The Time of Angels (TV story)

 The Time of Angels was the fourth episode of the fifth series of BBC Wales Doctor Who. It was the first part of a two-part story of the season. It saw to the return of both the enigmatic woman of the Doctor's future, River Song, and the frightening Weeping Angels. Throughout the episode, hints are given about River's relationship with the Doctor in his personal future. It also introduced the purpose the Church now serves in the 51st century.

Synopsis
The enigmatic River Song hurtles back into the Doctor's life but she's not the only familiar face returning - the Weeping Angels are back! Following River's calling card, the Doctor is recruited to help track down the last of the Angels, which has escaped from the Byzantium starliner and into the terrifying Maze of the Dead.

Plot
A man spins dazedly around in a green field on a beautiful day. There is a lipstick smear on his mouth. He is approached by two armed guards and a man in evening clothes, and tells them what a beautiful day it is. The man wipes the lipstick off, revealing that the dazed guard is actually standing in the metallic corridor of a spaceship. Realising the lipstick is causing the guard to hallucinate, the man in evening clothes grimly announces, "She's here."

Elsewhere in the ship, a woman blasts through a steel door with a firearm; it is a vault of some sort, with a black box suspended in the center. Changing the setting on her firearm, the woman uses it as a torch and begins burning a message onto the box's face.

Meanwhile, twelve thousand years later, the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond are exploring the Delirium Archive, which the Doctor says is the final resting place of the Headless Monks. Amy is unimpressed with where they are as the Doctor promised to take her to a different planet next; the museum is on an asteroid. She then wonders why he is paying a visit to a museum as the Doctor announces that most of the displays are "wrong" until coming to one that he says is "one of mine". Amy then deduces that this is how the Doctor keeps score.

However, the Doctor becomes fascinated by the very same box seen earlier, explaining that it's a home box, which works like an airplane's black box except it homes. He says the message scrawled on the box is for him, as it is written in Old High Gallifreyan. Amy asks what the message says, and the Doctor exasperatedly replies, "Hello, sweetie." They steal the box from the display and return to the TARDIS, pursued by guards.

As the Doctor connects the home box to the TARDIS monitor, Amy asks why he stole it. He explains it is because "someone" is trying to get his attention. Getting a visual, the Doctor sees River smiling at the camera. Changing the footage, River is now cornered in front of an airlock by the man in evening clothes and two guards. When questioned, River explains she needed to see what was in the vault, warning that the ship will not reach its destination. As the guards prepare to shoot her, River recites space-time coordinates and asks for an air corridor. Amy wonders what River is saying as the Doctor explains they're coordinates, setting the TARDIS controls for River's location.

Meanwhile, River warns the men that they should hold onto something; she has set the airlock to open in a few seconds. The airlock opens and River is sucked out into space just as the TARDIS materializes and the Doctor opens the doors. Holding out his hand to River, the Doctor pulls her into the TARDIS, but they tumble over each other. The Doctor greets her while Amy wonders who River is. Picking themselves up, they watch as the ship soars away. River orders the Doctor to follow it.

The TARDIS chases the Byzantium, with River yelling for the Doctor to pilot better by using the stabilizers. The Doctor does not know what she is talking about until she pushes a blue button on the console, causing the TARDIS to stop shaking in-flight. The Doctor becomes annoyed as the journey is now boring; River takes over piloting. Amazed, Amy asks the Doctor who River is and how she can fly the TARDIS, prompting River to explain that she had lessons from the very best. The Doctor looks smug until River says, "A shame you were busy that day."

River announces that she's plotted all possible landing locations. She lands the TARDIS next to the Byzantium with a soft thudding sound. However, the Doctor doesn't believe this as the dematerialization noise didn't sound. River responds that it only makes that sound because he leaves the brakes on. The Doctor, grumbling, opens the door -- despite River's warnings that they must do environmental checks -- and announces they have landed on Alfava Metraxis, which possesses an oxygen-rich atmosphere and an eleven-hour day. River takes it in stride, saying, "He thinks he's so hot when he does that".



