"It's the same rain." and the juxtaposition between "Life is short and you are hot" vs "life is long and you are hot" just tear me apart everytime i watch this episode
Agreed. My little cousin has never seen another episode of doctor who but she’s seen this. She used to watch it multiple times a day when she came over 😂
I agree. It's one of my favorites. There is another episode that takes place during the Battle of Britain. An unknown object is discovered that is thought to be a bomb. Instead it is an alien device designed to heal the sick. But the device scans the dead body of a child and uses that to work out how humans work. Because of this, it creates monsters, all looking for their mummy. A medical doctor (lower case d to separate the Doctor and the medical doctor. In the end the doctor sets things right and the device correct the mistake it made buy restoring all the monsters to perfect health. One woman states "doctor, when I came here I only had one leg. Now it's grown back." The doctor asks, "Are you sure you didn't miscount?" As an amputee I loved this line..
@@Tototoo88 thank you. I wanna buy the patreon but I like watching her videos through my tv aka on TH-cam . If I buy the patreon can I watch it through TH-cam ?
This episode was partly filmed in my husband’s shop in Wales. We watched the filming and met David and Freema. Lots of pictures. We sat in the cafe that Sally sits in.
@@julesreacts It was fantastic, had no idea when broadcast it would be so good. It’s odd when they go into the back of the shop I can see my husbands writing on the whiteboard and boxes. They shut the shop down for 3 days. One for dressing, 2 for filming.
@@rixlan That would be around the time she was cast in her first starring role, so that makes sense. Doctor Who, for all that it's beloved by its fans, was and still is kind of a niche nerd thing.
I always loved the implication that the reason the Weeping Angels don't move even when the characters aren't looking at them is just as the Doctor said: "The moment they are seen my ANY other living creature, they freeze into rock." That means they freeze when WE as the audience can see them too. It's an eerie bit of 4th-wall breaking.
the funny thing about "Blink" is that it was written as a moneysafer, and a timesafer. an episode with very little of the doctor and martha, and a monster that didn't cost much, also an episode with little special effects. and yet, it is one of the best episodes of who ever. life is funny like that sometimes.
It's actually backwards. It's easy to be sad. Have something snatched away from you... sad. easy. Achieve something and appreciate your efforts were successful, happy. Not so easy to do. Even just being entertained takes more effort than being made sad. Hell, a sugar cube takes effort, far more than a slap. Deep people, truly deep people, appreciate happiness and seek to share it and spread it. Posers who think they're deep embrace sadness.
second time they were added lowed how scary they were. the reason they were so scary was the fact that it was that their movement is instant. and that is seen from our point of view as well. so when they had them moving on screen it just got rid of the main fear aspect tbh.
@@jdogzerosilverblade299 It's not just that it's instant, it's that they made them move while still being stone. The whole point is that they aren't supposed to be able to move while in stone form. The effect looked bad and it broke its own canon rules, which destroys suspension of disbelief.
@@ReddwarfIV that too. if they switched to actual flesh then sure but also yea now that I think about it they threw away the rule that they can't look at each other.
So, fun fact, those statues at the end? They're all in Cardiff. I watched this episode at a friend's house and then had to walk home, alone, in the dark, past 80-90% of those exact same statues from the montage! Not going to lie, it was tense.
I saw the movie Gettysburg, in Gettysburg, PA. Afterwards we went to little Roundtop. A bloody location from Day 2 of the Battle of G-burg that was heavily featured in the movie. It was dark and a fine mist was in the air. Very eerie and solemn.
"It's the same rain" 🥺 This episode is perfect in so many levels, I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just point out that one of the best parts is that the audience is part of it - the angels doesn't move when the camera is on them, even if none of the characters are looking at them. Brilliant way to draw you in, and the fact that we don't see them move makes them even creepier. Brilliant writing and storytelling, and really great acting, from everyone involved. Easily one of the best modern DW episodes
They don't even move when the cast and crew are looking at them. Oftentimes, people didn't know if they were talking to the Angel's or just a statue prop!
Fact Of The Day: Sally Sparrow is played by actress Carey Mulligan in one of her earliest roles. She's currently in the running for the Best Actress Oscar at this year's Academy Awards, for her role in the movie "Maestro"!
Bleak house(lots of amazing actors in that), pride and prejudice (the less good movie) and northanger abbey were earlier I think and I may have seen her in those before
It's funny looking back that Andrew Garfield and Carey were in the same series/season. It was nice to see David reunited with Carey when he hosted the BAFTAs last week too. We can only dream of an on-screen reunion, though!
Now, this is how you make a Doctor Who story - the plotting, the acting, a truly original threat and a fresh take on how to use time travel, all with real stakes. No episode can be 100% perfect, except maybe this one. Love it.
@@flaggerify Or is it just enough? He provided the clues, everything Sally needed to get through it all. And you know that him getting the information before hand, and knowing from her saying "It hasn't happened to you yet," the Doctor knows it works out correctly, and what needs to happen and when, and works out what he needs to put and get where and when. And then manages to scare the eff out of us anyway.
One of the top five Doctor Who episodes of all time! Ingeniously plotted and super scary, no matter how many times you watch it! The Weeping Angels were a brilliant Steven Moffatt creation. For a show about a time traveller, there have been far fewer stories that use time travel to drive the story than you'd expect. It's been a concept that Moffatt has been keen to play with - from Girl In The Fireplace onwards. Carey Mulligan was fantastic in what amounted to the lead role of Sally Sparrow in this episode. Her career went from strength to strength after this - although for many fans she was the great Doctor Who companion we never had. Finally, as others have pointed out, the dialogue in this episode is top-drawer - "it's the same rain" is so moving. "Sad is happy for deep people", etc. And "wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey" has gone down as one of fans' favourite Doctor Who lines ever!
i'm sure many other commenters have said this, but this is widely considered to be THE greatest doctor who episode. the weeping angels are considered one of the great doctor who monsters alongside the daleks and cybermen. steven moffat the writer was inspired to create them after walking through a cemetery with an angel statue in it. one day he walked through to find it was gone. really glad that you are enjoying the sires and am looking forward to seeing how it goes from here.
Episodes like this is why Steven Moffat was put in charge of Doctor Who starting in Season Five. It was actually based on a short story he wrote for a Doctor Who magazine in 2005 involving the Ninth Doctor, and he wrote the script for the episode too
When I first saw Blink I was extremely impressed with the acting of Carey Mulligan. This was very early in her career. Since then she has been nominated for a fair amount of awards for her acting (she's been nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award in 2020 and 2023). I also think she would have made a phenomenal Dr. Who companion!
this episode along with turn left are my absolute favourites by far. i wish sally had become a companion. also billy shipton is one of the most bittersweet deaths in the entire show
13:50 Leading theory is: If you break them when they're stone, they reform when you look away. Worse, if you can't recognize the stone as a single thing anymore, they _also_ reform. Steven Muppet put the 'time travel' into 'time traveler tourist.' EDIT: And the music's heavy use of screaming violins reminds me of the horror from Halo.
Another episode that proves you don’t need massive special effects for great sci-fi or for building suspense. The Weeping Angles are one of the best concepts for an antagonist there is. The scariest thing about them is that you never see them move. They were all played by a group of ballet dancers, by the way (and an occasional real statue). Also, the whole bootstrap paradox thing of current events influencing past events so that the events today can occur is so perfect for a show like Doctor Who. Stephen Moffatt does like to play with the consequences of time travel in his stories.
My favorite part of this episode is that the audience is included as part of the episode. The angels never move when the audience is looking at them, even if the characters aren't looking at them while we are.
Ah yes, the episode created purely to make little children terrified of the hundreds of statues dotted around the various cities of the UK. As you said, *new fear unlocked*.
Carey Mulligan is such a good actress - she makes us fall in love with Sally as quickly as Billy does. It's no wonder she has become a massive star. How can you rank these? This whole run (I know you've seen past the finale) is just hit after hit after hit. Written by Steven Moffat. You may have heard the name . . . As to the Angels trapped in the cellar - I suppose with a working Tardis again, the Doctor can go back and fix that. My big question is, who threw the brick at the start? A while ago I found the answer, Moffat on the commentary: (courtesy of WhatCulture) "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."
I can guarantee you'll NEVER see statues the same way again! (And you just made that comment after I typed that!) This is referred to as a "Doctor Lite" episode, because he's barely in it. It's been almost 20 years since I saw this episode, and I've seen it many times...but it still creeps me out and the scene where the cop dies still makes me get teary eyed.
The statues showed in the montage at the end are in Cardiff especially the children one. I remember being a child walking past them regularly and being terrified to blink (even though i knew it was irrational). The curses on living where doctor who is film as a child hahaha 😂
with all the episodes of doctor who, this is my favorite episode of all episode's. The weeping angels are the greatest assassins and like the coolest thing that's in Doctor who
Agreed, this version of the Angles is the best they ever were. I also love that Jules said these statues are alive, because they are all played by dancers in make up, so literally they are alive.
Carey Mulligan, who played Sally Sparrow is nominated for the third time for a Best Actress Oscar. She also had a little interaction with David Tennant when he hosted the BAFTAs the other week. He had her introduce him to Bradley Cooper (or, as Tennant referred to him, her "posh friend"). When Mulligan and Cooper were doing publicity for their movie, _Maestro,_ they did one of those things where they answer questions about each other, and she had to ask him what Doctor she worked with in her _Doctor Who_ episode. He guessed Matt Smith. I thought this (2007) episode was very early in Mulligan's career (and, well, it is), but she had already played Kitty in the 2005 adaptation of _Little Women_ and the miniseries _Bleak House_ (2006). A few other things, but, you know, still pretty early. She recently also appeared in the small part of Poor Dear Pamela in _Saltburn,_ from the same writer-director for whom she starred in _Promising Young Woman_ (one of her Oscar nominated roles). It's been cool following her career. Every time I see her, I remember this episode.
And here we are, the most culturally relevant episode of New Who. This was the second time Dr Who left it’s British nish and put it’s mark in culture. The other time being in the 60’s with “Dalek-mania”, and arguably wasn’t as impactful as the weeping angles. A lot of people who got into the show did so because of this episode. For a while after it aired and well into the 2010’s, references to the angles were in all bits of media, specially videogames. The concept of the weeping angles would left to the creation of the SCP community. An online community of writers that have been creating a shared universe of existential horrors and mysteries since 2008. Community that has also influenced a lot of current online works in the horror/mystery genere. Not to mention that this episode was in part one of the reasons as to why Steven Moffat, the writer of this episode, got the position of show runner after Russell T Davies left after the end of 2009. As I said, this is an important episode because of it’s influence not only in the show itself, but internet culture of the past (and to a degree the present). Fun fact: You probably didn’t noticed this but we (as in the audience) never saw the angles move. Moffat explained that was deliberated, is like we (audience) are there, helping the protagonist by keeping the angles in place
Can confirm: I got a 'Keep Calm and Don't Blink' t-shirt shortly after the episode aired, and for the longest while afterwards it would get knowing looks from completely random strangers as I was out and about.
The Daleks were way more impactful. Everyone who has watched Doctor Who for any period of time over the last 60 years will be aware of the Daleks and "Exterminate". Not everyone will have watched modern Who and this episode specifically. The success of the Daleks was the reason Doctor Who wasn't cancelled right at the beginning. Watch "An Adventure in Space and Time" for the history.
Lots of Rouge Angles of Satin in this post. Also @rikmoran3962's point about Dalekmania being WAY more impactful than Angelmania is just objectively true. Still, 100% agree on everything else.
This was where the term, "timey-wimey" came from and it caught on immediately. When my friend wanted to start watching Doctor Who this is the first episode I showed her. When we were in Strassbourg and walking through the covered bridge (central lane with alcoves to either side) I walked into the next section and found the alcoves filled with statuary from the cathedral which was being worked on. I immediately returned to her and started reciting the Doctor's video speech. She loved it when she saw why.
This episode introduced a LOT of people around the world to the concept of a "bottle episode", and how they can be so memorable. A bottle episode is one done on the cheap, to save money for a much grander episode, often the season finale. This and Love & Monsters were both bottle episodes. One way to save money is to hardly include the main actors, and film the episode almost entirely with guest actors, often fairly unknown ones, but there are some where the main cast still has a big role and they just save the money elsewhere. In this one, Tennant and Agyeman filmed their parts in a few hours and only had to interact with three of the actors, so that most of the rest of the episode could be recorded whenever the rest of the actors were available. If any of them became suddenly unavailable, they were simply written out by having the angels grab them, then filmed alone when they had time in the past.
This is one of my favorite episodes and one that freaks me out every time. First time my girlfriend and I watched; it was about 1am. There was a snowstorm and about 5 minutes after it ended, we lost power. Very sleepless night. To balance the scary, are the touching moments. I love this episode so much. Happy Valentine's Day Juliette.
Man i played the Doctor Who game in VR and the weeping angels section is terrifying. You literally cant turn your head too much or they move, but you can hear the other ones moving behind you.
Many of the episodes written by Stephen Moffat are among my favorites. This is certainly one of them. My favorite (a two parter) comes next season. Can't wait for you to react to those.
