Monsters of Television

“The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn’t noticed yet.”

Barren wastelands really put Amy in the mood.

Clever boy.

A problem with the Davies period was that each series had an arc word/phrase that drove around each episode, until it finally, actually happened during the last two or three episodes of that series. It made for a rather infuriating serial element that never felt like it mattered until the very end, and then it meant everything. It was essentially an 11-episode tease.

The Moffat period has followed suit with the crack/smile in time. It’s been following the Doctor and Amy (though I’ve contended mostly Amy) around time and space, not doing a whole lot other than looking very menacing on the upholstery. Thankfully, “Flesh and Stone” resolves this issue.

Well, kind of resolves it anyway.

On the surface this episode is been about concluding “The Time of Angels,” wrapping up the threat the advancing Angel army represented to the Doctor, Amy, and the Clerics with River. But the crack in time is ultimately what’s more important in the episode. It feels a little easy to go this route, especially considering that when somethings falls into the crack, it’s as if it never existed. As a result, the threat of the Angels is rather quickly disposed of at the end of the episode. Admittedly, I have no idea how one would escape an entire army of Angels without a crack a time at your disposal, but it still felt like a bit of a cop out.

The episode still manages to keep the creep factor up pretty high with Amy’s counting down as the image of the Angel that is inside her mind (“A virtual screen inside your mind”) will turn Amy into Angel. It’s a remarkable effective conceit, and both Smith and Gillan make it work. Smith’s hand over his mouth after declaring “There’s an Angel in her mind!” is a priceless gesture, showing the Doctor’s surprise and shock that he didn’t figure it out sooner. Gillan, thankfully, doesn’t oversell the terror Amy should be feeling, letting it push at the the boundaries of her voice and body, but never letting it spill out. The restraint sells the fear more than outright terror would.

And this idea of the mind as a virtual screen is an exciting one to put into play. Images take on a life of their own after we see them, playing around in our brain, making connections, influencing us, having desires of their own (indeed, if you’re interested visual culture studies, I’m told that W.J.T. Mitchell’s work on what images want is very good). In this way, the series makes the case for how powerful images are, and why we should be wary of them. That said, I like that the show resists the urge to go inside Amy’s head and have her struggle against the Angel taking her over, and that closing her eyes does the job well enough.

But on to the crack that’s following Amy around. Because it is following Amy around as we learn. Something very important happens on Amy’s wedding day and the crack is tied up in it. It’s devouring time and space, it is time running out. It’s doesn’t entirely make sense for me right now, as no one but the Doctor remembers the giant steam powered Cyberman stomping around Victorian London or that Amy doesn’t remember the Daleks abducting the entire planet, but they still exist. My only guess is that the crack is moving through time and has already devoured those events. It’s a little too timey-wimey for me to pull apart, but hopefully it’ll make sense by the end of the series.

I do like that what the crack is is resolved prior to the finale, instead of waiting until the end. It at least allows the Doctor (and us) time to mull it over, think about what it could be and what caused it. I imagine it’ll still recur in episodes leading up to the finale, but I don’t think it’ll figure quite as centrally as the remainder of the episodes unspool.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Still not a lot to say about River. I believe she’s back later this season, so maybe I’ll more to say then.
• Despite not being fully developed, I felt that the impression Iain Glen provided Bishop Octavian left was enough to make his death scene a little tear-inducing. Additionally, for you Game of Thrones fans, Glen is portraying Jorah Mormont in the HBO series. Don’t know if this makes you happy or not, but thought I’d pass it along just the same.