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Blink!! Doctor Dan - And Others - Give DOCTOR WHO 29.10 A Perfect Score!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
To anticipate the question? “Doctor Who’s” 29th season, currently unfurling on something called “the BBC,” hits the SciFi Channel on July 6.
Here’s what our British cousins thought of 29.3, “Blink.”
“Doctor Dan,” who will be “on holiday” here in the states while the season’s final three episodes are broadcast on the BBC, submits his final “Who” review of the season:
DOCTOR WHO – 3.10
"Blink"
WRITER:
Steven Moffatt (Jekyll, Coupling, Press Gang)
DIRECTOR:
Hettie MacDonald (Poirot, Servants, Casualty)
CAST:
David Tennant (The Doctor)
Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)
Carey Mulligan (Sally)
Thomas Nelstrop (Ben Wainwright)
Lucy Gaskell (Kathy Nightingale)
Michael Obiora (Billy Shipton)
Louis Mahoney (Old Billy)
Finaly Robertson (Larry Nightingale)
Ian Boldsworth (Banto)
Richard Cant (Malcolm Wainwright)
Ray Sawyer (Desk Sergeant)
PROGNOSIS
In an old, abandoned house, a young woman begins to find cryptic messages bleeding through from 1969 –- from a stranger called The Doctor...
DIAGNOSIS
Steven Moffat has earned himself a huge reputation in fan circles, after writing season 1's most tonally-correct adventure (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances) and season 2's sublime The Girl In The Fireplace. It's a reputation well-deserved and Moffat refuses to put a foot wrong with his fourth effort for Doctor Who, the wonderful Blink...
As with last year's Love & Monsters, The Doctor and his companion barely feature in this episode beyond a few scenes, with most of their work consisting of recorded "one-way" interviews on DVD footage. The story really belongs to Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan), a young woman who enters an abandoned building with "Weeping Angel" statues scattered about in the grounds outside. She also discovers cryptic messages behind wallpaper from someone called "The Doctor", before her friend Katherine is later zapped back in time to 1920 by one of the freaky sculptures...
The plot is fairly complex for a typical Who episode, perhaps a little above younger viewers' understanding. Blink's use of time-travel logic, predestination paradoxes, single it out as one of the most stylish and intelligent episodes of the revived series.
Carey Mulligan is superb as the intrepid Sally; attractive, intelligent and plausible in all her reactions. She's such a strong character it actually crossed my mind that she could handle her own Buffy The Vampire Slayer-style series, as she's an immensely likeable presence on-screen.
The supporting cast are quite perfunctory to events, with most vanishing into the past shortly after their introduced, but none hit a wrong note. Michael Obiora makes a good impression as Detective Inspector Shipton, as does his older incarnation played by Louis Mahoney.
Blink is also one of the most stylish Doctor Who episodes, which usually means the crew have done a great job with a period location, but Blink is actually mostly in a contemporary setting. The editing and directing are brilliant throughout, particularly in the scary abandoned house with its greenish tint and some beautiful rain-soaked exteriors.
However, it's clear that Steven Moffat is the man to worship for Blink's success. He's written a marvellous script, not only for its sharp and logical plotting, but with some genuinely funny lines (The Doctor's hen joke) and sparkling dialogue. Above all else, it's just a wonderfully imaginative story that combines old-school spooky houses and sinister statues with the world of DVDs "easter eggs" and time-travel.
The Weeping Angels are a marvellous creation and it's incredible to realize they're actually make-up effect and not genuine stone! Their modus operandi and back-story is unsettling and effective, particularly in the final moments with our heroes having to resist blinking (as the Angels are only inanimate when being looked at). Marvellous stuff and, for once, we have a story where The Doctor's eventual resolution to crisis is solved by genius-level intellect -- not coincidence, luck or his bloody sonic screwdriver!
Overall, Blink is one of Doctor Who's greatest episodes and a textbook example of the intelligence and tone Russell T. Davies' staff should be aiming for more often. If there's anybody you know who doesn't rate Doctor Who's output, just show them this.
Blink is imaginative, compelling, exciting, scary and clever.
THE GOOD NEWS:
1. Steven Moffat. He's easily the best writer work ing on Doctor Who and the news he's returning next year with a double episode should be cause for celebration. An extremely talented man; be sure to watch his Jekyll & Hyde update soon!
2. Carey Mulligan. I thought she gave a beautiful and natural performance, shouldering the entire episode and proving to be a great heroine. Someone should give her a show to headline!
3. The Weeping Angels. Another of Who's villains that you see around every street corner (indicated by the episode's closing shots). As with last week's scarecrows, you can imagine the under-10s being very cautious around churches for a few weeks to come.
4. Hettie MacDonald. Her directing was very slick and accomplished, doing justice to the script and really bringing out the right atmosphere. The latter moments with the fanged statues were particularly chilling.
THE BAD NEWS:
1. I'd have to be very picky to single anything out as being "bad", so I won't. Seriously, nothing annoyed me here. It was all plausible, even though the "magic DVD" at the end of the episode slightly stretched credibility...
THE GEEKY NEWS:
1. This episode's story has parallels to writer Steven Moffat's short story in the Doctor Who 2006 Annual called "What I Did On My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow".
2. This is the second episode of the revived series that hardly features The Doctor, following season 2's Love & Monsters episode. However, there have been episodes in the past where The Doctor never appeared at all, such as: The Keys Of Marinus (Part 3 & 4), Mission To The Unknown and The Massacre (Part 2 & 3).
3. Hettie MacDonald is the first female director to work on the revived series. The show's last female director was Sarah Hellings, who work ed on the Colin Baker story The Mark Of The Rani back in 1985!
4. In one scene, Sally and Kathy refer to themselves as "Sparrow and Nightingale", remarking it sounds like a name of a good investigative team, but only "on ITV". This is a little dig from writer Moffat at the number of crime-fighting duos shown on ITV -- like Rosemary & Thyme, Dempsey & Makepeace, Randall & Hopkirk and Sapphire & Steel.
5. The TARDIS has a DVD player!
OPINION: 5 / 5
OUTLOOK: The Doctor and Martha stop to refuel the TARDIS, unwittingly picking up Captain Jack Harkness before arriving on a distant planet where a lonely Professor struggles to save the last of the human race...
“Motoko” says:
Hi team
long time reader, first contribution blah, blah, blah. Ok, tonight's Doctor Who: get ready for LOTS of reviews on this one because finally, FINALLY, the pieces came together in a perfect episode. I've been a long time nay-sayer against the current Doctor Who regime and story style. Too pantomime, too silly, too aimed at kids. I love the originals and have been criticised for having blinders on in that regard but lets be honest they haven't been great apart from sparse occasions (Tooth & Claw and The Family of Blood two parter being the only ones that leap to mind). I Hated Chris Eccleston, Billie Piper just annoyed me and the new aliens that Have been brought in have all failed to hit the button (would you be sad if the Slitheen never came back. I certainly won't). Tonight's episode however has set a new standard which I'm really hoping the final three will maintain.
Brief overview: photographer Sally Sparrow creeps into an abondoned House she's attracted to (it's collapsed ambience makes her feel sad, which as she points out is what makes deep people feel happy). As she takes snaps, she finds the beginning of a message apparently addressed to her hidden behind the wallpaper. Revealing it completely, it makes a reference to a 'Weeping Angel' she must beware (there's a statue of said angel in the grounds of the house) and that she had better duck. Right now! She does so and avoids a stone flung at her direction from the garden. The last part of the message reads: The Doctor (1969).
She visits her best friend Carol Nightingale to recount her strange Story and bumps into Carol's brother Lawrence, sans underwear. Lawrence is comparing several DVD's which all a mysterious easter egg on them: a message from a man in glasses pleading with the view "not to blink. if you blink you're dead!" Sally and Carol return to the house again next morning. Their first finding is that the Statue has apparently come closer to the house. But their investigations are cut short by a visitor with a letter for Sally. As Carol hides in case of 'incidents,' the caller reveals that he was strictly instructed to deliver the letter to that location and that specific time by his dead grandmother: Carol Nightingale. Sally chases round the house to confront Carol about her joke. But she is nowhere to be found. What is found are three more angel statues. One of them holds a key which Sally takes. As she leaves the house, we see the statues again. They have moved again.
OK, that's the set-up. Basically, watch this one. It's the best so far And I don't want to spoil it.
Now the spoilers will commence.
Ready?
Good.
What we have here is the classic "Doctor stuck in the past. Leaves Clues to people in the future to save him" plot line. A well worn one perhaps but what this has over the other examples is dollops of atmosphere and a really cool alien.
