The angels are coming for you, but listen, your life could depend on this: don’t blink. Don’t even blink. Blink and you’re dead. They are fast, faster than you could believe. Don’t turn your back, don’t look away, and DON’T BLINK. Good luck.
I think it’s safe for me to say that “Blink” has provided me with one of the finest “hours” of television that I have ever seen. I think for any of us who watch television, and especially those of us who really yearn for a fulfilling, emotional experience from a show, there’s an episode every once in a while of that show that knocks us down or surprises us or makes us cry; it’s the same episode that we rush to suggest to our friends in a hurried voice. OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS, THERE’S NOTHING LIKE IT. Then we have to deal with the inevitable let down, because your friend simply doesn’t get it or they operate on a different wavelength than you do, so you revisit the episode, you watch it again, and you feel exactly the same way as before, possibly even better. This is so good, you tell yourself. This is the best thing I have ever seen.
I’ve seen a few episodes of various shows that stuck with me, even to this day. “Leonard Betts” and “Memento Mori” from the fourth season of The X-Files will always mean a lot to me. I won’t spoil why for those who might be watching it, but those who know what happens also know why someone would get attached to them. Six Feet Under had too many episodes to remember; same with The Wire and large portions of LOST. The series finale for The Prisoner made me re-examine my thoughts about serialized television. And I could go on and on about The Twilight Zone and Rubicon and Arrested Development and Breaking Bad and I’m going to stop.
The previous two-parter of Doctor Who is no less fantastic because of this, for the record, but this episode….MY GOD, STEVEN MOFFAT. How? HOW DO YOU DO SUCH THINGS TO MY BRAIN?
Many of you have spoken about how Moffat is able to take mundane, every day things and turn them into NIGHTMARES FOREVER, and this episode is a rather brilliant example of that. That, in and of itself, is a feat of a genius, and I don’t want to ignore that. But I found the way the story was organized to be even more impressive than the plot alone, especially as we spent over forty minutes wondering how the Doctor was able to pull off so much of the warning to Sally Sparrow.
Much like “Love & Monsters,” “Blink” is very light on the Doctor and Martha and it was refreshing to experience the story through someone else’s eyes. Sally Sparrow, played by Carey Mulligan, is one of the strongest female side characters we’ve seen in the run of the show; I can’t even imagine having to deal with the events of “Blink” without wetting myself a thousand times over, and yet she does it with a ferocious grace and poise and SHE IS JUST A BAMF, OK. I love that she’s demanding with her “interactions” with the Doctor, asking not to be patronized and to be treated with respect.
Look, there are like a BILLION things I want to talk about and I don’t even know how to address this. GUYS. THAT SCENE IN THE DRUMLINS AFTER THE DOCTOR’S MESSAGE ENDS. I AM SERIOUSLY GOING TO PASS OUT RIGHT NOW JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.
The fact that the Weeping Angels HAVE CHANGING FACES. Oh my god. I know it’s ridiculous that the angels only move a few feet at a time BUT I DON’T CARE. It’s a horrifyingly absurd arrangement and IT WORKS. IT WORKS SO WELL.
Oh my god “Blink”. GUYS. GUYS.
THOUGHTS
- I have too many thoughts right now.
- Ok, you know what is really, really awful? The fates of Billy and Kathy. We learn at the end of the episode that they were all part of the puzzle, but they had to be transported to the fucking past and live out their lives just so that they could warn Sally Sparrow. I mean, obviously it didn’t happen in that order, but I kept hoping that the Doctor would be able to fix it all. BUT HE DIDN’T. SO LARRY NEVER GETS TO SEE HIS SISTER AGAIN. my god the tragedy
- Who knew that DVD easter eggs would become so important?
- mmmm Michael Obiora mmmmm
- FINALLY I KNOW WHERE THAT AMAZING DOCTOR QUOTE COMES FROM! “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint–it’s more like a big ball of wobbly wobbly…timey-wimey…stuff.” I LOVE YOU FOREVER DAVID TENNANT.
- “I love old things. They make me feel sad.” SALLY SPARROW IS A GOTH.
- “What are you doing? It could be a burglar!” “A burglar who rings the doorbell?
- “When you say, ‘You and the guys,’ you mean the Internet, don’t you?
- Oh man, when the older Billy says, “It was raining when we met,” and then Sally replies, “It’s the same rain,” my heart SHATTERS INTO A TRILLION PIECES.
- “This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there’s stuff.”
- I wonder what adventure Martha and the Doctor were on when Sally sees them at the end of the episode. Arrows? And a lizard?
- This episode was essentially one giant ontological paradox. I LOVE TIME TRAVEL.
- I think that, aside from how terrifying it was, the scene where Sally has a “conversation” with the Doctor is one of the coolest things I have ever seen on television. I don’t think there’s anything that I can think of that’s like it.
- FUCK YOU, STEVEN MOFFAT, FOR THAT FINAL SCENE. I DO NOT NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT THIS EPISODE WILL CHANGE MY PERCEPTION OF STATUES FOREVER.
"I LOVE TIME TRAVEL" – I have the biggest grin on my face after reading that… you're in the right place, that's all I'll say.
Followed the Liveblog in work today (granted, after the fact but it's the best I can do when it happens at 4am…) and seems everyone had a good time… also that the good folks at Adult Diapers Inc made a fair bit of cash last night 😉
Posted this before but what the heck: Steven Moffat is the drunken captain of the oil tanker full of nightmare fuel that's headed full speed ahead straight for the rocky cost of your dreams. Thanks TV Tropes for the best summary we could ask for!
So after getting nicely warmed up with gas mask children in wartime London and clockwork robots under the bed Da Moff decides that what this family show needs is a monster that is, arguably, the best example of a modern horror creation ever put to screen. The Angels really are a creation that can ONLY work on film, especially as Moffat is clever enough to include the audience in the game. The Angels, after all, never move when either the characters OR the audience is watching them…
More than that though, I honestly think this is the best structured television episode I've ever seen. No, it's not the absolute best that Who has to offer (although it's damn close) but stop and think about it for a moment. Here we have an episode that throws away almost all of the typical trappings of a Who episode. In 40 minutes (give or take) we get an entire cast of characters, a brand new Big Bad, a superbly well realised timey-wimey plot and a really satisfying resolution with the whole show being so tight you could do a decent drum solo on it. This really could be a standalone episode of something like… oh, like The Twilight Zone. And yet at the same time it's recognisably Who somehow. Just superb all ways round.
A word to for the cast as they are ALL, without exception, superb. But of course the award for best performance has to go to Carey Muligan. Her Sally Sparrow is a wonderful wonderful character (who says Moffat can't write women?) and she brings her to life perfectly. With such a short time to get to know the character it really called for someone who could make you like her right off the bat and good lord does she knock it out of the park.
The effects work is great as well, making the Angels actual costumes rather than, say, CGI works beautifully and when combined with top notch directing the results can be breathtaking (or, depending on your disposition, pants-wettingly terrifying). Murray Gold brings his A game to the music too and everything comes together beautifully.
Really though, IMO, this episode revolves around it storytelling and for all the myriad achievements of everyone involved it's Moffat that takes home the gold. He's at the top of his game here and using every trick in the book to create the sort of television we see far too little of these days. Bravo sir and, dare I say, encore…
"Steven Moffat is the drunken captain of the oil tanker full of nightmare fuel that's headed full speed ahead straight for the rocky cost of your dreams."
Fucking spectacular, my friend. Spectacular.
Thank you although it must be repeated that one isn't mine, it's from the very very VERY extensive Nightmare Fuel section of Doctor Who's pages on TV Tropes which is split into the following sections: Classic Series, New Series, Steven Moffat.
WARNING: The following link contains great big honking spoilers and should not be followed unless you're absolutely current on your Who: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HighOctaneN…
You linked to tvtropes <img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/2eeh6p3.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"> I'm never going to be able to escape.
Although I have to laugh at Steven Moffat getting his own section. So much nightmare fuel.
You bastard. Now I'll be there for hours.
Best link ever.
Speaking about Da Moff, and TV Tropes- Moffat is an incredibly pervasive force on the site, in general. He has named five topes 'Everybody Lives' from Doctor Dances, 'The Slow Path' from 'Girl in the Fireplace', and 'Timey Wimey Ball' from you-know-where. There are two others, all based on DW, but they are spoilery, so it shall have to wait.
And of course, Doctor Who in general is everywhere. They have an entire 'Wild Mass Guessing' page dedicated to identifying time-lords.
That TV tropes page is going to give me nightmares. Holy crap.
I actually love that the Angels are people in costumes. Somehow, in my heart, it makes it way way better.
Behind the scenes videos can make a lot of things less terrifying. There's one of Robert Englund describing the Freddy Kruger makeup as it's going on – the difference between the actor and the character is total nightmare defuser.
There's a really cool bit in a Doctor Who Confidential video showing the Weeping Angels actresses (a) getting painted and suited, and (b) faffing about on set doing silly things while, y'know, being Angels. The Macarena is involved.
There probably ought to be gifs, but I am incompetent.
The point about the audience watching them is one of my favourite things! It makes me feel like they will come get ME once they are done with Sally! And then it means I DO NOT TAKE MY EYES OFF THE LAPTOP! Ack! It's just brilliant 😀
Can I add the fact that they really are Psychopaths as well? While they do kill (albeit nicely) a lot of what they do is pretty much to screw with people just because it's fun. Which when you consider that we, the audience, are part of the episode puts a WHOLE new spin on the 'OMG that one almost got her when she turned her back!' stuff. Yep, it did, but did it get stopped by us seeing it or did it just get in that position to freak us out a bit?
"The effects work is great as well, making the Angels actual costumes rather than, say, CGI works beautifully"
I have to say, this is the fact I learned last night that shocked me the most. It adds to the terror of them: OH GOD THEY WERE LIVING AND THEY ACTUALLY BREATHED AND THEY WERE ACTORS ABLE TO DO THAT AND OIOISADHFIUHASDIOUFASIDHFIDAHSUIDJAFKJA
I watch Doctor Who Confidential, so I've known this for ages, but it still amazes and astounds me. I can't imagine being so still. There's nary a flinch, twitch, or spasm. Brilliant.
"from behind the couch" is right, that's where I spent my childhood watching it from! Those damn angels put me back there. 😀
I love that Ten's big brown coat is made from upholstery fabric. He is wearing a coat made from couches.
"This episode was essentially one giant ontological paradox. I LOVE TIME TRAVEL."
I know! It's a stable time loop episode and it's FUCKING CRAZY.
I said this in the liveblog, but the fact that Sally runs into the Doctor on the street and he's got things, well, four things, well, four things AND A LIZARD, and she has about 17 seconds to assess the situation and resolve it, AND DOES without wibbling, angst, or even a second thought is FUCKING AWESOME.
Also her hair is fucking incredible. ::shallow::
As are Kathy's boots. WANT. ::shallower still::
I realised something while rewatching this a few minutes ago (while impatiently checking Twitter for this very review)… and being as careful as I can while edging a little closer to spoilerville than I'd like… Sally Sparrow, specifically that 'without wibbling, angst or second thought' bit reminds me of someone….
And YAY for Stable Time Loops! If you're gonna play with time travel folks, do try and get it right!
*joins in shallow admiration* I love her hair. I wouldn't mind her pretty, pretty face either.
If Mark really likes Time Travel he should watch Mawdred Undead from the old series. A rather interesting take from OldWho.
"Also her hair is fucking incredible. ::shallow::"
I shall be joining you in shallowness…OH GOD SO PRETTY.
Sally is really a pretty amazing character- strong, indepdent and intelligent to boot. I mean, even people as experiences as the Doctor in time-travel have to pause when things get wibbly-wobbly, but Sally understood immediately! Pretty quick!
Being shallow too because… those boots. let me have them.
I'll join you in the shallow end and say I want Sally's gorgeous top that she was wearing at the end. Even thought it's sort of greenish and I don't do green.
This is by far my favorite episode ever. I always freak out whenever I see a statue now. The day after I saw this episode, I walked into school completely freaked out and my friend noticed. I told her I saw "Blink" not realizing she watched Doctor Who too and we bonded over being scared to all hell.
I just made my best friend watch this and she's now terrified of everything stone. DOCTOR WHO, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO US?
Let’s make this quick.
