“Don’t Blink. Blink and you’re dead. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away. And don’t Blink. Good Luck.”
I thought it was a very good episode. Really one of the best I have seen. It was apparently another one where they wrote and produced one that would allow extra time and money to be saved for the final 3 story arc of the season.
It was just good writing and a fun concept. I liked all the characters. A very positive one to, no one actually died violently.
Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow did a good job and was very cute. I wonder if she might reappear at some point.
Overall Steven Moffat seems to be the best writer on the new series.
I wonder if we will ever see what the bow and arrows were for?
You know, if some hapless inquisitive teen or construction worker ever move one of those statues out of there, it would be freed and not trapped for all time.
There was a bit of a hint or maybe foreshadowing of how few can understand time, I wonder if we just met a future companion?
Apparently they do a Doctor-lite episode to free up time to fit in filming the now-obligatory Christmas special. I like it as a concept - it gives the writer a bit more freedom to experiment.
There just really aren’t words for how much I love this episode. I love Sally - “Sad is happy for deep people”, I love Larry - “Is she ill? Am I ill?”, I love Billy, I love the Doctor and his timey-wimey detector that goes ding when there’s stuff…just so much to love! The love, I love it!
Sadly, the only person I can do without in this ep is Martha. Stephen Moffat has been accused in the past of occasionally not writing very good female characters (which is odd, considering what a good job he did with Nancy in The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, and Sally Sparrow in this one), and it really comes through with Martha this week, who just seems snotty to me in every scene she’s in.
But it’s still a great episode. Did I mention I love it?
The final solution is awful. The lights were flashing on and off as it is, (until the story required them not to flash on and off), so they should be able to escape within seconds. That bugged the hell out of me. Not to mention that the creatures were faster than even a blink, but when the lights were flashing they were only fast enough to be really scary. Suspension of disbelief and all, I am a firm believer that when you establish rules, you have to follow them.
I really think these threads should be titled “Doctor Who” instead of “Dr. Who.” The forum won’t search for any words under four letters.
Oh, and it was a good episode (except for the Doctor’s baby-talk) but it seemed cut short. I think this plot could have made for a two-parter. You have all these big elements, people’s lives and things, all in 45 minutes. I miss the long stories of the original show; they were more like movies than television.
I rewatched it when it aired last night and I’m more convinced than ever that there was some serious mental scarring inflicted on children last night. Kids are going to be haunted for years by that episode. Twenty years from now they’ll be posting on whatever exists at that point asking “What was that show that made me scared to go into museums for years?”
And that is a good thing.
Sure! There’s this thing. Well… four things. Well… four things and a lizard.
Re: mental scarring: The other day I invited a friend over to watch Blink, warning her it was really scary, and not to watch it if she ever wanted to go near statues again. She openly scoffed at me … until about 10 minutes into the episode when the first angel “moved” its hands. Then I had to turn it off and put on “something funny to calm her down again”.
I always forget about the Fear Forecasts! I liked this exchange:
Billy’s an old man! The kids are shocked. “He’s, like, a hundred years old!” says Samuel incredulously. “No, it was 1969,” mum says, “so that would make him about dad’s age.” Dad looks scandalised.
I like this show as an occasional bit of brain candy, and Blink rocked. I wasn’t actually following too closely at the beginning, but I was rooted to my sofa for the last 1/2 of it.
Excellent episode; I loved the concept of the statues (especially since generally they were pretty nice to their victims – they sent them into the past, but they ended up living pretty decent lives).
The scariest part were the shots at the end, though. I can see why kids were upset by that implication.
My brother hooked me up with a copy of the final episodes of the season this year (via the UK, so this was a month or two ago) telling me I had to watch them because they were really cool. I’m a very casual Dr Who fan.
So I curl up in my bed, in the dark, all alone with my laptop. The first show on the disc was “Blink.”
I watched about 20 minutes in the dark, then watched the rest with the lights on. I had to watch the rest of the season - which has nothing to do with this episode - just so I could calm down and go to sleep!
Yes, the next-to-last five minuts was very firghtening, but the notion that a species could evolve that will turn to stone if anyone sees them is irredeemably ridiculous.
Err, apart from Billy who could only live long enough until the point that he had been flung back to 1969 from. “when this rain finishes, Sally Sparrow”. The man started off with “Life is short, and you are hot!”, but not. Sally’s friend was flung so far back by a different statue that she could have a proper life. Not so Billy, who knew that he would be dead when he met Sally again.
Struan - I think Billy had a good life, and long, even if it wasn’t with Sally Sparrow (I kept hoping he’d pull that off, though. They were sweet together).
