The Angels Take Manhattan (TV story)

The Angels Take Manhattan
Doctor:	[[doctor::Eleventh Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Amy, Rory, River
Main enemy:	The Weeping Angels, Grayle
Main setting:	Manhattan, New York City, 1938 and 2012
Key crew
Writer:	Steven Moffat
Director:	Nick Hurran
Producer:	Marcus Wilson
Release details
Story number:	229
Premiere broadcast:	29 September 2012
Format:	45 minutes
Production code:	3.5
Doctor Who television stories
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Production order
← Previous	Asylum of the Daleks
Next →	The Power of Three

The Angels Take Manhattan was the fifth episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It featured the departure of Amy Pond and Rory Williams as Companions, and the return of River Song.

Synopsis

A simple trip to New York City goes horribly wrong when Rory is sent back to the 1930s by the Weeping Angels. There he finds that River is investigating the angels and Manhattan has become their hunting grounds. The Doctor and Amy must find Rory before it is too late, but they soon find that not every point in time can be changed. And here, the Doctor must do the one thing he has been dreading - say a final farewell to Amelia Pond.

Plot

A detective is sent by an art collector and mob boss to Winter Quay, a place "Where the statues live". When he arrives he notices a little girl in a nearby building mimicking a Weeping Angel's pose. He enters the building unaware the girl was trying to warn him about the Weeping Angel that was sitting on a plinth near the building which is now awake.

The detective enters a room in the building that has his name on it; unaware the angels are prowling the corridors. He encounters an elderly version of himself, who warns him that "They" are going to send him back in time now he is there. The Detective is then attacked by the angels but manages to avoid them as something large is heard approaching from outside. Since the angels have blocked the stairwell he is forced onto the roof and comes face to face with the snarling Statue of Liberty; revealed to be a Weeping Angel of gigantic size. As he succumbs to his fate, the audience is made aware that someone is writing about the man's demise on a typewriter.

In current day New York, the Doctor and the Ponds are having a picnic in Central Park. The Ponds are annoyed by the Doctor's habit of reading his detective novel by Melody Malone out loud, while he in turn is perturbed by Amy's use of reading glasses. Rory eventually goes off to fetch them more coffee. On his way back, he hears the sound of children giggling, as a cherub on a nearby fountain disappears. As Rory walks, the giggling gets closer and closer. Amy and the Doctor continue to read, only to discover that they have begun appearing in the book. They run to the TARDIS, while in 1938 Rory is talking to Melody, who turns out to be River Song, as they are taken captive by some men.

Cast

• The Doctor - Matt Smith
• Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
• Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
• River Song - Alex Kingston
• Grayle - Mike McShane
• Sam Garner - Rob David
• Hood - Bentley Kalu
• Foreman - Ozzie Yue
• Old Garner - Burnell Tucker
• Photoshoot PA - Zac Fox

Crew

Executive Producers   Caroline Skinner and Steven Moffat

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Script Producer - Denise Paul Line Producer - Diana Barton Production Manager - Phillipa Cole Location Manager - Nicky James Unit Manager - Geraint Williams Production Co-ordinator - Claire Hildred Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Gabriella Ricci Production Assistants - Rachel Vipond, Samantha Price Script Secretary - Sandra Cosfeld A/Production Accountants - Rhys Evans, Justine Wooff Script department Assistant Script Editor - John Phillips Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Fay Selby 2nd Assistant Director - James DeHaviland 3rd Assistant Director - Heddi-Joy Taylor-Welch Assistant Director - Danielle Richards Script Supervisor - Steve Walker Camera Operator - Joe Russell Focus Pullers - James Scott, Julius Ogden Grip - Gary Norman Assistant Grip - Owen Charnley Camera Assistants - Meg De Koning, Sam Smithard, Evalina Norgren Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Stephen Slocombe Electricians - Bob Milton, Gareth Sheldon, Matt Wilson	Art department Supervising Art Director - Paul Spriggs Art Director - Lucienne Suren Assistant Art Director - Richard Hardy Art Department Co-ordinator - Donna Shakesheff Production Buyers - Charlie Lynam, Adrian Greenwood Petty Cash Buyer - Florence Tasker Set Decorator - Adrian Anscombe Set Dresser - Jayne Davies Graphic Artist - Christina Tom Graphic Designer - Chris Lees Standby Props - Phill Shellard, Helen Atherton Standby Carpenter - Will Pope Prop Hand - Austin J. Curtis Standby Rigger - Bryan Griffiths Props Master - Paul Smith Props Chargehand - Bernie Davies Dressing Props - Mike Elkins, Ian Griffin Props Driver - Gareth Fox Props Makers - Penny Howarth, Alan Hardy, Jamie Thomas Construction Manager - Terry Horle Construction Chargehand - Dean Tucker Graphics - Peter Anderson Studio Costume department Costume Supervisor - Carly Griffith Assistant Costume Designer - Fraser Purfit Costume Assistants - Katarina Cappellazzi, Gemma Evans	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Artists - Sara Angharad, Vivienne Simpson, Allison Sing Prosthetics - Millennium FX Movement Stunt Co-ordinators - Crispin Layfield, Gordon Seed Stunt Performers - Matthew Stirling, Stephanie Carey Casting Casting Associate - Alice Purser General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Nerys Davies Assistant Editor - Becky Trotman On-line Conform - Mark Bright On-line Editor - Jon Everett Special and visual effects VFX Editor - Joel Skinner Colourist - Mick Vincent Sound Sound Recordist - Deian Llŷr Humphreys Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Sound Maintenance Engineers - Ross Adams, Chris Goding Dialogue Editor - Darran Clement ADR Editor - Matthew Cox Sound Effects Editor - Paul Jefferies Foley Editor - Jamie Talbutt

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

Buildings

• The Statue of Liberty is revealed to be possessed by a Weeping Angel.

