What happened?
Sally Sparrow, a relatively ordinary young woman, finds herself weaved into the fabric of The Doctor’s life when she wanders into an old house to take photographs and finds messages directed to her. She takes her friend, but her friend has a run-in with the Weeping Angels – statue-like beings that only move when not being observed – that sends her back in time, permanently.
Sally eventually finds messages from The Doctor embedded in DVDs, informing her about how the Weeping Angels are after her and that she needs to get to the TARDIS. The Weeping Angels close in on her, also keen on harnessing the power of the TARDIS, yet it disappears as they encircle it, catching them into looking at each other and freezing them in stone.
Thoughts
Now this is top notch stuff. This is the kind of episode that crops up during a series that stands out as being superior than the rest. Obviously I haven’t finished watching this series yet, but I find it hard to imagine an episode being better than this. Blink is perhaps the first great example of an episode of Doctor Who you could show to a total non-fan that they would enjoy immensely, despite themselves!
The Doctor, and Martha, being at the periphery of events is something that would make it easy for a newcomer to get involved as we see things from the perspective of just one of the people The Doctor meets in his life. It was a stylish way of telling the story, and it certainly helped that Sally Sparrow herself was so gorgeous in an innocuously cute way. When The Doctor and Martha did appear in person, at the end, it was amusing to catch them in the middle of another crazy adventure (presumably one we’ll never focus on directly during the show, making the assumption that The Doctor and Martha see and do things beyond what we witness during the series).
So the episode’s real strength was in presenting real people, identifiable and likable, and exerting the world of Doctor Who upon them. That exertion came in the form of the Weeping Angels that were a supremely simple yet fascinating creation. Having a foe that is harmless so long as it is being observed generated the impossible stalemate situation of having to stare at it, without blinking, to remain safe. In the space of a blink the Weeping Angel could dart forward, closer and closer. Very cool.
And their manner of despatching their victims neatly sidestepped the usual instant death scenario – casting a person back in time was a neat idea and one that was employed very well (even if it did have a Back To The Future-inspired feel to it all in people living out good lives in the past and sending messages by courier to the present day).
I know that Steven Moffat wrote this episode and he went on to become the showrunner for later series, and it’s clearly with an instalment like this that he distinguished himself. The characters and dialogue had that extra zip about them, a better layer of savvy . Doctor Who has a tough enough time selling itself as credible and cool, and I think it therefore needs to work extra hard at being sharp, harder than other shows might have to, in order to sell itself in this regard.
Doctor Who is always fast-paced and yet this episode still managed to find time for emotional interest to hold the pace, no more so than when Sally went to the bedside of the man she’d only just got a phone number for, to wait with him whilst he died. It was a bittersweet moment that was tenderly addressed. Again, I feel like it’s this extra sophistication that only benefits the show. I appreciate that Doctor Who is a family show, and it’s got younger viewers to cater for alongside the adults, but I think there’s scope for it to stray away from the cartoon japes and monsters for emotional depth.
I do believe that the Weeping Angels became a big favourite with the audience and they feature again, though not during the David Tennant-era. That’s good. It’s not hard to envisage them escaping their deadlocked stare in the basement; all that needs to happen is for them to be discovered and moved, for example! Or, more likely, for the lightbulb to go out and plunge the room into darkness once more to unleash them.
If the episode had a weak point it was in the bum note ending, that rather lamely flashed up images of various real statues, insinuating that these things you see on buildings and streets everywhere could really be these threatening ‘Weeping Angels’ just frozen whilst you look at them. Other people might not have minded but I found it a bit heavy-handed and undercut the subtlety and slickness of all that had preceded it. Hardly ruined things, mind.
New best episode ever? Yeah, I’d say so.
What was the best part?
The episode maintained a strong standard pretty much throughout, though I think the best part had to be the climax of the piece when Sally and her future boyfriend were in the house, staring off the Weeping Angels, before being pursued into the basement. They were fine whilst they kept looking but then, of course, the lightbulb started flickering on and off. . .
What do I think will happen next?
I’d like to be able to say we’ll see more of Sally Sparrow in future instalments – she was so lovely in both manner and appearance! However, alas, I suspect we’ll be back with The Doctor and Martha in more regular fashion, where the ongoing dynamic with Saxon and Martha’s feelings for The Doctor will continue to come to the boil.
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