Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S03E10 – Blink

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.