Synopsis
Devon, November 1967. A little girl has gone missing, Professor Eustacius Jericho is conducting psychic experiments, and in the village graveyard, there is one gravestone too many. Why is Medderton known as the Cursed Village, and what do the Weeping Angels want?
After last week’s dense, timey-wimey episode, it’s nice to see a more traditional episode of Doctor Who. Written by Chris Chibnall and Maxine Alderton and directed by Jamie Magnus Stone, “Village of the Angels” manages to perfectly thread the line between telling a compelling stand-alone story and furthering the season’s overarching plotline. Featuring some stellar performances, a very well-executed storyline, and plenty of teases for the rest of the season, “Village of the Angels” might just be the best episode of Doctor Who: Flux so far. And certainly the best Weeping Angels story since 2007.
NOTE: This review features spoilers for episode four of Doctor Who: Flux.
The Angel Has the TARDIS
When we last left off, the TARDIS had been commandeered by a Weeping Angel, leading the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her friends to destinations unknown. However, just as the Doctor manages to evict the Angel, the TARDIS lands, and the group quickly discovers they’re in a small English village in 1967. A village where a young girl has just gone missing. A village haunted by a small army of Weeping Angels. The TARDIS team quickly splits up. The Doctor follows a strange reading picked up by her sonic screwdriver. And Yaz and Dan join the rest of the townsfolk to search for the missing Peggy (Poppy Polivnick). And from there, it all plays out like a pretty typical episode of Doctor Who. A really good one, to be clear. And one with surprising ramifications for the rest of the season.
I do wish every episode would stop separating the Doctor and her companions, though. With Dan (John Bishop) still such a new addition to the team, it’s hard to get a feel for this group’s dynamic when they hardly share any scenes together. We’re four episodes in now, and Dan has barely interacted with the Doctor in any meaningful way. Outside of maybe ten minutes in “War of the Sontarans“. Still, when compared to previous episodes, “Village of the Angels” does a much better job at balancing the subplots. Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan get plenty of opportunities to shine as a duo. And the whole episode feels much more cohesive than some of the previous ones. But more on that in a moment.
A “Claire”-voyant
The Doctor ends up at Professor Jericho’s (Kevin McNally) house. There, she finds that he’s been conducting psychic tests on Claire (Annabel Scholey), the woman Yaz and the Doctor met in “The Halloween Apocalypse“. It turns out Claire’s a clairvoyant. And before her scenes in “The Halloween Apocalypse”, she’d had some disjointed visions that led her to the Doctor and Yaz before the Weeping Angels sent her back in time. Even stranger, though – she suspects she might be a Weeping Angel. A suspicion that’s quickly proven correct as she sees a pair of stone wings in her reflection, leaks dust out of her eye, and witnesses her hands turn to stone. The Doctor and Claire deduce that as soon as she had the first vision of a Weeping Angel in her mind’s eye, the Weeping Angel was able to manifest itself in her brain.
The episode is full of moments like that which build off of existing Weeping Angels lore in devilishly creative ways. Here, Chibnall and Alderton masterfully build off of existing Weeping Angel lore (like images of Angels becoming Angels). Multiple different Weeping Angels try to manifest themselves through sketches, video footage, and even a lie detector output. And a lot of fun is had with their quantum powers. It’s nice to finally see the Weeping Angels as scary as they should be. I mean, imagine the horror of having your entire house surrounded by Weeping Angels pounding on doors and windows. Yikes. Plus, there’s a particularly affecting scene where one of the Angels talks to Jericho through his TV. The Angel digs deep into Jericho’s psyche, taunting him with all of his fears and regrets. And it’s genuinely haunting.
The Division Strikes Back
The Doctor journeys into Claire’s mind – both to find out why the Angel has taken root there and to potentially expel it. However, she learns there’s some nuance to the situation. This particular Weeping Angel has gone rogue and is hiding within Claire. It’s on the run from the other Weeping Angels, who are hunting it down to return it to the Division (who are looking for it after it defected). And it’s purposely led the Doctor to this moment to force her to defeat the rest of the Weeping Angels – in exchange for Claire’s life. The Doctor doesn’t necessarily agree, though, as she’s yanked out of Claire’s mind by Jericho after the Weeping Angels surround them. They quickly escape in an underground tunnel – though Jericho gets zapped back in time by an Angel before making it out. However, the Doctor and Claire do make it out alive.
And it’s here we get to the biggest twist of the episode. The Rogue Weeping Angel has made a deal with the other Weeping Angels. There’s only one person the Division wants more than the Rogue Weeping Angel – the Doctor, herself. Separated from her friends, backed into a corner, the Doctor is captured. In a truly horrific image, she’s transformed into a Weeping Angel – like Han Solo frozen in carbonite. And it’s honestly the perfect cliffhanger. It opens up so many different questions while also feeling like a satisfying conclusion to the current story. Presumably, the Division is still operational. Meaning the Doctor might finally get some answers about her missing memories. All roads this season point to the Division, and I’m excited to (hopefully) finally see them again.
Yaz and Dan: Iconic Buddy Cop Duo
For as good as the main plot is, Yaz and Dan do continue to get the shorter end of the stick. But at least this week, their storyline feels like an important part of the episode’s plot. As the duo searches for Peggy, they encounter a Weeping Angel. And despite their best efforts, the Angel ends up sending them back to the early 1900s – far away from the Doctor. There, they do find Peggy, who’s been clued in on the Angels’ plan – in the vaguest way possible, of course. They’re the ones who first learn that the angels have taken the village out of time and space. And they’re the ones who first uncover the details of the Angels’ planned Quantum Extraction. But aside from that, Yaz and Dan have a whole lot to do. However, their dynamic together continues to be delightful.
Mandip Gill and John Bishop play off of each other beautifully. For much of the episode, they fall into a sort of buddy-cop dynamic. There’s that perfect balance of friendly jesting and genuine emotion. And it goes a long way toward selling their relationship. Bishop has a few moments in this episode where he comes close to breaking your heart again. Particularly when it dawns on the pair of them that they might be stuck in the early 1900s for God knows how long. If you think about it, this is still Dan’s first adventure with the Doctor. He’s not at all used to this lifestyle – or its inherent danger. And Bishop portrays that beautifully. Given it looks like Yaz, Dan, Peggy, and Jericho are stuck in the past for the foreseeable future, I’m excited to see how their relationship continues to develop.
The Continuing Adventures of Bel and Vinder
As much as I enjoy Bel (Thaddea Graham) and Vinder (Jacob Anderson) as characters, their subplot felt wholly unneeded this week. These scenes were so clearly set up for future episodes. It’s cool seeing Bel continue to search for Vinder. And it’s also nice to see how her storyline may tie in with the grander story as she saves Namaca (Black Harrison) from being imprisoned in a Passenger (Jonny Mathers) by Azure (Rochenda Sandall) alongside some other refugees of the Flux. But the scenes just took a lot of much-needed time away from parts of the episode that could’ve used that extra time. And they felt very superfluous to the rest of the episode. Graham and Anderson continue to deliver endearing, sweet performances. And that mid-credits scene was super sweet. But I think their subplot could’ve easily been held off a week.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, “Village of the Angels” proves you don’t need a ton of subplots to make a compelling entry in an ongoing storyline. It’s the first episode this season that’s truly felt cohesive. The two main plotlines fit together like a glove. The Weeping Angels feel like a proper part of the “Flux” storyline rather than a diversion. The episode is well-paced, well-written, and brilliantly directed. Kevin McNally and Annabel Scholey are immediate standouts. And I hope we see a lot of them in future episodes. It also helps that “Village of the Angels” is the single best Weeping Angels story since 2007’s “Blink”. Rarely have the Angels felt this threatening. I mean, that shot at the end of the episode of the Doctor turning into a Weeping Angel is the stuff of nightmares.
As usual, much of this episode’s success still hinges on how well the final two episodes conclude the storyline. But it’s hard not to walk away from “Village of the Angels” feeling like it’s not the best episode of the season. Put simply, it’s Doctor Who firing on all cylinders.
Rating: 4.5/5
New episodes of Doctor Who: Flux premiere Sundays at 8pm on BBC America.
Part-time writer, part-time theatre nerd, full-time dork.
