History Recap / DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels

* FailedASpotCheck: The Doctor and River fail to notice the discrepancies between the statues the Aplans supposedly left and the physical attributes of the Aplans until it's just a bit too late. The Doctor blames this on a PerceptionFilter.

* SuggestiveCollision: Upon entering the TARDIS, River lands ontop of the Doctor. Amy promptly begins shipping them.

* WomanInBlack: River is wearing a black dress when she does her infiltration and hallucinagetic lipstkick kiss. She changes into combat fatigues quickly.

* FailedASpotCheck: The Doctor and River fail to notice the discrepancies between the statues the Aplans supposedly left and the physical attributes of the Aplans until it's just a bit too late.

* FridgeHorror: "That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel." Just think of all the DVDs, Posters, etc. that include the Angels in them.

'''River:''' ''That's'' because the brake was on.\\
'''The Doctor:''' (''[[{{Beat}} pause]]'') Well, I like it.

* {{Reconstruction}}: In "Blink" the characters literally have a staring contest with the Angels. In this episode, during Amy's first encounter with the Angels, she's seen [[GenreSavvy winking one eye at a time]]. However, it turns out that looking at an Angel (especially [[NoEyeInMagic in the eyes]]) is still a bad thing.

* NightmareFuel: One statue in thousands is a murderous angel that would kill you the moment you take your eyes off of it.

* NightmareFuel: One statue in thousands is a murderous angel that would kill you the moment you take your eyes off of it. ItGetsWorse.

* OneManArmy: Lampshaded re the Doctor.

* BatmanGrabsAGun: And sets up the cliffhanger with it...

* ActionizedSequel: Moffat described this as ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' to the ''Alien'' of "Blink". Indeed, insteade of a couple of unarmed civilians, we have soldiers.

In the 51st Century, [[TimeyWimeyBall Not-Yet-Professor]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary River Song]] carves a message in Old High Gallifreyan onto the "home box" (like a black box) of a starliner, the ''Byzantium''. 12,000 years later the Doctor and Amy come across the message while the Doctor's "touring" a museum, "keeping score" by laughing at all the mistakes on the plaques and noting the bits he's been involved in. It says "Hello, sweetie". (Although Amy can't read the ancient Gallifreyan it's written in, which will be important later.) They run off with it, and after watching [[TimeyWimeyBall what's happening to River at this exact moment 12,000 years ago]], they travel back just in time to catch River as she [[ThrownOutTheAirlock ejects herself from the starliner via the airlock]]. Before she leaves the ship, she offers those on-board a warning that there's something in the hold that will make sure the ship never reaches its destination.

As the party investigates deeper into the temple, the Doctor and River [[FridgeHorror realise something terrible which has been staring them in the face all this time]] -- the Aplans were two-headed beings, whereas the statues in the Maze of the Dead are all humanoid. They're ''all'' Angels, emaciated and weakened from centuries underground. But the radiation from the crashed ship is giving them strength and reviving them, exactly what the Angel on board had intended. The Doctor has unwittingly led everyone into danger. At the same time, the voice of a dead cleric with whom the Doctor had previously connected appears on the radio to warn them; the Angels are hunting them down. As they escape, Amy's hand suddenly turns to stone, trapping her by holding on to something. Refusing to leave her despite her pleas, the Doctor tells Amy that it's just the Angel messing with her head... and convinces her by biting her hand. She's less than grateful.

* ActionPrologue: River Song aboard the ''Byzantium''.
* ActionizedSequel: Moffat described this as ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' to the ''Alien'' of "Blink".

* AreWeThereYet

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Played twice as straight. The Angel's first kills (apart from everyone onboard the crashed ship) are two black clerics.]]

* ChurchMilitant: The Bishop, along with Sacred Bob, Angelo, Christian and crew. Subverted in that they're a very nice group of soldiers -- no KnightTemplar behaviour at all. Their armbands, white cross on maroon field, mark them as the Knights of Malta.
* ColonelBadass / BadassPreacher: Bishop Octavian, natch!

** Apparently it's not just archaeologists; the Doctor points and laughs at museums too.
** And speaking of the museum, the Doctor seems to keep running into River in the vicinity of the universe's largest storehouses of knowledge.

* DruggedLipstick: River's break-in in the very beginning.

* FantasticAesop: The Church's opposition to the Aplans' "same-person marriage" would appear to be one about gay marriage, but this is then subverted/played for laughs when Amy points out that they do have a point -- the divorces would be ''messy''.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sacred Bob shoots a statue which he says he thought looked at him. He's promptly told off for panicking and shooting at the décor. Of course we later find out that all these statues ''are'' Angels.

* HaveWeMetYet: River has a diary and photos of all the Doctor's faces just to find out where she is in his timeline. She's pleasantly surprised, however, to learn she'll be a professor one day. The last time we saw River, she asked the Doctor if they'd done the crash of the ''Byzantium'' yet.
* HumanoidAbomination: The Angels were already bad news in their original appearance; here it's explained that they can survive for centuries without sustenance, they eat all forms of energy, they're strong enough to snap necks with ease, they can materialise out of television images of themselves, they can ''steal your voice'' and, oh, yeah, the one way to stay ahead of them, by keeping a steady eye on them, backfires too if you stare them in the eye too long, since then they get inside your head! The prophecy (mentioned at the top of the page) implies that the angels are, in fact, ''sapient ideas''. Which makes sense, since perception is so important to their existence.

* ItWontTurnOff: This happens to the video recording of the Weeping Angel.

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The opening sequence.

* MistakenForGranite: All the ''other'' Angels.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: In "Blink", the Angels' MO and abilities were fairly straightforward. In this outing they get a whole raft of new powers that were never mentioned before. Possibly excused by RuleOfScary, though. It's HandWaved that the Angels in "Blink" were starving and possibly dying, hence their reduced abilities.

** And the Doctor after realising that which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Amy, would it really bother you to tell the Doctor or River about that stuff in your eye? The eye thing may be possibly justified, however, as the angel in her mind has some influence over her. In the second part of the episode, "Flesh and Stone" the angel makes her not want to shut her eyes, and she has to fight it, so it's entirely possible that the angel influences her to just ignore or forget the stuff coming out of her mind.

* SceneryGorn: The shot of the ''Byzantium'' crashed into the temple is rather spectacular.
* ScrewYourself: This was apparently a problem with the two-headed Aplan race, which commonly made out with themselves and even self-married before the Church stepped in.

* SuggestiveCollision: The Doctor and River upon River entering the TARDIS.

* TimeyWimeyBall: Once again, River Song has this effect on the Doctor's life.
* TitleDrop: Right in the trailer.

* WomanInBlack: River

* AerithAndBob: Angelo and Bob.

->''What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if, one day, our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us: [[TitleDrop the time of Angels]].''

** Bob is typically a shortened form of "Robert" which means "bright with glory".

** Possible oblique one to the Book of Revelation, or at least the King James Version, with the angels saying "Come and see". The Four Horsemen said that to John, and some equate the horsemen with the archangels Gabriel, Michael, Uriel and Raphael.
** Sacred Bob's name is possibly a ShoutOut to [[ParodyReligion The Church of the SubGenius.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:It's like [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Aliens]] in a way...]]

[[caption-width-right:350:It's like Franchise/{{Alien|s}} in a way...]]

'''WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!'''

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