The Time of Angels (TV story)

 The Time of Angels is the fourth episode of Series Five. It is the first part of a two-part story. It marks the re-appearance of River Song and the Weeping Angels.

Synopsis
The enigmatic River Song hurtles back into the Doctor life but she's not the only familiar face returning... The Weeping Angels are back! The Doctor is recruited by Father Octavian to track the last of the Angels, that have have escaped from River's spaceship, through the terrifying Maze of the Dead.

Plot
A guard is found in a green field, surrounded by trees. He is approached by a man being followed by two guards, each armed. The first guard has his lips wiped with tissue, revealing hallucinogenic lipstick, the calling card of River Song. They are all found to be in the tunnels of the spaceship. River Song finds a vault and quickly manages to blast the door with a firearm so it opens, she then uses the same firearm to burn ancient Gallifreyan language into the artifact that is found in the vault, a Home Box, the equivalent of a black box in planes, except it homes. Meanwhile, 12,000 years into the future, the Doctor and Amy Pond are in a museum, the Doctor explaining that most things there are incorrect until they come across the same home box. Amy is told of the power of the language of Time Lords and when Amy asks what it says, he replies "Hello sweetie", soon after, the Doctor and Amy steal the box and retreat into the TARDIS.

They look at the box's data and see a security feed of River Song standing in front of a doorway, and giving a series of coordinates. The Doctor takes TARDIS to these coordinates and rescues River right after the door opens, throwing her into space.

The TARDIS gives chase to the Byzantium, but River takes the controls from him, telling him to press the blue stabilizers. The TARDIS stops shaking, and she lands the ship without the trademark hum of the landing TARDIS.

They exit the TARDIS, where they see the flaming wreckage of the Byzantium atop a plateau of stone. After Amy asks who River is, and the Doctor introduces them, accidentally letting loose to River that she will one day become a Professor. River calls in reinforcements that she has in orbit, and four men in desert camoflouge teleport down. They are introduced to the Doctor by River, and the leader, Father Octavian, has already heard of the Doctor. After being urged by Father Octavian, River reveals to the Doctor that they are, in fact, chasing a Weeping Angel.

They enter the Temple, where camp is swiftly set up. The men in camoflouge, the Clerics, have landed a dropship, which Father Octavian, River, Amy, and the Doctor enter. River has a tape of a Weeping Angel in the hull of the ship, one which loops every four seconds. The Docto and River explain to Amyt the nature of a Weeping Angel. The Doctor grins after he explains that they can move, and then he, River, and Father Octavian leave the dropship to work out how they will deal with the Weeping Angel. While working out a plan, River mentions to the Doctor that he once gave her all of his faces for whenever they meet. She hands the Doctor a book warning people about the Angels, and he starts to read.

While the Doctor, River, and Father Octavian plan out their exploits, Amy stays in the dropship and watches the feed from the security vault. She notices that the four-second loop changes, and the Weeping Angel is now facing the camera, arms spread. Amy attempts to turn the television off, but it turns itself back on. After trying to convince herself a recording can't move, she attempts to unplug the television, to no avail. When Amy looks back up, the Weeping Angel has again moved closer to the camera, it's face now consuming the screen. Amy tries opening the dropship's airlock, but it is sealed, and the Weeping Angel is now screaming into the camera.

Outside, the Doctor questions why a warning about the Weeping Angels has no pictures of the Angels. Re-reading the warning, he realizes that the image of an Angel becomes an Angel itself. At the same time, Amy looks back to the screen and the Weeping Angel is projecting itself inside the dropship as a hologram with image noise. The Doctor attempts to open the door with his sonic screwdriver, but it won't work, and neither will attempting to cut off power to the ship's television from outside. The Doctor warns Amy to not look into the eyes of the Angel explaining they aren't the window to the soul, but the door. This is useless though, because Amy has already looked into the eyes of the angel. Amy finally defeats the Angel by freezing the image on the television between loops. The doors unlock and the Doctor enters and pulls the power cord to the television. The Doctor explains that the Angel was trying to reach out to them through the television and is no longer dormant. The Christian soldiers outside are able to break through into the temple and the Doctor leaves exclaiming "It's begun," but not before Amy rubs her eye, and tells River that there was something in it.

