Writing an ending to a story is one of the hardest things to do, crafting something that ties up as many ends as possible while also being satisfying. When I started writing reviews, I hated the ending. I knew the conclusions, but I never enjoyed it and found it to be less than satisfying. Even now, with a vague hint of composing bits of fiction in my spare time, making the end entertaining and something I want to get to is one of the most laborious things to do. The end of a story has to be something that hits you, something that you either enjoy so much you want to talk about it or is so emotional that you have a response to it every time.

For the most part, Doctor Who has this problem in the bucket loads. Generally, sci-fi has a problem with an ending that everyone is going to be pleased with, but that’s a discussion for another day. Since the Russel T Davies days, we’ve had the metaphorical and sometimes literal “Big Red Button.” Often I’ll say that the end doesn’t matter if the journey was fun, which is true in some regards, but it isn’t to take away from an ending. It is still essential to craft a well-made conclusion of a story, but I am willing to forgive some of their less than fantastic points if the journey to get there was exciting and worthwhile.

Let’s get into “The Angels Take Manhattan”, or that one with the ending that makes me regret watching the episode again. Not in the same way as “The Power of Three” makes me regret watching, though that was an ending that was annoying contrite for a good episode. “The Angels Take Manhattan” is the one I think I accidentally came back for. I at least remember watching an episode or two around this time, and I stopped again after it. Ok, enough with the tugging my editor along with a series of setups for a long diatribe about hating an episode. It is just one that’s oddly emotional, even for a Grinch whose heart shrunk two sizes for simply getting up this morning.

That reaction isn’t just because this is the last time we’ve got Amy and Rory, or because some of the River segments just kick your heart down a flight of stairs, bouncing on every impossible MC Escher-placed step. I’ll say it, the only personal relationships I have ever given two hoots about in this entire show’s history is that of the Doctor and Sarah Jane and that of the Doctor and River. Everyone else, especially Clara and Danny Pink, can jump in a vat of red mummifying liquid up in the north (Shut up, Yorkshire is the North). I get it: Rose was extraordinary. We all love Billie Piper for being that first companion to many, but I don’t prefer the implications of hanky panky in the blue box. Particularly with the Doctor.

The thing is, I think this was one of the finest episodes Moffat wrote this series. Especially in regard to Amy and Rory’s exceptional final moments, with every moment striking the tone beautifully. What better place to play host to a story about the angels than, to quote Will McAvoy from Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, the place that is number one in “[the] number of adults who believe angels are real.” I mean, Manhattan has one of the biggest angels in the world. It is hard to miss her and the pedestal she’s held up on. It also took four months to rebuild her when she could have just walked across the Atlantic.

Ok, jokes aside, there is something uncomfortable about the episode. It happens to be something that has become common in the last 15-years from the release of Twilight onward. I’m all for listening to Paramore or My Chemical Romance and feeling a bit sad once in a while, but the whole emo “let’s both commit suicide because it is romantic” thing gets on my nerves. It somewhat fetishizes the idea of death and how ‘the easy way out‘ of pain is as simple as suicide; As if there is no collateral to that action. While it isn’t full-blown floor pizza, “yay, we killed ourselves!” There is an air of something in the writing that just feels off.

Out of everything in the episode, the anger, the love, the care, the fun moments in the park, and the end moments of sadness, that rooftop paradox business just feels wrong. Not from a writing standpoint, but at least morally, as it in some way pushes any responsibility of understanding a situation aside to make something a bit sci-fi. Yeah, it creates a paradox, but it is also built on the back of a horrible experience that is not just taboo but also a very serious issue. I’m all for talking about the issue. I have a note for a script idea that employs a discussion on suicide in fact, but what is rubbing me the wrong way is the romanticization of it here.

Neither is it the only point of showing there is love between two people. Ultimately the moment doesn’t feel useful when it is there to be a grand show of romanticism. River being told not to break her wrist to escape an angel’s clutches, only to break her wrist and the Doctor to use up some of his regeneration energy to heal her, that isn’t enough love? The Rory that was laying in the bed, his literal death bed, and talking to young-adult Amy as Rory (our Rory) watches himself die, doesn’t have enough in it? The scattered logic of romantic moments feels ever so odd.

However, it is that final moment, Amelia’s last farewell, that kicks your heart down the garden path of emotion. Seeing the pain in the Doctor’s face as he knows it is happening again, Amy’s torn desire to stay with her raggedy man and be with our dopey and lovely lone centurion. It is the sign of the end of the two-and-a-half series arc. It brings the era of Amy, takes our Peter Pan and Wendy Darling pairing and closes the final chapter in what is such an emotional ending. Despite having plot holes wide enough to drive trucks through, it is one of the best episodes of series 7, so far.

It is loud, bombastic, noir, emotional, fun, frantic, and has a touch of horror in places. Let’s not forget, this is the episode that solidified the lines from back in “The Time of Angels” and “Blink.” Anything that holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel, and angels can make any statue a weeping angel. The Cherubs in the basement with Rory are just as terrifying as the concept of the angels themselves. To get close to a proper ending for Rory, you need to head to the Adventures in Lockdown and other extended media, but as a climatic end to enjoy, it succeeds in that.

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Doctor Who "The Angels Take Manhattan" - Review

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• An emotional goodbye to the longest running companion to this point.
• God, those angels are horrendously terrifying.
• River!

Cons

• Did we need the suicide-pact?