Foods and beverages

• Rory goes to get three coffees and is transported to 4 April 1938 whilst holding them.

TARDIS

• River tells Rory that the TARDIS Translation circuit 'sticks around' when he sees writing on ancient Chinese vases being translated.

Theories and concepts

• By changing his future and creating a paradox Amy and Rory's actions wipe out the Angels' Winter Quay building.

Time

• The Doctor says that there's significant time distortions around New York.
• If the future is read in a book, it becomes a fixed point in time and therefore cannot be changed.
• Due to the paradox created by Amy and Rory, the Doctor cannot travel back in time to visit them without destroying New York City.

Timeline

• The Doctor visits China in 221 BC to have a message placed on a vase to alert River.

Cars and trucks

• When the Doctor decides to adjust his hair before exiting the TARDIS, a plaque references that the Doctor's TARDIS was manufactured by Rolls Royce.

Other products

• Rory uses Brightwell & Hyman matches to defend himself from the cherubic Weeping Angels.

Story notes

• The title of the book which River Song writes under the pseudonym "Melody Malone" is The Angel's Kiss. An e-book version of the novel will be released on 4 October 2012.
• This is the first episode to feature River Song that is not a two-parter or is at least following a cameo appearance by River in the previous episode.

Ratings

to be added

Rumours

• The Statue of Liberty is a Weeping Angel. This turned out to be true.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

• The Statue of Liberty is around 150ft tall in real life. But in the episode, she stands behind the Winter Quay building which is around 70 - 90 feet.

• The Winter Quay is located near Battery Park on the south side of Manhattan, however several shots from the roof show the Crystler Building nearby in the background, a building located miles north and is not visible from Battery Park.

• The map that The Doctor uses to locate Rory, in 1938, shows both the Battery City Park, as well as the Battery Tunnel. These were not in existence in 1938.

• When Amy and Rory are contemplating suicide, there are clearly some moments in which neither one of them is observing the Statue of Liberty angel, meaning it could easily have taken them both. This is also true when the Doctor and River are on the roof after they jump: neither is looking at the Statue yet it is clearly visible frozen in the background. However, in these shots, we the audience are still observing the angel.

• Multiple times throughout the episode Angels are seen standing in groups or facing each other without their eyes covered, what we know of angels from past episodes would mean those angels would be permanently frozen as they are all able to see each other.

• The Photoshoot PA who was credited did not appear in this episode, but instead appeared in Asylum of the Daleks.

Continuity

• Amy Pond calls the Doctor "Raggedy man". (TV: The Eleventh Hour, The Big Bang, The Girl Who Waited)
• The Doctor used some of his regenerative energy to repair River Song's hand. He did something similar when recharging the last power source in the TARDIS after it traveled to a Parallel World. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
• In response to the Doctor healing her hand, River exclaims "You embarrass me!" much like the Doctor did in The Wedding of River Song.
• The afterword Amy wrote in Melody Malone's book was a message for the Doctor, which made reference to various adventures the Doctor and Amy had had together: saving a whale in space (TV: The Beast Below), fighting pirates (TV: The Curse of the Black Spot), inspiring a great artist (TV: Vincent and the Doctor), and falling in love with a man who would wait two thousand years for her. (TV: The Big Bang)
• Amy asks the Doctor to return to meet a young Amelia Pond the morning after he left her waiting in the garden in The Eleventh Hour to tell her about the adventures they will have together. The older Amy was dreaming about that morning when the Doctor came back to pick her up the night before her wedding at the end of The Eleventh Hour. Steven Moffat said of the scene, "After showing Amelia Pond in the garden as a young girl in The Eleventh Hour, Karen's first episode, the final shot in Saturday's The Angels Take Manhattan is a punchline I have been waiting to tell for two and a half years."
• River mentions that she was pardoned from prison because the man she killed never existed. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, TV: The Wedding of River Song) Oswin erased the Doctor from the Daleks' memories in TV: Asylum of the Daleks. However, it is unclear how exactly the Doctor was erased from other networks and memories. The conversation between River and the Doctor (and the fact that Solomon couldn't find info about the Doctor in TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) implies the Doctor is responsible for the other erasures, as he was "getting too big".
• River says that she is a professor now. (TV: Silence in the Library)
• While on the roof contemplating suicide, Rory makes a reference to his history of having died multiple times and coming back to life each time. (TV: Amy's Choice, Cold Blood, The Curse of the Black Spot, The Doctor's Wife)
• The Doctor sent a coded message to River ("Yowzah") from the past, as River had done with him on Planet One and through the black box of the Byzantium. (TV: The Pandorica Opens, The Time of Angels)
• The Doctor uses the extractor fans once more (TV: Let's Kill Hitler).
• River tells Amy that The Doctor doesn't like to see his companions age. The Doctor once indicated the same. (TV: School Reunion)
• This is Amy's fourth encounter with the Weeping Angels. She previously met them in TV: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, PROSE: Touched by an Angel and PROSE: Magic of the Angels.

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

External links

to be added

Footnotes