This was one of my favorites. Imagine having a two was conversation with a recorded video. "How do you know what I'm going to say?" "Look to your left." Guy righting down what she is saying. "Look to your left what does that even mean?" "He's talking about you."
Remember in the very first episode we met that obsessive investigator, Clive, who collected historical sightings of the Doctor? How excited would he have been to get hold of the DVD footage in this episode! :-)
I was at a scifi convention where there was a 5-year-old girl who only wanted to dress up as was a weeping angel. She loved getting into the "you're not watching the angel" pose for photographs!
This episode is SO good, and widely considered one of the best ever done. It continues the ‘one Doctor-lite episode for film scheduling reasons’ trend that started with ‘Love and Monsters’ and is SO, SO well done. The Weeping Angels are one of the most loved monsters, they’re so clever, and scary, and the end where it goes IT COULD BE ANY STATUE is just brilliant. I’ve been so looking forward to seeing your reaction to this one! The whole concept and use of time is incredible, and the way it’s one big loop is beautiful. Steven Moffat tends to write one story per series, and they’re all based around childhood fears (empty child being lost and alone, girl in the fireplace had monsters under the bed/sneaking around at night, and now blink is that ‘something watching me’ fear)
RTD called these "double banking" episodes, when they filmed two at once. Next season, one of the double banking episodes is "Doctor-heavy," although I know "Doctor-lite" has become the popular term. Interesting observation about childhood fears.
@@HuntingViolets This one (along with Love and Monsters) is a bit unique, in that it's both Doctor-lite AND companion-lite. Going forward they tended to focus on the companions more for the Doctor-light episodes.
I was away in London on a long weekend when this first aired. So I watched it on the tv in my hotel room on the Saturday night. Come the monday morning, when headed for the tube station, I took a short cut which took me past a building with a first floor balcony. There was a statue of a man on it. Which I didn't remember being there before. i walked on. Then I looked back. Just to make sure the statue was still there. Of course. Then I walked on again. As fast as I could.
I love this episode but I also hate it at the same time mainly because I now have a fear of statues. This is the only Doctor Who episode without the Doctor in it much that I absolutely love. They did this so well.
Literally any episode with weeping angels or The S... well that's much later in the series, no need to spoil that... immediately puts me in fight or flight lol. Doctor Who is responsible for so many of my irrational fears
You have now reached the Magnum Opus of Doctor Who, an episode EVERY Whovian declares is one of the best, if not THE best, episode of Doctor Who ever made... I'm so giddy we're here now! LOL The Weeping Angels are absolutely amazing villains and the concept itself is just... masterful. God I love this one!
Fun fact: this episode is loosely adapted from the short story ‘What I Did on my Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow’, which Moffat wrote for the 2006 Doctor Who Annual.
Now you know... something about how a time traveller would feel. It is disjointed at first because the all pieces hadn't happened. Even at the "end" it was the end for Sally... the Doctor hadn't even started his journey down this path... yet. And yes as the Doctor said, "you can't kill a stone" so the Angels are "trapped" not dead, and trapped things can escape... how hard is it to escape depends on the trap. :)
And we have the third absolutely amazing episode in a row. This is so good. An amazing cast (I mean Carey Mulligan, for goodness sakes), a brilliant script and a fantastic resolution. Plus pathos, horror, love, loss and hope. This season really got onto an amazing roll
Hey, Juliette! After I watched this episode back in the day, I can recall testing myself to see how long I could go without blinking. LOL. I have to say that the characters in this episode were definitely able to hold out longer than me. The weeping angels would have me back in 1924 in no time!!!😉 This was the first thing I had ever seen Carey Mulligan in and I thought she was absolutely adorable. Fantastic episode!
These are the monsters that scare me the most, whenever someone tells me that this episode was their first introduction to Doctor who I'm like "Why'd you choose one of the scariest episodes?"
I love this episode so much, especially all the small details you can find, like at 4:38. If you pay close attention to that angel in the back, during the 2-4 seconds that Sally covers your view of them the actor moved their arms slightly (hands go from below the chin to covering their face). Plus there's a "Found Phone" style game that is like a sequel to this, years later (with lots of references and other details too). It's called "The Lonely Assassins"
This started as a story published in a Doctor Who Annual, and was later adapted into an episode for the show. The episode is based on a previous short story written by Moffat for the 2006 Doctor Who Annual, "'What I Did on My Christmas Holidays' By Sally Sparrow".
"This is my timey-wimey detector. It can boil an egg at thirty paces, whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow." Best lines in the episode.
You asked what would happen if someone eventually interfered with the 4 weeping angels that surrounded the TARDIS, and whether it would start things up again. Given that their primary objective was to get the TARDIS, since the TARDIS is no longer there and Sally no longer has the key, she would no longer be any different than anyone else, so they wouldn't really have a reason to go after her.
He could write some amazing episodes, but when he ran the whole show, it didn't work as well. That's my opinion at least, but also the opinion of most Whovians I've talked to.
I love how for the whole duration of this episode we never actually tell Larry his sister is dead and don’t really bother thinking about the fallout, even in the one year later part. It’s all still about Sally, not even a mention 😭 poor Larry
This remains to be my favorite Doctor Who Episode to this day. And the one I always point people to in order to get them into the show. And ironically the Doctor is barely in it lol.
Parts of this story are never explained. The Doctor is in the 1960s at one point, writes a message on a wall that will be covered up (owners re-decorating will know the message is there, so it's not painted over, but allowed to be there for some reason? Why? It must have been papered over by someone other than the owners and never replaced...? - and then that house stays unused for decades, leading to the legend that it's haunted, which is why Sally Sparrow goes there... ? There's another story here, which lasts decades. I wonder if the policeman thrown back in time lived there?
Back in the day, after I watched the Family of Blood two-parter I remember thinking that the writers were going to have to do a lot to top those. Then came Blink and the rest is history. One of the most perfect episodes of Dr Who ever that gives me palpitations all these years later. Great reaction, Jules to a great episode and now you will know what people are talking about when they talk about "wibbely, wobbly, timey wimey". :)
After watching this episode I tried to see how long I could go by just blinking 1 eye at a time, always leaving 1 eye open. It's possible, but difficult, and eventually you blink both.
Great reaction to one of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time that brought us the phrase "wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff". It's amazing how scary monsters that you never see move are! And you can still buy t-shirts with "The angels have the phone box" on them!
@@lionlyonsyeah the daleks are kind of silly as enemies. But their reason for doing what they do is explainable, the motivation for the weeping angels are not, they are like pure evil.
