The Angels Take Manhattan
Story 230, Episode 789, Series 7 Episode 5
Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor
Companions: River Song, Amy Pond, Rory Williams
It’s doomsday for the Ponds in a story that has emotional weight, but feels oddly understated in the echo of several near-exits for the pair.
The Review
The Angels Take Manhattan doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation, it’s seen as too convoluted and cheapening the Weeping Angels so badly it took nine years for them to feature in an episode again. I find it better than its reputation, things like the Statue of Liberty being an angel don’t bother me, fridge logic be damned. I’ve never been scared by the Angels, so they don’t get me now either. The conceit of the story is our TARDIS trio found themselves trapped in a loop with no escape, once you see how you’re going to die, it’s set in stone. Doctor Who has chosen this rule to put some limits on time travel shenanigans, once you know the future, there’s no avoiding it. The Doctor is reading a book that suddenly describes what’s happening to the trio that instant, and if he reads ahead, well, now we’re in trouble. I don’t quite buy that this book is the arbiter of the future and can’t be circumvented. It’s only a book, who’s to say that River just doesn’t write a false ending as part of the story?
River is here too, running into Rory in 1938 after an Angel sends him there. New York is apparently so full of time distortions it’s nearly impossible for the TARDIS to land there. Amy and the Doctor follow, and discover the Angels are running a hotel to feed on time energy like a battery. Rory sees his aged self die, but thinks of an easy way to stop the problem: die first. With how often Rory’s come back to life, it’s hilarious genre savvy when he guesses he’ll pop back to life afterwards. After struggling initially over whether to choose Rory or the Doctor, Amy chooses Rory and they jump off the building together in a very effective scene. Until that point, the whole story has kind of a weird vibe, there’s never been any build-up to the Angels or anything so at first it seems just like another adventure.
A good motif throughout the story is the Doctor saying how much he hates endings, a refrain River repeats. They share a nice moment where the Doctor heals her broken wrist, and she admits she never wants the Doctor to see her hurt. Of course, the true gut punch comes right after it seems Rory’s plan worked, and they’re all about to leave. Rory stops, noticing a grave with his name, and one last Angel sends him away. It’s shocking that we never get a goodbye to Rory, but Amy’s is heart wrenching. The Doctor is begging her to choose him and stay with him but Amy refuses: there was never a question that in the end she’d choose Rory. Of course there’s the logic of wondering why the Doctor couldn’t land near New York and walk into see them, but I’ll quietly let it go. It’s nice to see this story be Angels and not Daleks or Cybermen even if they don’t do much. In some ways its a normal story, but that’s how it went: the Ponds stayed with the Doctor until one normal adventure caught up to them.
Thanks to the previous several episodes, we have been ready for the Ponds to move on, but we get one last declaration of love.
8.75/10 The Angels take the Ponds, but they take the Doctor’s hearts first
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