5x04 The Time of Angels (Grading/Discussion) (SPOILERS!!)

[DimesDan]

Did anybody else send a complaint to the BBC about that very, very annoying and very, very unnecessary and very, very badly timed pop-up featuring a cartoon Graham Norton? Lord shit, they should fire the cuntbag responsible for that kind of US broadcasting level of deadbrain idiocy (it's bad enough with the end credits being crushed by pointless trailers and promos).

I can't be arsed to be honest. Yeah it was a tad annoying and took up a bit of the screen, but it didn't ruin the episode for me.

What I am wondering though, why are the episodes 41/42 minutes long? Have they always been that length or is this a new thing for series five and is it so they can be shown without editing huge chunks out for the US and other markets?

 

[O'Dib]

I wonder if we'll ever see much of this future relationship with River. Imagining it'll come with the next regeneration, do they really wanna be tied into casting the Doctor based on his chemistry with the actress playing River? I don't really like her. Now, if we somehow find out she's a Timelord herself, and looked different when she first met the Doctor, I'd be all for that.

 

[Brent]

I wonder if we'll ever see much of this future relationship with River. Imagining it'll come with the next regeneration, do they really wanna be tied into casting the Doctor based on his chemistry with the actress playing River? I don't really like her. Now, if we somehow find out she's a Timelord herself, and looked different when she first met the Doctor, I'd be all for that.

I haven't seen this episode yet, but I'm still waiting for Romana to show up, she was in E-space, so she has to still exist, if River turned out to be her, that would be cool. Anyway, just babbling.

 

[Starkers]

Wow!

Loved it, and yeah something of a riff on the library 2 parter but BETTER!

Smith brilliant as always, love the way he calls Amy, "Pond" , it's such an old man thing to do!

Amy was excellent, the scene with the video Angel was just brilliant.

And considering I hated River Song last time out I love her here, but in part that's down to her playing off Eleven better than she played off Ten. I think the trouble was she was far more of a smart arse with Tennant, and because it was the first time he'd met her Ten came across like River's bitch, the playing field seemed a bit more level this time (and WillsBabe, I lover her shoes too!)

Maybe it's because I had to watch the episode late, but I thought the angels were still scary...loved the bit where he realised they should have two heads, didn't see that coming, and really liked that he had to bite Amy to save her!

Anyway, the second part better live up to this (or at least be nearly as good)

Anyone know how we complain about carton Norton?

 

[Xerxus]

Is there a reason why the Clerics didn't start blasting the Weeping Angels with their weapons?

or is there an in-universe explanation that Angels are indestructible?

 

[Starkers]

They're made out of stone!

 

[Count Zero]

Yeah, that's the one weak point. They're made out of stone but you can destroy stone. They obviously had some resources at their hands this time. I wonder why they didn't just crush the ship containing the angel or obliterated it in another way.

Well, I guess, one has to allow for small inconsistencies if one wants an episode at all.

 

[Psion]

Excellent episode all around! My one niggling complaint is that Matt Smith handled his sonic screwdriver like he didn't care a wit about what he was doing.

 

[Starkers]

You can destroy stone, but it takes far more effort than to destroy flesh, and as we learned tonight they can regenerate!

Forgot to mention, loved Amy closing one eye then the other, great nod to something people were saying after Blink came out!

 

[Starkers]

Excellent episode all around! My one niggling complaint is that Matt Smith handled his sonic screwdriver like he didn't care a wit about what he was doing.

Was that the bit when he soniced River? Because I think he was somewhat annoyed at having to do that!

 

[Xerxus]

You can destroy stone, but it takes far more effort than to destroy flesh, and as we learned tonight they can regenerate!

Well, I'm pretty sure that some of the heavier weapons today can break apart statues with a couple of shots. I hope that weapons in the future (was this the 51st century?) have improved firepower.

Besides, it was a bit silly for the monks to have weapons when they don't use them. It didn't even look like they tried!

Of course, these are aliens that can teleport people back in time by touching them, and have images of themselves come alive. Not exactly realistic. I was just wondering if there was something in Blink that explained this.

 

[Count Zero]

To break a statue, it's often enough to just topple it over. Mmh, I wonder what would happen if an Angel was toppled over and lost its head in the process. Would it be dead?

(That's probably how they would have resolved it in the black-and-white days. Just like the crummy fight with the Daleks at the end of The Dalek Invasion of Earth )

 

[Checkmate]

Who's to say they're actually made out of stone? If it were that easy to destroy them, they 1) wouldn't have had the time to evolve to that state (since, you know, they clearly lived in an environment that was hostile enough to /require/ them to evolve to that point) and 2) the guy filling one with holes earlier would have shattered it into a thousand pieces already.

Fun episode nonetheless. I really love River's intro.

 

[Count Zero]

I think Blink established that they were made out of stone when they're not moving. It would make killing them quite difficult. An average gun would maybe scrape them but not really destroy them. You'd need something bigger for that. In Blink, the options for the characters were very limited in that regard, but here, there's a military unit who's aware of how dangerous the Angels are. They probably have a ship in space, too.
But it's really a minor point. I just think the question how you could destroy them is interesting.

 

[Checkmate]

The guy was firing a fully-automatic weapon into it, undoubtedly loaded with ammunition appropriate to the situation. Since, you know, they're experts on the subject and came prepared to deal with them. Yet there wasn't a mark on the one he was shooting at that I could see.

 

[SG-17]

brilliant!

OOO, OOO, OOO! They're not using the ubiquitous H&K G36 assault rifles!!! They had P90 sub-machine guns!!

They looked more like a hybrid of a P-90 and an F2000.


This episode was definitely the best of season 5 so far. I just love the Weeping Angels and the fact that they aren't afraid of the Doctor (which they should know about since they've been around since before the Time Lords) just makes it so much better.

 

[Jax]

loved Amy closing one eye then the other, great nod to something people were saying after Blink came out!

Just before she did that I was lying in bed watching it thinking wait a minute just blink one eye at a time and then she did it...a lovely moment

 

[diankra]

I am going to send my complaint in the form of a letter.

You can do it by email. If Monday's newspaper report that the BBC have had thousands of complaints about it, then...

 

[Cyke101]

I suspect the Angels aren't that scary this time around because in Blink, the two protagonists were one-shot characters. In here, we're back to the Doctor and the Companion and you know they always survive for one reason or another (say, a contract ). Having two throwaway characters at the center, while having the series stars as glorified cameos, makes a world of difference.

Still, I thought this episode was one hell of a fun time, and yes, I certainly cursed at the screen when the credits rolled. If the Angels aren't a threat to the main characters, how they fill up the screen ever so much subtlety is still pretty frightening in and of itself. And how Sacred Bob describes his death, I'm sure, pushed the limits of dialogue censorship.

5/5 for me.

 

[Count Zero]

The guy was firing a fully-automatic weapon into it, undoubtedly loaded with ammunition appropriate to the situation. Since, you know, they're experts on the subject and came prepared to deal with them. Yet there wasn't a mark on the one he was shooting at that I could see.

Looked like a regular machine gun to me. And my point was that they obviously weren't as prepared or clever as they could have been because then they just would have destroyed the ship and the temple safely from afar.

But then we wouldn't have gotten this episode, so I'm ok with this.


ETA: Since Bob was mentioned: I was so sure he'd survive. The dialogue with the Doctor was certainly eerie. I wonder where they're going with this 'they need the bodies' angle.