The trio exit the TARDIS to see the smoldering wreckage of the Byzantium atop a stony plateau above them. River calls in her reinforcements from orbit and the Doctor formally introduces the two women. River produces her diary and asks the Doctor where they've landed in his timeline, but before he can answer, four men in combat uniform teleport in and approach them. Their leader, Father Octavian, has heard of the Doctor and wonders if River has briefed him on their situation. She turns to the Doctor and asks what he knows of the Weeping Angels.

By nightfall, the Doctor is fed up with Amy's persistent questions about his relationship with River, demanding to know if she is his wife, and her disobedience of his order she wait in the TARDIS. River calls them to a drop-ship to show them footage of the Weeping Angel they're chasing; it is a four-second clip put on a loop. The Doctor and River explain the nature of the Weeping Angel to Amy and Father Octavian, including their quantum-lock defense mechanism. River offers the Doctor a book about the Angels, which he reads in seconds. He is perplexed. Something is missing, though he doesn't know what.

While the others make plans, Amy is left in the drop-ship with nothing to do. Looking at the tape, she realizes the Weeping Angel has changed its position slightly. When she asks River if she has more than one clip of the Angel, River replies in the negative. When Amy looks back, the Angel has moved again: it is now facing the camera with its arms spread out. Amy tries to turn the television off, but it quickly switches back on. She unplugs it, but the screen continues to play the loop. When she looks back up, its face fills the screen. When she turns to leave, she finds the door has been deadlock sealed. She looks back again to find the Angel is now baring its fangs at her.

Outside, River wonders how early the Doctor is in his time-stream. When he replies it is fairly early, she is amused because he doesn't know who she is yet. The Doctor then wonders how she knows who he is as he doesn't always look the same. River says that she has all his faces in her diary, but he doesn't show up in order, so she needs a spotter's guide. This causes the Doctor to realize what the book is missing - pictures. Why wouldn't there be any pictures to show the readers of the book what to look out for? River says there was a mention about images in the book. The Doctor returns to the sentence and reads it aloud: "Whatever takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel." He now ponders what this means.

Amy looks away once again, but this time, when she looks back, the Angel has begun to project itself into the drop-ship. Calling for the Doctor, Amy alerts him to the danger she's in. The Doctor runs to the door and tries to open it with the sonic screwdriver, but fails. He warns Amy not to blink, but then looks back into the book and additionally warns her not to look into the Angel's eyes. When River questions this, the Doctor explains that the book says that the eyes are the "doors" to the soul, not windows; however, Amy already has.

Amy wonders why the recording has come to life and River explains that an image of an Angel becomes an angel. River tries to burn through the hull as the Doctor fails to cut the power. Realizing that there is a point in the loop where there is no picture, Amy freezes the recording as it loops back, ending the "image", and shuts the television off. The Doctor and River enter as Amy puts on a facade of bravery. The Doctor examines the television with his sonic screwdriver and tells River to hug Amy as he's busy. Amy wonders what just happened and the Doctor explains that it was a projection of the Angel that they're after; it was scoping out its foes. An explosion comes from outside as Father Octavian enters and informs them the Clerics have blasted their way into the temple. The Doctor departs, knowing things are going to get even worse than what they just experienced. Amy rubs her eye, mentioning to River that there was something in it.

The group climbs down into the temple, discovering a gravity well inside. When it is explained where they are, the Doctor says that where they are is the perfect hiding place for the Angel, kicking a gravity globe high into the air. With the area illuminated, the interior is revealed to have hundreds of disintegrating stone statues -- finding the Angel is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. The Clerics wonder how they are going to neutralize the Angel, and all the Doctor can come up with is, "Find it and pray." The Doctor and Amy rush off to explore, but Father Octavian holds River back, warning her they need the Doctor on their side and for that reason, he must never know why she has been imprisoned. As she leaves, Octavian sends Clerics Christian and Angelo to investigate the one exit visible from the chamber.

In one of the tunnels, Amy has stopped some distance away from the Doctor to rub her eye. This time, dust runs between her fingers, disturbing her greatly. River appears behind her and gives her an inoculation to protect her from the radiation from the ship. Amy asks River about her relationship with the Doctor. River is evasive and Amy continues to believe they are married. The Doctor hears them, but denies it as River points out he's holding a device upside-down. This only reassures Amy that she is right.

