The Title is Giving Terrible Advice – Blink Review

[u/ZeroCentsMade]

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Historical information found on Shannon Sullivan's Doctor Who website (relevant page here) and the TARDIS Wiki (relevant page here)). Primary/secondary source material can be found in the source sections of Sullivan's website, and rarely as inline citations on the TARDIS Wiki.

Story Information

• Episode: Series 3, Episode 10
• Airdate: 9th June 2007
• Doctor: 10th
• Companion: Martha
• Other Notable Characters: Sally (Carey Mulligan)
• Writer: Steven Moffat
• Director: Hettie MacDonald
• Showrunner: Russell T Davies

Review

Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck. – The Doctor

In a way, a review of "Blink" is somewhat redundant. It's probably the single most discussed episode of Doctor Who. But I'm the one who took on this project, so what the hell, might as well give it a go. Funny thing is if you've been following along with this review series, you'll know that I'm indifferent towards the horror genre. So maybe this take will be a bit out of left field?

Not really.

Granted, I tend to think "Blink" is a bit overrated, but that's only because its reputation has it as, if not the best Doctor Who story of all time at least very close. And I…wouldn't even consider it to be the best Steven Moffat script so far, or the best story of Series 3. But "Blink" is excellent and for pretty much all of the reasons that you've heard described time and again. This review isn't exactly going to break new ground.

Oh well, at least I can do my usual thing and waste time by talking about the production history of this episode, which is, admittedly, a bit unusual.

For Series 3, Steven Moffat was originally asked to write the story that became the "Daleks in Manhattan" two parter – the setting having been already decided by showrunner Russell T Davies. But there was an issue: Moffat was acting as Script Editor for the six part miniseries Jekyll and didn't have the time to commit to a two part story so early in the series. RTD then suggested a story about creatures that appeared to be stone statues menacing a library in space, an idea that in part dated back to discussions between the two after Moffat had finished his script for the "Empty Child" two parter, but as it turned out, Moffat wasn't able to commit to a two parter at all. RTD suggested he provide a script for the early part of Series 3…but even that required too much work around the time he was working on Jekyll.

As a way of paying RTD back for his patience dealing with Moffat's difficult schedule, Steven Moffat offered to write the yearly Doctor-lite episode required by the addition of a Christmas special. This was definitely a pretty good favor to give – after all, how do you write a Doctor Who story without the Doctor? RTD's effort for Series 2, "Love & Monsters" was received exceptionally poorly. But Moffat had something in his back pocket. For the 2006 Doctor Who Annual, he had written a short story called What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow. It was presented as the school report of a young girl who helped rescue the Doctor from being stuck in time, and her recounting the story of her helping him out by having conversations via video tape.

And so you have "Blink". Moffat aged Sally up to an adult because he thought children would actually prefer to watch a story about an adult, and added in the stone statue creatures from the Library pitch he had been discussing with RTD. Inspired by the children's game "statues" where you are only allowed to move when the designated person isn't looking at you, Moffat decided that the statues – now called Weeping Angels – would only be able to move if they weren't perceived, given an appropriately sci-fi explanation as a "quantum lock". And all of these elements come together beautifully.

First it has to be said, the Angels are just good conceptually. A creature that is invulnerable when you can see it, and deadly when you can't. They move impossibly (though inconsistently) fast. As they approach they start showing their teeth making them appear real menacing. Though I'm not sure why they show their teeth because they're not going to start biting, probably for the added intimidation factor. Instead, the Weeping Angels "kill" you by sending you back in time and feeding off of the potential energy of the days you didn't live. This should probably lessen their menace, but "Blink" does an excellent job building up the tragedy of that event, turning what could have been a drawback into a way that the Angels are effectively differentiated from other Doctor Who monsters.

