In the Russell T. Davies trademark New Series Structure, which I have talked about before, Blink sits at the end of the season in the position taken by the story that comes just before the finale; the one that’s usually a lower key story, with relatively low stakes & pace; that acts as a chance to pause and have a breather before we dive headlong into the end of season spectacular (and save a bit of budget). As we’ve also seen, there can be mixed results for this story: for every Boom Town or Turn Left there’s a Fear Her or Closing Time out there. Basically, this story can either be a turd or a triumph.
Thankfully, Blink is the latter.
This was a bit of of a career defining moment for Steven Moffat. Sure, we all knew he could write – after all, his previous two stories had been the standouts of their respective seasons, winning Hugo awards for both – but Blink really seemed to seal the deal – as well as a BAFTA. It was a step up from the previous story, The Girl in the Fireplace, and has all the elements of a great Moffat story turned up to 11.
To start with, it’s one of Moffat’s scariest stories. He’s scared us with gas mask children & robots under the bed, but The Weeping Angels are scarier than both. It’s taking the mundane and making it terrifying; as the closing montage shows, you’ll step out into the street and be watching over your shoulder the whole time now. The idea of the Angels – that the only move when you’re not looking – is so simple yet so effective: it’s Granny’s Footsteps made deadly decades before Squid Game did it. Credit needs to be be given to director Hettie Macdonald for the way she shoots the Angels, all tight angles & jump scares, which really drives the tension up.
The plot is a cracker in this one. It’s a mystery story from start to finish; not so much whodunnit as whendunnit. As we follows the plot through, we stay just one step ahead of Sally in figuring out what’s going on; that the Angels are sending people back in time. By the time we get to the final act, we’ve sussed the what but not the how or why, so it’s just the briefest of explanations we need from The Doctor. On the first run through you may have figured out what was going on with The Doctor’s Easter Egg messages, but when that final act hits and it all click into place, the genius of Steven Moffat is exposed for all to see.
Because plotting is, of course, his forte. Whereas RTD is a master at characterisation, he is often let down by his plots; with Moffat it is sometime – not always – the opposite. Here he really goes to town with the idea of Time Travel: he’s dabbled with The Girl in the Fireplace, but he really does turn it up to 11 here, stranding The Doctor in the past and leaving him with only a few brief messages to get out of the pickle of the week. It’s another really simple idea – The Doctor will leave a message for someone in the future to help him – that we’ve seen in Back to the Future 3 and Quantum Leap, but it really does take some skill to spin it out into a full episode like this.
The other skill on show here is writing a story where you barely miss The Doctor. This is a Doctor-Lite episode, one of those that’s thrown in to maximise your budget and shooting schedule – essentially allowing you to get an extra episode for free. Keeping the focus on Sally Sparrow – three cheers for Carey Mulligan by the way – as she follows The Doctor’s breadcrumbs makes for compelling viewing: this story just flows, is over before you know it but never feels rushed. Is Sally Sparrow the most Moffat name ever? Answers on a postcard. She’s certainly a Moffat character – you can see strands of Amy & Clara in her. But because of the strength of this character you don’t miss Tennant, who really only has three scenes in the whole thing.
The Moff doesn’t always do great character work, but here he does. It’s generally accepted that RTD did little to no rewriting of Steven Moffat’s scripts, and so we must take it on good faith that the scene between Old Billy & Sally as the rain streams down the window of his hospital room is all his. It’s beautiful, it’s the equal of anything RTD could have done, and it’s always Exhibit A1 when I find the need to argue for Moffat’s characterisation.
Ultimately, Blink could have been a one trick pony like Fugitive of the Judoon, where the plot it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny when you know what happens. But it does. It’s endlessly rewatchable and enjoyable, thanks to that airtight plotting & scripting. Sure, there’s some flaws: the behaviour of the male characters towards the female ones doesn’t quite stand the test of time (bar Larry, of course, who instead is a product of the Spaced and Notting Hill generation), and The Doctor seems to sacrifice Young Billy for his own use rather than save him. But the strengths far, far outweigh the weaknesses. The Angels will never be as good as this until Chibbers gets his hands on them in Flux, but as a one off Blink is outstanding. Just outstanding.
COMING TOMORROW: “Is this death…?”
- There are plenty others. ↩︎
Skies Full of Diamonds 