Flesh and Stone (TV story): Difference between revisions

'''''Flesh and Stone''''' was the fifth episode of [[Series 5 (Doctor Who)|the fifth series]] of [[BBC Wales]] ''[[Doctor Who]]''. It was the second of a two-part story that began with ''[[The Time of Angels]]''.  

The [[Eleventh Doctor]], [[Amy Pond|Amy]], [[River Song|River]], [[Octavian (The Time of Angels)|Father Octavian]] and the Clerics have jumped [[The Time of Angels (TV story)|at the Doctor's signal]]. His shooting of the [[gravity globe]] caused an updraft, allowing them to be caught in the ''[[Byzantium (ship)|Byzantium]]''{{'}}s [[gravity]] field. They have landed upside down on the [[Spacecraft|ship]]'s hull. Octavian quickly notices that the [[Weeping Angel]]s are beginning to restore; within an hour they'll be an army. The Doctor opens the door and leads everyone inside the corridor while the Angels pop the lights outside the entrance.

However, right before they can enter the secondary flight deck, the door shuts. The Doctor seals the door outside, but tells them that the Angels are there ''now''. As the Doctor works on the lights, four Angels break off the door and enter the corridor. In the nick of time, the Doctor prevents the Angels from draining the lighting grid's power. However, he gravely announces he will have to drain the power in the corridor to get the door open — including the lights. Octavian and his men line up to fire on the Angels while the Doctor tells Amy to turn the wheel on the door four times after he has cut the power. She responds with ten, before correcting herself.

They quickly enter, with the Doctor shutting the door behind them. Octavian magnetises the door to keep the Angels out, thinking even they cannot turn the wheel now; they start doing so, but slow enough that it buys everyone time to think. Now that Octavian gets that the Angels cannot be stopped by conventional means, the Doctor begins figuring out what their resources are; River joins him in contemplating what they can do. The Doctor and River realise there must be an [[oxygen]] factory on board to supply the passengers with air. The Doctor activates a panel on the back wall, which opens to reveal a cybernetic [[forest]] within the ship. Amy continues counting down, but denies doing so.

While the Doctor and River try to explain the counting to her, [[Angel Bob]] calls to find out their plans. The Doctor taunts him, but grows serious when Bob tells him that they are in Amy's eye. The Angels are making her count to scare them, and will take her soon. Bob gloats over gaining mastery over [[time]] and [[space]]. The Doctor informs him the ''Byzantium'' doesn't have that much power. A screeching noise is heard from outside; "Dear God! What is that!?" Bob explains, the best as it can, that the Angels are laughing because "[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|the Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed]]". The Doctor wonders what he has missed and turns to see [[Time Field|a huge crack]] in the wall of the ship. It is the exact shape of the one in Amy's bedroom wall. He orders the others to run while he looks at it. Though Amy is reluctant, River pulls her away, knowing the Doctor knows what he's doing. A scan from the sonic tells the Doctor that the crack is "extremely very not good." When he turns to follow, he is surrounded by the Angels. One catches him by his jacket.

The Weeping Angels do not kill him immediately, confusing the Doctor. He turns around to see them facing the crack, arms raised. Wiggling to get free of the grip of the Angel holding him by his jacket, the Doctor tells them that the light coming out of the crack is pure [[time]] energy; it is not power, but "the fire at the [[End of the Universe|end of the universe]]." As the entire group looks at the crack, the Doctor runs off into the forest without his jacket, telling them, "Another thing, never let me talk"; he got out of his coat while they were distracted.

