Doctor Who: The Time of Angels...

[fajrdrako]

I was, as you might imagine, quite eager to see "The Time of Angels", after seeing the trailer. But I think the time has come to stop watching the Doctor Who trailers, both the ones shown after the previous episode and the ones online, because they are showing to much: they're pretty much spoilers, and not something I want to see. So. I'll do my best to avoid them, and I was careful not to watch the trailer for "Flesh and Stone".

It was a sign of my commitment to learning French that I couldn't watch this yesterday.

I think here I'm very much seeing Steven Moffat do his own thing: this is building on what he has set up before, pretty much shorn of the themes and ideas Russell T Davies liked to play with. And let me say that from "Silence in the Library" and "The Forest of Trees", two episodes I didn't like for several reasons, I did not like River Song and wasn't much looking forward to seeing her again.

Except... I was curious.

So now... I don't take it back: I still don't like River Song. I find her manipulative of the Doctor, and annoyingly smug. But I did like this story. Very much. I like it that I don't know where it's leading us next episode, and whether I like the story overall very much depends on that. But so far, so good.

1. I love Amy. Always. Every scene. Every time she opens her mouth.
   
   
2. The Angels were exquisitely creepy in "Blink". They had their moments here, especially the one which came through the viewscreen after Amy, but now that there are many of them, they seem both less frightening and less unusual. I do like it that the Angel on the ship led them to the colony of Angels, if that's what it is. It might be a prison. I like the augmentation of Angel power: they can steal the bodies of the dead, they can and do kill as well as send people into the past, and they can take many forms, not just those of winged, draped people with human features.
   
   
3. I'll have to watch again to catch plot details, because there are various things that weren't clear to me, and I wasn't sure whether they were actually unclear in the scripts (and mysteries still unfolding) or whether I missed details. I wasn't sure what the provenance of the Angel in the ship was, or what River Song had intended to do with either the ship or the Angel.
   
   
4. Loved seeing River as River Song, 007. Red shoes and red fingernails. Cool. I almost liked her for a bit, there.
   
   
5. I continue to like the timeline confusion as to her having an ongoing role in the Doctor's life, but they keep meeting each other at times which don't add up. I liked the further non-hints that she was or wasn't the Doctor's wife. He didn't seem terribly glad to see her.
   
   
6. Once again Steven Moffat visits he 51st century. I don't know what he's setting up here, if anything; it is perfectly possible that he, as a sort of trademark. It is also possible that this is going to add up to something - a puzzle in the making.
   
   
7. Loved seeing River fly the TARDIS. And the banter between her and the Doctor about it.
   
   
8. I liked the Bishop and the militaristic clerics. I predict that the Bishop will not survive the next episode.
   
   
9. I particularly liked Bob.
   
   
10. Amy has a lot to learn about telling people when she notices something bad or weird, and maybe running and screaming a little earlier than she actually does. That girl is too brave for her own good.
    
    
11. Nice rapport between Amy and River Song.
    
    
12. I loved, totally loved, the comment about River Song having been in prison. This removes her from the "what you see is what you get" realms she'd been in previously to the role of a potential danger and/or lovable rogue, with both mystery and deception surrounding her. Since I love lovable rogues, I have hopes that I may come to appreciate River more. Or, alternately, that she will turn into a bona fide villain, and I'd like that, too.
    
    
13. I liked the way River Song got the TARDIS to pick her up. A sort of glamorous, complicated way of calling a taxi in space.
    
    And for once - perhaps the first time in series 5 - the Doctor arrived on time.
    
    
14. I don't find the Angels as creepy or scary as most people seem to. But I do like the way Moffat weaves a story around them.
    
    
15. The scariest and best bit was when powdered stone fell from Amy's fingers, and when she thought her hand had turned to stone. How did the Doctor know the Angels had that kind of psychic power, that Amy shouldn't look into their eyes? He didn't seem to know that back in "Blink". Perhaps he had done some research in the meantime. I loved the way he broke their spell on her.
    