The Angels are in fact intergalactic psychopaths that live off the potential energy of the other creatures. When they kill someone they bump them back in time and let them live out their lives whenever they find themselves. As the Doctor says, they kill in the nicest possible way: they let you live to death. But it's their defence mechanism that's so interesting. If someone looks at them, they turn to stone. Unmoving, un-noticeable, un-killable solid stone. But look away, turn your blank, so much as blink: and they strike. And they've managed to trap the Doctor & Martha in 1969, away from the Tardis, and if nasties get in there andconsume the energy within, it'll wipe out part of the space time continuum. Not a good thing.
What sets this apart from the rest of the series is The Doctor & Martha are peripheral players. Aside from brief appearances they appear solely in the easter eggs on Lawrences DVD's, which in a bizarre loop is in actuality a pre-recorded conversation with Sally based on a transcript of the same conversation that has been preserved into the present and then somehow sent back in time to allow the video to be made so that the conversation can take place in the first place. Confused? Well, don't worry. It makes perfect Dr Who sense which is the end all That matters.
The point is that the concept of this episode is so strong that you don't miss either The Doctor or Martha. Sally and Lawrence are perfectly good characters (and very well acted by Carey Mulligan & Finlay Robertson) and their situation becomes palpably nerve shredding as the conclusion looms. The episode is brilliantly written by stalwart Steven Moffat and though It may be a hackneyed plot line (follow the breadcrumbs from the past to save the present) it's beautifully realised and contains some nice referencesto how circular and interlinking The Doctor's concept of time is.
The star of this episode however is director Hettie MacDonald. She's Done quite a bit of TV over the years but this is her first Who and she makes it terrifying. The camera angles are designed for maximum fear effect and every tiny movement of the angels causes you to jump out of your seat. This is the first of the new batch to genuinely scare me. One set piece In particular gives new meaning to the term 'don't look behind you'.
What else can I say, this episode has made me eat humble pie and admit that the new Who can be good if they only bloody try hard. It also gives me a great deal of hope that the final run will be excellent. Derek Jacobi & Captain Jack turn up next week and if you don't know who the final villain of the series is then it won't matter to you. But trust me, I'm stoked about it.
“Jadstersdad” says:
Doctor Who - Blink (by Steven Moffat).
It seems like it might be getting boring proclaiming how good most of the new crop of Doctor Who's are, but a reporter's job is to report the truth......! (what was that you said?)
Tonight's episode, in my opinion, was bloody brilliant. There are echoes of previous programmes. As in 'Love and Monsters' last year, the Doctor is somewhat peripheral, although he does feature more than in that episode (first appearance 20 mins in). Also this is nowhere near as lightweight as L&M. The tone of the piece, dealing as it does with the nature of time itself, recalls 'Father's Day' (surely among the best of comparisons).
DT is completely enigmatic and pitch-perfect as his incarnation of the Doctor. Martha is pretty redundant but adds seasoning. The rest of the cast, as with last weeks story, are the meat on the bones of the script. Carey Mulligan as heroine Sally is gorgeous to look at and acts well. Her contemporaries rise to the occasion. There is intelligence and emotion galore in the script. The aliens are innovative and really scary. I was surprised that the production did not give in to the temptations of CGI. This was all the more effective because of it, in an 'old-school' way, relying on the directing instead of cheap tricks.
For geeks.....great angles inside the Tardis; the most meta-referential of remarks (the Tardis' windows being too big!!) and more than a nod to Back to the Future. But hey....where's the harm in standing on the shoulders of giants?
Once again 10/10
Because there HAS to be a quibble.......just one incongrous word from a character...."sick".
The great Derek Jacobi in the trailer for next week. I'm counting the days!
“A C” says:
"Blink"
WRITER:
Steven Moffitt (Coupling, Dr Who and of course the best show of the 1990's Press Gang)
What's it all about (minus spoilers)
Right I just want to say that before I go into this my flatmate came back from holidays just as the episode was getting good and wanted to 'talk' to me about all the places she had been. But I've got the general gist of it all and I will be watching the repeat tomorrow night, plus Confidential looked fascinating but I had to mute the TV arghghhgh.
Okay Blink, what a brilliant, brilliant story. If you're thinking oh it's not a Doctor centre episode, don't you worry about that, he's in it more than last years Love and Monsters.
If you're under ten this is the sort of story that will scar you for life (but in a good way) Sort of when the face of Scaroth was revealed in the Tom Baker Story - City of Death, I don't remember the story itself but I do remember the green blooby face coming our from under that mask and the episode ending. This will have kids of today as the adults of tomorrow remembering the advancing Weeping Angels as the lights in the basement strobe. I wish I had watched it in the dark, alone (smearing myself with baked beans) despite all that I swear the chills were there.
So what generally happens without giving the plot away. The a girl whose name I've forgotten Sally Swallows (no it can't be that) goes into a old house, (you know that fox noise that they use in Jonathan Creek all the time, well it made an audio cameo at the very start.) So she goes into the old creepy house, takes photos (I'm sure the reason for her going into the house in the first place was explained but… flat mate chatting in my ear)
She gets a message on the wall it helps her getting bonked on the head with a shoe and she sees the author of the warning being 'the doctor' opening credits.
You then move into about twenty minutes of Sally's story, it's like the pilot to a new TV show, you do get the Doctor on the screen giving strange one sided messages.
You then get your first sign of the statues, ooohh the weeping statues, the close up on the humans eye to focus on the character blinking or 'not', the creeping slow hunt as the Angels approach their victims.
So the Dr and Martha show up again, in 1969 and a brief explanation is given by the Doctor as to what the Weeping Angels are but … I wont go into it, it's an okay explanation. It's kind of like you've been sent back in time by the Angels sucking the possible energy of your potential, and sorry but I can't take you back home to 2007 because I've lost my ride too. … oh I've said too much, more than enough. Moving on
So what do you need to know? Is it good, Yes its brilliant, but if you do have young kids (really young) who normally watch Dr Who with you perhaps vet this one first, it could give them nightmares. Sorry kids.
Is the Doctor noticeably missing? Yes he is, but honestly the balance is perfect, you don't feel cheated with his absence as his presence seems to be always around.
The ending is marvellous, the doctor's speech originally given from the Tv screens (the one they have been using in all of the promo's for the series "don't blink, don’t turn around") is played again, showing various statues around you in your everyday life. Spooky!!
Next week Capt Jack, Utopia and Mr Tasmer lots of running outside on an alien planet. Have we seen that before in the new series? If you haven't seen the Capt Jack return it's on utube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVRXjLaFsOg
“Smashing” says:
Okay so tonight's episode as well all know is this years filler episode, akin to the much reviled Love & Monsters from last year, which made me get that "am I a retard" feeling as I love that episode. Anyway tonight's entry written by the ever giving Stephen Moffat, adapted from an old children's story he wrote for a Doctor Who annual, is called Blink. As in do not blink as this weeks scary monsters will do you in otherwise.
I thought it was an excellent episode, I have to bandy the cliches here so i apologise in advance, classic Who some will cry, amazing and the best of the season others will retort, I actually may agree for a change with them here, it was a really tight, well paced, and thought out story with chills aplenty and some really great characterisation.
We meet sally, she likes old things as they make her feel sad, she is actually much more likable than that makes her sound, and given two people she like will both forever leave her life she deals remarkably well.
The villain of the week are the weeping angels, quite benign in idea, they exist as statues, only able to move when no one looks upon them, including themselves, simple idea, terrifying on screen, I am a man of 33 but actually yelped at one point in the episode, you know when I mean people who have seen it, when the angels reveal there real faces, very creepy.
The Doctor and Martha are on light duty this week as they are trapped without Tardis in the past, in reality they are filming the series finale hence a "filler" episode, which Blink isn't.
Things I enjoyed are the non linear progression of the Doctors part in the unfolding events.
Martha barging her way on camera saying "he said he would show me the universe and now I'm working to support him", very funny.
The non regular cast are all very likable and quite real feeling, there fates although different are non the less quite enjoyable by all accounts.
Statues, i will never as I am sure most who saw this episode, will never, ever look at statues for the rest of my life, as I write this a Transformer fell of my speaker and gave me a fright, making me second guess my toy collection.
The Angels movement at the end is captured in a style of cinema I do not know but will refer to as blinking in and out, quite effective and again really scary.
The simple yet totally effective way the Doc defeats the enemy is clever and in keeping with his behaviour.
Another Doctor hologram, this one more Futurama in style with its in flight Tardis instructions.
I again have no bad to report, Zen TV remember, though I am sure some may have things to add, Captain Jack is back next week and things look frosty between him and the Doc, uh-oh.
Also I watched Titanic the other night and discovered where Russell T Davies got the names Rose and Jack from, whatta guy.
“Kelvington” says:
Doctor Who – Blink
Remember last year’s “Love & Monsters”? It was the worst WHO ever? Well guess what... tonight was this series’ Doctor-less episode and it was much better than I thought it could have been. I made a prediction last week when I suspected that this would be this season’s “Love & Monsters”, but as with all things, I was very wrong.
