Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,163 (click to see context) from:
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blink_Doctor_Who_1882.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou Don't scroll down to read more! You'll be taking your eyes off it...]]]]
[-- --Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They're fast. Faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck.--]
''Blink'' was written by Creator/StevenMoffat and netted several awards for both writing and acting. It's one of the most popular ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories ever made (despite the fact that the Doctor appeared on screen for only a couple of minutes) and introduced the Weeping Angels. It lost a NebulaAward for Best Script to ''PansLabyrinth''.
The [[LowerDeckEpisode Doctor-lite episode]] was based on a short story written by Moffat for the 2006 ''Doctor Who Annual'', titled "'What I Did On My Christmas Holidays', by Sally Sparrow". ([[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/blink_annual.shtml The BBC has kindly put this up on their website.]])
Because of its [[LowerDeckEpisode Doctor-lite]] plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}.
-----
"Blink" centers on Sally Sparrow (played by Creator/CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
Sally leaves Wester Drumlins and, the next day, goes to visit her friend, Kathy Nightingale. At Kathy's house, Sally notices a [=TV=] set playing a [=DVD=] of the Doctor, apparently talking to thin air. She also meets Kathy's brother Lawrence ([[StealthPun Lawrence Nightingale, get it?]]), who has apparently discovered that sleeping in the nude helps with those tricky midnight leaks. Sufficiently GenreSavvy viewers [[HowToBecomeALoveInterest know what's coming next]], despite Moffat [[PlayingWithATrope trying to throw a curveball]] by reversing the genders of the protagonists.
Anyway, Sally persuades Kathy to accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen]], the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Katherine Costello Wainwright, formerly known as Katherine Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who had mysteriously teleported to 5 December 1920.
Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes a key hanging from the hand of one of the stone angels. While her back is turned, one of the statues apparently moves, its hand grasping for her as she walks away.
After visiting Kathy's grave ("[[ReallySeventeenYearsOld You told her you were eighteen? You lying cow!]]"), Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (a.k.a. Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
Sally gives him an edited version of Kathy's message, collects [[ChekhovsGun a list of the DVDs]] with the Doctor Easter Egg, and then steps out of the back room, her head still spinning. The man behind the counter shouts “[[PoliceAreUseless Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[GenreBlindness Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]” Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie. (You can practically see Moffat [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall winking at the audience]]).
This explicit LampshadeHanging leads her to take the counter-jockey's inadvertent advice, and Sally heads over to the Police Station -- followed by the Weeping Angels. At the station, she meets a police inspector called Billy Shipton, who flirts with her shamelessly, [[GenreBlind blissfully unaware]] that [[FirstGirlWins The First Guy Wins]] (though he is encouraged by a FreudianSlip on her part.) He also shows her a garage full of cars whose owners have disappeared in or around Wester Drumlins in the past few years. The prize of the collection is an imitation police box built entirely to scale which nobody can manage to open (they know it's fake because the phone's just a dummy and [[FandomNod the windows are the wrong size]]).
Sally responds to Billy's come-ons by giving him her phone number -- "Just a phone number" -- and then leaves. Billy returns to the garage to find it infested with four angelic statues. The camera zooms in on his face until he blinks, at which point he disappears.
Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds Billy Shipton, now 60 years old. [[AlmostDeadGuy Just before he dies]], he tells Sally that he met the Doctor in 1969, and the Doctor gave him a message for her. He also reveals that in the interim years he got into publishing, eventually DVD publishing. His company published all 17 [=DVDs=] with the Doctor's message on them, and asks if she's figured out the connection between them.
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17 DVDs]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.
At Wester Drumlins they set up a portable DVD player and, on noticing an Angel in the garden, Sally tells Larry to keep an eye on it. The following sequence is one of the biggest TimeParadox [[MindScrew Mind Screws]] you will ever encounter, with Sally and the Doctor carrying on an extended conversation even though the Doctor is speaking to a video camera thirty-eight years in the past. The Doctor's attempt to explain the temporal mechanics of the situation gives us the TropeNamer for the TimeyWimeyBall. When asked how he knows what she's going to say, the Doctor responds "Look to your left". Sally does so -- to find Larry scribbling her lines into his copy of the transcript of the Doctor's dialogue from the [=DVD=] Easter Egg (adding a necessary but slightly cool-dampening modicum of plausibility to the sequence). The Doctor reveals he has a copy of that completed transcript as he records his part.
The Doctor also explains the nature of the Weeping Angels: they feed on "potential energy", meaning the energy a person would have expended if they lived into the future, but do not expend if they live out the rest of their lives in the past. As he remarked earlier to Billy, they're the only psychopaths in the universe who kill you nicely; they send you back to the past and let you live yourself to death.
They've also evolved the ultimate defence mechanism:
-->Doctor: They're quantum locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice, it's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course, a stone can't kill you either, but... then you turn your head away. Then you ''[[TitleDrop blink]]'', and oh yes it can!
The Doctor tells Sally and Larry that [[MemeticMutation the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside ... and do enough damage to switch off the sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor.
His explanation done, the Doctor, noting that his transcript has ended, gives Sally and Larry these last words of advice:
-->Doctor: And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking but I can guess. [[OhCrap They're coming]]. The Angels are coming for you, but listen -- your life could depend on this -- don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are ''fast'', faster than you could believe. ''Don't'' turn your back, ''don't'' look away and ''don't blink''. ''[{{beat}}]'' Good luck.
It is at this moment, [[ForegoneConclusion of course]], that Sally and Larry realise that neither of them has been looking at the Angel in the garden. After a moment's pause, they look up to see it standing only a few metres away, poised to attack. Sally goes to look for an exit, leaving Larry to stare at the Angel. He looks away for a split second, and when he looks back the Angel's hands are inches away from his neck.
Sally finds the TARDIS in the mansion's basement, and she and Larry make their way down the stairs. However, the Angels follow them, and one creates intervals of darkness for the Angels to move by feeding on the electricity powering the single light-bulb. Sally and Larry make it inside the TARDIS just as the Angels reach them.
They then discover that Larry's DVD functions as a TARDIS-activation key, slot it into the TARDIS' handy PlotCoupon drive and then watch as the TARDIS de-materialises without them. The Angels have surrounded the TARDIS by this point, and when it disappears they're stuck looking at each other -- forever. Whoops.
Fast forward one year. Sally and Larry now run an antiquarian book and rare DVD shop [[BrickJoke named "Sparrow and Nightingale"]], which Sally insists is [[JustFriends all there is between them]], at least partly because she's too focused on investigating what happened to them.
Then the Doctor and Martha walk by, with [[NoodleImplements Martha carrying a quiver of arrows, and the Doctor carrying a bow]]. They are in a hurry to deal with -- [[NoodleIncident well, four things and a lizard]]. Neither the Doctor nor Martha recognises Sally, which leads her to realise that for them, the events of the episode haven't taken place yet. She also realises that the very convenient folder containing Larry's complete transcript of the conversation and various other details regarding the "Weeping Angels" affair is [[StableTimeLoop the source of the Doctor's knowledge about the incident]]. She gives the Doctor the folder, and tells him to use it the next time he gets trapped in 1969.
Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands indicating that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a Weeping Angel on the roof above.
What follows is 29 seconds of pure [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia-fueled]] MindScrew, as we return to the last few seconds of the Doctor's video:
--> Doctor: ''[following gargoyle close-up]'' Don't blink. ''[cut to shots of three successive human statues]'' Blink and you're dead. ''[cut to several more statues]'' ''Don't'' turn your back, ''[cut to two more statues]'' ''don't'' look away, ''[cut to several more statues]'' and ''don't blink''. ''[Several statues in quick succession]'' Good luck. ''[Cut to close up on the Doctor's eyes -- he blinks]''
----
!!Tropes:
* ActionSurvivor: Sally, and, to a lesser extent, Larry.
* AndIMustScream: The ultimate fate of the Angels.