This episode is one of the most intense and scariest episodes in doctor who for me, the angels coupled with the doctor explaining what they are and to not blink which feels like he’s actually telling you directly not to blink and to keep an eye out for them, I still feel anxiety watching it😂 when this episode first aired I didn’t trust any statue for a while 😂
This episode was always amazing but I find it really impressive that for a lot of people (at least the people that I've spoken to) this is considered the 2nd best doctor who story of all time.
Funny story: Around the time this was broadcast, it wasn't uncommon for people in the Netherlands to sit outside in parks with their laptops and video-chat with friends. Most (at least younger) people there also know English pretty well and can communicate fluently. So someone told us how they had one day memorized Sally's parts of the "conversation" with the Doctor, put that specific clip on their laptop (it was a special feature on the DVD) and held that exact "conversation" in the middle of a busy park... The reaction of the people around them must have been hilarious 🤣
I’ve read that Steven Moffat wrote this story in a great hurry because he was working on another show (Jekyll) at the same time. Like a real science-fiction writer, but unlike most other writers for the show, he uses time travel as an element in the plot, rather than just a transport mechanism to go from one situation to another. However, as someone else has commented, the situation here is a bootstrap paradox: the Doctor can’t make the video without the transcript, but Larry can’t write the transcript without the video, so (logically) the whole thing could never have got started. This is why the Doctor tries to obscure the issue: “People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.” This sort of paradox often crops up in time-travel stories: it’s impossible, but it’s entertaining. It’s in the film “The Terminator”, for example. I also point out that the Doctor would have had to carry the transcript on his person permanently from the time Sally gave it to him until the time he was sent back to 1969, because he had no way of knowing when that would happen. (Although it couldn’t have been a very long time, because he’s still with Martha.) It’s most unlikely that the Doctor in 1969 would have been able to get hold of a video camera. Probably he recorded himself on film, and the film was converted to video later.
I think one of the main reasons this episode works so well is because of the casting. Most characters only have a couple of lines but they make you like them really well. Even Catherine's future husband is likeable. Clearly a case of quality over quantity
When I watched this the first time, I lived alone next door to a grave yard with one of those statues in it that was right next to my garden, I could see it from my bedroom window. It wasn’t great timing. Normally the grave yard didn’t bother me, I work in old buildings so I’m fairly used to it. I have now moved….. Those damned things still give me the wiggins.
They should do a whole spin off show like this episode. Who Lite with different cast every episode. All involving the Doctor’s machinations without his actual appearance.
That scene in the hospital with Sally and Billy, to me that elevates the episode from just a great episode to being the best. It's a superb combination of suspenseful and weird and funny up to that point, but that scene just rips your heart out. And when a comedy/sci-fi can bring that much emotion into play, that's special.
"It's the same rain." and the juxtaposition between "Life is short and you are hot" vs "life is long and you are hot" just tear me apart everytime i watch this episode
Pretty sure the working title of this episode was "if you want to get your friends into Doctor Who, show them this"
Agreed. My little cousin has never seen another episode of doctor who but she’s seen this. She used to watch it multiple times a day when she came over 😂
Worked on me.
I agree. It's one of my favorites.
There is another episode that takes place during the Battle of Britain. An unknown object is discovered that is thought to be a bomb. Instead it is an alien device designed to heal the sick. But the device scans the dead body of a child and uses that to work out how humans work. Because of this, it creates monsters, all looking for their mummy. A medical doctor (lower case d to separate the Doctor and the medical doctor.
In the end the doctor sets things right and the device correct the mistake it made buy restoring all the monsters to perfect health.
One woman states "doctor, when I came here I only had one leg. Now it's grown back."
The doctor asks, "Are you sure you didn't miscount?"
As an amputee I loved this line..
@@erictaylor5462 "There is a war on..."
This was the second episode I ever saw and I've been hooked ever since
And there it is. The best Doctor Who episode and the Doctor is hardly in it. This episode is just genius.
May I ask how you commented 13 days ago if it was posted today? Is it a glitch ?
One of.
@@Sco16161 It was likely uploaded privately with the link available on patreon 13 days ago and then publicly uploaded today
@@Tototoo88 thank you. I wanna buy the patreon but I like watching her videos through my tv aka on TH-cam . If I buy the patreon can I watch it through TH-cam ?
@@Sco16161It's a timey-wimey thing
This episode was partly filmed in my husband’s shop in Wales. We watched the filming and met David and Freema. Lots of pictures. We sat in the cafe that Sally sits in.
Oh, that's exciting.
Oh WOW! That is very cool!
@@julesreacts It was fantastic, had no idea when broadcast it would be so good. It’s odd when they go into the back of the shop I can see my husbands writing on the whiteboard and boxes. They shut the shop down for 3 days. One for dressing, 2 for filming.
that's amazing
Thats cool. Wish we had more writing like this in DW today
Sally Sparrow: the best companion we never had.
They were going to make her the next companion but the actress turned them down.
That's a shame but I can fully believe that.
@@rixlan That was probably a good call on Carey Mulligans' part, look how well her career turned out.
@@rixlan That would be around the time she was cast in her first starring role, so that makes sense. Doctor Who, for all that it's beloved by its fans, was and still is kind of a niche nerd thing.
I always loved the implication that the reason the Weeping Angels don't move even when the characters aren't looking at them is just as the Doctor said: "The moment they are seen my ANY other living creature, they freeze into rock." That means they freeze when WE as the audience can see them too. It's an eerie bit of 4th-wall breaking.
The image of an angel becomes an angel
And that's why its so stupid in later seasons when we see them move - thanks Moffat
Given that England is supposedly the most-surveilled country in the world, it's amazing they ever get a chance to move at all.
@@p24p14 Frame by frame
Would they ever be able to move with that constriction? Surely any time they are outside, they are in view of something living.
the funny thing about "Blink" is that it was written as a moneysafer, and a timesafer. an episode with very little of the doctor and martha, and a monster that didn't cost much, also an episode with little special effects. and yet, it is one of the best episodes of who ever. life is funny like that sometimes.
*saver
@@iz723 not my native language
"Creativity thrives best when constrained."
Yeah, I think the story is just so clever!!
It’s funny that this isn’t the only Doctor Who episode like that, the show is very good at making the best episodes with barely any resources.
"-What did you come here for anyway?
-I love old things. They make me feel sad.
-What's good about sad?
-It's happy for deep people."
I totally get that!
It's actually backwards. It's easy to be sad. Have something snatched away from you... sad. easy. Achieve something and appreciate your efforts were successful, happy. Not so easy to do. Even just being entertained takes more effort than being made sad. Hell, a sugar cube takes effort, far more than a slap. Deep people, truly deep people, appreciate happiness and seek to share it and spread it. Posers who think they're deep embrace sadness.