A. When Kathy suggests she and Sally partner up as “Sparrow and Nightingale”, Sally jokes that its “too ITV”, a playful dig at BBC’s chief rival network, which often produced television series with similarly formatted titles.
B.Larry thinks the Doctor is making a political statement. This may be a reference to early stories such as The Sun Makers, Paradise Towers and The Happiness Patrol, which make political statements.
C. Despite appearing in cameos, David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are still credited as the main stars rather than Carey Mulligan in her main role.
D.This is the first episode to be directed by a woman after 22 years, the last was The Mark of the Rani.
E.For reasons unknown, while the original BBC One broadcast and subsequent Region 2 DVD release of the episode includes a “One year later” on-screen graphic prior to the epilogue scene, broadcasts of the episode in North America, as well as Region 1 DVD release, omit this.
F.In 2009, Doctor Who Magazine conducted a reader poll to rank the first 200 Doctor Who stories in order of preference. Blink ranked 2nd, surpassed only by the 1984 story DW: The Caves of Androzani.
Anything I missed?
A. When Kathy suggests she and Sally partner up as "Sparrow and Nightingale", Sally jokes that its "too ITV", a playful dig at BBC's chief rival network, which often produced television series with similarly formatted titles.
Oh god. Was "Rosemary and Thyme" aka Gardeners what fight crime ITV?
Yep!
Well, now I want to watch The Caves of Androzani.
You do need some Fivey in your life. Also Moffet's fav Doctor.
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Martha and Five!
What! What?! WHAT?! Is that some kind of time slip!?
They have fallen into a universe where they are both crown prosecutors, L&O style!
I haven't seen any eps yet with Davison, but I am looking forward to them for the geeky mindgasms. 🙂
YES. PLEASE DO. Five is awesome and is definitely Ten's big brother (and of course Peter Davison is David Tennant's favourite Doctor) and I'm rambling because OMG I love the Fifth Doctor way too much.
It’s a great episode. Not only that but Fivey was David Tennat’s introduction.
Sadly the episode is also Five’s last episode. He dies during Caves of Androzani.
Bit of a spoiler there. Even if it's classic Who, probably best not to reveal major plot points.
Mark said we can spoil Old Who episodes! He said we can’t spoil New Who episodes he hasn’t seen yet.
Mark help me out here.
I think that he meant more like if he asks a question and there is an answer from old who then you can answer it. But, this is more…spoiler…. Although admittedly there wasn't really any rules stated about it…
I think that's it, yes. Like if Mark asks, "Who is this woman who knows the Doctor and what's up with the robot dog?", we can tell him it's Sarah Jane, a companion of the Third and Fourth Doctor, and the dog is K-9, the Doctor's robot pal in the days of yore. It's not a license to spoil all plot points, particularly major things like regenerations.
Yeah, I believe Mark said something along the lines of we should give him necessary background and sell the story to him in a "Why should I watch this one?" sort of way, without spoiling major plot points.
as someone who hasn't yet made it to the Five season, this was an unnecessary thing to say. 🙁
I agree! I haven't watched Old Who yet and I was planning on watching that one…but the spoiler makes me very sad. Down voting.
Wasn't this aired with a special warning that it was a fair bit freakier than regular Who and Adult Diapers were probably a good idea? Well, maybe not the second bit…
Oh, oh, actually one other: This episode won a Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation (short form) in 2008.
someone posted it at the end of the liveblog, it was something along the lines of "Parents may want to tape the episode and show it to their children during daylight and well before bedtime" good advice.
Winning out over Human Nature/The Family of Blood as I recall.
Yes. I remember Paul Cornell remarking that in order to win one of those he would have to wait until Steven Moffat didn't write one for that series. Which isn't likely for a good while yet!
OH so it's a whole YEAR? Wow. Why the heck was that taken out? That seems completely unnecessary.
Because… Because…
I DON’T BLOODY KNOW!
I had wondered about that, because the IMDB page for this episode says something along those lines.
The series 3 DVD actually has an easter egg of the Doctor's easter egg scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDYJR9vQprI
Some people have fun trying to read the transcript, so it appears like they are conversing with the Doctor like Sally.
"When you say, ‘You and the guys,’ you mean the Internet, don’t you?"
You don't know me, Sally Sparrow 😛
Moff is an evil genius bastard. And those closing shots of all the statues! NIGHTMARES FOREVER. I'm glad Sydney isn't a particularly old city so it doesn't have them *everywhere*…although we do have a pretty significant statue of Queen Victoria…ooh…
Apart from Moff, Carey Mulligan carries (that sounds punny but I don't pronounce her name like an American…) this episode so well. Casting director high five, it was so clear how wonderful an actress she was even in 40 minutes of TV almost 4 years ago. Sally Sparrow is easily one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who characters.
IN CONCLUSION: JUST. THIS EPISODE MAN. THIS EPISODE.
Norwich is ancient. Theres been settlements here since before Christ. We have THOUSANDS of statues, including some terrifying angel ones.
Eep! I do not envy you.
Yeah, after this episode I spent most of my time wandering around with wide eyes and jerky head movements. I wasn't the only one.
"You mean the Internet, don't you." Guys, we are the Internet. Therefore we were totally mentioned in a Doctor Who episode.
(That is my logic and nobody shall change it)
Never mind *actual* statues – I live in a popular seaside resort and in the summer season we have `live statue` performers on the promenade. I Cannot Handle This!
Shortly after watching this episode, my (Whovian) friends and I visited this place in Germany: http://www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/aktuell/f… http://www.fingermuehl.de/bilder-fotos/albums/bef…
That was some trauma right there.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Is there at least a full circle of them so they're facing each other?
Yup! It's the only reason I'm here today…
I wonder what adventure Martha and the Doctor were on when Sally sees them at the end of the episode. Arrows? And a lizard?
Blatantly a crossover adventure with Primeval and Robin Hood. Definitely.
This episode makes me go HHHNNNNNNNGGGHHHHKSADJKLSADHKASHDKJAHSKDHJSKDSA
I love you so hard. And so, to give your brain yet more wtf, jsut of a completely different time, I give you this. From 1989, so completely spoiler-free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adk1ujjmguo
If that doesn't help reset your brain after Blink nothing will.
Sally Sparrow is one of my favourite characters ever. Her name sounds like the plucky child out of a victorian murder mystery! Excellent.
I love this remix sooo much. I can barely avoid singing along to it when I hear the original.
Oh god this episode <3
Okay confession time: aside from the "You're not looking at the statue" "Neither are you" *OMFGANGELAAAH* moment I don't really get scared during this episode. Creeped out yes but I'm not completely terrified like a lot of people. Maybe it's because I had heard tales of how scary it could be and was able to prepare myself before I saw it. I actually find the whole thing more fascinating than scary. Although I've just been reminded by my friend (like, literally as I type this) that I refused to watch it in the dark the first time.
I love the idea behind the Weeping Angels, how they're extremely beauftiful and can completely fuck up your life. Which might explain why I now have a small army of Weeping Angel action figures in my collection of Doctor Who figures (why yes I am insane).
I didn't catch it for myself the first time but I love the meta side of this episode, WE'RE PART OF IT OMG. Once I knew to look for it the scene where Sally takes the key from the Angels got a billion times creepier (the two in the background move while she's blocking them OH GOD).
(splitting for length, this is probably going to happen a few times)
Sally Sparrow is made of awesome, I so wish she could have come along as a full time companion. Carey Mulligan is adorable and so so good at carrying this episode (and I want hair like hers, so pretty). All of the characters in this episode are so well fleshed out in such a short space of time. We only see them for this episode and yet we end up caring about all of them.
As sad as it is to think that Kathy and Billy were trapped in the past, they did seem to make the best out of their situations and make lives for themselves (It was mentioned in the liveblog comments, but I kind of love the idea that Billy ended up marrying Kathy's daughter.
I was thinking about it last night, though, and I'm not sure that Billy's Sally could have been Kathy's daughter. There's nearly fifty years between when the year Kathy arrived and the year Billy arrived. And in Billy's wedding picture, Sally looked young; not more than 25, anyway. Add to that the picture of Kathy and her kids, which looks much more in line with the 1920s than the 1930s, and the time math just doesn't work.
Kathy's (possible) granddaughter, however…? Totally works.
Well, but Kathy's grandSON was in the episode, and he was much too young for Billy. You know what I mean.
Also, she did say Sally was her "youngest," right? So she could have been having babies for a while before Sally came along.
OH!! I dont think I recall catching that!!! Billy marrying Kathy's daughter, I mean……
Even when Mark says he was bothered that The Doctor didnt use the Tardis to take Kathy and Billy back to the time they belong….. I get that he couldnt, or rather didnt even think that it should be considered. Wouldnt it have been just as heartwrecking to take them away from the lives they made and the families they loved back in the past as it was for John Smith to leave Nurse Redfern?
I think I need to go back and read Outlander again….. love stories across time… Im such a romantic sap at times!
Oh and I'll just leave this little gem from the DVD commentary here:
Moffat: A lot of people have asked me 'Who threw the rock?'. The Weeping Angel threw the rock. Now because of the particular M.O. of the Weeping Angel and its inability to move while you see it, it is of course to their advantage to render their victims insensible. They are a bit of a rubbish invading monster actually, all they manage to conquer is one empty house but, hey it's what they do.
Murray Gold: What stops them going after people who are actually asleep?
Moffat: Nothing, they frequently do, that's where missing, that's what missing people are. People who slept in the vicinity of a Weeping Angel. Children if you're listening: As far as possible don't go to sleep EVER. It's deadly dangerous.
Murray Gold: Steven Moffat is the weaver of nightmares!
Weaver of nightmares and childhood sleep deprivation, apparently. Evil man!
Another Moffat comment re: Angels: "Yep, that's what stopped the Angel invasion of Earth, there were some bees."
Oh, and you've just convinced me to get the DVD set at some point. Only real reason to get it is for the commentary tracks (seen everything else soooooo many times) and it's bloody hard to get a listing of who did what commentaries. Moffat and Gold together? That'll do…
I only just got the DVDs last month, I've got the box set of series 1-4 so it's got a little booklet that tells you who's on the commentary for episodes. Some have really good combinations (the one for the last episode of this series is a really good team) others are a bit less so but they're still interesting. I have to say Moffat and Gold are particularly fun, they're pretty jokey with each other while still being informative.
How did bees prevent the Angels from invading Earth?
By seeing them and stopping them of course! 🙂
Awww!
I so want to say something about bees right now, but I can't!
so noble of you to stop yourself
Compound eyes and a lack of eyelids….
LOL, well-put, Mr. Gold!
Steven Moffat you are just a cruel terrifying person.
Aw man, I always liked the idea of the doctor discovering a bit of a mystery of a temporal flux around the house, and going to have a look, then he unthinkingly chucked a stone around for some 'time experiment' before getting touched by an angel! Never mind!
By the time I submit this comment, I'm sure there will be 10 links to this song, but it's based on this episode and only this episode, so no spoilers! It's by a band called Chameleon Circuit that sings songs about Doctor Who, and it's great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wejl_daRVZU
The first time I watched this episode, I had no idea what was coming, as I had no Whovian friends at the time, so I just thought "Hey, it's only 1:30 am! I can get in another episode before I go to bed." After I watched it, I literally spun around as I ran upstairs through the dark house to my bedroom when I was the only one awake. It was the scary. Then I threw all of my little porcelain angels into my closet, because they were just too close to stone for me to be able to sleep. DAMN YOU, MOFFAT!!!!
You linked to Charlie. I love you.
I'm also one of those who watched this episode all alone in the dark, an I was completely OMG NOT PREPARED. That was a year ago, and I still get freaked out in my dark room because of it. I fully second your sentiment.
DAMN YOU, MOFFAT.
YAY I WAS COMING HERE TO LINK THAT TOO! http://jadedhippy.tumblr.com/post/3211604782 😀
Blink might be my most favouritest Trock-song ever!
you are awesome for linking it here, MARK YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO IT!
I loved watching your reactions to this episode. Shit got real. You were not prepared. 😀
Definitely one of the best episodes of the new series, if not the best. A small, self-contained story full of believable, interesting characters. And the Angels are my favorite new villain. They're just so mysterious and unrelenting.
