Overdue Doctor Who Review: The Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone 

My favourite part of this story is the very Subtle clue as to whats going to happen which could easily have been just a continuity mistake. I am of course talking about the reapearing Jacket (The Doctor losing his Jacket early on but it breifly appearing in one scene but its not this Doctor)

The first Moffat two-parter was

Where I was disappointed was in us seeing the angels moving. In Blink, it's filmed as though we the audience are part of the story. The angels are always frozen, even when they tipping the TARDIS side to side, because WE are watching them. As soon as we see them move in this story it took me right out of it.

Things the doctor did:

Well technically the doctor's presence is required because without him the Angels wouldn't have been lured back onto the ship. Angel Bob was at the bottom of the catacombs by the time the clerics got inside, and the angel horde was restored by the time they reached the top of the catacombs.

On the ship with the "get a grip" statement, I thought he turned off the gravity on the ship which was the genius move.

Donna and Amy, the doctor works well with gingers

The 'you're a genius' line works fine as River saying the Doctor is a genius for figuring out about the gravity, rather than it being a part of a plan (if you don't think he had planned it)

When the Angels 'freeze' when they have the Doctor by the coat I don't think they are frozen, they have made the very stupid mistake of stopping to listen to what he has to say. They are not frozen just listening. Hence why when he runs away he makes a jibe about how they shouldn't let him talk.

“I don’t have a plan, but people like when I say that. Hope something good happens and take credit for it, that’s usually how it works.” - The Doctor, a later episode.

IMO it’s one of those stories where I don’t really care for it, but when I watch it I actually enjoy it. I don’t love it though. I still think Blink is the best Angel story.

Clara froze them when she jumped in the doctor's timeline

Fun fact: This was when I was first propeely introduced to River Song. My first impression of her was that River was the Doctor's Catwoman. I am so happy that I was right!

I did dislike “the image of an Angel becomes an Angel” because it felt like it was meant to make us scared of our TVs and it just did not work.

I love this story except for seeing the angel moving. I like to imagine that when people aren't looking at them the transform into a Lovecraftian horror. Seeing them stay as statues but move dispelled that which is a unfortunate.

I think the Angels work better Earth bound, which is why I personally preferred Angels Take Manhattan, even as crazy doodle as the Angel of Liberty was.

The problem with The Weeping Angels is not fan involvement with Blink. It's just the fact that Blink was either a complete fluke, the story was stolen, or Moffat completely lost touch with what made them scary. They are essential scifi jump scares with a time element. That means you should never see them: (1) Move (2) Speak (3) Walk (4) Physically harm (5) Rationalize (6) Fail to advance rapidly when you BLINK. This 2-parter was terrible, but it's okay to like it anyway if it floats your boat.

Every issue you have with this story, I don't have so this story is near perfect for me and better than blink.

This is a family show, meaning it’s accessible to everyone of all ages... and 8-10 year olds sometimes need to be told something more than once to understand it. Prisoner Zero was able to use the crack to escape because it’s 1000 year old multidimensional creature. Prisoner Zero’s guards weren’t able to use the crack in the same way, they had to track the message they sent to the doctor. But the doctor jumped ahead 12 years, which is why they show up not long after that. The crack was on Amy’s side, sucking away at her life, so Prisoner Zero wouldn’t have been in danger until it came through on Amy’s side, and found it was unable to use the crack again to escape elsewhere. If it tried, that’s probably when it would have been eaten by the crack. I don’t know, it’s not inconsistent to me. I felt and still feel the crack is Moffat playing completely fair and square with his audience, everything feels like it makes sense and has been consistent (in-show at least) once you get to the finale. But that’s just me 🤷‍♂️

12s in “bad green screen affect”