Flesh and Stone (TV story)

Flesh and Stone was the fifth episode of the fifth series of BBC Wales Doctor Who. It was the second part of a two-part story that began with The Time of Angels.

Synopsis
There's no way back, no way up and no way out. Trapped among an army of Weeping Angels, The Doctor and his friends must try to escape through the wreckage of a crashed space liner. Meanwhile, in the forest vault, the Doctor's companion, Amy Pond, finds herself facing an even more deadly attack.

Plot
The Doctor, Amy, River Song, Father Octavian and his clerics have all jumped on the Doctor's instructions, and have been caught by the Byzantium's still existent gravity field and have landed on the outside of the Byzantium, upside down in relation to the Weeping Angels left beneath them. They enter the ship, but are followed by the Angels. The Doctor and the others manage to escape and enter the control room.

In there, the Doctor and River realise that there must be an oxygen factory so the occupants can breathe, so the Doctor opens a door to reveal a forest. Amy, they then realise, has been counting down from ten since they got into the spaceship. The Doctor notices a crack on the wall, similar to the one in Amy's bedroom. The Doctor examines it, saying "That's extremely very not good", before noticing he is surrounded by Weeping Angels. He escapes, minus his coat, and follows the others. Amy is, by this time, down to two in her countdown. She lays down on a rock, and River pulls out a medical scanner and checks her. The scanner shows Amy is, apparently, dying. Amy asks what's wrong with her, and River replies, "Nothing, you're fine." The Doctor says, "Everything. You're dying!" He expresses to River that Amy won't get better if they lie to her. They discover that Amy has a Weeping Angel in the visual centres of her mind. The Doctor tells her if she opens her eyes for more than a second, the Weeping Angel will escape and she will die. She is left with the clerics as the Weeping Angels advance, Meanwhile The Doctor, River Song and Father Octavian head off to find a way to stop the Angels. As they leave, the Angels leave too when a light comes from the vault. Two clerics go to investigate, however, when Amy opens her eyes, she states it's the same crack from her wall. The remaining clerics forget about the existence of the other two, and then Pedro, a third cleric goes to investigate. Marco, the one remaining cleric forgets about the others' existence, questioning Amy. He walks into the light too, and supposedly disappears. The Doctor and Father Octavian continue, but a Weeping Angel captures Father Octavian by the neck. Before Octavian is killed, he tells the Doctor that River Song was a prisoner because she killed a man; a good man. The Angels run away in fear of the crack, due to the Doctor saying it will consume them. The Doctor speculates that the crack is allowing time to be rewritten and River asks him how they can close it, with the Doctor replying that a complicated space-time event can close it: himself. As the four clerics have disappeared, Amy is left truly alone and with only a communicator. The Doctor radios Amy and tells her to come to the control room. She asks why she should risk confronting the Angels and the Doctor tells her that the Angels can only kill her, but the crack can erase her from time. He sends software to the communicator that will help her get to the control room using the sound of his sonic screwdriver. Reluctantly and still with her eyes closed, she follows his sonic screwdriver signal until the Angels arrive and surround her. The Angels are still scared and just follow their instincts around her to freeze to stone, but Amy soon gives herself away as blind and the Angels close in to kill her. Just in time, River teleports her to the control room.

All the Angels come by the entrance to the room as they drain energy from the doors. The doors opens, revealing the Angels, who are all bearing their screaming faces, except one: the lead Angel, Angel Bob, who demands that the Doctor throw himself into the crack in order to save the Angels, Amy and River from it. River, as a time traveler, wants to throw herself in but the Doctor laughs at the idea, claiming that she is not even as complicated as one Angel and that only all the Angels are equivalent to him. Given this, the Doctor tells River to "Get a grip" and the artificial gravity field collapses because of the angels draining all the energy from the ship sending them into the crack. This is enough to seal it, erasing them all from existence. The group escapes to the outside of the temple. Amy is safe now that the Angel in her mind has been erased from time. Amy asks why she can still remember the people sucked into the crack. The Doctor tells her they can remember those erased from time because they are time travelers themselves. River gave the Doctor a "Sneak Preview" And said she would see him again when the Pandorica opens. She also states that the man she murdered was the best man she'd ever known. Before she is teleported the Doctor asks if he can trust her, River replies as "If you like. . . But where's the fun in that?" She is then teleported back to the penal starship, with the remaining soldiers.

