A running theme of Steven Moffat ’s Doctor Who stories , extend back to “ muteness in the Library , ” has been writing that reveals the future . River Song ’s famous diary was satiate full of “ spoiler ” about the physician ’s life-time , that he must never study . And now , with last night ’s episode , Moffat revealed what it ’s really like to be trapped in a story that ’s already written .
Spoilers in advance …
“ The Angels Take Manhattan ” begins with not one , but two noir detective novels , and cease with the Doctor telling a little young woman a fairytale about her own future . It ’s very much a tale about storytelling , which make it especially too sorry that the actual story at the center of it is so dependant on hand - waving and jargon . But I ’m let beforehand of myself — something that happens a destiny in “ Angels Take Manhattan . ”
So the first noir detective novel in “ Angels ” is pen by a gumshoe ( who starts off say that half the stories in New York are true , and half “ have n’t happened yet . ” ) He ’s hired by a man named Grayle to go to Winter Quay , an apartment block in Battery Park , where “ the statues ” endure . The hawkshaw winds up foregather himself as an old man , and realizes he ’s trapped in Winter Quay . ( And yet , he somehow manages to typecast up this account of his experiences . We even see him typing . Where does he get the typewriter ? Also , if he drop decades entrap in Winter Quay in the past , what does he eat ? Do the Angels arrange for pizza pie to be delivered every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ? I want to watch a history about the pizza pie hombre who works for the Weeping Angels , and how he gets paid . )
The second noir police detective novel is pen by River Song herself — for reason that never become clear . ( I know , I know , she ’s “ supposed ” to write it . But still , why ? ) River Song describes herself as “ tamp down cleavage that could fall an ox at 20 metrical foot . ” She ’s in the late 1930s , diddle at being a femme fatale tec , and Rory gets zapped back in time by the Weeping Angels just as she ’s about to be make captive by Grayle ’s man . The Doctor and Amy set off to find Rory , but they have trouble landing the TARDIS in 1938 because of temporal distortion — until River gives them a handy landing place beacon , by elbow room of a vase in Grayle ’s office . And this is the last time River ’s novel is helpful — after this , it ’s entirely elusive .
Basically , it ’s as if River wrote another diary . But this sentence , instead of keeping it to herself , she sneaks it into the Doctor ’s scoop in a manikin that he ’ll be tempt to read . for sure , it get him make love that Rory has been sent back in prison term to 1938 , and gives him a way of life to set down in spite of the temporal twisting , but there are a million other way River could have sent the Doctor a substance through time . ( Or she could have written a novel where the first three chapters are literal result , and the rest are a dreamlike adventure with the Heffalumps . )
Anyway , the rest of “ Angels Take Manhattan ” is bear on with the perils of seeing your own time to come , which then becomes pay off and changeless . Amy hold the mistake of looking onwards in River ’s Holy Writ , and seeing that River is going to break her radiocarpal joint . ( really , all she find is that the Doctor is going to tell River that she ’ll break her wrist , which seems like a reasonably big loophole . ) And as the TARDIS finally leaves 2012 New York , we see that Rory ’s gravestone is already there . Worst of all , Amy win over the Doctor to face at just the chapter titles , which admit one that advert to Amy ’s final farewell .
At this stop , the Doctor is desperate to change the future he ’s glimpsed in River ’s book — to the point where he involve that River free herself from the range of a Weeping Angel without break away her wrist . And this leads to the most touching present moment of the level by far , where River pretends that she ’s gotten out without break off her wrist , and the Doctor is overjoyed . Then it turns out River was just lie , and she ’s really obscure horrible agony ( although not because she wants the Doctor to palpate adept , but because she does n’t want him to see her “ damage . ” More on that below . ) The Doctor consecrate up some of his regeneration energy to make River ’s wrist as good as raw . And you start to consider that the Doctor and River really are a matrimonial couple , after a fashion . It ’s a really lovely moment .
