to stop the Weeping Angels in the present!

But, alas, "The Time Of Angels" is not so clever in that regard and it sets up "Flesh And Stone" instead of remaining consistent to the creature design from "Blink." That said, "The Time Of Angels" works with the Weeping Angels because The Doctor and River Song are both very clever. The Weeping Angels are a fairly new race to Doctor Who and in "The Time Of Angels," the Doctor learns about them through exposition at virtually the same rate as the audience. That makes The Doctor's actions throughout the episode intuitive and smart in a way that Matt Smith's incarnation of The Doctor has not yet been allowed to be.

"The Time Of Angels" fleshes out River Song nicely and has Song and Amy Pond playing off one another well. Dr. Song is instantly cool and Alex Kingston plays her incredibly well. Iain Glen plays Octavian intriguingly so the occasionally monolithic character seem rounded and realistic.

Ultimately, "The Time Of Angels" is a tight set-up episode that brings two awesome elements of Doctor Who back together in a compelling way, living up to the potential of the episodes that introduced the Weeping Angels and River Song.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fifth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of Matt Smith as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Iain Glen, please visit my reviews of:
Game Of Thrones - Season 6
Game Of Thrones - Season 5
Game Of Thrones - Season 4
Game Of Thrones - Season 3
Game Of Thrones - Season 2
Game Of Thrones - Season 1
Kick-Ass 2

8/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Twenty Minutes To Save The World Is Made Palatable By Karen Gillan In "The Eleventh Hour."

The Good: Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan perform well, Moments of special effects, Crack set-up
The Bad: Many of the effects, The new Doctor is immediately unimpressive, Some critical details, Plays for humor ineffectively.
The Basics: "The Eleventh Hour" introduces Matt Smith as The Doctor and the premise does not land because of an erratic execution of the idea.


Any time there is an episode of television whose name is a pun or a double entendre, it gets my hackles raised. In the case of Doctor Who, there is something unfortunately unperceptive about Steven Moffat naming his debut of Matt Smith's version of The Doctor "The Eleventh Hour." Even before the retcon that created the ridiculous limit-breaking "War Doctor" regeneration, "Journey's End" (reviewed here!) had David Tennant's Doctor making a regeneration, but keeping his own face (which Moffat would acknowledge late in his run). Regardless, when it was first produced, "The Eleventh Hour" introduced Matt Smith as The Doctor and the title was intended as a little tongue-in-cheek reference to Smith being The Eleventh Doctor.

"The Eleventh Hour" began Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunner for Doctor Who and it picks up seconds after "The End Of Time, Part II" (reviewed here!) with the new incarnation of The Doctor and the TARDIS plummeting out of the sky. The episode redefines Doctor Who by bringing in a new Doctor and Companion and establishing the fundamental premise for the season of Doctor Who.

Amelia is praying to Santa Claus on Easter for help with a crack in her wall when the TARDIS crashes in her back yard. The Doctor climbs out of the crashed vehicle, famished and hoping for an apple, where he meets Amelia. While Amelia Pond and The Doctor find something for The Doctor to eat, The Doctor realizes that the crack in the wall must be something very scary and he runs upstairs to evaluate the crack. The Doctor realizes that the crack in Amelia's wall is a crack in reality and Amelia tells him that she hears "Prisoner Zero has escaped" through the crack frequently. When The Doctor widens the crack, the pair sees a giant eyeball and a message is transmitted to The Doctor's psychic paper. Freaked out, The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and leaves, telling Amelia he is headed five minutes into the future. Amelia runs back inside and grabs a suitcase so she can run away with The Doctor.

When The Doctor returns, he rushes into Amy Pond's house, insisting that Prisoner Zero is in the house and he is promptly knocked out by a cricket bath. While a young man, a nurse named Rory Williams, surveys the coma ward at the local hospital, he is alarmed when the coma patients all start calling out for the doctor. He tries to show the disbelieving Dr. Ramsden a video of a coma patient walking around the village. Back in the house, The Doctor awakens to find himself handcuffed to a radiator by a redhead in a police uniform. The Doctor blows the young woman's mind by revealing that there are more rooms on the floor than she ever noticed and in the room she never perceived before, is Prisoner Zero. The woman is Amy Pond and The Doctor is far later than the five minutes he intended to be. Prisoner Zero is a multiform, an alien that take the appearance of the coma patients at the hospital, and its jailers come looking for it. The Doctor and Amy have to save the world from incineration from the jailers when they demand the return of Prisoner Zero.

The saga of Amy Pond gets off to a ridiculous start in "The Eleventh Hour." The new Doctor is characterized right away as ridiculous and Moffat's attempts at slapstick humor fall unfortunately flat. The Doctor runs into a tree that is multiple steps away and the gag only works because of Adam Smith's direction - it makes no rational sense. The food montage that follows The Doctor and Amelia meeting is mildly interesting, but it plays right away as far more comedic than compelling. While Doctor Who has comedic moments, playing The Doctor as ridiculous right off the bat is an unfortunate choice for Matt Smith as The Doctor.

"The Eleventh Hour" starts to hit its stride when The Doctor fails to return after the promised five minutes. Karen Gillan bursts on the screen as Amy Pond and her introduction is fun. Amy, as a young adult, is a kiss-o-gram and she reveals that when The Doctor disappeared for twelve years between visits, she was treated like she had an imaginary friend, as opposed to a legitimate visit. Gillan plays Amy as a forceful young woman and she holds her own easily with Matt Smith. Gillan's Amy is presented as far more serious than Smith's Doctor and she becomes the grounding element for the episode.

Gillan and Arthur Darvill have decent on-screen chemistry. While Gillan and Smith have to run and have minimal banter, Darvill and Gillan run, duck, and work together like exactly who their characters are supposed to be. Amy and Rory have known each other for years and they have a relationship and the performers play off one another like they have that type of relationship.

Matt Smith plays The Doctor as ridiculous in "The Eleventh Hour" and concept fails on a number of key details. The Doctor has to save the world and he enlists the aid of the beefcake, Jeff, who has neither the technical skills to write computer code, nor explain to the world's geniuses why they should trust The Doctor.

"The Eleventh Hour" is essential Doctor Who for introducing the crack in the universe that travels through the entire season, the prophecy of the Pandorica and the first reference to The Silence. The introduction of Amy and Rory is more impressive than the new Doctor and most of the episode's special effects. But while the episode is essential, it is not an overly impressive one and it is a somewhat rocky start for the new Doctor.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fifth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of Matt Smith as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other season premieres that redefined a show, please visit my reviews of:
"The Christmas Invasion" - Doctor Who
"The Way Of The Warrior" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Jesus Gonna Be Here" - True Blood

4/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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