* BuffySpeak:
** "[Time is] a [[TimeyWimeyBall ball of wibbly-wobbly Timey Wimey... stuff]]... it sort of got away from me, yeah."
** "This is my Timey Wimey Detector. It goes 'ding' when there's stuff."
* ChekhovsGun: The DVD list Larry gives to Sally
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
---> '''Sally Sparrow (on realizing the Doctor was speaking to her through the [=DVDs=]):''' The 17 [=DVDs=], they're all the [=DVDs=] I own. The Easter egg was for me.\\
'''Larry Nightingale:''' ...You've only got 17 [=DVDs=]?
* CreepyChangingPainting: The Angels. Played for ParanoiaFuel initially, then for several JumpScare moments.
* DeterminedExpression: Done mostly through body language, when Sally [[LetsGetDangerous gets dangerous]].
* EasterEgg: An in-universe example.
** Also {{Defictionalization}}. The Doctor's half of the conversation really ''is'' an Easter egg on the Series 3 DVD.
* {{Expy}}: Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale seem very similar to Amy Pond and Rory Williams in personality as well as physical appearance.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: "Blink" is based on Moffat's short story and shares several common elements; the heroine in both is Sally Sparrow (though the story's Sally is somewhat younger), there are elements of finding messages left by the Ninth Doctor trapped in the 1960s behind peeling wallpaper, and concludes with Sally finding a video tape, having a similarly strange conversation with the Doctor through the tape, and eventually helping to reunite him with the TARDIS. Fortunately, the story lacked much of the terror that "Blink" had including the Weeping Angels and being sent back through time.
* FirstGirlWins: Gender-flipped example
* FreudianSlip:
-->'''Billy Shipton:''' And that's Sally...?
-->'''Sally Sparrow:''' Sally Shipton. SPARROW! Sally Sparrow!
* GambitRoulette: Subverted. From Sally's perspective the Doctor's plan relies on insane guesswork, but by the time it's over you can clearly see how he pulled it all off.
* GenreSavvy: The Angels are clearly aware of the fact that they resemble statues in their quantum locked state. They often take poses one would expect of statues and place themselves where one would expect to see statues. It's probably the main reason they aren't simply following the heroes through the streets.
* GetBackToTheFuture: From the Doctor's and Martha's perspective, this is the plot of the episode.
* JustIgnoreIt: Inverted.
* JustSmileAndNod: Martha says this is the right way to behave around the Doctor: just nod every time he takes a breath.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: "Go to the police, you stupid woman! Why does nobody ever just go to the police?" Everyone's talking to Sally, even if they're talking to a TV screen or ''out of'' a TV screen.
* LetsGetDangerous: Sally after Billy dies of old age. Even the music gears up as she goes into Determinator Mode.
* LightFlickerTeleportation: In the cellar with the flickering lightbulb.
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] Creator/StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: The Doctor attempting to explain how time is not linear, but is more like a ball. It gets away from him.
* MindScrew: The ending.
** The whole StableTimeLoop in general.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheTimeOfAngels A later]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5FleshAndStone episode]] reveals that "whatever contains the image of an angel shall become an angel". With it now on DVD, how many times do they show the angels in the episode?
* MistakenForGranite: The Weeping Angels are initially thought to be just statues.
* MoodWhiplash: Weeping Angels and "[[CrowningMomentOfFunny wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey]]" in the same episode. Ow, my neck!
** Also, the [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming incredibly cute resolution for Sally and Larry]] followed immediately by the ParanoiaFuel NoFourthWall ending.
* NakedFirstImpression: Larry Nightingale, for Sally Sparrow.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Larry, again.
* NewspaperDating: How Kathy finds out that she's in 1920.
* NoodleImplements: Said while carrying a bow and arrow:
-->"Things happening. Well... four things. Well... four things, and a lizard."
* NoodleIncident: We never learn what the four things and the lizard are. It isn't a reference to another episode.
** For that matter, we never find out exactly how the Doctor and Martha get stranded in past as part of the angels' plan to get the phonebox.
** Or what the Doctor and Martha were doing in 2007, considering that (from a linear, subjective viewpoint) Martha first met the Doctor in 2008. This means there were two Marthas in London simultaneously, putting her at risk of being affected by the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks Blinovitch Limitation Effect]].
* NothingIsScarier: We never actually see an Angel send anyone back in time. We only see the people they've sent back after they've been sent back. In part this is because of the fourth wall-breaking nature of the Angels' portrayal (see Paranoia Fuel below), but in part it's because imagining them creeping up on you is much scarier.
* OhCrap: "Why's it pointing at the..." (the light bulb flickers)
** Also:
--->'''Sally''': You're not looking at the statue.
--->'''Larry''': Neither are you.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: The EasterEgg, for Sally ''and'' Larry.
* OneWordTitle
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Although not high school students, Sally Sparrow, Kathy Nightingale, Lawrence Nightingale and Billy Shipton all fit this trope very well. They're just normal people who get swept up into very weird events through no fault whatsoever of their own.
* PlotCoupon: The DVD.
* PublicSecretMessage: The DVD Easter egg.
* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Once she ends up in 1920, Kathy claims to have been born in 1902. Sally makes it clear to the audience that Kathy wasn't really that old.
* {{Redshirt}}: Kathy literally wears one while rooting around with Sally, although she's not killed outright, just time displaced.
* StableTimeLoop: The episode revolves around creating one of these. Which, arguably, makes the ending a ForegoneConclusion. And, yet, it's still terrifying.
* StalkingIsLove: Ben is the first person Kathy sees when she gets sent back to 1920; they later get married.
--->'''KATHY''': Are you following me?
--->'''BEN''': Yeah.
--->'''KATHY''': Are you going to stop following me?
--->'''BEN''': No, I don't think so.
* ShoutOut: "You live in [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scooby-Doo's]] house."
** Also [[Film/BackToTheFuture someone getting stuck in the past and arranging for a message to be delivered to a friend at the location and time when they disappeared]]
*** Which ''Gary'' Sparrow ended up doing in ''GoodnightSweetheart''.
** "How did I get here?" "Same way we did! [[TouchedByAnAngel Touch of an angel!]]"
** The object right in front of the camera the first time Sally goes into the back of the DVD shop looks like [[Film/{{Watchmen}} the Owlship]].
* TakeThat: When entering Wester Drumlins for the first time, Sally and Kathy suggest names for their little "investigation team". When Sally comes up with 'Nightingale and Sparrow', Kathy dismisses it as a bit too ITV. Doesn't stop Sally and Lawrence from using it as the name of their shop.
* ThemeNaming: Sparrow and Nightingale - is it any wonder they get together in the end?
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat
** Twice.
*** Accidentally at first.
--->'''The Doctor:''' ...it's more like a big ball of [[TimeyWimeyBall wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Started well, that sentence.\\
'''The Doctor:''' It... got away from me, yeah...\\
'''Sally:''' 'Kay, that was weird. Like you can hear me.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Well, I ''can'' hear you.\\
'''Sally:''' Okay, that's enough!
*** Then what it was ''supposed'' to mean.
--->'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar ...it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you. \\
'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar It... got away from me, yeah...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Next thing you're going to say is, "Well, I ''can'' hear you."\\
'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar Well, I]] ''[[ThatSoundsFamiliar can]]'' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar hear you.]]\\
'''Sally:''' This is impossible!
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer.
-->'''The Doctor:''' People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
** The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised. The only real issue is that there's no way -- from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint -- to enter the circle in the first place.
* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: For all the hype about the Angels being so fast, they sure can take their time sneaking up on people when no one (including the audience) is watching. During Sally's conversation with the Doctor on the DVD, both she and Lawrence spend a good bit of time not watching the Angel in the garden, only to look up and find that it has just come in the room. In an earlier scene, Sally spies two of the Angels on a church across the street and one blink allows them to cross the entire distance.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: This came out during the last hurrah of video rental stores.
** Of course, given that this is a show about time travel that always treats the era the episode is filmed in as the "present," it can afford to be this.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Parodied in-universe, with a spin on ItMakesSenseInContext.
-->'''Sally:''' How can you know what I'm gonna say?
-->'''The Doctor:''' Look to your left.
-->''Sally looks to her left, and sees Larry transcribing everything she says.''
-->'''Larry:''' What does he mean by "look to your left"? I've written tons about that one. I think it's a political statement.
----
No! Keep looking at the- [[note]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Weeping_Angel_291.jpg[[/note]]
----
[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou Don't scroll down to read more! You'll be taking your eyes off it...]]]]
[-- --Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They're fast. Faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck.--]
''Blink'' was written by Creator/StevenMoffat and netted several awards for both writing and acting. It's one of the most popular ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories ever made (despite the fact that the Doctor appeared on screen for only a couple of minutes) and introduced the Weeping Angels. It lost a NebulaAward for Best Script to ''PansLabyrinth''.
The [[LowerDeckEpisode Doctor-lite episode]] was based on a short story written by Moffat for the 2006 ''Doctor Who Annual'', titled "'What I Did On My Christmas Holidays', by Sally Sparrow". ([[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/blink_annual.shtml The BBC has kindly put this up on their website.]])
Because of its [[LowerDeckEpisode Doctor-lite]] plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}.
-----
"Blink" centers on Sally Sparrow (played by Creator/CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
Sally leaves Wester Drumlins and, the next day, goes to visit her friend, Kathy Nightingale. At Kathy's house, Sally notices a [=TV=] set playing a [=DVD=] of the Doctor, apparently talking to thin air. She also meets Kathy's brother Lawrence ([[StealthPun Lawrence Nightingale, get it?]]), who has apparently discovered that sleeping in the nude helps with those tricky midnight leaks. Sufficiently GenreSavvy viewers [[HowToBecomeALoveInterest know what's coming next]], despite Moffat [[PlayingWithATrope trying to throw a curveball]] by reversing the genders of the protagonists.
Anyway, Sally persuades Kathy to accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen]], the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Katherine Costello Wainwright, formerly known as Katherine Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who had mysteriously teleported to 5 December 1920.
Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes a key hanging from the hand of one of the stone angels. While her back is turned, one of the statues apparently moves, its hand grasping for her as she walks away.
After visiting Kathy's grave ("[[ReallySeventeenYearsOld You told her you were eighteen? You lying cow!]]"), Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (a.k.a. Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
Sally gives him an edited version of Kathy's message, collects [[ChekhovsGun a list of the DVDs]] with the Doctor Easter Egg, and then steps out of the back room, her head still spinning. The man behind the counter shouts “[[PoliceAreUseless Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[GenreBlindness Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]” Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie. (You can practically see Moffat [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall winking at the audience]]).
This explicit LampshadeHanging leads her to take the counter-jockey's inadvertent advice, and Sally heads over to the Police Station -- followed by the Weeping Angels. At the station, she meets a police inspector called Billy Shipton, who flirts with her shamelessly, [[GenreBlind blissfully unaware]] that [[FirstGirlWins The First Guy Wins]] (though he is encouraged by a FreudianSlip on her part.) He also shows her a garage full of cars whose owners have disappeared in or around Wester Drumlins in the past few years. The prize of the collection is an imitation police box built entirely to scale which nobody can manage to open (they know it's fake because the phone's just a dummy and [[FandomNod the windows are the wrong size]]).
Sally responds to Billy's come-ons by giving him her phone number -- "Just a phone number" -- and then leaves. Billy returns to the garage to find it infested with four angelic statues. The camera zooms in on his face until he blinks, at which point he disappears.
Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds Billy Shipton, now 60 years old. [[AlmostDeadGuy Just before he dies]], he tells Sally that he met the Doctor in 1969, and the Doctor gave him a message for her. He also reveals that in the interim years he got into publishing, eventually DVD publishing. His company published all 17 [=DVDs=] with the Doctor's message on them, and asks if she's figured out the connection between them.
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17 DVDs]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.
At Wester Drumlins they set up a portable DVD player and, on noticing an Angel in the garden, Sally tells Larry to keep an eye on it. The following sequence is one of the biggest TimeParadox [[MindScrew Mind Screws]] you will ever encounter, with Sally and the Doctor carrying on an extended conversation even though the Doctor is speaking to a video camera thirty-eight years in the past. The Doctor's attempt to explain the temporal mechanics of the situation gives us the TropeNamer for the TimeyWimeyBall. When asked how he knows what she's going to say, the Doctor responds "Look to your left". Sally does so -- to find Larry scribbling her lines into his copy of the transcript of the Doctor's dialogue from the [=DVD=] Easter Egg (adding a necessary but slightly cool-dampening modicum of plausibility to the sequence). The Doctor reveals he has a copy of that completed transcript as he records his part.
The Doctor also explains the nature of the Weeping Angels: they feed on "potential energy", meaning the energy a person would have expended if they lived into the future, but do not expend if they live out the rest of their lives in the past. As he remarked earlier to Billy, they're the only psychopaths in the universe who kill you nicely; they send you back to the past and let you live yourself to death.
They've also evolved the ultimate defence mechanism:
-->Doctor: They're quantum locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice, it's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course, a stone can't kill you either, but... then you turn your head away. Then you ''[[TitleDrop blink]]'', and oh yes it can!
The Doctor tells Sally and Larry that [[MemeticMutation the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside ... and do enough damage to switch off the sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor.
His explanation done, the Doctor, noting that his transcript has ended, gives Sally and Larry these last words of advice:
-->Doctor: And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking but I can guess. [[OhCrap They're coming]]. The Angels are coming for you, but listen -- your life could depend on this -- don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are ''fast'', faster than you could believe. ''Don't'' turn your back, ''don't'' look away and ''don't blink''. ''[{{beat}}]'' Good luck.
It is at this moment, [[ForegoneConclusion of course]], that Sally and Larry realise that neither of them has been looking at the Angel in the garden. After a moment's pause, they look up to see it standing only a few metres away, poised to attack. Sally goes to look for an exit, leaving Larry to stare at the Angel. He looks away for a split second, and when he looks back the Angel's hands are inches away from his neck.
Sally finds the TARDIS in the mansion's basement, and she and Larry make their way down the stairs. However, the Angels follow them, and one creates intervals of darkness for the Angels to move by feeding on the electricity powering the single light-bulb. Sally and Larry make it inside the TARDIS just as the Angels reach them.
They then discover that Larry's DVD functions as a TARDIS-activation key, slot it into the TARDIS' handy PlotCoupon drive and then watch as the TARDIS de-materialises without them. The Angels have surrounded the TARDIS by this point, and when it disappears they're stuck looking at each other -- forever. Whoops.
Fast forward one year. Sally and Larry now run an antiquarian book and rare DVD shop [[BrickJoke named "Sparrow and Nightingale"]], which Sally insists is [[JustFriends all there is between them]], at least partly because she's too focused on investigating what happened to them.
Then the Doctor and Martha walk by, with [[NoodleImplements Martha carrying a quiver of arrows, and the Doctor carrying a bow]]. They are in a hurry to deal with -- [[NoodleIncident well, four things and a lizard]]. Neither the Doctor nor Martha recognises Sally, which leads her to realise that for them, the events of the episode haven't taken place yet. She also realises that the very convenient folder containing Larry's complete transcript of the conversation and various other details regarding the "Weeping Angels" affair is [[StableTimeLoop the source of the Doctor's knowledge about the incident]]. She gives the Doctor the folder, and tells him to use it the next time he gets trapped in 1969.
Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands indicating that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a Weeping Angel on the roof above.
What follows is 29 seconds of pure [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia-fueled]] MindScrew, as we return to the last few seconds of the Doctor's video:
--> Doctor: ''[following gargoyle close-up]'' Don't blink. ''[cut to shots of three successive human statues]'' Blink and you're dead. ''[cut to several more statues]'' ''Don't'' turn your back, ''[cut to two more statues]'' ''don't'' look away, ''[cut to several more statues]'' and ''don't blink''. ''[Several statues in quick succession]'' Good luck. ''[Cut to close up on the Doctor's eyes -- he blinks]''
----
!!Tropes:
* ActionSurvivor: Sally, and, to a lesser extent, Larry.
* AndIMustScream: The ultimate fate of the Angels.
