The Weeping Statues Come Back to Haunt Doctor Who

Plus, Alex Kingston returns as River Song, (Kingston) who just may or may not be the Doctor’s wife somewhere in his future

Saturday’s “Doctor Who” episode “The Return of Angels” is the first of a two-part episode where Moffat returns two of the most intriguing and popular characters of recent NewWho, villains The Weeping Angels and futuristic archaeologist River Song (the delightfully sassy Alex Kingston).

The Weeping Angels, last seen in the 2007 episode “Blink,” have proven to be one of the scariest villains ever on “Doctor Who,” and are no less scary here, imbibed as they are with additional powers and abilities due to the crash of the spaceship Byzantium on the planet Alfava Metraxis and its subsequent radiation leak. The Doctor confronts the Angels directly in this tale, unlike in “Blink,” and yes they do prove even scarier in multitudes.

Perhaps even better than the Angels are the wham-bam return of River Song, (Kingston) who just may or may not be the Doctor’s wife somewhere in his future. The hints come fast and furious about their continued timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly relationship: she knows how to write high Gallifreyan, she can drive the TARDIS, and she can apparently summon the Doctor at will by leaving messages in a museum. Companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) catches on to their bickering banter and quickly surmises River Song is his wife. The interaction between The Doctor, Amy and River is superb with mutual respect and teasing played in equal measures. Alex Kingston seems to really revel in her role of possible future Mrs. Doctor yet there are hints that she may not be all that we first thought in this episode.

That’s not the only cliffhanger; and I can’t wait for more!

Best Parts:

The famous TARDIS noise happens because the Doctor leaves the brakes on!

The Doctor (Matt Smith) doing a verbal imitation of that famous TARDIS noise!

River Song: Flying through space in five-inch stilettos! 

Father Octavian (Ian Glen) in a nice supporting role.

Worst Parts:

Nothing really except that most of this episode is a setup to the cliffhanger and resolution for part two.

My Rating: Extremely Good, I give it a 4 out 5.

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