5.4 : The Time of Angels

Season 5, Episode 4 - The Time of Angels

Written by: Steven Moffat
Directed by: Adam Smith
Original Air Date: May 8, 2010

Don't blink - the Weeping Angels return! The Doctor is recruited by Father Octavian (Iain Glen) to track the last of the Angels through the terrifying Maze of the Dead. And the mysterious River Song (Alex Kingston) is back in the Doctor's life - but can he trust her?

The enigmatic River Song hurtles back into the Doctor life but she’s not the only familiar face returning… The Weeping Angels are back! The Doctor is recruited by Father Octavian to track the last of the Angels through the terrifying Maze of the Dead. As the Time Lord faces the Lonely Assassins, last seen in Blink, River Song is by his side.

These “angels” are actually aliens who have a built-in defense mechanism — if they come into anyone’s vision, they are transfixed into stone. But when those people look away, the angels move incredibly quickly to grab you. Their touch sends you back in time, and the angels feed off the residual energy of the life you would have had.


“They’re the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely”
~The Tenth Doctor

* This is, in truth, the third appearance of the Weeping Angels if one counts non-TV appearances; they have previously featured in DW: Blink and in Captain Jack’s Monster Files (See WC: A Ghost Story for Christmas)

Steven Moffat stated in a TalkTalk interview that his son – while watching the episode – said 15 minutes through the episode: “Dad, that is the single most scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

When teasing the new series, one of the things Moffat mentioned was “the Doctor’s mistake in the maze of the dead” – no doubt a reference to this episode

* There are lots of clips of this episode in the trailers for Series 5. These include-A group of Angels not Weeping, not Screaming, just putting their hands in the air.

-Some Angels capturing River Song and the Clerics

-An Angel in a vault with Amy looking at it through a T.V monitor – in Doctor Who Magazine 418 including a preview of this episode, the synopsis states the Angel is in the Byzantium Spaceship and is being stored in the vault, but escapesHow the other Angels come along is unknown.-A Single Angel screaming

* A clip for the episode heavily indicates that this episode will not chronicle River Song’s first meeting with the Doctor (from her perspective), as she knows, interestingly, how the pilot the TARDIS herself and claims that he “leaves the breaks on” (causing the materialising noise) and talks about him as if they have travelled together before.

~