So much awesome! Sometimes I watch this ep and my heart just EXPLODES with how amazing it is 😀
The Internet! That's US! hey, gaiz- WE are the internet! Steven Moffat KNOWS WE'RE HERE!
"Goes bing when there's stuff" squee!
"Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey…stuff And that, Mark, is how everything is hand waved in the Whoniverse 🙂 (Kind of like, "it's magic" in HP)
Uhhh what else? I think that's it…
Don't forget the bit from "Dalek" when the Dalek absorbs the internet and the Doctor is like "OH FUCK NOW IT KNOWS EVERYTHING!"
The power of the internet is well noted on DW.
EVERYONE who reads your blog SO told you! WE WARNED YOU. You were so not prepared. <3
Excellent, excellent episode. And now you're coming up to the series' end. To say that you are not prepared couldn't possibly convey your level of unpreparedness.
The Doctor’s side of the conversation was actually an easter egg on the series three DVD. Here’s the whole thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDYJR9vQprI
Also for those praising the music in the liveblog here’s the ‘Blink' piece from the soundtrack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbJpNkTmsK4
I love the fact that even though this is a Doctor light episode his presence is felt throughout the whole thing because of the DVDs in the background.
I really like how the episode starts off as a cliché horror but totally twists it around with the message on the wall for Sally. And then things just get stranger but somehow everything is explained and understood by the end. Which is really impressive given how twisty it is time wise.
All the new characters in this episode are great. Sally is such a BAMF and I love the way she doesn't let the Doctor speak down to her. I thought the flirting between her and Billy was very cute. Billy's story is so sad. I never thought Cathy could be saved because we'd already seen her story but Billy was in the same year as the Doctor at the same time. I thought he might have had a chance and was so sad that he had to take the slow path to the future only to die after imparting one small message.
Aside from the obvious fear and tension in the climax scenes in the house, the Weeping Angels are a very creepy concept in every possible way. Blinking is a natural bodily function that is impossible to control for very long. It's so easy to unconsciously slip up and yet your life depends on not blinking. The whole idea of living to death is fascinating because of the possibilities of alternate timelines but also the whole idea of living off the energy of a persons potential life, their stolen moments, is really unique.
This is such a quotable episode but I can guarantee you that Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey will now be your go to phrase whenever you try to explain anything even remotely related to time travel. I know it's definitely a firm part of my vocabulary.
So where is that easter egg? Cause. Have had the DVDs for months now. Totally didn't even THINK that there'd be an easter egg of that. Which is stupid, I know. Should have figured.
random appropriateness:
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<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/2aeyy5c.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
😀
I'm going to have "Be a Man" stuck in my head for the rest of the day, and I'm fine with that.
Let's get down to business
To defeat the huns
Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?
You're the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we're through,
Mister, I'll make a man out of you!
I’m never going to catch my breath
Say goodbye to those who knew me
How I really wish that I learned how to swim!!!
If Mark wasn’t doing Avatar the Last Airbender later I’d show a spoilery video with this song.
Be a Man!
We must be swift as the coursing rain!
BE A MAN!!!
With all the force of a great typhoon!
BE A MAN!!
With all the strength of a raging fire!
MYSTERIOUS AS THE DARK SIDE OF
AN OOOOOOOOD!
I would +1 you for all of eternity if I could.
right click save
XD
There is the best and most amazing Doctor Who fanvid to that song, but I can't link to it yet due to spoilery things. Soon though, soon!
Great Rassilon, those are brilliant!
I very much love the first one forever and ever.
VERY MUCH YES!
My favorite renditions of "Be a Man" are always going to be Jackie Chan's (separate) Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese music vids to this song.
OH. MY. GOD.
That last macro.
*HUGS FOREVER*
A MILLION UPVOTES, SIR! <3
That macro is as amazing as this ep.
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I knew you would love this one, Mark, ever since you said that time travel was your favorite thing ever. 😀 I've been counting down the days till you got here, no lie – I just love this episode so much and I couldn't wait for you to see it because… well, you know! You've seen it, so you know why I was so excited! And why I'm so happy that I was right and my fears of you being overhyped were unfounded. YOU WERE NEVER GOING TO BE PREPARED. MWA HA HA.
"Blink" is pretty much my favorite episode ever. When I told you in the "Girl in the Fireplace" review that it was why people had told you during "Father's Day" that Moffat was great with time travel, well, I wasn't being completely honest with you. This episode is, IMO, a much better example of that. But of course I couldn't say that then! I CAN SAY IT NOW, THOUGH. 😀 What Moffat does here with time-travel is sheer and utter brilliance, I don't even have the proper words to do justice to it. Everything is woven together so perfectly – the writing on the wall, the letter, Kathy's life, Billy's life, the DVD conversation, and how it all ended up in the Doctor's hands in the end… it just leaves me in awe. Every time. Time itself feels like the true setting here: not Wester Drumlins, not London, not even Earth. To me, the episode feels as though it's truly set in the flow of time, with everything else being simply places within that setting, like rooms in a house.
Karen Gillan, who as you know plays the Eleventh Doctor's companion, has said that this is her favorite episode of all time, so we "Blink" fans are in good company. 😀
But it's not just timey-wimey brainy brilliance that makes this episode work for me. It has real heart too, a solid emotional core. Like "Love and Monsters" before it, it is a Doctor-lite episode, but to say I much prefer this one would be a massive understatement. The characters here resonate with me so much more, and of course the writing is so amazing, and I feel it's kinder to fandom. More on that later, though.
Sally Sparrow is the star of this episode, played by the wonderful Carey Mulligan. Flawless performance of an amazing character. I love Sally, she is far and away my favorite minor character. In this one little episode, I feel like I really know her, and she is someone I would want to know in real life. Hell, I'd love to be her. She's strong, smart, funny, brave, curious, and sensitive. She has a good heart and cares about people, and she's not afraid to call out the Doctor and tell him to stop patronizing her (I love that part!). You can tell that she's so sad over losing her best friend, but she's able to find some humor in the situation anyway. She handles herself so well against the Angels and accepts the weirdness surrounding her on this bizarre day in a belivable way – skeptical at first, as we all would be, but then starts just going with it and kicking ass. I wish she could have been a Companion. 🙁 She so deserved a real trip in the TARDIS, how cruel, Doctor!
My favorite line of the episode actually belongs to her, as much as I love the "wibbley-wobbley timey wimey" line. When Kathy asked her what's good about sad, and she replied "It's happy for deep people", I smiled because I knew what she was talking about. I know it sounds so goth and all, but I understand what she means. I have that same love of history and old things (the older the better!), and the way they make me feel… it's that same odd mix of sad and happy that she's talking about. So I get her. That one little exchange tells me so much about her as a person, about her rich inner life. That's good writing. Bravo, Moffat.
I love Larry, too! He's so hilarious and adorable. I love his enthusiasm for the easter eggs, and his talk about "the guys". I hate to bring up That Episode again, but I really do like how fandom is treated here more than it was there. I feel more of a connection with Larry, he feels more like a real person, and some of the comments he makes reminds me of myself, of my own fannish enthusiasm for things and the communities I've been a part of over the years. He's also portrayed as just a regular person, who holds down a job and can socialize normally, not as a weirdo loser like some shows would portray a character like him. I really appreciate that. Fandom seems like a hobby for him, albeit one that he enjoys a great deal. That kind of balanced portrayal of a fan isn't something you see every day. His relationship with his sister makes me smile too – they may argue or yell at each other like you see with her at the beginning, but there's real love underneath that. As someone with a sibling myself, I get that. It feels real and honest.
The hospital scene. Oh, the brilliance of the hospital scene. "It's the same rain." It just blows my mind every time. For poor Billy (and oh how I love him too – we only saw a little of him, but we really got a sense for him as a person. And yeah, he is smoking hot. As usual, your taste is impeccable, Mark :D) it's been a lifetime, but for Sally, all this has happened in the space of a single day. In one afternoon, she met Billy as a young man, and bade farewell to him as an old man.
"Look at my hands. They're old man's hands. When did that happen?" That. That right there. That's where the true brilliance of this scene, of this episode, clicks into place. It's not just about deadly aliens and time travel and all that other stuff. Hours ago, on this same day, Billy was a young man in the prime of his life. Then he blinked – and now he is old and dying. Life itself goes by in the blink of eye, it can feel like. You hear that line and you think again about this episode's name, about how quickly what Billy is talking about happens, without you noticing until so much later. And then you combine that with what the Doctor said to him in 1969, about how the Angels feed off your potential life, "all those stolen moments", the "rest of your life used up and blown away in the blink of an eye" (another favorite line of mine), you think about the fact that Kathy and Billy lived their entire lives in the past, reliving some of the years they'd already lived, happy but never able to see anything of the future beyond this one day, and it sets in how bleak and sad this episode really is beneath the scares. If you're anything like me, you love it all the more for that. Which brings us back to sad being happy for deep people.
Poor Billy. Poor, poor Billy. I well up without fail every time I watch this scene, knowing that he'll never know the significance of the list, that he only had until that same rain stopped. The acting and writing in this episode are flawless, particularly in this beautiful scene. I also love how quiet it is – I love quietly powerful moments in fiction, and this is a good example of that. It's moving and heartbreaking and yet subdued and quiet, no one raises their voice or carries on. I think that would rob it of some of its power, and I'm grateful that it was written and acted the way it was.
If you think about it… the Weeping Angels stand in for time itself, representing how fast it moves – in the blink of an eye – and how we never see it moving. That's what this episode is really about.
"Some things you never find out, and that's okay." The funny thing is that I agree with both of them. I'm glad it wasn't okay for her, and that she wanted to know, and obviously the timeline needed her to know and give that file to the Doctor. On the other hand, in fiction, I dig a good unsolved mystery, because Larry's right, life is like that, and I think it's better for a story to have at least one thing unexplained. But that's a tangent I don't want to go into here, because it would eventually involve me quoting something Mark is going to read, and I don't think I have to explain why that's a no-no.
I want to take a moment to call attention to Murray Gold's score of this episode. I always love his music, but I'm particularly fond of what he did here. "Blink (Suite)" has been a mainstay on my playlists ever since I first saw this last year, and the unreleased track "Time Prevails" (played during a couple scenes, most notably when Billy blinks and Sally leaves the police station) is the entire reason I got that Firefox plugin that allows you to convert YouTube videos to MP3s. Seriously! 😀 I love the first part of the suite, it's so moody and haunting (which is totally my thing), and then the last portion of the song, the super-creepy music we hear when we see the Weeping Angels.
Oh, the Weeping Angels! I've saved you for last, my darlings. <3 I AM A WEEPING ANGEL FANGIRL. I LOVE THEM TO PIECES, THEY ARE SO AMAZING. I YEARN TO BE MADE UP LIKE ONE AND TERRIFY PEOPLE. 😀 They are hands down my favorite monster on this show, perhaps EVER, and I am SO HAPPY to finally be able to say that, you have NO IDEA. <3 I love their design, the way they look, and the fact that they don't speak at all. The only sound you hear from them is that creepy noise of stone moving when Sally is looking at them. However, you never see them move, and they are so fast. Anyone who says they didn't jump at least once during this episode, especially near the end after the DVD conversation ends, is lying. Period.
Which is another aspect of how brilliant this episode is: the fact that we, the audience, are part of it. Our eyes stop the Angels from moving, more than once. And when we can't see them anymore – they move. It's utterly amazing and demolishes the fourth wall. It draws you into the episode like no other episode can. I love it. I really do feel like I am part of it all when I watch it. Perfectly written and filmed.
I just plain love this episode in every way. I've watched and rewatched it so many times and analyzed the living daylights out of it (I've done the same with the fifth series, so expect long, loving comments along these lines when you get there!). In fact, proving how disturbed I am, it's my go-to comfort episode when I've been having a bad day. Watching it makes me feel better. I think because it's so good in general, because sad is happy for deep people, and because I love being frightened. I've watched the final confrontation with the Weeping Angels many times late at night, in the dark (I celebrated Halloween this way too), and only rarely have I had trouble sleeping. I've always adored spooky/creepy stuff since childhood, and am hard to truly scare. But this episode manages it, and so for that my hat is off to you, Steven Moffat. Well done.
Thing is, though… when I look out my window late at night, part of me always expects to see a Weeping Angel standing there in the darkness, looking back at me.
