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Despite the plot holes Blink is a stunning piece of television, like Love and Monsters allowing the viewer to see the Doctor from an unusual perspective.
“Don’t look away!” The man on the TV says. It is the Doctor. “Whatever, you do, don’t look away, and don’t blink! Blink and you’re dead!” It’s the dead of night, and a girl has climbed over the wall of a deserted old house. Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) breaks into houses, but in this one, she finds the instruction, “Duck!” written on the wall. She tears away a strip of wallpaper, to reveal, “Beware the Weeping Angel.” And “Duck Now!” Strip. “No, really!” She looks around ducks, just as a brick flies past where her head was and hits the wall. When she gets home, she sees TV after TV in the lounge, all with the same man on the screen. It is the Doctor. Her flatmate’s brother, Larry, wanders out of the bathroom naked. Her friend Kathy Nightingale accompanies her back there the next day. The camera focuses on a statue; the camera cuts away, and when it returns to its original point of view, the statue is much closer, and has lowered its hands from over its eyes … The doorbell rings, and a man says, “Sally Sparrow?” He hands her a letter. It is from her friend Kathy, who has mysteriously vanished. The letter tells her that Kathy somehow found herself back in 1920. She married and had children and grand-children. Desperate to find Kathy, she reports her missing to the police station; hearing the name of the house that she was in, the duty Sergeant calls DI Billy Shipton, who takes her down to the underground car park and shows her a blue box – the TARDIS. When she leaves him the statues appear and transport him back to 1969. There he meets the Doctor, who tells him that he has also been catapulted back through time by the Weeping Angels, yet another race who like the Carrionites are nearly as old as the Universe. Back in 2007, Sally meets Billy, now grown old and who is dying. Billy passes her a message from the Doctor, to look at the list of DVDs that he has appeared on. Bizarrely, the Doctor seems to be talking to her on the DVD. Larry tells her that he has been studying the tapes for years, and that the conversations are entirely one-sided. It emerges from the tapes that the Weeping Angels feed on the energy of the lives that are not lived. He needs Sally and Larry to send the blue box back to him. The Doctor warns them over and over again, “Don’t Blink! Whatever, you do, don’t look away, and don’t blink! Blink and you’re dead!” Sally and Larry are cornered in the cellar by the Weeping Angels, but even as they shelter in the TARDIS, it dematerializes. Despite the plot holes (why do the Angels not send Sally back at the start? They have lost of opportunities. Who throws the rock? Why?), Blink is a stunning piece of television, original in concept, like Love and Monsters allowing the viewer to see the Doctor from an unusual perspective; by turns funny and chilling, as are all of Stephen Moffat’s episodes, and featuring appealing characters and a touching love affair, with surprising touches of poignancy.
The copyright of the article Doctor Who Series 3: Episode 10 in Sci-Fi TV Episode Summaries is owned by Colin Harvey. Permission to republish Doctor Who Series 3: Episode 10 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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