Doctor Who S05E04-The Time of Angels

River Song lands onboard the TARDIS and orders The Doctor to pursue a strange ship, which crashes on the planet Alfava Metraxis. Turns out, River was tracking the last of the Weeping Angels along with a team of Church Soldiers. However, once in the catacombs of the planet, things take a turn for the worst. The “Maze of the Dead” holds an army of dormant Weeping Angels waiting for the right snack to return them to power. On top of that, a disasterous encounter with a Weeping Angel leaves Amy in a bad psychological state. Trapped in the dark and surrounded by the deadliest creatures in the universe, if there were ever a time for The Doctor to have a brilliant idea, that time is now.

This weeks episode had a lot of material to cover and in a way it did so effectively. But then again was it just me or did this episode go by lightning fast? It felt like the episode had reached the halfway point by the end and I don’t mean the obvious end of part one but the end of the first half of part one. Maybe it was just me, but I will digress and get into the actual episode.

Alex Kingston is back as River Song this week. Obviously this is an earlier version of the woman we saw in the brilliant Series Four Steven Moffat two-parter “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead”. Even so Ms. Kingston still brings that very flirtatious and adventurous flair to the character. Her introduction to the story is both sexy and brilliant as she walks around the Byzantium in red high heels (a lot of shots of her shows for some reason) in order to get a message out to The Doctor. And when she meets up with him, it’s like no time has passed. Ms. Kingston and Matt Smith play their scenes together brilliantly, bickering like an old married couple (it’s so obvious by this point) then working together with almost linked minds the next.

The Weeping Angels were a truly fierce foe when they were originally introduced in Series Three’s “Blink”, also written by Steven Moffat. Giving them a planet of their own and a darker scarier environment all together was the perfect way to up how dangerous these creatures can be. Moffat gives the Angels more upgrades by revealing their ability to become alive even in a looped video recording. Scarier is the fact that the Angels are getting more violent this time around. They are not time displacing their victims anymore. No now they’re just snapping necks…time to be really afraid. And as for what they are doing to Amy, screwing with her head and all, one has to wonder just how bad it is going to get for her next week.

Aside from the sheer quickness of the story, this was a pretty good episode and a good bounce back from last weeks sort of Dalek downer. River Song is always a good character to have on screen and the Weeping Angels are deadlier than ever. Plus it was a nice bonus to have Iain Glen (Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction) playing the bishop commander of the Church squadron. Here’s hoping he makes to the end of Part Two. But then again, with the Weeping Angels as your enemy, when it comes to survival all bets are off.

Next Time-The battle goes up to the Byzantium…and the Angels are awakening everywhere.

Rating-9/10