"Flesh
and Stone" leaves its heroes—and viewers—with
very little time to catch their breath as they are relentlessly
pursued by an army of fully restored Weeping Angels. Steven
Moffat continues immediately after the
previous episode’s gun shot cliffhanger, with
the Doctor, Amy Pond, River Song, and the combat clerics
hanging upside down on the hull of the crashed star ship
Byzantium, thanks to the ship’s artificial gravity
fields. But this move buys only moments of safety, for the
Weeping Angels are quickly increasing in speed and power.
What results
is a long and exhilarating chase through the Byzantium’s
hallways, flight decks, and “tree-borg oxygen factories”.
Faced with a newly evolved and deadlier set of Weeping Angels,
the Doctor is in really serious peril, and it is a joy to
finally be able to watch his genius madly work its way out
of this dangerous situation.
Unfortunately
River Song plays a less involved role in this episode, but
we do get to find out few things surrounding her time in
prison. According to the chief combat cleric Father Octavian,
River Song had been sent to prison for killing “a
good man, a hero to many”. Moffat not so subtly suggests
that this good man is really the Doctor, but the hints seem
too heavy-handed and obvious for this to be the truth.
We’ll
no doubt get another chance to unveil the mysteries about
River Song some time later in the series. Before River and
the Doctor part ways once again, she hints at another future
(or is it past?) adventure with the Doctor: “You’ll
see me again quite soon. When the Pandorica opens.”
Matt
Smith continues to shine in this performance, handling with
ease the Doctor’s humorously manic delivery as he
tries to work out an escape plan—“I don’t
know what the plan is yet, I haven’t finished talking”—as
well as the more subdued moments. The scene where the Doctor
comforts Amy before leaving her alone in the forest and
quietly pleads with her to trust him completely surprises
us with a gentler side to Matt Smith’s Doctor.
As refreshing
as it is to see his kinder side, it is still a thrill to
see Matt Smith explode with impatience and frustration,
and the Weeping Angels give him plenty of reason to do just
that.
Amy Pond suffers
a lot of grief in this episode as she learns the exact consequences
of looking into the eyes of a Weeping Angel. Much to his
horror, the Doctor finds that there is an Angel in her mind,
and it is slowly killing Amy from the inside. The build-up
to this reveal is cleverly simple and effectively shows
just how menacing these new Angels can be.
But
the Weeping Angels aren’t the only threat in this
episode—the mysterious, glowing crack that appeared
at the end of previous episodes now takes the forefront,
playing a crucial role in the Doctor’s fight against
the Angels. Clearly enjoying toying with our curiosity,
Moffat tells us a few things that both explain and prompt
more questions.
The
Doctor discovers that the crack originated from Amy’s
time, adding to the intrigue of her character but putting
the Doctor in further confusion. “What if time could
run out?” he wonders. Can time be rewritten and erased?
Would that explain why she can’t remember the Daleks?
And just what is so special about Amy Pond? We’ll
just have to be patient for the answers.
Not
once does Moffat let up in this frantically paced and plot-filled
story, making it the most exciting episode of the new series
to date. If you weren’t sure about Moffat and Matt
Smith before, then you’ll surely be won over by the
end of "Flesh and Stone".
At the
very least the epilogue between Amy and the Doctor will
definitely… shake things up among Who fans and capture
enough of your attention to lure you into watching the next
episode.
