The Angels Take Manhattan
Oct. 10th, 2012 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatSo I cried, but then I've been known to cry at Neighbours so making me cry is hardly an achievement in TV terms. Beyond that I enjoyed this a lot while, at the same time, feeling a little guilty about it.
So to get the bad parts out of the way first. It was unashamedly emotionally manipulative. The story wasn't afraid to signpost clearly, "this is where you are supposed to cry", in a way that felt a little bit like a bludgeon. Secondly, despite the fact that the story construction itself was nicely tight, it left a gaping hole at the end. Just because the Doctor can not get the TARDIS to 1930s New York, the place was not, itself, an impenetrable fortress impossible to get either in or out of - unless, I suppose, the Angels continued to hold it and prevent entry or egress, in which case the story is far more unremitingly grim than is suggested.
I liked the story itself, the plot hole of an ending aside. Obviously we'd more or less seen it before in Blink, but let's face it, Blink was really good! and The Angels Take Manhattan seemed like a much more logical follow through to the angels as established in Blink than The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. It also turned the direction of Blink upside down. In that the Doctor is manipulating the clues to bring about his desired conclusion, in The Angels Take Manhattan he is desperately trying to avoid the clues as they force him into a particular chain of events. I like the way the two stories fit together in that way.
River was very good here as well. She's not been my favourite character in the new series by a long shot, so I was pleasantly surprised at how well she worked. I think removing the burden of mystery over her role and origins has been a good thing.
I've really enjoyed Amy and Rory as companions. I know that for a lot of people they long out-stayed their welcome, but I liked the dynamics of a husband and wife team on the TARDIS, and I liked the way we got to see their relationship evolve and deepen as their stories progressed. I liked Rory's transformation from the unwilling boyfriend dragged along and largely unwanted to someone who was as invested in travelling with the Doctor as Amy was. I liked the hints we were given that Rory and Amy really did travel with the Doctor for years - leaving aside the fact that Karen Gillan looks nothing of the sort, we have to assume that Amy is over forty by the time of this episode which gives her twenty years of travelling on and off with the Doctor. I was concerned that this episode was going to be yet another tragic companion departure and I'm glad Moffat chose to give us more of a sense of hope at the end.
Ultimately, like all of this season so far in fact, I think this story was good without being great. They've all had different strengths and flaws but ultimately I'm very happy with it all. I'll be interested to see if this will be maintained now everything has changed.
So to get the bad parts out of the way first. It was unashamedly emotionally manipulative. The story wasn't afraid to signpost clearly, "this is where you are supposed to cry", in a way that felt a little bit like a bludgeon. Secondly, despite the fact that the story construction itself was nicely tight, it left a gaping hole at the end. Just because the Doctor can not get the TARDIS to 1930s New York, the place was not, itself, an impenetrable fortress impossible to get either in or out of - unless, I suppose, the Angels continued to hold it and prevent entry or egress, in which case the story is far more unremitingly grim than is suggested.
I liked the story itself, the plot hole of an ending aside. Obviously we'd more or less seen it before in Blink, but let's face it, Blink was really good! and The Angels Take Manhattan seemed like a much more logical follow through to the angels as established in Blink than The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. It also turned the direction of Blink upside down. In that the Doctor is manipulating the clues to bring about his desired conclusion, in The Angels Take Manhattan he is desperately trying to avoid the clues as they force him into a particular chain of events. I like the way the two stories fit together in that way.
River was very good here as well. She's not been my favourite character in the new series by a long shot, so I was pleasantly surprised at how well she worked. I think removing the burden of mystery over her role and origins has been a good thing.
I've really enjoyed Amy and Rory as companions. I know that for a lot of people they long out-stayed their welcome, but I liked the dynamics of a husband and wife team on the TARDIS, and I liked the way we got to see their relationship evolve and deepen as their stories progressed. I liked Rory's transformation from the unwilling boyfriend dragged along and largely unwanted to someone who was as invested in travelling with the Doctor as Amy was. I liked the hints we were given that Rory and Amy really did travel with the Doctor for years - leaving aside the fact that Karen Gillan looks nothing of the sort, we have to assume that Amy is over forty by the time of this episode which gives her twenty years of travelling on and off with the Doctor. I was concerned that this episode was going to be yet another tragic companion departure and I'm glad Moffat chose to give us more of a sense of hope at the end.
Ultimately, like all of this season so far in fact, I think this story was good without being great. They've all had different strengths and flaws but ultimately I'm very happy with it all. I'll be interested to see if this will be maintained now everything has changed.