The fifth episode of  Series 5 of Doctor Who is the second part of the return of the Weeping Angels, and picks up right after the gun at the end of the last episode. So, how does the Doctor get through this one? And does the story do justice to the iconic Weeping Angels? Read my review to find out.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A FULL PLOT SUMMARY AND IS SPOILER-HEAVY.  READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK!

SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD

The returns of the Weeping Angels and River Song continue in the second part of this story, written by both characters’ creator, and new showrunner, Steven Moffat. This episode also allows Amy a larger role and further explores the mystery of the cracks in the Universe, answering the question of where they come from. Here is a brief plot summary.

Continuing from the previous cliffhanger, the destruction of the gravity globe allows the Doctor, Amy, Dr. River Song, and Father Octavian and his clerics to jump into the localized gravity well of the starship Byzantium and escape the horde of approaching Weeping Angels. The Angels follow them into the ship, where the Doctor directs everyone into the ship’s oxygen factory, a forest contained within the starship. Before leaving the secondary control room, the Doctor observes a growing, familiar crack—the same from Amy’s bedroom (“The Eleventh Hour”), and determines that it’s leaking time energy from which the Angels are currently feeding.

Regrouping in the forest, the Doctor and Song find Amy to be struggling with an image of an Angel embedded in her mind, causing her to near death. The Doctor instructs Amy to keep her eyes closed to temporarily halt the Angel’s effects on her. With Amy now too slow to move with the rest of the group, the Doctor, Song, and Octavian attempt to reach the primary control room on the opposite side of the forest, hoping to teleport Amy and four clerics guarding her once there. Song and Octavian reveal to the Doctor that she is a prisoner currently under Octavian’s care, with a pardon promised should she help them complete their mission. Octavian gives his life to distract an Angel in order to allow the Doctor and Song into the control room. As Amy and the clerics wait for rescue, the crack in the secondary control room opens fully, causing the Angels to move away from it. When some of the clerics approach it to investigate, they disappear completely; while Amy remembers them, the remaining clerics have no knowledge of their loss. Amy is soon left alone as the remaining clerics also disappear investigating the crack. The Doctor instructs Amy to continue moving towards the primary control room, keeping her eyes closed but acting as if she is still able to see in order to fool the Angels. Amy trips, revealing her blindness to the Angels, but before they get her, Song teleports her to join her and the Doctor.

The Doctor reveals that the crack is due to an explosion somewhere in time, a date that he and Song are able to determine. The Doctor warns that anything that falls into it, such as the clerics, are rewritten out of time, thus why the Angels are scared of the crack. The only way of temporarily closing the crack is to have some “complicated space-time event” enter it, either the Doctor himself or the whole of the Angels. As the Angels drain power from the ship and seek to use the Doctor to close the crack, the Doctor realizes that their problems are solved; he warns Song and Amy to hold onto the controls as the upended ship’s gravity field fails, causing the Angels in the forest to fall into the crack and close it. With the Angels gone, the Angel in Amy’s mind never existed, and she is able to recover. Song is recaptured by the clerics, revealing her crime is for killing “the best man [she]’d ever known”, and promises the Doctor they will meet again soon when the “Pandorica” opens, a term dismissed by the Doctor as a fairy tale.

Aboard the TARDIS, Amy asks the Doctor to return her to Earth right after she left after her harrowing experience on the starship to allow her to regroup before continuing her travels. In her room, she shows the Doctor that she is to be married to Rory the next day, and attempts to seduce the Doctor, which he is very alarmed at. However, the Doctor realizes that the next day, 26 June 2010, is the same day as the time explosion epicenter, and forcibly takes Amy away so that he can figure out what is going on.

This is the episode where everything starts to change. The Weeping Angels get inside Amy’s head in an absolutely terrifying story development, with the Angels making Amy count down until they take over. Amy is forced to keep her eyes closed as she navigates a forest full of Angels. River is revealed to be a murderer, forever altering our perception of her. And, then, there is the crack. This episode plays host to the biggest version of teh crack in time yet, and it also reveals that exposure to the crack causes people to forget things. This crack is so powerful that it takes all of the Weeping Angels falling into it to close it. The origin date of the cracks in finally revealed and, oh look, it’s Amy’s wedding day. Amy, extremely nervous about her wedding and perhaps a bit more conscious of her mortality, tries to “put the moves” on the Doctor, actually kissing him! This is one of the most hilarious scenes of the new series, as the Doctor’s discomfort is on full view.

Matt and Karen act their hearts out in this episode, with Alex Kingston also turning in another strong performance as River Song. River tells the Doctor he’ll see her again, when the Pandorica opens. Which, is 7 episodes from now. This was a great finish and is now the starting point for the next part of this remarkable story arc. Some questions were answered, more were posed. Which is exactly as it should be. Bravo, Mr. Moffat, you’ve done your creations proud.

Flesh and Stone gets a 5 out of 5.

NEXT WEEK: The Doctor sends Amy and Rory on a date in VENICE! and, oh yeah, there are VAMPIRES!!!

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Here is a gallery of images from the episode. Click on an image to enlarge it.

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