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| Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) is attacked by an Angel in his television! |
THE PLOT:
"The Angel has the TARDIS!"
A Weeping Angel has taken control of the TARDIS. Thinking fast, the Doctor manages to expel it - but not before she and her friends are re-routed to 1967, to the quiet English village of Medderton. Strange things are happening in Medderton. The cemetery has too many gravestones. A young girl, Peggy (Poppy Polivnicki), has vanished without a trace. And Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) is conducting psychic experiments on a young woman - Claire Brown (Annabel Scholey), the same woman the Doctor met in 21st century Liverpool.
While Yaz and Dan join the search for Peggy, the Doctor tries to learn more about Claire. But she's barely entered the Professor's house before it becomes besieged by Angels. All the Doctor can do is barricade them in first the house, then the cellar, buying time to learn exactly why Claire was targeted by the Angel in the future and what the Angels are after in the past.
But even when the Doctor gets answers, they only lead to more questions. And not everything about this situation is as it appears...
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: As in co-writer Maxine Alderton's previous episode, there's an emphasis on the Doctor's lighter, more flippant side early on... all the better to contrast with the rest of the story, which puts her in an increasingly desperate situation. "I'm pretty good at stopping the unstoppable," she brags. But as she sets up barricades, then improvises a closed-circuit TV system to allow continuous observation of the Angels, it becomes clear that all she's doing is buying time. She's keeping herself and her charges alive long enough to find answers - but an answer is not necessarily the same things as a solution...
Yaz/Dan: Her police training shows as she focuses on the search for the lost child even as the situation surrounding her and Dan becomes ever stranger. She insists that the Doctor will be able to "sort this, save us. She always does" in what sounds less like a prediction than a statement of faith. Dan is more or less along for the ride this time, but he remains an engaging presence even when given little to do.
Professor Jericho: Kevin McNally gives the standout performance as Jericho. Initially seeming to be a befuddled and somewhat blustery middle-aged nonentity, he emerges as a man of courage and strong will. A World War II veteran who saw the Nazi concentration camps first-hand, he is not intimidated by the Angels, even when they taunt him in his own voice. "I am not blinking!" he declares as he fixes his gaze on them, and his voice and stance convey that he not only means it, but he's somehow capable of following through.
Bel: Her search for Vinder leads her to Puzano, a world that was once the intergalactic equivalent of Venice, complete with canals. Now the canals are gone, as Flux survivor Namaca (Blake Harrison) explains, along with most of the people. When Namaca promises a potential means of escape, Bel investigates and makes a startling discovery which propels her to the next stop on her journey...
Azure: No Swarm this week, but we do get an appearance from his sister, Azure (Rochena Sandall). Azure is gathering survivors, presenting herself as someone offering salvation. She's even framed standing on a mountaintop like a prophet as she addresses the desperate remnants of humanity. We don't learn why she's collecting people, but I can't imagine it's for anything pleasant.
The Weeping Angels: That which contains the image of an Angel, is an Angel." That statement, introduced in 2010's The Time of Angels, proves central to this story. Director Jamie Magnus Stone handles them well. There's a haunting beauty in a single Angel we see when the Doctor converses with it on a beach. Another moment, that seems taken straight from a horror movie, sees Angels' hands and faces coming out of the walls of a tunnel. Then there's the Doctor's confrontation with the full force of Angels, who remain stationary even when she turns away from them because, as Claire explains, they're cruel. They want to savor the Doctor's helplessness.
THOUGHTS:
One area in which Chris Chibnall's era has consistently done well is in its use of returning monsters. Resolution made the Daleks feel threatening again after years of being little more than the butt of jokes; War of the Sontarans fused the comical New Series treatment of them with their more formidable Classic Series origins; and Village of the Angels continues the trend by reintroducing the stone horrors in a tale that advances the season arc while also succeeding as a good, old-fashioned, atmospheric monster story.
The script tightens a vice around the Doctor while also tying the current plot to the larger arc. We learn more about The Division, and what we learn makes them seem far more dangerous than just some rogue Time Lord section. "The Division uses everything and everyone. Every species, every world, every moment. They are everywhere, present and unseen." The previous episode told us that the Flux was not an accident. Was the Division somehow behind it? Or someone trying to strike against them?
I've come to expect strong visual moments this season, and this episode does not disappoint. The quiet village is creepy both in night and day, particularly when it becomes a little too empty. An Angel emerges from a paper drawing, only to be set aflame in a genuinely disturbing image when the Doctor burns the original paper. Another Angel jumps out of a television screen. Then there's the surprising reveal of exactly what lies beyond the town's sign - a sign that we are told keeps moving closer and closer to the village itself. Finally, there's the last image before the credits roll, which is both beautiful and terrifying as we are delivered yet another excellent cliffhanger.
I didn't much care for the bickering old comedy couple, ill-tempered Gerald (Vincent Brimble) and his wife, good-hearted but ineffectual Jean (Jemma Churchill). Outside of quickly getting Yaz and Dan into the subplot searching for the lost little girl, they add nothing to the story. In an episode that otherwise features well-written and well-acted guest characters, I found these two to be teeth-grindingly unbearable.
That quibble aside, Village of the Angels is another good episode in what is shaping up to be the best season in a long time. With only two episodes left, I'm looking forward to seeing where everything leads... while at the same time, feeling a bit of nervousness as to whether the arc will be able to stick the landing.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
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