The weeping angels are an instantly iconic Doctor Who villain. Steven Moffat really outdid himself with the writing in this episode.
second time they were added lowed how scary they were. the reason they were so scary was the fact that it was that their movement is instant. and that is seen from our point of view as well. so when they had them moving on screen it just got rid of the main fear aspect tbh.
@@jdogzerosilverblade299 It's not just that it's instant, it's that they made them move while still being stone. The whole point is that they aren't supposed to be able to move while in stone form. The effect looked bad and it broke its own canon rules, which destroys suspension of disbelief.
@@ReddwarfIV that too. if they switched to actual flesh then sure but also yea now that I think about it they threw away the rule that they can't look at each other.
@@jdogzerosilverblade299 Village of the Angels kinda restored their fear factor for me tbh
@@unclekarl5219 dont remember that one. if its with the newest doctor the female one then meh. 1 shes the worst doctor 2 wuss :D
So, fun fact, those statues at the end? They're all in Cardiff. I watched this episode at a friend's house and then had to walk home, alone, in the dark, past 80-90% of those exact same statues from the montage! Not going to lie, it was tense.
Clearly Cardiff is some kind of timey-wimey epicentre for some reason
After watching the episode, couldn't help but notice how many statues are around. Kinda creepy lol
I saw the movie Gettysburg, in Gettysburg, PA. Afterwards we went to little Roundtop. A bloody location from Day 2 of the Battle of G-burg that was heavily featured in the movie. It was dark and a fine mist was in the air. Very eerie and solemn.
"It's the same rain" 🥺
This episode is perfect in so many levels, I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just point out that one of the best parts is that the audience is part of it - the angels doesn't move when the camera is on them, even if none of the characters are looking at them. Brilliant way to draw you in, and the fact that we don't see them move makes them even creepier.
Brilliant writing and storytelling, and really great acting, from everyone involved. Easily one of the best modern DW episodes
The BBC wholeheartedly apologises for your new found fear of statues.😂
They did it with Mannequins. They aren't sorry.
Sorry. Not sorry ;)
Yeah I watched this episode the day before I went to London for a weekend...so...many...statues and angels. Lol
@@kyrauniversal And shadows later on.
@@maxhax367 and then just... out of your frame of view in general
Here's weird theory; the Angels are self-aware characters. They freeze even if the only one watching them are the audience.
It's true! When Sally is taking the tardis key from them, they don't move because the audience are watching them! Sally isn't looking at them at all
Its not a theory but confirmed, they dont move when the audience is looking.
@@alfie_andersonspoilers
@@alfie_anderson spoilers
They don't even move when the cast and crew are looking at them. Oftentimes, people didn't know if they were talking to the Angel's or just a statue prop!
The "The Angels Have the Phone Box" shirt is a thing that exists.
I need it 🤣
Now if they could bring out one with Aziraphale and Crowley, that would be hilarious.
How about 2 Angels, Azriphale (Good Omens)and Castiel (Supernatural) for a homeless charity 🎉
I have this tee shirt 😊
I have it.
Fact Of The Day: Sally Sparrow is played by actress Carey Mulligan in one of her earliest roles. She's currently in the running for the Best Actress Oscar at this year's Academy Awards, for her role in the movie "Maestro"!
Bleak house(lots of amazing actors in that), pride and prejudice (the less good movie) and northanger abbey were earlier I think and I may have seen her in those before
It's funny looking back that Andrew Garfield and Carey were in the same series/season. It was nice to see David reunited with Carey when he hosted the BAFTAs last week too. We can only dream of an on-screen reunion, though!
Now, this is how you make a Doctor Who story - the plotting, the acting, a truly original threat and a fresh take on how to use time travel, all with real stakes. No episode can be 100% perfect, except maybe this one. Love it.
Not enough of the Doctor himself though.
@@flaggerify Or is it just enough?
He provided the clues, everything Sally needed to get through it all. And you know that him getting the information before hand, and knowing from her saying "It hasn't happened to you yet," the Doctor knows it works out correctly, and what needs to happen and when, and works out what he needs to put and get where and when.
And then manages to scare the eff out of us anyway.
It's just too bad the writer ends up ruining it when he becomes showrunner.
The greatest episode of all time.
"It was raining when we met."
"It's the same rain."
One of the top five Doctor Who episodes of all time! Ingeniously plotted and super scary, no matter how many times you watch it! The Weeping Angels were a brilliant Steven Moffatt creation. For a show about a time traveller, there have been far fewer stories that use time travel to drive the story than you'd expect. It's been a concept that Moffatt has been keen to play with - from Girl In The Fireplace onwards. Carey Mulligan was fantastic in what amounted to the lead role of Sally Sparrow in this episode. Her career went from strength to strength after this - although for many fans she was the great Doctor Who companion we never had. Finally, as others have pointed out, the dialogue in this episode is top-drawer - "it's the same rain" is so moving. "Sad is happy for deep people", etc. And "wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey" has gone down as one of fans' favourite Doctor Who lines ever!
"It's my timey-wimey detector -- it goes 'ding!' when there's _stuff_"
i'm sure many other commenters have said this, but this is widely considered to be THE greatest doctor who episode.
the weeping angels are considered one of the great doctor who monsters alongside the daleks and cybermen. steven moffat the writer was inspired to create them after walking through a cemetery with an angel statue in it. one day he walked through to find it was gone.
really glad that you are enjoying the sires and am looking forward to seeing how it goes from here.
There is supposed to be a scale of 1-5 for how scary a Doctor Who episode is. This episode got a 5.5
Are you my mummy?
well greatest of new who since genesis of the daleks
Episodes like this is why Steven Moffat was put in charge of Doctor Who starting in Season Five. It was actually based on a short story he wrote for a Doctor Who magazine in 2005 involving the Ninth Doctor, and he wrote the script for the episode too
When I first saw Blink I was extremely impressed with the acting of Carey Mulligan. This was very early in her career. Since then she has been nominated for a fair amount of awards for her acting (she's been nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award in 2020 and 2023). I also think she would have made a phenomenal Dr. Who companion!
And 2009.
Yeah, she would have great. And this episode even feels like a stealth introduction for a future companion. Shame it didn't happen.
this episode along with turn left are my absolute favourites by far. i wish sally had become a companion. also billy shipton is one of the most bittersweet deaths in the entire show
13:50 Leading theory is: If you break them when they're stone, they reform when you look away. Worse, if you can't recognize the stone as a single thing anymore, they _also_ reform.
Steven Muppet put the 'time travel' into 'time traveler tourist.'
EDIT: And the music's heavy use of screaming violins reminds me of the horror from Halo.
