Doctor Who S05E04: "The Time Of Angels" [Spoilers]

[Drooling Iguana]

I thought it was pretty good. Not really on the level of Blink but a hell of a lot better than any of the other early-season two-parters that we've seen on nuWho. It also really cemented the awesomeness of the new Doctor and companion, with Eleven demonstrating that while he still has some pride he's not nearly as stuck up as Ten was and able to take a bit of a ribbing from River without entering into a session of self-righteous speechifying, and Amy asking the Doctor to leave her behind is something that neither Rose nor Donna would ever have done (and it'd have been moot with Martha as I doubt the Doctor would even have noticed if he left her behind on one of his adventures.)

I'm kinda hoping that Amy's transformation into an Angel isn't entirely in her head. It looks like they're making a second attempt at the sort of thing that they'd tried to set up with Ace but weren't able to follow through on due to the series's cancellation. It'd be interesting to have a companion that isn't strictly human.

[Atlan]

I thought it was pretty good. Not really on the level of Blink but a hell of a lot better than any of the other early-season two-parters that we've seen on nuWho. It also really cemented the awesomeness of the new Doctor and companion, with Eleven demonstrating that while he still has some pride he's not nearly as stuck up as Ten was and able to take a bit of a ribbing from River without entering into a session of self-righteous speechifying, and Amy asking the Doctor to leave her behind is something that neither Rose nor Donna would ever have done (and it'd have been moot with Martha as I doubt the Doctor would even have noticed if he left her behind on one of his adventures.)

I'm kinda hoping that Amy's transformation into an Angel isn't entirely in her head. It looks like they're making a second attempt at the sort of thing that they'd tried to set up with Ace but weren't able to follow through on due to the series's cancellation. It'd be interesting to have a companion that isn't strictly human.

I mentioned that on page one, and I for one think it would be kind of awesome, especially since she'd be the kind of being that the Doctor simply can't really trust. There's allways going to be that bit of doubt.
And Angel Amy wouldn't be to difficult to do. Just have a stone-grey painted mannequin with two or three different Amy heads, and two sets of clothing for Amy: One normal, and the other painted dusty grey. Dress the mannequin up in the grey clothing, and tadaa, you've got weeping Angel Amy. How far those powers would go (might not be a good idea taking pictures of her...) would be interesting.
Might be a bit difficult to explain once she shows up for her wedding though

[Crossroads Inc.]

I don't get why people think the "Amy Angel" thing is going anywhere, Im about 99% sure it will magically be cured by the end of the second episode

[Atlan]

I don't get why people think the "Amy Angel" thing is going anywhere, Im about 99% sure it will magically be cured by the end of the second episode

It probably will be. Doesn't mean it wouldn't be an interesting thing to happen.

[Bounty]

It was blindingly obvious that there is no "Amy angel" 'situation'. As the Doctor clearly proved, it's all in her head; the Angel's just making her hallucinate, probably to slow the team down. Whatever it is, I bet it won't even matter any more once she gets away from the maze.

[Captain Seafort]

It was blindingly obvious that there is no "Amy angel" 'situation'. As the Doctor clearly proved, it's all in her head

Doesn't mean that the situation doesn't exist. While it'll all be resolved by the end of the next episode, I believe that the problem itself is real - the Doctor was most insistent that a) everything that records the image of an angel becomes an angel and b) that Amy not look into its eyes (which she ended up doing). I wouldn't be surprised if "everything" includes the human retina or brain. Looking the thing in the eye was probably required to cause the transformation.

[Big Orange]

I enjoy the banter between the Doctor and Amy, and I do like the fact that they have Amy actually being an old school assistant, instead of Rose doing the crush schtick, Martha doing whatever she did, as I've blanked her out, and Donna ranting about being a 'temp'. Amy does actually feel like she's a part of the team and is providing a level of thinking that the Doctor might miss.

Not entirely, there's something amiss and"off" about Amy Pond - with the earlier relatively recent companions, grating as their lives and personality traits could be, they still felt like real people and we could sense some certain familarity with them. Not so with Amy Pond, we don't see her family, and despite claiming not being the clingy sort, she's built her teenage years around the Doctor, making somewhat disturbing little dolls of him. And she was unaware of the Daleks, which is pretty weird, considering they came out in force over contemporary London on two occasions. We'll find out more about Amy in "Amy's Choice" and I doubt she's turning into one of the Lonely Assassins (or hope not).

I thought it was pretty good. Not really on the level of Blink but a hell of a lot better than any of the other early-season two-parters that we've seen on nuWho.

Yeah, the first two parters in NuWho have always been rather cheesy, even the most enoyable one before "The Time of Angels"-"Flesh & Stone", featuring the Sontarans invading and UNIT kicking their asses. I get the sinking feeling that the formula has just been inverted, with *gulp* Chris Chibnal doing the Silurian two parter (it could be shambolic or just OK).

It's obvious that River Song and Dr. Isaacs are up to no good, with them having a brief conversation behind the Doctor's back insinuating they're not out to neutralise the Angels, they're likely trying to capture them for their own ends, which the Doctor would not tolerate. Also Song is a career criminal (instead of a legitimate explorer).

Here's my idea of what the Church's brothers could've looked like, if more money was spent inspired by Flash Gordon and 17th/18th century military uniforms:

[Gramzamber]

Not a bad idea for a good sci-fi crusader look, though the Pope hat is a bit much.
Honestly I don't think it'd break the budget to slap some metal armour together, attach some furutistic thingies and paint some crosses on it. 80's era Doctor Who could've done it... it'd look terrible, but still.

[Dartzap]

Ye' know, the more I watch this series, the more the 11th starts to come across as being almost autistic in nature. All the clumsiness, rambling trains of thought which lead no where and the odd hyper moment, all add up to a spectrum disorder

[Admiral Valdemar]

Not a bad idea for a good sci-fi crusader look, though the Pope hat is a bit much.
Honestly I don't think it'd break the budget to slap some metal armour together, attach some furutistic thingies and paint some crosses on it. 80's era Doctor Who could've done it... it'd look terrible, but still.

We've had decades of pointless style over substance outfits in television sci-fi, it's nice to have something that is practical and not likely to go out of fashion save some total rewriting of warfare. Different for the sake of it is just asking for some bullshit art deco makeover that makes one cringe.

And yes, WH40k designs would do that. Dumb design but gothic is still dumb design. You'd need a far larger budget than any TV series gets to pull anything like that off well, in which case, can we not just have Terminator armour?

[Vympel]

*sigh*

I haven't seen the episode yet, but once again I cringe at the self-aware nonsense of the Doctor pontificating about how awesome he is.

Don't ever put the Doctor in a trap!!!!

Basically ... fuck off.

[Plekhanov]

I enjoy the banter between the Doctor and Amy, and I do like the fact that they have Amy actually being an old school assistant, instead of Rose doing the crush schtick, Martha doing whatever she did, as I've blanked her out, and Donna ranting about being a 'temp'. Amy does actually feel like she's a part of the team and is providing a level of thinking that the Doctor might miss.

Not entirely, there's something amiss and"off" about Amy Pond - with the earlier relatively recent companions, grating as their lives and personality traits could be, they still felt like real people and we could sense some certain familarity with them. Not so with Amy Pond, we don't see her family, and despite claiming not being the clingy sort, she's built her teenage years around the Doctor, making somewhat disturbing little dolls of him. And she was unaware of the Daleks, which is pretty weird, considering they came out in force over contemporary London on two occasions. We'll find out more about Amy in "Amy's Choice" and I doubt she's turning into one of the Lonely Assassins (or hope not).

