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. It saw the return of River Song and the Weeping Angels.

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! The Doctor is recruited by River Song to track the last of the Angels, that have escaped from the Byzantium starliner, through the terrifying Maze of the Dead.

Plot
A man in a green field on a beautiful day with a lipstick smear on his mouth is approached by two armed guards and a man in evening clothes, who wipes the lipstick off. They are actually in a spaceship corridor. Grimly, he says "She's here."

River Song blasts a steel door with a firearm, revealing a black box. She uses the firearm to burn a message in the ancient language of the Time Lords into it. Meanwhile, twelve thousand years later, the Doctor and Amy Pond are in a museum. He explains that most things here are wrong. They come across the same box. A bored Amy is told it is a home box, which works like an airplane's black box, except it homes, and of the power of the Time Lords' language. Amy asks what it says. The Doctor exasperatedly replies "Hello, sweetie". They steal the box and retreat into the TARDIS.

The box's data is a security feed of River in front of an airlock, saying space-time coordinates and that she can use an air corridor; the Doctor promptly takes the TARDIS there as River detonates the airlock and is blown into space. The Doctor pulls her into the TARDIS, where they tumble over each other. They rise as the ship rockets away. River orders "Follow that ship!"

The TARDIS chases the Byzantium, River piloting briskly. Amy asks who she is and why she can fly the TARDIS. River boasts she had lessons from from the very best. The Doctor looks smug; River adds "A shame you were busy that day" and announces she has landed the TARDIS next to the Byzantium. The Doctor tells her the TARDIS did not make the materialisation noise. River twits him that it only make that sound when he keeps the brakes on.

The Doctor grumbles he loves the sounds of the TARDIS and starts to go outside. River tells him he needs to do enviroment checks. While she stares at the TARDIS monitor, the Doctor glances outside and announces they are on Alfava Metraxis, seventh planet of the Dundra system in the Gan belt: oxygen rich atmosphere, eleven hour day and chances of rain later. River tells Amy, "He thinks he's so hot when he does that".

They exit the TARDIS to see the wreckage of the Byzantium atop a stony plateau. River calls reinforcements from orbit. The Doctor introduces the women. River takes out her diary and asks the Doctor where they are in his timeline. Four men in combat dress teleport down. The leader, Father Octavian, has already heard of the Doctor. River asks what the Doctor knows of the Weeping Angels.

By nightfall, the Doctor is distressed by Amy's questions about his relationship with River, wondering if she is his wife, and her disobedience of his instructions. River calls them to a dropship to show them footage of the Weeping Angel they're after; it is four seconds long and has been put on loop. The Doctor and River explain to Amy and Father Octavian the nature of a Weeping Angel. The Doctor tells them a bit about his previous encounter, including the Angels' quantum lock. River hands the Doctor a book about the Angels. He reads it in seconds.

While the others make plans, Amy looks around the dropship. The Weeping Angel is changed ever so slightly. Amy looks outside to ask River if she had more than one clip and is answer "no". She looks back in to see the loop changed again. The Weeping Angel now faces the camera, arms spread. Amy turns the television off and it turns back on. She tries to unplug the television, to no avail. When Amy looks back up, its face fills the screen. She tries opening the ship's airlock. It is deadlock sealed, and the Weeping Angel screams into the camera.

Outside, River wonders how early the Doctor is in his timesteam. He says it's "fairly early" and she is amused he doesn't know who she is yet. She has all his faces recorded in her diary. This has the Doctor wonder why a book warning them about Weeping Angels has not a single picture of one. The Doctor reads it again. "Whatever holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel". Inside the dropship, Amy looks back to the screen. The Weeping Angel is projecting itself into the dropship. Realizing Amy is in terrible danger, the Doctor tries to open the door with his sonic screwdriver, but cannot. He checks the book again, and tells Amy not to look into the Angel's eyes, but she already has. As the Doctor and River scramble, Amy freezes the recording as it loops back. The TV shuts off and the Doctor and River enter. The Church soldiers break through into the temple and the Doctor leaves. Amy rubs her eye and tells River that there was something in it.

Everyone climbs into the temple to discover a gravity well inside. The Doctor kicks a gravity globe into the well. It floats in the middle of the chamber, illuminating a room filled with stone statues: the Angel is a needle in a haystack. The Doctor goes off to explore. Octavian lets River leave with the Doctor and Amy, sending Clerics Christian and Angelo to the one exit visible from the chamber.

Amy rubs her eye again. Dust runs out of it and through her fingers. She asks what a Maze of the Dead is. River tells her it's only called that because dead people are buried in the walls. She gives Amy an innoculation against radiation. Amy asks River about the Doctor and her. River is evasive.

Elsewhere, Christian and Angelo complain about the mission. Christian's rifle's light flickers. He turns to call for Angelo to come to him and sees a Weeping Angel. Angelo gets a transmission from Christian to come and see something. He continues down the cavern and is also attacked.

The Doctor, Amy and River hear gunfire and rush to investigate. Bob has fired on a statue thinking it an Angel. Ocatavian berates him, but the Doctor tells him fear will keep him alert and fast. Octavian orders Bob to guard the entrance with Christian and Angelo, and joins the Doctor in his exploration.

The Doctor, Amy, River, Octavian, and a few clerics discuss the extinct, two-headed Aplans as they penetrate deeper into the caverns and into a chamber of statues. River and the Doctor suddenly realise each statue has a single head. He has everyone turn off their torches. He turns his off for a split second; when it comes back on, all the statues have moved. The crash of the Byzantium is releasing enough radiation to restore the army of Angels.

Cleric Bob gets a call from Angelo, telling him to come and see something. Bob does, and is attacked by the undamaged Weeping Angel from the ship.

Octavian radios Bob a warning. Bob is on his way and Christian and Angelo are dead. The Doctor talks to Bob, who explains the Angels broke their necks The Doctor is confused; Angels normaly displace people in time. Bob explains the Angel killed him as well and reanimated a copy of his conciousness to speak to them. The Angel is on its way. Everyone else flees towards the Byzantum while the Doctor chats with their predator.

The survivors are now trapped below the wrecked Byzantium. The Doctor asks if everyone in the room trusts him. He take Octavian's sidearm. When he does something stupid and dangerous, they are to jump. 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
 * Weeping Angel - Marie McGonigle (uncredited)
 * Weeping Angel - Caroline Royce (uncredited)
 * Pedro - Mark Monero (uncredited)
 * Phillip - George Russo (uncredited)

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 Revelations, 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 materialization/dematerialization 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). Given the nature of their relationship, it is possible, even likely, that River Song 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 a blue stabilizer button that 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 can home-in back 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 refered to again.
 * Gravity globes, first seen in The Impossible Planet, return.

Story notes
thumb|250px|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 future daughter, Melody.
 * 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 (maybe a bit delighted) 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 to be 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 method, 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 Gilian 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 Journeys End, the Doctor claims that the real reason the TARDIS makes the sound is because it needs six pilots, though its possible that it was possibly changed due to the TARDIS transformation.

Ratings
6.8 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.

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 Amy is trapped by the recorded angel, after The Doctor rushes to help, River Song's hand can be seen pressing buttons on the door but the scene cuts to show her still where she and The Doctor were before.
 * 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 "Hazard" is not properly spelt in this manner.
 * 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 archeologist 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, oxygen density, and detects a likelihood of mecury deposits.
 * Similar to the Fourth Doctor with Romana, 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 5th July 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray, featuring The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone and The Vampires of Venice.