Amy tells the Doctor to take her home. There, she tells him that she is getting married in the morning and attempts seduce the Doctor. It is then that he realises she is at the centre of all the cracks and that the time explosion which created them occurs the 26th of June, 2010, on the day of her wedding. He quickly whisks her away in the TARDIS.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Octavian - Iain Glen
 * Bob/Angel Bob - David Atkins
 * Marco - Darren Morfitt
 * Pedro - Mark Monero
 * Phillip - Geroge Russo

The Doctor

 * Whilst trying to figure out the implications of the cracks in time, the Doctor wonders to himself about the CyberKing, and wonders if 21st century Earth's lack of knowledge of its presence is somehow related.
 * When mentioning how time can be rewritten the Doctor references Amy's lack of knowledge of the Daleks and planets in the sky.
 * He mentions the duck pond that may not have been a duck pond from DW: The Eleventh Hour
 * Eleventh Doctor states his age to be 907, which suggests that a year has passed since the events of The End of Time
 * River Song said that she and the Doctor will meet again when the Pandorica will open, the Doctor however claims that it is just a fairytale.

Timeline

 * Amy's age is established and her second encounter with the Doctor as taking place in 2008 (when she encountered Prisoner Zero), while her third encounter with the Doctor when she left with him took place on the night of 25th June 2010 when Amy is 21.

Story notes

 * According to Steven Moffat on the 30th March 2010 edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme, Front Row, the title of this episode was supplied by his son, Joshua.
 * The title is a play on 'flesh and bone', a common idiom referring to a creature's anatomy, since most humans and animals are composed of flesh and a skeletal structure. The title also refers to the Weeping Angels' weakness of turning to stone whenever anyone looks at them, and possibly the fact that Amy thought her hand had turned to stone in the previous episode, The Time of Angels. This was a rumored title for the episode Gridlock.
 * In the trailer at the end of The Time of Angels it shows a crack - continuing the theme throughout the series. The crack appears to be growing, and upon finding it, Amy Pond notes its similarity to the one on her bedroom wall from DW: The Eleventh Hour. The Doctor says of the crack, "That is extremely very not good."
 * A video clip on the official Doctor Who website shows that the Doctor gets the Weeping Angels to say "comfy chairs".
 * The Doctor finds out that time can be unwritten.
 * The time on the scanner that The Doctor holds says that Amy's time is her wedding day.
 * The Weeping Angels are seen moving for the first time. One Angel is seen moving their hand to grab the Doctor by his jacket, and later they are seen turning their heads when they begin to realise that Amy can't see them.
 * The date shown in the episode, 26/06/2010, was the final episode date of Series 5 in Britain. In America, however, it was not aired until much later in the summer.
 * The method the Doctor uses to dispose of the Weeping Angels mirrors his method of vanquishing the Cybermen and Daleks in DW: Doomsday.
 * Amy is the first companion who tried to seduce the Doctor in such a manner as the one she displayed and becomes the latest companion to kiss the Doctor.
 * This episode aired on the same day as the K9 episode, Alien Avatar was first broadcast on Disney XD in Britain. It also aired on the same day that Sirens of Ceres was first broadcast on Network Ten in Australia.
 * Because the cracks never existed, the events of this story may have changed.

Ratings
6.9 million

Filming locations

 * The beach on Alfava Metraxis were filmed at Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan. This was also where scenes in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and Journey's End were filmed.
 * Scenes in the forest vault of the Byzantium were filmed in Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean.

Rumours

 * Amy and Rory will either marry each other or put it on hold at the end of the episode, and Rory will travel in the TARDIS at the end. This was proven false, but Rory joined Amy and the Doctor in the TARDIS in the next episode, and he and Amy got married in series finale .

Production errors

 * When Amy lies down on the tree stump her hair is all over her face but on the wide shot her hair is behind her head.
 * While the Doctor is talking to River in the forest, he has both hands behind his back as if tucking in his shirt; however in the next shot he is still in mid-sentence and is suddenly holding his hands in front.
 * While the Doctor talks to River at the end of the episode the position of his right suspender strap switches places from angle to angle.
 * Just after the Doctor leaves with River and Octavian, his future self holds Amy's hand and talks to her. However, he does not wear his normal gold watch, which is replaced with a black one, and does not have the vortex manipulator on his right arm, which he should have had.

