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The Weeping Angels are a species of winged humanoids from the early universe, so called because they cover their faces, giving them a weeping appearance, to prevent trapping themselves in stone form for eternity.
- For angels in general, see also Angel.
Biology
Appearance
The Weeping Angels looked like stone statues of humanoid women with wings. (DW: Blink) When Angels became older or grew weaker, they appeared to wear away as a normal statue naturally would over many years. This wearing would become so severe that they did not look like their original forms anymore, losing their wings and becoming more like a typical statue of significant age. These older Weeping Angels did not have the same speed as their "healthy" counterparts, but were still just as deadly. (DW: The Time of Angels)
- The Angels in Flesh and Stone were shown to be stone when not moving, as well as making grinding stone noises when moving. In Blink, the Angels are silent throughout and are suggested not to have the same form when unseen. This may suggest they were in a mid-way state and their completely active form is different.
Powers and Abilities
The Weeping Angels had the ability to move creatures back through time with a touch. This allowed them to consume the potential energy from the time the victims could have had alive had the Angels not transported the victim back in time. The Angels were able to move people through both space and time, as Kathy were touched in London, but ended up in Hull, while Billy Shipton was touched inside a parking garage, but arrived in 1969 in an outdoor location. (DW: Blink) Besides feeding on this potential energy, they could also feed on other types of energy, such as the radiation given off by a Galaxy-class Star Liner or the electrical energy in electronics. (DW: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone) This also caused lights to flicker, making it easier to use their quantum-locking. (DW: Blink, The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone)
The Weeping Angels also had a unique and nearly-perfect defense mechanism, quantum-locking which caused them to turn into stone when being observed. (DW: Blink) It could also be done at will, when they believed they were being watched. (DW:Flesh and Stone) When not being observed, they could move incredibly fast to catch their victims. However, this meant that they had to cover their eyes when in their stony form; otherwise if they saw each other they would be trapped forever. (DW: Blink)
Anything with the image of the Angel, such as pictures or film, also gained the abilities of an Angel and would eventually become an Angel. (DW: The Time of Angels) When a victim looked the Angel in the eyes, this ability allowed them infect their visual centre, creating an image in their mind. Thus affected, the victim could be controlled by the Angel until they became fully grown, at which point they can escape the person's body (killing them in the process). This ability could only be stopped by shutting down the visual centre. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
The Angels were also able to take the consciousness of someone who had died and speak through it in order to communicate. (DW: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone)
History
The Weeping Angels evolved near the beginning of the universe, and were (as the Doctor put it) the kindest of killers and psychopaths since their method of killing was to let their victims "live to death". This perhaps make them the loneliest beings in existence as, due to their defence mechanism, they could not even look at each other. In that respect the Doctor appears to pity them. (DW: Blink)
At some point in the 21st century, Julia Hardwick found clues that warned her of the Weeping Angels, as well as photos which seemed to depict her in the past. When she began to investigate, she was sent to the past by an Angel, making her the one who sent her the warnings. (WC: A Ghost Story for Christmas)
In 2007, a quartet of Weeping Angels managed to strand the Doctor in 1969 and captured his TARDIS with the goal of using the Time Lord technology for its near-unlimited temporal energy, in a process which is capable of turning off the sun. Despite gaining the TARDIS, the Angels could not find a way into the police box-shaped construct, however they later found the TARDIS's key. Unfortunately for the Angels, Sally Sparrow gained the key from one of the Angels before they could reach the TARDIS. The Angels started stalking Sally in their attempt to gain access to the TARDIS. They managed to corner her in the basement of the Wester Drumlins estate building where the TARDIS was stored by the Angels. She managed to enter it and send it back to the Doctor. When it finished dematerialising the Angels gazed at each other across the empty space where the TARDIS was, which turned each other into stone perpetually thereby ending the group's menace. (DW: Blink)
At some point in the 47th century, hundreds of Weeping Angels came to Alfava Metraxis and wiped out the civilization of the Aplans. After doing this, they ran out of food and began to starve, going dormant in the Aplan Mortarium. Another Angel somehow learned of this, and feigned dormancy in the ruins of Razvahan until it was dug up. It passed between private hands until it was brought to the Byzantium, at which point it caused it to crash onto Alfava Metraxis, planning to use the radiation as fuel. River Song, who had been tracking it, tried to warn the owners, but was unable to do so.
The Doctor and Amy Pond, along with River and soldiers from the Church, entered the temple to find it. Inside the Maze, numerous worn statues were found inside and the Doctor deduced that the Angel must have hidden itself among them to avoid being found. The Angel would go on to kill 3 different soldiers, using the consciousness of one to communicate with the Doctor. Eventually, the Doctor realized that all the statues were Angels. When surrounded, they were able to escape by destroying the gravity globe, creating an "updraft" and falling onto the Byzantium. The Angels followed them, only for both groups to encounter a crack in one of the ship's walls. The Crack was bleeding pure time energy, something the Angels could not feast upon. Fearing the Crack, the Angels fled to the other side of the ship, and told the Doctor that only he could seal the crack by throwing himself into it. Instead, the Doctor turned off the Byzantium's artificial gravity, causing the entire Angel army to fall into the Crack, sealing it and removing them from history. (DW: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone)
Other references
- When trying to jog Jackson Lake's memory, the Doctor reminded him of his adventures with the Weeping Angels. (DW: The Next Doctor)
- Rassilon declared that the two Time Lords who opposed him (who covered their eyes in the same way as the Weeping Angels) were "monuments to their shame, and will stand witness as the Weeping Angels of old". (DW: The End of Time)
Behind the Scenes
- The Weeping Angels were in fact portrayed by live actors, as revealed in the episode of Doctor Who Confidential corresponding with Blink.