The whole episode has the look and feel of Torchwood, complete with frenzy soundtrack, and a heavy dose of “Back To The Future” with a dash of “Clerks” thrown in for good measure, and of course a smattering of Scooby Doo.
The basic idea of the story is, these creatures, weeping angles send people back in time to kill them, by making them live out their lives and stealing their potential future energy. The Doctor and Martha are trapped back in 1969 without the TARDIS. So using a sort of “Back To The Future” method of sending letters, DVD Easter eggs, and notes to the future, a young woman tries to save the Doctor.
There is a great deal of suspense in the concept of creatures who can only get you when you’re not looking at them. The episode FLEW BY, and while it wasn’t really the best Doctor Who, it was a thousand times better than last year’s Doctor-less episode.
I think you could see Sally Sparrow in the Doctor’s future. I think she would make a great companion.
Just my 2¢
“Strabo” says:
Doctor Who 3x10, or 29x10, whatever you prefer
What's it called?
Blink
Who wrote it?
STEVEN MOTHER FUCKING MOFFAT! (The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace. Three of the top five best episodes of the New Who. And you know what? You can add this episode as the fourth of the five!)
Who did they choose to realise STEVEN MOTHER FUCKING MOFFAT'S script?
Hettie McDonald (no credits that I recognize)
Who's in it?
Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow - she's the real star of the episode.
Additionally, we have:
Kathy Nightingale - Lucy Gaskill
Larry Nightingale - Finlay Robertson
Malcolm Wainwright - Richard Cant
Billy Shipton - Michael Obiora
Old Billy - Louis Mahoney
So what's the synopsis (this is kinda spoilerish)?
Essentially, The Doctor and Martha are sent back to 1969, sans TARDIS, due to being attacked by a group of beings called "The Weeping Angels". Essentially, they're one of the oldest species in the universe. They're considered the perfect assassins. When they touch someone, they send that person an indeterminate number of years into the past. They then consume that person's energies from all the stolen future moments of their lives. They kidnap The Doctor and Martha to gain control of the TARDIS and all of the "future energy" stored within it. The Doctor learns that in the future he's going to be kidnapped and stuck in the past due to the Angels, and sets up messages that will be found by Sally in the future that will guide her to sending the TARDIS back to The Doctor, and defeating the Angels. The episode is structured such that we see Sally receiving all of these messages, and not quite knowing where they come from, or what to do with them. Given the feel of the episode, and the nature of the protagonist, a comparison between Sally and Veronica Mars is probably apropos (though I'm just guess there...I haven't seen much of Veronica, though I love Bell’s acting in Mamet’s Spartan).
My verdict:
This episode is absolutely frakkin' perfect. The pacing is filled with suspense. There are a few moments of reprieve, but we're shortly sent hurtling back into creepiness with The Weeping Angels.
I hear that there's some talk of a Sally Sparrow spin-off. Frak no! When/if Martha leaves; I want Sally as the next Companion. Heck, bring her on as a Companion WITH Martha. Remember how much everyone liked Madame de Pompadour? You'll like Sally just as much, if not more so.
As I state above, this episode takes its place in the top five of the New Who, alongside The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, and The Family of Blood. Of necessity, Human Nature (Family of Blood Part 1), The Impossible Planet, and The Satan Pit are now at the top of the second set of five. Really though, if you want to count simply stories, not episodes, all of those episodes form the top five.
I can't stop gushing about how good this episode is. So, I won't.
There's been a lot of talk about how RTD is a decent show-runner, but a crappy writer, and even more talk that STEVEN FUCKING MOFFAT taking over for him. This idea gets my full support too. Of the top episodes of the show I list above, only two of them were not penned by STEVEN FUCKING MOFFAT. That's a pretty impressive ratio, and if I were a BBC exec, I'd be looking at making Moffat either an Executive Producer along with RTD, or Executive Story Editor. He definitely needs some kind of MAJOR leadership role on the series. Similarly, as I also state above, the audience is going to want more Sally Sparrow too! Finally, given the success of the last three episodes being adaptations of prior written works; perhaps the BBC should consider instituting an open submissions policy for Doctor Who, similar to how Paramount ran Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
OK, I think I'm done gushing.
The rating?
FIVE Stars (of five) for STEVEN FUCKING MOFFAT and Blink.
Oh, next week? Captain Jack is back! Woo!
“zer05um” says:
Hi Herc - long time reader, first time yadda yadda yadda.
Just dropping a review of the most recent Dr. Who.
Title: Blink
Story: The Doctor and Martha are separated from the TARDIS by four decades. He leaves messages for a girl named Sally Sparrow in 2007 to arrange to send the TARDIS back for them to 1969, avoiding the clutches of a new and genuinely unsettling adversary.
It's in the vein of last year's less than spectacular Love and Monsters in that the Doctor and Martha are only on screen briefly, but avoids falling into the same mistakes. Instead what we have is a nicely plotted and scripted piece of TV horror. That's right, this is the first episode of the new Who, since The Empty Child, to actually make me jump. It's pretty effective stuff. The villain is... well I'll avoid spoilers, but the enemy is really interesting, a really neat Sci-Fi idea used creatively and effectively and povides a nice pin on quantum theory - pun intended.
The plot revolves around Sally Sparrow and an abandoned house which, right at the beginning, contains a mesage from the past to her, from the Doctor, somebody she has never met before. The story revolves around the transfer of information across time and understanding events in a distinctly non-linear kind of way, but it does make sense. Kind of. The plot is split clearly into three parts.
1) The mystery: strange messages and disappearances
2) The Doctor's message and the DVD easter eggs
3) Resolution; and this bit is a little rushed in comparisson.
So, in summary:
The Good:
The concept. This really is a concept piece, both in the nature of the puzzle that confronts Sally and the adversaries that oppose her.
Sally Sparrow. I haven't seen this actress before, but she's well up to the task required of her and I was impressed.
The Not So Good:
Pacing. If I have one gripe about this episode, it's the pacing. The end seems awfully rushed in comparisson to the set-up.
The Geeky:
This is the second time this season that the Doctor has met somebody out of sequence with their meeting him.
Next week: Captain Jack is back!
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"Blink"
WRITER:
Steven Moffatt (Jekyll, Coupling, Press Gang)
DIRECTOR:
Hettie MacDonald (Poirot, Servants, Casualty)
CAST:
David Tennant (The Doctor)
Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)
Carey Mulligan (Sally)
Thomas Nelstrop (Ben Wainwright)
Lucy Gaskell (Kathy Nightingale)
Michael Obiora (Billy Shipton)
Louis Mahoney (Old Billy)
Finaly Robertson (Larry Nightingale)
Ian Boldsworth (Banto)
Richard Cant (Malcolm Wainwright)
Ray Sawyer (Desk Sergeant)
PROGNOSIS
In an old, abandoned house, a young woman begins to find cryptic messages bleeding through from 1969 –- from a stranger called The Doctor...
DIAGNOSIS
Steven Moffat has earned himself a huge reputation in fan circles, after writing season 1's most tonally-correct adventure (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances) and season 2's sublime The Girl In The Fireplace. It's a reputation well-deserved and Moffat refuses to put a foot wrong with his fourth effort for Doctor Who, the wonderful Blink...
As with last year's Love & Monsters, The Doctor and his companion barely feature in this episode beyond a few scenes, with most of their work consisting of recorded "one-way" interviews on DVD footage. The story really belongs to Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan), a young woman who enters an abandoned building with "Weeping Angel" statues scattered about in the grounds outside. She also discovers cryptic messages behind wallpaper from someone called "The Doctor", before her friend Katherine is later zapped back in time to 1920 by one of the freaky sculptures...
The plot is fairly complex for a typical Who episode, perhaps a little above younger viewers' understanding. Blink's use of time-travel logic, predestination paradoxes, single it out as one of the most stylish and intelligent episodes of the revived series.
Carey Mulligan is superb as the intrepid Sally; attractive, intelligent and plausible in all her reactions. She's such a strong character it actually crossed my mind that she could handle her own Buffy The Vampire Slayer-style series, as she's an immensely likeable presence on-screen.
The supporting cast are quite perfunctory to events, with most vanishing into the past shortly after their introduced, but none hit a wrong note. Michael Obiora makes a good impression as Detective Inspector Shipton, as does his older incarnation played by Louis Mahoney.
Blink is also one of the most stylish Doctor Who episodes, which usually means the crew have done a great job with a period location, but Blink is actually mostly in a contemporary setting. The editing and directing are brilliant throughout, particularly in the scary abandoned house with its greenish tint and some beautiful rain-soaked exteriors.
However, it's clear that Steven Moffat is the man to worship for Blink's success. He's written a marvellous script, not only for its sharp and logical plotting, but with some genuinely funny lines (The Doctor's hen joke) and sparkling dialogue. Above all else, it's just a wonderfully imaginative story that combines old-school spooky houses and sinister statues with the world of DVDs "easter eggs" and time-travel.
