The Angels Take Manhattan

[daibhidc]

Wow. That was just ... wow.

I don't know if I should be writing this now, I'm still emotionally drained. First Rory was going to sacrifice himself, then Amy went with him, then they survived, then...

But before all that we got the Doctor reading his book. (Actually before that we got Weeping Statue of Liberty, a concept I expected to come up, but not in the pre-credits.) The Doctor's fondness of Melody Malone (yowza!) and his embarrassment over this was nicely played, and distracted attention from who she was (which, in retrospect, was obvious; she was using her real name and everything!)

I'm still not clear on exactly how married the Doctor and River are, but they certainly seem to enjoy acting like it. And her attempt to convince the Doctor that a) she wasn't hurt and b) she'd changed history from the book was nicely played.

(Strictly speaking though, it surely doesn't matter if she breaks her wrist or not; the timeline was fixed when she had the conversation with the Doctor, since that was the bit Amy read.)

If I was to criticise the episode at this point, it would be that between the Doctor freaking over the end of River's book, and her advice to Amy about how he hates endings, it was rather beating you over the head with "Last Pond story, isn't that sad?" long before we got to the bit where we actually lose the Ponds and it's sad. We know.

Rory, meanwhile, gets displaced in space not time. The idea of the Angels having a time-energy farm full of people who'd been sent back in time was an interesting one. It wasn't explored to the extent where I could see how it actually worked (if they keep sending people back in time, how come the two victims we see have only gone back one lifetime, same as normal?) but it was an interesting idea.

Rory's idea to create a paradox by killing himself was clever, and I loved his "When don't I?" when Amy asked if he thought he'd just come back to life. And he's right ... and then the Angels send him back in time anyway.

A lovely touch is that the Doctor either can't or won't get Amy's decision to follow him, the final refutation of "I love you more than you love me", but River does. And then it takes about ten minutes for the Doctor to realise that, while he's lost his friends, she's lost her parents.

(Or has she? Can the vortex manipulator still nip through paradox-space traffic even though it's now completely jammed from the TARDIS's point of view?)

So it's a sad ending because Amy and Rory are dead, but not a tragic one because they died in their 80s after a long life together. And then the Doctor finally goes back for Amelia Pond, which was nice.

Clever bit: Amy's afterword is presumably "The Final Farewell of Amelia Pond"; the chapter that the Doctor freaked out over. Although ... the Doctor says he can never return to New York, then the TARDIS is clearly in flight, and then ... he goes back to New York? That's a bit of a plot hole, isn't it?

Like I said, bit of a roller coaster, emotionally drained. I'm almost glad there wasn't a proper Next Time for the Christmas episode, because I honestly don't think I could have reacted to anything further.

Comments

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

Clearly River can still visit them, as he tells her to get Amy to write an afterword for him, which we then see that she did.

[john_amend_all]

That's what I thought on first viewing, but River's line suggests that she might be limited to posting the manuscript to Amy with a covering letter.

[tiggerallyn.livejournal.com]

No, the TARDIS can't go into 1938 because of the temporal shenanigans of the Angels, but River explains to Rory earlier that the Vortex Manipulator isn't so limited.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Yes, but at that point the TARDIS can get through with difficulty and "landing lights". Then it gets more jammed up by the paradox, so the TARDIS can't get there at all. Whether the Vortex Manipulatior can still jink through isn't clear.

[pedanther]

Although ... the Doctor says he can never return to New York, then the TARDIS is clearly in flight, and then ... he goes back to New York?

I understood him as meaning, though he didn't say it explictly, that he meant he couldn't return to New York in 193whatever, where the centre of the paradox was.

It'd be a bit restrictive if they could never do any New York-set story ever again, even if it did save on the location shooting.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Okay, so the Doctor can still visit 1940s New York? How old will the Ponds be then?

Come to think of it, is there any reason the Ponds have to stay in New York?

[cat63.livejournal.com]

This is what Rob and I said - the ending is so full of holes you could fly a Tardis through it backwards.

While it would have been horribly sad, I think it would have been a better ending, storywise, if Amy and Rory hadn't flipped back to life after falling off the building.

[aquarionical.livejournal.com]

Also, earlier we saw River Song regenerate as a toddler in something that looks quite like New York around the right time.