Amy's an orphan and only child so she hasn't got much in the way of a family to see besides after only one episode on earth in her time period how much of her family could we really expect to have seen? Just how much of the other nuWho companions families was seen at such a stage? As for her being unaware of the daleks why do you assume this is specific to her instead of due to something (possibly related to the cracks) fucking with the entire time-line/everyone on earth or something?

Here's my idea of what the Church's brothers could've looked like, if more money was spent inspired by Flash Gordon and 17th/18th century military uniforms:

Well that's just fucking stupid, why the fuck would infantry in the future wear plate armour?
Why is everything but the face protected?
What's with the ridiculous pointing hat?
Why a brightly coloured tunic?
Why no pockets?

They're meant to be soldiers not attractions at a retarded theme park.

[Stark]

*sigh*

I haven't seen the episode yet, but once again I cringe at the self-aware nonsense of the Doctor pontificating about how awesome he is.

Don't ever put the Doctor in a trap!!!!

Basically ... fuck off.

None of the review threads this year have roused me out of my desire to stay as far away from this show as possible.

[Shroom Man 777]

*sigh*

I haven't seen the episode yet, but once again I cringe at the self-aware nonsense of the Doctor pontificating about how awesome he is.

Don't ever put the Doctor in a trap!!!!

Basically ... fuck off.

None of the review threads this year have roused me out of my desire to stay as far away from this show as possible.

Oh come on. Oh, right, you are STRAK and you STRAK everything, you STRAKKING STRAKKER you!

Vympel, how on Earth can you like shit like Transformers 2 but roll your eyes at far-less-super-stupid stuff like nuWho? I find the Doctor pontificating bout how he's awesome to be pretty alright compared to bucktooth hillbillybots. And, I think Eleven's nowhere near like Ten's stupid indignation moments. Fucking Ten.

[NecronLord]

It was blindingly obvious that there is no "Amy angel" 'situation'. As the Doctor clearly proved, it's all in her head; the Angel's just making her hallucinate, probably to slow the team down. Whatever it is, I bet it won't even matter any more once she gets away from the maze.

Spoiler

Well, there's a scene in Confidential, I think, of her standing in some woodland surrounded by angels and freaking out. So it'll probably last outside the maze.

[Shroom Man 777]

Where can I see previews of the next episode, guys?

[Hillary]

As for her being unaware of the daleks why do you assume this is specific to her instead of due to something (possibly related to the cracks) fucking with the entire time-line/everyone on earth or something?

Absolutely. I thought that was obvious as The Doctor made a point of stating her non-memory of the Daleks was a pretty big fucking issue.

As for the episode, it flew by. I loved the fact that they didn't just remake Blink. The coming out of the TV recording bit was new and brilliant. The whole starving army of angels was a nice idea. The battle clerics were great and River is awesome. Everyone complaining about the neck-snapping rather than zapping back in time killings are somewhat missing the point I think. It seemed pretty clear that there will be a reason for this unusual behaviour.

Amy is a bloody awesome companion so far. Intelligent, gutsy and nobody's fool. And sex on a stick to boot. Matt Smith is still fitting into the clothing but it's a hard role to fill with all the history and previous actors behind it. He's doing well I think.

Really looking forward to next week.

[D.Turtle]

I liked it.

Am I the only one that interpreted River's discussion with the Bishop, and her being unable to answer what the Doctor is like, as a hint that River is not River, but some kind of impostor?

[Shroom Man 777]

Nah. Militant cleric religious guys with some ulterior motive regarding "ANGELS"? For all we know, the clerics are pro-angel guys or some shit. Which could be WHY those corpses didn't get time-fucked. Or maybe those corpses didn't get time-fucked because the Angels wanted to use their vocal cords? Whatever.

My bet is that River is working with the Clerics, but only because of circumstances or shit that has forced her to, and when the situation changes she fucks them back and works with the Doctor and helps figure out a solution that ends up dealing with the Angels and whatever ulterior motive the Clerics have.

Maybe.

So, where can I see a preview?

[mr friendly guy]

So, where can I see a preview?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl6ounxQceI

youtube is your friend.

