History Recap / DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels

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

The one where River was redefined as [[HotterAndSexier raunchy.]]

We also learn why it is bad to capture and/or remember the sight of a Weeping Angel. Or worse, [[NeckSnap be in the company of one]] [[ForTheEvulz that isn't hungry.]] And radiation is their favourite snack next to temporal energy.

* MostWonderfulSound: the TARDIS' *rnnnnnt* or *vworp* is explained by River as the Doctor leaving the brakes on; normally, it lands silently. However, the Doctor claims that he keeps the brakes on specifically to hear it. [[invoked]][[note]]Except that ''[[WordOfGod actually]]'', River's winding him up -- if the noise really was because of the brakes, then why does every other TARDIS ever seen make it too?[[/note]]

We also learn why it is bad to capture and/or remember the sight of a Weeping Angel. Or worse, [[NeckSnap be in the company of one]] [[ForTheEvulz that isn't hungry.]] And radiation is their favourite snack as a substitute to stolen time.

We also learn why it is bad to capture and/or remember the sight of a Weeping Angel. Or worse, [[NeckSnap be in the company of one]] [[ForTheEvulz that isn't hungry.]] And radiation is their favourite snack.

The one where River starts to become [[HotterAndSexier raunchy.]]

The one where River starts to become [[BaseBreakingCharacter obnoxious.]]

The one where River starts to become obnoxious.

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

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.

To be continued in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone "Flesh and Stone"]].

* ActionizedSequel: Moffat described this as ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' to the ''Film/{{Alien}}'' of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]]. Indeed, instead of a couple of unarmed civilians, we have soldiers.
* AdultFear: You've done this before. It's bad, but nothing you can't handle. [[ForWantOfANail But you missed one detail . . .]]

* BatmanGrabsAGun: And sets up the cliffhanger with it . . . the Doctor really doesn't like guns.

* BuffySpeak: "They're blue . . . boring-ers!"

** The "Crash of the ''Byzantium''" is one of the future events that River alluded to in passing in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]].

*** One of the glass cases in the museum in question has a detonation pack from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]].

** Gravity globes first appeared in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]].

-->'''The Doctor:''' I mean what's all that about? But then that's the church for you! No offence . . . bishop.\\

* ItCanThink: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]], the Angels are predators that sneak up when you're not looking and leave you stranded elsewhere in time. Here, they work together to lay traps, break necks and steal voices as bait. [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse in the second part.]]

'''The Doctor:''' A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death. A hay-like needle of death in a haystack . . . of statues. No, yours was fine.

* MoodWhiplash: We go straight from a humorous scene with BizarreAlienBiology jokes about the Aplans having two heads . . . to the Doctor's realisation that the statues ''don't''. OhCrap indeed.

** In some Eighties serials (including [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield "Battlefield"]] and the original cut of [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]]) when the TARDIS lands, all that is heard inside is a chime. In this episode, when River lands the TARDIS without using the brakes[[labelnote:*]]or just silences the engines[[/labelnote]], there's a very similar chime.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]], the Angels' MO and abilities were fairly straightforward. In this outing they get a whole raft of new powers: creating themselves from images, growing inside someone's mind if that person looks them in the eye and feeding off all forms of energy instead of just "potential energy". It's explained by way of saying that the Angels in "Blink" were starving and possibly dying, hence their reduced abilities. (The Doctor explicitly describes the "Blink" Angels as "scavengers".)

* NoodleIncident: It's implied that the Doctor and River have met a few more times between [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]] and this episode. And that their latest meeting from his perspective may have ended somewhat disastrously.

** "Just something in my eye . . ."

--->'''The Doctor:''' Oh . . .\\

* {{Reconstruction}}: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "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 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.

* ShoutOut: Let's see . . .

* ThrownOutTheAirlock: River airlocks herself to escape the ''Byzantium'' . . . right into the TARDIS. For added points, she does that on the off-chance that the Doctor will find her message thousands of years later, and travel back in time to catch her.
* TookALevelInJerkass: These are not the "kill you nicely" Angels that Ten spoke of in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]]. These are neck snapping and evil gloating Angels.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Matt Smith really did bite Karen Gillan's arm.

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

The one with a dash of ''Videodrome''.

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 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 onboard a warning that there's something in the hold that will make sure the ship never reaches its destination.