Meanwhile, Amy has reached "two" in her countdown and lies down, cradling her head. River produces [[River's scanner|a scanner]] to check her while Octavian worries they are exposed. River retorts that Octavian's only job is to keep the Doctor safe. If he's dead, she won't forgive herself, but if he's alive, she won't forgive him. She realises he is standing right behind her. They wonder how he escaped the Angels; "Found a crack in the wall and told them it was the end of the universe". When questioned what the crack really is, the Doctor repeats "the end of the universe". He rushes to Amy and [[deduce]]s that because she looked into the eyes of an Angel, and, as the image of an Angel becomes an Angel, there is a living Angel in her brain's visual center. After internal debate, the Doctor orders Amy to close her eyes. She soon begins to normalise. If she opens them for more than a second, the Angel will escape and she will die. Unable to see, the Doctor suggests she stay in the clearing with the others while he and River proceed to the primary flight deck. Octavian insists that where River goes, he does as well. The Doctor reluctantly agrees, leaving Amy with the remaining Clerics. As they head off, Amy asks him not to leave him.

As Octavian, River, and the Doctor move through the forest, Octavian tells the Doctor that River is on leave from [[Stormcage Containment Facility]] in his custody. Through this mission, she hopes to earn a pardon. While River tries to open the door to the primary flight deck, the Doctor considers the anomalies he has recently noticed: the [[Leadworth duck pond|duckless duck pond in Leadworth]]; Amy's inability to remember [[Dalek invasion of Earth (2009)|the Dalek invasion of Earth]]; and [[The Next Doctor (TV story)|the CyberKing in Victorian London]]. He uses River's scanner to work out that a temporal explosion will occur on [[26 June]] [[2010]] and cause the cracks in time and space — Amy's time.

Marco orders [[Pedro]] to go to the light. Amy reminds him he sent the other two, but he insists there weren't any others. After some time, Marco decides to go and investigate, having forgotten Pedro as well. Amy pleads with him to stay. As a compromise, he leaves her a spare communicator and agrees to speak to her through it. As he reaches the crack, his voice vanishes in a crackle of static. Amy is now left alone without anyone to guard her from the Angels: the one in her mind and the ones outside of it.

River opens the door and steps inside while Octavian waits with the Doctor. The lights go out. When they return, Octavian is trapped in an Angel's stranglehold. Knowing the Doctor cannot save him, Octavian tells him River is in prison for murder and he shouldn't trust her. As the Doctor flees, Octavian's neck is snapped. River tries to get a [[teleport]] working as the Doctor explains the cracks. When she challenges his ideas, he responds with growing rage and tells her the teleport is useless.

Later, a second squad of Clerics cleans up the camp outside the temple while Amy sits nearby, complaining of aches from climbing out of the ''[[Byzantium (ship)|Byzantium]]'' with her eyes shut. The Doctor tells her she did not have to do this. Since the Angels fell into the crack, the one in her mind never existed now. Amy wonders why she remembers them and the Clerics, when they never existed at all. The Doctor explains that, as a [[time travel]]ler, she now sees things differently.

Back in [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]], [[Amy Pond|Amy]] tells [[Eleventh Doctor|the Doctor]] she wants to go home. He thinks she means for good, but she insists she has something to show him. He parks the TARDIS in [[Amy's house#Amy's bedroom|Amy's bedroom]] [[25 June|five minutes after they first left]]. Amy shows him her wedding dress and engagement ring; she is getting [[married]] in the morning to [[Rory Williams]].

Amy says the she needs comforting, after the recent events. She tries to explain to the Doctor "who" she wants, but the Doctor hasn't a clue to what she is talking about. Seeing he is not going to get hints, Amy tries to [[kiss]] him, but he dodges her and stands up. She continues to allude to sexual connotations, all of which the Doctor nervously attempts to fend off. He rebuffs her advances by protesting that he is 907 years old and the kind of relationship she wants will never work out between them. She states that she wasn't thinking of anything nearly that long term. She attempts to undress him and finally kisses him, but he pushes her away, citing her marriage the next morning. This suddenly makes him remember the date of the temporal explosion: [[26 June]] [[2010]]. 26 June is the date of Amy's wedding. He pushes her back into the TARDIS just as the [[clock]] turns past midnight to the next day.