Finally saw the Dr. Who Episode "Blink"

[Quimby]

I never watched Dr. Who. Not sure why. I like science fiction, just never watched it but I always heard how great the episode "Blink" is.

I have also heard it is a good first episode because it is only tangentially related to the main characters. Finally today I gave it a shot.

Wow it was pretty good! As someone who never watched before, I am sure I missed a lot of nuance but as a self contained Sci Fi/Horror story it works pretty damn well. The Weeping Angels may be one of the most imaginative villains I have ever seen. Really good stuff. I recommend it to others.

[iftheresaway]

I just saw this for the first time a couple of months ago. I've been watching Dr. Who, but since I'm an obsessive completist, I started at the beginning (of the new series). My brother convinced me to watch Blink out of order, and I loved it. It had such a lovely creepy sad air about it, and all of the time travel elements were well-executed.

[gaffa]

It was also a wonderful introduction to a very talented actress who is going to be doing great work in the future (if Hollywood can figure out what to do with her).

[JohnT]

Well. she was nominated for a B. Actress Oscar two years back, so it's not as if the lady is starving for recognition or anything.

[gaffa]

Yes, but since An Education she's been playing "the Girlfriend" (with the rare, little-seen exception). Playing Daisy Buchanan is not exactly a stretch.

[standingwave]

Interviews from Confidential pertaining to that episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4p58K07FdQ

About 8 minutes.

[Small Hen]

I envy you - the David Tennant era was a high point for Doctor Who as a series (from what I've seen so far), and I'd love to be able to watch it all again for the first time. "Blink" was a great starting point, as it's one of the stronger episodes in terms of writing, scary as hell, and doesn't require a lot of character backstory and mythology.

The Matt Smith episodes are enjoyable too, though they heavily rely on the talent and likability of the three leads when the writing gets thin (which is a little more often than I'd like). Overall, it's a great show.

I've yet to see a Tom Baker episode. Anyone have a suggestion for a good starting place there?

[The Other Waldo Pepper]

Originally Posted by Small Hen

I've yet to see a Tom Baker episode. Anyone have a suggestion for a good starting place there?

City Of Death, which has the fingerprints of Douglas Adams all over it.

[Quimby]

I forgot to mention in my OP, it is available via Netflix streaming; that was how I saw it.

[kelly5078]

Originally Posted by The Other Waldo Pepper

City Of Death, which has the fingerprints of Douglas Adams all over it.

Good episode, but I'd go with "The Horror of Fang Rock."

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by The Other Waldo Pepper

City Of Death, which has the fingerprints of Douglas Adams all over it.

Yep, exactly what I'd say.

[BwanaBob]

Originally Posted by Small Hen

I've yet to see a Tom Baker episode. Anyone have a suggestion for a good starting place there?

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is my suggestion. The only bad spot is having a white actor play an Asian, but it still works.

[Suburban Plankton]

Originally Posted by Small Hen

I've yet to see a Tom Baker episode. Anyone have a suggestion for a good starting place there?

That's my go-to "If you are only going to watch one episode of Dr. Who" answer...

...but in this case, I'd recommend starting with "Robot", the first Tom Baker episode, and going on from there.

"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets. "

[BigT]

Originally Posted by standingwave

Interviews from Confidential pertaining to that episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4p58K07FdQ

About 8 minutes.

I hate that Confidential doesn't air over here, so thanks for the link.

[bafaa]

One of my favorite episodes.

My wife wants nothing to do with Doctor Who or time travel but one day, when we had nothing to watch on the DVR, I convinced her to watch Blink (on Netflix) and even she grudgingly had to admit it was very good.

[Candyman74]

Originally Posted by BigT

I hate that Confidential doesn't air over here, so thanks for the link.

Nor over here any more.

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by BigT

I hate that Confidential doesn't air over here, so thanks for the link.

It's also canceled due to budget cut backs.

[RealityChuck]

I agree with City of Death, though Talons is nearly as good.

