It is, of course, one of the best episodes
Doctor Who has ever done -- it's been in fandom's collective top ten since its debut and subsequent years have done nothing to tarnish its luster. It reinforced Steven Moffat's reputation as an A-list
Who writer (a reputation that only began to falter once he was required to write more than one story a year), and it won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form -- Moffat's third win in as many years. No mean feat for an episode that barely features either main character.
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| Sally with a bunch of creepy statues. ("Blink") ©BBC |
But like last series's "Doctor-lite" episode, "Blink" exists in the Doctor's shadow -- not as much as "Love & Monsters" did, but with a strong influence from the Doctor, as he's the one who brings this episode's main character, Sally Sparrow, into events. (Well, sort of; by the end we know it's not that simple.) But the focus is on Sally (played by another person just before she made it big, Carey Mulligan), as she slowly works out what's going on, thanks to clues that have been planted decades earlier for her to discover right now. It's one of those plots that seems like it would have come up before, but for a show about time travel,
Doctor Who seems rather reluctant to play with time much (except for Steven Moffat, who seems far more interested in it than anyone else writing for the TV version) -- but we get some ontological paradoxes, as the Doctor tells Sally what to do based on things she's told him as a result of his telling her what to do. Or as the Doctor says, in probably the best-known line from this episode (and possibly the entire show): "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff." ("Started well, that sentence," Sally remarks. "It got away from me, yeah," the Doctor replies.)
But while the time hijinks are fun (and there's something incredibly wonderful and tragic about the old Billy Shipton meeting Sally again: "It was raining when we met," Billy remembers. "It's the same rain," Sally replies), the thing that really elevates "Blink" above its peers is the sense of tension and terror it induces. Moffat has hit upon a winning formula with his Weeping Angels creation -- a monster that only moves when you're not looking at it. It plays upon the fear of being watched when you don't know it, and of things moving that you only see out of the corner of your eye. (There's also a more mundane origin: Moffat was inspired by the children's game "Statues".) It's a very effective and creepy adversary, and even the way it "kills" you -- by sending you back in time and feeding on the life you would have had -- is inspired.
So, an incredibly effective monster, a great cast (Carey Mulligan justly gets a lot of praise, but Finlay Robertson, as Larry Nightingale, does a lot with a somewhat thankless role -- and look, it's Louis Mahoney, from various David Maloney-directed
Who stories, as old Billy), wonderful direction, and some clever fun with time travel mechanics and paradoxes make "Blink" a special episode indeed. It's clever and smart and just about everything we want the show to be, and the Weeping Angels are probably the greatest creation of the BBC Wales run. It's not hard to see why this captured the imagination of so many people.