… pleasant dreams tonight, everyone! 😀
Awesome review is awesome.
You summarized what I love about Billy's story well, so I just want to add to those people who think Moffat can't/doesn't do character growth – hello, Billy gets about 5-10 minutes of screen-time total, and gets a heartbreaking progression that is so poignant and sad, and Moffat does this for a one-off character with little screen-time.
Moffat doesn't just do plot, he does breathtaking character stuff as well. I literally do not understand where that criticism of his writing comes from.
Awesome review is awesome.
I completely agree. This is one of my favorite episodes, but I think everything I've thought about the episode has been shared more eloquently here.
I also really don't get that criticism of Moffat's writing either. So far we've had Nancy & the kids, Reinette, and the fabulous collection of characters in this episode. They've all, at least to me, come across as individuals with real stories and real emotions. Actually I'm kind of welling up thinking about them right now. His one-off characters have a great deal of depth and personality and are certainly not "cold" as I've heard his characters and stories described. My mind is boggled by this complaint, tbh.
Aw, thanks. 😀 And yeah, my mind is equally boggled by that criticism, it doesn't match up with the way his writing has touched my heart in all the episodes he's written.
Exactly, it's crazy how often Moffat's writing is described as "sexist". Um, what? Look at Nancy – she took charge of a bunch of runaway kids and took care of them like a mother. Look at Reinette – strong, independent woman, who quickly understood the situation and kept a level head, refusing to panic. Look at Sally – clever, fearless, refusing to be talked down to, but also empathic and kind. I can't talk about Moffat's other female characters, because Mark hasn't met them yet, but they, too, have plenty of good qualities such as these.
And regarding this so-called "coldness" – just because there aren't floods of tears and overemotional overacting, doesn't mean there isn't real emotion in Moffat's stories. There is, but it's subtle – just like in real life emotions aren't always bombastic. Deep sorrow doesn't always equal floods of tears, and love and empathy doesn't always equal lengthy monologues and deep sighs. And sometimes the subtle and underplayed emotions have much bigger impact than the bombastic overplayed ones.
I don't think it's Moffat's writing that propmts the "sexist" argument, but rather things he's said in interviews. I do think the man himself is pretty sexist, but his writing is amazingly free of that nonsense, so I can separate the man from his work and LOVE his writing while kind of disliking Moffat himself.
You're absolutely right, though, his writing is amazing and I love pretty much every episode he's done! His female characters just blow my mind with how awesome they are.
Why, thank you. 😀
I honestly don't get it either. I mean, everyone is entitled to their own interpretation, I simply don't understand where this idea about Moffat's work comes from. Some writers do character stuff better than plot, and vice versa, but Moffat, IMO, does both really well. He's written some of the most touching and poignant stuff in this show, in my experience, and this episode is a shining example of it.
So much fridge horror in the way the audience looking counts.
I must echo the sentiments here – that was a REALLY GOOD review, arctic_hare! 🙂 I agree with just about everything you said, but I just want to point out the part where you talk about Larry and his geekiness. I agree wholeheartedly that it was handled exceptionally well. He's not a socially awkward person, or a weirdo, and even though Sally teases him about it ("When you say 'the guys', you mean the internet, right?"), it's not meant in a bad way. Miles and miles above "Love and Monsters", which left a sour taste in my mouth.
THANK YOU for articulating my love for this episode in proper language.
My review would basically be illegible nonsense.
omgblinkweekpingangelsstevenmoffattheangelshavethephoneboxpantsdontblinkhappinessfordeeppeoplehullcappuccinosentbackintimewtflyingcowlifeisshortandyouarehotitsthesamerainsallyshiptonDONTSTOPRAINBUTICANHEARYOUDONTPATRONIZESALLYSPARROWFOURFORYOUSALLYSPARROWYOUGOSALLYSPAROWTHEANGELESHAVETHEPHONEBOXDONTTURNYOURBACKDONTLOOKAWAYANDDONTBLINK"NEITHERAREYOU"OHHHHHSHIIIIIITOMGMOFFATYOUBLOODYGENIUS
I always felt sympathetic towards Larry in the first scene. I mean, whose fault is it that he didn't know Sally had a key and might come into the flat at one o'clock in the morning? Oh, that's right, KATHY'S. Stop yelling at him when you know it's your fault, woman. 😛
Also, he is hot without the beard.
Oh wow, yes. Yes, he is.
Hahaha, I can't believe I never connected him with that Halifax ad before.
It was a total coincidence. I had just watched Blink (in the afternoon) and then the Halifax advert came on and I was like "WAIT A SECOND! Holy crap, Larry Nightingale, you're actually quite fit!"
Oh my god he's gorgeous.
How I knew Mark would like this: time travel. ALL THE FEAR. Moffat-skills. Fierce, independent, smart female protagonist. 'When you say "you and the guys", you mean the internet, don't you?'. Time travel. And guys, TIME TRAVEL.
And how awesome is Sally Sparrow? 'I'm clever, and I'm listening. Now don't patronise me, 'cause people have died and I'm not happy. Tell me.' STAY FOREVER, SALLY.
Yeah, when I first expressed interest in Doctor Who, it was suggested I watch "Blink". My perception of the show was of something light, fun, and silly. NEEDLESS TO SAY I WAS CREEPED THE HELL OUT. Not even remotely prepared, was I.
Loved it to bits though. Still one of my favorite DW episodes ever.
So glad you liked this episode, it is one of the best ones ever.
But Mark? I hope you don't get the idea that THIS was all we ever excited for you to watch, and all our hype was building to this episode.
Oh no. There's much, MUCH more to this show overall, and you know what?
YOU ARE STILL NOT PREPARED
Yep, even after Blink, still unprepared.
Never EVER prepared.
And we like it that way. 🙂
Great episode! I'm sad I couldn't do the liveblog (holy crap, that's a lot of comments, guys), but I did go through the comments. Thanks to the people who posted the weeping angel cosplayer! And the person who mentioned that older Billy was in the Old Who, you made me have a minor panic attack about getting old. It's kind of poetic that he was absent from Doctor Who for about as long as it took Billy to age up to meet Sally.
I love that this episode is a terrifying game of red light/green light with creepy angel statues. I know Moffat isn't perfect, but dammit, he can write good suspense. I was so tensed up watching Larry's staring contest with the angels — I was terrified he wouldn't make it the first time I watched!
The one thing I cringe about: Martha is a shop girl to support the Doctor. It's always like this. WHY.
Yeah, but can you see the Dr being able to hold down a normal job? He'd find something interesting/dangerous, blow up the place and get fired.
So true. Forget loneliness, he needs a companion so he won't be arrested for vagrancy.
He could be a teacher! Or just contact UNIT and go "By the way, Brigadier, in a spot of bother, but don't tell ME!" *lol*
Totally true, though… I think it might have been a tiny bit early for that?
He does have this tendency to blow up peoples' places of employment.
I feel so sorry for Martha. We don't know how much time's passed since the whole 'Family of Blood' thing, but just after getting stuck in a racist time for weeks it happens again! At least this time she wasn't alone.
Yes, but can imagine having to work to support the Doctor as he's sitting there trapped without transport and probably bored as hell? He's fabulous, but not the most patient person in the world. Stripped of his ability to take the fast lane through time, I can see time spent with him getting frustrating quickly.
this episode is a terrifying game of red light/green light with creepy angel statues
I like to think if I was a kid in the playground these days I'd call it 'Weeping Angels'!
Yeah what the hell doctor, after the last escapade couldn't he have at least used the psychic paper to make her a nurse?
He was probably busy building the timey-wimey detector and looking for Billy. 😛 As for why Martha became a shop girl? Well, that sort of job (shop assistant, waitress, etc.) seems to be the easiest to acquire without any special qualifications or references (I doubt Martha would've been allowed to work in a hospital; there would've been no way to check her credentials, for one thing…).
When you say “you and the guys,” you mean the Internet, don’t you?
Best Episode Ever!!! Y/y?
Damn straight it is!
Larry is so One of Us
The timeline of "Blink": when Martha and the Doctor are stuck in 1969, Martha's wearing the exact same thing (and has her hair done the same way) as she did at the end of "The Family of Blood." So, getting trapped in the past happened about then. (This also explains Martha's angst about having to get a job in a shop and support the Doctor, as it's the second long-term being stuck somewhere in time gig she's had, and because of external factors, she's not working in her field of expertise.) The running with arrows thing and actual meeting of Sally Sparrow had to have happened before seeing Old Tim. Speculation: maybe the four things and a lizard thing ended up with them having the first run-in with the Family of Blood? Who knows?
Also, not related to anything, really, but I adore the way Tennant uses his hands in the Easter Egg, particularly with the whole "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect…" bit. It's just lovely.
Also-also? If anyone has any requests for gifs, I'm open to making some. Who needs to do work, anyway? 😉
I've always wanted a gif of the 'we've got a thing. Well, four things. Well, four things, and a lizard' bit, if you're serious about offering 🙂
Does this suit your needs?
<img src="http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/6678/4things.gif">
YES YOU ARE MY ONE TRU LOVE MARRY ME
*big grin*
Not requested, but I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment.
<img src="http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/5690/timeywimey.gif">
(Seriously, self, you have a to-do list as long as your arm, and you're doing this instead? What is wrong with you?)
The timeline of "Blink": when Martha and the Doctor are stuck in 1969, Martha's wearing the exact same thing (and has her hair done the same way) as she did at the end of "The Family of Blood."
She's not wearing the exact same thing, actually. She's got on a red shirt in Family of Blood and blue one in Blink. Just had to go check because I'd never noticed the similarity. They are pretty close outfits, though.
Ooh, you're right. Different shirt and hairband. Same necklace, though. Rings, too.
Darn it, I liked that line of thought!
Though, the Doctor seems to be wearing the same thing (not as much of a big deal, though), so maybe… Martha got dressed up for Remembrance Day and then changed? Maybe she got something on the red shirt that forced the change. Or maybe they were going to go somewhere where red is… offensive or something. *flounders about trying to come up with a way to keep that thought train rollin'*
This episode in musical form, courtesy of Chameleon Circuit! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXMxb5fn6Q8
This episode rates a 5.5, and I will restate the warning label it received
"NOTE FOR PARENTS: This is one of the scariest episodes of Doctor Who yet. The whole family agree that it is simply brilliant, and all four Fear Forecasters really enjoyed being so frightened while watching it together with mum and dad. The parents suggest that, if you're concerned, then tape the episode, and watch it with children during the daytime, or, at least, a long time before bedtime. "
BUMBUMBUM
Man, just reading the COMMENTS for the liveblog last night (I missed it due to rl stuff) freaked me the fuck out. THE COMMENTS. WHAT IS MY PROBLEM.
Blink is one of the finest episodes of anything ever.
I jumped onto the Doctor Who bandwagon fairly late. I was catching up through this third series my sophomore year of college, watching them on my laptop with my headphones in. I was on the futon for this episode and nearly gave my roommate a heart attack, because I literally screamed and convulsed the first time Sally turned around and an angel was RIGHT THERE. This is the most fantastic terrifying episode of TV. However, I'm glad every episode isn't horrifying like this one–Blink alone has shaved enough years off of my life, thank you very much.
Fantastic episode. I'm a big jumpy wimp so this is peeking through fingers telly for me.
I think it’s safe for me to say that “Blink” has provided me with one of the finest “hours” of television that I have ever seen.
Absolutely. I felt the same way after seeing it, that it was truly one of the best television episodes I had ever seen. It's so exquisitely put together. And, well, I love time travel.
I think that, aside from how terrifying it was, the scene where Sally has a “conversation” with the Doctor is one of the coolest things I have ever seen on television. I don’t think there’s anything that I can think of that’s like it.
I feel like I have seen things like it, or at least in that vein, because I know I love That Sort of Thing, so I feel like there must be more of That Sort of Thing for me to have liked.
Finally, allow me to link you to "'What I Did on My Christmas Holidays' by Sally Sparrow," the original short story by Steven Moffat. Sally was 12 originally. I'm glad we got Carey Mulligan instead.
For some reason I'm in love with stable time loops. A lot of people can't seem to wrap their heads around them and complain rather loudly when they appear, but I just eat them up with a big spoon. Because this is 'Doctor Who' and what's wrong with a stable paradox or two? 😉
Weeping Angels = Scariest Doctor Who monsters of all time. Period.
