The Time of Angels (TV story)

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The Time of Angels is the fourth episode of Series Five. It is the first part of a two-part story. It marks the re-appearance of River Song and the Weeping Angels.

Synopsis

The enigmatic River Song hurtles back into the Doctor's life but she's not the only familiar face returning... The Weeping Angels are back! The Doctor is recruited by Father Octavian to track the last of the Angels, that have have escaped from the Byzantium starliner, through the terrifying Maze of the Dead.

Plot

A man is seen in a green field on a beautiful day, surrounded by trees, with a lipstick smear on the corner of his mouth. He is approached by a well-dressed man being followed by two guards, each armed. The man wipes some of the lipstick off, and says that it is hallucinogenic. It is revealed that the man is actually in the corridors of a spaceship. Grimly, the man remarks, "She's here."

River Song finds a vault and blasts the door open with a firearm, revealing a black box. She uses the firearm to burn ancient Gallifreyan language into the artifact that is found in the vault, a Home Box, the equivalent of a black box in planes, except it homes. Meanwhile, 12,000 years into the future, the Doctor and Amy Pond are in a museum, the Doctor explaining that most things there are incorrect until they come across the same home box. Amy is told of the power of the language of Time Lords and when Amy asks what it says, he replies "Hello sweetie", soon after, the Doctor and Amy steal the box and retreat into the TARDIS.

They look at the box's data and see a security feed of River Song standing in front of a doorway, and giving a series of coordinates. The Doctor takes the TARDIS to these coordinates and rescues River right after the door opens, throwing her into space.

The TARDIS gives chase to the Byzantium, but River takes the controls from him, telling him to press the blue stabilizers. The TARDIS stops shaking, and she lands the ship without the trademark hum of the landing TARDIS, explaining that the thrumming is only because the Doctor always leaves the brake on.

They exit the TARDIS, where they see the flaming wreckage of the Byzantium atop a plateau of stone. After Amy asks who River is, and the Doctor introduces them, accidentally letting loose to River that she will one day become a Professor. River calls in reinforcements that she has in orbit, and four men in desert camouflage teleport down. They are introduced to the Doctor by River, and the leader, Father Octavian, has already heard of the Doctor. After being urged by Father Octavian, River reveals to the Doctor that they are, in fact, chasing a Weeping Angel.

They enter the Temple, where camp is swiftly set up. The men in camouflage, the Clerics, have landed a dropship, which Father Octavian, River, Amy, and the Doctor enter. River has a tape of a Weeping Angel in the hull of the ship, one which loops every four seconds. The Doctor and River explain to Amy the nature of a Weeping Angel. The Doctor grins after he explains that they can move, and then he, River, and Father Octavian leave the dropship to work out how they will deal with the Weeping Angel. While working out a plan, River mentions to the Doctor that he once gave her all of his faces for whenever they meet. She hands the Doctor a book warning people about the Angels, and he starts to read.

File:DoctorAmyTOA.JPG
The Doctor tells Amy about the Weeping Angels

While the Doctor, River, and Father Octavian plan out their exploits, Amy feels left out, and looks around the dropship. However, the Weeping Angel has changed ever so slightly - it's hands are slightly away from it's face, and it's head has turned to the camera slightly. She asks River Song if there was more than one clip of the Angel, however she finds out there is only one. The four-second loop changes again, Amy having looked away from it for a while, and the Weeping Angel is now facing the camera, arms spread. Amy attempts to turn the television off, but it turns itself back on. After trying to convince herself a recording can't move, she attempts to unplug the television, to no avail. When Amy looks back up, the Weeping Angel has again moved closer to the camera, its face now consuming the screen. Amy tries opening the dropship's airlock, but it is deadlock sealed, and the Weeping Angel is now screaming into the camera.

Outside, the Doctor questions why a warning about the Weeping Angels has no pictures of the Angels. Re-reading the warning, he realizes that the image of an Angel becomes an Angel itself. At the same time, Amy looks back to the screen and the Weeping Angel is projecting itself inside the dropship as a hologram (or at least something visually akin to a hologram) with image noise. The Doctor attempts to open the door with his sonic screwdriver, but it won't work, and neither will attempting to cut off power to the ship's television from outside. The Doctor warns Amy to not look into the eyes of the Angel explaining they aren't the window to the soul, but the door. This is useless though, because Amy has already looked into the eyes of the angel. Amy finally defeats the Angel by freezing the image on the television between loops. The doors unlock and the Doctor enters and pulls the power cord to the television. The Doctor explains that the Angel was trying to reach out to them through the television and is no longer dormant. The Church soldiers outside are able to break through into the temple and the Doctor leaves exclaiming "It's begun," but not before Amy rubs her eye, and tells River that there was something in it.

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Amy gets something in her eye after looking at The Angel

The team climbs down into the temple and discovers a gravity well inside. The Doctor kicks a gravity globe into the well, and it floats into the middle of the chamber, revealing a room filled with stone statues. The Doctor goes off to explore, giving Father Octavian a moment to ask River if he "knows" yet. River tells Octavian that it is too soon in the Doctor's timeline, to which Octavian responds "Well, don't let him work it out." She ends the conversation by telling Octavian that she has "no intention of going back to prison." Octavian lets River leave and then sends Clerics Christian and Angelo to search the one visible exit from the chamber.

While exploring with the Doctor and River, Amy rubs her eye again. This time, dust runs out of it and through her fingers. River notices Amy looking at her hand, and asks if she is alright. Amy shakes the question off and asks what a Maze of the Dead is. River tells her its not as bad as it sounds, and that its just called that because dead people are buried in the walls. While getting inoculation to provide protection from radiation, Amy asks River what the Doctor is like. River says "the Doctor is the Doctor."

Elsewhere, Cleric Christian and Cleric Angelo explore the caves exit and complain about the mission. Christian continues forward, and away from Angelo, when his rifle's light flickers. He turns back to call for Angelo to come to him, and looks up to see a Weeping Angel about to attack. Angelo then gets a transmission from Christian to come and see something. He continues down the caves and is also attacked.

The Doctor, Amy, and River hear gunfire from afar, and head out to investigate. Cleric Bob had fired on a regular statue thinking it was an Angel. During a short conversation with the Doctor, Octavian tells the Doctor that their names are sacred names given to them when they enter the service of the church. Octavian orders Bob to keep guard of the entrance along with Christian and Angelo, and then joins the Doctor in his exploration. It is unknown to any of them that Christian and Angelo are dead.

The Doctor, Amy, River, Octavian, and a few Cleric soldiers continue deeper into the caverns and into a chamber of just statues. While in the statues River and the Doctor notice that the statues all have only one head, and the builders of the temple were two headed beings. When they turn back around, all the statues are trying to climb over to the group to attack. They realize that the entire chamber is filled with Weeping Angels. They do not look or act like other Angels, and the Doctor deduces that they have been down without anything to feed off of for long enough to degrade and weaken. He then continues and realizes that the crash of the Byzantium is releasing enough radiation to feed the army of Angels.

Meanwhile, Cleric Bob gets a transmission over the radio from Angelo, telling him to come over and see something. Bob does so, and is attacked the Weeping Angel from the ship (this being true because it is the only Angel that is not damaged). Octavian radios Bob with a warning about the Angels, and gets a response. After a short talk, Bob reveals that he is on his way to the group, and that he didn't escape the Angels. He explains that his neck was snapped, along with Christian's and Angelo's, and that the Angel took his cerebral cortex and reanimated a copy so that it could have a voice. The group begins running towards the wreckage, but Amy cannot. Her hand turned to stone while she was grabbing something, and she is now stuck. The Doctor tells Amy that the Angel is playing with her mind, and her hand is just fine. They argue over whether or not her hand is stone as Angels draw nearer, flickering the Doctor's flashlight in order to gain ground. The Doctor bites Amy's hand to convince her, and the two run away.

All the survivors are now gathered below the wreckage of the Byzantium, with no way out. Bob radios again, and tells the Doctor that the Angels are "very keen" that he should know that Bob died in fear and pain. River remarks to Amy that the Angels are trying to make the Doctor angry. The Doctor confirms that everyone in the group trusts him, then asks for Octavian's sidearm. He instructs them to jump when he does something extremely "stupid and dangerous". He tells Bob that the Angels made one mistake in designing their trap, saying that "there's one thing you never want to put in a trap...me." With that, he shoots the gravity globe, throwing the cavern into darkness.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



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.
          