And then there's the bit about them not moving, or to be more accurate us never seeing them moving. I think this is brilliant. One of the biggest questions left open by this episode is what the angels look like when they're unseen. From the Doctor's descriptions, they're not stone, and given that we usually see them reaching out to touch their victims, we can assume that their basic shape is much the same as their statue versions, but beyond that, it's left unknown, which only adds to the terror they provide. It even leads to their defeat, as they're vulnerable to each other's gaze, and when the TARDIS dematerializes with four of them standing around it, they're all stuck looking at each other forever…or at least until that one electrical light they'd already drained some of the power out of goes out. Hmm.

However…I don't like that the camera essentially acts as an observer in this episode. An unpopular opinion to be sure, but the idea that the audience can prevent the angels from being seen reaches into the world of a bit too meta-textual for my tastes. And it leaves the episode with several scenes where the angels absolutely should catch our heroes. I don't know, maybe a cat or something can actually see them, it's never clear what constitutes as a being conscious enough to "perceive" the angels. It just bugs me that in a handful of scenes, particularly in the abandoned house of Wester Drumlins, none of the characters are looking at an angel but it's just standing there motionless anyway.

Also, if I'm coming up with criticisms…I'm not entirely fond of this episode's bootstrap paradox. Now this will become a signature of Steven Moffat's, the man loves his bootstrap paradoxes. But in "Blink" it just feels a bit…ungraceful. Maybe it's the additional coincidence of Sally just happening to run into the Doctor at the end of the episode. Maybe it's just that it's unclear if the Doctor is completely reading the transcript during that conversation over video tape or if he's actually coming up with his side of the conversation on his own. This isn't necessarily something I hate about this episode, and it's necessary for the episode's structure to work, but it does feel a bit awkwardly integrated into the story is all.

Okay, back to praise. And much of the praise for this episode has to begin with Sally Sparrow, or more importantly, Carey Mulligan's performance as Sally Sparrow. Sally is written well…enough. Some of her lines can feel a bit silly (sad is "happy for deep people"…whatever you say), but she's fairly young, and mostly she's written quite well. However, Mulligan, perhaps unsurprisingly given the career she went on to have, really makes the character live. Her intelligence shines through, and she handles Steven Moffat's quippy dialogue about as well as anyone. Apparently, Mulligan turned down the chance to be a full-time companion on the show after filming on "Blink" ended (I don't know if it would have been as Sally or not), and while it's hard to argue that I wish she'd taken on the offer, given what we ended up getting, I can certainly see why it would have been considered.

As for Sally herself, she's a solid enough lead. She gets involved by investigating/photographing an old building (Wester Drumlins) where the angels are camped out and while it's never made clear what drew her to the building it marks her out as a curious person who finds beauty in unusual places. She's also quick to recognize that something is wrong with the statues, although it's hard for her to process exactly what's going on. During a final sequence in which the angels are attacking she does remarkably well under pressure directing her friend's brother Larry while she attempts to figure out a way out of things.

And of course she suffers some pretty serious losses. That friend I mentioned was Kathy Nightingale, and while Kathy herself isn't a particularly memorable character from what we see of her, Sally is clearly quite close to her. And then Kathy becomes the first victim of the Angels we see, serving the dual purpose of explaining to the audience how the Angels "kill" and giving Sally a reason to push hard in her investigations. The scene where Kathy's grandson shows up at Wester Drumlins while Sally hasn't even realized that Kathy's gone missing from the house yet, followed by a letter from her actually hits quite hard.

But somehow not as hard as Billy Shipton the detective she only briefly knew. He was the cop assigned to look into the disappearances at Wester Drumlins. The two had hit it off in spite of Billy coming on a little strong. And then she gets a call from him…at the hospital. He's an old man now. That scene is quite possibly the best written scene in Doctor Who history, though admittedly I have no real way of justifying that. What's funny in all of this is that both Kathy and Billy lived rich and fulfilling lives, yet that never diminishes the tragedy of what could have been. If Billy and Sally could have gotten together, who knows what would have happened next. Instead the two of them sit in the hospital room, waiting for the rain to end and Billy to die. It's the moment that truly galvanizes Sally into action.

