I don’t care who you are, what you believe, or why you hold that belief to be the true one. It is wrong! That is unless that belief is a shared understanding of what is the most horrifying monster in the universe. Yes, running a close second would be the Cage Spider from Dark Souls 3, especially when you find the first one at 3 AM and make a whimper that startles the cats. However, I’m not talking about something from the mind of a mentally ill game designer; I’m talking about the unhealthy Scottish mind of a man that Tumblr collectively hated in unison from about 2010 until whenever Sherlock Season 3 came around. Then it was more than just Tumblr.

This episode, this bloody episode of brilliance and majesty, this is the reason he got the job heading Doctor Who. Other things may contribute to his success, such as Coupling, but I don’t and I won’t believe any of that as THE reason in a million years. Why? “Blink” is horror, very dark sci-fi horror that makes you believe in something you wouldn’t have otherwise. For decades, I’ve heard the stories of people diving behind the couch when a Dalek was on screen, yet I never believed it; I’m talking about this happening in the 1960s and ’70s. I still find it hard to believe the money that would go into your first Halloween costume would both make a Dalek and frighten the bejesus out of someone.

That was until Steven Moffat wrote his 4th episode, his 4th and final before moving on to become head-writer from Series 5 onward. A tenure that will forever hold a place in hearts. Said tenure held some of the most magnificently detailed plots that string theorists are still trying to work out to this day. The man has done fantastic work, and then there is the complete and utter shambles that is part 2 of Series 7 through Series 9 and parts of 10. I’m still not letting him, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and Sheree Folkson off for “In the Forest of the Night.” Capaldi should have drop-kicked Clara right then and there.

Though I’m getting far too ahead of myself, I’ll have plenty of time to complain about Clara in later Series when I want to throw her in the Eye of Harmony and watch her burn. She is third on the list, by the way. Moffat has two creations in the top three of “most horrific monsters in the known universe,” he really is a man of ill mind. Shall we talk about what sits number one? Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin: Stone.

Ok, they are more than stone but once observed, they do return to stone. That is until you glance away, you blink, or when it goes dark. That is when they will get you, that is when you are unsafe. One little moment is all they need, nothing more and nothing less, one tiny moment and they will get you. What are they? Well, they used to be called The Lonely Assassins, stone statues scattered throughout time and space. Although, they are only stone when they are quantum-locked by any single being observing them. What do you think is the worst a bit of stone could do to you? Make you feel a bit cold, a bit gross, gently startled by their presence?

No, they aren’t that kind, they are kind in a psychopathic way. Now called The Weeping Angels for their petrific state, they have grown “kind” in their old age. Once they did go about breaking necks, but since then, they have become both “merciful” and more terrifying. They don’t kill you, but they will absorb what potential time you have remaining in this period from you and send you back tens, hundreds, or thousands of years. How many statues do you think you could name or know the location of right now? How many times do you think something has moved when you’ve looked away?

“Why are they called The Weeping Angels?” as my editor might be asking by now, and it is simple. With so many angels, all of which want to drain you dry of your potential time energy, they often “hunt” in loose packs. They may turn to harmless stone when you see them, but if they see each other, well they will quantum-lock themselves for the rest of time. Quantum-locked around you, reaching out, bearing their teeth, ready to kill. Why are they terrifying? You always believe you’ve seen something out the corner of your eye, but once you look back, it is gone. I don’t want to find out how terrifying all that may sound to a Black disabled gay trans person, as some only selfishly think about losing their PlayStation. Then there’s Jeff thinking about someone finding his laptop.

Moffat, you are a genius and a monster within your own right, you brilliant man. I’m several hundred words deep already, and I’ve not even gotten to the episode yet. I haven’t spoken about Sally Sparrow, and how much I love that name. Not to mention, she’s portrayed by the fantastic Carey Mulligan. At the heart of it, watching it through before writing the review, it is simple. It is simple, downplayed, and almost like an independent short drama about two strangers getting to know each other. Though it is the middle that features the horror, time travel, and timelines intersecting. That’s where we’ll begin.

