Doctor Who - Flesh And Stone

Flesh And Stone is the concluding episode to The Time Of Angels, and rounds off a satisfying two-parter.

In the first part The Weeping Angels are the terrifying enemy, and whilst in the second part they are still a menace, suddenly there's something worse, a crack in time.

Once again Moffat showed his ability to not base an episode on a single idea, and that density makes for a much more satisfying watch. These two episodes had The Weeping Angels, an army from The Church, River Song and some more illumination of her mysterious background, a crack in time, the revelation that Amy is more than just another companion and some snogging. 

The River Song plot is pleasing, what could have been a throw away character is now being weaved into the series with a mixed up timeline. In Doctor Who Confidential, Moffat said that the original idea for River Song was not so wide ranging, but that he thought it would be great to promise something intriguing and actually deliver it. More and more I'm believing that he is in-tune with all of us older Doctor Who fans. (And yet in tune with the kids too: he also described how his sons classify monsters as Cool or Scary, and how he got the idea for the crack form his son's bedroom wall.) So when River Song says they'll meet again, and when we find out she's in a prison somewhere, it's exciting to know that we'll get to see that, at some point.

Moving from the caves through the spaceship into a forest was a lovely idea, it gave a change of location and atmosphere, allowed some creepy Angels in woods scenes and brought a glowing spookiness to the episode. The scenes with Angels attacking were also great: "Incoming Angels!", suddenly they appear, a blink and they're nearer. Particularly good was the scene where only gunshots illuminated The Angels: very stylish.

Making Amy walk through The Angels with her eyes closed was achieved in a mildly clunky way, but resulted in some nice tension. Which pretty much sums up how I see the difference between Moffat and RTD: RTD's clunkiness was more central to the story, whereas Moffat throws so many things at us, many of which have great pay-offs, that I can ignore the clunking. Other clunking I can forgive: the anti-gravity escape, The Angels killing rather than relocating in time, The Angel in Amy's head disappearing, the just-in-time transporter.

There were some moments of anger from The Doctor too, apparently real frustration, and the suggestion that he didn't really know what he was doing, winging it moment by moment. I wonder if Moffat's Doctor is going to be more fallible? Perhaps it's a set-up for something going drastically wrong?

Another characteristic of the new series so far seems to be that each episode has a calm(ish) denouement that rises to a teaser for the next episode, meaning that each episode is a great teaser for the next episode. This time: Amy tries to get it on with The Doctor. And why not? I enjoyed The Doctor's awkwardness, and Amy's persistence, and it all lead nicely onto next weeks episode, which has Vampires in Venice...

Good stuff.