Reza Karim and Jill Reeves were interviewed on the accompanying Doctor Who Confidential, credited as "Prosthetics Supervisors". Likewise, Ailsa Berk is clearly seen providing choreography for the Weeping Angels in Confidential. However, none of these people were listed in the end credits of The Time of Angels as originally broadcast on BBC One.


References

Languages

Planets

Spacecraft

  • The Byzantium is a spacecraft carrying a Weeping Angel, it crash lands when its warp engines suffer a phase shift.

Races and species

Religion

  • The soldiers who accompany River Song are from the Church.

TARDIS

  • The TARDIS is capable of creating and extending an air corridor.
  • The TARDIS has brakes.
  • According to River Song, the TARDIS isn't supposed to make the classic materialization/dematerialization noise; she says it's because the Doctor always leaves the brakes on.
  • The TARDIS has a blue stabilizer button that the Doctor wasn't aware of.

Technology

  • A Home Box is like a flight recorder, after a ship lands it can home-in back to the spacecraft's planet of origin.
  • The projection of a Weeping Angel is able to deadlock seal the landing pod, despite the pod not having the capability.
  • Perception filters are refered to again.

Story Notes

  • This was the first episode of Series 5, and therefore the first episode featuring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, to be filmed.[1]
  • The Doctor ripping the strap off the ceiling of one of the small ships was originally an accident; the producers liked the idea so much that they filmed Matt Smith doing it again.
  • In this story, River Song is a doctor. She acts with surprise when the Doctor lets slip that she will one day be a professor. In conversation with Father Octavian, she mentions that she was once imprisoned for a crime, and that the Doctor wouldn't help them if he knew who she truly was. It was revealed shortly before the episode aired that the crime was murdering "the best man she ever knew." Fans have speculated that this man could be the Doctor. [2].
  • River Song is only the third person seen capable of flying the TARDIS well on their own since the reintroduction of Doctor Who in 2005. Only the Doctor and The Master have been seen to do the same.
  • During its airing in England and Wales, an animated advert for the talent show Over the Rainbow began playing over the cliffhanger. This sparked complaints to the BBC who later apologised. The icon did not appear over the screens in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, only England.
  • This is the first episode of Series 5 not to feature one of The Cracks. However one does show up in the next episode.
  • One question commonly asked by fans regarding DW: Blink was why Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale did not try blinking one eye at a time to keep the Weeping Angels at bay. When the Angel is attacking Amy, she tries this method, but remarks on how difficult it actually is.

Ratings

to be added

Filming Locations

to be added

Rumours

  • River Song's presence in this episode may indicate that it is set in the 51st century, but this is not certain, as it is unknown precisely where in the timeline River Song comes from. The Doctor very briefly mentioned that it was the 51st century.
  • A Teaser from Digital Spy has implied a Data Ghost device will appear in this episode.[3]This was proved false, but a similar device was used when Bob was killed by the Weeping Angel.

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • When Amy's hand turns to stone, it is seen that it is actually stone. But just before the Doctor leans down to bite her, it is seen as just her plain hand, not stone. Also, it is clearly visible the Doctor doesn't actually bite her hand. It is her plain hand that is seen because in Doctor Who Confidential, it is revealed that Amy only thinks that her hand has been turned to stone because the Weeping Angel plays with her mind - it isn't stone, Amy just thinks it is. When we see her "stone" hand, we see it from her perspective. Also in Confidential, Matt mentioned he would actually bite Karen for the scene which she agreed to.
  • The CG TARDIS used when River is floating through space appears to look more like the old model, seeing as the blue hue is different, the windows are not the same, and the St. John's Ambulance logo isn't visible, although the lamp is still the current variant.
  • In the Delirium Archives, the TARDIS isn't shown in the background until The Doctor and Amy run to it with the Home Box.

Continuity

DVD Release

External Links

to be added

Footnotes

Template:Series 5

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