The first two parter of the Matt Smith era ended on a typically Moffat note. I didn’t see the first episode when it aired on BBC1 (I caught it on iPlayer) so I didn’t see the animated Graham Norton that seems to have annoyed 6,000 people enough to complain. The resolvement of the ‘cliffhanger’ was very smart and wasn’t what I was expecting. There were several moments where there were claustrophobic scenes and they were acted brilliantly and was as closed to one of the Isolation type stories that I love in Doctor Who.
A lot of this story was about Amy and how she was being killed slowly by the Angels. You could tell there was something up with her when she started counting down from 10. Soon Amy does the exact opposite of what everyone who encounters the Angels does and that’s she closes her eyes. The reason why the Angels were doing this to Amy was a brilliant one and that was for “Fun”. Simple and did the right thing in making the Doctor mad. There was big push in the crack story arc where it becomes quite a massive plot point in this episode. For the first time the Doctor and Amy realise something is not right and it’s the Doctor who proclaims that “Time can be unwritten”. We learn a bit more about River Song and in typical Lost style we are given pretty much nothing and get the feeling there is a lot more to her. In Confidential we are told by Steven Moffat that her story will be told so I predict we may see her either at the end of this season or the beginning of the next.
This particular episode featured some of the best moments that I can recall since the show returned in 2005. The anger of the Doctor towards River Song and also the intimate moment when the Doctor leaves Amy and kisses her on her forehead was very moving. Likewise the scene where the Angels are surrounding the Doctor and one actually grabs his coat was a massive moment in the story. The site of the Angels falling into the light was a great visual moment and it was only beaten by the few shots of the Angels moving their heads and one actually moving which is the most movement we have ever seen. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are brilliant in this story for different reasons. Smith is brilliant because of his anger towards the Angels and intrigue about River Song we get a Doctor that is frustrated and at times very unbalanced. The moment when the Doctor leaves Amy in the ‘forest’ and kisses on the forehead was a really touching moment that was played perfectly by both actors. Karen Gillan puts in her best performance yet (which is quite a statement). The scenes where she has to close her eyes and move through the forest with the Angels either side of her was a great bit of acting. Alex Kingston was better in this episode than in Time of Angels. She didn’t seem quite so over the top and was more the potential companion that I would have liked. The revelation that she killed a ‘good man’ might lead some people to think that it’s the Doctor she kills in some sort of mercy killing but I think that’s too obvious. That said I am looking forward to Kingston’s next appearance in Doctor Who because I think that she brings a lot to the character (apart from the slightly OTT moments) which is what the show needs.
The ending of the episode was perhaps the only area that I wasn’t entirely pleased with. The Doctor returns Amy back to her house five minutes after leaving in the Eleventh Hour and she comes on to him. This didn’t quite make sense as she had never really shown much interesting romance wise in the Doctor. That said after everything she had been through you could understand her for going off a bit. The date of the wedding is June 20th 2010 which coincidentally is a Saturday which if the show doesn’t take a week off for the Eurovision Song contest is when Episode 13 is due to air. This is Russell T Davies level of story planning and shows that the season has some major things to reveal to us.
This is perhaps the best of the two parters that there has been in the new series. The Weeping Angels are a wonderfully simple creation that had developed in terror since their debut back in 2007. Hopefully there will be more of them in the future. Steven Moffat has written a very strong script with very engaging characters that you could care about and was sad to see go. Especially Father Octavian who’s capture and death were a surprise and brilliantly played.
A lot of this story was about Amy and how she was being killed slowly by the Angels. You could tell there was something up with her when she started counting down from 10. Soon Amy does the exact opposite of what everyone who encounters the Angels does and that’s she closes her eyes. The reason why the Angels were doing this to Amy was a brilliant one and that was for “Fun”. Simple and did the right thing in making the Doctor mad. There was big push in the crack story arc where it becomes quite a massive plot point in this episode. For the first time the Doctor and Amy realise something is not right and it’s the Doctor who proclaims that “Time can be unwritten”. We learn a bit more about River Song and in typical Lost style we are given pretty much nothing and get the feeling there is a lot more to her. In Confidential we are told by Steven Moffat that her story will be told so I predict we may see her either at the end of this season or the beginning of the next.
This particular episode featured some of the best moments that I can recall since the show returned in 2005. The anger of the Doctor towards River Song and also the intimate moment when the Doctor leaves Amy and kisses her on her forehead was very moving. Likewise the scene where the Angels are surrounding the Doctor and one actually grabs his coat was a massive moment in the story. The site of the Angels falling into the light was a great visual moment and it was only beaten by the few shots of the Angels moving their heads and one actually moving which is the most movement we have ever seen. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are brilliant in this story for different reasons. Smith is brilliant because of his anger towards the Angels and intrigue about River Song we get a Doctor that is frustrated and at times very unbalanced. The moment when the Doctor leaves Amy in the ‘forest’ and kisses on the forehead was a really touching moment that was played perfectly by both actors. Karen Gillan puts in her best performance yet (which is quite a statement). The scenes where she has to close her eyes and move through the forest with the Angels either side of her was a great bit of acting. Alex Kingston was better in this episode than in Time of Angels. She didn’t seem quite so over the top and was more the potential companion that I would have liked. The revelation that she killed a ‘good man’ might lead some people to think that it’s the Doctor she kills in some sort of mercy killing but I think that’s too obvious. That said I am looking forward to Kingston’s next appearance in Doctor Who because I think that she brings a lot to the character (apart from the slightly OTT moments) which is what the show needs.
The ending of the episode was perhaps the only area that I wasn’t entirely pleased with. The Doctor returns Amy back to her house five minutes after leaving in the Eleventh Hour and she comes on to him. This didn’t quite make sense as she had never really shown much interesting romance wise in the Doctor. That said after everything she had been through you could understand her for going off a bit. The date of the wedding is June 20th 2010 which coincidentally is a Saturday which if the show doesn’t take a week off for the Eurovision Song contest is when Episode 13 is due to air. This is Russell T Davies level of story planning and shows that the season has some major things to reveal to us.
This is perhaps the best of the two parters that there has been in the new series. The Weeping Angels are a wonderfully simple creation that had developed in terror since their debut back in 2007. Hopefully there will be more of them in the future. Steven Moffat has written a very strong script with very engaging characters that you could care about and was sad to see go. Especially Father Octavian who’s capture and death were a surprise and brilliantly played.
No comments:
Post a Comment