Rate and Discuss 3.10: Blink

[MinaHarker]

The staues would have terrified me if I was 6 though.


Si xx

as I had to and I'm 25!

[Andrew Curnow]

Each to their own, we all have episodes that leave us cold while the majority rave about them, so sorry you didn't enjoy it this week, Si. Personally I really enjoyed it, found myself laughing a few times ("When you say 'the guys' you mean the internet don't you?" and "The angels have the blue box! I've got that on a T-Shirt" being just two occasions*) and also found the little emotional touches very powerful too - the friend at the start, and then the policeman, ending up in the past without any escape. A clever central idea, and the 'freeze-frame' shots as the statues closed in on Sally & whatsisname as they fumbled with the key were very 'edge-of-the-seat' ("How they did that bit, is very cool" was Little Miss' assessment!).

I wasn't sure whether I was going to enjoy another, apparently obligatory, Doctor-lite episode, but by golly I did - if anything, it was the sort of story I expected from Steven Moffat when he was hired in 2005, namely a story that unfolds like an onion, that plays with structure, and has a fierce, but weird, central logic. Superb!

Timey-wimey indeed!!

*"You only own 17 DVDs?" being a third.

[Captain Tancredi]

I think the one reservation I'd have was that it felt a little contrived in the sense of being a Doctor-light story first and a story about the Weeping Angels second- if it hadn't been explained that it was derived from one of the Storybook tales, I'd have guessed that it started life as a Short Trips-type attempt to tell a story in a different way. And probably therefore slightly short of a final polish, although I have to say that as I'm at my folks' at the moment, I did have to watch it from an acute angle due to the way their lounge is set out.

[Rob McCow]

To be fair to the OG poster who complained about the Back To The Future stuff, the scene with the guy delivering the envelope is almost a word-for-word copy of the similar scene at the end of BTF2.

I wish we could see the story where the Doctor is fighting the lizard and 4 things with bows and arrows! That sounds cool

What was Sally doing in that house in the first place? Anyone?

[Ralph]

Caught this one tonight and I've given it a 7.

I forgot I was watching DW for a while and started to find it intriguing

I thought it was a good story but certainly not a 10/10 which seem freely given these days at the drop of a hat

It may seem sacrilege to say but I really didn't miss Tennant at all and his lack of presence I suspect added to the pleasure in this one for me. I liked the storyline and thought that statues and the concept of blink and they attack was very good. Nice setting and atmospheric.

[MinaHarker]

What was Sally doing in that house in the first place? Anyone?

She said she liked "old" things. I suspected at the time (and still do) that she is one of the many people who get their kicks from breaking into abandoned property and exploring.

[WhiteCrow]

This got an 8/10 from me.

I came into this not expecting to like it and 5 minutes in thought about doing something else instead - unusual for me to be detatched from an episode. But I ended up being increasingly gripped.

One thing which grated from the offset is you know this is the episode where somehow they have to get away with the Doctor being in it very little. A Doctor Who episode without the Doctor ... okay.

And the was probably the problem with it. Although I think Stephen Moffat came up with a cracking idea, and it is a good story, it also feels like you're watching some other TV series, not Doctor Who. This would have been a cracking story for X-Files or Torchwood, didn't feel like it belonged as a Who story.

I thought the weeping angels were a brilliant idea, one of those great villains brought to screen effectively and with real menace. The way they crept up on people was unnerving and brilliant, had me on edge a lot of the time. Not had the hairs on the back of my neck stand up since "don't turn around ...".

So all in all, a good story. Better than last years Love and Monsters in my opinion though others may differ. And no mention of Harold Saxon thank God ...

[Wayne]

Caught this one tonight and I've given it a 7.

I forgot I was watching DW for a while and started to find it intriguing

There's a clue to Ralph's DW (& ST) pyche.

I really liked it. I'll comment more when i watched it again. I've had a busy day, & hardly settled down when it came on.
But on first impressions, my natural score would be 8.5/10, so i'll upgrade it to 9/10 for the poll.

[WhiteCrow]

She said she liked "old" things. I suspected at the time (and still do) that she is one of the many people who get their kicks from breaking into abandoned property and exploring.