* BuffySpeak:
** "[Time is] a [[TimeyWimeyBall ball of wibbly-wobbly Timey Wimey... stuff]]... it sort of got away from me, yeah."
** "This is my Timey Wimey Detector. It goes 'ding' when there's stuff."
* ChekhovsGun: The DVD list Larry gives to Sally
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
---> '''Sally Sparrow (on realizing the Doctor was speaking to her through the [=DVDs=]):''' The 17 [=DVDs=], they're all the [=DVDs=] I own. The Easter egg was for me.\\
'''Larry Nightingale:''' ...You've only got 17 [=DVDs=]?
* CreepyChangingPainting: The Angels. Played for ParanoiaFuel initially, then for several JumpScare moments.
* DeterminedExpression: Done mostly through body language, when Sally [[LetsGetDangerous gets dangerous]].
* EasterEgg: An in-universe example.
** Also {{Defictionalization}}. The Doctor's half of the conversation really ''is'' an Easter egg on the Series 3 DVD.
* {{Expy}}: Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale seem very similar to Amy Pond and Rory Williams in personality as well as physical appearance.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: "Blink" is based on Moffat's short story and shares several common elements; the heroine in both is Sally Sparrow (though the story's Sally is somewhat younger), there are elements of finding messages left by the Ninth Doctor trapped in the 1960s behind peeling wallpaper, and concludes with Sally finding a video tape, having a similarly strange conversation with the Doctor through the tape, and eventually helping to reunite him with the TARDIS. Fortunately, the story lacked much of the terror that "Blink" had including the Weeping Angels and being sent back through time.
* FirstGirlWins: Gender-flipped example
* FreudianSlip:
-->'''Billy Shipton:''' And that's Sally...?
-->'''Sally Sparrow:''' Sally Shipton. SPARROW! Sally Sparrow!
* GambitRoulette: Subverted. From Sally's perspective the Doctor's plan relies on insane guesswork, but by the time it's over you can clearly see how he pulled it all off.
* GenreSavvy: The Angels are clearly aware of the fact that they resemble statues in their quantum locked state. They often take poses one would expect of statues and place themselves where one would expect to see statues. It's probably the main reason they aren't simply following the heroes through the streets.
* GetBackToTheFuture: From the Doctor's and Martha's perspective, this is the plot of the episode.
* JustIgnoreIt: Inverted.
* JustSmileAndNod: Martha says this is the right way to behave around the Doctor: just nod every time he takes a breath.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: "Go to the police, you stupid woman! Why does nobody ever just go to the police?" Everyone's talking to Sally, even if they're talking to a TV screen or ''out of'' a TV screen.
* LetsGetDangerous: Sally after Billy dies of old age. Even the music gears up as she goes into Determinator Mode.
* LightFlickerTeleportation: In the cellar with the flickering lightbulb.
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] Creator/StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: The Doctor attempting to explain how time is not linear, but is more like a ball. It gets away from him.
* MindScrew: The ending.
** The whole StableTimeLoop in general.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheTimeOfAngels A later]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5FleshAndStone episode]] reveals that "whatever contains the image of an angel shall become an angel". With it now on DVD, how many times do they show the angels in the episode?
* MistakenForGranite: The Weeping Angels are initially thought to be just statues.
* MoodWhiplash: Weeping Angels and "[[CrowningMomentOfFunny wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey]]" in the same episode. Ow, my neck!
** Also, the [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming incredibly cute resolution for Sally and Larry]] followed immediately by the ParanoiaFuel NoFourthWall ending.
* NakedFirstImpression: Larry Nightingale, for Sally Sparrow.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Larry, again.
* NewspaperDating: How Kathy finds out that she's in 1920.
* NoodleImplements: Said while carrying a bow and arrow:
-->"Things happening. Well... four things. Well... four things, and a lizard."
* NoodleIncident: We never learn what the four things and the lizard are. It isn't a reference to another episode.
** For that matter, we never find out exactly how the Doctor and Martha get stranded in past as part of the angels' plan to get the phonebox.
** Or what the Doctor and Martha were doing in 2007, considering that (from a linear, subjective viewpoint) Martha first met the Doctor in 2008. This means there were two Marthas in London simultaneously, putting her at risk of being affected by the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks Blinovitch Limitation Effect]].
* NothingIsScarier: We never actually see an Angel send anyone back in time. We only see the people they've sent back after they've been sent back. In part this is because of the fourth wall-breaking nature of the Angels' portrayal (see Paranoia Fuel below), but in part it's because imagining them creeping up on you is much scarier.
* OhCrap: "Why's it pointing at the..." (the light bulb flickers)
** Also:
--->'''Sally''': You're not looking at the statue.
--->'''Larry''': Neither are you.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: The EasterEgg, for Sally ''and'' Larry.
* OneWordTitle
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Although not high school students, Sally Sparrow, Kathy Nightingale, Lawrence Nightingale and Billy Shipton all fit this trope very well. They're just normal people who get swept up into very weird events through no fault whatsoever of their own.
* PlotCoupon: The DVD.
* PublicSecretMessage: The DVD Easter egg.
* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Once she ends up in 1920, Kathy claims to have been born in 1902. Sally makes it clear to the audience that Kathy wasn't really that old.
* {{Redshirt}}: Kathy literally wears one while rooting around with Sally, although she's not killed outright, just time displaced.
* StableTimeLoop: The episode revolves around creating one of these. Which, arguably, makes the ending a ForegoneConclusion. And, yet, it's still terrifying.
* StalkingIsLove: Ben is the first person Kathy sees when she gets sent back to 1920; they later get married.
--->'''KATHY''': Are you following me?
--->'''BEN''': Yeah.
--->'''KATHY''': Are you going to stop following me?
--->'''BEN''': No, I don't think so.
* ShoutOut: "You live in [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scooby-Doo's]] house."
** Also [[Film/BackToTheFuture someone getting stuck in the past and arranging for a message to be delivered to a friend at the location and time when they disappeared]]
*** Which ''Gary'' Sparrow ended up doing in ''GoodnightSweetheart''.
** "How did I get here?" "Same way we did! [[TouchedByAnAngel Touch of an angel!]]"
** The object right in front of the camera the first time Sally goes into the back of the DVD shop looks like [[Film/{{Watchmen}} the Owlship]].
* TakeThat: When entering Wester Drumlins for the first time, Sally and Kathy suggest names for their little "investigation team". When Sally comes up with 'Nightingale and Sparrow', Kathy dismisses it as a bit too ITV. Doesn't stop Sally and Lawrence from using it as the name of their shop.
* ThemeNaming: Sparrow and Nightingale - is it any wonder they get together in the end?
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat
** Twice.
*** Accidentally at first.
--->'''The Doctor:''' ...it's more like a big ball of [[TimeyWimeyBall wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Started well, that sentence.\\
'''The Doctor:''' It... got away from me, yeah...\\
'''Sally:''' 'Kay, that was weird. Like you can hear me.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Well, I ''can'' hear you.\\
'''Sally:''' Okay, that's enough!
*** Then what it was ''supposed'' to mean.
--->'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar ...it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you. \\
'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar It... got away from me, yeah...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Next thing you're going to say is, "Well, I ''can'' hear you."\\
'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar Well, I]] ''[[ThatSoundsFamiliar can]]'' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar hear you.]]\\
'''Sally:''' This is impossible!
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer.
-->'''The Doctor:''' People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
** The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised. The only real issue is that there's no way -- from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint -- to enter the circle in the first place.
* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: For all the hype about the Angels being so fast, they sure can take their time sneaking up on people when no one (including the audience) is watching. During Sally's conversation with the Doctor on the DVD, both she and Lawrence spend a good bit of time not watching the Angel in the garden, only to look up and find that it has just come in the room. In an earlier scene, Sally spies two of the Angels on a church across the street and one blink allows them to cross the entire distance.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: This came out during the last hurrah of video rental stores.
** Of course, given that this is a show about time travel that always treats the era the episode is filmed in as the "present," it can afford to be this.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Parodied in-universe, with a spin on ItMakesSenseInContext.
-->'''Sally:''' How can you know what I'm gonna say?
-->'''The Doctor:''' Look to your left.
-->''Sally looks to her left, and sees Larry transcribing everything she says.''
