2nd Opinion, Take 2 “Village of the Angels” – Fluxing Great

JC’s take on the fourth episode of Series 13.

Like many, I was excited to hear Maxine Alderton was returning to Series 13. Her previous episode, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati,” is commonly considered one of, if not the best Series 12 episode. Though, I lowered expectations slightly because two of my favourite writers from Series 11 let me down when they delivered significantly worse episodes their second time around (“Orphan 55” and “Praxeus”). Thankfully, I needn’t have worried. “Village of the Angels” is not perfect, but this was easily my favourite of Series 13, if not the Chibnall era.

In many ways, the episode felt like a classic era throwback. You have an old English rural village under attack from monsters. A perfect atmospheric setting for creepy enemies like the Angels. Then it shifts things into another Who favourite in the form of the base under siege format. Toss in a “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!” to really set those Pertwee comparisons into overdrive. All that was missing was Bessie and UNIT (But we’ll finally see the latter at least next week).

I am a huge Weeping Angels fan, so I’m obviously biased. They’ve been my favourite monster since their stunning debut in “Blink”. Having said that, I have been a little disappointed with some of their subsequent appearances, feeling they haven’t matched their first episode. I don’t think they can ever be as scary again due to the fact their novelty factor has long worn off by now, but I’d rate this adventure probably their third best outing.

Though most of the ideas here are essentially just spins on things we’ve seen before, I loved how they played with these elements, such as the image of an Angel being set on fire (though how did they reform the paper in the fireplace?). The final tunnel scene with the Angel’s arms coming out the walls was horrifying too. That is the stuff of nightmares, and sure to give younger viewers a good scare. The Angels gaining a voice, so to speak, is always going to be controversial (the same when Moffat did it), as a big part of their appeal is that they’re a silent threat, but I was actually OK with how they did it. I loved them taunting the Doctor and Jericho. One thing I’m not so keen on is the Angels being Division agents, but we’ll have to see how that one plays out.

The other thing I thought worked really well in the episode was the two most prominent guest characters: Claire and Jericho. At first, I thought the Professor was going to be another generic villain conducting psychic experiments on Claire for nefarious means, but thankfully it turned out to be anything but. Brave and intelligent, Kevin McNally did an absolutely fantastic job with the role, and I’m pleased he’s carrying on in the final two episodes (though I’m concerned Chibnall will write him as well without Alderton’s input). As expected, Annabel Scholey was excellent again as Claire, and had much more to do this time. It’s just a shame she is only here for a guest role. She has companion material written all over her (and interestingly, Scholey actually screen-tested for Amy). I could only imagine what RTD would do with her…

Jodie Whittaker being surrounded by the aforementioned guest stars led to her having a better episode, though I could do with less of the exaggerated facial expressions. Just dial it down a bit, Jodie. For once in this series, I didn’t find Yaz’s scenes completely grating. Perhaps it was that she wasn’t acting like a needy teen, and more like an actual (former) police officer doing some investigating. There’s not much to say about Dan this week. He’s largely there for a couple of moments of levity in a sidekick role.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to see Bel so soon again. At most, I thought she’d be back in the finale. If I have one big flaw with the episode, though, it’s that her scenes were perfunctory to everything else that was going on. The Angel parts were so exciting that I was jarred when being pulled away from the more interesting action. I suppose Chibnall needed to justify them as part of the ongoing Flux arc, even though nothing really advances. Guest star Blake Harrison was OK. At first, he came off as the usual cowardly man, but he gave the role some heart.

The episode ends with a great cliffhanger and an impressive visual sequence of the Doctor transforming into an Angel. Of course, the moment is robbed somewhat because we know Jodie isn’t leaving until next year. One day, maybe they’ll nail that surprise regeneration. Also, was the mid-credit scene really necessary? It did remove some tension from the cliffhanger, and the scene didn’t really seem worthy enough to justify its inclusion.

Asides

• The Angels ringing the doorbell is a hilarious image.
• Yaz snaps at Dan for asking too many questions. Pot. Kettle. Black.
• Gerald is surprisingly subdued with seeing his village crumbling away into outer space.
• Jean and Gerald get killed in front of Peggy, a little girl, but it’s all hunky-dory because “He was never nice.” I’d expected a little more shock and empathy. Even if he wasn’t “nice”, two innocent people have just horribly died!
• There’s a sledgehammer in the Prof’s lab. Couldn’t someone have sledgehammered the Angels that got in? The Doctor ends up using it anyway.
• So this episode says you can’t survive an Angel blast back in time twice, yet Rory was OK in “The Angels Take Manhattan”?
• Next week looks like a big episode with almost everyone returning, and also the addition of UNIT and Kate. I’m concerned it’ll be another overstuffed Chibnall episode. It’s also time we start getting some answers and movement on the Flux.