I like to think the Doctor called up some of his old companions in 1969. Maybe hung out with Ian and Barbara a bit. But that's just my inner fangirl that loves Doctor-companion crossovers.
I remember after this episode a vocal section of the fans went all crazy at RTD, going sign up Mulligan as a full time companion instead of Martha. I was like yeah Sally Sparrow was fantastic but so is Martha you fools!
Now that you've seen this ep you can appreciate this awesome costume. If I'd seen this in person I'd have run far far away.
Plus there's a special appearance by Miss Kaywinnit Lee Frye in that link!
I love that Jewel Staite is apparently a Doctor Who fan. Kaylee would make an excellent companion.
"Oh Doctor, these angels, they're not so bad. They're kind of prett-Oh shit, what was that? 1969, is it? And we're trapped here? Huh. Well, I'm sure there are lots of really nice people in 1969. This will give me the chance to see how those things run…cars, d'you call 'em? Well, they're awful slow, so I'm just gonna look at this engine here…"
I love this cosplayer! She's so meticulous and perfect!
To make make his money stretch further and stay in budget, RTD started writing one episode per season that required little involvement from Tennant or his co-star at the time. This allowed him to have a full season of shows and not break the bank.
I thought the Doctor light episodes were due to filming constraints because they had to try and fit 14 episodes, because of the Christmas episode, in the same amount of time as they'd had to film 13 back in series 1.
I guess it was probably a combination of both.
They explain this a bit during the commentary to "Love and Monsters".
I think this is actually the best episode that Moffat has written, its also probably one of the best episodes in all of Doctor Who. Its why i was so excited when he took over as the main man, without getting spoilery i ended up being underwhelmed by Moffat's season. I'm hoping to see more of this kind of thing in season 6.
I do know what you mean. I hope Moffat is just finding his stride. I have faith in the man.
Same here, i hope it was just a big learning curve for him and now he's got the first one out of the way he'll get back to what he does best.
Series 5 is IMHO the solidest of all the NuWho series. Even its weakest episodes are pretty good (so no horrible stinkers like Fear Her or Love and Monsters…). Granted, none of the Series 5 episodes reach the level of Blink, but a couple are pretty damn close. And I LOVE its story arc, it's handled in a different way than the previous arcs.
I won't mention the name but there is a certain episode quite early on that i hate more than love and monsters. I could watch Love and Monsters again even if it is stupid but this one just pisses me off in so many ways and i bloody love tea.
Totally agreed, though I think one of the S5 eps hits me emotionally harder than any others.
Well… err…… I'll discuss this further when we get there….
I have to disagree with that.
There are several episodes in series five that you would have to pay me to rewatch. One of which I couldn't even finish.
It has some great episodes too, but to say there there are no horrible stinkers… I'd take fear her and love and monsters any day over said episodes.
I agree. Aside from 3 episodes that I have watched twice, the rest of the series I could only get through once.
I think there is another series that is the most solid. No stinkers in that one and the best companion ever.
Agreed, and I suspect that we both favor the same series for the same reasons. XD
Probably. The Doctor-lite episode in that series is IMO comparable to Blink in its awesomeness. RTD also gives his counterpoint to Blink in that series too, which is just as great and maybe even creepier, and I am getting dangerously close to spoiler territory here, so I will stop.
And yep. For the record, the episodes to which you refer occupy spots one and two on my favorite episodes list.
Agreed.
I agree.
Couldn't agree more, series five is by far my favorite and IMO the most consistently solid. You'll see a LOT of gushing from me when Mark gets there. 😀
"Life is short and you are hot" juxtaposed with "Life is long and you are hot" makes me want to both laugh and weep.
And seriously, the tension of this episode. "You're not looking at it." "NEITHER ARE YOU."
OH GOD.
I know! Oh lord, that entire scene is amazing. "Its the same rain," makes me want to weep. There are people who say that Moffat can't write emotional scenes, but that is direct testimony to the opposite.
Yeah, I don't believe any of those people, scenes like that and "Everybody lives!" are two of the most emotionally moving ones I've seen in this whole show (along with, of course, stuff I cannot talk about yet).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wejl_daRVZU
The song 'Blink', by Chameleon Circuit. Its been posted before, but it deserves more than one post. (Its got a little intro by the singer, so skip to 0:42 if you want to get to the song!)
Now- Blink the episode. OMG LOVE IT! Mark pretty said everything, and every line I love about the episode. The most amazing thing about it though, is how much everything is ramped up. There's such suspense, and at the beginning you're just sucked in trying to understand.
Billy and Kathy- oh, so sad! But I'm also left wondering about everyone else. There were tonnes of abandoned cars outside Wester Drumlins- how many people got zapped back in time?
Oh “Blink”. I used to love you.
Now I still like you, but our love has definitely dwindled.
This is for a few reasons, some of which are spoilery, so I’ll avoid talking about them except in the most vague and non-spoilery terms. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy this episode, I just don’t think that it is as ~flawless or ~brilliant as most of fandom tends to think it is.
Basically, a lot of the appeal of this episode rests in the shock value and scare factor and the novelty of the angels and the time loop, but for me, that wore off after the first few viewings. Now that I know when everything is going to happen, there isn’t really a scare factor any more, and there isn’t really much of a deeper psychological fear or character exploration or musings on larger themes to keep me interested.
The plot of this episode is definitely fun and a good episode to use to introduce new viewers to the show, if only to convince them that it’s not your typical cheesy sci-fi show. The first time I saw it, I was completely hearts in my eyes at the scene in the house where Sally is “talking” to the Doctor. And I still love the way that the Tardis disappears around Sally and Larry. Also the episode is really beautifully framed and shot, so kudos to the director. Also, I LOVE Carey Mulligan, and I think that it is entirely thanks to her performance that Sally Sparrow is my favorite female character that Moffat has written. So for me Sally is one of the brighter spots in this episode.
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/24o25pg.jpg">
Kathy Nightingale: What did you come here for anyway?
Sally Sparrow: I love old things. They make me feel sad.
Kathy Nightingale: What's good about sad?
Sally Sparrow: It's happy for deep people.
For me, the best thing character wise is Sally’s connection with Billy.
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/1688lxv.jpg">
Sally Sparrow: Aren't you on duty, *Detective Inspector Shipton*?
Billy Shipton: Nope. Knocked off before we came down here. Told them I had a family crisis.
Sally Sparrow: Why?
Billy Shipton: Because life is short and you are hot. Drink?
Also, I really do love the conversation that old Billy and Sally have. Carey Mulligan is just wonderful in that scene.
Old Billy: No, gorgeous girl, you can't. There's only tonight. He told me, all those years ago, that we'll only meet again this one time, on the night I die.
Sally Sparrow: Oh Billy…
Old Billy: It's kept me going; I'm an old sick man but I've had something to look forward to.
[sighs]
Old Billy: Life is long, and you are hot!
[laughs, pause]
Old Billy: Look at my hands. They're old man's hands – how did that happen?
[pause]
Sally Sparrow: I'll stay. I'm gonna stay with you ok?
Old Billy: Thank you Sally Sparrow.
[pause]
Old Billy: I have til the rain stops.
Sally and Billy really cute together down in the the garage with the cars and the Tardis, and Sally is really sweet when she goes to see him in the hospital. It allows for a lovely little quiet moment as she waits with him as he dies. Unfortunately, it also illustrates why the Angels… aren't that awful. Now might be a good time to mention that as freaky as the Angels can be while they’re on screen, they’re not nearly as horrific as other Who monsters. I mean, they send you back in time, which sucks to be sure. But it’s not like they kill you like the Daleks or Cybermen. You still get to live your life… just not in the way you wanted or expected.
Speaking of which, let’s talk briefly about Kathy. She got sent back in time to 1920s where women had a lot less rights, BUT DON’T WORRY. IT’S OK. SHE FOUND A GOOD MAN. THAT’S ALL ANY WOMAN NEEDS ANYWAY, AM I RIGHT? Similarly, let’s talk about Sally’s ending. LOL at the ending. Oh Moffat. Women CAN have happy endings outside of getting together with a man. Just so you know, because based on your writing, I'm not sure you do. The ending came out of nowhere and had no purpose other than to show that Sally was happy now because how could she be happy without a boyfriend? Duh! UGH. (Also, the Sally Sparrow-Shipton slip up always makes me raise an eyebrow because women are totally always subconsciously looking for a husband! Hahaha. Isn’t that funny? No. It isn’t. Stop it, Moffat.)
Anyway those are the reasons I don’t love this episode as much as I used to or to the extent that other people do. There are a few more reasons that I don’t love this episode, but they are spoilery, so I won't say anything about that for now.
I didn't see Sally's Freudian slip as showing that she was "looking for a husband". More that she was attracted to Shipton. As many of us are.
Kathy's note to Sally reassures her that she had a good life AND married a good man. Given that women still did not have many rights in the 1920s and they still had the Great Depression and World War II to come, that says a lot about both her character and her husband.
Also, the final scene happens one year later when Sally has become obsessed with what happened to the point of neglecting anything else, including possible feelings she might have for Larry, which isn't a good thing at all. I have no doubt that Sally will continue to lead an interesting and varied life whether she marries Larry or not because she's that kind of character.
As well we should be, he's gorgeous! 😀
Also, yeah, I didn't have a problem either with Kathy's letter. Losing her best friend so suddenly like that – that's not easy at all, and Kathy knew Sally would be heartbroken. So it makes sense to me that she'd try to assure her that she still had a happy, full life in 1920. It showed me that she really cared about Sally.
Agreed on the last point too.
"More that she was attracted to Shipton. As many of us are. "
+1
Wait what was this thread about?
No really, I never thought that not living in a liberal wonderworld meant that you couldn't manage to live a decent life on your own terms (otherwise, I would be miserable about 100% of the time.)
Actually out of these, I thought it was way more ridiculous that Billy said he was waiting his whole life to meet Sally again considering he knew her for exactly 20 minutes, but I figured he was just being charming and not literal.
I agree. It kind of annoys me that people sometimes seem totally bent on finding sexism in Moffat's episodes. Okay, so apparently the man is a bit of a dick. I don't know, I haven't read any of his interviews, and I don't plan to since I want to keep enjoying his work without my views of him personally coming into it. I didn't see either of those things as "Well clearly women are just looking for husbands and that's all they need." The first seemed more like, "Look, I might have gotten thrown back to 1920, but I had a really good life: a great husband, wonderful kids, lots of good things." Most people who've been happily married a long time will mention their spouse on their list of "good things in my life". I fail to see anything wrong with that.
As for the second…Billy is HOT. How many of us, when confronted with a really hot person who we're attracted to, hasn't said something stupid? Okay, I'm sure some of you are really suave, BUT MOST OF US AREN'T OKAY. I thought it came across as a pure slip of the tongue rather than the crazy chick out hunting for a man.
LOL, I'm having fun watching the points on this comment go up and down like a yo-yo. Saw that one coming. Heh.
Agreed 100%. I really hate how some people are determined to find sexism in every minor detail of Moffat's scripts.
This exactly.
Re: the Angels not being so bad, I don't know. I mean, if something kills you, you're dead. But this is being thrown out of your life and dumped in an unfamiliar period without any friends or family or money or job or place to live or legal identity. That's pretty bloody terrifying, if you ask me.
Yea, I'm pretty terrified of that as well. It's not terrifying in a physical pain sense, it's terrifying in a mental sense. I got so incredibly sad when Kathy went back in time and was completely stranded, moreso I think than I would have if Sally would have come up to find her friend's neck snapped. There is sadness in immediate death, but I think more torture in 60 years of never being able to see your family again.
I think that's true to a point, but… Plenty of people out there lose their families in perfectly normal ways, and given time, it's something you can come to terms with, to an extent at least. At least it's a chance to find happiness again. Death is death.
Sometimes I fantasize about being dropped in a time where I don't need like 2-3 degrees to get into a field, but that's probably just me. But then there's the being a woman thing.
Nah, I feel you. Hell, if I could nab the same angel that got the Doctor and Martha and Billy, I'd WANT it to get me.
Interestingly, i always saw the ending as the other way round. Rather than "Sally's happy now becasue she's got a man" it feels to me more like "Larry's happy now because the girl of his dreams has decided she wants to be with him".