Elsewhere, Christian and Angelo are complaining about the mission when Christian's torchlight flickers. He turns to call for Angelo to come to him, but is killed by the Weeping Angel. Angelo receives a transmission from Christian to come and see something, but this is a trap and Angelo is similarly killed.

The Doctor, Amy and River explore the temple as he remembers the Aplans who built the temple, saying he had dinner with the chief architect. Amy misinterprets this as the Doctor helping after he says, "Two heads are better than one", but is corrected; the Aplans had two heads. He then changes the subject, asking River about the last line in the book - it's something of a prophecy. They then hear gunfire and return to the main temple. Cleric Bob fired at a statue, thinking it looked at him. Octavian berates him, but the Doctor insists Bob's fear will keep him alert and fast. Octavian orders Bob to guard the entrance with Christian and Angelo while he and the four other Clerics join the Doctor's exploration.

On their ascent through the Maze of the Dead, the Doctor discusses the Aplans, the natives of Alfava Metraxis who built the temple and have since gone extinct, saying that he and Amy should visit them sometime. When Amy says that they're all dead, he points out that Virgina Woolf is as well, but he's on her bowling team. He says that with two heads, kissing wasn't a problem. However, laws were made against self-marrying; "That's the Church for you". Realizing what he said, the Doctor apologises to Octavian.

As they continue up, River tells the Doctor that she knows something's wrong, but doesn't know what; he does as well. Amy then comments on the previous conversation, saying the Church was right as the divorces would have been messy. Examining a statue, River has an epiphany; the Doctor does as well. They both discuss this indirectly before informing Octavain that if the Aplans had two heads, why don't the statues. Gathering everyone behind him, the Doctor has them turn off their torchlights. When they turn back on after a single second, all of the statues have turned to face them.

Below, Cleric Bob receives a call from Angelo over his radio, begging him to come and see something. "Angelo" becomes increasingly annoyed that Bob won't come. Though hesitant, Bob does so, but is attacked by the undamaged Weeping Angel from the ship.

The Doctor realizes the temple is filled with a dying army of Weeping Angels, slowly being restored by the radiation leaking from the Byzantium wreckage. As he apologizes for his mistake leading all of them into danger, Octavian radios Bob to warn him. Bob informs Octavian he is on his way to them and Christian and Angelo are dead. This confuses the Doctor, as the Angels do not normally operate this way -- they displace their victims in time unless their bodies are needed for something. Bob explains the Angel killed him as well and reanimated a copy of his consciousness to enable the Angel to speak to them; when Bob says that "he" is on his way, he really means the Angel.

The group flees to the Byzantium while the Doctor continues to talk to Bob, confirming that he is speaking to the original Angel from the ship. As he runs to join the others, he finds Amy frozen in the corridor, her hand stuck to a rock; she tells the Doctor her hand has turned to stone because she looked into the eyes of an Angel, and he must leave her if he's going to survive. As the lights in the cavern begin to flicker and the Angels grow near, the Doctor bites Amy's hand to assure her it is not stone. They meet with the others, who are standing on a rocky ledge some fifty feet beneath the Byzantium wreckage. They are trapped.

Cleric Bob radios the Doctor again, explaining there is nowhere for the Doctor to go and they will all be killed by the Angels. He also tells the Doctor the Angels want him to know that Bob was afraid when he died; while the Doctor had assured Bob that his fear would keep him fast, he died alone and afraid. River realises the Angels are trying to make the Doctor angry. The Doctor asks the group if they trust him. He takes Octavian's sidearm and orders them to jump on his signal. Turning back to the radio, he apologizes to Bob but assures him he will avenge his death. He also warns the Angels of their mistake in setting this trap -- they have put him at the center of it. He shoots the gravity globe, plunging them into darkness.

Cast

 * 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

Languages

 * River leaves the Doctor a message in Old High Gallifreyan on a home box: "Hello, sweetie".

Planets

 * The Byzantium crashes on Alfava Metraxis.

