Oh dear, and it was all going so well. Finally we had the Eleventh Doctor we wanted, neck deep in a mystery and surrounded by bad guys. He solved both problems the way he should, i.e. using one against the other and had a grand old time doing it. You could see things slipping from his grasp up until the last moment when it all fit into place and once again he had the idea he needed to solve the problem.
This was Who as it should be, clever, funny and intense. So where did it go wrong? Well first of all River Song. Her constant flirting and superior attitude fell flat when the Doctor proved how brilliant he truly is. The result was an uneven character that seemed half baked, like most of the old Doctors companions if I'm honest. She always was mysterious, we didn't need the ominous and blatant hints in her past. That back story is just useless, supposedly it's to leave you wondering about her background but there isn't very much tension in it and we're not buying the obvious hints. Even after this there is one point that isn't addressed.
The Doctor is more than a Thousand years old (940 something by his own admission in Remembrance of the Daleks) a time traveller and oh yeah, the last survivor of a race BILLIONS of years old! Do you have any, I mean ANY concept of what that means? When you measure a race in thousands of years you get us, in ten thousand years the human race will most likely be extinct or completely unrecognisable. In a million every achievement we have ever made as a race will be gone, no evidence will be left of us. Let that reality sink in for a moment, a billion is a thousand millions. We aren't anything other than bacteria to them. Humanity is dust, a blink of an eye. The very concept that he could have relations with a human reduces him. The very concept of it is repugnant to me. He can care for a human, he can like us but in the end we're pets at best. A study in sociology at worst. He has no interest in humans, other than the fact he wants some one to talk to and share his adventures with. Basically the companion is Winston from Cast Away or, as Tom Baker put it, a talking cabbage. As much as he cares for his companions it's not in that way.
River Song is a companion that doesn't travel in the TARDIS. That's the extent of her involvement. While she is a brave character to attempt to pull off, and both the writer and actress do so well, she just doesn't work for me and I get the feeling that the writers are having second thoughts too. After all look how he reacted to Amy at the end of the episode.
Did someone throw a switch in her during this two part-er. Up until now she had grown a hardened shell to protect herself from disappointment and like a naked turtle the Doctor's return to her life has shattered and ripped that shell off. We watched as the wonder of a child flooded back to her. This made her a wonderful companion, so what the heck happened. Out of the blue she started flirting with him, ending with her flat out ravishing him before throwing herself on the bed and inviting him onto her. Come on, for someone who knew the Doctor so well in earlier episodes should have know that he wasn't going to do that. It came out of nowhere and didn't really have a point other than to give the Doctor a revelation.
I could probably buy the idea that it was adrenaline and the fact that she almost died, but we'll have to see how they play it later. If it's ignored or if they have a talk about it and if so what they say.
The acting, aside from a shaky bit during Amy blindly groping in the forest, was up to it's usual standard. Guest cast lived up to their billing and abilities. So it's good so far, why did I start the review apprehensively? Because of what happened to the Angels.
The Weeping Angels were a wonderful creation of horror and if they had kept them more or less the same it would have been brilliant. But they just kept tacking things on. For example needing to speak though a third party, stolen from the library episodes last series, wasn't necessary. They could have just done impressions or could only speak in pieced together sentences. A word from Amy, one from the Bishop and another from the Doctor thrown together to talk. That would be more scary. Another problem is the change between what they were, a unfeeling predator that threw you back in time and what they are now, killers. Their motives here are poorly defined as simply "destroy everything" and what made them terrifying last time is more of a hindrance this time. They don't even feel like the Angels, you could take them out and replace them with any generic villains. the same effect would be achieved and it might have been better.
Using the Angels here was nothing more than stunt casting, same with the Daleks in the previous episode. They weren't needed here or Daleks there and are just here because they were successful for the writer a couple of years ago. A lot of the Weeping Angels new powers are stolen from other successful monsters and it feels like they've lost their own unique magic. The turning to stone idea is more of a gimmick now rather than a vital part of making them a threat. Speaking of turning into stone, just hit the damn things with a sledge hammer. Smash them, crush them into powder. There's got to be a reason why no one does that, and not just that they can regenerate. Hitting them with a hammer would slow them down, maybe for long enough to escape.
Fortunately while I have arguments about the Angels my biggest problem so far, the crappy editing and inept direction, has been solved. This time around its' competent , not brilliant but competent.
I have hope for later episodes. If we can get the writing of The Beast Below and the Direction / editing we had here we have a winner! four out of five.