I see it as a very self-determined act on Sally's part – she rather sweeps him off his feet with the whole adventure – as a nice inversion of the usual 'man has an adventure and drags a female sidekick along' plot.
Actually I saw Sally's sitch as the inverse of this, too. As in, she only was interested in a man romantically AFTER she'd fulfilled another part of her life, it wasn't as if Larry came along and made all her problems disappear. That said I don't think wanting a man is inherently antifeminist.
IAWTC. Taking Larry's hand seemed to be making the point that she had finally found closure and was ready to start living life again. In this situation, it meant giving them a try as a couple– and you know what? That's fine.
Other people have made the same points I want to regarding this comment, but I'll add one more thing.
I commented a little about Moffat and female characters in the "Family of Blood" spoiler post, but I'll reiterate one point I made there.
Disclaimer, I am a Moffat fan and I acknowledge he's said offensive things, but I don't believe whatever sexist beliefs he has has really bled into his writing for Doctor Who. I may have biases for not wanting to see bad in Moffat's work.
I think Moffat does frequently write about people in relationships, both familial, friendly, and/or sexual/romantic, and perhaps links characters together through these relationships more often than other DW writers have. The thing is, people have families and romantic partners and friends and what have you, so I would consider it more odd to not see characters in relationships because it doesn't reflect the world that I know well.
I love that we get to see two friends together – Sally and Kathy. We also got to see Reinette with Angel Coulby's character in GitF. Rose never really had on-air friends except for Mickey, who was a boyfriend. Martha also apparently doesn't have friends she wants to see. Donna, nope. So I'm more weirded out by that than I am by Moffat's characters, who I believe does a more accurate portrayal of the way people are interconnected.
Very good points. This is a good comment and you should feel good. 😀
I've been sitting here trying to express this same opinion about the relationship (romantic or otherwise) aspect, and here it is perfectly laid out for me. You are awesome.
Sally and Kathy even discuss things that have nothing to do with men!
You are right about the lack of relationships the other characters experience being kind of odd. I don't know that it really ever occurred to me before now, but it is kind of bizarre. Huh.
It really doesn't help that, in your very conviction about how he stereotypes women, you're actually perpetuating the stereotypes.
I'm surprised you don't passive-aggressively complain when his female characters passive-aggressively complain because of the generalization of how women like to passive-aggressively complain.
You're perpetuating the stereotype of people on the internet being rude. And, funnily enough, pretty passive-aggressive.
Man guys, I don't even know where to put this, but I just want to say I am giving thumbs up like crazy because I am loving the discussion around here. A+
Karen, I want to say that the second to last paragraph could have been written by me a couple of years ago. I have an embarrassing LJ post somewhere where I talk about how I'm not sure about Moffat taking over the show because SEXIST etc etc. I have been on my own journey with this show and ended up in a much different position, but I understand where you're coming from.
I still have issues with some things Moffat has written, but Blink is not one of them. I think it's a fairly good episode as far as gender equality, even within the context of his other work. Try this test out on it: run the episode in your mind with switched genders. What works? What stands out? What are the implications of the men ending up with the women?
The switched-gender test is a good one. It's what alerted me to the fact that Neil Gaiman's Stardust, while being a charming fairytale, is also horribly, horribly sexist.
The reason he writes episodes so insanely creepy is because– STEVEN MOFFAT EATS BRAINS!!
<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lf0rpsfjCa1qzin13.gif">
<img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/vrr7gn.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Again, last night? SO FUN.
I love this episode a lot. This is probably the fifth time I've watched it in recent memory, and so far it's the only episode of Doctor Who I've convinced my friend to watch with me, though we tend to voice-over stuff like this when we watch together, so it wasn't quite as creepy that time. (I swear, I'll get her with Empty Child/Doctor Dances one day with the overwhelming creepy.) I have too many things to say about the episode to actually form coherence, so I'll just end with my favourite crossover gif again, like last night:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/st7go.gif">
I still can't believe those are people and not CGI. Just amazing.
Don't Blink at DragonCon
Sorry it's a little blurry, but this lady does a lot of fantastic costumes! And meeting an Angel in real life… even knowing the person some… Yeah, we didn't blink a lot around her 😛
Eeeeee! Best gif ever.
That is all.
Excellent gif! I love Jensen Ackles' face!
A++ gif!
I have an exceptionally creepy Blink gif and I am debating about posting it, mostly because it scares the crap out of me. Aagh decisions!
Oh god, so much love for this GIF. I would love to see Dean and Sam take on the Weeping Angels in an episode of Supernatural, haha.
Aww…love that you loved it, Mark. But you know what?
YOU ARE *STILL* NOT PREPARED!
I think the thing that makes this episode immersive for the audience is how Moffat makes us a part of the experience through our watching of the show. Throughout the episode there a points when no one but the audience can see the angels and they’re frozen in place. It is only when we and the characters in the show BOTH cannot see the angels that they actually move. It’s a cool subtlety that makes sure we are watching.
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5131/5431681903_12c4c4e749.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="Just an angel…" />
Just an angel statue, NBD…
*blink*
<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/5432290860_306b7bb2c4.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="Rawr" />
OH SHI-
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5180/5432292384_40fc6eff20.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="Oh no" />
NO, NOT THE TARDIS!
<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/5432290270_9d4a36ae46.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="The angels have the phone box" />
THE ANGELS HAVE THE PHONE BOX. (I have that one on a t-shirt)
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5058/5431683751_91c295ac8a.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="The Doctor always wins" />
YAY FOR THE DOCTOR (AND FOR SALLY SPARROW (but I don't have a figurine of her, sadface forever))
I… I need that Weeping Angel figure. SO BADLY. *fangirls*
Those figurines are adorable! Where do you get those?
I got them from some British website a couple of years ago. If you're caught up and can't be spoiled, search for "Time Squad" and you can find them pretty easily. You can get the Doctor and a bunch of different baddies, but no companions.
There are only two Doctor Who Doctor figures that has turned my brain into an endless stream of OMGWANT! This is one of them. 🙂
He's so cute; I want to pinch his little lopsided-grinning face.
(The other, for the record, is from the Series 5 finale. OMGWANT!)
I LOVE my Time Squad figurines. There are a whole bunch of them, for almost all of the baddies from New Who. I only have 6, but SOMEDAY! Someday, I will own them all.
I've only got the Doctor and a monster we haven't gotten to yet, so I won't name it, but they're seriously the cutest, most cuddly plastic toys ever.
I really want them to make some Series 5 editions, because I don't think anything could be cuter.
OMG THE BFG! That was one of my favorite books as a kid! I love Roald Dahl's work. 😀
Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake were so much part of my childhood. One of my favourtie books when I was younger was this big hardback one I got as a present that had The BFG, Matilda and George's Marvellous Medicine in it. I also had a real soft spot for The Twits as well.
Oh man, I love those. <3 I think Matilda was my favorite of favorites of his books.
I LOOOOOOOOOVED Roald Dahl when I was a kid! I even had a Roald Dahl recipe book! But The BFG and The Witches gave me nightmares 🙁 So did the Vermicious Knids from Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator for some reason
The Knids are super creepy, so I don't blame you!
Roald Dahl is a genius. Well, was. Most of his books are just severely fucked up, and yet they're children's classics. I love it.
Same. 😀 It says a lot about what a weird kid I was that I ate that sort of thing up, IMO.
I think it can be safely said that, when it comes to Moffat episodes, Mark is now at least a little bit prepared. 😛 Amirite?
Seriously, though, Blink is, IMHO, THE best NuWho episode to date. And the things I love the most about it:
1. It's all one glorious closed time-space loop! The Doctor knew where to put the warning for Sally – because Sally gave him all the materials at the end! Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, indeed (and isn't that just the best explanation ever? Just like "Cause of quantum" in Discworld… 😛 ). I love it when the show properly makes use of all paradoxes and effects that automatically stem from the possibility of time travel.
2. As an ex-Physics student, I must say that the concept of the Weeping Angels as "quantum locked creatures" is FUCKING GENIUS. It combines the elements of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle with the Schrödinger's Cat paradox, with just the right amount of creative license to make the most terrifying monsters EVER. Take THAT, Impossible Planet, THIS is how you write proper sci-fi!
3. Zillion extremely quotable quotes! 😀
4. Sally Sparrow is a BAMF. Don't ever tell me Moffat can't write strong female characters.
And here, only for you, the Easter Egg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De9O0LM5D8c
And can I just add that this episode MADE ME AFRAID TO GO THE BATHROOM AT NIGHT FOR ABOUT A WEEK??? Seriously. Already I had a slight fear of the dark, but now I kept thinking that there's an Angel in my flat. *shudder*
"Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle"
Sorry, but do you mean Observer Effect? I don't really see how the uncertainty principle really relates. If you meant what you said, could you explain?
The Observer Effect is the main principle behind the Schrödinger's Cat paradox (that the fact that something is observed, changes its status), which I also mentioned.
The Uncertainty Principle says that (very simplified) either you know the position of the particle, or its velocity. And it's very similar with the Angels – when you see them, they're stone, so you see their position and their velocity is zero. When you can't see them, you don't know their position, but you know their velocity is very high. Obviously it's stretched, that's why it's called creative license, but I wanted to point out that the invention of Angels is rooted in real scientific phenomena. 🙂 But yeah, it's more of the Observer Effect than the Uncertainty Principle, if you really think about it…
I almost agree with you, but for one episode of series 5. 🙂
Well, obviously, there are several highly excellent episodes and the first place depends on each person's personal taste and preference (in my case it's Blink, in your case it's… I think I know what 😉 ), but I think it can be safely said that, for a vast majority of people, Blink is among the top 5 (if not top 3) NuWho episodes. I think we can agree on that. 🙂
Yes, yes we can. 🙂 But series 5 has my all-time favorite of what I have seen thus far (An upcoming episode of series 6 has much potential for blowing everything else out of the water based on who is writing it alone). Mm, it's so good and I am reluctant to mention it should the title alone spoil a few things, but it's one of the last four episodes of the season and makes me so happy to watch it every time I do. Less scary than Blink, but oh it leaves me with a little "<3" hovering over my head nonetheless.
Mark, I can't tell you how many times we have wanted to use THIS phrase – "wobbly wobbly…timey-wimey…stuff" – and had to hold back BECAUSE IT WAS A SPOILER. But no more! Now we can use it as much as we like (and we really like this phrase, it's even got its own TV Tropes page) and you can use it whenever it's appropriate (and it will be appropriate SO MANY TIMES).
Martha Jones appreciation time: even though we barely see her in this episode, Martha still gets to needle the Doctor about working in a shop. I don't think she would have minded that so much if she hadn't spent THREE WHOLE MONTHS as a HOUSEMAID because of this same man pulling his "I will never kill" schtick while dealing with murderous aliens and endemic racism. Now she's having to take care of him again? It's not even as if he's human this time! Meanwhile, the Doctor is probably terrified to go out in case he runs into his second self with the Brigadier and knowing Ten, he's probably reminiscing about awesome Zoe is and how she would have figured things out by now. Excuse me while I roll my eyes. Plus we get to see her with a BOW and ARROWS. Martha's definitely hands on, I love that about her.
Sally Sparrow, you BAMF, showing us how someone can be fierce and reserved at the same time.
"I like old buildings, they make me feel sad."
"What's good about sad?"
"It's happy for deep people." <- apparently I am a hipster because I love this response
I happen to like Larry quite a lot. He's awkward and a bit wibbly but why not? How the hell was he supposed to know that some strange woman would come barging into his sister's flat at one am? You might have warned him, Kathy, don't start getting angry now. 😛
Yes, Kathy and Billy are pretty tragic cases. I mean, they LIVE but… they don't live as they should have lived.
Weeping Angels. What can I say that hasn't already been said? Well, the very first evening this was broadcast, when NONE OF US WERE PREPARED, I watched this on my own in my parents' house which backs onto a wood as the night fell around me. Yes, I jumped about ten foot in the air when THAT cut happened. Yes, I ran back and forth like a headless chicken as Sally and Larry tried to get in the TARDIS. Yes, I screamed as the TARDIS disappeared around them. I hate you, Moffat. And yet I love you.
