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"The Time of Angels" is the fourth episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 24 April 2010. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by Steven Moffat, the second episode being "Flesh and Stone", and features the return of the Weeping Angels from the Series 3 episode "Blink".

Plot

Doctor River Song, after breaking into a vault located on the starship Byzantium, carves a message into its Home Box, the starship's black box device. 12,000 years later, the Doctor and Amy find the message, which has been written in Old High Gallifreyan, whilst visiting a museum which has collected the Home Box as an archaeological artifact. The message says 'Hello sweetie' and is clearly meant for the Doctor, who then steals it with Amy and watches its security footage, which contains a message from River. The Doctor arrives in the nick of time and catches River as she depressurises a section of the Byzantium to escape from it. River orders the Doctor to follow the ship, which flies away. The three of them pilot the TARDIS after the Byzantium, where it crash-lands on the planet Alfava Metraxis. There, River signals a group of soldiers from the Church, led by Father Octavian, who teleport to the planet and ask the Doctor what he knows of the Weeping Angels.

The soldiers set up a base camp and River reveals to the Doctor and Amy that the Byzantium's vault contained a dormant Weeping Angel. She shows them a 4-second long looped camera recording of the Weeping Angel that she managed to download from the ship. The Doctor and River go outside to look through a book of information about the Angels, written by a "mad-man" who had encountered the Angels before, leaving Amy alone in the room with the recording. Amy turns back to the monitor and sees that the Angel has somehow moved inside the recording and is now facing her. She attempts to shut off the screen by the plug and a remote, but looks away again which causes the Angel to move closer towards her. She backs off towards the door as it bares its teeth. Amy screams for the Doctor as the Angel suddenly emerges from the monitor. Outside, the Doctor is puzzled by the fact that there are no pictures of the Angels inside the book, but then reads out a passage concerning the Angels' image: "That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel" and he suddenly realizes that Amy is in great danger. The Doctor rushes back to Amy but cannot get the door to the viewing chamber open; neither can River burn through it with her weapon, all due to the Angel deadlocking the doors and power sources. All the while the Doctor reiterates to Amy not to blink while he and River try to force their way in. He also tells Amy not to look into the Angel's eyes as the book says that "The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter there". As Amy unwittingly looks into the Angel's eyes, she remembers what the Doctor said about the images of Angels and pauses the recording on a skip in the tape. The Angel vanishes, as the recording was paused on something which was not the image of an Angel, and she is saved.

The soldiers, the Doctor, River and Amy move into the "Maze of the Dead", a stone labyrinth with dead people buried inside the walls. The entire place is dark and full of worn and aged statues. The group attempts to track down the Angel, who is believed to be hiding amongst the statues to avoid detection. However, in the process, three soldiers have their necks snapped by the Angel, which worries the Doctor as that is not an Angel's normal way of killing. To his horror, the Doctor then remembers that the native species of this planet had two heads and realises that the statues in the maze, which are single-headed, must all be Angels. They were worn and deformed after being starved of victims for centuries but now this army of Angels is waking up, absorbing power from the intentionally crashed ship to regenerate themselves. The Angel that nearly killed Amy is also affecting how she perceives things; the Doctor deduces that she looked into the Angel's eyes despite his warning whilst Amy claims she tried to look away, but couldn't. When Amy thinks her hand has turned to stone, she tells the Doctor to leave her and save himself, which he will not do. The Doctor tries to convince Amy that her hand is not made of stone and eventually bites it to make her realize. They run to rejoin River Song and the other soldiers, who have gathered in the cavern where the Byzantium has crashed, the nose of the ship hanging far above their heads.

The Angel from the Byzantium uses the consciousness of one of the dead soldiers to communicate with the Doctor as the other regenerating Angels close in on all sides. The Angel tries to anger the Doctor with the fact that the soldier they are using to talk through died in fear, despite the Doctor's earlier assurances of safety. The Doctor tells the Angels that killing the soldier was their second mistake and that he will make them sorry. He asks for the trust of Amy, River and the remaining soldiers and tells them all to jump on his signal. He takes a gun from Father Octavian and explains to the Angels their first mistake:

There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow there's one thing you never, ever put in a trap...Me.

The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as the Doctor shoots the gravity globe illuminating the Maze.

Continuity

This episode sees the return of River Song, the woman from the Doctor's future who was previously seen in "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead". "The Time of Angels" takes place in her relative past. At this point of time she is a doctor and not yet a professor, yet she still has intimate knowledge of the Doctor's life, including the ability to fly the TARDIS at a more advanced level than the Doctor and the Old High Gallifreyan language. She once again maps her time with the Doctor using her diary, warning him against "spoilers" as before. This diary is explained to hold pictures of the Doctor's various incarnations, accounting for River's recognition of the Tenth Doctor in "Silence in the Library" despite this being her only meeting with him. In "Silence in the Library" the crash of the Byzantium was mentioned as an event that had occurred for River but not the Doctor.

The Weeping Angels first featured in the episode "Blink". This episode explores the further extent of their power as opposed to the "scavengers" seen in the former episode, showing their ability to control Amy's mind after their eyes meet, turn an image of themselves sentient, and re-animate the consciousness of a dead victim in order to communicate. Gravity globes were previously seen in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit". Old High Gallifreyan, the ancient language of the Time Lords, reappears for the first time since The Five Doctors.

The Doctor speed reads the guide on the Weeping Angels within seconds. This talent was last displayed in "Rose". The Doctor says that the guide was "not bad, a bit slow in the middle", a phrase very similar to one spoken by the fourth Doctor after speed reading a book in City of Death ("not bad, a bit boring in the middle"). He also mentions having "dinner with the chief architect", a reference to "The Curse of Fatal Death", also written by Moffat.

Broadcast

The first broadcast of the episode on BBC One attracted thousands of complaints from viewers about an animated trailer for the programme that followed it, Over the Rainbow, being placed over the episode's final moments. The BBC later apologised for the timing of the trailer.

Outside references

The Doctor claims to be on Virginia Woolf's bowling team.

References

1. Doctor Who magazine issue 420, page 12
2. Doctor Who Magazine, issue 418, 5 February 2010
3. "Shooting on Matt Smith's first series enters its final stages...". Doctor Who Magazine (417). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 6. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
4. ^ Doctor Who Magazine, issue 419, 5 March 2010
5. The Weeping Angels are back
6. BBC News: Doctor Who fans angered by trailer for Over the Rainbow

External links

• The Time of Angels on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki

Template:Doctor Who (2010 series)

• 2010 television episodes
• Screenplays by Steven Moffat
• Eleventh Doctor episodes