Sally is shocked, rain-soaked (it is England after all), and has just given her number to a Black copper called Billy Shipton; and of course, she’s just awkwardly named herself “Sally Shipton.” They were looking at all the cars that were parked outside one house called Wester Drumlin, along with the prize of the police collection, a blue box. She leaves and then returns just as quickly, remembering the key she nabbed from the angels in Wester Drumlin. Sally wants to try it on the blue box, which has disappeared in those few moments, as has Billy.

Billy wakes up with a strange man in a brown coat holding a claptrap of wiring, a timey-wimey detector that goes ding when there is stuff. The man and his assistant babble on about looking forward to the Moon landing. At the same time Sally gets a phone call from Billy asking to come and meet him in the hospital. It has only been 15-minutes for her. He’s now old, dying, had a wife, a full life, and orders from a man called “The Doctor.” In the matter of about an hour, Sally has seen DI Shipton in his late 20s to early 30s hitting on her, and now he’s closer to his 70s than 17. In the rain that they met, they meet once again. When it stops, Billy takes his last breath. That’s what going around the long way via 1969 will do to you. It will nearly rip all of time apart if you meet with the pretty blonde too soon.

“What was the message?” the 17-DVDs she owns. For those of you far too young, a DVD is a storage device. It would hold lots of information through visual and audio encoding. No, they aren’t much like the fob watch from last week; You can’t store a Time Lord on a DVD, that would be stupid. A DVD is for a Time Lord to talk to a woman 38-years in the future, and that’s it. Nothing more, and quite frankly, what else are you going to use a DVD for anyway?

Wester Drumlin is where Sally first saw an angel, or at least the first time they were called to her attention. A bit obviously too, as her name and some orders were painted under the wallpaper of this decrepit old house in the middle of London. She sees orders and angels she wanted to show her best friend (Kathy Nightingale) the morning after seeing Larry Nightingale’s little gentleman. Long story short, Kathy and Sally went to the house. There was a knock at the door and Sally was handed some pictures of Kathy. The pictures were all from 1920-87 and were handed to her by Kathy’s grandson who tries to explain.

That is what the episode is great at, it wasn’t afraid of confusing the viewer early on. It all makes sense, but you need to view the story in the non-subjective non-linear progression of time… a wibbly wobbly timey-wimey ball of stuff. My point is very simple, you can’t go into it understanding the entire timeline from a few moments of the episode. It forces you to sit until the end, or you just don’t understand where it is going or where it went to get here.

Yes, I said I was a stupid child for not really getting much of “Human Nature” or “Family of Blood.” However, that is what happens when you aren’t gripped by the episode as a child. You don’t care, therefor you don’t get it. Yeah, the anti-war bit seems obvious now, but I can understand a wibbly wobbly timey-wimey ball of stuff right away. That’s the power of great sci-fi right there, great characters and a story that not only excites but also stays with the person watching.

For being so against the idea of letting others be the hero, I don’t mind “Blink” putting The Doctor almost 40-years in the past. He isn’t directly the hero, but he does stitch it all together so things work, just as Sally stitches the modern-day bits together for him to come back and fix it. Complain about the theory of temporal mechanics all day if you like, it is simply swatted away with a wonderfully playful Moffat line, “Wibby wobbly timey-wimey ball of stuff.” It is fantastic, it is horrific, it is charming, it is heartwarming, and did I mention there are the nightmare creatures?

The angels are just something special, there is nothing quite like the most terrifying thing in the universe. They are an easter egg in Just Cause 3, and every time I go and attempt to look at them, I run away terrified and start bombing a nearby coastal town instead. They are the ultimate horror; inoffensive but dread-inducing. They are simple in concept and harmless in appearance, but their actions are what make them unbelievably unforgettable and mortifying. I love to be scared by them, albeit they are just stone.

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Doctor Who "Blink"

9.9

Score

9.9/10

Pros

• Sally Sparrow, a wonderful name & character.
• The angels are the perfect New Who villian.
• "Wibby wobbly timey-wimey ball of... stuff."
• Brilliantly Who without Who.

Cons

• Very minor moments of acting feeling over acted.