Village of the Angels
On November 21st 1967, the Doctor and the TARDIS find themselves in a tense situation. A woman named Claire Brown is being questioned by Professor Jericho, but she suddenly becomes possessed and growls that there’s “no escape.” The Angel suddenly appears and takes the TARDIS away. This episode of Doctor Who is a cliffhanger, leaving us to wonder what will happen next. ..
The Doctor decides to reboot the TARDIS, supercharging two cables together to cause an electrical ripple that displaces the Angel and knocks it out the police box. However, the TARDIS needs a while to reboot so naturally, it falls to her, Yaz and Dan to go and explore where they’ve landed.
A search is underway for a young girl by the name of Peggy. Gerald and Jean are her guardians, having taken care of her since her parents died. Yaz and Dan head out to help while the Doctor is left to handle Claire and Jericho. In Peggy’s absence, Yaz and Dan find themselves face-to-face with an Angel. As the lights go out and moonlight fades, the Angel strikes. ..
The Doctor heads down into the basement of Jericho’s lab where she finds Claire’s sketches, including one of an Angel. Of course any image of an Angel can itself become an Angel (which is directly quoted later in the episode) so the Doctor throws it in the fireplace. Claire takes a brief respite from the action to use the bathroom. Only, in the mirror she inexplicably sprouts wings. Is she turning into a Weeping Angel? ..
Claire’s visions started back in Liverpool prior to the first episode and according to the newspapers, everyone in this village is scheduled to disappear on this very night. Interestingly, this also seems to be linked back to 1901 as well.
The Doctor burns a picture of an Angel to prevent it from taking root inside Claire.
Claire is in for a big surprise when she wakes up inside the TARDIS after falling asleep. The Angel who was inside her before is now the same one that was inside the Doctor a few moments ago. The only way to stop this from happening is for The Doctor to sort out a psychic link and root it out herself.
The Weeping Angel is a rogue Angel, on the run from the Extraction Squad working for the Division. It seems that the Divison used Weeping Angels to do its work. The play here is to stop the Weeping Angels. If she can do that, then this rogue Angel will let Claire go. This Angel is important because it holds the memories of the Doctor’s old exploits.
Bel and Namaca join a group of people who are being welcomed by a projection of Azure. They offer transport for the easily-duped villagers, but it’s not freedom they’re offering. Bel knows this, and is determined to find Vinder before she can do any more damage.
A passenger grabs Namaca and drops to the ground, escaping a deadly outcome. It turns out passengers take people to endless prisons, which appears to be where these people have ended up. ..
Dan and Yaz find themselves in the village from the past, but it’s not long before they run into Peggy and Gerald. Apparently being touched by an angel kills someone, as seen by Gerald. Except that doesn’t work for Rory, I guess.
Meanwhile, inside Jericho’s house, the Weeping Angels are trying to manipulate the Professor, urging him to surrender and tying to get inside his mind. However, it doesn’t work and as time begins to run out, he wakes up the Doctor in order to help. She sets up a psychic link for the Angels, intending to give them a cosmic headache. ..
The Angels are working to displaced the Doctor and the others. The Professor is caught and whisked back in time while Claire and the Doctor manage to slip away. But how?
The Doctor and the others are stranded on a hostile planet, with only quantum extraction as their only hope. The Angels have taken the village into space to isolate their target, but they’ve also arranged a deal with the other Weeping Angels to trade their own lives for the Doctor. If they can get him back, they’ll be free. But if he’s lost…the Angels will never let him go.
Unfortunately, the Doctor has been recalled to Division and as the Angels all suddenly blinker into light, the Doctor inexplicably turns into stone, sprouts wings and becomes a Weeping Angel too.
As the episode ends, we cut back to Vinder who remains on the trail of Bel, finding Namaca who leads her to a cave. Bel has left a message, confirming she’s heading off to try and stop Passenger. Unfortunately, just before giving out coordinates, the recording stops. Go figure!
The Episode Review
The Haunting of Villa Diodati last season was a great example of how well Chibnall’s era is when competent writers are at the helm. I’m not sure how much input Maxine Alderton had over this script with Chibnall but everything about this feels a lot more tighter and more, well, Doctor Who.
The Doctor is a quirky and confident doctor who always has something interesting to say.
The show has a great mystery and interesting characters, with a good use of Angels since the two-parter in season 5. Much like that Smith episode, the Angels have expanded lore and there’s a decent amount of work done to try and give them some history. Their ties with Division is an interesting development and it’ll be interesting to see how that is explained in the final two episodes. ..
The Angels were after Claire in the first episode because they believed she was the key to finding Adam. ..
Yaz is a great character and I love her interactions with the other companions, but beyond that she’s just a bit too passive in this episode. She doesn’t do anything to help the team and instead spends most of it being a sidekick. This could have been an excellent opportunity for her to use her skills and investigate more, but instead we’re left with some questions that are still unanswered.
The Doctor and the Doctor barely know one another.
This episode is easily one of the best this season, and a longer, continuous story is certainly an interesting development for this long-established sci-fi romp. However, the ending leaves things open for where this may go next. ..
