User Reviews

This is amazing. So what's so good about this episode you ask? Well quite frankly the angels were definitely scary with an evil plan which was so clever even the Doctor didn't see it coming nor me. Did it have high stakes? Yes it did right at the end with a great plot twist as well. The performances were really good as well. The story was interesting and went nicely with it being set in a village. They were stuck in 1901 but the year was 1967 but they couldn't get back to 1967 that easily. The effects are absolutely stunning. Mid way in the credits we get to see a nice moment. The story can sometimes be a little bit boring but I can assure you it has good drama elements and cool ski-fi elements as well which is what Doctor who is all about. And it's one of the best Angel stories that we've been given. So why didn't you give it a 10? Well because there's Blink. But still a fantastic approach to the angels. Also a really clever episode in general.

Rating stands at 9.5/10.

This might be the best episode of Chibnall era Who. It also means The Weeping Angels are back at their scary best.

This is the kind of story that would had sent kids blinking behind the sofa.

The Doctor, Yaz and Dan end up in a cursed village back in 1967. A village with a missing girl and stone statues on a rampage.

For the Doctor, one rogue angel claims to know more about the Division and the Doctor.

This was very atmospherically directed. A superb turn from Kevin McNally as Professor Jericho. I expected him to be a know it all arrogant duffer who would meet a grisly end. He showed a lot of spirit.

There was a great final shot of Jodie. The story even had time to continue its arc story as well even in a mid credit scene.

After the events at the end of the previous episode The Doctor must deal with a Weeping Angel aboard the Tardis. It looks as though she might have succeeded but when they land they are in a Devon village in 1967; and it spears that is where the Angel wanted them to be. Something is odd about the village; a child has gone missing and there appears to be an extra statue in the graveyard. Yaz and Dan join the search for the young girl while The Doctor heads to the house where Professor Jericho is performing psychic experiments on Claire... a woman who seems out of time and knows things about The Doctor's arrival. Soon everybody is trying to avoid the Angels, not entirely successfully and The Doctor is learning more about them. Meanwhile Bel has arrived on a planet where Azure is entrapping the remnants of humanity using Passenger.

So far I've enjoyed this season more than other recent ones and this episode is probably the best of the season so far. When the Angels were introduced in 'Blink' they were genuinely disturbing; since then they have never been quite as scary... until now. They have a purpose but until the episodes shocking finale it is far from obvious. I really liked their connection to Claire. There is a real sense of danger for all characters, even The Doctor. The rural setting is effective; it is easier to except strange things happening in a quiet village than in a busy city. The cast is solid with good performances from regulars and guests alike; especially Kevin McNally and Annabel Scholey as Professor Jericho and Claire respectively. Overall the best episode for some time; I can't wait to see what happens next.

By far Chibnall's best Dr Who episode. It felt like the old Dr Who again even tho I'm still not feeling the origin story and who the Doctor is story arc. Other than that, it was a really good episode; it was scary, intriguing and the ending was a great shock too!

Looking forward to these final two episodes for the Flux storyline.

... and this one was no disappointment when it focused on the Angels. Whether they're repeating their "greatest hits" (appearing in someone's mind, emerging from an image, slowly moving in on their prey between light flickers and blinks), or coming up with new tricks (emerging from a sketch, talking to their prey with their prey's own voice, taking a village out of time and space), the Angels are always effective. They're arguably the one new monster of the "Nu Who" era who have caught on. Okay, maybe the Silence, but we haven't seen them in a long time, and I don't recall them making a reappearance.

Kevin McNally is also good as Jericho, and brings some gravitas to what could otherwise be a forgettable role.

The non-Angel bits of the episode are kind of muddled. We get more about the Division, and about somehow lots and lots of people survived the Flux. Which kinda undermines the Flux, if the Division is still scheming and people are surviving it. The Division seems like Chibnall's attempts to bring mystery to the "Mystery of the Doctor" that all of the nu showrunners like to do. Chibnall appears to be doing it as his swan song for the show, since he's heading out the door in the near future.

