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Village Of The Angels is Chapter 4 in series 13 of Doctor Who, aka Doctor Who: Flux.
NOTE: There are some spoilers in this review.
Village Of The Angels is set on November 21st 1967, so exactly 54 years ago, and set in Medderton, a cursed village where people have disappeared with no explanation.
Claire Brown (Annabel Scholey) has gone back in time, leaving us to presume after an encounter with the Weeping Angels, because they’re back again. However, just before that, last week left us with one in control of tha TARDIS.
The Doctor’s plan is to ‘reboot’ said TARDIS to get rid of the angel, by putting together “two things which shouldn’t go together“, and looks like she’s about to electrocute everyone. So, as the angel disappears – and the trio are still alive – it’s just another big red reset button. Yawn.
There was more overuse of the sonic screwdriver, this time used to seal doors shut from the angels, but then we’re used to this Doctor behaving in that manner. Can’t the writers figure things out a better way? No, Dom, don’t be silly.
Along the way, everyone could well be about to get wiped out – and leave no trace in the village, last happening in 1901; Dan and Yaz are Angels-transported back to that year, said angels are putting words in people’s head (‘quantum extraction’), the world being eaten away, and Kevin McNally comes across like Doc Brown in Back to the Future, putting a daft electrical devices on the heads of characters, same as the Doc did with Marty.
And despite the Scooby Doo gang and new friend Peggy and others saying they shouldn’t blink, they did plenty of it(!)
So, just a load of random gibberish happening. Will it ever make sense? Well, it’s an overload of daft ideas being pummelled into the mind of the viewers, without any thought about whether it should be coherent. In fact, there’s so much going on that inbetween Bel meeting Neil from the Inbetweeners, and then coming back into it again later, I’d forgotten she was still in it.
And at the end, The Doctor was left in another perilous situation, but based on how the writing is going, it should take about two minutes to resolve, next week.
In fact, this series feels like one threadbare storyline where old enemies take their time to show up, one episode at a time. Why don’t they all pop along at once?
I was getting a headache just trying to take it all in. Oh well, at least it was less painful than listening to Adele warbled later, on ITV, about her bobbins love life.
Chapter 5 will be Survivors Of The Flux, and airs next Sunday at 6.20pm.
Doctor Who: Flux can be pre-ordered on Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release on January 24th 2022.
You can also buy Series 12 on Blu-ray, DVD and Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook.
Also available is Revolution Of The Daleks on Blu-ray and DVD.
The episode is now on the BBC iPlayer.
Score: 1/10
Director: Jamie Magnus Stone
Writer: Maxine Alderton
Music: Olga FitzRoy
Cast:
The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Yasmin Khan: Mandip Gill
Dan Lewis: John Bishop
Vinder: Jacob Anderson
Bel: Thaddea Graham
Joseph Williamson: Steve Oram
Swarm: Sam Spruell
Azure: Rochenda Sandall
Karvanista: Craige Els
Claire Brown: Annabel Scholey
Weeping Angel: Barbara Fadden
Eustace Jericho: Kevin McNally
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.