Technically speaking, they're called burglars ...

[MinaHarker]

Technically speaking, they're called burglars ...

There is a name for this activity - it's some kind of "urban sport" - I wish I could remember it. Yes, it is illegal, but since when does that stop anyone?

[Larry]

7/10 pretty enjoyable stuff , Moffatt again proves was a quality writer he is though there were times when I felt this felt like one of the old New Adventures novels.

[Darren]

9 out of 10

This was genuinely scary and I came off the chair a couple of times, especially when the guy turned round and the statue was millimetres from his face.

Strong performances all round. The episode benefitted from only featuring the Doctor & Martha fleetingly, and it felt natural, rather than the diabolical Love & Monsters last year which was somewhat contrived.

Top stuff.

[SiHart]

It's just me this week, isn't it? Ah well. You can't like everything!

Si xx

[Milky Tears]

Lawrence Miles loves it:

http://www.beasthouse.co.uk/

[SiHart]

Oh my! I'm agreeing with Lawrence Miles. Please shoot me now.

Si xx

[Darren]

The only plot hole is how Kathy's disappearance would have been explained.

[Alex]

There is a name for this activity - it's some kind of "urban sport" - I wish I could remember it. Yes, it is illegal, but since when does that stop anyone?

Arrgh, I can't think what it's called and I was only looking at a site about it just this week, completely by coincidence! You're right about the Urban part of it, but I can't think what the other word is...

Edit: Exploration! That's it. I had a quick look through my web history, and here's the site in question - http://www.uer.ca/

Edit 2: This one's even better, and has some fascinating info on disused underground stations too - http://www.derelictlondon.com/

[Larry]

It's just me this week, isn't it? Ah well. You can't like everything!

Si xx

but then your not a huge Moffat fan, are you Si,.

[SiHart]

Possibly not. I have to admit that his Doctor Who episodes haven't really gripped me the way that they've gripped everyone else. I really enjoyed The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances at the time, but I've found there's less to enjoy going back to them afterwards. Everyone knows I have some problems with TGITFP, but it's quite an enjoyable episode overall, despite it's problems, but this one really just didn't do anything for me at all.

Si xx

[Stephen Morgan]

A resounding 10/10 from me as it was such a good, tense episode, and it was followed by a good Confidential. Tennent trolling around the BBC in search of fans who run the place was a good idea I thought. Their collective memories were fun to observe.
One thing that really annoyed me though, was the end crdits being so squashed together, Confidential was the same, I gather this current style that started this week is going to be the norm from now on. What a bloody annoying waste of screen space.

[Pip Madeley]

A few questions that left me puzzled during the show:

1. Who threw the rock?

2. Why, and how, did the Weeping Angels move the TARDIS?

3. Couldn't they have just put a mirror in front of the statues? It worked with Medusa...

(also, I noticed Larry blink whilst he was meant to be staring at the statue without anything happening, usually that wouldn't be important enough to mention, but in an episode called Blink...)

[Rob McCow]

One thing that really annoyed me though, was the end crdits being so squashed together, Confidential was the same, I gather this current style that started this week is going to be the norm from now on. What a bloody annoying waste of screen space.

I agree! It's awful!

[Rob McCow]

1. Who threw the rock?

Si Hart.

2. Why, and how, did the Weeping Angels move the TARDIS?

They did it while no-one was looking.

3. Couldn't they have just put a mirror in front of the statues? It worked with Medusa...

Only if they took their hands down - I suppose you mean if the statues saw themselves in the mirror?

[Pip Madeley]

1. Who threw the rock?

Si Hart.

I presume he was aiming for Stephen Moffat?

2. Why, and how, did the Weeping Angels move the TARDIS?

They did it while no-one was looking.

Why, and how, did the Weeping Angels move the TARDIS?

3. Couldn't they have just put a mirror in front of the statues? It worked with Medusa...

Only if they took their hands down - I suppose you mean if the statues saw themselves in the mirror?

Indeedie.

[WhiteCrow]

Oh my! I'm agreeing with Lawrence Miles. Please shoot me now.

Si xx

You've not been feeling well recently, but if this is a request ...