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"The Time of Angels" is the fourth episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 24 April 2010. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by Steven Moffat, the second episode being "Flesh and Stone", and features the return of both the Weeping Angels from the Series 3 episode "Blink", and River Song (Alex Kingston) from the Series 4 episodes "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead".

The episode is the first of two to feature the Eleventh Doctor and Amy reunited with River Song and face against the Weeping Angels. The episode, which was partially filmed at Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan, received positive reviews when it was aired. Viewers were, however, perturbed when the BBC played an advert banner (featuring a cartoon Graham Norton) over the episode's climactic scene.

Plot

The Doctor discovers a message from Doctor River Song, engraved in Old High Gallifreyan on the side of a ruined flight recorder from the starship Byzantium 12,000 years in the past. With Amy Pond, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to rescue her before the ship crashes on the planet Alfava Metraxis. Song guides the TARDIS onto the planet, more familiar with the TARDIS controls than the Doctor. Amy learns from both the Doctor and Song that they have a unique relationship due to the nature of time travel; Dr. Song has met the Doctor numerous times before in her personal history, evidenced by her diary with a TARDIS-like cover and her warnings of spoilers of his own future, while this is only the Doctor's second encounter with her.

Planetside, Song warns the Doctor of the Byzantium's cargo, a deadly Weeping Angel that can only move when unobserved by others. She calls for support of Father Octavian and his militarized "clerics" to join her on the surface to recapture it before it becomes too powerful from the radiation leaked by the ship and to protect a large human colony on the planet. Song, the Doctor and Amy review a four-second loop of security footage of the Angel in the Byzantium vault as the soldiers set up base camp. The Doctor and Song review a book written by a madman about the Angels which warns that any form of image of the Angels become Angels themselves. Simultaneously, Amy finds, when she looks away, the Angel from the footage moves and begins to emerge from the screen, further trapping her in the viewing room. The Doctor and Song attempt to free Amy; the Doctor warns Amy not to look directly into the eyes of the Angel because, "The eyes are not the windows to the soul, they are the doors," and the Angels may enter there. Amy is able to freeze the image on a loop break, causing the Angel to disappear and saving herself. As the Doctor and Song verify Amy is safe, she continues to believe she has something in her eyes after she was unable to follow the Doctor's warning.

To access the Byzantium and locate the Angel, the group must travel through a "Maze of the Dead", a stone labyrinth with numerous statues erected by the planet's natives that the Angel could hide among. After launching a gravity globe near the roof of the Maze to provide illumination, the group splits up, with some soldiers left to guard the entrance. As they explore, the Doctor and Song come to recall that the long-dead native species of the planet, the Aplans, have two heads, while all the statues have one; they quickly realise that every statue is a Weeping Angel. Each is presently slower and weaker than the captured Angel due to lack of beings to consume over the centuries but they are now absorbing energy from the crashed ship; the Doctor surmises that the Angel purposely crashed the Byzantium to rescue its kind. As the group tries to escape, Amy believes her hand to have become stone and cannot move, but the Doctor points out that her perception has been influenced by the Angel through her direct eye contact, and she is still fine (proving it by biting her hand), allowing her to flee. The group soon finds that the Angels have killed their rear guard and are using the consciousness of one of the soldiers, Bob, to speak to the Doctor. The Angels reveal they have lured the group in the trap at the highest point of the maze directly under the crashed ship, and are planning to kill and use their essences to further regenerate. The Doctor threatens that the Angels should have never put him in the trap, and prepares the group to act once he destroys the gravity globe; the episode ends on this cliffhanger.

Continuity

This episode sees the return of River Song, the woman from the Doctor's future who was previously seen in "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead". "The Time of Angels" takes place in her relative past, where she is a doctor, having not yet become a professor. Despite this, she still has intimate knowledge of the Doctor's life, including the Old High Gallifreyan language, and has the ability to fly the TARDIS much more smoothly than the Doctor. She states that she was taught to fly it by "the best", confirmed in "The Pandorica Opens" to have been the Doctor himself. She once again maps her time with the Doctor using her diary, warning him against "spoilers" as before. This diary is explained to hold pictures of the Doctor's various incarnations, accounting for River's recognition of the Tenth Doctor in "Silence in the Library" despite this being her only meeting with him. In "Silence in the Library" the crash of the Byzantium was mentioned as an event that had occurred for River but not the Doctor.