The team climbs down into the temple and discovers a gravity well inside. The Doctor throws a flashlight into the well, and it floats into the middle of the chamber, revealing a room filled with stone statues. The Doctor goes off to explore, giving Father Octavian a moment to ask River if he "knows" yet. River tells Octavian that it is too soon in the Doctors timeline, to which Octavian responds "Well, don't let him work it out." She ends the conversation by telling Octavian that she has "no intention of going back to prison." Octavian lets River leave and then sends Cleric's Christian and Angelou to search the one visible exit from the chamber.

While exploring with the Doctor and River, Amy rubs her eye again. This time, sand runs out of it and through her fingers. River notices Amy looking at her hand, and asks if she is alright. Amy shakes the question off and asks what a maze of the dead is. River tells her its not as bas as it sounds, and that its just called that because dead people are buried in the walls. While getting innoculation to provide protection from radiation, Amy asks River what the Doctor is like. River says "the Doctor is the Doctor."

Elsewhere, Cleric Christian and Cleric Angelo explore the caves exit and complain about the mission. Christian continues forward, and away from Angelo, when his rifles light goes flickers. He turns back to call for Angelo to come to him, and looks up to see a Weeping Angel about to attack. Angelou then gets a transmission from Cristian to come and see something. He continues down the caves and is also attacked.

The Doctor, Amy, and River hear gunfire from afar, and head out to investigate. Cleric Bob had fired on a regular statue thinking it was an Angel. During a short conversation with the Doctor, Octavian tells the Doctor that their names are sacred names given to them when they enter the service of the church. Octavian orders Bob to keep guard of the entrance along with Christian and Angelo, and then joins the Doctor in his exploration. It is unknown to any of them that Chrisian and Angelo are dead.

The Doctor, Amy, River, Octavian, and a few cleric soldiers continue deeper into the caverns and into a chamber of just statues. While in the statues River and the Doctor notice that the statues all have only one head, and the builders of the temple were two headed beings. When they turn back around, all the statues are trying to climb over to the group to attack. They realize that the entire chamber is filled with Weeping Angels. They do not look or act like other Angels, and the Doctor deduces that they have been down without anything to feed off of for long enough to degrade and weaken. He then continues and realizes that the crash of the Byzantium is releasing enough radiation to feed the army of Angels.

Meanwhile, Cleric Bob gets a transmission over the radio from Angelo, telling him to come over and see something. Bob does so, and is attacked the Weeping Angel from the ship (this being true because it is the only Angel that is not damaged). Octavian radios Bob with a warning about the Angels, and gets a responce. After a short talk, Bob reveals that he is on his way to the group, and that he did't escape the Angels. He explains that his neck was snapped, along with Christian's and Angelo's, and that the Angel took his cerebral cortex and reanimated a copy so that it could have a voice. The group begins running towards the wreckage, but Amy cannot. Her hand turned to stone while she was grabbing something, and she is now stuck. The Doctor tells Amy that the Angel is playing with her mind, and her hand is just fine. They argue over whether or not her hand is stone as Angels draw nearer, flickering the Doctors flashlight in order to gain ground. The Doctor hits Amy's hand to convince her, and the two run away.

All the survivors are now gathered below the wreckage of the Byzantium, with no way out. Bob radios again, and tells the Doctor that the Doctor lied to him. Bob tells the Doctor that he thought his fear would save him, like the Doctor said, but Bob died afraid and alone anyway. This is all in an attempt to get the Doctor angry, but it doesn't work. The Doctor asks if the group trusts him (they do), and then for Octavian's sidearm, and tells Bob that the Angel's made one mistake in the trap. Bob asks what they shouldn't have put in the trap, and the Doctor answers "me". With that the doctor shoots the light illuminating the chamber and the episode ends.

