035 – Blink

It’s finally here! The Noobs and the Whovian discuss one of the best Who episodes of all time: Blink. Join us as we go in depth on the wibbly wobbly timey wimey… stuff and exactly what makes the Weeping Angels so amazing.

Live from Master Closet Studios, you’re listening to the only podcast on the internet that goes DING when there’s stuff: Noobs and the Whovian!

This is the podcast that introduces a whole new generation to Doctor Who by watching an episode each week and discussing it from the perspective of a dad who’s seen it before, and two sons who haven’t.

Welcome to Episode 35 covering the season 3 episode 11: Blink

Super-short Recap

This is the one where Smith and Jones aren’t really around all that much actually…

This is the one where Sally Sparrow meets a bunch of people in the wrong order. She breaks into a creepy old mansion and discovers a message written directly to her, from the 1960’s. It’s dark, there’s vines and moss growing everywhere, creepy messages on the wall, and stuff being thrown at her. But at least there’s a really pretty angel statue.

Sally takes her friend Kathy back with her and she disappears right about the time that a guy shows up with a letter from Doc in 1885… sorry, from Kathy in 1987. She goes to tell Kathy’s brother, Larry, that she’s gone away for a while. While there, she sees a clip of a strange man on a DVD. He’s talking about time and stuff, and then seems to respond directly to her.

She decides to do the thing no one ever does in these movies and goes to the cops. They don’t believe her, but Detective Inspector Billy thinks she’s hot and decides to help her out. He shows her the big blue box, and then promptly disappears. Sally gets a phone call from Billy. He’s super old in a hospital and has a message from the Doctor.

She cracks the code of the DVDs and goes to have the single weirdest conversation of her life with a DVD bonus feature. The Doctor reveals that the angels are the deadliest species in the universe, and how to defeat them. Basically, they trick them into looking at each other forever… assuming the light in that basement never turns off.

A year later, Larry really wants Sally to let the whole thing go. Maybe they’ll never understand it all. Just then, Smith and Jones pop out of a cab in pursuit of something, WELL four things and a lizard. Sally realizes it was her all along and gives the Doctor her notes on the whole thing so he can give it to her later so she can give it to him and my head hurts.

Oh, and you should definitely be terrified of every single statue you ever see. Don’t look away from them, ever. Don’t even blink! Good luck.

Production notes

• Story # 186
• Originally aired and June 9, 2007 to 6.62 million viewers
• Written by: Steven Moffat
• Directed by: Phil Collinson
• Awards: Won Hugo Award in 2008

Cast

• Sally Sparrow – Carey Mulligan
  • First credit is as Kitty Bennet in 2005’s Pride & Prejudice
• Billy Shipton – Michael Obiora
  • Played Ellis in Eastenders & Baxter in Tomb Raider

Misc Trivia

• Based on a short story Moffatt wrote for the Doctor Who Annual. Originally featured Nine
  • The seems to treat this as if both things have happened saying a previous incarnation had a similar experience as this referring to the short story
• This is a “Doctor-lite” episode. Moffatt was working on another show and couldn’t write the two-parter he wanted to. He decided to take on the dreaded Doctor-lite episode.
  • He whipped out in just two drafts and doesn’t even remember writing it.
  • It’s now considered one of the best episodes ever

Checklist

• Baddie of the week
  • Weeping Angels
• Jiberty Jaberty
  • Quantum Locking
    • As self-defense whenever a weeping angel is being observed, even by other angels, they turn to stone. They can even do it on command if they feel threatened
    • The same idea is used by the Medusa species
• Jiggery Pokery
  • TARDIS –
    • It can apparently leave without you while you’re inside.
    • Discuss seeing the angels in the midst of it
  • Random
    • My Timey-Wimey detector
      • It goes ding when there’s stuff. And it can boil an egg at thirty paces.
    • DVDs can control TARDIS

Overall impressions

• Overall rating out of 10 –
• Creep Level – out of 500

Let’s talk about Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

• What were the rules?
  • They didn’t really set up any rules
  • Unless we count this as a fixed-point
• Did they follow the rules?
  • Yeah
• Paradoxes?
  • Bootstrap information – pretty much everything: the DVD, the DVD transcript, the note under the wallpaper, the list of DVDs,
  • The Doctor tells Billy not to contact Sally too soon or it could cause a paradox that would destroy ⅓ of the universe
    • So THAT kind of paradox is not ok, but all the others if fine…
  • One small thing that bothered me about this episode…

Listener Input

• 5 new star reviews on iTunes
• Shoutout to Christina and Xavier!
  • I give [Blink] a 9 1/2 flickering lights, Xavier gives it a “9 letters from a friend that was just here”.
• Shoutout to Kara, Joe, Darien, Kat, & Abbey
• Poll about doing Classic Who one-offs was 50-50!
• Challenge everyone to draw the aliens that have appeared thus far

The Game Plan

• Dec. 1st – 3-parter
  • Announce the Series recap, ask for votes
  • Post the List on page and Facebook
• 8th – Santa Clause 3
• 15th – Christmas Special – Voyage of the Damned
• 22nd – TBA
• Next up will be the Series Recap episode so get your votes in

Next Time…

Join us for the Season 3 episodes 12, 13, & 14: Utopia, The Sound of Drums, & Last of the Time Lords

Noobs and the Whovian is a production of Master Closet Studios, where it’s always smaller on the inside. Your Senior Producer is Austin Reason. Our Audio Engineer is Tripp Reason. Corbin Reason is our Production Editor. Special thanks to tardis.wikia.com for the trivia and Star and the staff of the Timberglen Library in Dallas for the books.

You can find us at facebook.com/noobsandthewhovian and email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe and leave a rating wherever you found us, and share us with a friend.