( Oh , and Grayle turns out to be a collector who ’s keeping one of the Weeping Angels prisoner , and the other Angels desire retaliation . But he ’s basically just there to countersink matter in motion , and then forgotten . )
So our gang is still chasing Rory , who ’s been zapped to Winter Quay by this point . And it turns out that Winter Quay is the Weeping Angels ’ barrage farm — alternatively of just zapping you back in prison term once and capture one “ repast ” of temporal vitality out of you , they microwave you back in time over and over again , so you live your entire aliveness as their prisoner . Which seems like a slew of trouble to go to , especially when they ’re in a huge urban center full of potential one - time victim . The Winter Quay setup never entirely makes gumption to me , in part due to the “ pizza pie guy ” problem I mentioned above . Also , when the Doctor describes it , he name to the Angels sending Rory back in metre 30 or 40 years , which would be a one - time stumble — so where do the multiple feedings come in ?
To make matter worse , Rory satisfy his older ego — at the moment of destruction , after Old Rory has apparently spend decades alone and trapped . Old Rory says goodbye to Young Amy , mostly just saying “ please ” over and over again , and it ’s a pretty cheerless , pathetic sight . Is Rory doomed to play out the horrible future tense he ’s just seen ? Or can he change it ? The Doctor theorizes that if Young Rory escapes from Winter Quay , then the resulting paradox might be enough to give the Weeping Angels indigestion , and kill or weaken them all .
( Oh , and at this point , they ’re chased by the Statue of Liberty . Which presumptively get to advance a few foundation per minute , because that ’s how often citizenry would n’t be staring at the fact that the Statue of Liberty is walking around . But never mind — its a cute idea , and it ’s great to see a years - honest-to-god cyberspace meme about the Statue of Liberty being a Weeping Angel come to life . )
But Rory goes one better — he realise that he can wipe out himself as a unseasoned man , by cast himself off the roof of Winter Quay , and then there ’ll unquestionably be a paradox , since he ’s died on the same day as a young man and as an quondam man . Amy essay to talk him out of it , but he read “ Amy , please . If you love me , then trust me and labor . ” And now , at last , Amy get to do something as uttermost as wait 2000 years in a Roman Centurion costume or louse up up a Cyber - fleet to evidence her love : She gets up on the shelf with Rory and they commit time - suicide together . And that ’s another adorable minute , where Amy repeats what River said earlier , about man and wife being about “ vary the hereafter . ”
And then they ’re back in the burying ground in 2012 where we saw Rory ’s headstone . And yay , it seems like they succeeded and it ’s all good , and the Angels are defeated — but Rory sees his own tombstone , and it ’s like secular groundhog day . ( In both senses of “ woodchuck day , ” I guess . ) Rory almost instantly gets throw back in fourth dimension by yet another Weeping Angel — and by coincidence he ’s once again been sent back to 1938 New York , where the TARDIS can never again go because “ the timeline are so scrambled ” by the paradox that Amy and Rory created when they committed time - suicide .
Amy chooses to go with the same Angel that zapped Rory back in time , on the theory that it might send her to the same timezone it send Rory to . The Doctor solicit her not to , saying that she ’s create “ fix time , ” and he will never be able-bodied to see her again . And anyway , if she just receive into the TARDIS with him they can work out something out . But River tells Amy to go for it , because it ’s her best dead reckoning . Amy differentiate River to search after the Doctor , and then tells the Doctor , “ Raggedy man , goodbye . ” And then she ’s zapped back .
And here ’s where I have another big problem with the story — I get that the Doctor ca n’t take the TARDIS back to 1938 New York because of the crossed timelines . But why ca n’t he go to 1939 New York ? Or 1940 New York ? The Ponds could hold off around a year or two , before he manages to come get them . Just how far does this timey wimey optical aberration stint ? We know the Doctor ’s capable to land the TARDIS during World War II , because we ’ve see him do it a billion time , and this show would have a hard clock time swearing off World War II fib constantly . So what happens to Amy and Rory should be , at bad , a major inconvenience , akin to what happens to the Doctor and Martha in “ Blink . ” I do n’t get why it ’s goodbye forever .
( Oh but what about the gravestone , you say ? bare . Bribe a grave digger to put a gravestone with Amy ’s and Rory ’s names on it next to an empty tomb . trouble solved . )
Which leads to a more worldwide trouble with the notable Steven Moffat “ timey wimey ” fixation — at this point , it feels as though he ’s telling report about patch devices , rather than using the plot devices to evidence a narrative . So much of “ Angels Take Manhattan ” consists of hoi polloi geeking out about arbitrary rules , there ’s very little time left to have an adventure . There were points during this episode when I felt like I was watching Star Trek : Voyager and citizenry were yelling about temporal deformation and spatial anomalies . Good science fabrication is about people , not about jargon — and Moffat has gotten dangerously caught up in his love social occasion with gizmo .
I also palpate like someone should make a “ Moffat Bingo Card ” that includes things like citizenry jumping off tall building ( or out of spaceship ) and live . ( Plus all the otherMoffat tropesthat have been comment on before . )
https://gizmodo.com/does-steven-moffat-have-a-master-plan-for-doctor-who-5938410
But anyway , back to “ Angels Take Manhattan . ” There ’s another paper operate through it , about the fact that the Doctor does n’t really age and his companions do — which is one intellect he ’s always switch them in for a younger model . Amy is wearing read eyeglasses and getting visible lines around her eyes , because she ’s ten years old than when she started travel in the TARDIS . And later , when she pretends not to have break her articulatio radiocarpea , River tell Amy that when you travel with an ageless god , you “ strain not to let him see the damage . ”
At the same prison term , after Amy is work , River tells the Doctor , “ Do n’t travel alone . ” But she wo n’t be the one to travel with the Doctor full - time , because “ one psychopath per TARDIS ” should be the rule . ( Which mean , in turn , that whatever special definition of “ psychopath ” has been used to label River Song in the yesteryear , it also describes the Doctor , who ’s usually sweet and stately and ego - sacrifice . )
And then River tells the Doctor that she ’ll send the “ Melody Malone ” detective novel to Amy to release , and she ’ll get Amy to write an afterword for the Doctor to scan . lead the Doctor to run and find the last varlet of the book , which he antecedently discarded in Central Park because he hates endings . Amy , too , state the Doctor that he should n’t be alone . And that she and Rory will love him for all fourth dimension — which is another sweet moment , as the Doctor reads the last Thomas Nelson Page , using Amy ’s reading glasses .
And Amy ask the Doctor one last favor , which he grants : He goes back to the garden where Amy , as a child , is waiting for the Doctor to total back . And he tells her a fairy - tale story of her adventures ( thus bringing us back to the “ fairy tale ” them the Amy earned run average started with ) in which , notably , Amy is the hoagie who struggle pirate ship and falls in love with an epic hero , and gives “ desire to the greatest painter who ever survive . ” Thus , or else of being obsessed with making up stories over the Raggedy Doctor , young Amelia can grow up thinking of stories about herself being an venturer . She can be the champion of her own story , thanks to her future ego .
( And then , the Doctor pops out of world , because by tell apart Young Amelia a different song and dance , he ’s caused her to break obsess about the story of the man who ran away from home in a corner that was old , new , borrowed and blue , which was the only thing that saved him from being rub out from time , back in “ The Big Bang . ” )
in reality , speaking of “ The Big Bang , ” that ’s the one where the Doctor tells Young Amelia that “ we ’re all stories in the ending . ” And in a sense , “ Angels Take Manhattan ” is about what it have in mind to be a write up — and how too much awareness that you ’re in a level can varnish your own closing . Amy ’s fate is sealed the moment the Doctor glimpses the last chapter deed . ( Which is why he chides himself , “ Never do that again ” in the burial site . ) Moffat writes a band of adventures about things that change when you ’re not look at them — but your own life history narration , like the Angels , is something that becomes situate in stone when you stare upon it .
In any typeface , I did like the fact that this was an adventure that was all about storytelling , in which being ensnare in a history that ’s already written is the bad fate imaginable — but the solace prize for Amy losing the Dr. is to be differentiate a story about her own future . And tucked away in all this stuff about the perils of having your life sentence written down is a huge revelation : the Doctor ’s been going around erasing any mention of himself from the universe , so that River was pardoned for killing a valet who did n’t exist . “ Did n’t you used to be somebody ? ” River asks the Doctor playfully . “ Were n’t you the woman who kill the Doctor ? ” he responds . “ Doctor who ? ” she tell , making this the third time the show ’s deed of conveyance has been ask as a question lately . Because like the chapter title in River ’s volume , Moffat is saying we can determine something from the title of the Doctor ’s own grand fib .
Oh , and apparently in the Whoniverse , the Detroit Lions just won the Superbowl . And that ’s much better thantheir existent - lifetime record . Is Doctor Who giving us all one huge spoiler for this year ’s football game time of year ?
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