That bin was quite weird.

I finished Power of Three, and I must say it is my favorite so far. I don't have to much new to say (Lucas basically had the same thoughts) but that I found the episode quite enjoyable. Here's hoping Angels in Manhattan is good!

Youtube @TheRealSonjira I consider it a personal defeat if my pee is not perfectly clear every time.]

This episode.....this episode.....

I still think they should have retired the Stone Angels after 'Blink'. It was such a self-contained episode that to bring the Angels back would remove all the terror from them - and that's what happened the last time we saw them. Looking up and seeing an Angel advancing towards you with that shrieking face was scary in 'Blink', but it quickly became old. The Angels gimmick is basically to jump-scare you - like The Slender Man, only 'Slender' is a terrifying game because your actually playing it, which is a completely different experience to just watching. (When they announced that they were making interactive Doctor Who games, I thought that the first thing they would do is make one with Stone Angels. I suppose a 'Slender' clone with Stone Angels would be too terrifying for kids...although I now really want to see someone do a mod to 'Slender' where your running from a Stone Angel rather than the man...)

This all being said....the ending to 'Blink' hinted that Stone Angels can come in any form. I'm surprised its taken Moffat this long to follow up on this, and the scene with the hooded female statue is actually quite scary. Its kind-of-sort-of explained how other statues are coming to life, though not clearly enough. I still want a full episode where all the Stone Angels are just ordinary statues. The whole suspense would be that an Angel could be anywhere - whilst in this episode this possibility is never explored.

The book is a physical plot-hole. At one point the Doctor says that he cannot read the book because River hasn't written it yet in the timezone their in - which I suppose makes some sort of sense, but before he just says not to do it because it'll spoil everything, and they can still look at the chapter headings so obviously the book isn't blank. "We can't look through the book  - its too dangerous!" Um, no! Who cares if the ending of the book is nasty - you have all the answers! Why not read it! I dont get why Moffat wrote this plot-point in, only to never use it again. I'm reminded of in 'Spaceballs' when they try to fast-forward to the end of the film so they can work out what's going to happen. OK; if I was given a book with my entire life-story in book form to read - I wouldn't because it'll spoil the rest of my life...but if I was thrown into a life-threatening situation and I was given a book documenting this event - I would read it! Who wouldn't read it!? There is only a small chance it says "Everybody dies" at the end, and in 'Doctor Who' the laws of time and space change in every other episode - so who's to say they cant read it and think "OK, the book says do this - so we'll do the opposite!" For we know, the writing could change like the photograph in 'Back to the Future'...Just like the gravestone does later - which is an obvious homage to 'Back to the Future 3'].

Oh what a shock - Rory gets kidnapped! In this respect, I'm glad he's gone]. The Auton-Rory was the best and only worthwhile thing they ever did with the character (although I have no idea why Rory remembers being a plastic Roman). Heck, his Dad was more useful than he was!

Overall: it was lame. I like how Moffat once again uses the most terrifying aspect of the Stone Angels to his advantage - but it wasn't as terrifying as 'Blink' because the Stone Angels had a purpose. In 'Blink', the Angels wanted the TARDIS and didn't care about all the puny humans in their way - which was the other reason why 'Blink' worked so well: because the protagonists were just ordinary, vulnerable humans. The Stone Angels are mute assassins - the Doctor is too intelligent to be against a monster where the only thing you can do is just run from it. With the Daleks, the Doctor can confront them and find some sort of weakness - here he's a bit useless (this would be OK if the Doctor took a moment to think "Oh crap - I can't stop them. All we can do is just run, and we can't run for long").

Not nearly as bad as the last time we saw the Angels, but not particularly good either. There were no real strong, powerful moments (apart from just before Amy goes back in time too. Sadly, the rest of the scene is too brief for anything else], but at least there were no awful moments. To be fair on Moffat, this kind of stuff is very hard to write...