The Weeping Angels are a marvellous creation and it's incredible to realize they're actually make-up effect and not genuine stone! Their modus operandi and back-story is unsettling and effective, particularly in the final moments with our heroes having to resist blinking (as the Angels are only inanimate when being looked at). Marvellous stuff and, for once, we have a story where The Doctor's eventual resolution to crisis is solved by genius-level intellect -- not coincidence, luck or his bloody sonic screwdriver!
Overall, Blink is one of Doctor Who's greatest episodes and a textbook example of the intelligence and tone Russell T. Davies' staff should be aiming for more often. If there's anybody you know who doesn't rate Doctor Who's output, just show them this.
Blink is imaginative, compelling, exciting, scary and clever.
THE GOOD NEWS:
1. Steven Moffat. He's easily the best writer work ing on Doctor Who and the news he's returning next year with a double episode should be cause for celebration. An extremely talented man; be sure to watch his Jekyll & Hyde update soon!
2. Carey Mulligan. I thought she gave a beautiful and natural performance, shouldering the entire episode and proving to be a great heroine. Someone should give her a show to headline!
3. The Weeping Angels. Another of Who's villains that you see around every street corner (indicated by the episode's closing shots). As with last week's scarecrows, you can imagine the under-10s being very cautious around churches for a few weeks to come.
4. Hettie MacDonald. Her directing was very slick and accomplished, doing justice to the script and really bringing out the right atmosphere. The latter moments with the fanged statues were particularly chilling.
THE BAD NEWS:
1. I'd have to be very picky to single anything out as being "bad", so I won't. Seriously, nothing annoyed me here. It was all plausible, even though the "magic DVD" at the end of the episode slightly stretched credibility...
THE GEEKY NEWS:
1. This episode's story has parallels to writer Steven Moffat's short story in the Doctor Who 2006 Annual called "What I Did On My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow".
2. This is the second episode of the revived series that hardly features The Doctor, following season 2's Love & Monsters episode. However, there have been episodes in the past where The Doctor never appeared at all, such as: The Keys Of Marinus (Part 3 & 4), Mission To The Unknown and The Massacre (Part 2 & 3).
3. Hettie MacDonald is the first female director to work on the revived series. The show's last female director was Sarah Hellings, who work ed on the Colin Baker story The Mark Of The Rani back in 1985!
4. In one scene, Sally and Kathy refer to themselves as "Sparrow and Nightingale", remarking it sounds like a name of a good investigative team, but only "on ITV". This is a little dig from writer Moffat at the number of crime-fighting duos shown on ITV -- like Rosemary & Thyme, Dempsey & Makepeace, Randall & Hopkirk and Sapphire & Steel.
5. The TARDIS has a DVD player!
OPINION: 5 / 5
OUTLOOK: The Doctor and Martha stop to refuel the TARDIS, unwittingly picking up Captain Jack Harkness before arriving on a distant planet where a lonely Professor struggles to save the last of the human race...
long time reader, first contribution blah, blah, blah. Ok, tonight's Doctor Who: get ready for LOTS of reviews on this one because finally, FINALLY, the pieces came together in a perfect episode. I've been a long time nay-sayer against the current Doctor Who regime and story style. Too pantomime, too silly, too aimed at kids. I love the originals and have been criticised for having blinders on in that regard but lets be honest they haven't been great apart from sparse occasions (Tooth & Claw and The Family of Blood two parter being the only ones that leap to mind). I Hated Chris Eccleston, Billie Piper just annoyed me and the new aliens that Have been brought in have all failed to hit the button (would you be sad if the Slitheen never came back. I certainly won't). Tonight's episode however has set a new standard which I'm really hoping the final three will maintain.
Brief overview: photographer Sally Sparrow creeps into an abondoned House she's attracted to (it's collapsed ambience makes her feel sad, which as she points out is what makes deep people feel happy). As she takes snaps, she finds the beginning of a message apparently addressed to her hidden behind the wallpaper. Revealing it completely, it makes a reference to a 'Weeping Angel' she must beware (there's a statue of said angel in the grounds of the house) and that she had better duck. Right now! She does so and avoids a stone flung at her direction from the garden. The last part of the message reads: The Doctor (1969).
She visits her best friend Carol Nightingale to recount her strange Story and bumps into Carol's brother Lawrence, sans underwear. Lawrence is comparing several DVD's which all a mysterious easter egg on them: a message from a man in glasses pleading with the view "not to blink. if you blink you're dead!" Sally and Carol return to the house again next morning. Their first finding is that the Statue has apparently come closer to the house. But their investigations are cut short by a visitor with a letter for Sally. As Carol hides in case of 'incidents,' the caller reveals that he was strictly instructed to deliver the letter to that location and that specific time by his dead grandmother: Carol Nightingale. Sally chases round the house to confront Carol about her joke. But she is nowhere to be found. What is found are three more angel statues. One of them holds a key which Sally takes. As she leaves the house, we see the statues again. They have moved again.
OK, that's the set-up. Basically, watch this one. It's the best so far And I don't want to spoil it.
Now the spoilers will commence.
Ready?
Good.
What we have here is the classic "Doctor stuck in the past. Leaves Clues to people in the future to save him" plot line. A well worn one perhaps but what this has over the other examples is dollops of atmosphere and a really cool alien.
The Angels are in fact intergalactic psychopaths that live off the potential energy of the other creatures. When they kill someone they bump them back in time and let them live out their lives whenever they find themselves. As the Doctor says, they kill in the nicest possible way: they let you live to death. But it's their defence mechanism that's so interesting. If someone looks at them, they turn to stone. Unmoving, un-noticeable, un-killable solid stone. But look away, turn your blank, so much as blink: and they strike. And they've managed to trap the Doctor & Martha in 1969, away from the Tardis, and if nasties get in there andconsume the energy within, it'll wipe out part of the space time continuum. Not a good thing.
What sets this apart from the rest of the series is The Doctor & Martha are peripheral players. Aside from brief appearances they appear solely in the easter eggs on Lawrences DVD's, which in a bizarre loop is in actuality a pre-recorded conversation with Sally based on a transcript of the same conversation that has been preserved into the present and then somehow sent back in time to allow the video to be made so that the conversation can take place in the first place. Confused? Well, don't worry. It makes perfect Dr Who sense which is the end all That matters.
The point is that the concept of this episode is so strong that you don't miss either The Doctor or Martha. Sally and Lawrence are perfectly good characters (and very well acted by Carey Mulligan & Finlay Robertson) and their situation becomes palpably nerve shredding as the conclusion looms. The episode is brilliantly written by stalwart Steven Moffat and though It may be a hackneyed plot line (follow the breadcrumbs from the past to save the present) it's beautifully realised and contains some nice referencesto how circular and interlinking The Doctor's concept of time is.
The star of this episode however is director Hettie MacDonald. She's Done quite a bit of TV over the years but this is her first Who and she makes it terrifying. The camera angles are designed for maximum fear effect and every tiny movement of the angels causes you to jump out of your seat. This is the first of the new batch to genuinely scare me. One set piece In particular gives new meaning to the term 'don't look behind you'.
What else can I say, this episode has made me eat humble pie and admit that the new Who can be good if they only bloody try hard. It also gives me a great deal of hope that the final run will be excellent. Derek Jacobi & Captain Jack turn up next week and if you don't know who the final villain of the series is then it won't matter to you. But trust me, I'm stoked about it.
It seems like it might be getting boring proclaiming how good most of the new crop of Doctor Who's are, but a reporter's job is to report the truth......! (what was that you said?)
Tonight's episode, in my opinion, was bloody brilliant. There are echoes of previous programmes. As in 'Love and Monsters' last year, the Doctor is somewhat peripheral, although he does feature more than in that episode (first appearance 20 mins in). Also this is nowhere near as lightweight as L&M. The tone of the piece, dealing as it does with the nature of time itself, recalls 'Father's Day' (surely among the best of comparisons).
DT is completely enigmatic and pitch-perfect as his incarnation of the Doctor. Martha is pretty redundant but adds seasoning. The rest of the cast, as with last weeks story, are the meat on the bones of the script. Carey Mulligan as heroine Sally is gorgeous to look at and acts well. Her contemporaries rise to the occasion. There is intelligence and emotion galore in the script. The aliens are innovative and really scary. I was surprised that the production did not give in to the temptations of CGI. This was all the more effective because of it, in an 'old-school' way, relying on the directing instead of cheap tricks.
For geeks.....great angles inside the Tardis; the most meta-referential of remarks (the Tardis' windows being too big!!) and more than a nod to Back to the Future. But hey....where's the harm in standing on the shoulders of giants?
Once again 10/10
Because there HAS to be a quibble.......just one incongrous word from a character...."sick".
