Inspirations: Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone

Blink had proven to be one of the most successful stories of the revived series thanks to the creation of the Weeping Angels. Written by Steven Moffat, everyone assumed that they would return now that he was the new showrunner. There was also the enigmatic character of River Song, which Moffat had also created, who many of us wanted to know more about.

Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone was to be the first two-parter of Series 5, and was the first story to go into production. Our first sight of Matt Smith in costume was when he filmed location work at "Bad Wolf Bay", the distinctive beach which had played that role in Doomsday.

The first draft of this story was already written before Smith had even been cast.

One of the inspirations for this story was Aliens (1986). Moffat thought that most sequels failed to live up to the originals, though the Alien sequel was one of the exceptions. Whilst Ridley Scott's film had featured a single Xenomorph, James Cameron delivered a whole army of them, battling a military unit on a hostile alien planet. Dalek and Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways had followed a similar path in 2005. Whilst Blink had featured more than one Angel, the numbers were very small - with only a single creature threatening at any one time for the most part.

As for River, she had mentioned the "crash of the Byzantium" as an incident she knew about, which the Doctor was unaware of - so something from her past, but his future.

Everyone at the time assumed this to be a spaceship - and so it turned out to be.

When added to the script for the Library story, Moffat had not planned that this comment would lead anywhere.

What he had worked out was that River would be involved in the Doctor's death at some future time, and was in prison for this, and that the pair would become married at some point. He envisaged their relationship as an argumentative one, with a lot of oneupmanship between them.

On first reading the script, Alex Kingston actually thought that she was playing the Doctor's mother rather than his wife.

Blink, as the title had suggested, had seen the Angels at their most threatening when un-viewed, which inspired Moffat to have Amy blinded during this story, having to find her way through a large group of Angels. Having the Doctor return to her wearing his jacket, which he had only just lost, was not a late addition. Moffat was already plotting out his series finale which would see him travel back through his recent timeline.

The forest setting was there to provide a spooky location, rather than have everything take place in a futuristic spaceship interior.

Having the soldiers a religious order was simply a way to make them more interesting, and something which could potentially be revisited in a future story.

The Doctor speed reads a book and claims it was a bit boring in the middle - just as he had done in City of Death.

The Byzantium's Home Box - inspired by an aircraft black box flight recorder - has Old High Gallifreyan writing on it, which the Doctor can read, as previously seen in The Five Doctors.

It is suggested that the iconic TARDIS (de)materialisation sound is due to the Doctor leaving the brakes on. This doesn't fit with many stories in which other Time Lords' TARDISes have made the exact same noise, so might just be River being flippant.

The series' story arc concerning the crack shifted up a gear as the Doctor became aware of it for the first time since little Amelia's bedroom wall. For the first time we saw that it could remove people from existence.

First mention of the Pandorica.

The story ended with a return to Amy's house and the Doctor realising that the date of her wedding (due the following day) was significant. Fans noted that this date would be that of the series finale (26th June 2010).

The writer came to regret the scene in Amy's bedroom where she tries to thrust herself upon him sexually, saying it was the one thing of his entire tenure he would change.

Moffat added to Angel lore by having them kill for the first time, speak (although only through the bodies of their victims) as well as be seen to move. He also introduced the "image of an Angel becoming an Angel" notion. 

Many fans were unhappy with these developments - especially the voice and movement. Preference was also made to the smaller number or single Angel posing a more effective threat than whole hosts of the creatures. A case of "less is more".

Ultimately, this story turned out to be one of those occasions when the sequel did not better the original.

Next time: a visit into Hammer Horror territory...