Sunday, November 10, 2013

Doctor Who-The Angels Take Manhattan

                          In 1938 New York City,a man named Grayle hires a PI named Sam Garner to investigate a group of moving statues at the Winter Quay apartments. Upon going there he finds himself unknowingly surrounded by weeping angels,who have also taken over the statue of liberty on the rooftop after he's found his elderly future self in one of the apartment bedrooms. Meanwhile in 2012 NYC,the doctor is vacationing with the Ponds while reading what he thinks is a functional book about a NYC PI named Melody Melone he found in his pocket. All of this changes when the doctor notices Rory's going to find coffee for Amy is recorded in the book. And he realizes the future of his companions is being written as he speaks. By this time,Rory has already been sent back in time by the angels. Following clues from the book,the doctor attempts to take the TARDIS back to 1938 but finds massive temporal displacements there. But not before he and Amy discover Rory's name on a gravestone. Again using the books clues to travel to ancient China for yet more clues,he finds out the identity of Melody Melone is actually River Song.

                     It was River who'd pulled her own father backward in time as she investigated the angels Grayle was keeping as part of his personal collection.  And River's Melody Melone book is based on her experiences of investigation as a warning to the doctor. Rory is sent to the basement of the Winter Quay where he is menaced by a group of cherub angels. He ultimately does escape to Winter Quay. Trapped by an angel grasping her hand,River breaks her own wrist to free herself  Following the doctor using his regenerative energy to heal her she,the doctor and Amy follow Rory to Winter Quay where they find an elderly Rory who has died. The doctor realizes the angels,who feed of time energy have turned the massively populated NYC into a giant repository to feed off of. Understanding it would take a massive paradox in order to keep angels repository at Winters Quay from existing,Rory deems to throw himself from the building-believing since the building never existed he won't die. Amy chooses to fall with him,after which they wake up together with the doctor,River and the TARDIS in a graveyard. When Rory notices his name on a grave,he disappears back in time as the doctor notices a surviving angel. Realizing its the only way she can be with Rory again,Amy joins him much to the distress of a distraught doctor-who departs with River Song in the TARDIS-in order to read the afterward in the Melody Melone novel written by Amy Pond herself.

                 As a vehicle for the departure of Amy Pond and Rory Williams as companions,this story also showcases enormous personal growth for the doctor as well. Especially in the presence of the extremely powerful weeping angels,who hold the power of time in their hands to such an enormous degree they force others to literally pay attention to them,the stress level amid the characters comes to critical mass. River Song's relationship with the doctor has become strained,as she's come to view him as every bit the deceptive individual that she can be. Her increased cynicism in regard to the doctor is equally matched by Amy's intense feelings of love for Rory. Understanding his impending death leads her to making one sacrifice in this story after another to try and save his life. Including joining him for a life lived in the past,a fixed life the doctor cannot alter without a literally Earth shattering temporal paradox. I've never actually seen the doctor show such intense emotion at the loss of companions before-not even in cases of enormous personal sacrifices such as the fates met by Adric or Donna Noble. This is one of the finest weeping angel stories done in the series. And a very poetic and emotional send off for Amy and Rory. At least we think its a send off. One never knows with the last of the time lords,do they?

No comments: