Blink

"I need you to take a message to Sally Sparrow."

Writer: Steven Moffat

Format: TV

Broadcast: 9 June 2007

Series: 3.10

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

Sally Sparrow receives a cryptic message from the Doctor. It warns her of the Weeping Angels – a quantum locked species who live on the potential energy of the days people could have lived. Trapped in 1969 and only able to communicate through DVDs, the Doctor must trust Sally Sparrow to bring the TARDIS back to him before the Angels take it for themselves.

Verdict

Blink was a magnificent episode of Doctor Who! This one is always a pleasure to rewatch and I honestly believe that it only gets better with age. It's incredible really to think that the Doctor and his companion barely feature in one of the greatest ever Doctor Who stories, but that's exactly what Steven Moffat managed to produce. It has all the ingredients of a classic and the way things start with Sally Sparrow peeling back the wallpaper at Wester Drumlins to reveal a warning message for herself is just glorious. It really is the stuff of legend and sets the tone for what is to come. The focus on this creepy abandoned house is a lot of fun and having the Weeping Angels always in the backdrop was marvellous direction. They're such an iconic design and the simplicity of a statue becomes very scary when they start to move. The whole concept of being quantum locked is outstanding and the brief moment we get of the Doctor in 1969 not on DVD where he explains these species is just excellent stuff. They're almost as old as the universe itself and this is their perfect defence mechanism. It makes for an incredible Doctor Who monster. The little glimpses we get of the Doctor on the DVD Easter eggs is terrific and when we finally do get that full conversation, it just provides even more appreciation. I think Laurence Nightingale is a really fun character and his introduction to Sally is brilliantly fun. He and Sally provide a perfect pairing to lead us through the episode without our familiar pairing, and his being the geeky nerd when it comes to the DVDs and finding the Easter eggs is magnificent. I think it's great to know that all of the seventeen DVDs that the Easter egg appears on are Sally's and the way she realises that is so emotional. Billy is an incredible character for the short amount of time he shows up and his hitting on Sally really does pay off as getting her phone number proves incredibly important! Him showing Sally all of the cars and the mysterious blue box that is left at Wester Drumlins only for the occupants to disappear is fantastic. It works so well. The constant of the same rain through Sally's meetings with Billy at very different points in his lifetime was incredible as well and some nice poetic symmetry. Watching this one with Gemma for the first time, I was amused to see how scared she found aspects of the episode and I was delighted to spill some knowledge and actually show her my copy of the 2006 Doctor Who Annual in which What I Did on my Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow is printed which formed the basis for this episode. She seemed to appreciate it and I love being able to give useless information like that! There's so much of it in Doctor Who. I think the moment we get Sally and Laurence in the TARDIS with the Weeping Angels surrounding it is a fantastic image and the DVD acting as a way to get the Doctor reunited with his trusty TARDIS is terrific. It ties everything up nicely and then we get that brief meeting between Sally and the Doctor where she delivers the transcript a year later. Overall, a true classic!

Rating: 10/10