Series 5 (2010)
Episode title: The Time of AngelsFeaturing: Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Amy Pond, River Song
First shown: 24th April 2010
Related articles: Weeping Angels
Guide: The Doctor takes Amy to a museum, where they find the flight recorder for the Byzantium, 12000 years old. On the side is a message for the Doctor, written in Old High Gallifreyan from River Song, who is on board the Byzantium as it is crashing. The Doctor rescues her and she takes control of the TARDIS, more adept at the controls than he is at this stage, demonstrating her previous knowledge of him. Amy notices this special relationship between the pair, as River as met the Doctor numerous times in her past, but he’s only met her at least once in his. When they have landed on the planet that the Byzantium crashed on, River reveals the nature of its cargo – a Weeping Angel.
River calls for the support of Father Octavian and his militarised clerics to help her capture the Weeping Angel before it becomes too powerful from radiation leaking from the ship, and to protect a human colony on the planet. River, Amy and the Doctor observe a looped tape of the Angel in the hold, while reading a madman’s book about the Angels, that says images of the Angels become Angels themselves, and you must not look at the eyes of an Angel for they can enter your mind through there. River and the Doctor go outside, leaving Amy alone inside the control room and she notices the Angel begins to move and come out of the TV screen. The Doctor tells her not to look into its eyes, but Amy is unable to follow the advice before breaking the loop and destroying the Angel image. She now feels as if she has something in her eyes as they continue on their journey. To locate the statue the group must journey through the Maze of the dead, a labyrinth filled with numerous statues. The Doctor notes that the inhabitants of the planet had two heads to River, when both realise all of the statues only have one head, revealing that every statue is a Weeping Angel, weak from centuries of nothing to consume. The Doctor surmises that the Angel on the ship must have deliberately crashed the Byzantium here to rescue its kind.
The group flee, though Amy believes she is turning to stone until the Doctor bites her hand to prove she isn’t. The group are trapped by the Angels but the Doctor has an escape plan, and prepares to shoot the gravity globe giving them light. The episode ends on this cliffhanger.
This episode was the first part of a two parter. You can find the episode guide to the second part by clicking here.