Day: April 24, 2010

Let’s see.
Weeping Angels: Check.
Dark Catacombs: Check.
River Song: Check.
Written by Steven Moffat: Check.
Two Parter: Check.
Completely washes away last weeks Dalek Episode: Oh hell yes check.
A sequel of sorts to Season 3’s glorious Doctor-lite episode (not to be confused with the hideous Season 2 Doctor-lite episode entitled Love and Monsters) entitled Blink written by now head writer Stephen Moffat. Blink introduced us to the Weeping Angels. Stone statues that move only when you’re not looking and deposit you somewhere in time. With no voice to speak of and no way to stop them except tricking them to look at each other the Weeping Angels became the new Borg.
Now, mix all that in with River Song, another  one of Moffat’s creations introduced in the lovely Season 4 Two Parter: Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead. Originally created as a plot device to make the Doctor trust her, the idea of the Doctor getting married opened up an entirely new set of doors and probably several fanboys word processors. Those doors now include lovely banter about how the Doctor has been flying the Tardis with the breaks on. Sure, it sounds bad when you say, but Alex Kingston says it you will believe it.
More than a few people have commented on the fact the budget appears to have gotten smaller for this season and with last week’s seemingly cost cutting Dalek episode, the locations this week thankfully did not include a rock quarry. Instead you get dark catacooms, yes catacooms, they’re worse that catacombs supposedly when you fill them up with faceless statues, Church Marines with Sacred Names like Bob and the Angels get a voice. One could call this new ability a complete rip off from the last two parter Moffat did but instead the ability endows the Angels with more creepiness. Personally, I prefer an enemy that can speak.
Amy getting in trouble this week is nowhere near as bad as say Martha getting kidnapped in Gridlock. Instead, Amy is on the receiving end more than once of what can happen when things go really bad for companions. I’m not talking Adric bad, just nice to see the writer is willing to hurt the heroes.
The few downsides to this episode really is the fact it’s a two parter and the Marines personalities aren’t anywhere close to the science team found in Library/Forest of the Dead. I prefer smart, sassy canon fodder to two dimension cannon fodder any day.
Overall, great episode cannot wait until next week!