-->'''Larry:''' What does he mean by "look to your left"? I've written tons about that one. I think it's a political statement.
----
No! Keep looking at the- [[note]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Weeping_Angel_291.jpg[[/note]]
----
to:
[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou Don't scroll down to read more! You'll be taking your eyes off it...]]]]
[-- --Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They're fast. Faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck.--]
''Blink'' was written by Creator/StevenMoffat and netted several awards for both writing and acting. It's one of the most popular ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories ever made (despite the fact that the Doctor appeared on screen for only a couple of minutes) and introduced the Weeping Angels. It lost a NebulaAward for Best Script to ''PansLabyrinth''.
The [[LowerDeckEpisode Doctor-lite episode]] was based on a short story written by Moffat for the 2006 ''Doctor Who Annual'', titled "'What I Did On My Christmas Holidays', by Sally Sparrow". ([[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/blink_annual.shtml The BBC has kindly put this up on their website.]])
Because of its [[LowerDeckEpisode Doctor-lite]] plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}.
-----
"Blink" centers on Sally Sparrow (played by Creator/CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
Sally leaves Wester Drumlins and, the next day, goes to visit her friend, Kathy Nightingale. At Kathy's house, Sally notices a [=TV=] set playing a [=DVD=] of the Doctor, apparently talking to thin air. She also meets Kathy's brother Lawrence ([[StealthPun Lawrence Nightingale, get it?]]), who has apparently discovered that sleeping in the nude helps with those tricky midnight leaks. Sufficiently GenreSavvy viewers [[HowToBecomeALoveInterest know what's coming next]], despite Moffat [[PlayingWithATrope trying to throw a curveball]] by reversing the genders of the protagonists.
Anyway, Sally persuades Kathy to accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen]], the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Katherine Costello Wainwright, formerly known as Katherine Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who had mysteriously teleported to 5 December 1920.
Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes a key hanging from the hand of one of the stone angels. While her back is turned, one of the statues apparently moves, its hand grasping for her as she walks away.
After visiting Kathy's grave ("[[ReallySeventeenYearsOld You told her you were eighteen? You lying cow!]]"), Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (a.k.a. Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
Sally gives him an edited version of Kathy's message, collects [[ChekhovsGun a list of the DVDs]] with the Doctor Easter Egg, and then steps out of the back room, her head still spinning. The man behind the counter shouts “[[PoliceAreUseless Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[GenreBlindness Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]” Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie. (You can practically see Moffat [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall winking at the audience]]).
This explicit LampshadeHanging leads her to take the counter-jockey's inadvertent advice, and Sally heads over to the Police Station -- followed by the Weeping Angels. At the station, she meets a police inspector called Billy Shipton, who flirts with her shamelessly, [[GenreBlind blissfully unaware]] that [[FirstGirlWins The First Guy Wins]] (though he is encouraged by a FreudianSlip on her part.) He also shows her a garage full of cars whose owners have disappeared in or around Wester Drumlins in the past few years. The prize of the collection is an imitation police box built entirely to scale which nobody can manage to open (they know it's fake because the phone's just a dummy and [[FandomNod the windows are the wrong size]]).
Sally responds to Billy's come-ons by giving him her phone number -- "Just a phone number" -- and then leaves. Billy returns to the garage to find it infested with four angelic statues. The camera zooms in on his face until he blinks, at which point he disappears.
Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds Billy Shipton, now 60 years old. [[AlmostDeadGuy Just before he dies]], he tells Sally that he met the Doctor in 1969, and the Doctor gave him a message for her. He also reveals that in the interim years he got into publishing, eventually DVD publishing. His company published all 17 [=DVDs=] with the Doctor's message on them, and asks if she's figured out the connection between them.
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17 DVDs]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.
At Wester Drumlins they set up a portable DVD player and, on noticing an Angel in the garden, Sally tells Larry to keep an eye on it. The following sequence is one of the biggest TimeParadox [[MindScrew Mind Screws]] you will ever encounter, with Sally and the Doctor carrying on an extended conversation even though the Doctor is speaking to a video camera thirty-eight years in the past. The Doctor's attempt to explain the temporal mechanics of the situation gives us the TropeNamer for the TimeyWimeyBall. When asked how he knows what she's going to say, the Doctor responds "Look to your left". Sally does so -- to find Larry scribbling her lines into his copy of the transcript of the Doctor's dialogue from the [=DVD=] Easter Egg (adding a necessary but slightly cool-dampening modicum of plausibility to the sequence). The Doctor reveals he has a copy of that completed transcript as he records his part.
The Doctor also explains the nature of the Weeping Angels: they feed on "potential energy", meaning the energy a person would have expended if they lived into the future, but do not expend if they live out the rest of their lives in the past. As he remarked earlier to Billy, they're the only psychopaths in the universe who kill you nicely; they send you back to the past and let you live yourself to death.
They've also evolved the ultimate defence mechanism:
-->Doctor: They're quantum locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice, it's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course, a stone can't kill you either, but... then you turn your head away. Then you ''[[TitleDrop blink]]'', and oh yes it can!
The Doctor tells Sally and Larry that [[MemeticMutation the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside ... and do enough damage to switch off the sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor.
His explanation done, the Doctor, noting that his transcript has ended, gives Sally and Larry these last words of advice:
-->Doctor: And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking but I can guess. [[OhCrap They're coming]]. The Angels are coming for you, but listen -- your life could depend on this -- don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are ''fast'', faster than you could believe. ''Don't'' turn your back, ''don't'' look away and ''don't blink''. ''[{{beat}}]'' Good luck.
It is at this moment, [[ForegoneConclusion of course]], that Sally and Larry realise that neither of them has been looking at the Angel in the garden. After a moment's pause, they look up to see it standing only a few metres away, poised to attack. Sally goes to look for an exit, leaving Larry to stare at the Angel. He looks away for a split second, and when he looks back the Angel's hands are inches away from his neck.
Sally finds the TARDIS in the mansion's basement, and she and Larry make their way down the stairs. However, the Angels follow them, and one creates intervals of darkness for the Angels to move by feeding on the electricity powering the single light-bulb. Sally and Larry make it inside the TARDIS just as the Angels reach them.
They then discover that Larry's DVD functions as a TARDIS-activation key, slot it into the TARDIS' handy PlotCoupon drive and then watch as the TARDIS de-materialises without them. The Angels have surrounded the TARDIS by this point, and when it disappears they're stuck looking at each other -- forever. Whoops.
Fast forward one year. Sally and Larry now run an antiquarian book and rare DVD shop [[BrickJoke named "Sparrow and Nightingale"]], which Sally insists is [[JustFriends all there is between them]], at least partly because she's too focused on investigating what happened to them.
Then the Doctor and Martha walk by, with [[NoodleImplements Martha carrying a quiver of arrows, and the Doctor carrying a bow]]. They are in a hurry to deal with -- [[NoodleIncident well, four things and a lizard]]. Neither the Doctor nor Martha recognises Sally, which leads her to realise that for them, the events of the episode haven't taken place yet. She also realises that the very convenient folder containing Larry's complete transcript of the conversation and various other details regarding the "Weeping Angels" affair is [[StableTimeLoop the source of the Doctor's knowledge about the incident]]. She gives the Doctor the folder, and tells him to use it the next time he gets trapped in 1969.
Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands indicating that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a Weeping Angel on the roof above.
What follows is 29 seconds of pure [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia-fueled]] MindScrew, as we return to the last few seconds of the Doctor's video:
--> Doctor: ''[following gargoyle close-up]'' Don't blink. ''[cut to shots of three successive human statues]'' Blink and you're dead. ''[cut to several more statues]'' ''Don't'' turn your back, ''[cut to two more statues]'' ''don't'' look away, ''[cut to several more statues]'' and ''don't blink''. ''[Several statues in quick succession]'' Good luck. ''[Cut to close up on the Doctor's eyes -- he blinks]''
----
!!Tropes:
* ActionSurvivor: Sally, and, to a lesser extent, Larry.
* AndIMustScream: The ultimate fate of the Angels.
