Doctor Who Rewind #2: "Blink"

People say this is the best episode of Doctor Who's modern series. And they're not wrong.

Synopsis: Amateur photographer Sally Sparrow finds a message meant for her in an abandoned mansion from a man called the Doctor, and soon finds herself and her friends stalked by creatures known as the Weeping Angels. Sally must follow the clues left behind by the Doctor in order to save him and stop the Angels from becoming unstoppable.

The Review:

"Blink" is an episode I'd argue is perfect, or at least near-perfect.  I guess the only thing that seems sort of "off" about it is that the Doctor is only a supporting character in this tale, but I'd consider that one of the episode's strengths. If I wanted to say anything negative about "Blink," I'd really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel. 

Steven Moffat's writing is the highlight here. It's genius. He manages to pull off a few awesome ideas, like hiding messages in DVD easter eggs, Sally having a conversation with a pre-recorded Doctor, and people being whisked back in time to live their lives in the past. Even now, a few years after watching the episode for the first time, some of its twists continues to blow my mind. My complimenting of the writing also carries over to the dialogue as well. Sally, Larry, Kathy and Billy all sound and act how completely normal folks in a completely abnormal situation would act. It feels real and relatable.

Now, let's talk about those darn Weeping Angels. Dude. What a great idea for a monster. In lesser hands, the Angels may have come off as a bit hokey, but they're given motivations and back story, adding to the terror they bring already. Any time we see them, the atmosphere becomes so tense, building up to when we see them in action during the climax. 

As I mentioned before, I consider the Doctor's limited role in this story a strength. The Doctor playing a larger role wouldn't have made the episode "terrible," but it wouldn't be as resonant. Like I said, the more grounded approach "Blink" takes with its characters allows us to place ourselves in their shoes in ways we can't really do with the Doctor or the companion. If it were the Doctor himself who saved time and defeated the Angels, and not Sally and Larry, we'd lose one of the things which makes "Blink" so special. Also, the lack of Doctor brings mystery back to the character, which is why I think "Blink" can work perfectly as an intro to Doctor Who. If you just watch this one and decide Doctor Who's not right for you, you won't feel like you're missing the end of the story, but if you liked it and wouldn't mind learning more about the Doctor, there's 50 years worth of television to watch.

In summary, "Blink" is a bloody fantastic, well-crafted episode of Doctor Who that's perfect for the die-hard fan and the casual fan alike. Yep. Even your buddy Tim. Tim, the casual Doctor Who fan. What a card.

The Trivia

ContinWHOity

• The Weeping Angels went on to appear in the episodes "The Time of Angels" "Flesh and Stone," "The God Complex," (a fake one, anyway) "The Angels Take Manhatten," "The Time of the Doctor," and "Hell Bent."

• The Doctor uses his now iconic"timey-wimey" catchphrase, and variations on it, frequently after the events of "Blink," most notably in "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Day of the Doctor."

• The variations include "spacey-wacey," ("The Doctor's Wife") "humany-wumany" ("The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe") "explodey-wodey" ("Asylum of the Daleks") and "dreamy-weamy" ("Last Christmas") 

• The "machine that goes ding" from "The Day of the Doctor" seems to be a variation on the Doctor's "timey-wimey detector" in this episode ("It goes ding when there's stuff")

• The Doctor directly refers to the events of this episode in "The Next Doctor" while trying to jog "The Doctor"/ Jackson Lake's memory.

• In "Kill the Moon" the Twelfth Doctor tells Courtney to bring the TARDIS to him by inserting one of the DVDs on the shelf into the console, a callback to what the Tenth Doctor has Sally and Larry do in "Blink."

• Sally includes a picture of an Angel in her package for The Doctor. But doesn't an image of an Angel...become an Angel? (as seen in "The Time of Angels")

Other Facts and Tidbits

• "Blink" is actually an adaptation of the comic "What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow" written by Steven Moffat for Doctor Who Magazine. The major differences in the comic are that Sally is only a child and is contacted by the Ninth Doctor instead of the Tenth. Also, no Weeping Angels.

• Steven Moffat got the inspiration for the Weeping Angels after seeing an angel statue in a graveyard while on a vacation with his family. He originally planned to use them in the story that ended up becoming Series 4's "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead." When he volunteered to write Series 3's "Doctor-lite" episode, he decided to use them a bit earlier.

• This was the first Doctor Who episode to be directed by a woman since "Mark of the Rani" in 1985. Director Hettie MacDonald returned to direct "The Magician's Apprentice" and "The Witch's Familiar" for Series 9 in 2015.

• While showing Sally the TARDIS, Billy remarks that the windows are the wrong size for a police box. This a jab at the community of Outpost Gallifrey, a Doctor Who fan website. After the reveal of the new TARDIS for the revived series, the fans complained about the prop's dimensions, specifically that the windows were too big.

• In a 2009 Doctor Who Magazine survey, readers ranked "Blink" as the 2nd best Doctor Who story of all time, just behind the Fifth Doctor's swan song "The Caves of Androzani." Another survey was conducted in 2014, and "Blink" came in second once again, but this time to "The Day of the Doctor."

• "Blink" went on to win four awards: Two BAFTAS for Best Writing, a Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, and Carey Mulligan won the Constellation Award for Best Female Performance in a 2007 Science-Fiction Television Episode.

• And finally, the Tenth Doctor's video message to Sally is indeed an easter egg on the Series 3 box set. I'm not going to tell you where it is, because where's the fun in that? But, for the impatient or those who don't own the set, here it is:

I think we'll do "Earthshock" next since I got to go to a Q&A with Peter Davison last month at Niagara Falls Comic-Con and  got to ask him about it. And I'm hoping to get that one up a bit sooner than I did this one. Hoping.

Noah