May Contain Spoilers

If last week’s episode of Doctor Who was written for long term fans of the show then this weeks, The Angels Take Manhattan, would have to be for all the current fans. We knew that the episode was going to be set “Over The Pond” in New York, we knew that the iconic Weeping Angels were going to feature and we also knew that the Ponds, Amy and Rory, would be leaving. But how would the episode pan out? Well, it turns out that the story was pretty much as I imagined. That’s not a criticism about predictability either – all the strands of the story ran together in a manner which was both poignant and satisfying at the same time and that also finished the Ponds story as I wanted it to – at the beginning.

Filming abroad, and particularly in America, seems to be a  growing trend for Doctor Who and is a world away from the good old days when the furthest they ventured from the BBC quarry was a weekend away in Paris. The injection of money from BBC America is welcome and the production values are noticeably slicker than Matt Smith’s first series as the Timelord. I was somewhat concerned that there would be a noticeable Americanisation of the show (I recently watched Doctor Who: The Movie from 1996 and winced at some bits) but they have chosen to use the best that America has to offer and, in particular, the New York skyline which is a star in its own right. Even the guest US actors, like Mike McShane, are well known to a British audience.

I think the real stars of this episode were the Weeping Angels. We were introduced to them in the episode Blink but I think last nights episode could have as easily been called Jump. As psychological horror ideas go they are a work of genius. We never actually see them move. We don’t even see them nab anyone until after they have done their dirty deeds and in keeping with the whole concept of the show it’s very difficult to blink – just in case some little detail is missed. The only thing I did wonder about is that if the Statue of Liberty was really an Angel, how does it still manage to be a tourist attraction that people can walk up - I suppose it was far too big an opportunity to miss (pun intended).

Knowing that the Ponds were going to leave, it was really a case of whether Steven Moffat was going to kill them off or let them live happily ever after. As it turned out, he picked both. I had read interviews with him where he stated he had re-written this episode over and over again, trying to get it just right. Even then he changed the ending at the last minute. I’m wondering which bit he altered as the way it ended would have been exactly what I would have written. Although I have enjoyed the story of the Ponds I do hope this is the last we have seen of them. I found Russell T Davies’s inability to let Rose go once and for all to be rather annoying and I am still at the point where Amy and Rory will be fondly missed. I’m also wondering if we are moving towards the end of River Song’s story as she is now a professor and we all know how her story ends. I suppose all the story threads will tie up eventually and it was nice to see the Doctor return to see little Amelia and thus complete the ending of the Matt’s first episode: The Eleventh Hour.

One thing that did have me perplexed was this:

I’ve been trying to fathom it’s significance. The Rolls Royce plant at Crewe was a wartime aero engine factory but was switched after the Second World War to build Rolls Royce and Bentley motor cars – it is now owned by Volkswagen and makes all the Bentley luxury vehicles. I’ve looked up the details on the plaque and can’t see any reference to Rolls Royce products. Does “MK V11” refer to the 11^th Doctor? What does the “Type FD” mean? Maybe we will find out – or maybe Mr Moffat is messing with fan’s heads again.

Incidentally, the title of this blog “May Contain Spoilers” is aimed at a couple of friends of mine. The first chap sent an email out at 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon saying that he wouldn’t be able to watch the episode until Monday night. The other posted some rather profane words on Facebook regarding the quality of Sky TV’s television reception equipment. This episode of Doctor Who was actually the first in this series that I managed to watch as it was being broadcast and the impact of PVRs and the  iPlayer does seem to be having some sort of impact on the shows viewing figures – it is as popular as ever but not everyone watches it at the same time. Anyway, Dave and Dan – if you have read this far I hope it’s Tuesday!