Phew, no, it didn't. 🙂
I love this episode. I love the message about not blinking or you're dead, while aimed at Sally, also makes me try and avoid blinking, which is REALLY HARD and even harder when someone tells you not to. Like someone putting a DO NOT DISTURB sign outside their door… which just makes me want to go in.
Despite that, not entirely flawless. Like Karen, I didn't really like the whole ending. People can be happy without a boyfriend/girlfriend. As that's only a small thing, I can let it pass!
Actually, I don't think Kathy and Billy's fates are so tragic – they both acknowledge it, after all:
Kathy: "I lived a good life, I loved a good man."
Billy: "But I had something to look forward to."
It's not like they spent their lives in the past in depression; they made the best of them. It's actually quite uplifting. 🙂
Because it's happy…. for deep people. 😉
One of the funny things about this is that, though it's certainly his most celebrated work, Moffat is quite humble about this one – because to him, it was one of his easiest.
He didn't really have to worry bout continuity; there's no ongoing plot to worry about, the Doctor is hardly in it, and all the introduced characters are just to be seen this one time. That density of story, to him, was freeing and he (as mentioned above) had already worked out the whole ontological-getting-the-TARDIS-back-to-the-Doctor thing in his short story a while beforehand. So all he had to do was make Sally older, add a few twists, and of course invent the Angels. All in a day's work for the man, apparently…
omg this episode.
This is the second one I ever saw. My friends showed me The Shakespeare Code and then this. Is it any wonder I became such a huge freaking fan?
I also have a friend who keeps threatening to get a stone angel and put it on my front porch. O_O
This episode made my mum and I cry, shriek, dive behind the sofa, and buy stock in Visine Eye Drops.
Poor Billy, I have *such* a crush on his character.. what a classy, classy man.
Also, I wish Sally Sparrow had her own spinoff, because I love her to pieces.
No! I blinked!!!
Best villain ever, or BEST VILLAIN EVEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR?
Okay, so, I had no idea this episode was such a big deal until Mark and commenters started talking about it as such. There sure was a lot of hype over it and I didn't even know exactly what the hype was for.
Now, having actually seen the episode, I have to say that I am seriously disappointed. THAT was the episode everyone was going nuts over? Seriously? That? I still don't even know why it's such a big deal.
Yes, it was a good episode. Yes, I certainly enjoyed a lot of what it offered. But the way people talk about it like it's the BEST THING EVER! Well, I honestly think it ruined the episode for me. I was expecting so much more. The previous episode was a million times better, in my opinion.
Yeah, I'm always afraid of overhyping things to people. I remember recommending Firefly to my brother, and being all, it's really good! But maybe don't listen to the hype online. I love it! But it's not perfect. Either way, he's procrastinating watching Firefly in part because he's afraid it's been over-hyped to him and that it's going to be underwhelming.
Sorry you were disappointed, even if I'm one of those lovers of this ep.
I'm afraid of doing that too. And, Firefly actually was over hyped for me, I think. It took me several episodes before I really started to love it. But before that when everyone was going on and on and on about how perfect it was, it made all the little problems I had with the show stand out more. But, I couldn't keep from loving it forever. I totally broke down. And then it ended. T__T
I feel the same. It was a greatly entertaining hour of TV when I first saw it, but I don't re-watch it very often because it relies a lot on just being surprising and without the element of surprise it's not as good. It doesn't make my Top 10 Who episodes. It's fun and everything, but once I got over being scared, it was merely "good" and not "great." And now that I've seen Moffat use the same trick a zillion more times, I'm way over it.
See, I wasn't scared in the least when I watched it. I knew the story was actually kind of relying on the viewer finding moving statues scary, so it really didn't get to me. I found it much less of a scary story than it was a mystery story and the mystery was what I concentrated on. Though, I do love the idea of the aliens that can only move when not looked at.
Probably the creepiest moment in the episode for me was when Sally walks into the house and all those video screens are on showing the Doctor and Martha and the Doctor is giving his Don't Blink speech. Just because I have no idea what he's doing giving a weird message through the TV. I honestly thought he was on a public broadcasting station giving out the message to the general public. XD I actually think that's creepier.
I really hated the ending where it showed all the normal statues, though. It was so hokey. Like, they expect me to be terrified of all statues now?
"Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey" is the key to explaining 75% of all "Doctor Who" continuity. Bless Steven Moffat for that trope ('course, I'm also cursing his name for making me EVEN MORE FREAKED OUT BY STATUES!!) And honestly – did that feel like a 45 minute episode? The pacing just moves right along and I never felt bored by any of it – even though this is an episode I've seen about ten times now (and I freak out at the end EVERY SINGLE TIME, even though I know full well what's coming).
One thing that I love about this Doctor-lite episode (one of so very many things) is that the Doctor is still an active participant in the plot (whereas in The Episode that Shall Not Be Named – he was just this static device that didn't do anything. Everyone else revolved around him). I love that they can take their main character and make him relevant, even though he's not on screen very much. I think it helps that the TARDIS was key to the story as well.
Here's an interesting note – counting Human Nature and Family of Blood, we have now been three episodes without the Doctor actually being a main character (John Smith is written and acted differently, so it's safe to say that he's his own entity). And these are three episodes that fandom more or less loves unconditionally (Your Mileage May Vary – I'm speaking in very broad terms, here). Make of that what you will.
I agree its a very odd thing; here are three superb episodes, basically unanimously loved by the fandom (YMMV). Yet the Doctor is barely in any of them…its interesting what it says about the show. Maybe that things are interesting when you don't have the Doctor to explain everything? That it allows the writers to experiment with the formula?
I'm probably in the minority in thinking this, but much as I genuinely like this episode? It doesn't scare me. Sure, the first time I watched it I was suitably frightened by all the jump scares, but on rewatch? I'm not scared at all, and I'm a bit of a wimp.
That's the one problem I have with Moffat's version of horror. Yes, his creations are creepy as fuck, but none of them are really EVIL. I don't even think the Angels are that scary. It's like the Doctor put it… they kill you with kindness. You may not live your life the way you had initially planned, but you still get to live it. That's hardly the worst fate imaginable.
Moffat's monsters begin as a mystery, but once that mystery is solved, they just aren't frightening anymore. A little boy looking for his mother, machines that are just too overzealous, and now basically just creatures that are trying to survive, in the way they evolved to.
There is only one episode of this show that truly frightens me, and obviously because of spoilers I can't say what it is until we get to it, but suffice to say the style of horror is, in a certain sense vastly different from Moffat's.
That's not to say I don't enjoy this episode though, because I really do. The emotional aspects don't lose their weight on rewatch, and neither does the witty dialogue. It's a wonderful episode and probably one of the better ones of series three.
My one real nitpick is Martha's characterization here. I know it's played for laughs, but she gives Ten a hell of a lot of grief for something that is in NO WAY his fault this time around, and after we saw her react to an infinitely worse situation with so much aplomb in the last episodes… it just bugs me.
I love this episode a lot but it doesn't really terrify me either, I would be pretty terrified to be IN this episode but it doesn't really creep me out at night. But I'm one of those people that isn't scared a lot by movies that aren't about demon possession.
That said I love how minimal this ep is. It's amazing that it pulled off something this brilliant and creepy with so little.
Oh yeah, it definitely has that creepy feeling throughout it, which I love even if it doesn't scare me much. Light, atmospheric creepiness can make or break a show or a movie and it totally made Blink.
I could understand Martha's annoyance here – as someone else pointed out, it seems to happen RIGHT AFTER "Family of Blood", and now they don't even have the TARDIS, and she has to support him entirely (at least in 1913 he had a job)? Yeah, I'd be pretty fed up too, in a "First all that crap in1913, now THIS? GAH." kind of way. Straw that broke the camel's back, you know? But that's just me.
yeah, like… I can understand it, to an extent, and I don't blame her for it, but it doesn't feel right to me, for her character. It just… comes off as uneven writing to me. She has every right to be pissy with him, and I get that… but the fact that she is doesn't feel like MARTHA.
Completely agree. This episode is fantastically creepy but it doesn't scare me either and i scare very easily. There is only one episode that has ever physically scared me (it also happens to be my absolute favourite), when i watched it for the first time i didn't have a sofa to hide behind, but trust me if i did i would have ran for that sofa like hell!
Oooh, if you want to share what it is on the spoiler blog, please do, I'm curious now. XD
Done 🙂
It doesn't really scare me either. I think there is an episode to come written by someone other than Moffat that is far more creepy.
I honestly like this episode and it's one of my favorites but I do have one major issue with it that keeps me from finding it completely enjoyable, even though it's such a small part at the end.
But I just can't stand that final monologue at the end. On reflection I think it's because to me the Weeping Angels are the things to fear so if the footage used was of angel statues than I think I would be fine with it but instead it's of a great variety of statues. So it felt like I was being told to be afraid of perfectly normal statues because Weeping Angels (that all look the same and aren't seen appearing as anything but angel statues) are out there. Which just felt silly to me and took me completely out of the episode, and still does every time I re-watch it, and kills any residual fear I had as it's replaced by my annoyance at these last few seconds of the episode.
Outside of that I did enjoy the episode and still do. I'm not a huge fan of Moffat but this episode I like and I have no problem admitting it.
I think the reason I've never loved this episode as much as the rest of the fandom (although I do love it loads, don't get me wrong, I just don't think it's the best episode EVER…it's on the list though) is because of its placement after Human Nature/Family of Blood. I always have such a powerful emotional response to that story that this one is…a bit flat, emotionally.
The Angels are totally brilliant, and the filming is amazing. And yes, they scare me, especially the freaking monologue at the end. I mentioned on the liveblog that I walk past a big statue of Queen Victoria every day, and half the time I find myself eying it warily. Also, by the library where I work, there's a statue of an angel. It looks nothing like the Weeping Angels, but still. Angel statue. Urgh. THANKS DOCTOR WHO.
The quotability is amazing though. Thank you, Moffat, with the introduction of the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey phrase, you've given us an explanation for 75% of continuity problems and canon disagreements. It's all just wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey let's not worry about it, eh?
“Sally Shipton” Makes you think these two have a chance and seconds later BAM! Chance gone. I love that Kathy lied about her age. I loved the angels on the church across from the police station. Freaks me out every time. Finally , watch this with closed captioning on. Find all kinds of things you might have missed.
Ohhh, and another thing I love about this episode: it actually BREAKS THE FOURTH WALL, but in such a subtle way that you hardly notice it. The Angels don't move when we, the audience, see them (even though no one else is looking at them). Brilliant. 😀
MIND EXPLOSION.
How many times now, Mark? 😛 I can send you some duct tape to hold your head together after all those brain explosions… 😛
My god, this freaking episode.
By the end of this episode I went to bed. I curled up with my duvet covering me entirely, except for my head. My bed is in the corner of my room, I ended up falling asleep with the lights on, with me in the corner making sure I had a wide view of the whole room.
I love Sally Sparrow, and I almost wish Carey Mulligan didn't get all famous so that it'd be more likely that Sally would be a recurring DW character. "I'm clever and I'm listening" – so good, and is such a good description of the sort of characters I like.
Also, Timey Wimey Ball – trope namer, fuck yeah! I love that Moffat loves this trope and has absolutely no qualms in avoiding trying to explain time travel. I've said it a couple of times now, but I much prefer seeing the fiction aspect of science fiction being hand-waved away than when it's explained poorly. And then "goes ding when there's stuff" – absolutely wonderful. Say what you will about him, but I think Moffat really is quite good at dialogue.
I love the timey wimey aspect of the plot, and I love the genry-savvy characters (and genre savvy Moffat), and I love the weeping angels (easily the scariest DW villains for me), and I know some people dislike the "Sally Shipton — Sparrow!" moment but I think it's adorable so whatever, hater's gonna hate and I'm gonna go on loving this episode.
People also apparently dislike that Sally and Larry ended up together, but I don't have a problem with it – they've been in a life-threatening situation together, and only really have each other to talk about it, and we see them together a year later so I find it entirely plausible they could have gotten into a relationship together during that time. It's not like the day after, she woke up and decided she loved him or anything. And hell, all they did was hold hands (and open a shop, but that's not itself an indication of a relationship).
Finally, I love that we don't get to see the statues move, we only see their placement change.
