Angel of Liberty

This episode had all of the elements to make it a true classic Doctor Who episode: River Song, the Weeping Angels, a tragic departure, and, of course, the Statue of Liberty with attitude.

In my opinion, The Angels Take Manhattan was a great episode, keeping me glued to the edge of my seat both times I watched it through, and ending on a deliciously tragic note. However, there were a few areas in which Angels did not live up to its potential, so in those ways, it was a huge disappointment. More on that later.

The Story

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are all having a picnic in The Big Apple in 2012. The Doctor is reading a book out loud, which annoys Amy, and Amy is getting old, which annoys the Doctor.

If this is what "old" looks like, then I can't wait to age.

Oh by the way, this is the book:

"Malone" is Old High Gallifreyan for "Pond".

It's based on a true story, which Rory rudely interrupts.

"Hello Sweetie... I mean, Dad"

River Malone and Rory have apparently made it to the year 1938 (April 3, to be precise), where River is investigating the Weeping Angels and where Rory has been sent by said Angels. Amy and the Doctor try to join them, because the book provides the exact date, but the TARDIS bounces off 1938 and lands in a graveyard.

This clearly foreshadows a happy ending.

That's okay, though, because Melody Malone and the Doctor communicate using sophisticated Timey-Wimey methods and she guides them safely there.

Pictured: Sophisticated Timey-Wimey Methods

Meanwhile, for some reason, Rory's been thrown into the cellar with a bunch of baby Angels, where they zap him away to a place called Winter Quay (pronouced "Key", not "Kway"), which is where the irrelevant "Dying Detective" went at the beginning of the episode. After River and the Doctor have their "first fight", the trio head over to Winter Quay to rescue Rory. Inside, they see Rory... and Rory.

Rory doesn't age as well as Amy.

Then, shocker of all shockers, RORY DIES!

This must have been a prop left over from Cold Blood, when they realized that they couldn't say "In Loving Memory" about someone who disappeared from time.

But that's okay, because there's still another Rory.

Always good to keep a spare.

But then he dies too, and this time, much more dramatically by jumping with Amy off a building.

Amy had an orgasm on the way down.

Which causes a paradox that kills the Angels and saves everyone's lives.

This is what a paradox looks like.

Amy and Rory are fine, until this jerk shows up.

Facebook Notification for Rory Williams: Angela Weepingstein has poked you. Poke Back?

And they both get sent back to 1938, where (when) the Doctor cannot ever return (although somehow, River will in order to write/publish her book). That means that this is a complete, sudden, and final goodbye, especially since Rory's gravestone gets filled in.

Rest in Peace, Rory and Amy.

Are You My Mummy?

The scene where Amy comforts River is exactly the sort of mother-daughter bonding for those two women that I've wanted to see for a very long time. It really adds a human and vulnerable side to River that we've been mostly lacking since Forest of the Dead.

Only Doctor Who could make us believe that 24-year-old Karen Gillan is playing the mother of 49-year-old Alex Kingston.

Pond and Williams

I read some reviews of the "Ponds" as companions in which the author (of the reviews) rebelled quite vigorously against calling Amy and Rory "the Ponds", believing that in the patriarchal society in which we live, they should have been Rory Williams and Amy Williams.

Of course, we don't live in a society that dictates by the letter of the law what name they should take. By custom, most women do take their husbands' last names, but some men take their wives names. Sometimes, they keep their separate last names (like almost all of my aunts and uncles), and sometimes, they hyphenate their names together, like Pond-Williams.

But I love the way the show handles this issue. Clearly, Amy and Rory decided to go the patriarchal route and take the name Williams together, but the Doctor is used to the name Pond. So they are "the Ponds" when adventuring together with the Doctor, and "the Williamses" when being normal humans. The gravestone, showing the name "Amelia Williams", shows this fact quite clearly, and shows that Amy and Rory's adventuring days are over.

Creepy Typewriter

This episode quite possibly surpasses Blink with respect to creepiness, just by virtue of its scale. Blink was sort of toned-down creepy, while Angels went all out. Even things like the typewriter and the "Winter Quay" sign added to the ambience.