Another episode that proves you don’t need massive special effects for great sci-fi or for building suspense. The Weeping Angles are one of the best concepts for an antagonist there is. The scariest thing about them is that you never see them move. They were all played by a group of ballet dancers, by the way (and an occasional real statue).
Also, the whole bootstrap paradox thing of current events influencing past events so that the events today can occur is so perfect for a show like Doctor Who. Stephen Moffatt does like to play with the consequences of time travel in his stories.
My favorite part of this episode is that the audience is included as part of the episode. The angels never move when the audience is looking at them, even if the characters aren't looking at them while we are.
Ah yes, the episode created purely to make little children terrified of the hundreds of statues dotted around the various cities of the UK. As you said, *new fear unlocked*.
I have some in my garden too 😱
Carey Mulligan is such a good actress - she makes us fall in love with Sally as quickly as Billy does. It's no wonder she has become a massive star.
How can you rank these? This whole run (I know you've seen past the finale) is just hit after hit after hit.
Written by Steven Moffat. You may have heard the name . . .
As to the Angels trapped in the cellar - I suppose with a working Tardis again, the Doctor can go back and fix that.
My big question is, who threw the brick at the start? A while ago I found the answer, Moffat on the commentary: (courtesy of WhatCulture)
"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."
I'm glad others are saying it's their favorite. This is easily my most rewatched Doctor Who episode ever. It's so good.
I can guarantee you'll NEVER see statues the same way again! (And you just made that comment after I typed that!) This is referred to as a "Doctor Lite" episode, because he's barely in it. It's been almost 20 years since I saw this episode, and I've seen it many times...but it still creeps me out and the scene where the cop dies still makes me get teary eyed.
I have a few statues in my garden 👀😵💫
The statues showed in the montage at the end are in Cardiff especially the children one. I remember being a child walking past them regularly and being terrified to blink (even though i knew it was irrational). The curses on living where doctor who is film as a child hahaha 😂
This episode perfectly shows why so many beings are afraid of The Weeping Angels, and why two simple words are so powerful, “Don’t blink!”
with all the episodes of doctor who, this is my favorite episode of all episode's. The weeping angels are the greatest assassins and like the coolest thing that's in Doctor who
Agreed, this version of the Angles is the best they ever were. I also love that Jules said these statues are alive, because they are all played by dancers in make up, so literally they are alive.
@@noneya3635
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I’ve gotten so many people hooked to Doctor who with this episode! So glad you enjoyed it!
It's so good!
Carey Mulligan, who played Sally Sparrow is nominated for the third time for a Best Actress Oscar. She also had a little interaction with David Tennant when he hosted the BAFTAs the other week. He had her introduce him to Bradley Cooper (or, as Tennant referred to him, her "posh friend"). When Mulligan and Cooper were doing publicity for their movie, _Maestro,_ they did one of those things where they answer questions about each other, and she had to ask him what Doctor she worked with in her _Doctor Who_ episode. He guessed Matt Smith.
I thought this (2007) episode was very early in Mulligan's career (and, well, it is), but she had already played Kitty in the 2005 adaptation of _Little Women_ and the miniseries _Bleak House_ (2006). A few other things, but, you know, still pretty early. She recently also appeared in the small part of Poor Dear Pamela in _Saltburn,_ from the same writer-director for whom she starred in _Promising Young Woman_ (one of her Oscar nominated roles). It's been cool following her career. Every time I see her, I remember this episode.
Correction: She played Kitty in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice
I caught This episode one night by chance. I went back to the beginning and I’ve been watching ever since.
And here we are, the most culturally relevant episode of New Who. This was the second time Dr Who left it’s British nish and put it’s mark in culture. The other time being in the 60’s with “Dalek-mania”, and arguably wasn’t as impactful as the weeping angles.
A lot of people who got into the show did so because of this episode.
For a while after it aired and well into the 2010’s, references to the angles were in all bits of media, specially videogames.
The concept of the weeping angles would left to the creation of the SCP community. An online community of writers that have been creating a shared universe of existential horrors and mysteries since 2008. Community that has also influenced a lot of current online works in the horror/mystery genere.
Not to mention that this episode was in part one of the reasons as to why Steven Moffat, the writer of this episode, got the position of show runner after Russell T Davies left after the end of 2009.
As I said, this is an important episode because of it’s influence not only in the show itself, but internet culture of the past (and to a degree the present).
Fun fact: You probably didn’t noticed this but we (as in the audience) never saw the angles move. Moffat explained that was deliberated, is like we (audience) are there, helping the protagonist by keeping the angles in place
Can confirm: I got a 'Keep Calm and Don't Blink' t-shirt shortly after the episode aired, and for the longest while afterwards it would get knowing looks from completely random strangers as I was out and about.
The Daleks were way more impactful. Everyone who has watched Doctor Who for any period of time over the last 60 years will be aware of the Daleks and "Exterminate". Not everyone will have watched modern Who and this episode specifically. The success of the Daleks was the reason Doctor Who wasn't cancelled right at the beginning. Watch "An Adventure in Space and Time" for the history.
Lots of Rouge Angles of Satin in this post. Also @rikmoran3962's point about Dalekmania being WAY more impactful than Angelmania is just objectively true.
Still, 100% agree on everything else.
You have wonderful points... but it's angels - because angles are these >>
This was where the term, "timey-wimey" came from and it caught on immediately. When my friend wanted to start watching Doctor Who this is the first episode I showed her.
When we were in Strassbourg and walking through the covered bridge (central lane with alcoves to either side) I walked into the next section and found the alcoves filled with statuary from the cathedral which was being worked on. I immediately returned to her and started reciting the Doctor's video speech. She loved it when she saw why.
This episode introduced a LOT of people around the world to the concept of a "bottle episode", and how they can be so memorable.
A bottle episode is one done on the cheap, to save money for a much grander episode, often the season finale. This and Love & Monsters were both bottle episodes.
One way to save money is to hardly include the main actors, and film the episode almost entirely with guest actors, often fairly unknown ones, but there are some where the main cast still has a big role and they just save the money elsewhere. In this one, Tennant and Agyeman filmed their parts in a few hours and only had to interact with three of the actors, so that most of the rest of the episode could be recorded whenever the rest of the actors were available. If any of them became suddenly unavailable, they were simply written out by having the angels grab them, then filmed alone when they had time in the past.
This is one of my favorite episodes and one that freaks me out every time. First time my girlfriend and I watched; it was about 1am. There was a snowstorm and about 5 minutes after it ended, we lost power. Very sleepless night. To balance the scary, are the touching moments. I love this episode so much. Happy Valentine's Day Juliette.
Imagine getting the power back on and then being surrounded by angels 😱😱😱
@@julesreacts 🤣They wouldn't be able to send me bak. I'd literally have a heart-attack right there.
