Considering that it was a statue in a graveyard which inspired Steven Moffat to create the Weeping Angels, it's taken the programe long enough to come up with a story which places them in that most atmospheric of environments. It really is their natural habitat.
The Angels were used very effectively in this story, which was another of the more conventional episodes in this current series - or as conventional as you can get when it comes to the quantum locked creatures. We only had two time zones to worry about - the "present" of 1967, and the same village in 1901. In both instances, the inhabitants of the village are on record as having disappeared overnight.
I guessed early on that the missing ten year old, Peggy, was going to be the old woman warning the 1967 villagers of impending danger.
If bringing an od foe back, it is now customary to try to find something new for them to do, or some new character quirk to give them.
In this episode, it looked like we were going to have an Angel disguised as a human (Claire), but instead we went back to the old idea of an Angel taking you over if it inhabits your mind as a mental image. We saw this in 2010's Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone, where Amy thought her hand had turned to stone, and stone dust came from her eyes instead of tears.
Another Matt Smith story borrowed from was 2012's Hide. The retro time period, the scientist investigating the paranormal using a young woman as a test subject, and the image of a landscape which suddenly drops away to outer space.
As the mystery of the village unfolded, we discovered that everything was connected to the Division (it always is these days). The Timeless Child very much seemed to say that this was a Time Lord organisation, and only a Time Lord organisation, but now it seems that the Division employed all sorts - including the Weeping Angels. One of them had gone rogue, and it's the one hiding in Claire. The Angels have removed the village from time - hence all the weird goings-on - in order to extract the rogue, but now they have decided that the Doctor will be a better prize. It was a truly shocking conclusion to the story to see the Doctor recalled to the Division, and being transformed into an Angel herself. Sensibly, the BBC didn't show any scenes of the Doctor - apart from one of her in Angel form - in the trailer for next week's episode.
Dan and Yaz were sent back to 1901, as was Prof Jericho, so he'll be back next week. One thing which wasn't clear was why anyone was sent back to 1901 at all.
Swarm had a week off, and Azure only appeared briefly, in the latest bel instalment. She is still looking for Vinder, and he for her. We know she's running about in a Lupari spaceship, but how exactly is he getting around?
All in all, it was an excellent episode - the highlight of Flux so far, and I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best of the Chibnall era. Shame it took someone else's creations to achieve this, and how significant is it that this is the episode that has a co-writer?
No comments:
Post a Comment