Moffat Era Rewatch: Notes on "Victory of the Daleks" and "The Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone"

Victory of the Daleks

• Yeah, this one is a bit rubbish, really, and isn’t nearly critical enough of Churchill. There are a couple of moments that hint at a slightly more ambivalent take on the man, such as his grab for the TARDIS keys, and there is the underlying fact that the script has him using the Daleks for the cause of winning the war, but ultimately, the script settles on portraying him as a British icon without probing too deeply.
•  Bits of Bracewell’s story are quite good, and are rather nicely done: I quite like the way Amy appeals to his humanity with the “good hurt” of a secret crush. It’s an unusual take on the “restore a robot’s humanity” trope, and a very Amy moment, albeit one that’s payoff to a theme the script hasn’t really been exploring.
• The Paradigm Daleks were a bad idea. Little else that’s interesting to say about this.
• Let’s end on a nice note. “Alright, it’s a jammy dodger, but I was promised Tea!” is the episode’s one moment of pure genius.

The Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone

• Moffat writes two part stories better than any other new series writer: most of the writers who aren’t Moffat or Davies struggle to make two part stories work. This is something to explore when discussing later episodes, but this is a significant factor in why there are no two part stories between “The Rebel Flesh/ The Almost People” and “Dark Water/ Death in Heaven”.
• With that said, this is, for my money, the most flawed of Moffat’s two part stories, though it’s still a strong story, and an absolute ball to watch – the decision to make this the “Aliens” to “Blink”’s “Alien” is a smart choice.
• The story is largely so fun because it’s full of great set pieces – the opening is glorious, the scene where Amy is trapped in the room with the camera-angel is a brilliant extension of the Weeping Angels’ abilities, and a great use of Amy’s brand of intuition. Amy counting down is beautifully woven into the early scenes of “Flesh and Stone”, and is incredibly tense. The cliffhanger is fist pumping, and Father Octavian’s death is really rather moving. The “get a grip” resolution works beautifully, as it pays off River’s “you might want to find something to hang onto taunt at the start of the first episode very neatly.
• The story works as a two parter by following Moffat’s maxim of starting the second episode in a different place to the first episode – the “Up we fell” resolution to the cliffhanger gives the second episode a distinct setting and visual feel from the first episode – “The Time of Angels” being set mostly in the catacombs, while the second part is set in the wreckage of the Byzantium. As a result, each episode has its own texture and feel, that keeps both parts memorable.
• The biggest flaw of the story comes in the form of its use of the season arc. The appearance of the crack has its strengths – it’s integrated into “Flesh and Stone” quite neatly, and having the season arc invade and impact a mid season story in this way is a nice change for Doctor Who’s approach to story arcs. But it does leave the story feeling a little overstuffed and slightly unbalanced.
• Again, then, the rawness of the production is visible. Matt Smith is entertaining, but clearly finding his feet in his first filmed story. But here, unlike in “Victory of the Daleks”, the rawness is made up for by the brilliance of the story’s best ideas and moments, giving us a story that, while not quite a classic, is still very good.