Man i played the Doctor Who game in VR and the weeping angels section is terrifying. You literally cant turn your head too much or they move, but you can hear the other ones moving behind you.
Many of the episodes written by Stephen Moffat are among my favorites. This is certainly one of them. My favorite (a two parter) comes next season. Can't wait for you to react to those.
Much better writer than show runner. A perfect example of The Peter Principle.
Assuming the two parter you’re talking about has something to do with living shadows?
This was one of my favorites. Imagine having a two was conversation with a recorded video.
"How do you know what I'm going to say?"
"Look to your left."
Guy righting down what she is saying. "Look to your left what does that even mean?"
"He's talking about you."
Remember in the very first episode we met that obsessive investigator, Clive, who collected historical sightings of the Doctor? How excited would he have been to get hold of the DVD footage in this episode! :-)
The angels do be weeping.
The Doctor was so brilliant in how he traps the angels in this episode a really good intro for the angels
I was at a scifi convention where there was a 5-year-old girl who only wanted to dress up as was a weeping angel. She loved getting into the "you're not watching the angel" pose for photographs!
This episode is SO good, and widely considered one of the best ever done.
It continues the ‘one Doctor-lite episode for film scheduling reasons’ trend that started with ‘Love and Monsters’ and is SO, SO well done. The Weeping Angels are one of the most loved monsters, they’re so clever, and scary, and the end where it goes IT COULD BE ANY STATUE is just brilliant.
I’ve been so looking forward to seeing your reaction to this one! The whole concept and use of time is incredible, and the way it’s one big loop is beautiful.
Steven Moffat tends to write one story per series, and they’re all based around childhood fears (empty child being lost and alone, girl in the fireplace had monsters under the bed/sneaking around at night, and now blink is that ‘something watching me’ fear)
Thank you, Kit! I'm so glad you enjoyed!
RTD called these "double banking" episodes, when they filmed two at once. Next season, one of the double banking episodes is "Doctor-heavy," although I know "Doctor-lite" has become the popular term.
Interesting observation about childhood fears.
@@HuntingViolets This one (along with Love and Monsters) is a bit unique, in that it's both Doctor-lite AND companion-lite. Going forward they tended to focus on the companions more for the Doctor-light episodes.
I was away in London on a long weekend when this first aired. So I watched it on the tv in my hotel room on the Saturday night.
Come the monday morning, when headed for the tube station, I took a short cut which took me past a building with a first floor balcony.
There was a statue of a man on it. Which I didn't remember being there before.
i walked on. Then I looked back. Just to make sure the statue was still there. Of course.
Then I walked on again. As fast as I could.
I love this episode but I also hate it at the same time mainly because I now have a fear of statues. This is the only Doctor Who episode without the Doctor in it much that I absolutely love. They did this so well.
For those of us who are young enough, this is the episode that gave us nightmares as kids 🤣
Congrats, now you get to say "wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff" as an explanation for everything.
Definitely 🤣
Literally any episode with weeping angels or The S... well that's much later in the series, no need to spoil that... immediately puts me in fight or flight lol. Doctor Who is responsible for so many of my irrational fears
You have now reached the Magnum Opus of Doctor Who, an episode EVERY Whovian declares is one of the best, if not THE best, episode of Doctor Who ever made... I'm so giddy we're here now! LOL The Weeping Angels are absolutely amazing villains and the concept itself is just... masterful. God I love this one!
The best Dr Who cannot have almost nothing of the Doctor. Heaven Sent Sent is considered the best single episode.
@@flaggerify That is also one of my all time favorites, I can't get enough of Capaldi, that writing, the mind games, everything. Moffat is phenomenal.
"Four things...and a lizard."
Makes me crack up every time.
Fun fact: this episode is loosely adapted from the short story ‘What I Did on my Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow’, which Moffat wrote for the 2006 Doctor Who Annual.
This is always a fun re-watch. And great addition of who lore with the Weeping Angels.
So completely wasted by the several attempt to re-invent them along the lines of the Japanese book, TV and movie series 'Rungu'. Idiots by comparison.
Now you know... something about how a time traveller would feel. It is disjointed at first because the all pieces hadn't happened. Even at the "end" it was the end for Sally... the Doctor hadn't even started his journey down this path... yet.
And yes as the Doctor said, "you can't kill a stone" so the Angels are "trapped" not dead, and trapped things can escape... how hard is it to escape depends on the trap. :)
A Great example of Steven Moffat's writing. Most of my absolute favorite Dr. Who episodes came from the mind of Moffat.
Everyone loves Sally Sparrow yet she only made this one brief appearance in the show. Blink and you'll miss it.
Sally gives the Doctor the information about the angels including photos nice.
I agree the angels have the phone box is great for a tee
Who else, when the Doctor says "Don't Blink," involuntarily felt the need to?
And we have the third absolutely amazing episode in a row.
This is so good. An amazing cast (I mean Carey Mulligan, for goodness sakes), a brilliant script and a fantastic resolution. Plus pathos, horror, love, loss and hope.
This season really got onto an amazing roll
Hey, Juliette! After I watched this episode back in the day, I can recall testing myself to see how long I could go without blinking. LOL. I have to say that the characters in this episode were definitely able to hold out longer than me. The weeping angels would have me back in 1924 in no time!!!😉
This was the first thing I had ever seen Carey Mulligan in and I thought she was absolutely adorable.
Fantastic episode!
These are the monsters that scare me the most, whenever someone tells me that this episode was their first introduction to Doctor who I'm like "Why'd you choose one of the scariest episodes?"
If anyone deserved a spinoff it's Sally Sparrow.
I can think of another, but I don't want to give any spoilers...
Still to this day the scariest enemies. Forget the Daleks and Cybermen.
Doctor Who has some of the best villains. The weeping angels for sure, the Vashta Nerada, the Silence, the 2D creatures during the Peter Capaldi era.
I love this episode so much, especially all the small details you can find, like at 4:38. If you pay close attention to that angel in the back, during the 2-4 seconds that Sally covers your view of them the actor moved their arms slightly (hands go from below the chin to covering their face).
Plus there's a "Found Phone" style game that is like a sequel to this, years later (with lots of references and other details too). It's called "The Lonely Assassins"
This started as a story published in a Doctor Who Annual, and was later adapted into an episode for the show. The episode is based on a previous short story written by Moffat for the 2006 Doctor Who Annual, "'What I Did on My Christmas Holidays' By Sally Sparrow".
"This is my timey-wimey detector. It can boil an egg at thirty paces, whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow."
Best lines in the episode.
The Angels are so creepy. I love them. The actress that plays Sally was in the movie Drive with Ryan Gosling.