The words inscribed on the Home Box by River Song in Old High Gallifreyan, "Hello, Sweetie!", are the same words by which she greets the Tenth Doctor in "Silence in the Library". River is also revealed to have spent at least some time in prison, a fact which the Doctor does not learn until the end of "Flesh and Stone".

Locations

Filming for scenes set on the surface of the alien world were filmed at Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan.

Broadcast

The final TV rating for this episode was 8.13 million viewers on BBC1, once HD was included ratings rose to 8.6 million. This made it the 5th most watched programme on BBC1 and the 12th most watched across all UK TV channels for the week ending 25 April 2010. It was number 2 for that day, behind Britain's Got Talent with 11.45 million.

Incident

The BBC apologised after receiving over five thousand complaints about an animated graphic of Graham Norton walking on screen from the left, revealing a banner trailing his show Over the Rainbow during the cliffhanger ending of the first broadcast of "The Time of Angels" on certain English regions of the BBC One channel. The incident received attention on Twitter and was lampooned on both radio and television, with journalist Charlie Brooker describing the incident as "a travesty" and Matthew Graham of BBC Drama as "cheapen".

Graham Norton himself went on to parody the incident in his own show by placing a similar banner at the bottom of the screen and having a Dalek exterminate his own cartoon caricature.

DVD release

A Region 2 DVD containing this episode, Flesh and Stone and The Vampires of Venice was released on 5 July 2010. The Blu-Ray is due to be available 2 August 2010.

Reception

The episode received a positive review from Daniel Martin on guardian.co.uk: "It's an astonishing achievement, frankly ... absolutely bloody terrifying". Gavin Fuller's review for telegraph.co.uk declared that: "... the suspense was maintained well and the revelation that all the statues were Angels was genuinely shocking". However, Fuller critised the "... inference that the TARDIS doesn't really have to make its celebrated "vworp, vworp" noise on landing", asking "How can you do that to us long-time fans, Steven Moffat - that sound is part of the warp and weft of the programme!".

References

1. Doctor Who magazine issue 420, page 12
2. Doctor Who Magazine, issue 418, 5 February 2010
3. "Shooting on Matt Smith's first series enters its final stages...". Doctor Who Magazine (417). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 6. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
4. ^ Doctor Who Magazine, issue 419, 5 March 2010
5. "The Weeping Angels are back". BBC. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
6. Hello Sweetie, sound file from Silence in the Library, BBC website
7. "Walesarts, Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan". BBC. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
8. http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammesOverview?_s=4
9. ^ "Thousands of Doctor Who fans complain over Norton trail". BBC News. 26 April 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
10. The Vote Now Show, 24 April 2010
11. ^ You Have Been Watching, 29 April 2010
12. Neil Midgley, BBC apologises for Graham Norton blooper during Doctor Who, The Daily Telegraph, 27 April 2010
13. The Graham Norton Show - Series 7 Episode 4, 3rd May 2010
14. Youtube - Graham gets exterminated for spoiling Doctor Who - The Graham Norton Show preview - BBC One
15. "Doctor Who: Series 5 Volume 2 (DVD)". BBCshop. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
16. "Doctor Who: Series 5 Volume 2 (Blu-Ray)". BBCshop. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
17. "Doctor Who: The Time of Angels - series 31, episode four". Retrieved 03/05/10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
18. "Doctor Who review: The Time of Angels". Retrieved 03/05/10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

External links

• The Time of Angels on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• "The Time of Angels" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage

Template:Doctor Who (series 5) Template:River Song chronology

• 2010 television episodes
• Screenplays by Steven Moffat
• Eleventh Doctor episodes