Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The Time of Angels

Dear Gary—
After the last two episodes Doctor Who has a long way to go in order to rehabilitate itself in my eyes. The Time of Angels is a good start.
The Weeping Angels were a great one story villain. They make a reappearance here, but in keeping with New Who tradition of revamping old foes this brand spanking new alien is already in line for a makeover. For this one episode it works; it works almost as well as the previous incarnation of Angels in Blink. What makes them work is the same thing that worked in Blink, and that is their reasonably explained lethargy. Absent that, this story would be over in the blink of an eye.
As it stands this first half of a two part story is sufficiently suspenseful and creepy. The Angels provide a real and horrifying threat even if there is no motivation provided. The Angels of Blink had a reason for their actions—they were feeding off the potential energy of their victims’ stolen lives. These relatively ‘nice’ killers of Blink, however, have turned into psychotic murderers snapping necks for the sheer pleasure of it. They have also gained some super villain powers along the way, prompting the Doctor to describe them as “the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced” (move over Daleks and Cybermen—but I suppose they are not technically a product of evolution). I suppose the energy draining goes hand in hand with their previous manifestation, but now they can telekinetically slam doors shut and deadlock them even when there is no deadlock, and they can use the cerebral cortex of a corpse to communicate as well as reanimate the consciousness of a dead human. Seems there’s nothing these Angels can’t do as long as the script calls for it.
The script calls for the Angels to be just eerie and menacing enough to chill the spine but not enough to kill the action. That’s a bit of a cheat and a problem, but it works for half a story and makes for an entertaining thriller.
The Time of Angels gets us back on track of the New Who trend of hitting all the highlights of pop culture genres in order to keep the audience’s attention without getting overly annoying.
Like that Mission Impossible opening in which River Song takes a serious leap of faith. It is very fortuitous that the Doctor read the script and arrives in the nick of time (and that the TARDIS is on its most precise and best behavior).
The return of River Song is a good call too, even if a tad irritating. It is refreshing to see a strong, confident female character on an equal footing with the Doctor. The give and take between the two is amusing and there is a comfortable chemistry that speaks to their long history together even if the Doctor (and the audience) is not yet privy to it. The running joke that River knows more about the TARDIS and various equipment gets a bit old though, and despite the gag of the TARDIS sound being extremely funny I can only assume River is putting the Doctor on. After all, I just re-watched Underworld where that same sound is clearly identified as the relative dimensional stabilizer of a TARDIS in materialization phase. The various hints about River’s true identity are tantalizing as they arise organically within the confines of the story, both through Amy’s natural curiosity (“She’s Mrs. Doctor from the future, isn’t she?”) and through the evident arrangement and shared knowledge between River and Father Octavian. This too would get old, however, if continued much longer without any kind of payoff; but ‘spoilers,’ Gary; I won’t delve deeper into the topic.
The tension slowly builds throughout this episode. The Doctor and River discussing the book on Angels interspersed with Amy trapped with an Angel are well done as the snippets of knowledge the Doctor and River glean come to life before Amy’s eyes. The notion of the Angel coming out of the projection (another Angel super power) is terrific and terrifying, and Amy’s ultimate solution brilliant. When the scene shifts into the cavern the suspense steadily increases.
I have to stop for a moment here, Gary, to say a word about Matt Smith as the Doctor. The last two stories had my blood boiling, but the one saving grace (even though I was too mad to mention it) was Matt Smith’s performance. He continues this stellar portrayal in The Time of Angels. He has that laser sharp focus allowing him to switch from flippant to serious on a dime and amidst chaos and danger to take a seemingly innocuous moment to express concern and foster reassurance (similar to the Fourth Doctor).
In particular I would like to point out the Doctor’s interaction with Bob. Almost out of the corner of his eye the Doctor discerns the dysfunctional exchange between Octavian and his Cleric and with a simple question (“What’s your name?”) he diffuses the tension and with a few more well placed words gains the confidence of all. With a final “Anyone in this room who isn’t scared is a moron,” he turns his attention back to the danger at hand with, “Carry on.” It is fast; it is momentary; it is unnecessary; but it speaks volumes about who this Eleventh Doctor is.
Back to the action. The revelations about the all-powerful Angels keep coming. “That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel.” Not only that, but when an Angel creeps into a person’s eye they also control their mind. It is eerie watching Amy learn this for herself. The sand filtering through her hand as she rubs her eye is an ominous warning of things to come. When she becomes literally petrified with fear it takes the Doctor’s lateral thinking (shades of Three and Four here) to get her moving again.
Now we find out the true psychosis of these Angels as they taunt the Doctor using Bob’s voice. They are as malicious as they are powerful. I have to wonder how the universe has survived them.
Finally we have the reveal that the multitude of statues surrounding our heroes in these caverns of the dead are not the monuments to the two-headed inhabitants of the planet as they thought but are in fact reviving Angels. Surrounded by Angels, malevolent and mighty Angels, they are trapped.
Except: “If you’re smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap.”
The Doctor is being bombastic again, but I’ll forgive him because these Angels are unforgivably sadistic.
The flaring light, the gunshot, the jumping . . . I don’t know what any of that is about, but along with Amy and River and Octavian and the Clerics I will trust the Doctor and I will take that leap of faith . . .
Until next time Gary.

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