Blink

Don't look away! Don't even blink!

Very few people argue that Blink is not a great story. You can engage fans in whether Blink is actual Doctor Who though.

This episode is probably about the litest of the Doctor-lite episodes ever made. Like Love and Monsters, it follows an outside character: Sally Sparrow. However, unlike Love and Monsters, the Doctor is not the focus of the episode. Instead the focus is on Sally's quest to figure out what is going on with a message from the Doctor hidden on several DVDs and to reunite him with the TARDIS.

I personally have no problem considering this as a Doctor Who episode for several reasons. The whole episode revolves around the dynamics of time travel, a key element of Doctor Who. The Doctor's half of the conversation in the DVD message is an example of The Bootstrap Paradox in the fact that he only knew what to say because of a transcript that Larry copied down as the Doctor was saying it on the DVD. This same message is also the central plot driver as Sally does not know what to do with the TARDIS key or the importance of recovering the TARDIS itself before viewing the message. So even though his time is probably five minutes or less, I consider it a proper Doctor Who story.

And then there are the Weeping Angels. Arguably no Doctor Who villain since the Daleks has garnered more popularity after their initial introduction. The Weeping Angels are a near perfect villain. They are essentially unkillable, operate with blinding speed and lurk quietly in the shadows, hiding in plain sight. They are a near perfect jump-out-of-the-dark villain and their fear factor only increases in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.

If I had to find quibbles with this story, I can only think of three. First, there are a couple of points in the house early in the story where the Angels had a chance to get Sally but seemed to move somewhat slowly for them. A similar situation was played with Amy in Flesh and Stone when the Angels should have gotten to her as well.

Second is the nagging question as to how the Angels got the TARDIS key in the first place. Did they rip it off the Doctor or Martha before they sent them back or was it dropped somehow when they were ambushed? Also, if the Angels had the TARDIS key shortly after sending the Doctor and Martha back, why was it just dangling out one of the Angel's hands instead of being kept in a safer manner. Also, if they had the key, why didn't they use it to enter the TARDIS before it was taken by the police? My theory would be that the key was dropped during the chase but that the Angels didn't find it for a while. They may have even gone so far as to try and get into the TARDIS before realizing they needed the key and had only just found it lying in some crack when Sally found it on them.

The third nit is the resolution of the four Angels at the end of the story. Larry suggests that they are trapped because they are all looking at each other and that is true at the moment. But once the lights go out due to either the sun going down or the electric light being turned off, the Angels would be free to move again. Of course, they wouldn't have the TARDIS to focus on but they could still move about to other areas for normal feeding.

But none of these issues will lessen your enjoyment of the story. I'm not sure if I would use Blink to introduce a newbie to Doctor Who given how little of the Doctor and his personality is shown, but it is an episode that can be watched multiple times and enjoyed every time.

Overall personal score: 5 out of 5