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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Written by

Steven Moffat

Directed by

Nick Hurran

Runtime

45 minutes

Story Type

Companion Exit

Time Travel

Past, Present

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

Vortex Manipulator, Sonic Screwdriver

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, New York, USA

UK Viewers

7.82 million

Appreciation Index

88

Synopsis

A simple trip to New York in 2012 goes horribly wrong when the Eleventh Doctor's companion, Rory Williams, is sent back to the 1930s by the Weeping Angels. There, he finds that his daughter, River Song, is investigating the Angels, as Manhattan has become their hunting grounds. The Doctor and Amy Pond must find Rory before it is too late, but they soon find that not every point in time can be changed. And here, the Doctor must face the one thing he has been dreading — a final farewell to the Ponds.

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Reviews

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2 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

There’s some great ideas in this one. But it’s a classic Moffat soup of too many jumbled up ideas with a lack of singular focus. The key concept of a hotel where Weeping Angels are generating time energy by sending people back in time within their rooms, making them live out their lives in this liminal space is spine tingling. You could make a whole story out of this.

You’ve then got New York. The production team are clearly uncomfortable filming somewhere where there is a bit of time pressure. They are then adding into the mix 1920s American pastiche, and trying to wring as much visual value out of the “New York!” visit as possible. The Statue of Liberty is in there for some reason. They are then trying to fold River Song in, but clearly Alex Kingston is not actually present in New York, just Cardiff so she’s not there in a scene and then suddenly she is. The story is a bit of a mess, and it looks a bit messy.

One final critique - Murray Gold’s music, especially the “oohing” while Amy and Rory are jumping off the ledge is too much. The execs needed to reign him in on this one.

But it’s not “quality free”; it wraps up Amy and The Doctor’s story nicely. Rory gets a big starring role. The cherubs are an incredible premise. If only Moffat could have taken the best of his ideas and fleshed them out there would be so much more to this. Maybe they felt that because of The God Complex that the whole “hotel thing” had already been done and that they couldn’t lean on it too hard.


This review contains spoilers!

This was the best episode of the first half for me. I definitely think that it could've been a two parter because it zapped along but I loved the noir feel and thought it was a great farewell for the Ponds.


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Statistics

AVG. Rating570 members
3.83 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating1,500 votes
4.35 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating178 votes
3.75 / 5

Member Statistics

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Favourited

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Reviewed

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Saved

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Quotes

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DOCTOR: I always rip out the last page of a book. Then it doesn't have to end. I hate endings.

— Eleventh Doctor, The Angels Take Manhattan

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Transcript

(Over the view of someone using a proper old-fashioned manual typewriter.)

GARNER [OC]: New York. The city of a million stories. Half of them are true. The other half just haven't happened yet. Statues, the man said. Living statues that moved in the dark.

[Grayle's study]

(On the ground floor of a rich man's home.)

GRAYLE: So, will you take the case, Mister Garner?
GARNER: Sure. Why not?
GRAYLE: Because you don't believe me.
GARNER: For twenty five dollars a day plus expenses, I'll believe any damn thing you like.
GRAYLE: But you don't believe that statues can move. And you're right, Mister Garner. They can't. Of course they can't. When you're looking.


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