* BuffySpeak:
** "[Time is] a [[TimeyWimeyBall ball of wibbly-wobbly Timey Wimey... stuff]]... it sort of got away from me, yeah."
** "This is my Timey Wimey Detector. It goes 'ding' when there's stuff."
* ChekhovsGun: The DVD list Larry gives to Sally
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
---> '''Sally Sparrow (on realizing the Doctor was speaking to her through the [=DVDs=]):''' The 17 [=DVDs=], they're all the [=DVDs=] I own. The Easter egg was for me.\\
'''Larry Nightingale:''' ...You've only got 17 [=DVDs=]?
* CreepyChangingPainting: The Angels. Played for ParanoiaFuel initially, then for several JumpScare moments.
* DeterminedExpression: Done mostly through body language, when Sally [[LetsGetDangerous gets dangerous]].
* EasterEgg: An in-universe example.
** Also {{Defictionalization}}. The Doctor's half of the conversation really ''is'' an Easter egg on the Series 3 DVD.
* {{Expy}}: Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale seem very similar to Amy Pond and Rory Williams in personality as well as physical appearance.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: "Blink" is based on Moffat's short story and shares several common elements; the heroine in both is Sally Sparrow (though the story's Sally is somewhat younger), there are elements of finding messages left by the Ninth Doctor trapped in the 1960s behind peeling wallpaper, and concludes with Sally finding a video tape, having a similarly strange conversation with the Doctor through the tape, and eventually helping to reunite him with the TARDIS. Fortunately, the story lacked much of the terror that "Blink" had including the Weeping Angels and being sent back through time.
* FirstGirlWins: Gender-flipped example
* FreudianSlip:
-->'''Billy Shipton:''' And that's Sally...?
-->'''Sally Sparrow:''' Sally Shipton. SPARROW! Sally Sparrow!
* GambitRoulette: Subverted. From Sally's perspective the Doctor's plan relies on insane guesswork, but by the time it's over you can clearly see how he pulled it all off.
* GenreSavvy: The Angels are clearly aware of the fact that they resemble statues in their quantum locked state. They often take poses one would expect of statues and place themselves where one would expect to see statues. It's probably the main reason they aren't simply following the heroes through the streets.
* GetBackToTheFuture: From the Doctor's and Martha's perspective, this is the plot of the episode.
* JustIgnoreIt: Inverted.
* JustSmileAndNod: Martha says this is the right way to behave around the Doctor: just nod every time he takes a breath.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: "Go to the police, you stupid woman! Why does nobody ever just go to the police?" Everyone's talking to Sally, even if they're talking to a TV screen or ''out of'' a TV screen.
* LetsGetDangerous: Sally after Billy dies of old age. Even the music gears up as she goes into Determinator Mode.
* LightFlickerTeleportation: In the cellar with the flickering lightbulb.
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] Creator/StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: The Doctor attempting to explain how time is not linear, but is more like a ball. It gets away from him.
* MindScrew: The ending.
** The whole StableTimeLoop in general.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheTimeOfAngels A later]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5FleshAndStone episode]] reveals that "whatever contains the image of an angel shall become an angel". With it now on DVD, how many times do they show the angels in the episode?
* MistakenForGranite: The Weeping Angels are initially thought to be just statues.
* MoodWhiplash: Weeping Angels and "[[CrowningMomentOfFunny wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey]]" in the same episode. Ow, my neck!
** Also, the [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming incredibly cute resolution for Sally and Larry]] followed immediately by the ParanoiaFuel NoFourthWall ending.
* NakedFirstImpression: Larry Nightingale, for Sally Sparrow.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Larry, again.
* NewspaperDating: How Kathy finds out that she's in 1920.
* NoodleImplements: Said while carrying a bow and arrow:
-->"Things happening. Well... four things. Well... four things, and a lizard."
* NoodleIncident: We never learn what the four things and the lizard are. It isn't a reference to another episode.
** For that matter, we never find out exactly how the Doctor and Martha get stranded in past as part of the angels' plan to get the phonebox.
** Or what the Doctor and Martha were doing in 2007, considering that (from a linear, subjective viewpoint) Martha first met the Doctor in 2008. This means there were two Marthas in London simultaneously, putting her at risk of being affected by the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks Blinovitch Limitation Effect]].
* NothingIsScarier: We never actually see an Angel send anyone back in time. We only see the people they've sent back after they've been sent back. In part this is because of the fourth wall-breaking nature of the Angels' portrayal (see Paranoia Fuel below), but in part it's because imagining them creeping up on you is much scarier.
* OhCrap: "Why's it pointing at the..." (the light bulb flickers)
** Also:
--->'''Sally''': You're not looking at the statue.
--->'''Larry''': Neither are you.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: The EasterEgg, for Sally ''and'' Larry.
* OneWordTitle
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Although not high school students, Sally Sparrow, Kathy Nightingale, Lawrence Nightingale and Billy Shipton all fit this trope very well. They're just normal people who get swept up into very weird events through no fault whatsoever of their own.
* PlotCoupon: The DVD.
* PublicSecretMessage: The DVD Easter egg.
* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Once she ends up in 1920, Kathy claims to have been born in 1902. Sally makes it clear to the audience that Kathy wasn't really that old.
* {{Redshirt}}: Kathy literally wears one while rooting around with Sally, although she's not killed outright, just time displaced.
* StableTimeLoop: The episode revolves around creating one of these. Which, arguably, makes the ending a ForegoneConclusion. And, yet, it's still terrifying.
* StalkingIsLove: Ben is the first person Kathy sees when she gets sent back to 1920; they later get married.
--->'''KATHY''': Are you following me?
--->'''BEN''': Yeah.
--->'''KATHY''': Are you going to stop following me?
--->'''BEN''': No, I don't think so.
* ShoutOut: "You live in [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scooby-Doo's]] house."
** Also [[Film/BackToTheFuture someone getting stuck in the past and arranging for a message to be delivered to a friend at the location and time when they disappeared]]
*** Which ''Gary'' Sparrow ended up doing in ''GoodnightSweetheart''.
** "How did I get here?" "Same way we did! [[TouchedByAnAngel Touch of an angel!]]"
** The object right in front of the camera the first time Sally goes into the back of the DVD shop looks like [[Film/{{Watchmen}} the Owlship]].
* TakeThat: When entering Wester Drumlins for the first time, Sally and Kathy suggest names for their little "investigation team". When Sally comes up with 'Nightingale and Sparrow', Kathy dismisses it as a bit too ITV. Doesn't stop Sally and Lawrence from using it as the name of their shop.
* ThemeNaming: Sparrow and Nightingale - is it any wonder they get together in the end?
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat
** Twice.
*** Accidentally at first.
--->'''The Doctor:''' ...it's more like a big ball of [[TimeyWimeyBall wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Started well, that sentence.\\
'''The Doctor:''' It... got away from me, yeah...\\
'''Sally:''' 'Kay, that was weird. Like you can hear me.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Well, I ''can'' hear you.\\
'''Sally:''' Okay, that's enough!
*** Then what it was ''supposed'' to mean.
--->'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar ...it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you. \\
'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar It... got away from me, yeah...]]\\
'''Sally:''' Next thing you're going to say is, "Well, I ''can'' hear you."\\
'''The Doctor:''' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar Well, I]] ''[[ThatSoundsFamiliar can]]'' [[ThatSoundsFamiliar hear you.]]\\
'''Sally:''' This is impossible!
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer.
-->'''The Doctor:''' People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
** The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised. The only real issue is that there's no way -- from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint -- to enter the circle in the first place.
* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: For all the hype about the Angels being so fast, they sure can take their time sneaking up on people when no one (including the audience) is watching. During Sally's conversation with the Doctor on the DVD, both she and Lawrence spend a good bit of time not watching the Angel in the garden, only to look up and find that it has just come in the room. In an earlier scene, Sally spies two of the Angels on a church across the street and one blink allows them to cross the entire distance.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: This came out during the last hurrah of video rental stores.
** Of course, given that this is a show about time travel that always treats the era the episode is filmed in as the "present," it can afford to be this.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Parodied in-universe, with a spin on ItMakesSenseInContext.
