Review:
Doctor Who: The Weeping Angels

Date: 22 Apr 2010

So, this article might seem a tad early since it's being posted before this week's episode of Doctor Who is being aired.

Now, as a warning: This article does contain spoilers. If you do not wish to ruin this weekend's episode of Doctor Who for yourself then refrain from reading page 2!

Now, I'm neither your regular Doctor Who episode reviewer, nor am I the biggest Doctor Who fan you'll meet...but I forget my point. Regardless, this week I'm stealing the spotlight and bringing you a sneak preview of this week's episode.

From the perspective of a critique, this might be one of my favourite episodes of Doctor Who since Christopher Eccleston's first appearance. The narrative was well written and driven forward in almost perfect pacing. Now, the first episodes of this season really didn't impress me. I was happy to see a slightly darker side to the Doctor's humour but he had no outlet for his more sinister side developed in the end of the last season, nothing to direct his hate at. This episode showed yet another side to the Doctor's myriad of hidden personality quirks and gave him something to direct his negativity at without breaking the flow of the episode.

Writing like this isn't something you come across every day of the week. Most works are eventually marred by small errors, but episode 504 managed to pull off a nice balance of plot and character development. The pacing was kept very regular which served for a more enjoyable experience overall. Whilst the story didn't contribute massively to the plot, it has tons of room to affect the coming season very thoroughly.

SPOILERS ON PAGES 2/3

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View Comments (6)

Was it just me, or did this episode seem a bit shorter than others? It's probably a trick of the imagination from it being a two-parter, but dang it seemed to finish far too quickly!

Posted by Kevin Neely on 29 April 2010 23:53

Eccleston was brilliant. He balanced the Doctor's oddness with the seriousness very well. It was a shame he was so short-lived.

I really hated Tenant because he was far, far, far, far too jolly. All the time. The man seemed like he was constantly eating sugar, though he did get more dour toward the end which I enjoyed.

I like my characters to have a sense of drama! Can't be doing with nothing but happiness. /grumpyoldmanface

Posted by Liam Stanway on 29 April 2010 01:35

It reads you're not a deep Whovian which I like to think gives your review a freshness.

Eccleston was great though wasn't he? I like to think that after McGann-face had to give up his Gallifreyan mansion, the tardis was subsidised at some point by Social Security aid. Then he moved out of London and realised he felt a lot less self-centred. Oop north.

Posted by Andrew Luke on 25 April 2010 14:07

It seemed to me that Moffatt had a specific game plan for what he wanted to do as head writer and I suspect that he was influenced to change his plans after the BBC got wind. That may be why Doctor No. 11 is a young attractive man and his character is so similar to No. 10 and only slowly changing. Just look at the violent difference in character seen in Doctor No. 10's first appearance as compared to the Eleventh Hour to see what I mean.

In the US there was a retrospective of the first 5 years. In it Moffatt spoke VERY highly of Eccleston's performance causing me to think that he wanted to develop the Doctor into darker more sophisticated persona, which seems to fit what you are saying in your review.

If you like, check out my blog, btw: http://dailypop.wordpress.com/ where I have written lots of Doctor Who articles.

Posted by Daily P.O.P. on 22 April 2010 17:32

Thanks for the feedback! I rarely get comments or e-mails anymore so it's nice to know that I'm writing well ^_^

I agree, Moffat's take on the Doctor is somewhat stale now. With the (Spoiler alert, spoilers from here on) mysterious Professor Sund now in the timeline, this might open up some new paths in both this series and the next one (Got confirmation from Phil Ford that he's working on series 6 at the momemnt). I really like the idea of a more cynical, angry Doctor similar to Christopher Eccleston's first appearence. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of this fallible Doctor in this series.

Posted by Liam Stanway on 22 April 2010 17:21

An excellent and well thought-out review. I particularly like how you have put your finger plainly on one of the many flaws with the new version of Doctor Who since its return in 2005. The space Jesus who saves everyone at just the right moment and is loved by all is very tired. I suspect that Moffatt is taking baby steps in developing his own take on Doctor Who and that some of these trappings will fall away as time passes and the audience grows to accept his vision.

... hopefully Murray Gold will be the first to go.

Posted by Daily P.O.P. on 22 April 2010 16:57

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Review:
Doctor Who: The Weeping Angels

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Review:Doctor Who: The Weeping Angels

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Further News

Review:
Doctor Who: The Weeping Angels