"Blink"
"Listen! Your life could depend on this: Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink."
- The Doctor
During the first half of this episode, I really had no idea what to make of it. It seemed more like an episode of the
X-Files or even
Torchwood. In fact, upon further reflection, I seem to recall two episodes from the
Doctor Who universe that were similar in the sense that secondary characters were brought to the limelight (over the main cast):
Doctor Who Season 2's "Love and Monsters" and
Torchwood Season 1's "Random Shoes." Both episodes were some of the best of their respective seasons, and this episode, "Blink," is no different.
The concept is that creatures called the Weeping Angels, or Lonely Assassins as they were called in the past, kill you ("kill you nicely" as the Doctor put it) by sending you into the past, where you live out your life and eventually die. In the present and after they zap you into the past, they feed off of the life energy of "all the days you might have had."
What an amazing concept!
Our protagonist of this tale, Sally Sparrow, receives a written warning, hidden under wallpaper, in an old abandoned house where a number of people have disappeared. From here, we are introduced to the weird, moving statues and sadly for present-day Sally, her friend gets zapped into the past while at the house with Sally. From there we are taken on an near-roller-coaster ride (OK, a small roller coaster) through various time periods from all the people that Sally encounters (including the Doctor and Martha) along the way to discover that a DVD Easter Egg recording of the Doctor circa 1969 is a message for Sally. How the Doctor knows all of this, since he is living in the past and is apparently a victim of the Weeping Angels, boggled my mind for a bit, until at the end, we (and Sally) realize that this is an endless loop and she is the one who helps warn/prepare the Doctor.
I said it before and I'll say it again: What an amazing concept!
First off, I love the way there are these special, atypical secondary-character episodes (none in Season 1) and yet the main characters are always there, in the background, helping to drive or influence the story. The show's production staff and actors deserve special kudos for making us care about all of these characters.
Second, multiple time periods (and/or paradoxes) are readily featured in this episode, more so than when the Doctor just travels to a different time for an adventure. An amazing story like this probably could not be done on a nongenre show, let alone on a genre show that hasn't dealt with some form of time travel, and even then it'd be a difficult sell. Heck, I am amazed that it worked so well here, especially all the intersection time threads. I won't say it again... OK, I will: What an amazing concept!
Third, those Weeping Angels are frakking frightening! The ones with the scary faces at the end will probably give me nightmares tonight!
Fourth, thinking back on the events in the episode, I do feel the need to point out some possible inconsistencies or questions that probably shouldn't be asked (as to spoil the illusion of the episode)... basically, I want to nitpick:
" If the Angels feed off potential energy from people, then do they also feed off of animals? Maybe long-lived beasts?
" Since the Doctor is much older than humans (has a long life), is there the chance that he could catch up to the time period where he was when the Angels attacked? Shouldn't the Angels have sent him back to prehistoric times or something?
" Forgetting the paradox (and the potential to tear "a whole in the fabric of space and time"), couldn't the Doctor have encountered one of his previous incarnations, possibly asking for help or maybe sneaking into the TARDIS and hitching a ride?
" With the advent of the Internet, I do not believe that the Easter Egg publisher could have gone undiscovered.
" Were not some of the Angels visible to each other leading up to and during the initial attack on the TARDIS?
" I found the tacked-on epilogue a little too
Invasion of the Body Snatchers for me. That was probably the point and reference, but still kind of cheesy.
Side note: It was a very cool device to fit in current tech, and one of the most annoying things I find about certain DVDs, the Easter Eggs, effectively in this episode. As I watched, I kept thinking of my friend Chuck, who is an avid DVD collector (at last count he had 1,400+ in his collection). I could completely picture my friend being like Larry, with multiple monitors displaying all 17 Easter Eggs. Hope Chuck isn't reading this....
Finally, although Martha had very little to do in this episode, she had one of the funniest lines:
"We're stuck. All of space and time he promised me and now I've got a job in a shop. I've got to support him!"
Second-funniest line: "wibbly wobbly timey whimey"
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