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's 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 escaped from the Byzantium starliner, through the terrifying Maze of the Dead.

Plot
The Doctor  discovers a message from Doctor  River Song, engraved in Old High  Gallifreyan  on the side of a ruined  flight recorder  from the starship Byzantium 12,000 years in the past. With Amy Pond, the Doctor takes the  TARDIS  to rescue her before the ship crashes on the planet Alfava Metraxis. Song guides the TARDIS onto the planet, more familiar with the TARDIS controls than the Doctor. Amy learns from both the Doctor and Song that they have a unique relationship due to the nature of time travel; Dr. Song has met the Doctor numerous times before in her personal history, evidenced by her diary with a TARDIS-like cover and her warnings of spoilers  of his own future, while the Doctor still barely knows who she is, having met her only at least once before.

Planetside, Song warns the Doctor of the Byzantium's cargo, a deadly Weeping Angel  that can only move when unobserved by others. She calls for support of Father Octavian and his militarized "clerics" to join her on the surface to recapture it before it becomes too powerful from the radiation leaked by the ship and to protect a large human colony on the planet. Song, the Doctor and Amy review a four-second loop of security footage of the Angel in the Byzantium vault as the soldiers set up base camp. The Doctor and Song review a book written by a madman about the Angels which reads "That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel". Simultaneously, Amy finds, when she looks away, the Angel from the footage moves and begins to emerge from the screen, further trapping her in the viewing room. The Doctor and Song attempt to free Amy; the Doctor warns Amy not to look directly into the eyes of the Angel because, "The eyes are not the windows to the soul, they are the doors," and the Angels may enter there. Amy is able to freeze the image on a loop break, causing the Angel to disappear and saving herself. As the Doctor and Song verify Amy is safe, she continues to believe she has something in her eyes after she was unable to follow the Doctor's warning.

To access the Byzantium and locate the Angel, the group must travel through a "Maze of the Dead", a stone labyrinth with numerous statues erected by the planet's natives that the Angel could hide among. After launching a gravity globe near the roof of the Maze to provide illumination, the group splits up, with some soldiers left to guard the entrance. While the Doctor and River Song discuss the two-head natives who built the catacombs, it suddenly occurs to them that all the statues have only one head; they quickly realise that every statue is a Weeping Angel. Each is presently slower and weaker than the captured Angel due to lack of beings to consume over the centuries but they are now absorbing energy from the crashed ship; the Doctor surmises that the Angel purposely crashed the Byzantium to rescue its kind. As the group tries to escape, Amy believes her hand to have become stone and cannot move, but the Doctor points out that her perception has been influenced by the Angel through her direct eye contact, and she is still fine (proving it by biting her hand), allowing her to flee. The group soon finds that the Angels have killed their rear guard and are using the consciousness of one of the soldiers, Bob, to speak to the Doctor. The Angels reveal they have lured the group in the trap at the highest point of the maze directly under the crashed ship, and are planning to kill and use their essences to further regenerate. The Doctor threatens that the Angels should have never put him in the trap, and prepares the group to act once he destroys the gravity globe; the episode ends on this cliffhanger.

Quotes

 * What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us, the Time Of Angels.

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.

Planets

 * The Byzantium crash lands on Alfava Metraxis.

Spacecraft

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

Races and species

 * Over hundreds of years Weeping Angels lose their form.
 * The Doctor mentions he had dinner with the Aplans' chief Architect once. This is possibly a reference to The Curse of Fatal Death, which was also written by Steven Moffat.

Religion

 * The soldiers who accompany River Song are from the Church.

TARDIS

 * The TARDIS is capable of creating and extending an air corridor.
 * 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 he likes the sound the TARDIS makes.
 * 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 was seemingly unaware of.

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

 * This was the first episode of Series 5 to be filmed, and therefore the first episode featuring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.
 * Amy Pond thinks her hand has turned to stone. Actress Karen Gillan 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 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 a crime, and that the Doctor wouldn't help them if he knew who she truly was. It was revealed shortly before the episode aired that the crime was murdering "the best man she ever knew." Fans have speculated that this man could be the Doctor..
 * River Song is the fifth person seen capable of flying the TARDIS solo since the reintroduction of Doctor Who in 2005. Others have included: the Doctor; The Master; Rose Tyler empowered as the Bad Wolf entity; the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor; and Donna Noble after her Meta-Crisis with the Doctor. Prior to 2005, several companions and (of course) other Time Lords were seen to be 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. Norton 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.
 * This is the first episode of Series 5 not to feature one of The Cracks, however 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 blinking 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 for the part of Amy Pond. In its place, Steven Moffat inserted the scene where River flies the TARDIS, which was filmed as a pick-up. (DCOM: The Time of Angels)

Ratings
6.8 million

Filming locations
to be added

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. But then, 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 normally spelt in this manner.
 * When River is in space, the TARDIS has white windows. The scene then cuts to a close up of the Doctor, and the windows are black. Steven Moffat admits that it is the "David Tennant police box" on the DVD commentary, 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 does reveal 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.

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 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 refers to visiting a spaceship and Winston Churchill's cabinet war-rooms. (DW: The Beast Below, DW: Victory of the Daleks)
 * High Gallifreyan was previously seen in DW: The Five Doctors.
 * The new Sonic Screwdriver is as inneffective 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: 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 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 with a book in Rose's kitchen 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 Weeping Angels later appears in the Doctor's study in his TARDIS. (VG: TARDIS)
 * The Angels move, despite the fact that the audience is looking at them.

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