S13E04 "Village of the Angels" BBC1 6.20-7.15pm 21st November

[StCoop]

Devon, November 1967. A little girl has gone missing, Professor Eustacius Jericho is conducting psychic experiments, and in the village graveyard, there is one gravestone too many. Why is Medderton known as the Cursed Village, and what do the Weeping Angels want?

 

[Starkers]

So just to be clear, the rating scale is now 1 = brilliant 10 = shite?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Which makes no fucking sense. No one ever uses that system for polls.

 

[matthunter]

Which makes no fucking sense. No one ever uses that system for polls.

Except for that pillock in the Lower Decks forum.

 

[Orac]

Don't do drugs, kids.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Except for that pillock in the Lower Decks forum.

Ah, I wouldn't know. I haven't been visiting the forum because of too much traffic. I don't have time for that nonsense.

 

[Mr Awe]

Let's get the poll scaling back to the normal 10 Excellent - 1 Awful. No one uses 1 for the best.

Otherwise, perhaps @The Nth Doctor should start the review threads?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Imagine the confusion at the Olympics. Best dive in the history of diving gets a 1. Judge explains he was indicating that it was a #1 dive.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Let's get the poll scaling back to the normal 10 Excellent - 1 Awful. No one uses 1 for the best.

Otherwise, perhaps @The Nth Doctor should start the review threads?

More like restart since I've been doing them for years...

 

[Mr Awe]

^ Yup!

 

[Lonemagpie]

Dr Who really good tonight - great cliffhanger too. Fuck knows how that translates to a score in the ass-backward poll, so I'm noy going to fucking bother.

 

[matthunter]

Apart from some novels, all the Angels we've seen have been female so this may be a case of Chibbers taking a novel opportunity - either way I loved it. Great guest cast this week - Claire and Jericho were fantastic (though Kevin McNally never disappoints)!

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Another excellent episode and fantastic cliffhanger! It's great to see the Weeping Angels as a terrifying force with a combination of old ideas (any image of a Weeping Angel can create a real one, sand falling from ones eyes) and new ideas (a Weeping Angel hiding inside a person's mind, the Weeping Angels working for the Division). Claire's Weeping Angel hints big reveals for The Doctor but I wonder how much we'll actually get. Either way, next episode should be fascinating with the Weeping Angels taking The Doctor (in Weeping Angel form!) to the Division.

Kevin McNally was terrific as always and, considering the cliffhanger, I'm hoping we'll get to see more of him in the next episode and not just a quick scene and then Yaz and Dan are off on their way. They're all trapped in 1901, they don't even have the TARDIS with them, the Flux is slowly eating up the town, and yet somehow Peggy managed to travel the long way back. Granted time is all "wonky" now (or whatever Namaca said) but I wonder how they're getting to out of there aside from an outside rescue...but by whom?

I believe this is the first time in Doctor Who history to feature a mid-credits scene, although it feels a little odd as to why they did that here and now. The scene could've easily occurred in the main body of the episode itself and before the cliffhanger. Either way, it's good to check in on Vinder as he desperately searches for Bel, who has now also crossed paths with Azure and the Passenger. Question is what does Azure want with all of these survivors (and why Diane specifically?)

 

[John Clark]

Very solid episode as far as I'm concerned with an interesting cliff hanger

 

[matthunter]

Question is what does Azure want with all of these survivors (and why Diane specifically?)

Previously, they used Passenger to hold hostages against the Doctor. But Swarm's stated aim is "to rule in Hell" and what is Hell without damned souls trapped forever?

 

[Captaindemotion]

Wow, after a great opener, episode 2 was a bit of a muddle, but this was great. I really hope that this standard continues for the rest of Flux

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Previously, they used Passenger to hold hostages against the Doctor. But Swarm's stated aim is "to rule in Hell" and what is Hell without damned souls trapped forever?

Yeah, but there's clearly a larger motivation going on here.

 

[Kirks_Flying_Wig]

I didn't pay attention to this "new" rating system so my 8 = excellent with minor quibbles. Is it hyberbole to say that's the best cliffhanger since The Stolen Earth?

There always seems to be frothing anger when anybody except Moffat writes Weeping Angels but Chibnall and Maxine Alderton certainly proved tonight that they can manage it, and make them a real threat. I was hooked on the mystery of what they were doing in the village in both time periods up to the end. Kevin McNally and Annabel Scholey were brilliant, I'm so glad they seeded Claire's story in episode 1.

Thaddea Graham has been great in her last couple of episodes but I'm still not feeling Bel and Vinder's storyline, perhaps because it is so detached from the Doctor and Yaz's story. Four episodes in, and Dan is still a bit of a non-entity. I would have hope with a condensed series that we'd have got more characterisation for him given there hasn't been enough time to develop him as there was for Yaz in her first year. I'm not sure if anything has been announced about John Bishop returning for the 2022 specials but, if he isn't, then I doubt we're going to get much more of a deeper dive into Dan with only two episodes left.

 

[matthunter]

DenOfGeek says it's inconsistent that Jean and Gerald died because "no-one survives it twice" when that was the whole point of the Angels' battery farm in Angels in Manhattan, however if 1901 was their start point for quantum extraction, there may be no "past" to that version of the village for anyone else to be sent to.

Also, they note there's no tumpty-tums on the end credits... because the Doctor's hearts no longer beat? Nice touch, if so.

 

[Tomalak]

That was just brilliant, I was completely drawn in from start to finish!

Best use of the Angels since Blink, and cliffhanger was one for the ages.

Sure there are probably better episodes of Doctor Who, but I unreservedly loved that. So it's a 10/10 from me!