You asked what would happen if someone eventually interfered with the 4 weeping angels that surrounded the TARDIS, and whether it would start things up again. Given that their primary objective was to get the TARDIS, since the TARDIS is no longer there and Sally no longer has the key, she would no longer be any different than anyone else, so they wouldn't really have a reason to go after her.
Because of a later episode, I can’t even blink when I see an angel on screen. They make those things a living nightmare.
This is why Steven Moffat is an absolute genius!
He could write some amazing episodes, but when he ran the whole show, it didn't work as well. That's my opinion at least, but also the opinion of most Whovians I've talked to.
Best example of a one time bad guy that got ruined by coming back
Yep. Jeez, the weeping angels went from incredible to ... meh.
I love how for the whole duration of this episode we never actually tell Larry his sister is dead and don’t really bother thinking about the fallout, even in the one year later part. It’s all still about Sally, not even a mention 😭 poor Larry
She'll obviously eventually tell him.
This remains to be my favorite Doctor Who Episode to this day. And the one I always point people to in order to get them into the show. And ironically the Doctor is barely in it lol.
Parts of this story are never explained. The Doctor is in the 1960s at one point, writes a message on a wall that will be covered up (owners re-decorating will know the message is there, so it's not painted over, but allowed to be there for some reason?
Why? It must have been papered over by someone other than the owners and never replaced...?
- and then that house stays unused for decades, leading to the legend that it's haunted, which is why Sally Sparrow goes there... ?
There's another story here, which lasts decades. I wonder if the policeman thrown back in time lived there?
Back in the day, after I watched the Family of Blood two-parter I remember thinking that the writers were going to have to do a lot to top those. Then came Blink and the rest is history. One of the most perfect episodes of Dr Who ever that gives me palpitations all these years later. Great reaction, Jules to a great episode and now you will know what people are talking about when they talk about "wibbely, wobbly, timey wimey". :)
We've had so many great episodes in a row!!! What a beautiful season this one is!!
After watching this episode I tried to see how long I could go by just blinking 1 eye at a time, always leaving 1 eye open. It's possible, but difficult, and eventually you blink both.
I just tried that myself 🤣
My favorite episode ever, I actually show it to people who haven't watched Doctor Who to get them hooked
Great reaction to one of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time that brought us the phrase "wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff".
It's amazing how scary monsters that you never see move are!
And you can still buy t-shirts with "The angels have the phone box" on them!
The angels not only don't move when the characters see them, but they also do not move when the audience can see them.
Oh Jules, welcome to my favourite enemy of the Doctor (the Daleks take second place). This is one of my favourite 5 episodes of the show.
The Weeping Angels are my all time favorite villain. They became the best and worst viallin. Bit youll discover that
I personally think that the Weeping Angels are the most terrifying Dr Who villain.
I'll let the Daleks know 😜
@@julesreacts Really?? You find the Daleks _frightening_ ?
@@lionlyonsyeah the daleks are kind of silly as enemies. But their reason for doing what they do is explainable, the motivation for the weeping angels are not, they are like pure evil.
they were until they were overused (the first i saw of them was in "Dalek" where it was actually a threat)@@lionlyons
A masterpiece of an episode. Carey Mulligan is incredible making you care for Sally in only one episode.
Good to meet you Sally sparrow 😊
This episode is one of the most intense and scariest episodes in doctor who for me, the angels coupled with the doctor explaining what they are and to not blink which feels like he’s actually telling you directly not to blink and to keep an eye out for them, I still feel anxiety watching it😂 when this episode first aired I didn’t trust any statue for a while 😂
I’ve been waiting for you to get to this one. So glad that you enjoyed it! ♥️
It's so good! It will definitely stick with me!
This episode was always amazing but I find it really impressive that for a lot of people (at least the people that I've spoken to) this is considered the 2nd best doctor who story of all time.
Funny story: Around the time this was broadcast, it wasn't uncommon for people in the Netherlands to sit outside in parks with their laptops and video-chat with friends. Most (at least younger) people there also know English pretty well and can communicate fluently. So someone told us how they had one day memorized Sally's parts of the "conversation" with the Doctor, put that specific clip on their laptop (it was a special feature on the DVD) and held that exact "conversation" in the middle of a busy park... The reaction of the people around them must have been hilarious 🤣
I’ve read that Steven Moffat wrote this story in a great hurry because he was working on another show (Jekyll) at the same time. Like a real science-fiction writer, but unlike most other writers for the show, he uses time travel as an element in the plot, rather than just a transport mechanism to go from one situation to another. However, as someone else has commented, the situation here is a bootstrap paradox: the Doctor can’t make the video without the transcript, but Larry can’t write the transcript without the video, so (logically) the whole thing could never have got started. This is why the Doctor tries to obscure the issue: “People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.” This sort of paradox often crops up in time-travel stories: it’s impossible, but it’s entertaining. It’s in the film “The Terminator”, for example.
I also point out that the Doctor would have had to carry the transcript on his person permanently from the time Sally gave it to him until the time he was sent back to 1969, because he had no way of knowing when that would happen. (Although it couldn’t have been a very long time, because he’s still with Martha.)
It’s most unlikely that the Doctor in 1969 would have been able to get hold of a video camera. Probably he recorded himself on film, and the film was converted to video later.
There’s a mobile game called the lonely assassins that is a follow up on this episode and it’s pretty good
I think one of the main reasons this episode works so well is because of the casting. Most characters only have a couple of lines but they make you like them really well. Even Catherine's future husband is likeable. Clearly a case of quality over quantity
When I watched this the first time, I lived alone next door to a grave yard with one of those statues in it that was right next to my garden, I could see it from my bedroom window. It wasn’t great timing.
Normally the grave yard didn’t bother me, I work in old buildings so I’m fairly used to it.
I have now moved…..
Those damned things still give me the wiggins.
This episode is more than just one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, but just TV in general. So well written, and acted!
as a kid this episode TERRIFIED me, i was so weary of statues after this 😂
At the end they showed a place in my city with loads of statues and that was too much for little me 😂
7:01 There it is, you can finally say that now for any and every Doctor Who reaction, now that you know the context. Time to get Wibbly Wobbly.
HA! Yes, Wibbly Wobbly time!
They should do a whole spin off show like this episode. Who Lite with different cast every episode. All involving the Doctor’s machinations without his actual appearance.
My favorite episode of all time. That "it's the same rain" makes me ugly-cry every time.
That scene in the hospital with Sally and Billy, to me that elevates the episode from just a great episode to being the best. It's a superb combination of suspenseful and weird and funny up to that point, but that scene just rips your heart out. And when a comedy/sci-fi can bring that much emotion into play, that's special.