-->'''Sally:''' How can you know what I'm gonna say?
-->'''The Doctor:''' Look to your left.
-->''Sally looks to her left, and sees Larry transcribing everything she says.''
-->'''Larry:''' What does he mean by "look to your left"? I've written tons about that one. I think it's a political statement.
----
No! Keep looking at the- [[note]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Weeping_Angel_291.jpg[[/note]]
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Why is strikethrough working in preview? Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey...
Changed line(s) 10 (click to see context) from:
Because of its Doctor-light plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the universe of Doctor Who.
to:
Because of its Doctor-light [[LowerDeckEpisode Doctor-lite]] plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the universe of Doctor Who.Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}.
Changed line(s) 15,24 (click to see context) from:
Sally leaves Wester Drumlins and, the next day, goes to visit her friend, Kathy Nightingale. At Kathy's house, Sally notices a [=TV=] set playing a [=DVD=] of the Doctor, apparently talking to thin air. She also meets Kathy's brother Lawrence ([[StealthPun Lawrence Nightingale, get it?]]), who has apparently [[strike:[[NakedFirstImpression just stepped out of the shower and forgotten his towel]]]] discovered that sleeping in the nude helps with those tricky midnight leaks. Sufficiently GenreSavvy viewers [[HowToBecomeALoveInterest know what's coming next]], despite Moffat [[PlayingWithATrope trying to throw a curveball]] by reversing the genders of the protagonists.
Anyway, Sally persuade Kathy to accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen,]] the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from her friend Kathy (who is supposed to be there in the house with her) and it was written in 1920.
Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes a TARDIS key hanging from the hand of one of the stone angels. While her back is turned, one of the statues apparently moves, its hand grasping for her as she walks away.
After visiting Kathy's grave, Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (a.k.a. Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
Anyway, Sally persuade Kathy to accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen,]] the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from her friend Kathy (who is supposed to be there in the house with her) and it was written in 1920.
Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes a TARDIS key hanging from the hand of one of the stone angels. While her back is turned, one of the statues apparently moves, its hand grasping for her as she walks away.
After visiting Kathy's grave, Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (a.k.a. Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
to:
Sally leaves Wester Drumlins and, the next day, goes to visit her friend, Kathy Nightingale. At Kathy's house, Sally notices a [=TV=] set playing a [=DVD=] of the Doctor, apparently talking to thin air. She also meets Kathy's brother Lawrence ([[StealthPun Lawrence Nightingale, get it?]]), who has apparently [[strike:[[NakedFirstImpression just stepped out of the shower and forgotten his towel]]]] discovered that sleeping in the nude helps with those tricky midnight leaks. Sufficiently GenreSavvy viewers [[HowToBecomeALoveInterest know what's coming next]], despite Moffat [[PlayingWithATrope trying to throw a curveball]] by reversing the genders of the protagonists.
Anyway, Sallypersuade persuades Kathy to accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen,]] off-screen]], the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother:Kathy Katherine Costello Wainwright, formerly known as Katherine Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from her friend Kathy (who is supposed Kathy, who had mysteriously teleported to be there in the house with her) and it was written in 5 December 1920.
Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes aTARDIS key hanging from the hand of one of the stone angels. While her back is turned, one of the statues apparently moves, its hand grasping for her as she walks away.
After visiting Kathy'sgrave, grave ("[[ReallySeventeenYearsOld You told her you were eighteen? You lying cow!]]"), Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (a.k.a. Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
Anyway, Sally
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother:
Sally takes one last look around Wester Drumlins, unable to find Kathy, and takes a
After visiting Kathy's
Changed line(s) 31,34 (click to see context) from:
Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds the now-40-years-older Billy Shipton. [[AlmostDeadGuy Just before he dies]], he tells Sally that he met the Doctor in 1969, and the Doctor gave him a message for her. He also reveals that in the interim years he got into publishing, eventually DVD publishing. His company published all 17 [=DVDs=] with the Doctor's message on them, and asks if she's figured out the connection between them.
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17 [=DVDs=]]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17 [=DVDs=]]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.
to:
Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds the now-40-years-older Billy Shipton.Shipton, now 60 years old. [[AlmostDeadGuy Just before he dies]], he tells Sally that he met the Doctor in 1969, and the Doctor gave him a message for her. He also reveals that in the interim years he got into publishing, eventually DVD publishing. His company published all 17 [=DVDs=] with the Doctor's message on them, and asks if she's figured out the connection between them.
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17[=DVDs=]]], DVDs]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the [=DVDs=] have in common: they're all the [=DVDs=] she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking only owns 17
Changed line(s) 55,56 (click to see context) from:
Fast forward one year. Sally and Larry now run an antiquarian book and rare DVD shop, which Sally insists is [[JustFriends all there is between them]], at least partly because she's too focused on investigating what happened to them.
to:
Fast forward one year. Sally and Larry now run an antiquarian book and rare DVD shop, shop [[BrickJoke named "Sparrow and Nightingale"]], which Sally insists is [[JustFriends all there is between them]], at least partly because she's too focused on investigating what happened to them.
Changed line(s) 59,60 (click to see context) from:
Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands indicating that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a gargoyle on the roof above.
to:
Larry walks up just in time to see Martha and the Doctor off. Then he and Sally walk back into the store, their clasped hands indicating that they are about to have a RelationshipUpgrade. Then the camera lazily travels upwards... and halts on a gargoyle Weeping Angel on the roof above.
Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
** "[Time is] a [[TimeyWimeyBall ball of wibbly-wobbly Timey Wimey... stuff]]...it sort of got away from me, yeah."
to:
** "[Time is] a [[TimeyWimeyBall ball of wibbly-wobbly Timey Wimey... stuff]]... it sort of got away from me, yeah."
Changed line(s) 97 (click to see context) from:
** A later episode reveals that "whatever contains the image of an angel shall become an angel". With it now on DVD, how many times do they show the angels in the episode?
to:
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheTimeOfAngels A later episode later]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5FleshAndStone episode]] reveals that "whatever contains the image of an angel shall become an angel". With it now on DVD, how many times do they show the angels in the episode?
Changed line(s) 107 (click to see context) from:
** For that matter, we never find out exactly how the Doctor and Martha get stranded in past as part of the angel's plan to get the phonebox.
to:
** For that matter, we never find out exactly how the Doctor and Martha get stranded in past as part of the angel's angels' plan to get the phonebox.phonebox.
** Or what the Doctor and Martha were doing in 2007, considering that (from a linear, subjective viewpoint) Martha first met the Doctor in 2008. This means there were two Marthas in London simultaneously, putting her at risk of being affected by the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks Blinovitch Limitation Effect]].
** Or what the Doctor and Martha were doing in 2007, considering that (from a linear, subjective viewpoint) Martha first met the Doctor in 2008. This means there were two Marthas in London simultaneously, putting her at risk of being affected by the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks Blinovitch Limitation Effect]].
Changed line(s) 109,110 (click to see context) from:
* OhCrap: "Why's it pointing at the..." (the light bulb flickers).
** Also ...
** Also ...
to:
* OhCrap: "Why's it pointing at the..." (the light bulb flickers).
flickers)
**Also ...Also:
**
* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Once she ends up in 1920, Kathy claims to have been born in 1902. Sally makes it clear to the audience that Kathy wasn't really that old.
Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
* ThemeNaming: Nightingale and Sparrow - is it any wonder they get together in the end?
to:
* ThemeNaming: Sparrow and Nightingale and Sparrow - is it any wonder they get together in the end?
Changed line(s) 148 (click to see context) from:
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer. The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised. The only real issue is that there's no way - from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - to enter the circle in the first place.
to:
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer. The TropeNamer.
-->'''The Doctor:''' People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
**The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised. The only real issue is that there's no way- -- from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - -- to enter the circle in the first place.
-->'''The Doctor:''' People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
**The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised. The only real issue is that there's no way
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** For that matter, we never find out exactly how the Doctor and Martha get stranded in past as part of the angel's plan to get the phonebox.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 124 (click to see context) from:
* ShoutOut: "You live in [[ScoobyDoo Scooby-Doo's]] house."
to:
* ShoutOut: "You live in [[ScoobyDoo [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scooby-Doo's]] house."