Spacecraft

 * The Byzantium is a spacecraft carrying a Weeping Angel. It crash lands when its warp engines suffer a phase shift.

Species

 * Over hundreds of years Weeping Angels lose their form.
 * The Doctor had dinner with the Aplans' chief architect.
 * The Delerium Archive is the final resting place of the Headless Monks.

Religion

 * The soldiers who accompany River Song are from the Church.
 * The Angels' use of the phrase, "Come and see", is a reference to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Revelation, specifically the Angel of Death.

TARDIS

 * The TARDIS is capable of creating and extending an air corridor.
 * River Song says the TARDIS has brakes.
 * According to River Song, the TARDIS isn't supposed to make the classic materialisation/dematerialisation noise; she says it's because the Doctor always leaves the brakes on, to which he counters, saying he likes the sound the TARDIS makes. However other TARDISes make the classic noise when piloted by other Time Lords, such as the Master's and the Rani's. Even when Romana piloted the Doctor's TARDIS, the ship made the same noise when materialising. (DW: The Pirate Planet) It is likely that River was teasing the Doctor.
 * The TARDIS can operate like a spaceship, following the Byzantium through space before jumping through time to reach the crash site.
 * The TARDIS has blue stabilizer buttons the Doctor seemed unaware of; however, he then says that they are "boring".

Technology

 * A home box is like a flight recorder; after a ship lands it flies to the spacecraft's planet of origin.
 * The projection of a Weeping Angel is able to deadlock seal the landing pod, despite the pod not having the capability.
 * Perception filters are referred to again.
 * Gravity globes, first seen in The Impossible Planet, return.

River

 * Amy guesses that she's the Doctor's wife in the future. River doesn't tell the truth to keep the established timeline from being polluted.

Story notes
thumb|right|Graham Norton's response to the furore caused by the appearance of his cartoon avatar during the episode's [[cliffhanger.]]
 * This was the first episode of Series 5 to be filmed, and therefore the first episode featuring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.
 * This is Amy's first meeting with River Song--who, unknown to her, is actually her daughter.
 * Amy Pond thinks her hand has turned to stone. Actress Karen Gillan had previously appeared in DW: The Fires of Pompeii as a member of the Sibylline Sisterhood, a cult of soothsayers whose flesh was beginning to turn to stone due to the influence of the Pyroviles.
 * This is 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)
 * The Doctor ripping the strap off the ceiling of one of the small ships was originally an accident; the producers liked the idea so much that they filmed Matt Smith doing it again.
 * In this story, River Song is a doctor. She seems surprised 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 a crime, and the Doctor wouldn't help them if he knew who she was. It was revealed shortly before the episode aired that the crime was murdering "the best man she ever knew." She was convicted of the murder of the Doctor (See DW: The Wedding of River Song).
 * River Song is the sixth person seen capable of flying the TARDIS solo since the reintroduction of Doctor Who in 2005. Others have included: the Doctor; Captain Jack Harkness; the Master; Rose Tyler empowered as the Bad Wolf entity; the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor; and Donna Noble during her Meta-Crisis with the Doctor. Prior to 2005, several companions and (of course) other Time Lords were able to operate the TARDIS to varying degrees.
 * During its airing in some parts of England, an animated advert for the talent show Over the Rainbow began playing over the cliffhanger. This sparked complaints to the BBC who later apologised. The advert contained an animated Graham Norton, who later joked about it on his own show – saying he finally secured a role on Doctor Who. However, his voice had previously been overheard during the first episode of the revived series, Rose, when an error in broadcasting began playing the audio of a trailer featuring Norton for another of his talent shows, Strictly Dance Fever.
 * This is the first episode of Series 5 not to feature one of the Cracks, but one does show up in the next episode. This is likely because it is the first of a two-part story. However, some have noticed what appears to be a closed crack in the Weeping Angel recording. 
 * One question commonly asked by fans regarding DW: Blink was why Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale did not try closing one eye at a time to keep the Weeping Angels at bay. When the Angel is attacking Amy, she tries this, but remarks on how difficult it actually is.
 * The episode ran short in its original cut because high tides at the beach location forced the abandonment of about three scripted pages — including the scene which had been used to audition Karen Gillan for the part of Amy Pond. In its place, Steven Moffat inserted the scene where River flies the TARDIS, filmed as a pick-up. (DCOM: The Time of Angels)
 * In Journey's End, the Doctor claims that the real reason the TARDIS makes the sound is because it needs six pilots, though it's possible that it was changed due to the TARDIS transformation.

