The Time of Norton

Well that's more like it! Weeping Angels, River Song, an opening sequence that was straight out of classic James Bond and possibly the most intensely claustrophobic episode of Who since it's 1970's heyday. And what do the fan forums say about it - apparently they were livid about the appearance of Graham Norton. Did I miss something? I checked my recording and apparently I did - for once one of those "Except for viewers in Scotland" items appears to have gone my way. What I did miss was this:



That's pretty appalling. I'm sick of these things on Channel Five but they are a minority commercial channel so I do appreciate that they have to fight for their audience to make a profit - and at least they have far fewer adverts than German parent channel RTL. But I pay a TV licence and surely this means that the BBC can stand aloof of such tacky items and, moreover, show some respect for both their audience and programme makers. Charlie Brooker's take on it was "Why don’t the BBC just wipe s*** all over the screen during the final scene of Dr. Who next week?" Fair comment.

Anyway, I'll reserve judgement on The Time of Angels two parter until next week but this has been my favourite of the series so far. The musical score was still too loud but the pacing was far better than last week's Dalek wizzathon. Steven Moffat has drawn on the best bits from his Blink and Silence in the Library episodes and created something altogether more urgent and threatening. However, I think the tone is about right as Raymond loved it and claimed not to be too frightened - he went to bed with the lights off so I think that was fair enough. I did have to briefly explain quantum uncertainty to Nina but aside from that I think she loved it too. Although, given a staring contest between a stone statue and Amy Pond, my money would be on the Scottish redhead every time.

So a good end to a rather mixed week, what with dead freezers and sorting through old photos - but more of that later...