It just so happens that the catacombs are filled with statues, amongst which the Angel is hiding. The Doctor begins to explore, Octavian is cryptic, River has a dark secret and the clerics investigating the one clear exit from the catacombs are gradually picked off by the Weeping Angel (as in [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness killed]], even though the Angels only used to send their victim back in time). Also, Amy feels sand pouring out of her eye.

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. 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.

* AerithAndBob: Bishop Octavian and clerics Angelo, Christian and ''Bob''. All are holy names, suggesting the existence of a Saint Bob or some such between now and then.

* ChurchMilitant: The Bishop, along with Sacred Bob, Angelo, Christian and crew are clerics and they're soldiers. In the 51st century, "the church has moved on". 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: Octavian is a Bishop, which is similar to a colonel in the military church.
* ContinuityNod:

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

* HappilyMarried: Amy assumes that the Doctor and River Song are married and interprets their banter as proof that they have been married for a long time. [[note]] The truth is complicated. She's married to him but he isn't to her ''yet'' and the ceremony happened in an alternate reality that was aborted and on a world that never existed. But, since both remember it, it is real to them.[[/note]]

--->'''Amy:''' She's like 'Heel, boy'.

-->'''The Doctor:''' It didn't make that noise [when it landed], you know like, (''imitates TARDIS' engine'')\\

'''The Doctor:''' (''[[{{Beat}} pause]]'') Yes, well, it's a brilliant noise. I love that noise.

* ItCanThink: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]], the Angels are predators that sneak up when you're not looking and leave you stranded elsewhere in time. Here, they work together to lay traps, break necks and steal voices as bait. [[FromBadToWorse Gets worse in the second part]].

-->'''The Doctor:''' Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. That's from having two heads. You're never short of a snog with an extra head. [...] Then they started having laws against self-marrying and what was that about? But that's the church for you. Uh, no offence, Bishop. [...]\\

* OneManArmy

* PreMortemOneLiner: "[[VerbThis Hold this!]]" says Amy, right before the [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative television record for most epic use of a pause button.]]

** [[Film/TheRing An Angel coming out of a TV screen]].
** [[Franchise/{{Predator}} Angels using the voices of their victims to lure in more victims]].

** "[[Series/CharliesAngels Hello, Angels]]."
* SuggestiveCollision: Upon entering the TARDIS, River lands on top of the Doctor. Amy promptly begins shipping them.

* TheXOfY: "The Time of Angels"

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: The image that River captured on the security camera ''becomes'' an Angel, which then [[spoiler:comes out of the monitor and tries to attack Amy.]]

* MistakenForAnImposter: Father Octavius yells at Sacred Bob when he fires at a "statue" when he thinks it moved. [[spoiler: Turns out, it probably did.]]

* HappilyMarried: Amy assumes that the Doctor and River Song are married and interprets their banter as proof that they have been married for a long time. [[note]] The truth is complicated. She's married to him but he isn't to her ''yet'' and the ceremony happened in an alternate reality that was aborted and on a world that never existed.[[/note]]

As the clerics work on breaking into the temple, the Doctor and friends work on decoding the mystery of the Angels with a four-second clip of the Angel in the ''Byzantium''. They also use an old book which, ominously, does not include any images of the Angels. The Doctor and River eventually realise that the book is trying to tell them that any image of the Angels essentially ''becomes'' an Angel, and is imbued with the qualities that make them so dangerous. Something that Amy is well ahead of them in discovering, having become trapped in the room with the recording of the Angel, which is gradually coming out of the screen towards her. Amy manages to defeat it by stopping the looped recording at the exact point where the image of the Angel is glitched out, but not before she looks into the Angel's eyes despite the Doctor's instructions. As the clerics manage to access the temple, Amy complains of something in her eye . . .

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, ''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 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.

To Amy's curiosity and the Doctor's slight resentment, River takes control of the TARDIS, having "had lessons from the very best." [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler The Doctor was busy that day.]] The team follows the ''Byzantium'' to where it has landed -- or, more accurately, crashed. Specifically, on top of an ancient, abandoned temple built on Alfava Metraxis. Not long after they've arrived, River is joined by a team of clerics, a [[ChurchMilitant military off-shoot of the Church]] led by a bishop, Father Octavian. They're hunting the creature that caused the ship to crash -- [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink a Weeping Angel]]. River has promised the Doctor's help in catching it, as it appears to have escaped into the [[IDontLiketheSoundofThatPlace "Maze of the Dead"]], the catacombs underneath the temple. Also, Amy quickly figures out that River has just ''got'' to be [[ShipTease the Doctor's wife]]. The Doctor honestly doesn't know, and River delights in keeping the answer a secret.

