Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E10 Blink: Difference between revisions
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<small> --nk. Good luck.</small>
''Blink'' was written by [[Steven Moffat]] and netted a ton of awards for both writing and acting. It also ultimately lost a [[Nebula Award]] for Best Script to ''[[
It is a [[Lower Deck Episode|Doctor-lite episode]], based on a short story written by Moffat for the 2006 ''Doctor Who Annual'', titled "'What I Did On My Holidays,' by Sally Sparrow" ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/blink_annual.shtml The BBC has kindly put this up on their website.])
"Blink" revolves around Sally Sparrow (played by [[Carey Mulligan]]), a clever, spunky young woman who visits an old mansion called Wester Drumlins in 2007 and finds a spookily-detailed message from the Doctor written in 1969. The message tells her to "beware the weeping angels" and "by the way, duck!" She ducks, and a ceramic pot of some sort smashes into the wall just behind her head. Seeking the attacker, she sights an angel statue in the garden.
Sally leaves Wester Drumlins, and the next day, goes to visit her friend, Kathy Nightingale. At Kathy's house, Sally notices a TV set playing a DVD of the Doctor, apparently talking to thin air. She also meets Kathy's brother Lawrence ([[Stealth Pun|Lawrence Nightingale, get it?]]), who has apparently <s>[[Naked First Impression|just stepped out of the shower and forgotten his towel]]</s> discovered that sleeping in the nude helps with those tricky midnight leaks. Sufficiently [[Genre Savvy]] viewers [[How to Become
Anyway, Sally convinces Kathy to come with her to Wester Drumlins. When someone knocks on the door, Kathy stays behind in case of danger, while Sally investigates. [[Leaning
Meanwhile at the door, a strange man approaches Sally with a letter, written by his grandmother: Kathy Nightingale. Sally opens the letter to find that it is indeed from Kathy, who was thrown back in time to 1920.
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After visiting Kathy's grave, Sally heads out to fulfill Kathy's last request and convey her love to Lawrence (AKA Larry). At the DVD shop where he works, Sally gets into an argument with the same recording of the Doctor. Since he [[The Tape Knew You Would Say That|appears to be talking directly to her]], she soon gets creeped out and yells at the Doctor to stop being so weird ... at which point, Larry shows up. He tells her that the video of the Doctor is an [[Easter Egg]] on 17 apparently unconnected DVDs, and that nobody seems to know what it's about, though he and his online friends have thoroughly dissected every line in search of answers.
Sally gives him an edited version of Kathy's message, collects [[Chekhov's Gun|a list of the DVDs]] with the Doctor Easter Egg, and then steps out of the back room, her head still spinning. The man behind the counter shouts “[[Police Are Useless|Go to the police]], you stupid woman! [[Genre Blindness|Why does nobody ever just go to the police?]]” Sally is startled, but relaxes when she sees that he's watching a B-Movie. (You can practically see Moffat [[Leaning
This explicit [[Lampshade Hanging]] leads her to take the counter-jockey's inadvertent advice, and Sally heads over to the Police
Sally responds to Billy's come-ons by giving him her phone number -- "Just a phone number"
Minutes later, Sally receives a phone call from Billy. She follows his directions to a hospital, where she finds the now-40-years-older Billy Shipton. [[Almost
Sally stays with Billy until he dies. Then she calls Larry to tell him what the DVDs have in common: they're all the DVDs she owns. Larry is incredulous to learn that Sally [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|only owns 17 DVDs]], but quickly agrees to meet Sally at Wester Drumlins, along with a DVD which has the Easter Egg.
At Wester Drumlins, they set up a portable DVD player and, on noticing an Angel in the garden, Sally tells Larry to keep an eye on it. The following sequence is one of the biggest [[Time Paradox]] [[Mind Screw
The Doctor also explains the nature of the Weeping Angels: they feed on "potential energy," meaning the energy a person would have expended if they lived into the future, but do not expend if they live out the rest of their lives in the past. As he remarked earlier to Billy, they're the only psychopaths in the universe who kill you nicely: send you back to the past, let you live yourself to death.
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They've also evolved the ultimate defense mechanism:
{{quote|
The Doctor tells Sally and Larry that [[Memetic Mutation|the Angels have the phone box]], and if they can get in it, they'll be able to feed on the time energy inside ... and do enough damage to switch off the sun. Sally has the key, so it's up to her to open the TARDIS first and send it back to the Doctor.
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His explanation done, the Doctor, noting that his transcript has ended, gives Sally and Larry these last words of advice:
{{quote|
It is at this moment, [[Foregone Conclusion|of course]], that Sally and Larry realise that neither of them have been looking at the Angel in the garden. After a moment's pause, they look up to see it standing only a few metres away, poised to attack. Sally goes to look for an exit, leaving Larry to stare at the Angel. He looks away for a split second, and when he looks back, the Angel's hands are inches away from his neck.
Sally finds the TARDIS in the mansion's basement, and she and Larry make their way down the stairs. However, the Angels follow them, and one ([[New Powers
They then discover that Larry's DVD functions as a TARDIS-activation key, slot it into the TARDIS' handy [[Plot Coupon]] drive and then watch as the TARDIS dematerializes without them. The Angels have surrounded the TARDIS by this point, and when it disappears, they're stuck looking at each
Fast forward one year. Sally and Larry now run an Antiquarian book and rare DVD shop, which Sally insists is [[Just Friends|all there is between them]], at least partly because she's too focused on investigating what happened to them.