[Gramzamber]

Not a bad idea for a good sci-fi crusader look, though the Pope hat is a bit much.
Honestly I don't think it'd break the budget to slap some metal armour together, attach some furutistic thingies and paint some crosses on it. 80's era Doctor Who could've done it... it'd look terrible, but still.

We've had decades of pointless style over substance outfits in television sci-fi, it's nice to have something that is practical and not likely to go out of fashion save some total rewriting of warfare. Different for the sake of it is just asking for some bullshit art deco makeover that makes one cringe.

And yes, WH40k designs would do that. Dumb design but gothic is still dumb design. You'd need a far larger budget than any TV series gets to pull anything like that off well, in which case, can we not just have Terminator armour?

Yeah cause the church is all about practicality, and an outfit with clerics, bishops, brothers and "sacred names" would never be ostentatious in any way.

Besides which, what's practical for today's soldier may not be for a soldier several thousand years in the future. So I prefer if people use their imaginations instead of completely replicating an early 21st century soldier's gear, only with a P-90 with a mixmaster attachment glued on. Because as we know, a WWI soldier has exactly the same gear a present day one does, only with tin foil wrapped around their rifle barrels. Or, you know, not.

[Crazedwraith]

Looks like the same P90 variant we saw in season 2. Which IIRC was a similar timeframe. (51st Century?) So reusing props to save money? Say it ain't so!

[Zac Naloen]

Is it just me or are some of the visual effects a little bit hokey so far this season? (the deep space matte painting wouldn't haven't looked out of place in the late 90's)

I think it's mostly the stuff involving the tardis I'm talking about, some sort of homage?

[Plekhanov]

Not a bad idea for a good sci-fi crusader look, though the Pope hat is a bit much.
Honestly I don't think it'd break the budget to slap some metal armour together, attach some furutistic thingies and paint some crosses on it. 80's era Doctor Who could've done it... it'd look terrible, but still.

We've had decades of pointless style over substance outfits in television sci-fi, it's nice to have something that is practical and not likely to go out of fashion save some total rewriting of warfare. Different for the sake of it is just asking for some bullshit art deco makeover that makes one cringe.

And yes, WH40k designs would do that. Dumb design but gothic is still dumb design. You'd need a far larger budget than any TV series gets to pull anything like that off well, in which case, can we not just have Terminator armour?

Yeah cause the church is all about practicality, and an outfit with clerics, bishops, brothers and "sacred names" would never be ostentatious in any way.

High church CofE clergy men wear their rhobes & silly hats when actually performing religious duties in church or other controlled environments the rest of the time they dress normally except maybe for a clerical collar. They make rather more concessions to practically than you'd have us believe.

The regular army don't go into combat in dress uniform why would an armed wing of the CofE do so in ceremonial garb? Particularly an armed wing of the CofE which whilst it may have religious ends seems thus far pretty practical in the means it uses to try and achieve those ends.

Besides which, what's practical for today's soldier may not be for a soldier several thousand years in the future. So I prefer if people use their imaginations instead of completely replicating an early 21st century soldier's gear, only with a P-90 with a mixmaster attachment glued on. Because as we know, a WWI soldier has exactly the same gear a present day one does, only with tin foil wrapped around their rifle barrels. Or, you know, not.

Please do explain to us how plate armour would feasibly by "practical" for infantry in the future? Besides they do have some new gear in those tri-corder type things which also seem work as radios.

It just seems bizarre to me that all the whining about the equipment has focussed upon superficial looks whilst ignoring what would seem to be bigger issues - the lack of low light vision equipment & only having traditional hand-held torches, they should have something like zipkas at the very least.

[Shroom Man 777]

Turns out some people like overlooking whether or not the constituent elements of a given work of fiction makes the whole piece enjoyable, and end up somehow obsessing over minute irrelevant useless piece of (often military) bullshit trivia that nobody really cares about? Who knew.