As the clerics work on breaking into the temple, the Doctor and friends work on decoding the mystery of the Angels with a four-second clip of the Angel in the ''Byzantium''. They also use an old book which, ominously, does not include any images of the Angels. The Doctor and River eventually realise that the book is trying to tell them that any image of the Angels essentially ''becomes'' an Angel, and is imbued with the qualities that make them so dangerous. Something that Amy is well ahead of them in discovering, having become trapped in the room with the recording of the Angel, which is gradually coming out of the screen towards her. Amy manages to defeat it by stopping the looped recording at the exact point where the image of the Angel is glitched out, but not before she looks into the Angel's eyes despite the Doctor's instructions. As the clerics manage to access the temple, Amy complains of something in her eye...

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.

* AdultFear: You've done this before. It's bad, but nothing you can't handle. [[ForWantOfANail But you missed one detail...]]

%%* AreWeThereYet

* BatmanGrabsAGun: And sets up the cliffhanger with it . . . The Doctor really doesn't like guns.

* BuffySpeak: "They're blue... boring-ers!"

** River's message to the Doctor contains the letters "Theta Sigma", his old Academy nickname.

** The gravity globe is reused from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit "The Satan Pit"]].

-->'''The Doctor:''' I mean what's all that about? But then that's the church for you! No offence... bishop.\\

* {{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. We later find out that all these statues ''are'' Angels.

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Played with, since in "Blink", the Angels wouldn't move if the characters ''or'' camera saw them. Here, the Angels move on camera.

--->'''Amy''': She's like 'Heel, boy'.

* ItCanThink: In "Blink" the Angels are predators that sneak up when you're not looking and leave you stranded elsewhere in time. Here, they work together to lay traps, break necks and steal voices as bait. [[FromBadToWorse Gets worse in the second part]].
* ItsALongStory: The Doctor re his TimeTravelRomance. "It's a long story and I don't know most of it."

'''The Doctor''': A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death. A hay-like needle of death in a haystack... of statues. No, yours was fine.

* MoodWhiplash: We go straight from a humorous scene with BizarreAlienBiology jokes about the Aplans having two heads... to the Doctor's realisation that the statues ''don't''. OhCrap indeed.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: In "Blink", the Angels' MO and abilities were fairly straightforward. In this outing they get a whole raft of new powers: creating themselves from images, growing inside someone's mind if that person looks them in the eye and feeding off all forms of energy instead of just "potential energy". It's explained by way of saying that the Angels in "Blink" were starving and possibly dying, hence their reduced abilities. (The Doctor explicitly describes the "Blink" Angels as "scavengers".)

** "Just something in my eye..."

--->'''The Doctor:''' Oh...\\

** The Doctor, after realizing, "That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel."

-->'''Octavian:''' You promised me an army, Doctor Song.\\

* {{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 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.

* ShoutOut: Let's see...

* ThrownOutTheAirlock: River airlocks herself to escape the ''Byzantium''... right into the TARDIS. For added points, she does that on the off-chance that the Doctor will find her message thousands of years later, and travel back in time to catch her.

* NoodleIncident: It's implied that the Doctor and River have met a few more times between [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]] and this episode.

* 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.

* TookALevelInJerkass: These are not the "kill you nicely" Angels that Ten spoke of in "Blink". These are neck snapping and evil gloating Angels.

** Moffat does several nods to his previous episodes; besides the obvious Angels and River, there's people's voices being recorded and played back by the thing that killed them, à la the Vashta Nerada.

** The Angels communicated with the voice of one of their victims, just like the Vastha Nerada did.
* CallForward:
--->'''River:''' You, me, handcuffs. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Must it always end this way?]]

** In some Eighties serials (including [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield "Battlefield"]] and the original cut of [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]]) when the TARDIS lands, all that is heard inside is a chime. In this episode, when River lands the TARDIS without using the brakes, there's a very similar chime.

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

* ActionizedSequel: Moffat described this as ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' to the ''Alien'' of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]]. Indeed, instead of a couple of unarmed civilians, we have soldiers.

* DruggedLipstick: River's break-in in the very beginning uses hallucingetic lipstick. One poor bugger thinks he's at a wedding.