The great Derek Jacobi in the trailer for next week. I'm counting the days!
WRITER:
Steven Moffitt (Coupling, Dr Who and of course the best show of the 1990's Press Gang)
What's it all about (minus spoilers)
Right I just want to say that before I go into this my flatmate came back from holidays just as the episode was getting good and wanted to 'talk' to me about all the places she had been. But I've got the general gist of it all and I will be watching the repeat tomorrow night, plus Confidential looked fascinating but I had to mute the TV arghghhgh.
Okay Blink, what a brilliant, brilliant story. If you're thinking oh it's not a Doctor centre episode, don't you worry about that, he's in it more than last years Love and Monsters.
If you're under ten this is the sort of story that will scar you for life (but in a good way) Sort of when the face of Scaroth was revealed in the Tom Baker Story - City of Death, I don't remember the story itself but I do remember the green blooby face coming our from under that mask and the episode ending. This will have kids of today as the adults of tomorrow remembering the advancing Weeping Angels as the lights in the basement strobe. I wish I had watched it in the dark, alone (smearing myself with baked beans) despite all that I swear the chills were there.
So what generally happens without giving the plot away. The a girl whose name I've forgotten Sally Swallows (no it can't be that) goes into a old house, (you know that fox noise that they use in Jonathan Creek all the time, well it made an audio cameo at the very start.) So she goes into the old creepy house, takes photos (I'm sure the reason for her going into the house in the first place was explained but… flat mate chatting in my ear)
She gets a message on the wall it helps her getting bonked on the head with a shoe and she sees the author of the warning being 'the doctor' opening credits.
You then move into about twenty minutes of Sally's story, it's like the pilot to a new TV show, you do get the Doctor on the screen giving strange one sided messages.
You then get your first sign of the statues, ooohh the weeping statues, the close up on the humans eye to focus on the character blinking or 'not', the creeping slow hunt as the Angels approach their victims.
So the Dr and Martha show up again, in 1969 and a brief explanation is given by the Doctor as to what the Weeping Angels are but … I wont go into it, it's an okay explanation. It's kind of like you've been sent back in time by the Angels sucking the possible energy of your potential, and sorry but I can't take you back home to 2007 because I've lost my ride too. … oh I've said too much, more than enough. Moving on
So what do you need to know? Is it good, Yes its brilliant, but if you do have young kids (really young) who normally watch Dr Who with you perhaps vet this one first, it could give them nightmares. Sorry kids.
Is the Doctor noticeably missing? Yes he is, but honestly the balance is perfect, you don't feel cheated with his absence as his presence seems to be always around.
The ending is marvellous, the doctor's speech originally given from the Tv screens (the one they have been using in all of the promo's for the series "don't blink, don’t turn around") is played again, showing various statues around you in your everyday life. Spooky!!
Next week Capt Jack, Utopia and Mr Tasmer lots of running outside on an alien planet. Have we seen that before in the new series? If you haven't seen the Capt Jack return it's on utube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVRXjLaFsOg
I thought it was an excellent episode, I have to bandy the cliches here so i apologise in advance, classic Who some will cry, amazing and the best of the season others will retort, I actually may agree for a change with them here, it was a really tight, well paced, and thought out story with chills aplenty and some really great characterisation.
We meet sally, she likes old things as they make her feel sad, she is actually much more likable than that makes her sound, and given two people she like will both forever leave her life she deals remarkably well.
The villain of the week are the weeping angels, quite benign in idea, they exist as statues, only able to move when no one looks upon them, including themselves, simple idea, terrifying on screen, I am a man of 33 but actually yelped at one point in the episode, you know when I mean people who have seen it, when the angels reveal there real faces, very creepy.
The Doctor and Martha are on light duty this week as they are trapped without Tardis in the past, in reality they are filming the series finale hence a "filler" episode, which Blink isn't.
Things I enjoyed are the non linear progression of the Doctors part in the unfolding events.
Martha barging her way on camera saying "he said he would show me the universe and now I'm working to support him", very funny.
The non regular cast are all very likable and quite real feeling, there fates although different are non the less quite enjoyable by all accounts.
Statues, i will never as I am sure most who saw this episode, will never, ever look at statues for the rest of my life, as I write this a Transformer fell of my speaker and gave me a fright, making me second guess my toy collection.
The Angels movement at the end is captured in a style of cinema I do not know but will refer to as blinking in and out, quite effective and again really scary.
The simple yet totally effective way the Doc defeats the enemy is clever and in keeping with his behaviour.
Another Doctor hologram, this one more Futurama in style with its in flight Tardis instructions.
I again have no bad to report, Zen TV remember, though I am sure some may have things to add, Captain Jack is back next week and things look frosty between him and the Doc, uh-oh.
Also I watched Titanic the other night and discovered where Russell T Davies got the names Rose and Jack from, whatta guy.
Remember last year’s “Love & Monsters”? It was the worst WHO ever? Well guess what... tonight was this series’ Doctor-less episode and it was much better than I thought it could have been. I made a prediction last week when I suspected that this would be this season’s “Love & Monsters”, but as with all things, I was very wrong.
The whole episode has the look and feel of Torchwood, complete with frenzy soundtrack, and a heavy dose of “Back To The Future” with a dash of “Clerks” thrown in for good measure, and of course a smattering of Scooby Doo.
The basic idea of the story is, these creatures, weeping angles send people back in time to kill them, by making them live out their lives and stealing their potential future energy. The Doctor and Martha are trapped back in 1969 without the TARDIS. So using a sort of “Back To The Future” method of sending letters, DVD Easter eggs, and notes to the future, a young woman tries to save the Doctor.
There is a great deal of suspense in the concept of creatures who can only get you when you’re not looking at them. The episode FLEW BY, and while it wasn’t really the best Doctor Who, it was a thousand times better than last year’s Doctor-less episode.
I think you could see Sally Sparrow in the Doctor’s future. I think she would make a great companion.
Just my 2¢
What's it called?
Blink
Who wrote it?
STEVEN MOTHER FUCKING MOFFAT! (The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace. Three of the top five best episodes of the New Who. And you know what? You can add this episode as the fourth of the five!)
Who did they choose to realise STEVEN MOTHER FUCKING MOFFAT'S script?
Hettie McDonald (no credits that I recognize)
Who's in it?
Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow - she's the real star of the episode.
Additionally, we have:
Kathy Nightingale - Lucy Gaskill
Larry Nightingale - Finlay Robertson
Malcolm Wainwright - Richard Cant
Billy Shipton - Michael Obiora
Old Billy - Louis Mahoney
So what's the synopsis (this is kinda spoilerish)?
Essentially, The Doctor and Martha are sent back to 1969, sans TARDIS, due to being attacked by a group of beings called "The Weeping Angels". Essentially, they're one of the oldest species in the universe. They're considered the perfect assassins. When they touch someone, they send that person an indeterminate number of years into the past. They then consume that person's energies from all the stolen future moments of their lives. They kidnap The Doctor and Martha to gain control of the TARDIS and all of the "future energy" stored within it. The Doctor learns that in the future he's going to be kidnapped and stuck in the past due to the Angels, and sets up messages that will be found by Sally in the future that will guide her to sending the TARDIS back to The Doctor, and defeating the Angels. The episode is structured such that we see Sally receiving all of these messages, and not quite knowing where they come from, or what to do with them. Given the feel of the episode, and the nature of the protagonist, a comparison between Sally and Veronica Mars is probably apropos (though I'm just guess there...I haven't seen much of Veronica, though I love Bell’s acting in Mamet’s Spartan).
My verdict:
This episode is absolutely frakkin' perfect. The pacing is filled with suspense. There are a few moments of reprieve, but we're shortly sent hurtling back into creepiness with The Weeping Angels.
I hear that there's some talk of a Sally Sparrow spin-off. Frak no! When/if Martha leaves; I want Sally as the next Companion. Heck, bring her on as a Companion WITH Martha. Remember how much everyone liked Madame de Pompadour? You'll like Sally just as much, if not more so.
As I state above, this episode takes its place in the top five of the New Who, alongside The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, and The Family of Blood. Of necessity, Human Nature (Family of Blood Part 1), The Impossible Planet, and The Satan Pit are now at the top of the second set of five. Really though, if you want to count simply stories, not episodes, all of those episodes form the top five.
I can't stop gushing about how good this episode is. So, I won't.
There's been a lot of talk about how RTD is a decent show-runner, but a crappy writer, and even more talk that STEVEN FUCKING MOFFAT taking over for him. This idea gets my full support too. Of the top episodes of the show I list above, only two of them were not penned by STEVEN FUCKING MOFFAT. That's a pretty impressive ratio, and if I were a BBC exec, I'd be looking at making Moffat either an Executive Producer along with RTD, or Executive Story Editor. He definitely needs some kind of MAJOR leadership role on the series. Similarly, as I also state above, the audience is going to want more Sally Sparrow too! Finally, given the success of the last three episodes being adaptations of prior written works; perhaps the BBC should consider instituting an open submissions policy for Doctor Who, similar to how Paramount ran Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
OK, I think I'm done gushing.
