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

Yes! I meant to note that in my review. I loved the muted music for the end credits...but I didn't suss on correlation with The Doctor's hearts no longer beating. If that's the reason for it, then very nice touch indeed!

 

That was my favourite episode of Jodie Whittaker so far, and it had another great cliffhanger.

I love the relationship between the people who keep missing each other, it just feels so real and emotional?

The seer starting to become an Angel because she saw the visual of an Angel, was a scary feedback loop, and a good idea.

 

Aside from the fantastic cliffhanger, and another incredible performance by Jodie (its so good to see her be the Doctor before she leaves next year, for once), I was legitimately bored by this one. I get the production values are astoudningly good, but... the story was utterly dull. And once. Fucking. Again. Chibnall just abandons his own creations of companions to Generic Dialogue Land. What the heck? Dan's entire mode during the whole thing is "are we really stuck here?" and while Yaz at least reminded us cleverly that she's actually a police officer, the episode nevertheless abandons that novelrty for Yaz being totally lost the whole time. I don't understand what Chibnall's problem with Yaz, because she's consistently been the worst developed element of this series.

Anyway. Glad you lot enjoyed it, but I didn't really. Not the worst, though, just blase.

EDIT: Another thing I loved, actually, was the theme at the end. THAT should have been the theme of this era. I loved it! Can't wait to listen to it on repeat in YT one day.

 

That was superb.

Seriously where was this Doctor and this bloody showrunner before now?

If I was listing things RTD needs to hang onto from the Chibnall era Maxine Alderton would be close to the top of that list, but fair dos Chibnall wrote this as well.

Great use of the Weeping Angels and heck what a cliffhanger! Bel was great again. Yaz and Dan...well they were there.

Yet again Jodie shines when separated from her companions!

 

Great episode. Loved everything with the Doctor's plot in the village, it gave me trashy Sixties movie vibes.

Finally Jodie gets a chance to shine. Cutting her off from the companions seems to work wonders... And she gets more agency than she used to, and is allowed to be proactive and competent.

I was spoiled to the Claire-in-the-mirror scene, but it was still good.

Well, tbf, the time they had for characterizing Yaz and the Doctor/ companions relationship (heck, the Doctor herself) was not used well for much of seasons 11 and 12. And for Yaz, that hasn't changed much. (Yeah, she got pilot and quipping skills offscreen, great.)

I also agree about Bel and Vinder. Moreover, for the last 2 eps, the script almost suggests that Bel is the hero of this story/ series. And that's not how it should be.

I know, right? Former police officer Yaz could have done what Dan did in ep 2, so I still wonder why he was brought on, other than "we need a white dude", "I like writing for middle-aged white dudes", and "I don't know what the hell to do with Yaz".
As for the dialogue... I've lowered my bar, and it has gotten better sice ep 1.

Wow, awesome.

The cliffhanger should have been the ending, not another part of the Vinder/ Bel lost lovers soap opera. (Sorry, I really like them both, that's not my issue.)

 

I did rewatch it just now, and I have to say, I like everything to do with the Weeping Angels actually. The Division plot, though, leaves me totally cold, and I stand by my criticisms for the dialogue and character dynamic (or lack thereof).

Oh, and has anyone mentioned the retcon of the Angels killing those they sent back once already? Doesn't that directly contradict Angels in Manhattan?

 

Second, actually. The first was the finale of Capaldi's first season where Santa Claus shows up in the TARDIS to set up for the 2014 Christmas special.

 

I wonder what the season would look like if, at the very least, Alderton had co-authored all episodes. Villa Diodati and Village are easily the most atmospheric ones for me, and also the ones where Jodie really comes across as an ancient, knowledgeabie if slightly maniac alien.

As for the mystery box, it's really high time we (and the Doctor) are getting some answers. I hope they stick the landing.

 

Interesting... the end titles sounded different, but didn't spot it, and as a cellist I should have noticed a change to the bass line!

 

Didn't David Tennant have two- one with the Titanic hitting the TARDIS and one with Donna first showing up in a wedding dress?

 

No, those were cliffhanger scenes at the end of the episode proper, before the credits rolled.

 

Much better than last week, The Angels are easily my favourite villains after The Daleks and a very interesting ending/cliff-hanger. I still haven't a clue how this will all end and it still won't fix the underlying issue I have with the retcon of the entire show & Doctor.

One thing that bugs me is The Division goals are to protect time when the Time Lords have a non interference rule and one assumes to protect Galifrey?

Well they did a bang up job during the Time War and they let The Master wipe out the Time Lords.

 

Ah, that's right. Thank you for the reminder. That one was a much better use of the construct, I think.

 

That was very enjoyable. I'd give it a 9, but not going to vote in the new rating scale.

Mostly excellent drama with lots of tension. Tension in the professor's house. Tension back in 1901. New developments with the Angels and the Division.

I couldn't quite give it a 10 for several reasons. For one, it's always hard to give that to an ongoing story because you don't know how good the payoff will be.

But, there were also several storytelling negatives. While there was a lot of tension and urgency to "don't blink," it was another case of exposition for plot development. The Rogue Angel had to tell the Doctor some of the story when the Doctor was in Claire's head. And again Claire passed the word to the Doctor what the Rogue Angel said at the end about the better deal.

The Doctor figured some of it out but did it really make a difference? She and Claire were captured. So her escape was ineffective. The others were sent back. Again, we'll have to see the resolution.

Bel and Vinder's story isn't grabbing me. I'm hoping that it doesn't become a big deal later on with the baby. I guess the main positive of Bel's story in this episode is that we got to see how they were collecting people for Passenger. I'm not sure if that was needed but ok.

So, it sounds like Claire "taking the long way home" was a misdirection earlier? The Rogue Angel planted some information and sent Claire to her home to send her back in time.

The credits before the end was interesting. I noticed they were fuzzy and the sound faded. Maybe trying to highlight crongy time? Things out of order. Distortion.

Well, now the Doctor's captured, I suppose there will be lots of exposition with explanations coming up? Hopefully not. We'll see if Chibnall can avoid his past problems!

 

I did like the episode. It played up the creepiness and I was a bit shocked in some parts. I did not see the younger Peggy and the older Peggy until the last part which I think was the point. It was good, strangely, and I wish this was done more often rather than sparingly.

 

Damn, those cliffhangers!

I wish I had a TARDIS so I could skip to Thursday for Thanksgiving, Saturday for my birthday, and next Sunday for Survivors of the Flux.

 

Me on page 1.

 

OK, anyone else wondering if the Rogue Angel will turn out to be the one the Doctor has become, crossing back on its own timestream? It has the Doctor's missing memories because the Angel-Doctor tricks the Division and accesses their records, then she pops back to the past to set all this up. "Rogue Angel" then leaves Claire and turns back into Jodie (possibly the TARDIS reboot has something to do with this?)