Flesh and Stone

Flesh and Stone serves both it's own story well as an effective finale but also the overall series arc as the cracks in the universe become even more tightly plotted with the lives of our time-travellers. It delves deep into the cracks affect on the universe and how the Doctor seems to be at the heart of this phenomenon. This is Flesh and Stone.

Our episode begins where The Time of Angels left off with the Doctor shooting the gravity globe that was keeping the angels at bay. They find that the ships artificial gravity is still working and that they are now on the underside of the ship. They enter the bottom hatch and are on the ship. While the first part of this episode resembles the previous one, its at this point that the episode becomes much lighter in a visual aspect but still remains a deep and dark tale.

Steven Moffat is still building up tension with the Angels as they slowly make their way towards the Doctor, Amy and the Clerics. With the group just managing to escape, they enter the secondary flight deck and discover the bio-system used by the crew to survive the long journeys. This bio-system contains tree-borgs which are a form of artificial intelligence used to circulate oxygen throughout the ship. This forest setting creates a different atmosphere to the previous episode while still managing to scare the viewers though an effective use of the Weeping Angels.

Two-part episodes allow the writer to create an immersive and engaging world which they can immerse the character and the viewers in. It's in this world that Moffat has created that he brings to the forefront the series arc of cracks in the universe. The Doctor discovers the crack in the side of the Byzantium flight deck and investigates it. While the Doctor in the TARDIS still doesn't know the true extent of the damage that these cracks have done, he does learn that these cracks erase the existence of anyone or anything that goes near them explaining why Amy didn't remember the Dalek attacks on Earth.

Throughout the episode, Amy has began counting down from ten which leads directly from the Angel incident in the first episode. We discover that the Angel has entered her eyes and slowly the angel will come out and engulf her. The Doctor instructs her to keep her eyes closed to keep the angel at bay while he, River and Father Octavian try to reach the secondary flight deck to access the ships systems. Amy has to wait behind with the remaining clerics as a gigantic crack appears in the distance and it's during this part of the episode is where we discover how the cracks affect the people around them. One by one, a cleric goes to inspect the crack and disappears, forgotten by the rest of the clerics expect for Amy who as a time-traveller remembers all of the different versions that can and will possibly happen.

During this time, the Doctor comes back to comfort Amy and asks her "to remember what I told you when you were seven" before disappearing again. This seemingly random interplay forms a major part of the series finale so I won't spoil it now, you just have to wait and see. The Doctor, River and Octavian have reached the secondary flight deck but not before Octavian is captured in a head lock by an angel. He informs the Doctor that "she killed a good man, a hero to many" before both the Doctor and Octavian put aside there differences and realises that they are both good men who longed to be recognised. The interplay between Matt Smith and Iain Glen (Octavian) is really what sells this two-parter for me as both men gradually get to know and respect each other more and realise that they are both working towards a common goal. Matt Smith's acting throughout these early weeks shows great promise of the things to come when he is given a great script and guest cast to work off. The Doctor tries to help Octavian but to no avail, to which he asks him to let him die which the Doctor does.

Now being the only person left as all the other clerics have been erased from time, the Doctor instructs Amy that she has to "walk like you can see" because the angels are focused on escaping the ever growing crack. While this works for a while, it leads to Amy tripping in a field of angels in which we see them move for the first time. River manages to transport her to the flight deck just in time for the Doctor's big speech to Angel Bob. Then, the ships engines fail as the angels had finally drained all of the energy and the artificial gravity is turned off leading the angels to fall to their doom while closing the cracks.  

The remaining trio escape and River foreshadows her and the Doctor's next encounter when the Pandorica Opens. Amy still wonders about the mysterious Doctor Song and asks the Doctor to take her home. It's here that she shows the Doctor her wedding dress and that it's the night before her wedding. She also tries to seduce the Doctor and not in a romantic way as a play on the perception of companions we are used to in the revived series who were only interested in the Doctor in a romantic way where Amy sees the Doctor as a sexual partner after he has meddled in her timeline so much. It's good to get this scene out of the way early in Matt's run as a cloud doesn't hang over our main characters heads and the audience's as we decide whether they like each other or not. The Doctor tells Amy that we are going to sort this out as they re-enter the TARDIS as the camera zooms into the clock depicting the date of the cracks originating: 26/05/2010, Amy's Wedding Day.

Flesh and Stone is a fantastic ending to an engaging first half and introduces more concepts into the series arc while tying up some plot threads present within the first couple of episodes. So Flesh and Stone gets a 10 out of 10 for being a effective and subtly woven finale for the weeping angels, let's hope they return soon and can deliver some great scares and fantastic characterisations with them.

NEXT TIME: REWIND - BLINK by Julian Barber