The rating?
FIVE Stars (of five) for STEVEN FUCKING MOFFAT and Blink.
Oh, next week? Captain Jack is back! Woo!
Just dropping a review of the most recent Dr. Who.
Title: Blink
Story: The Doctor and Martha are separated from the TARDIS by four decades. He leaves messages for a girl named Sally Sparrow in 2007 to arrange to send the TARDIS back for them to 1969, avoiding the clutches of a new and genuinely unsettling adversary.
It's in the vein of last year's less than spectacular Love and Monsters in that the Doctor and Martha are only on screen briefly, but avoids falling into the same mistakes. Instead what we have is a nicely plotted and scripted piece of TV horror. That's right, this is the first episode of the new Who, since The Empty Child, to actually make me jump. It's pretty effective stuff. The villain is... well I'll avoid spoilers, but the enemy is really interesting, a really neat Sci-Fi idea used creatively and effectively and povides a nice pin on quantum theory - pun intended.
The plot revolves around Sally Sparrow and an abandoned house which, right at the beginning, contains a mesage from the past to her, from the Doctor, somebody she has never met before. The story revolves around the transfer of information across time and understanding events in a distinctly non-linear kind of way, but it does make sense. Kind of. The plot is split clearly into three parts.
1) The mystery: strange messages and disappearances
2) The Doctor's message and the DVD easter eggs
3) Resolution; and this bit is a little rushed in comparisson.
So, in summary:
The Good:
The concept. This really is a concept piece, both in the nature of the puzzle that confronts Sally and the adversaries that oppose her.
Sally Sparrow. I haven't seen this actress before, but she's well up to the task required of her and I was impressed.
The Not So Good:
Pacing. If I have one gripe about this episode, it's the pacing. The end seems awfully rushed in comparisson to the set-up.
The Geeky:
This is the second time this season that the Doctor has met somebody out of sequence with their meeting him.
Next week: Captain Jack is back!
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i give it a 3/5
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I was unimpressed with this episode. i thought it trudged along for the first half. The payoff part, blinking and the lights going off, was poorly executed imo. It's like those old shows that had a 30 second countdown where the last 5 seconds lasted like a minute in real time. Just poorly implemented is all. I liked the idea behind it quite a bit though. I just was disappointed in its execution.
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Are Captain Jack and Sally somehow related :-)
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Perhaps not as perfect as the reviews would have us believe but very good nonetheless, and probably the best this season were it not for the superb Family of Blood 2 parter (which in fairness was the best Who since the revamp). I liked the creepy stone angel aliens in particular, and I agree with the reviewer who mentioned that it was difficult to believe that they were make-up and not actually stone figures. Doctor Who continues to be the only thing worth watching on BBC1 on a Saturday night!
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I thought this was a cracking episode. The Sally Sparrow character was very believeable in her actions (given the degree of wierdness going on around her) which is a testament to both the writing and the acting. If ever someone had "future companion" written all over her it's Sally (she'd certainly get the Dad vote).
This did everything a good Dr Who episode should do - had a well told, well acted compelling story, had a quality enemy, had a great script with a few laughs and was scary enough that my kids came back downstairs after going to bed because they were still feeling scared - perfect! -
A well acted, incredibly well written, and well directed episode.
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Of all the 'new' episodes so far, last season's 'Girl In The Fireplace' was my favourite. Style, wit and emotion - that one had it all. It was going to take something really special to top it. And this did! 'Blink' is just about the perfect 'Dr. Who' episode, even though the guy's only in it for about five minutes in total! Innovative, scary and above all - a plot fully grounded in time travel, which, let's be honest, is the whole point of 'Dr. Who' but something we rarely see milked as much as it should be. Yep, on the whole this is the one the ten-year-old kids will be remembering twenty years from now as they explain their fear of statues to their shrink! Brilliant!
Still, back to RTD and his 'issues' next week with the return of 'Captain Gay' - sorry - 'Jack'. Yawn. -
So naturally, I'm really excited about this episode.
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Great set-up, brillliantly devised aliens and back story, great scare factor, superb leading lady (Sally Sparrow..... I'll be there for the spin-off or worship her as a future companion. The Doctor was surprisingly not missed with the story being so full and I thought this episode ranks as one of the best in the new shows.
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Saw the first 10 minutes on YouTube, and shuddered more than once. VERY good start and great Who TV.To hell with torture porn... we need MORE stuff like THIS! :)
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This was seriously the scariest episode of Doctor Who I think I've ever seen. Genuinely shout-out-loud scary! Fantastic episode, up there with Girl in the Fireplace and Father's Day.
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Believe the hype .... and don't blink!
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Just loved last night's episode - Steven Moffat we love you. xxx
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in the current series, ever. Atrocious. Awful in every way. Brutal acting, terrible dialoug. The editing was apalling. That scene with the weeping angels and the tardis was the worst use of editing, I have scene in years. Its no wonder that bbc must secretly be contimplating the axe.
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What the hell you were you watching? Sure it wasn't ITV by mistake? Blink was quality, start to finish. Oh, and btw the BBC aren't "contimplating" anything of the sort, you Sun reader.
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I find the new Who portrayal of the Dr is a bit too multi-faceted, one week we seem to have an action hero, then an angry demi-god and now this week the 'nutty professor'- I know the The pre RTD Who was all these things but there was more subtlety used. Anyways still very enjoyable episode, although seeing the Doc & Martha running around with bows and arrows seemed a bit odd!!!
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"Blink was the worst episode of Doctor Who in the current series, ever". Who let Jeff Albertson out? Oh, and I really enjouyed Blink. This series has been really good so far. If we get a satisfying ending then I'll be more than happy.
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Great atmosphere, scary staues/monsters and a very clever script. Can't fault this one as it had everything... well, apart from the Doctor filling most of the screen time... but it works. I agree whole heartedly that Stephen Moffat should take over from RTD as he really knows how to write a gripping, intelligent story and would be a great script editor over the other's work. This is the bar and everyone has to reach this level. Fingers crossed that Stephen Moffat does take over.
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ever. It was banned from our house. and No i wasnt watching ITV. my mother hated rupert murdoch. proper order.
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As this was the first episode to be set in the "now" since Lazarus, I was expecting some kind of reference to Mr Saxon somewhere, even "Vote Saxon" posters in the shop windows. Did anyone spot any easter eggs?
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I'd thought the show was going down hill, but three classic episodes in a row -- Can't complain about that!
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Very good eppy. Next season we get a double-bill of sci-fi horror from Stephen Moffat. I'll just make sure I have at least 2 new pairs of y-fronts.
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Wot a knob.
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Here's hoping Sally Sparrow returns either in WHO or Torchwood. There were no bad performances and the story was great.
The only gripe I had was Weeping Angels potential energy nonsense, but hey the "statues" were amazing and the girl was pretty.
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You'd think that if someone you've never seen before comes up to you on the street and knows all about you including your name (which rarely occurs amongst the general populace you encounter) and (especially) tells you that she has something important to tell you - well you'd think you'd be paying just a little more attention instead of just trying to fob her off repeatedly (and looking so disinterested), wouldn't you?
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It's that good. I've 'enjoyed' Who so far, though never felt that it's been the series of my childhood. 'Blink' is the glaring exception. For the first time ever I was shrieking at the TV screen. It was genuinely spooky, the direction was superb, the villains terrifying. The audience became implicit: well, the angels froze when only the camera was looking at them.
It was good. Damn good. -
I never thought the classic episodes were scary. Hiding from Daleks behind the sofa was laughable. But first in "The Empty Child" and now in "Blink", I was literally squirming in my seat.
I can see myself staring down statues for some time to come. -
Very, very good episode indeed.
Remember, less is *often* more. -
Mostly. Like last week, it was all ruined in the last 30 seconds with the "let's slide in an eternal scare for the kids" move AGAIN. This was executed a lot better than last week's "girl in the mirror", but following just a week after it seemed awfully contrived and lost much of its impact. I don't understand reviewers who say it was a highlight - it was my only gripe.
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"What we have here is the classic "Doctor stuck in the past. Leaves Clues to people in the future to save him" plot line. A well worn one perhaps but what this has over the other examples is dollops of atmosphere and a really cool alien."I don't know much about the old Who, but is this really a well-worn story? Can anyone give me other examples of when this was used in the TV show? Or are we purely talking about spin-off novels here?
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Whoever said theoritical physics had no practical use eh?