Continuity

 * Events the Doctor thinks are erased from history by the cracks include DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End and The Next Doctor.
 * River says to the Doctor "You, me, handcuffs... must it always end this way?", unknowingly referencing her own death in DW: Forest of the Dead.
 * River Song mentioned the crash of the Byzantium to the Tenth Doctor in DW: Silence in the Library.
 * River Song refers to the events of the Pandorica opening, foreshadowing the series 5 finale. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
 * There is a flashback to DW: The Eleventh Hour.
 * Amy asks the Doctor "Do you comfort a lot of people on the night before their wedding?" The Doctor previously interrupted Donna Noble's wedding in DW: The Runaway Bride.
 * After the Doctor leaves with River and Octavian to find the primary flight deck, the Doctor returns for a moment to speak with Amy and his behavior and appearance is completely different (Jacket, rolled-up sleeves, different watch, etc). This turned out to be The Doctor from the future, though there were some inconsistencies concerning his watch. (DW: The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor mentions the duck-pond with no ducks from DW: The Eleventh Hour.
 * This is the second time the doctor has kissed a female companion on the forehead before he temporarily left them; the first was Zoe Heriot in DW: The War Games. He similarly kissed Jo Grant on the forehead in DW: Colony in Space, but that was upon meeting her (after she had been abducted).
 * Angel Bob says that the Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed. Prisoner Zero says something similar to the Doctor in DW: The Eleventh Hour.
 * In DW: The Big Bang, the Doctor prevented the cracks from ever existing. Although most cracks were closed, anything that Amy remembered (such as her travels) would still exist following the finale, meaning a few cracks still existed, but as seen, were solved individually (such as the one on Byzantium being closed due to swallowing the angels)

Timeline

 * This story occurs after DW: The Time of Angels
 * This story occurs before DW: The Vampires of Venice for the Doctor and Amy.
 * This story occurs before DW: Silence in the Library for River Song.

DVD/Blu-ray-exclusive scene
The 2010 DVD and Blu-ray release of the Complete Series 5 included an additional scene from Flesh and Stone. Contrary to many reviews and video-sharing site repostings of the scene, it is not a deleted scene, but rather a scene shot specifically for the DVD/BD release sometime during the later stages of Series 5 production.

The scene reveals what happened after Amy's failed seduction attempt and the Doctor taking her away. Inside the TARDIS, Amy continues to try to convince the Doctor to sleep with her, leading him to explain his attitude towards his companions -- that they help him "see things" that he no longer is able to see because of his age and travel experience. Her physical desires replaced by curiosity, this leads Amy to quiz the Doctor about his past companions.

She eventually tricks the Doctor into unlocking visual files of past TARDIS inhabitants, and she is treated to a slide show of various female companions ranging from Barbara Wright to Donna Noble, with apparent particular emphasis on Leela. In order to distract Amy from the picture show, the Doctor suggests they pick up Rory from his stag party, which leads directly into The Vampires of Venice.

Other companions shown in the slide show include Polly Wright, Peri Brown, both Romanas, and Josephine Grant, as well as recent companions Rose Tyler and Martha Jones. With the exception of Sarah Jane Smith (also shown), all companions pre-dating Rose are making their first on-screen appearance in the post-2005 era (Jo Grant's appearance in SJA: Death of the Doctor had not yet been broadcast at the time of the DVD/BD release).

The context of the scene supports the recurring implication that the TARDIS is sentient, given the way the Doctor reacts to the TARDIS when the slideshow begins -- coupled with the fact the TARDIS does not show images of the Doctor's various male companions such as Ian Chesterton, Adric or Jack Harkness. The fact expanded universe companions, such as Izzy Sinclair and Destrii from the comic strip and Evelyn Smythe and Lucie Miller from the audio dramas, are not visible does not necessarily disqualify them from canon as the viewscreen is not visible all the time, and several TV series companions are not shown either.

Home video releases
BBC Video - Doctor Who Series Five - Volume Two was released on Monday 5th July 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray, featuring The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone and The Vampires of Venice.