Ratings
6.8 million

Filming locations

 * The beach scenes 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.

Rumours

 * 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. 
 * A teaser from Digital Spy has implied a Data Ghost device will appear in this episode. This was proved partially true. The same suits which have the devices were spotted in the episode, but were not used.

Production errors

 * When the Doctor is talking to 'Angel Bob' over the radio, he doesn't have a torch in his hand. In the next shot, running past Amy, he is shown with one.
 * The warning on the dropship door reads "CAUTION: Trip Hazzard". The word is properly spelled "Hazard".
 * When River is in space, the TARDIS has white windows. The scene cuts to a close up of the Doctor, and the windows are black. Also, the St John's Ambulance badge is missing from the door. Steven Moffat admits on the DVD commentary that it is the "David Tennant police box", but falls gentlemanly short of laying blame at the feet of any particular production member.
 * Steven Moffat notes in the in-vision commentary that there are massive continuity errors throughout the episode with respect to the length of Matt Smith's hair. Indeed, careful examination reveals that Smith's hair has several different lengths, sometimes within the same scene.
 * Before River is sucked out of the Byzantium, unlike the other two, the guard on the left has no pipes on his side of the corridor to hold on to, yet when River is sucked out, he can be seen hanging onto something.
 * At the end when the Doctor is seen shooting the gravity globe, he does not actually move his finger, but the pistol still shoots.
 * When River Song takes the red high-heel shoes from the TARDIS console, it is interesting to note that it was there since The Eleventh Hour.

Continuity

 * The same suits River Song and her crew wore when she became an archaeologist can be seen in this episode in the pod where Amy encounters her first Weeping Angel. (DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead).
 * 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 mentions 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 refers to visiting a spaceship and Winston Churchill's cabinet war-rooms. (DW: The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks)
 * High Gallifreyan was previously seen in DW: The Five Doctors; the Doctor declares he is one of the few who understands the language.
 * The new sonic screwdriver is as ineffective against deadlock seals as its predecessors.
 * Perception filters are mentioned, though the Doctor does mention that the group may have just been "a bit thick".
 * The scene where the Doctor refuses to do an environment check is reminiscent of DW: The Power of the Daleks, where a post-regeneration Second Doctor absentmindedly starts to wander out of the TARDIS. When his companions protest that he hasn't checked for oxygen on the planet, the Doctor rattles off the temperature, radiation, and oxygen density, and detects a likelihood of mercury deposits.
 * Similar to the Fourth Doctor with Romana I, the Doctor is annoyed by someone claiming to be better at piloting the TARDIS than he is.
 * After flicking quickly through the book on the Weeping Angels, the Doctor remarks, "Not bad, bit boring in the middle." He did a similar thing with a book in a Parisian cafe in DW: City of Death and "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold in DW: Rose.
 * The Doctor tells River that he is not a taxi service. The Fifth Doctor told Adric the same thing in DW: Earthshock.
 * The Book of the Weeping Angels later appears in the Doctor's study in his TARDIS. (VG: TARDIS)
 * River Song again uses the hallucinogenic lipstick in The Pandorica Opens.
 * River mentions that she learnt to fly the the TARDIS from "the best" and notes that "It's a shame you (the Eleventh Doctor) were busy that day". It is revealed in Let's Kill Hitler that River learnt to pilot the TARDIS from the TARDIS itself shortly after her regeneration, being recognised as a child of the TARDIS owing to her conception taking place while the TARDIS was in flight.

Timeline
For the Doctor and Amy: For River Song:
 * This story occurs after DWAN: Nowhere Man.
 * This story occurs before DW: Flesh and Stone.
 * This story occurs after DW: The Big Bang.
 * This story occurs before DW: Flesh and Stone.

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