    
16. Makes me wonder if the Angels can actually make more of their kind by making people believe they are Angels, and then they become Angels. If this were to happen, I predict it would happen to the Bishop.
    
    
17. I like the way it ended - the cliffhanger as the Doctor does something (what?) to get them up to the ship and away from the Angels. Somehow triggering the anti-gravity device?
    
    
18. I love it when an episode triggers a lot of conversation about the plot and its implications. After watching "The Time of Angels", commodorified, random, fairestcat, aueriaephiala and I spent a lot of time discussing River Song and the implications relating to her.
    
    Unlike many fans, possibly unlike most fans, I don't like River Song, and I don't like the way she manipulates the Doctor. I think (and may be wrong) that we are supposed to like her, but I am happy to at least postulate that her relationship with the Doctor is analogous to that of the Master - someone whose life is closely entwined with the Doctor's, someone the Doctor himself loves, but who isn't necessarily on the Doctor's side, or who doesn't necessarily have the same goals and values as the Doctor. At this point, the Doctor doesn't know what the future will be, except for what he experienced in The Library - he just knows what River has told him about their relationship. Though from his diffidence, he might guess more.
    
    
19. My theory is that River Song is a Time Agent and works for the Time Agency. Reasons for this thought:
    
    
    1. The 51st century setting seems to be associated with Time Agents, at least in one case we know about. River Song has 51st century associations.
       
       
    2. She seems to have the characteristic personality of a Time Agent: clever and devious. A bit of a smart-ass. Often appears to know more than she should, or, conversely, less than she might. Cagey.
       
       
    3. The superspy persona, identity shifts, secrecy, courage and panache she shows seem to be typical of Time Agents. There's the trick waving around a gun/weapon (real or pretended), the wily escape, the use of the Doctor and his technology as a willing accomplice to her own ends. Add to this a good knowledge of TARDIS technology (if we imagine that her flying the TARDIS is an analogue of Captain Jack working on her mechanically).
       
       
    4. River Song seems to be doing things that could roughly be categorized as assignments; an archeologist might happen on the Library and its time-related problems, but messing with the Angels (and her actions on the ship) indicate she has goals or instructions. She might be a time-travelling thief - but who'd want to steal an Angel? My guess is that these are particularly the same kind of assignments that Time Agents might be given. And Time Agents would be in a position to meet and get to know the Doctor.
       
       
    5. It seems a good bet that her identity or role will be something we would recognize, and what are the other possibilities? She could be a stray Gallifreyan, but nothing we've seen hints at that. She seems to be human. Being a Time Agent would fit the bill.
       
       
    6. Steven Moffat likes to revisit the themes he has initiated. He wrote "The Empty Child", which was the first episode of the new series to mention Time Agents. But the Time Agents as a concept are largely unexplored, and there's every reason the Doctor could, should and would encounter them again.
       
       
    7. Again, going from the very tiny bit of information we get on observing two rogue Time Agents, they like to adopt titles as well as pseudonyms in their travels. The two Time Agents we've met both called themselves "Captain". Is it such a different thing for River to be called both "Professor" and "Doctor"?
       
       
    8. If River Song really is a Time Agent, I'm suddenly a lot happier about her - it puts her into a role I can appreciate. I think I am vaguely annoyed with the River Song who might or might not be a wife/lover, whose identity and nature is more a tease than a personality. This would address most of my problems with her and be a delightfully satisfying development. Not as good as getting Captain Jack back into the story, but enough to make me enjoy the character.
    
    
20. We also discussed Amy Pond at some length - whether she might be Gallifreyan, or from beyond the crack in the wall, or an alien or an android or a Sleeper or something else that isn't immediately apparent. The notion that she might grow up to be River Song (with another face/body) was considered and dismissed, or at least shelved.
    
    
21. I was surprised to hear the Doctor describe the Angels as being malicious - or did he say malevolent? In any case, the impression I had from "Blink" is that they (like the nanogenes and the Trees) were basically benign or neutral, merely trying to survive and do their thing. They didn't kill people, just got power from displacing them in time. Now they're much more evil, and the Doctor's attitude has changed.