Orbi-Wan Techno

The Angels ep is the one everyone has been waiting for, a knockout. And the preview looked like the the followup will be just as good or better.

The precredit opening was classic, Amy's video encounter was a complete creepfest, and the sudden realization of just how much danger they were in reminded me of several of my favorite sci-fi action movies.

Tracer Bullet

Now that was a good episode.

chuckd21

This is what I've been waiting for this season. The pacing, character moments... everything was spot on.

Nth Power

Best episode of the season so far. Some genuinely creepy moments and loved the banter between The Doctor, Amy and River.

riley_dude

I have been liking the series. Many of my friends are still not sold on Matt. I think he is doing fine.

Superman07

I hate to say this, but I'm starting to get let down by this season. I enjoyed the 11th Hour a lot, but between seeing the Dalek's again and then this episode I'm losing some faith in Moffat. I enjoyed his stories greatly in the past, but this Angel's episode felt like a retreat of a lot of his previous work.

How are talking Angels different than the Vashta Narada?
Why are we seeing the Angels again so soon?

The episode had a lot of good moments, but overall I felt like the old was more obious than the new. I will say that the scene with TV was pretty creepy.

I do think Matt is doing a good job and settling into the role nicely. Interesting that this was the first episode filmed as well.

Groucho

I love River Song, she's a great addition to the whole Who mythology. Her conversation about piloting the TARDIS was great (especially the "leaving on the brakes" bit -- even if it does retcon earlier stories). And who taught her, I wonder?

I also thought poor Bob as the voice of the Angels was a great turn as well. He maintains a bit of his personality throughout his conversations with the Doctor.

boredsilly

Yeah. They had a great chemistry together. I already love the dynamic between Amy and the Doctor, and River fit in nicely. I'm also so glad it doesn't seem like Amy is going to be falling for the Doctor, so like Donna, she's ribbing him all the time. If the Donna/Doctor dynamic was that of Big sister/little brother, the Amy/Doctor dynamic feels more like college buddies. It's refreshing.

This was the closest episode to a total homerun this season, but I've enjoyed all the eps so far. I feel like a nugget for worrying about Matt Smith's ability to play the role, as I already thing he's great. I can't wait to see him get some more material that lets him shine, as this season has been pretty lite.

Autotelik

if there's a villain in Who that creeps me out, it is a Weeping Angel. I was glued to the TV watching this episode. They just totally freak me out.... not being able to take your eye off an angel.

biglou114

Which continues my feeling about companions: the idea of companion works best when there are more then one companion traveling with the Doctor.

Slumbering Fist

??? Okay, one of the most iconic features of the show, the sound of the TARDIS cutting through the fabric of time and space, is now a mistake, the equivalent of the Doctor behaving like my grandmother driving with the parking brake on?... FUCK THAT.

I'm sorry, its maybe a minor quibble to most, but it just smacks to me as one of those things that is canon within a series that there was no need to rewrite and the reason for it is confusing, like turning The Force from something universal/metaphysical into a genetic anomaly. The fact that it served as a dig at the Doc by Moffats sassy cougar River Song just further annoys me. Its a dumb change and one that only serves the writers wannabe cool character, therefore I find it annoying.

Oh yeah, apparently that means The Master doesn't know how to properly drive his TARDIS either because his made the same noise.

Overall I thought the ep was okay, of course its still only halfway through, so it could go down or uphill. Moffat does like to sort of repeat some themes, but I guess all writers do. I was a tad more irked that he had the Doc call the Angels the "most evolved, perfect, blah, blah, blah" threat ever. For Christs sake, pimp your own creation much. Even Terry Nation let a few serials go by before he went there.

Superman07

I'm not an old Who fan so it didn't bother me. In fact, it felt consistent with other points that have been made about the Tardis being an old model and everything not working properly.

Plus her knowing how to do things that the Doctor doesn't/didn't are in line with his character. He's very cavalier, so I don't see him as the type to sit down and read the instruction manual that came with the Tardis.

wmansir

As an old Who fan it didn't bother me either. They already did the same gag when Romana joined the Doctor in the late-70's.

Groucho

I love the gag even more now that I see Internet People™ getting worked up over it.

I guess I can understand the anger, since this is the first time there's ever been a continuity error or inconsistency in the 46+ years the show's been on the air.

Slumbering Fist

Yeah, I remember that, but I bought the dynamic, the contrast of Tom Baker's oddball Doc and Romana's preen. Here it just served to make him look dumb and River look farty-superior.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... internet whine, silly scifi continuity, whatever. I have no problem if the gag/change works, but in this case I just don't see it. I guess it has mostly to do with me not totally buying the River character... and when you dont like a character who is smug that just amplifies the annoyance. Ask Colin Baker.

Superman07

Well how do you know she knows what she was doing. She only talked about the blue stabalizer pully. Maybe she got lucky and doesn't really know it's the parking break. What if there really is no parking break.

I just hope that who/whatever she turns out to be is a surprise twist that doesn't come off as too obvious and really uninteresting.

Shazam

Gee, I loved that part of the episode. Actually, the whole episode was great. Loved it.

Josh-da-man

I can't remember... did The Mater's TARDIS make a sound like the Doctor's TARDIS? (I'm thinking it did, but I could be misremembering.)

I'm thinking back to the classic era of Doctor Who here... I remember when the Anthony Ainley Master had a newer model TARDIS with a working chameleon circuit... and he could make his look like a column or a grandfather clock, and one time, even made his TARDIS look like a police box identical to the Doctor's and landed it inside the Doctor's TARDIS and made an infinite recursion loop.

Shazam

Other TARDISes have been shown to make that noise, but dematerialize much faster, so usually you only hear the noise once.

God I think that was the nerdiest thing I've ever written.

Meglos

The nerdiest thing I've ever written is...you're wrong.

Any time a TARDIS sound effect was heard in the 'classic' series, it always lasted a few seconds. The Rani's and the Master's TARDIS sound effect was slightly distorted sounding, but they generally lasted the same length.

To further kibosh the hand brake theory, there was a Jon Pertwee episode where a Time Lord messenger materialized in front of the Doctor. The same sound effect was heard there, but no TARDIS was present.

Tracer Bullet

Oh god, this must be what I sound like to other people when I talk about Star Trek.

Groucho

Are the Daleks a species?

Shazam

Really? I swear they were shorter.

I'll defer to the nerd master though

Dr Mabuse

I liked this episode.

The Angels are cool.

TheNightFlier

I enjoyed the 2nd part. They are really playing up the relevance of River. It'll be interesting to see who she is.