Last edited by Max Butcher (September 29, 2012 (04:04pm))

THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN

I was shocked at how good and how well directed this episode was. I knew the episode was gonna look good because Nick Hurran is becoming one of the best directors ever on Doctor Who but MY GOD this was the best directed episode I have ever seen on the show ever! The opening scene was the best pre-intro sequence the show has ever had and would kinda work as it's own mini movie if it had an actual ending.
I had never been so excited about an episode ever so I was ready for it to suck or dissapoint me but it didn't because of how well executed everything was. Everyone knew this was Amy and Rory's episode but i'm glad it wasn't only about them leaving and actually had an interesting storyline.

I don't really want to write alot about this episode because i'm sooo tired right now after having spent the past 36 hours waiting to see how this episode would turn out (sure I watched Looper in the cinema in the mean time but other then that! Just waiting) and i'm happy to say it did satisfy me. I didn't cry - I have never cried ever on Doctor Who so that doesn't surprise me. I wasn't scared - I've never been scared by an episode of Doctor Who or even any movie ever so i'm not surprised by that either. I was however loving this episodes every moment, this is my favorite Steven Moffat script ever - Doctor Who or otherwise.
It is also the best directed episode of Doctor Who ever which is pretty self explanatory if you watch it so I won't have to explain why it worked so well.
The only complaint I have is that I really wanted this to be an hour long episode because we haven't had that in a while

This is an episode that must have been really hard to write and Moffat pulled it off in spectacular fashion ending the most impressive companion run that has ever been done in Doctor Who history.
And this, is how it ends.

10/10

THIS SEASON SO FAR
Asylum of the Daleks - 8/10
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - 9/10
A Town Called Mercy - 6/10
The Power of Three - 10/10
The Angels Take Manhattan - 10/10

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I just watched 'The Power of Three'; it reinforces my disliking of Matt Smith and his boyish, zero attention span, hypo, expressionless 'acting'. I am frankly sick of Amy and her self confidence/attitude; and bland Rory has... well... stayed extremely bland. The episode itself was fractured, a futile attempt to make the audience feel for the Pongs, before their hopefully fatal (fingers-crossed) half season finale occurs. Why was Amy telling us this story, why? Not impressed. It was ultimately too slow paced in the wrong scenes (watching boxes) and far too fast in other scenes (the computer AI interface guy on the spaceship).

Sincerely, a pre-Matt Smith Doctor Who fan.

^ I like that.

I enjoyed last night's episode. It was wonderful. I think that Rory and Amy's ending was brilliant. Though, I do wish that it were a two parter, or at least a long episode. I think it needed just a bit more with it, especially a scene where the Doctor tells Mr. Williams what happened.

And though it had the Angels, it wasn't really that scary. I rather miss being frightened by a good Doctor Who episode, like Blink, which took much sleep away from me after I watched it, or in Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone the big reveal where you find out that all of the statues are alive was so awesome and clever. Still, I really do enjoy these villains, and I hope we still get episodes with them every once and a while.

Also, Rory died three times in this episode, and unless I'm forgetting any of his deaths, this puts the final Rory death count at eight.
xD

And, JK, your portrait is fabulous.

What episode are you referring to?

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I'm not sure I quite understand what you're trying to say, but it still doesn't make sense. I can understand about fixing something that was sent back from the future, like the Dalek in Utah or the Chula ambulance, because those were not originally on the timeline. But unless the Station 5 monster came from the future, they should have gotten the same result they did when saving Mr. Tyler.

Basically, with Mr Tyler, they already knew he was going to do, and Rose actively went back to prevent his death. She knew that he was going to die, and so by stopping it, it never happened, so she couldn't have known he was going to die, so she couldn't have gone back to stop it, but if she didn't go back to stop it, then it would've happened. Paradox. BOOM!

On the other hand, when they arrived at Station 5 they had no inkling of what was going to happen - they were trying to stop the bad guys, just as that freedom fighter girl at the beginning wanted to. Since they didn't know the future, they weren't creating a paradox.

Sorry if this is confusing - I understand it fine but it's just hard to put into words.

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein