Doctor Who review: The Angels Take Manhattan

© BBC; Image credit BBC

“That gravestone, Rory’s, there’s room for one more name, isn’t there?”

And thus the Ponds left the TARDIS and the Doctor forever, not by choice but at the hands of a Weeping Angel. In some ways this was similar to the departures of Rose and Donna, which were presented as just as heart-breaking and final (*cough* until they weren’t *cough, cough*). Unlike the Tenth Doctor’s companions, however, this exit was much more low-key; Rory didn’t even get to say goodbye, and most of Amy's farewell was delivered via a book afterword. And yet, the final moments of the episode were almost perfect.

Unfortunately, the episode that preceded them was not perfect. The Weeping Angels really have lost considerable impact since their first appearance; in ‘Blink’, it was the sheer simplicity of them, the idea that they allowed you to live to death, along with sparse use, that made them work so brilliantly. Buy by this appearance, the whole thing felt a little played out, and the more twists you give to their modus operandi, the less well it all hangs together. The image of the Statue of Liberty bearing down on Rory, for example, was undoubtedly striking, but it also didn’t really make any sense – how did it get that far through lower Manhattan without anyone seeing it? I mean, really?

I guess the parts of ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ that didn’t work mostly stemmed from them trying to do too much all at once: the noir-ish detective and the paranoid rich man out of his depth were both introduced and then never really developed properly. Bringing River in for Rory and Amy’s final story made sense, but there weren’t any real emotional scenes between the Professor and her parents; instead, the significant emotional beats between Amy and River dealt more with their respective relationships with the Doctor than their own mother/daughter relationship. Still, River describing the Doctor as “an ageless god who insists on the face of a twelve year-old” was magnificent.

But, even though it sounds otherwise, I did really enjoy a lot about ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’. The whole book conceit was brilliant, especially Amy working out that they can use the chapter titles to help them find Rory, and the ominous “AMELIA’S LAST FAREWELL’. Plus the whole of the first scene after the credits, with the Doctor and Rory trying not to mention the lines around Amy’s eyes and the Doctor reading out loud and being embarrassed by the Pond was really sweet, and it was great to have a quiet moment to allow the chemistry between Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill to shine through one last time. When it was kept simple, and focused on the dynamics between the main three, 'The Angels Take Manhattan' worked best.

©BBC; Image Credit: BBC

And the climax of the episode, of the Ponds’ story, truly was superb. From the moment Old Rory died, the sense of doom that had been spreading throughout the episode grew beautifully.  I’m a bit of an old romantic at heart, so maybe it annoyed some people, but I never, ever got tired of seeing Amy and Rory show again and again how much they loved each other; the fact that over and over Amy showed that, as much as she loved the Doctor and her life in the TARDIS, Rory was always and forever her first choice: “I won’t let them take him. That’s what we’ve got.” The scene on the rooftop, as Rory begged Amy to push him and create a paradox that would stop Winter Quay from ever existing, was pitched just perfectly by Steven Moffat, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill.

Of course, the hope that everything was going to be OK was never to be. The emotion of the scene in the graveyard was just perfect; I have to respect Moffat for being brave enough to make Rory’s final moment so sudden, without any big soppy farewell (*cough* The Doctor burning up a sun to say goodbye to Rose *cough, cough*). Sure, the whole “You are creating a fixed time, I will never be able to see you again” thing from the Doctor was more than a little underbaked, but it’s understandable. The Ponds needed a final farewell; last week showed that they’d continue to travel with the Doctor for the rest of their lives if they could, which wouldn’t make for a very dramatic show. In fact, the moment the Weeping Angels were announced as the aliens for this episode, the fact that Amy and Rory would be sent back in time and live out their days there together seemed pretty likely. But who cares? It gave us Karen Gillan looking into Matt Smith’s beautiful face and saying, “Raggedy man, goodbye” and then blinking and following her Rory forever, so I'll forgive any small logical inconsistencies there might have been.

©BBC; Image credit: BBC

The final letter was such a Moffat touch (I used to be able to recite Reinette’s letter from ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ from memory, because I really was that cool), but it was used beautifully. The starkness of not letting us see the Ponds again, just like the Doctor, worked a treat, as did the words she finished with:

“Tell her that, if she’s patient, the days are coming that she’ll never forget. Tell her she’ll go to sea and fight pirates. She’ll fall in love with a man who’ll wait 2,000 years to keep her safe. Tell her she’ll give hope to the greatest painter who ever lived and save a whale in outer space. Tell her this is the story of Amelia Pond, and this is how it ends.”

“The days are coming that she’ll never forget”? I couldn't have put it better myself.