Creepiest. Method of Communication. Ever.

Goodbye Rory

I loved it. Here's why. In real life, if you're lucky, you get a chance to say a rushed goodbye to a loved one. More often, you don't. Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble all got extended goodbyes, and Rose even got to come back for a while after her original departure. In each case, they were able to have a nice, heartfelt goodbye with a good set of profound last words.

Today, however, Rory's profound last words are "There's a gravestone here for someone with the same name as me". Then he disappears. Abruptly. Almost without warning. Nobody gets a chance to say goodbye. That was sad, tragic even, but it was real.

As real as a scene can get in which a character is zapped back in time by a statue.

Amy's dilemma about whether or not to follow Rory to 1938 or join the Doctor for a lifetime of adventure also added a tremendous amount of humanity to Amy's and Rory's send-off. The whole scene was a very moving ordeal, and, while I'm glad that not all of the characters were removed like this, I am glad that it has happened.

Some people that I know avidly read the blogs and knew ahead of time that this would be the final episode with Amy and Rory. I knew, from some blogs that I wish I hadn't read, that Amy and Rory would be leaving this season, and that Oswin Oswald would be back, but I was not expecting it to be this early, so the ending of this episode was a genuine shock. For a show that abounds in the bizarre and can literally go anywhere, I don't think I've seen a shock of this magnitude in Doctor Who other than the reveal that River was Amy and Rory's daughter.

Actually, this was pretty shocking too.

Rory Died!

...three times, you could argue.

1. When he was all old and decrepit.
2. When he and Amy jumped off the building.
3. When he got touched by the Angel and sent back to 1938. Admittedly, we didn't see him die, but  we got to see his gravestone, so it is a reasonable guess that he did, in fact, perish.

Some people didn't like it, but I thought it was funny and well-done. I enjoyed Rory's nod to his frequent demises in the following exchange.
     Amy: "You think you'll just come back to life?"
     Rory: "When don't I?"

To die a thousands deaths...

So we've covered most of the specifics that I really liked about Angels. Now, let's move onto what I wasn't so thrilled about.

The Chomping Angels

I thought this when I saw Blink, and my opinion is reinforced in Angels. The Weeping Angels are terrifying bad guys - probably the most frightening that we've seen in the revived series (sorry Daleks, but Asylum just made you even more pathetic). However, giving them big evil scary teeth detracts from their effect. Compare these two images, and tell me which you think is scarier:

This one has at least twice as many teeth.

If you said the second one, then I am no longer your friend. That smiling Angel is quite possibly the most frightening thing I've ever seen. The growling teeth Angel is just another alien with teeth.

Why Can He Never See Them Again?

This didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. In theory, couldn't the Doctor go to Britain, 1935 and then take a boat over to the US? If it takes 3 years, then he'll still make it to Amy and Rory shortly after they got zapped..

That plot hole doesn't really detract from the drama of the episode, but it is a huge problem when I want to take the show seriously. Amy's departure is a big deal for the Doctor. Hers is the first face his current face saw, and she is sealed in his hearts to the point that he throws a huge tantrum if there is even the slightest suggestion that she might have to leave. If there is any workaround, I'm sure that the Doctor, clever as he is, would be able to figure it out. And there are workarounds that are so easy that even a dumb internet blogger like myself thought of them in a matter of minutes after seeing the episode.

Maybe he couldn't see them because he doesn't have his glasses.

The problem for me is this: If the writers had thought about this major plot point, they could have put in some explanation for why the Doctor couldn't go back there. But they didn't, which tells me that they didn't even bother to put in a few minutes' thought on this issue. They wrote the episode, said "hooray it has emotions", and didn't bother to consider, even a little bit, whether or not it made any sense.

The Doctor

The Doctor was a real low-point of this episode, and it probably would have made for a better story had he not been there at all. He was whiny, petulant, and irritating throughout the whole episode. Let me make a short list of the most glaring things that the Doctor did that bugged me.

• His disgust that Amy was aging.
• His reaction to the chapter title "Amelia's Last Farewell".
• The way he "fought" with River.
• His reaction when Amy succumbed to the Angel.