Not bad episode. At first i thought it was gonna be just a budget saver with it all being set in the now. It soon got a bit scarey and interesting though. A good device but the sudden proximity of the Angels scary face gave me a start. Sweet. -
Best damn episode of the season so far ! Over the past four weeks - things have improved considerably.
I loved the statues. One thing - being that he was in 1969, wouldn't the Doctor pre-exist in that time in his Troughton incarnation ? We know he visited Earth several times then, heck the Cybermen even invaded Earth in that year didn't they ? So how come all of infinity didn't implode or something ? Other than that minor gripe - excellent episode. -
Brilliant episode that will scare kids for years. Sally definitely could be a companion. I would have thought they were statues until I saw the doctor who confidential. Also on there did anyone else notice the number of mentions of McGann. Was listed by some BBC person as a doctor and there must have been about 6 clips of him in the montage including fighting the master in the tardis.
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The geeky boyfriend was having problems keeping his eyes open. Why not just close one at a time?
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In fact, the Doctor meets his former (and possible future) selves a fair number of times. (See The 3 Doctors, The 5 Doctors, The 2 Doctors and Trial of a Time Lord).
Also, don't forget that all those people shot back in time were existing at the same time as their younger selves in the future, just on different points of the globe (and they made a point of not meeting themselves either). -
... the show says different things about that.
In the 3rd Doctor story Inferno, the Doctor told the parallel Brigadier (Brigade Leader) he couldn't take his people back to the Doctor's Universe because there would be some kind of catastrophic explosion or something.
However, in the 10th Doctor's Cybermen stories, nothing happens and alternate Mickey's (Ricky's) meet and even come into contact and nothing happens. -
I don't know about "well worn" but the 7th Doctor story "Battleground" had the Doctor encountering evidence of things he was yet to do (and possibly messages left for him by his future self) I think.
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Because I want to watch this.
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Unlike last year's utter pile of poo "Love & Monsters", this story is excellent. I've not been a huge Moffat fan as his stories have had too much focus on the Doctor having romantic relationships, but with the Doctor kept to a minimum, Moffat has been able to turn out an excellent story. I will look forward to his interpretation of Jekyll that's on next week.
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Okay. That's three Dr Who eps in a row THAT WERE DAMN GOOD! What IS going on? :D
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Bring On Captain Jack! Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic!
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Where the hell did they get her from. A hottie indeed. If The Doctor had any sense he should go back, dump boring Martha at the nearest service station and get her in his box.
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LOL. Isn't there a slight nanosecond when you actually have both eyes closed when opening/closing alternate eyes? If not... well, yes, this is one way not to fall victim to the Angels, but it would look absolutely hilariously bad to have the boyfriend doing this! :)
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Well, this season anyway and given that it is following the excellent Human Nature/Family of Blood 2-parter that is really saying something. Ironic that the Dalek episodes this year are the worst...
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..are all part of or around Cardiff University, where I study. I'm very glad I'm off for the summer right now, cos I dunno if I'm gonna be able to go round that area for a while :s
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I had to sleep with my light on last night. A perfect demonstration of how effective Dr Who monsters can be if they are played for chills rather than for laughs as RTD is wont to do. Bring on Captain Jack now that Joseph has been found.
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Except Coupling series 4, but he admitted that was a mistake.
Blink was excellent, my wee nephew was cacking it!!
And next week looks great as well.
I like Jack, when he isn't spouting gayness. -
Cant wait!
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If and when Russell T Davies decides to leave I really hope that the BBC turn the creative reigns over to Moffatt and Paul Cornell.
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I really really liked this episode but there were two things that almost toally spoiled it for me. The first is that in Revenge of the Cybermen it was established that if the Doctor is separated in time from the TARDIS it will drift through time to him. But there are tons of inconsistencies in Doctor Who so that didn't bother me all that much.What really almost ruined it for me is that we are shown the TARDIS in the police garage with all the cars and then it shows up in the basement of the house. WTF? Other than those two things this episode was excellent.
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jccalhoun -- didn't the Angels steal it from the garage and deliver it to the house? They can transport people to different places in space/time, so they obviously touched it and sent it to the basement. It was all part of their plan to get Sally to open the TARDIS for them, etc.
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One of the few effective uses of the paradoxes of time travel that was relatively seamless.
As to why the Tardis didn't "drift back" to where the Doctor was located, I think the weeping angels probably had a way of stopping the autopilot even if they could not open the device. -
the new season has been the best of the relaunched series.
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I think in Revenge of the Cybermen, the Time Lords "forwarded" the TARDIS to the Doctor, rather than it drifting to him. If I remember correctly...
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I suppose "the angels have the box" or whatever the line was could mean that they stole it from the police. I like that explanation. It has been years since I saw Revenge of the Cybermen but I remember the TARDIS drifting through time as some sort of failsafe mechanism. But that didn't bother me that much. Looking at the next episodes I wonder if this season we are going to find out why Queen Elizabeth (from the Shakespeare episode) hated the Doctor or if that was just a throwaway line that will be left for next season or one of the novels to explain.
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In that episode, an arrow was shot at the blue box. In this episode, Martha and the Doc had been archery-ing.
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Just compare shit like "Love & Monsters" to a great episode like "Blink." That's all the justification you need.
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really was rather good.
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Had Paramount not had such a policy, we may have never been entertained by the likes of Ronald D. Moore. Although I disagree that RTD is a bad writer...he just writes too damn much. Give him just one or two episodes and he would shine. And probably not even resort to deus ex machine either. But lest us not forget that the best *Angel* episodes weren't written by Joss Whedon.
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And no religion-bashing or gay references in any of them! Coincidence, or just damn good writing?Let's see if it continues once Cap'n Jack pops his head back in next week.
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Loved the episode. Loved it. Although I have to admit, you can't top the ending to last week's conclusion to the 2 part with The Doctor being so creative and vindictive of how he dealt with the Family of Blood. Kicking someone into a black hole is just awesome. But enough of that. I'd say this was the best episode of this season/series. I think Moffat is going to have to get a new shelf to hold up all the Hugo Awards he's going to rack up. The other funny thing I noticed was that the DVD player remote that they used to watch The Doctor's "easter eggs" was the same type of Philips remote that many of us have for our DVD players that play Divx/Xvid and the preferred manner of watching these episodes in the States prior to the SciFi Channel premiere. Nice touch and a nod to how Series1 got so damn popular here in the States and made the SciFi Channel stand up and take notice which led to it being televised here legally.
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Okay, I also think that RTD is overated, but I will just say that Steven Moffat has been able to concentrate on ONE story per season. RTD writes multiple episodes AND oversees/rewrites plenty of others. He has a big workload, so shit like Love & Monsters and amiable tosh like Gridlock is bound to seep through. Yes, I totally agree RTD should limit himself to 2-3 episodes each season, but maybe there's a reason (beyond vanity) that he does so many?? Who knows, maybe the likes of Moffat and Gatiss just prefer to write one story each year? It's a possibility. If not, RTD should relax a bit and get some new writers on board for s4 to shake things up a bit... maybe even train up an "apprentice" in showrunning to take over for s5.
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"...especially my own." Are they going to explore that line of the Doctor's? He previously mentioned having a son in season 2.
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A brilliant story, with truly disturbing villains. The scene with the statues trying to get to our heroes before they can open the TARDIS has to rank with the scariest moments in Who.
If the production team keep producing stories of this quality, Doctor Who should be around for a long time. -
The Doctor's very first companion, back when even my parents were young (so, the stone age :p) was Susan, who he referred to as his "grandaughter". So, presumably, he had children, and at least one of them lived long enough to have children of thier own, before the time war. I wonder how much of this will be picked up on when we (inevitably) find out more about the Doctor's family...
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lovely girl, what a great companion she would be! Abso-fookin-lutely! She lit up the screen and was more than a little bit tasty. More of Sally!! And I also thought it was a great episode, even without much Doctor in it. 5/5
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...is that the other writers don't seem to think they can write multiple quality episodes in one season whereas RTD apparently thinks it is up to him to write way too many episodes. Hubris. Just like Whedon and trying to run 3 shows at the same time. There's too few cooks in the kitchen with that production team, and they've brought it upon themselves. But I would wager that Moffat still would have a better "hit" ratio if he penned the same amount of episodes as RTD did...they just wouldn't be as high of caliber that he's consistently hitting with his limited output. I wanna see Ben Edlund crank out a script for them. Not to mention other Who fans like JMS and Peter David.
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...and I've watched the episode five times now. Hah. I think I like it.As an aside...I managed to view Sunshine yesterday as well. The voice of the Icarus II computer--Chipo Chung--will be in next week's episode of Doctor Who, Utopia. Ahhh, the trivia you'll find while crawling IMDB.
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If you haven't seen it I won't say what they are. The guy in the video store was another nice little moment, even though stuff like that's been done so many times. Don't you just love it when a plot point in an episode is a guy getting into video and then DVD publishing and putting the Doctor's video as an easter egg.
