When the Tardis is hijacked by a weeping angel, the fam is deposited in 1967 where a village is seemingly being overrun by the stone assassins and, as the Doctor reunites with a friend from earlier in the season, Yaz and Dan are zapped back in time to 1901 where the mystery of what the angels are doing only deepens.
You know, if you had told me that the weeping angels would be used again, I wouldn’t have been surprised, but if you would have told me that they would be used again and they would be every bit as scary as they were then when they first appeared in “Blink,” I would have said you were crazy but, here we are… the angels have the phone box and they are still positively terrifying. Sure, “The Angels Take Manhattan” turned the Statue of Liberty into an angel and made them goofy and subsequence episodes made them cannon fodder and glorified cameos, but “Village of the Angels” has returned them to top-tier villain status, enemies that are fast, capable, and intelligent enough to actually defeat the Doctor.
Speaking of The Doctor, Jodie Whittaker was at her most Doctorish with this episode. A glorious whirlwind of eccentricity and curiosity that was a genuine pleasure to watch. It is such a shame that it’s taken all the way into her twilight season to reach peak Doctorness with Whittaker, but now that she is here, it is pure light. She reflects the best of all of the Doctors who came before her while giving us a dash of something new.
I’m also more heavily invested in Vinder and his wife’s side story more than what I thought I would be and I’m curious how it’s going to blend into the rest of the narrative other than, “This is what’s happening in the universe now that it’s been wrecked.”
As for the episode itself, I suppose you could liken it to characters trying to find their way out of a locked box, only to emerge into another locked box, only that box is on fire. It just seemed like the problems for the Tardis fam kept compounding and compounding throughout the entire run and, I must say, it was a lot of fun to watch all the way up to the final cliffhanger.
The problem, again, is with me. I just have the nagging, terrible feeling that Chibnall is going to blow the ending as he always seems to. Flux has provided us with a very interesting mystery, high stakes, and some of the best episodes of Jodie Whittaker’s run. I am just afraid that, without an ending to match the buildup, these episodes will retroactively lose their punch and I’m not sure if I trust Chibnall enough to finish Flux up with the bravado it and Jodie Whittaker deserves.
I hope I’m wrong. I really do. Jodie Whittaker deserves to go out with a bang, considering the two seasons of duds and eye-rollers she was saddled with, not to mention the guffaws and smirks of the toxic bro fan base who’s delicate feelings were hurt when a female Doctor was announced.
I really want to see those horrible people eat crow and I want to see Chibnall serve it to them on a silver platter.
I just don’t trust him to do it.
Jason Gaston 