To Amy's curiosity and the Doctor's slight resentment, River takes control of the TARDIS, having "had lessons from the very best." [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler The Doctor was busy that day.]] The team follows the ''Byzantium'' to where it has landed -- or, more accurately, crashed. Specifically, on top of an ancient, abandoned temple built on Alfava Metraxis. Not long after they've arrived, River is joined by a team of clerics, a [[ChurchMilitant military off-shoot of the Church]] led by a bishop, Father Octavian. They're hunting the creature that caused the ship to crash -- [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink a Weeping Angel]]. River has promised the Doctor's help in catching it, as it appears to have escaped into [[IDontLiketheSoundofThatPlace "The Maze of the Dead"]], the catacombs underneath the temple. Also, Amy quickly figures out that River has just ''got'' to be [[ShipTease the Doctor's wife]]. The Doctor honestly doesn't know, and River delights in keeping the answer a secret.

As the clerics work on breaking into the temple, the Doctor and friends work on decoding the mystery of the Angels with a four-second clip of the Angel in the ''Byzantium''. They also use an old Alfava text which, ominously, does not include any images of the Angels. The Doctor and River eventually realise that the text is trying to tell them that any image of the Angels essentially ''becomes'' an Angel, and is imbued with the qualities that make them so dangerous. Something that Amy is well ahead of them in discovering, having become trapped in the room with the recording of the Angel, which is gradually coming out of the screen towards her. Amy manages to defeat it by stopping the looped recording at the exact point where the image of the Angel is glitched out, but not before she looks into the Angel's eyes despite the Doctor's instructions. As the clerics manage to access the temple, Amy complains of something in her eye...

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

* BatmanGrabsAGun: And sets up the cliffhanger with it...The Doctor really doesn't like guns.

** The "Crash of the ''Byzantium''" is one of the future events that River alludes to in passing in "Silence in the Library".

** The Angels communicated with the voice of one of their victims just like the Vastha Nerada did.

* ColonelBadass: Octavian is a Bishop which is similar to a colonel in the military church.

** Moffat does several nods to his previous episodes; besides the obvious Angels and River, there's people's voices being recorded and played back by the thing that killed them à la the Vashta Nerada.

** The gravity globe is reused from "The Satan Pit".

* DrivesLikeCrazy: The Doctor leaves the TARDIS brakes on when landing, and calls the blue stabilisers "blue boringers".

* EldritchAbomination: 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 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.

* 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. "[[IdiotBall Or maybe we're thick]]".

* FauxAffablyEvil: Angel Bob is unfailingly polite. It's explicitly stated to be doing this just to anger the Doctor, though if you didn't know that, it almost comes across as the angel being InnocentlyInsensitive.

'''Bishop:''' Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor.

** When the Doctor's keying in the co-ordinates, you can see that there's a red [[AC:panic]] button on his keyboard.

--->'''Amy''': ''She's like 'Heel, boy'.''

'''River:''' It's not supposed to make that noise. ''You'' leave the brakes on.\\

* MostWonderfulSound: the TARDIS' *rnnnnnt* or *vworp* is explained by River as the Doctor leaving the brakes on; normally, it lands silently. However, the Doctor claims that he keeps the brakes on specifically to hear it. [[invoked]]

** In some Eighties serials (including "Battlefield" and the original cut of "The Five Doctors") when the TARDIS lands, all that is heard inside is a chime. In this episode, when River lands the TARDIS without using the brakes, there's a very similar chime.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: In "Blink", the Angels' MO and abilities were fairly straightforward. In this outing they get a whole raft of new powers: creating themselves from images, growing inside someone's mind if that person looks them in the eye and feeding off all forms of energy instead of just "potential energy". It's explained by way of saying that the Angels in "Blink" were starving and possibly dying, hence their reduced abilities.

* OddNameOut: Octavian, Christian, Angelo, and Bob. Sacred, Scared, Angelic Bob.

** The Doctor after realising that which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel.

-->'''Cleric''': You promised me an army, Doctor Song.\\
'''River Song:''' No, I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor.

* {{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 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.

** [[Film/TheRing Angels coming out of TV screens]].

'''The Doctor:''' Low-level perception filter, or maybe we're thick.

** "I didn't escape, sir. The angel killed me too."
** "[The Aplans have two heads] ''So why don't the statues?''"