This is the Doctor, angrily telling River to get herself free from the Angel that has a tight grip on her, immediately after throwing a small tantrum. What an absolute jerk!

Pictured: A Small Tantrum

The Fight

So the Doctor and River are married now, and this is the first time that their wedding is in both of their pasts, so of course, they need to have a fight. And what do they fight about?

...Well, I'm not sure really. First she's hurt that he doesn't seem to show any affection, but then he does show affection, by healing her hand.

"Didn't I mention? I'm a Doctor."

And she gets mad because he was too sentimental. Then she storms off and he has that classic moment where the husband shouts after the wife as she storms away.

This is hopefully the least flattering image of Matt Smith that you will find.

He's even got the outstretched arms!

And then the fight continues with them... just kidding!

And then the fight gets resolved with them... just kidding!

And then they just act as though they had never fought at all.

Who Cares About Rory?

Just after Amy and Rory jump off the building, the Doctor runs to the edge and starts shouting desperately. But what does he shout?

"Amy! Amy!"
"...Don't forget Rory!"
"Who?"

Imagine how that must feel if you were Rory. You and your wife have just jumped off a building, and your collective best friend (and also son-in-law) shouts after her and doesn't give you a second thought. 

Gratuitously Evil Man

This man here.

This guy, just above this caption.

His evil goes directly against his own best interests. He knows that "Melody Malone" is an expert on the Angels, of which he is scared, so you'd think he would want to be nice to her; make her want to help him. Instead, he tries to force her to tell him what she knows by getting her trapped in the viselike grip of his pet captured Angel. 

It was either this or a dog, and I'm not a dog person.

He also, for no reason at all, has Rory thrown in the cellar with the babies. Well, that wouldn't be an evil thing to do, except that the babies are not so much "adorable" as "the most terrifying thing in the history of television" or "a cross between an infant and pure evil".

Isn't it adorable?

So this man is evil against his own best interests. He has no known reason for being this evil. What does he gain by alienating Melody Malone and The Skinny Guy? Absolutely nothing, and in the end, it costs him his life. 

That's often my big pet peeve with movies or TV episodes like this - that the bad guy has absolutely no reason for being as Bad as he/she is. Mr Gratuitously Evil over here is just another example of that.

Yes, this guy.

So that covers my major complaints about the episode.

A few random observations:

The Book

How did the Doctor get this far into the book without realizing that Melody Malone was River?

He's like halfway through, and the next page specifically mentions the Doctor and Amy.

Manhattan Landmarks

I like how the Empire State building was part of a Dalek Master Plan.

While the Statue of Liberty is a Weeping Angel.

Hungry for Freedom!

Podracing

Watch the scene where the TARDIS bounces off of 1938.

1938 is made of rubber.

I'm pretty sure the sound effect was lifted directly from the podracers in The Phantom Menace. 

Overall

I have mixed feelings about The Angels Take Manhattan. On the one hand, it excels, as do many other episodes this season, in atmosphere, creating a genuinely creepy gumshoe mystery feel, raising the hairs on the back of my neck any time an angel showed up. River, Amy, and Rory also had some really wonderful performances, and the Amy-River mother-daughter scene was a really nice touch. And to top it all off, the emotional aspect of losing Amy and Rory so abruptly at the end was brilliantly done, and provided quite the shock.

Unfortunately, however, I think that Angels suffered from a distressingly recurring bout of not-making-any-sense. We have a case of Gratuitously Evil Man, and the ending, while beautifully performed, holds up about as well as a house of cards in a tornado. But the absolute worst drawback of this episode for me was the Doctor. It's not Smith's fault, but in this episode he was written as a whiny spoiled child who threw tantrums whenever things didn't go his way and didn't contribute anything positive to the resolution. I know that we can't have Dave Tennant back, but when the Doctor handles adversity as poorly as this episode's Doctor did, I just want to pick up the script and go like

NEXT EPISODE: THE SNOWMEN

Wait a minute... She died... Now I'm all confused.

"Eggs-terminate!"