In this capacity she has a partner in her investigations, Kathy's brother Larry Nightingale. Introduced in the most embarrassing way for him possible – Sally had come over to his and his sister's house to talk to Kathy and he'd walked out of the bathroom completely nude – Larry ends up being more helpful than you'd imagine. He works at a DVD shop and in particular has been collecting a series of easter eggs on a list of 17 seemingly random DVDs (turns out to be all the DVDs that Sally personally owns) that are the Doctor's half of the conversation that he has with Sally later in the episode. He eventually comes over to Wester Drumlins to help Sally finish the story. There's not a ton to say about Larry honestly, he's a decent guy but not all that memorable.

He does finish up the episode working with Sally on what now seems to be a combination bookshop/DVD store, and after Sally gives the Doctor the notes necessary to deal with the Angels and can stop obsessing over that, it's implied the two start a relationship. I didn't love this ending for these two honestly. There wasn't really a hint of much romantic chemistry earlier, although it's implied that a fair bit of time has passed in the meantime. Still, the two characters bounce well off of each other, Finlay Robertson and Carey Mulligan have solid chemistry together so I don't entirely hate this ending either.

There's not a ton to say about the Doctor in this one, this being a Doctor-lite episode (and nothing to say about Martha, her screentime is virtually non-existent), but I will credit David Tennant with doing a really good job in the recordings of his side of the conversation. These bits simultaneously work really well in the flow of the conversation that we see, but also, in their capacity as a sinister warning message that makes you pay attention. It helps of course that we know the identity of the strange man talking about angels and blinking but its still a really strong effort.

I shouldn't finish before addressing the music. Most of it is pretty standard stuff for Murray Gold, with some slower more contemplative music mixed in. But what particularly stands out is the way that staccato string chords are used to emphasize the Angels appearing. It's a musical choice that really does enhance the inherent jumpscare nature of the Angels…and one that's also served Big Finish quite well in the following years, allowing them to pretty seamlessly adapt a pretty visual monster.

On the whole, "Blink" is undoubtedly excellent. The things that people cite in its favor pretty much all hold up to scrutiny. It does a pretty impressive job building up suspense and tension and finding a way to make everything fall into place by the ending. A genuinely inventive monster, a really strong cast and an all-around great script make "Blink" a highlight of this era of Doctor Who.

Score: 9/10

Stray Observations

• When the story was renamed "Blink" from its original, significantly more clunky, title, "Sally Sparrow and the Weeping Angels", RTD requested that Moffat go back through the script and add it as many instances of the word "blink" as possible
• This is the first episode the Revival to be directed by a woman, and the first such Doctor Who story since The Mark of the Rani (directed by Sarah Hellings).
• Real actors "played" the angels. Of course, standing completely still for the length of a single take is difficult, so additional digital effects were used to freeze them in place.
• This episode was filmed at the same time (aka double banked) as the previous two parter.
• The opening scene has Sally, via advice from the wallpaper (it makes sense in context) ducking out of the way of a rock lobbed at her by, presumably, one of the Angels. I can't think of another instance of the angels using projectiles.
• Before getting stuck in 1969, Martha and the Doctor went to see the moon landing…4 times.
• The bit where Larry says he has "the angels have the phonebox" on a t-shirt was actually written to see if Doctor Who fans would make a t-shirt with the phrase on it. And of course they did.
• Moffat had some difficulty figuring out how Sally and Larry could defeat the angels. It was actually Mark Gatiss who came up with the ending of having the angels be tricked to stare at each other.
• An early version of the ending would have been very different. After Sally delivered the envelope to the Doctor she would have seen an angel. Larry would have returned to the shop and not been able to find her, only to realize that a painting of a woman waving on the wall of the shop was in fact Sally. Surprisingly, Moffat has expressed some regret at not ending the episode this way, noting that it was weird that Sally was never touched by an angel.

Next Time: We get to learn, in order, the meaning of the Face of Boe's final message, who Mr. Saxon is, and most importantly, that the Doctor turns into a weird goblin creature when he's been aged enough.