Honestly, I don't think we need another "mystery" added to the Doctor. She's a wanderer in time and space. That's been fine for 25+ years, why do new showrunners feel the need to add on more than that. Ah, 2020s TV

Thaddea Graham as Bel is good, but she seems kinda wasted as looking for her love, Vinder. I supposed that everything could be tied up in the last two episodes, but I'm not quite seeing how. The Angel Extraction Squad is taking the Angelized Doctor to the Division. Bel is searching for Vinder and will presumably find him. The scheme that Swarm and Azure are up to will presumably be resolved. It all seems like it will have to be rushed into the last two episodes. And then it will all be scrapped or adapted by the next showrunner anyway.

Yaz and Dan don't have much to do this episode other than wander around. This puts more of the spotlight on the Doctor and the Angels. Which is good, but still seems like a waste of two actors.

And while the Angels are effective as always, what the heck was their plot here. To lure the Doctor to 1967, so they could turn her into stone? For the Rogue Angel to take her to 1967, so it could turn her over to the Extraction Squad in return for its own freedom? That seems overly complicated? Can't they just turn her to stone at any point, or do there need to be a large number of them in one spot to pull it off? Why didn't they do that in "Time of the Angels"? There were a lot of them then, and it's not like the Doctor was feeling particularly cooperative in either instance. Overall, the episode seems like the Angels doing something very complicated when they didn't have to. Maybe Chibnall will explain this next week, but I'm not watching the episode next week but now.

Basically, "Village" ends up as a filler. It's a great filler, because it has Angels. But it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the mini-season. The Flux has wiped out big chunks of the universe, time is running amuck, and... the Doctor teams up with a couple of humans to take on Angels in an isolated English village. One of these things is not like the other. I suppose Chibnall will tie it all together: the Division, Swarm, Azure abducting humans, Bel & Vinder, and the Doctor being taken to Division. But it seems like Chibnall will have to rush it to wrap it all up in two more episodes. And three specials after that, but that just means the Flux mini-season will end on a cliffhanger or two.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

There were only 3 things I enjoyed in this episode: the atmosphere, the cliffhanger, and Kevin McNally. Everything else was nonsensical and insulting to continuity. Angels moving with people watching them (and I'm not talking about the TARDIS scene, because that actually made sense, I'm talking about at least 2 other scenes in this episode), people being teleported into the past by touching a QUNATUM-LOCKED Angel. All of a sudden, getting zapped by the angels twice can kill you thru disintigration, even though Rory was zapped twice, and Ten and Martha were zapped god knows how many times. That's all insulting enough, but then a piece of paper with a Angel drawn on it puts itself back together without the Doctor noticing - and this is officially where I checked out of the notion of any kind of worthwhile story and just started appreciating the atmosphere.

Let's not even get into the stupidity of the Ravagers' little blip of a B-Plot (Apparently "get out of range of the Passenger" means "duck under his golden hued special effect beam") or the completely pointless "mid-credits" that could have easily been added to next week's episode. Let's skip that and go into a much bigger problem: The Ravagers suck as villains. They don't fit Doctor Who AT ALL. Everyone kidding themselves that Flux is gonna save Chibnall and Whittaker's run needs to recognize these villains have set up Flux for failure from the start. It's gonna be just like series 12 - great smaller moments that hint at what could be, but the overarching narrative was doomed from the jump.

...and yet here I am, reading rave review after rave review and hearing every iteration of praise for Chibnall. He's lowered the bar to a point where an episode as bad as this is considered a victory.

The whole theme of the episode was great! I loved it being set in the sixties, to me it added that extra chill to it, Yaz was fantastic (some great acting) and I loved the insight we got to see on how and where the passengers picked people up. An epic cliff hanger to be left on and I can not wait for the next episode!

This episode could have been so much better. But still the doctors Darkness does not shine through. Chinballs needs a new hobby, dude has no idea how to write the doctor. I am so sick of his fluffy, feel good, nonsense. This was a perfect Arc to highlight the doctor's dark, almost sinister past and necessity. But he had Whitaker being a gigantic baby. I hope the twerp reads this.