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- For angels in general, see also Angel.
The Weeping Angels were a species of winged humanoids from the early universe, so called because they covered their faces, giving them a weeping appearance, to prevent trapping themselves in stone form for eternity.
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 could become so severe that they might 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 just as deadly, and could regain their appearance if re-energized. (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 there is a suggestion they do not have the same form when unseen.
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 otherwise have had. The Angels were able to move people through both space and time, as Kathy was 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. This would cause lights to flicker, making it easier to use their quantum-locking. (DW: Blink, The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone) The Angels were also unnaturally strong, capable of breaking through steel doors and breaking victims' necks without much difficulty (DW: 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 by instinct, 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 victims looked an Angel in the eyes, this ability allowed the Angel to infect their visual centres, creating an image in their mind. Thus affected, the victim could be mentally influenced by the Angel until it became fully grown, at which point it could escape the person's body (killing them in the process). This ability could only be stopped by shutting down the visual centre. Examples of mental influence include making the victim count down the minutes to their own death, and making the victim hallucinate that one of their limbs has petrified (DW: Flesh and Stone)
At the end of "Blink," Sally is shown to possess several photos of Weeping Angels. The Time of Angels reveals that pictures of Angels will eventually turn into Angels. What has become of Sally's photos is unknown. However it is implied that images of Angels are tied to the original Angel, so it may be assumed that the photographs are harmless due to the original Angel being immobilised.
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)
It is possible that Angels have night vision as well, since the Angels in Blink were said to be eternally trapped. However, their only source of light was a bulb. This would have eventually burnt out, leaving the angels in darkness, so if they didn't have night vision they would have been able to move, as they wouldn't be able to see each other.
History
The Weeping Angels evolved near the beginning of the universe, and were, in the Doctor's words, "the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely," since their method of killing was to let their victims "live to death". They also had a defense mechanism of turning into stone when observed by another, this perhaps made them the loneliest beings in existence as, due to this defense mechanism, they could not even look at each other. In that respect the Doctor appeared to pity them. (DW: Blink)
The Time Lords knew of the Weeping Angels and viewed them as nightmarish: an old manuscript on the Weeping Angels, written in High Gallifreyan, translated into "It's behind you". (REF: The Brilliant Book 2011)
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 group of Weeping Angels managed to strand the Tenth 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 was 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 took 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)
In the 33rd century, flocks of angels began swarming human colony worlds and darkening the sunlight to feed; worlds such as New Moscow were asked to take up arms against the angels, causing some to say it would not be possible to oppose such powerful creatures. (REF: The Brilliant Book 2011)
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 and eventually was brought to the Byzantium, at which point it caused the ship 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 not successful as the owner of the ship didn't care to listen to her forewarnings.
At an unknown point in time, a definitive piece of literature about the Angels was created.
The Eleventh 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 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 a 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 had predetermined would appear, bearing limitless energy for them to feast on. However, after capturing the Doctor, they were told they could not feast upon pure time energy, which was the fire at the end of the universe. This allowed the Doctor to escape and regroup with his posse. In the meantime, fearing the Crack, the Angels began fleeing to the other side of the ship, being briefly stopped by the clerics' gazes, but paid them no mind when the light of the Time Field caught their attention to allow their quantum-locking to be undone. After only Amy, the Doctor and River remained at the primary flight deck, the Angels confronted the Doctor, telling him that the only he could seal the crack by throwing himself into it. Instead, the Doctor waited for Byzantium's artificial gravity to shut off, (because the Angels were absorbing too much energy from the ship itself), causing the entire Angel army to fall into the Crack, sealing it and removing them from history along with the mental image in Amy's mind. (DW: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone)
Other references
- When a museum was made from the Doctor's memories in the Matrix, it contained a Weeping Angel. (IDW: The Forgotten)
- When trying to jog Jackson Lake's memory, the Tenth Doctor reminded him of his adventures with the Weeping Angels by asking him about the "Do not Blink" thing back with Sally Sparrow. (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, and would "stand as monuments to their shame, like 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.