Other good Baker episodes: Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, The Hand of Fear, The Pirate Planet (Douglas Adams again), and The Keeper of Traken.

Blink definitely my choice for the best David Tennant episodes, and one of the best of the series overall. Though I wish they had kept one element from the original script: Sally Sparrow's ringtone was supposed to be a portentous "Dah Dah Dah" series of chords.

[LaurenIpsum]

This is my absolute favorite Dr. Who episode (I've seen all of the revived series' episodes, but none from the original series). That said, I wish I could unsee "Time of the Angels" and "Flesh and Stone," a two-parter where the Weeping Angels are brought back, with Matt Smith as the Doctor. Unfortunately if you skip these episodes, you end up missing some plot points in the later story arc.

Steven Moffat said he wanted to bring the Angels back because they were such popular villains/monsters, but he seemed to have forgotten what made them popular in the first place.

SPOILER:

So here we can see them moving, they kill people by actually killing them and not sending them back in time, we find out that they will stop moving if they just "think" you're looking at them (meaning it's a choice, not that they are quantum locked as originally stated). And they can possess you if you look at them too long - so you can't look away and you can't look at them, which means you're really fucked. So basically they aren't the Weeping Angels at all, they just look like them and have the same name.

The Television Without Pity Recap of the second episode shows just how stupid it is that the rules keep getting rewritten:

I mean, if these are the rules then there is literally no point to any of this. Keep reading that madman's book and you might end up yelling, "Hum quietly the theme to A Summer Place and it will bake you some biscuits! Do it, Amy!" And she could be like "I don't know that song!" And he could hum forcefully at the door. "Amy, turn yourself around like the hokey-pokey, but don't look into its eyes, but don't look away, as you step toward it backwards with an air of regret! You will meld with the Angel and it will become a robot body that will give you unimaginable power!" Or "Close your eyes, but don't close your eyes, and dance a foxtrot with the memory of blindness, while giving the illusion of confidence! Or you will surely die!"

[Miller]

Man, major disagreement with LaurenIpsum. The two parter with Matt Smith versus the Angels was fantastic, and went a long way towards fixing the concept of the Angels as effective villains.

"Blink" had two really cool ideas: statues that move when you don't look at them, and a clever plot where, unlike most Dr. Who episodes, time travel is essential to the story, and not simply a device to set up the story. Unfortunately, these two ideas were welded together in a rather ugly fashion. The problem is, as scary as the scenes of the Angels hunting people are, they're really rather benign once they catch you. I mean, look what happens to the two victims we see them "kill": they get sent back in time, where they're able to use their knowledge of future events to amass respectable personal wealth, and get married and raise families. And when your protagonist is an immortal time traveller, they're even more impotent. The worst thing they can do to the Doctor is moderately inconvenience him by making him wait around on Earth for fifty years or so until he catches back up to whenever he left the Tardis. And that pretty much illustrates the flaw with the Angels as originally written: they were clearly written to facilitate the clever time travel plot. If you take them out of that plot, what you get is a largely ineffective villain with one creepy gimmick. If you want to bring back the Angels without writing a total retread of the original episode, you've got to give the Angels some real teeth. They've got to be able to do something worse to you than make you live through the 1950s.

[johnspartan]

If you liked Blink as a first entry into Dr. Who, a good next one might be "Rose".

That was the one that... well not rebooted, but let's say resurrected the show. As such, it has a lot of introduction elements to it. New doc, more modern look than the original shows...

Plus Billie Piper isn't entirely unfortunately looking (which is how my wife tricked me into it)

[Candyman74]

Originally Posted by johnspartan

If you liked Blink as a first entry into Dr. Who, a good next one might be "Rose".

That was the one that... well not rebooted, but let's say resurrected the show. As such, it has a lot of introduction elements to it. New doc, more modern look than the original shows...

Plus Billie Piper isn't entirely unfortunately looking (which is how my wife tricked me into it)

The CGI in it is particularly dire, though.

[Kamino Neko]

The Eccleston season was fairly lousy on a visual note, in general, aside from the cast's general attractiveness level.