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What follows is 29 seconds of pure [[Paranoia Fuel|paranoia-fuelled]] [[Mind Screw]], as we return to the last few seconds of the Doctor's video:
{{quote|
----
* [[Action Survivor]]: Sally, and, to a lesser extent, Larry.
* [[Buffy-Speak]]:
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** "This is my Timey Wimey Detector. It goes 'ding' when there's stuff."
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The DVD list Larry gives to Sally
** Also, three years later we see the Angels again in [[Doctor Who
* [[Determined Expression]]: Done mostly through body language, when Sally [[Let's Get Dangerous|gets dangerous]].
* [[Easter Egg]]: An in-universe example.
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* [[The Film of the Book]]: "Blink" is based on Moffat's short story and shares several common elements; the heroine in both is Sally Sparrow (though the story's Sally is somewhat younger), there are elements of finding messages left by the Ninth Doctor trapped in the 1960s behind peeling wallpaper, and concludes with Sally finding a video tape, having a similarly strange conversation with the Doctor through the tape, and eventually helping to reunite him with the TARDIS. Fortunately, the story lacked much of the [[Nightmare Fuel]] that "Blink" had including the Weeping Angels and being sent back through time.
* [[First Girl Wins]]: Gender-flipped example
* [[Get Back to
* [[Harsher in Hindsight]]: Sally has a photo of an Angel in the folder she gives the Doctor. Image of an Angel, anyone?
* [[Just Ignore It]]: Inverted.
* [[Just Smile and Nod]]: Martha says this is the right way to behave around the Doctor: just nod every time he takes a breath.
* [[Leaning
* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: Sally after {{spoiler|Billy dies of old age}}. Even the music gears up as she goes into Determinator Mode.
* [[Memetic Mutation]]:
** "The Angels Have the Blue Box." It ''is'' on t-shirts now.
** The "timey-wimey" line has grown legs, as well. Also the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Timey-Wimey Ball]].
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* [[Mind Screw]]: The ending.
** The whole [[Stable Time Loop]] in general. That writing under the wallpaper in the beginning of the episode was only put there because {{spoiler|Sally mentioned it in the notes she gave the Doctor}}. The extreme amount of luck required for that strategy to work is only apparent in retrospect.
*** On the contrary, it was ''certain'' to work. If she hadn't found it (and just in time to duck), she [[Stable Time Loop|wouldn't have been able to tell the Doctor to put it there]] to begin with.
** A later episode reveals that "Whatever contains the image of an angel, shall become an angel." With it now on DVD, how many times do they show the angels in the episode?
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Weeping Angels and "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey]]" in the same episode. Ow, my neck!
* [[Naked First Impression]]
* [[Naked People Are Funny]]
* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: The Weeping Angels are consistently rated as one of the most terrifying monsters in nuWho, if not the entire franchise's history. [[Doctor Who
* [[Noodle Implements]]: Said while carrying a bow and arrow:
{{quote|
* [[Oh Crap]]: {{spoiler|"Why's it pointing at the..." (the lightbulb flickers)}}.
* [[One Word Title]]
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* [[Plot Coupon]]: The DVD
* [[Stable Time Loop]]: The episode revolves around creating one of these. Which, arguably, makes the ending a [[Foregone Conclusion]]. And, yet, it's still terrifying.
* [[Shout
** Also [[Back to The Future|someone getting stuck in the past and arranging for a message to be delivered to a friend at the location and time when they disapeared]]
* [[Take That]]: When entering Wester Drumlins for the first time, Sally and Kathy suggest names for their little "investigation team". When Sally comes up wih 'Nightingale and Sparrow', Kathy dismisses it as a bit too ITV. {{spoiler|Doesn't stop Sally and Lawrence from using it as the name of their shop.}}
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** Twice.
*** Accidentally at first.
{{quote|
'''Sally:''' Started well, that sentence.<br />
'''The Doctor:''' It... got away from me, yeah...<br />
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'''Sally:''' Okay, that's enough! }}
*** Then what it was ''supposed'' to mean.
{{quote|
'''Sally:''' Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you. <br />
'''The Doctor:''' [[That Sounds Familiar|It... got away from me, yeah...]]<br />
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* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: Averted, despite being the [[Trope Namer]]. The timeline for this episode, despite being circular, is relatively organized...on a relative scale for [[Sci Fi|sci-fi]] fiction time-liney weirdness, anyway.
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Political?]]: Parodied in-universe, with a spin on [[It Makes Sense in Context]].
{{quote|
'''The Doctor:''' Look to your left.
''Sally looks to her left, and sees Larry transcribing everything she says.''
'''Larry:''' What does he mean by "look to your left"? I've written tons about that one. I think it's a political statement. }}
* [[Xanatos Roulette]]: Subverted. From Sally's perspective the Doctor's plan relies on insane guesswork, but by the time it's over you can clearly see how he pulled it all off.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Doctor Who (TV)/Recap]]▼
[[Category:Hugo Award]]
[[Category:Recap]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]
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