13.27: Village of the Angels
In which we unexpectedly get one of the best cliffhangers in all of Doctor Who.
Broadcast: November 2021
Watched: September 2022
“It does have an element of risk.” “How big an element?” “Well, yeah, pretty big. The only element, really.”
Every season Chibnall likes to give us one or two episodes where you suddenly see how good this era *could* have been, generally written by Vinay Patel or Maxine Alderton, and this is this year’s.
The atmosphere and look of the episode – the search for a child, the foggy November night, the mildly creepy vicar etc. – all add to the general spookiness. The experiments with a psychic in a house in the country are a shameless lift from Hide. Kevin McNally is brilliant as Jericho, brave and curious and likeable (Peggy hugs him when he lands in 1901; he’s clearly kind to children); you can see why they decided to keep him on for the rest of the season. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Peggy’s guardian Gerald is properly horrible. I love the coldness of Peggy’s “He was never nice to me” when he dies.
In many ways it’s a sort of remix of angels stories past: they can still chuck people back in time and turn out lights; Clare is having the same sorts of hallucinations as Amy in Time. But there are a few twists (beginning with someone who was kidnapped from the future; a village rather than building; reassembling the drawing, which then comes to life as a burning angel, which is *terrifying*).
And we do get some new information. “Nobody survives it twice” is a useful clarification. Best of all, it turns out that the angels leave survivors so there are witnesses. If the USP of the Sontarans is that they’re funny, that of the angels is now that they’re cruel. That fits with the central story, of a rogue angel emotionally blackmailing the Doctor to save it from the others... which of course turns out to be a trick.
I like the fact the village in 1901 is already empty, to give it a different vibe from 1967. It’s very headfucky to see it floating in space. I’m not sure it entirely makes sense? Oh well, time is broken I guess. And it is a great bit of imagery, in an episode full of them: the angel on the lie detector drawing’ the angels in the walls; Miss Hayward telling Peggy they’re the same person; the almost final shot of the Doctor becoming an Angel... It’s easily the best cliffhanger of the era.
I’d remembered this as annoyingly incomplete, but actually it’s all there I think? The angels take the village out of time, then sweep out the inhabitants. We know they do it twice, we just don't see it. It’s a story where the angels win.
Other things:
Like Halloween Apocalypse (and Waters of Mars, and Big Bang), it’s set on the date of broadcast.
Weird to think was the first proper angels story in 9 years?
The angels waiting for the Doctor helpfully arrange themselves into a capital letter “A”. Of course they do.
Division isn’t specifically a Time Lord thing, but includes other species? This feels like a retcon but actually is probably just overturning our assumptions.
I quite like the way the script uses the Flux plot as interludes in angels one – it basically appears at the act breaks? (Or cliffhangers in three part version.)
Blake Harrison – like Craig Parkinson as the Grand Serpant – is an actor who can trade on things we already know him from, this time to be likeable. He’s great, without actually being anything like Neil from The Inbetweeners.
Passenger looks like a gimp. It is not clear at this point why the Ravagers want to capture a load of randoms (spoilers: when we find out it’s disappointing and it makes no sense).The “leave a gap between you and the next person or it won’t take” bit is very post-covid.
Why on earth does the Doctor turn a TV into a security camera? It just makes it easier for the angels to get in.
Something we haven’t really talked about... the way the very furniture of Doctor Who is dissolving. This week it was the closing credits, with the theme tune off and another scene bursting in halfway through, but the logo has been unravelling for ages. This too won’t go anywhere, obviously, but it’s a cool effect.