<img src="http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2864/dwangels.gif">
Combined with the montage at the end, and it just reinforces for me that Moffat is a fanboy and is basically one of us and decided to write a story where the audience is a part of the story – that when the audience sees the statues, they're unmoving because we're looking at them, and that the statues could exist in the real world, too. The tropes he seems to favor tend to be popular fan tropes as well, so it often does feel to me like Moffat is writing for the geeks and bloggers and what have you, not just the "average" fans who like the show but don't catch every episode or rewatch or analyze things the way we all seem to love to do. Plus, internet jokes and meta.
I love Moffat's dialogue, it is music to my ears. So amazing to listen to, whether it's funny or thoughtful or sad.
So agreed on hand-waving vs. badly explaining, too.
His dialogue is awesome. I think this is one of the areas where Moffat's sitcom history is really a strength. Snappy dialogue is something he excels at, and we are all ever so grateful!. 😀
I know Mark watched this ages ago but I'm reading his reviews as I watch and your GIF just scared the crap out of me. Thanks for that 🙂 I am so gla dmy dorm is super new and plain and boring without any statues or anything because I am SO freaked that I'm going to wake up to one of the angel faces bending over me. I always lose staring constests.
It's kind of funny, all the talk about Moffat being the stuff of nightmares and how everyone's so freaked out about the angels… I *am* terrified of the Weeping Angels, but… I get nightmares fairly frequently (usually 3-4 a week, sometimes more, sometimes three in one night), have for more than a year. But after the liveblog last night? Nope, I had the most pleasant dreams I'd had in the longest time.
My brain is weird.
My dad and I had this brilliant plan of buying a ton of plastic angels and then putting one next to my brother's bed, and then changing them while he was sleeping…but then we thought it would be too mean.
Mark, will you do the next episode tomorrow? Just wondering.
I'm assuming yes. Mark tends to do a review each week-day, and since tomorrow's Thursday (his time-zone) one should go up.
I don't anyone's mentioned how Moffat's inspiration for the Weeping Angels is the playground game Granny's Footsteps. You know, one kid faces a wall, the rest start a certain distance away. They need to try to reach the wall whilst the kid's not facing them. Every now and then the kid will suddenly turn around and if they see anyone moving that person needs to start from the beginning.
This episode had a nice, profound philosophy of 'life is so short, gone in the blink of an eye'.
The Weeping Angels don't scare me, but they're a fun creation and this is a great, fun episode.
Ahh at last you know the glory that is Blink!
And I know it's hard to imagine after a kidney-punch like this, but you're still not at all prepared.
Favorite Episode. Just… favorite episode. GOD, it's just SO GODDAMN PERFECT.
I love this episode forever and ever. Even though she's an enormous movie star now, a part of me still hopes that one day Sally Sparrow will be a companion.
Yeah. This episode.
Just wait.
YES. JUST YES. AND OMFG. THIS WAS FANTASTIC AND YOU ARE NOT PREPARED.
This episode is one of my all-time favorites.
I agree with your opinion on Sally; for some reason that is beyond me, fandom seems to have issues with the way Moffat writes female characters and while I really, really don't want a thousand links to interviews, guys, because I've read them and I still don't see your point, I think it would be hard for even the most anti-Moffat's women person to dislike Sally Sparrow. She's a bad ass and it has nothing to do with being less or a girl, or in spite of being a girl, or what-the-fuck-ever, she's just a badass. I love that about her.
Also, when I was rewatching this, I totally commented to my friend, "The Doctor's kind of a dick sometimes, isn't he? Leaving those people in the past instead of returning them to their own time?" She laughed and said, "Kaci, it's Ten. Of COURSE he's kind of a dick." Heh.
The first episode of Dr. Who I ever watched. Got me hooked. I am now completely caught up with the New Series and am working on the old.
<img src="http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/funny-pictures-cats-move-closer-when-you-blink1.jpg">
Ninja Cat Does Blink:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/fzzjgBAaWZw
CREEPY CAT IS CREEPY. I love this video. The only thing it lacks is creepy music with a dramatic chord at the end when the cat is closest to the camera.
With Music?
Here: http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/9/The-Ninja…
and here:
http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/9/The-Ninja…
and now with added ending:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zAxNsavywo
And a Doctor Who Mashup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHlyvxzSIOQ
and a Blink scene with the cat video interspersed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vCaD2eMw1w
I may be up a bit late and have a few minutes to spend while warming up my truck in the -13ËšF (-25ËšC) cold…
Like I said before I just totally love how much this episode accomplished with so little. No fancy sets, no real special effects, four ladies painted grey, a four minute video of the doctor, and turning the light on and off and it's one of the most brilliant episodes around in five years.
I don't even know what to say after the liveblog, really, except this one thing.
One of the Doctor's most infuriating traits (she says with nothing but love) is that because he's so much cleverer than everyone else–and let's be honest, he really is–he has a tendency to assume that others won't understand anything really important. A lot of the time he treats his companions and the people they encounter like children, capable of carrying out discrete, short-term tasks but not really of aiding in (or even understanding) the overarching plan. Part of it, I think, is also his delight in surprising people. The Doctor seems to like it best when he can save the day with a big, dramatic reveal, like a magician in a stage show. Unfortunately, that flair for the dramatic tends to encourage him to leave other people out of the loop.
But no, Sally Sparrow isn't putting up with that shit. She demands to be treated like a reasonable, intelligent adult, to receive the information necessary to save her life (and, incidentally, the world). She calls the Doctor on his attitude, and does so from thirty-eight years in the future goddamn.
In short, Sally Sparrow >>>>>>>>>>>>> everything
Agreed 100%.
The first time I watched Blink (which was only a couple of weeks ago, since I am massively behind – I started watching in season four and then had to go back to NSS1) my housemates and I, two out of three being Who fans, prepared massively for it. We waited until it was dark (which is pretty early this time of year where I live), turned off all the lights, grabbed quilts and pillows, and prepared to be terrified. And terrified we were. I had terrifying dreams. I woke up certain there were Weeping Angels in my room. And it was all awesome. I love this episode.
One of my housemates (who is a recent Doctor Who fan, finishing the first three seasons in a week, that got sucked in when I put on an episode in our living room) and I were at the nearest comic book store, mostly to check out the new location but also because I needed a dice set. Anyways, we got distracted by the Doctor Who figurines. One was a Weeping Angel. Which he bought. It is currently sitting on our TV. 0.o
It's become a game, since its purchase, to see who can move it while the other isn't looking. This escalated when he put it on my bedside table. I was innocently getting ready for bed, didn't notice it for several minutes, and then jumped about a foot into the air and nearly screamed. I had the urge to barge into his room and throw it at his head, but instead I went to our kitchen and hid it in the cupboard for him to find the next morning. I then slowly backed my way out of the kitchen, through the living room, through the hall, and to my room, each light I turned off on the way only adding to my paranoia.
The next morning he asked if I'd noticed where he'd left the Weeping Angel. I glared, told him I nearly screamed and thought about throwing it at his head.
"Is it still in your room?"
"No."
He looked at its usual spot on the TV. It wasn't there. His eyes slowly widened as he realized what that meant.
"You hid it somewhere."
I replied only with a satisfied smirk. He proceeded to tentatively search the house with a look of terror on his face until he got to the cupboard. It was awesome.
And now we have a running game of Who Can Leave The Weeping Angel In A More Unexpectedly Terrifying Spot. The end.
Two points:
First, if you find yourself liking Moffat's writing style, check out Sherlock. Three episodes of a modern-day detective being brilliant.
Second, I need to build a Weeping Angel and set it outside someone's front door.
Oh yes, Mark, you TOTALLY need to check out "Sherlock"! It's only three episodes (so far; more are coming this autumn), so you should be able to squeeze them between the next viewing projects you have planned after DW. It's full of great plots, great mysteries, great drama, awesome acting, and TONS of uber-awesome Moffat dialogue (you should know by now that Moffat is a MASTER of dialogue and witty, memorable lines).
Steven Moffet *and Mark Gatiss* I feel compelled to point out. Let's give the other guys some well deserved credit, too!
Yes, of course, how silly of me not to mention Mark Gatiss (that's what I get for typing too fast without thinking things through). 🙂 Sherlock is the baby of both of their imaginations.
And also, huge kudos must be given to Paul McGuigan, who directed the first and the third episode. His work with the camera and placing of the shots is simply GORGEOUS.
No worries. At least you can spell the names properly, unlike me! 🙂
8D I love Sherlock!!! I also may or may have a huge crush on Benedict Cumberbatch…and Martin Freeman, for that matter. This show just pleases my inner Sherlock Holmes nerd.
It should be noted that each episode is ninety minutes long, so it's really more like three short movies per season.
Carey Mulligan was charming as anything in this and it was certainly creepy, especially since I had to walk past a graveyard in the dark right after it finished
But I spent the whole episode yelling WINK. WINK, YOU MORONS. ONE EYE THEN THE OTHER.
It's not nearly that easy to keep up for overly long, especially if you're terrified.
It's easier than not blinking. And also than being got.
I totally thought of this too, but it's actually not that easy. It makes your eyes really sore and you eventually blink involuntarily because of that. I may or may have note spent a good half hour testing out this theory after watching Blink the first time. *whistles*
Yes BUT you can use your fingers to control your eyelids!
*whistles also*
Hmmm…did not try that. I sense another experiment in my near future.
Btw. Message to Mark: Just because you have now survived Blink and know the awesomeness that is Moffat, don't go thinking that makes you prepared. You Are STILL Not Prepared!
Well… a LITTLE prepared, at least when it comes to Moffat… 😉 In that sense that he now knows that Moffat is capable of ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. Taking ordinary things and making them creepy as hell.
Yeah, but I was speaking more generally about what is still to come. In that broader context, thinking you might be prepared is merely a symptom of being unprepared.
It's deservedly got its reputation as one of the best ever. Even on the nth rewatch, that bit near the end is terrifying!
Sally Sparrow is a brilliantly drawn character. Mind you, her date with Billy Shipton must be one of the worst ever. Hot young bloke asks her out, within the hour he's phoned her back just in time for to join him as he dies of old age!
I like the Doctor / Martha dynamic here. OK yes, she's working in a shop (Rose – dinner lady, it's not just Martha!), but the dynamic is one of relative equals. She's happy to twit him about his way of delivering vast quantities of info to the baffled Billy, nicely sarcastic about "back when we had transport" and whatever her inner feelings for him, is clearly able to enjoy the travels and do what's necessary to ensure that they carry on. Plus of course the nice hint of unseen adventures.
The whole script is totally quotable. Excellent stuff.
My dad got him and my sister t-shirts that have "The angels have the phonebox" on them. LIKE WHAT LARRY DOES. I am still so so jealous and upset I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY HE DIDN'T GET ME ONE TOO
<img src="http://www.gifflix.com/files/7f8d80c81fae.gif">
I have a T Shirt that says 'The Angels have the Phonebox'
😀
Well, it doesn't look like anyone has posted this yet:
<img src="http://hijinksensue.com/comics/2010-12-31-wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey-stuff.jpg"> http://hijinksensue.com/comics/2010-12-31-wibbly-…
DO NOT GO TO THIS PAGE IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE WHOLE SEASON, IT MENTIONS WHAT IS COMING UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Savvy?
Late, but I was doing my 750words so I thought I'd share my filler:
Angel: Look at the wall, now back to me, now back at the wall, now BACK to ME. Sadly, it isn't me, but if you stopped fidgeting like a coward and started looking at me closely I could strongly resemble it. Look down, back up? Where am I? I'm in your face, reminding you that you want to be somewhere else entirely. What's in your hands? I have it, it's that TARDIS key that you stole and a letter from your best friend. LOOK AGAIN, you're in Hull in the 1920's! Anything is possible when you're looking at a wall and not at me. I'm right behind you.
This is my favorite episode EVER. Moffat's one-offs are absolutely brilliant and this is the best of them.
This was the episode that prompted someone on one of my nerdy forums to outright announce that if the rest of us were not watching the new Doctor Who, we were MISSING THE FUCK OUT. So you are dead-on – this is a major landmark episode for the entire new run, really.
Also, I yelped so loud the first time at that ONE MOMENT in the Drumlins after the dialogue runs out that I scared my husband and both cats. I was only slightly quieter the second time around.
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