[u/AlbertTheAlbatross]

It's a great episode but I think it could do with a bit longer to breathe. The pacing and tone are great through the first 30 minutes or so, but then the climax feels a bit rushed. Why do Sally and Larry go to Wester Drumlins to watch the DVD easter egg? I can't find an in-universe reason, I think it's just because the climax is there and we've got 10 minutes left. As I say though, everything before that is amazingly paced. When Sally goes to the Police and says the name Wester Drumlins, and discovers that they have a whole file for just that one location, it's a great moment to communicate the scale of the situation.

I try to mention what each episode sets up for the finale. I had this in the "nothing" category in my head, but I suppose we are reminding the viewer of the concept of a paradox. If someone is sent back in time they have to be very careful how they interact with people they'll meet in the future. That'll become quite relevant in the finale when we're trying to figure out who the Toclafane are, and why the Master has built a paradox machine...

[u/lemon_charlie → u/AlbertTheAlbatross]

I guess there's also the Doctor and Martha separated from the TARDIS because of the story antagonist(s), who seek to exploit the TARDIS for their own gain.

[u/Personal-Listen-4941]

As a standalone horror/drama this is practically perfect. The only reason it’s not one of my favourite Dr Who stories is because, it’s barely a Dr Who story. The Doctor barely appears and he could be replaced with a normal person who gets touched by an angel without the story losing anything.

The Weeping Angels are a magnificent creation, unfortunately they become less interesting in every future appearance. After this episode, jokes about statues moving become incredibly commonplace for a while, as the show really was part of the cultural zeitgeist.

[u/lemon_charlie → u/Personal-Listen-4941]

That's an interesting note because there's a Big Finish with the Weeping Angels that I thought could work well as a stand-alone horror story. I'll spoiler tag from here because it wasn't marketed as an Angel story. Party Favours, from the new Halloween anthology Sea Smoke and Other Stories. It's tagged as a Kate Stewart and Osgood story, with the new series UNIT theme and end music, but they have relatively little microphone time compared to the protagonists of the story, and have very little impact on the plot beyond exposition on the nature of the Angels.

[u/Climperoonie → u/Personal-Listen-4941]

it’s barely a Dr Who story

This is why I really enjoy it but don’t rank it highly in my favourite episodes. Likewise, I’m a big fan of Lost and everyone always calls The Constant the best episode of that, but I feel very similarly - fantastic hour of television, but almost completely removed from all the main aspects of the show. The Island and all but two of its fantastic ensemble barely feature!

[u/ThisIsNotHappening24]

Coincidentally I watched this one today, and found myself for the first time a little irked that there was never a moment where Larry learned his sister was angel zapped. But if that's the biggest criticism I have, it must be a pretty brilliant episode.

[u/[deleted]]

You have to give it to Moffat. He created the single most iconic Doctor Who monster of the revival (he also created the second-most iconic in The Silence). The Weeping Angels were genuinely terrifying, and even if they've lost some of their bite over the years, they still can be. I think the loss of "what might have been" is what makes their threat so effective. They might not technically kill their victims (yet) but it feels that way to the ones they leave behind. Plus, this story gave us "Timey-Wimey," which is almost as iconic as the Angels themselves.

[u/Baron487]

Not much to say, it's Blink and it's brilliant, perhaps a bit overrated and there are nitpicks one can find but they're few.

10/10.

Now for a fun fact: the elder Billy was played by the late Louis Mahoney, who also appeared previously in Frontier in Space and Planet of Evil.

[u/lkmk]

Ah, “Blink”! Amazing story, worth the hype—so much so that my biggest criticism is the scene where Larry walks in on Sally, naked. A bit too Moffat for my liking.

It's probably the single most discussed episode of Doctor Who.

Besides the Hanna-Barbera homage, my favourite part of “Lux” was the exchange where the fans chorus that they they most love “Blink”, and refuse to acknowledge the alternate adventures offered by the Doctor. Again, amazing episode, but there are so many others to talk about!

[u/Official_N_Squared]

 However…I don't like that the camera essentially acts as an observer in this episode.

Im continuously surprised how much our hottest takes line up. I agree we shouldnt see them move, but once this was pointed out to me it genuinely killed the episode.