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is fine for novels and comics, but his writing's crap when it comes to film and TV. For whatever reason, the quality of his work goes straight down the toilet when it comes to the film medium.
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Yes, Steve Moffat is the writer for all ages, and this episode displays his craft. Sally is just a shit in the storm, without Moffat's delectable writing. So more Steve Moffat, thank you very much (guaranteed goodness for the Doctor and the companion.)
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is the best episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen and I have seen them all. 10/10.
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Carey Mulligan is spanktastically hot!! I want to marry her.
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to get them to give the show to Moffat or at least pull it out of the hands of RTD? That episode was fantastic all the way around. The last three weeks have been great, and they all seem to exist pretty much outside of the season arc RTD is working on. I would be interested to see what Russel would do with just one story a season, assuming he didn't shoot out is Who episode and then write 10 Torchwood episodes. I think he is capable of good things, but he is obviously stretched too thin and isn't doing a good job of bringing in enough talented help to prevent us from watching filler.
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I shudder to think of all the heads that exploded trying to think outside of the box for the second time in two seasons.
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Why can't this guy write for Dr. Who full time?
Dr. Who can't be pretty lame when they write it for kids.
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... the door's certainly open to it in the future/her future ... well I hope you know what I mean.
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Every time I get to the climax where Sally meets The Doctor I get so pissed off watching Martha interrupt.Thinking about why I disliked her interruptions so vehemently (I just yelled, "SHUT THE FUCK UP, Martha," on this latest viewing), I realized that in one episode, Sally Sparrow did more on her own than Martha has in the nine previous episodes.I really liked Martha in the beginning...I thought she showed a lot of promise in Smith and Jones. Unfortunately, since then she's done little but play the damsel in distress. I thought that the Doctor having someone highly educated--and capable of complex problem solving--as a companion would be a great change from the dumb, but ballsy, Rose. This promise showed a bit in Smith and Rose, but has largely been left to flounder since then. Having an educated companion isn't enough...having one that is highly intelligent, but can also solve problems spontaneously is what is necessary. Sally provided that quality in copious amounts. The Doctor doesn't need a Doctor, he needs a Detective, or P.I. I'd really love for the writers to figure out how to use Martha well, but if they can't do that, I really hope The Doctor goes back to pick up Sally Sparrow.
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And the Doctor Who talkback passes the Ratatouille talkback!
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I have to agree with you there. Especially given that Martha herself had met the Doctor for the first time *after* he'd met her, when someone else who calls him by name appears (and she heard Sally call him Doctor), it might well be *because* she has something very important to tell him.
Ergo, shut up until she's finished talking! How much time did they have to get where they were going? 20 minutes wasn't it? -
Only three left! if they top what's gone before I will be a happy geek.
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watched it late last night and scared the hell out of me...bring on the master and captain queer erm sorry jack....
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I videos it. I was a cracking episode!
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Very good. Carey Mulligan as Sally was excellent outshone Freema Agyeman (Doctor's assistant Martha Jones), by a country mile.
They should bring her back...or give her a series of her own as someone else said very Buffyesque. -
Blinovitch Limitation Effect. Brilliant.
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doctor who is crap
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Jesus that was a poor post from me. Sorry. In short, it was a very good episode and statues have never been scarier. The kiddies will never look an angel statue the same again lol
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This may be a bit high-school'ish, but, you know, when someone with the word "jock" in his handle tells me that what I like is crap, I take that as a badge of honor. What the fuck is an "erko" though?
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Best episode in a very good third season. Moffat rules, make Sally a regular!
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If you have grown up with it all your life, then it certainly isn't crap. It was alive way before Star Wars.
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Intrigued now! Come on, show us your inner nerd! My own problem with it was tardis getting grabbed and rocked. I might be wrong, but isn't it meant to be sort of temporally fixed? Hmm. I recall it sliding down a mountain somewhere...class ep tho
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I know Ecclestone materialised around a Dalek. Whoever wrote this will know if there was a problem. This link is ace.
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~abr/drwho/tardis/type40/ -
/join #DeathToAICN
C'MON YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO JOIN THAT, you were all thinking it -
That's something I've been wanting to see. There was an episode during the Tom Baker years that really made an impression on me, Tom and friends were fleeing from something or other and went deep, deep, deep into the bowels of the TARDIS/city. Just once I'd like to see the Doctor's sleeping quarters or the shower room or something like that, something very normal but necessary within the TARDIS.
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Even though I will forever think of Lucy Gaskill as Kitty in the Keira Knightley "Pride and Prejudice," she was great here as Sally Sparrow (and whoever said she'd make a great companion is dead on). The whole episode was creepy as hell, very inventive and oddly poignant. This show just continues to rock above all others on the air today, in America OR the UK.
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This may have very well been the best episode of the season, although "The Shakespeare Code" would be a close second. This season seems to be hitting a lot of right notes, aside from the one with the living sun and the human daleks.
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I mean, how do you technically kill a stone Vampire?
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See Episode 2 - Tooth and Claw (the werewolf) of Season 2, Tennant's first season. Everything you need to know about why the Queen hates the Doctor - and the creation of Torchwood - is in that ep. And a werewolf too!!!
Quite right - BLINK was the best new Who ep so far. Carey Mulligan is SERIOUSLY hot. And she needs a Who spin off show NOW!! -
I can't wait for this episode. BTW Why are people excited about Captain Jack? I hate the damn character, and I hate Torchwood. Hate's a strong word, but you know what I mean.
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Watch the run of good eps come to a grinding halt once Captain Jack is back. I hate Torchwood and this character too. Kill the bugger off, horribly if possible! If the next ep is as good as the last three, I would wonder that the producers have been quietly replaced by Steven Moffat clones or somebody with talent and taste. Expect it all to come back down to mundane stupidity this coming Saturday... nice while it lasted.
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I guess I didn't like him enough to bother to download Torchwood, but I liked him in the Who episodes. I'll be interested to see how he does or doesn't work with this Doctor. I also enjoyed him in Megalodon 3.
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That the first 7 episodes were pretty crap - and this series has just been rescued by 3 of the best episodes since Who's rebirth.
BTW - Torchwood was pretty good, worth torrenting... unless you're a redneck homophobe, then you should avoid. -
Shark Attack 3 - Megaladoon. SciFi shows it a lot...
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Captain Jack is just awful...the "Deadringers" piss take was spot on( you can see it on youtube)Why could'nt RTD give us a real gay character played by a real actor not some pink windmill nightmare. Lets hope Derek Jacobi and John Simm keep us the standard of the better episodes , as we see the return of the Master........
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are some of the most hilarious effects ever made. It probably isn't good if you watch it from start to finish, but if you turn it on every once in a while, and watch a giant shark eating boats and people on jet skis, it is fucking hilarious. If drugs or alcohol are your thing, I suspect they would augment the experience.
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That strategy worked for the *Spawn* film, so I'm told.
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... that John Barrowman was rejected for Will and Grace because they thought he was too "straight acting". What does this say about the makers of that show? What does it say about Eric McCormack?
(I got this information from John Barrowman's wikipedia page). -
Different Queens. The Shakespeare Code featured Queen Elizabeth I in 1599. Tooth and Claw featured Queen Victoria, set in 1879.Not only were they different Queens, but Tooth and Claw takes place AFTER The Shakespeare Code. The proper implication of the episode is that the Tenth Doctor will meet Queen Elizabeth again some time in his future, but at an earlier point in her history. He will subsequently piss her off, much like he did with Queen Victoria.
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...wonder why? In the preview, the Doctor seemed to be giving Captain Jack the cold shoulder.
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...I mean as much as I appreciate Davies efforts in bring Who back and getting some talented people connected to it, both in front of and behind the camera, let's face facts, Davies himself is probably the weakest writer on the show, and to say that he's tonally inconsistent would be a hell of an understatement. Moffat on the other hand is easily the best and most consistent writer on the show, and clearly 'gets' the show and it's characters superbly. So yeah, I definitely vote give the show to Moffat, and if not, then at least get him to do a couple more scripts a season.
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The day after watching Blink I came across an album called "The Great Distance" on iTunes with a weeping statue cover.
I don't think it's got anything to do with Dr Who, but the whole statue picture and time traveller being someone who travels a great distance thing kinda creeped me out!
Check it out:
http://www.thegreatdistance.co.uk/album.php -
This was a good episode with a mostly appropriate atmosphere.I don't agree with spinning off every half decent character that turns up,thats weak,leave Sally be,it's a infinite universe dammit :).I hope kids are frightened by statues for a while,at least they would be taking in their surroundings rather than ignoring them. That policeman had a good pulling technique,who said Dr Who isn't educational.I hope captain Jack doesn't bring the Torchwood crew with him,they are lame(still at least there may be some improvement this time or at least some new lameness to cuss in the next series.......
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