A Closer Look at “Blink”
DOCTOR WHO THE COMPLETE THIRD SERIES is of particular importance for including the most critically acclaimed episode of the program’s entire run: “Blink,” written by Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie MacDonald. The tenth episode of the sea- son, “Blink” is ideal entry level material for anyone on the outside of the DOCTOR WHO phenomenon looking in, who might be hesitant to jump aboard because of the show’s vast and sprawling history. Considered a “Doctor-lite” or “filler” episode, because it was conceived and shot to make only minimal use of series principals David Tennant (The Doctor) and Freema Agyeman (Martha), this remark- ably dense yet compact 45 minutes opens with pho- tographer Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) breaking into a dilapidated old mansion, Wester Drumlins, to take pictures. Tearing away a length of peeling wall- paper to expose the graffiti underneath, she finds a warning addressed to her by someone signing him- self “The Doctor (1969)”—a warning to duck, which she does just in time to avoid getting beamed with a rock. She later returns with friend Kathy Nightingale (Lucy Gaskell) but their investigation of the premises is interrupted by the arrival of a young man with a letter addressed to Sally from his grandmother, which coincides with Kathy’s disappearance... to 1920 Hull. The letter, along with other clues found as Easter Eggs on 17 seemingly unrelated DVDs, eventually make Sally and Kathy’s brother Larry (Finlay Robertson) aware of Wester Drumlins as a nesting place for a race of “abstract, potential energy” vampires called the
Carey Mulligan shows the Weeping Angels the whites of her eyes in “Blink.”
Weeping Angels, whose defense system helps them assume the appearance of ordinary stone statues whenever met by a human gaze. Don’t blink in their presence... or they may tag you and send you to live out your life in a past era, feeding off the residual life energy left unfulfilled in the present.
The Doctor figures in the episode only briefly in the flesh; his key appearances are as the Brian O’Blivion-like speaker participating in half a con- versation on the aforementioned 17 DVD Easter Eggs. In a clever set-up for a hilarious (and all- too-believable) line of dialogue, what the 17 unre- lated discs have in common is that they compose Sally’s entire DVD collection—a fact further un- derscoring that the Doctor’s warnings are meant specifically for her. Masterfully juggling humor, suspense, and scary sucker-punches, the episode not only introduces a wonderful why-didn’t-any- one-think-of-this-before race of monsters, it man- ages to tell a couple of nearly life-long love stories remarkably in toto before tying up all the loose threads in a lovely bow and closing on a bracing cautionary note guaranteed to make you take a second, warier look at the world around you. More than an outstanding DOCTOR WHO epi- sode, “Blink” may be the first classic of 21st cen- tury TV horror, a must-have addition to any video library also playing host to THRILLER’s “Pigeons from Hell,” TWILIGHT ZONE’s “Eye of the Beholder” or THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s “The Jar.” —Tim Lucas
39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