Cast
From the ending credits.
 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Alistair - Simon Dutton
 * Security Guard - Mike Skinner
 * Octavian - Iain Glen
 * Christian - Mark Springer
 * Angelo - Troy Glasgow
 * Bob - David Atkins
 * Marco - Darren Morfitt

Not in ending credits (but someone put them in)
 * Weeping Angel - Marie McGonigle
 * Weeping Angel - Caroline Royce
 * Pedro - Mark Monero


 * Phillip - George Russo

Story Notes

 * This was the first episode of Series 5, and therefore the first episode featuring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, to be filmed. The first scenes shot were of the Doctor, Amy, and River Song on a beach.


 * This is, in truth, the third appearance of the Weeping Angels if one counts non-TV appearances; they have previously featured in DW: Blink and in Captain Jack's Monster Files (See WC: A Ghost Story for Christmas)


 * Steven Moffat stated in a TalkTalk interview that his son - while watching the episode - said 15 minutes through the episode: "Dad, that is the single most scariest thing I've ever seen in my life!"


 * When teasing the new series, one of the things Moffat mentioned was "the Doctor's mistake in the maze of the dead" - no doubt a reference to this episode.


 * A clip for the episode heavily indicates that this episode will not chronicle River Song's first meeting with the Doctor (from her perspective), as she knows, interestingly, how to pilot the TARDIS herself, and claims that he "leaves the brakes on" (causing the materializing noise) and talks about him as if they have traveled together before.


 * The Weeping Angels crash their spaceship on purpose so that they can gain all of its energy.


 * The Doctor ripping the strap off the ceiling of one of the small ships was not supposed to happen. Matt Smith accidentally pulled it off and it was put into the episode.


 * In this story, River Song is a doctor. She acts with surprise when the Doctor lets slip that she will one day be a professor. In conversation with Father Octavian, she mentions that she was once imprisoned for an as-yet-unknown (but implied to be terrible) crime.

Ratings
to be added

Filming Locations
to be added

Rumours

 * People have said that Sally Sparrow from the episode Blink will make a come-back, but this has not yet been confirmed. Rory's presence in Flesh and Stone may indicate that part of this two-parter is set on 21st century Earth, which would mean that such a return is possible. However, given that actress Carey Mulligan was, at the time the episode was filmed, in extreme demand due to her star-making turn in the film An Education, including being in the midst of filming Wall Street 2 in the US, such an appearance is unlikely unless the role has been recast. This was proved to be false.


 * River Song's presence in this episode may indicate that it is set in the 51st century, but this is not certain, as it is unknown precisely where in the timeline River Song comes from. The Doctor very briefly mentioned that it was the 51st century. 


 * The Doctor will meet Father Octavian at Amy and Rory's wedding. Octavian will be a able to see the future like Carmen and foreseen the Doctor's showdown with the Weeping Angels and send him after them. This turned out to be false.


 * A Teaser from Digital Spy has implied a Data Ghost device will appear in this episode.This was proved false, but a similar device was used when Bob was killed by the Weeping Angel.

Production errors

 * The CG TARDIS used when River is floating through space appears to look more like the old model, seeing as the blue hue is different, the windows are not the same, and the St. John's Ambulance logo isn't visible, although the lamp is still the current variant.

Continuity

 * The Weeping Angels previously appeared in DW: Blink
 * River Song previously appeared in DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
 * The Doctor refers to the events of DW: Blink
 * River Song mentioned the crash of the Byzantium in DW: Silence in the Library.
 * The Doctor previously used the TARDIS to chase a crashing space ship in DW: The Empty Child
 * A gravity globe was previously used in DW: The Impossible Planet
 * Amy refered visiting a spaceship and Winston Churchil in cabinet war-rooms. (DW: The Beast Below, DW: Victory of the Daleks)
 * High Gallifreyan was previously seen in DW: The Five Doctors