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Handling Spoilers: do not add spoilers for future episodes
Deleted line(s) 72 (click to see context) :
** Also, three years later we see the Angels again in Recap/DoctorWhoS31E04TheTimeOfAngels. This time, we learn that anything that holds the image of an Angel itself becomes an Angel. Now look back at the items Sally gives the Doctor: she gives him a photo of an Angel, perhaps explaining how they stole the TARDIS in the first place.
Deleted line(s) 119 (click to see context) :
* {{Revision}}: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E04TheTimeOfAngels A future episode]] adds a teeny bit more information about the angels in the episode, that they were scavengers, barely holding on to life, which explains why some other abilities future episode angels have don't come into play here.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Handling Spoilers: do not add spoilers for future episodes
Deleted line(s) 83,84 (click to see context) :
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Doctor mentions that if the Angels were able to take control of the TARDIS, the damage they could cause would switch off the Sun. This is pretty much what happens much later in [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens}} "The Pandorica Opens"]] when an unknown force takes control of the TARDIS and detonates it, only on a far larger scale as it wipes out every single star at every moment in history.
** Another example would be Kathy's grandson delivering a letter to Sally to tell her about her life and death in the past, which possibly foreshadows the much later sub-episode [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS33ShortPS}} P.S.]] in which Rory's father is given a similar letter by Rory's son from the past, who is his own grandson.
** Another example would be Kathy's grandson delivering a letter to Sally to tell her about her life and death in the past, which possibly foreshadows the much later sub-episode [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS33ShortPS}} P.S.]] in which Rory's father is given a similar letter by Rory's son from the past, who is his own grandson.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 6,7 (click to see context) from:
''Blink'' was written by Creator/StevenMoffat and netted a ton of awards for both writing and acting. It's one of the most popular ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories ever made, despite only actually starring the Doctor for a couple of minutes, and introduced the Weeping Angels. It also ultimately lost a NebulaAward for Best Script to ''PansLabyrinth''.
to:
''Blink'' was written by Creator/StevenMoffat and netted a ton of several awards for both writing and acting. It's one of the most popular ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories ever made, despite only actually starring made (despite the fact that the Doctor appeared on screen for only a couple of minutes, minutes) and introduced the Weeping Angels. It also ultimately lost a NebulaAward for Best Script to ''PansLabyrinth''.
Changed line(s) 10 (click to see context) from:
Because of its Doctor-lite plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the universe of Doctor Who.
to:
Because of its Doctor-lite Doctor-light plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the universe of Doctor Who.
Changed line(s) 13,14 (click to see context) from:
"Blink" revolves around Sally Sparrow (played by Creator/CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
to:
"Blink" revolves around centers on Sally Sparrow (played by Creator/CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
Changed line(s) 17,20 (click to see context) from:
Anyway, Sally convinces Kathy to come with her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen,]] the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who was thrown back in time to 1920.
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who was thrown back in time to 1920.
to:
Anyway, Sally convinces persuade Kathy to come with accompany her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Completely off-screen,]] the angel from the garden approaches, appearing ever closer as the camera angle changes...
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed fromKathy, who her friend Kathy (who is supposed to be there in the house with her) and it was thrown back written in time to 1920.
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from
Changed line(s) 23,24 (click to see context) from:
After visiting Kathy's grave, Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (AKA Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
to:
After visiting Kathy's grave, Sally heads out to fulfil Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (AKA (a.k.a. Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an EasterEgg on 17 apparently unconnected [=DVDs=], and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 96 (click to see context) from:
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
to:
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] StevenMoffat Creator/StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 96 (click to see context) from:
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[Defictionalisation caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
to:
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[Defictionalisation [[{{Defictionalisation}} caught on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 96 (click to see context) from:
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later caught on in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.
to:
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later [[Defictionalisation caught on on]] in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Yes, that last trope being dropped in is intended to imply that]] StevenMoffat is an EvilOverlord.[[/note]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* MemeticMutation: {{In-Universe}} example with "The Angels have the phone box." This later caught on in RealLife, JustAsPlanned.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 150 (click to see context) from:
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer. The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised... at least from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint.
to:
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer. The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised... at least organised. The only real issue is that there's no way - from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint.viewpoint - to enter the circle in the first place.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
---> '''Sally Sparrow (on realizing the Doctor was speaking to her through the [=DVDs=]):''' The 17 [=DVDs=], they're all the [=DVDs=] I own. The Easter egg was for me.\\
'''Larry Nightingale:''' ...You've only got 17 [=DVDs=]?
---> '''Sally Sparrow (on realizing the Doctor was speaking to her through the [=DVDs=]):''' The 17 [=DVDs=], they're all the [=DVDs=] I own. The Easter egg was for me.\\
'''Larry Nightingale:''' ...You've only got 17 [=DVDs=]?
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Clarifying my original statement.
Changed line(s) 150 (click to see context) from:
** Of course, given that this is a show about time travel that's always set in what era the episode is filmed in, it can afford to be this.
to:
** Of course, given that this is a show about time travel that's that always set in what treats the era the episode is filmed in, in as the "present," it can afford to be this.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** Of course, given that this is a show about time travel that's always set in what era the episode is filmed in, it can afford to be this.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
it\'s used for both, really
Changed line(s) 73 (click to see context) from:
* CreepyChangingPainting: The Angels. Played for hide-behind-the-sofa shock rather than the more gradual ParanoiaFuel common for this trope.
to:
* CreepyChangingPainting: The Angels. Played for hide-behind-the-sofa shock rather than the more gradual ParanoiaFuel common initially, then for this trope.several JumpScare moments.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 13,14 (click to see context) from:
"Blink" revolves around Sally Sparrow (played by CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
to:
"Blink" revolves around Sally Sparrow (played by CareyMulligan), Creator/CareyMulligan), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
Changed line(s) 156 (click to see context) from:
No! Keep looking at the- [[note]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Weeping_Angel_291.jpg[[/note]]
to:
No! Keep looking at the- [[note]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Weeping_Angel_291.jpg[[/note]]jpg[[/note]]
----
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 147 (click to see context) from:
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer. The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised... on a relative scale for [[SciFi sci-fi]] fiction time-liney weirdness, anyway.
to:
* TimeyWimeyBall: Averted, despite being the TropeNamer. The time-line for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organised... on at least from a relative scale for [[SciFi sci-fi]] fiction time-liney weirdness, anyway.non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 6,7 (click to see context) from:
''Blink'' was written by StevenMoffat and netted a ton of awards for both writing and acting. It's one of the most popular ''DoctorWho'' stories ever made, despite only actually starring the Doctor for a couple of minutes, and introduced the Weeping Angels. It also ultimately lost a NebulaAward for Best Script to ''PansLabyrinth''.
to:
''Blink'' was written by StevenMoffat Creator/StevenMoffat and netted a ton of awards for both writing and acting. It's one of the most popular ''DoctorWho'' ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories ever made, despite only actually starring the Doctor for a couple of minutes, and introduced the Weeping Angels. It also ultimately lost a NebulaAward for Best Script to ''PansLabyrinth''.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 106,107 (click to see context) from:
* NothingIsScarier: We never actually see an Angel send anyone back in time. We only see the people they've sent back after they've been sent back. In part this is because of the fourth wall-breaking nature of the Angels' portrayal (see Pa
ranoiaFuel below), but in part it's because imagining them creeping up on you is much scarier.
ranoiaFuel below), but in part it's because imagining them creeping up on you is much scarier.
to:
* NothingIsScarier: We never actually see an Angel send anyone back in time. We only see the people they've sent back after they've been sent back. In part this is because of the fourth wall-breaking nature of the Angels' portrayal (see Pa
ranoiaFuelParanoia Fuel below), but in part it's because imagining them creeping up on you is much scarier.
ranoiaFuel
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* NoodleIncident: We never learn what the four things and the lizard are. It isn't a reference to another episode.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
Because of its Doctor-lite plot, engaging story and great monster, this is considered by many to be a good introduction to the universe of Doctor Who.
