We're now 2/3 of the way through Series 13 of Doctor Who.
Sunday's episode was an improvement over the prior week's episode with a more focused approach. Yes, we have cut aways to Bel where she has an encounter with Azure and Passenger.
But for the most part, the focus of this week's outing is that favorite to Doctor Who settings, a quaint old English village where weird stuff is happening.
After the break, we'll do a deep dive into this latest installment of the Flux storyline and as always, spoilers, sweetie.
VILLAGE OF THE ANGELS
by Chris Chibnall & Maxine Alderton
Hey, it's Claire who we met in episode one, someone who knew the Doctor but not in the right order. A Weeping Angel zapped her back to 1967 where she is a participant in experiments by one Professor Jericho.
Good ol' Professor Jericho could've been the typical stuffy authority figure who keeps denying the fantastic things happening around him but bless him, Jericho is fairly good at rolling with the punches and keeping an open mind. I guess when your field of study is psychic phenomenon, an open mind is to be expected.
And he's getting readings off of the time displaced Claire that don't make sense.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the village, everyone is out looking for missing little girl named Peggy. While the Doctor is following the sonic screwdriver to Jericho's house, Yaz and Dan are joining in the search for missing Peggy.
Until Weeping Angels appear and zap Yaz and Dan into 1901.
And the Angels are also attacking Jericho's house.
The Angels are causing a mess of trouble for everybody.
The Doctor is trying to keep the Angels at bay while trying to work out what's going on with Claire. Oh crap! She has an Angel living inside her with skin turning to stone and dust falling out of her eyes (like what happened to Amy in "Time of Angels"/"Flesh And Stone" way back in Series 5.)
The Angel inside Claire is a rogue Angel and also an agent of... Division.
Oh those bastards again!
Meanwhile in 1901, Yaz and Dan find Peggy and find out the quaint isolated English village is very isolated. Go too far to the edge of town and you wind up on the void of space.
There's also a rift across time where 1901 can look in on 1967. Peggy does make it back to 1967 the long way around. Child Peggy has a conversation with old lady Peggy. The Angels are up to something bad.
Meanwhile, the Doctor gets turned into a Weeping Angel and that brings us to..
To be continued!
Whoops! Not done yet! The closing credits roll but then they get interrupted with a scene where Vinder has missed Bel by just this much.
I don't want to be a dick about this but what is arguably the strongest episode of the Flux storyline is the only episode not solely written by Chris Chibnall. Maxine Alderton who provided last season's spookily atmospheric "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" is on hand for this episode. And "Village of the Angels" is full of moments of suspense, tension and terror.
It's still a bit of a muddled mess as the Weeping Angels are pushed past the limits established in prior episodes. And the need to service whatever larger narrative Chibnall is up to, shoehorning his "Timeless Child"/"Division" retcon into the proceedings.
Under "Chibnall does love his classic Who", the Doctor solves a problem by "reversing the polarity of the neutron flow", a piece of technobabble used by the 3rd Doctor, Jon Pertwee.
No personal growth for Yaz this episode but she does show her police officer bonafides when she seeks to get the villager's search for little Peggy organized.
Dan is on hand to be bemused and confused. He's the companion to Yaz's "Doctor".
So the Doctor is a Weeping Angel now as it looks like the Flux in all it's universe eating glory is centered around getting the Doctor back in the grasp of Division again.
Seems like to me there should be an easier way to do that.
We'll find out more on Sunday with the next new episode as I'll be back here on Wednesday to write about it.
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