David Tennant’s time asDoctor Who’s leading man brought his iteration of the Time Lord into direct contact with a myriad of new and old franchise villains, but the show fell just short of having him meet an iconic race of monsters.David Tennant’s Tenth Doctorhad some legendary bouts with the Daleks and the Cybermen, butDoctor Who’s library of villains runs much deeper.
Tennant has been the star of almostevery season ofDoctor Whooverseen by Russell T. Davies. The Tenth Doctor has been at the center of some of thegreatestDoctor Whostories of all timeand is remembered for his magnetic charisma and high-stakes episodes.It’s always a joy to watch Ten face off againstDoctor Whovillains, but his era kept him from an important one.
David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor Never Faced The Weeping Angels On-Screen In Doctor Who
2007’s “Blink” is the firstofDoctor Who’s Weeping Angels episodes, with the terrifying statues eventually going on to permeate the franchise. Written by Steven Moffat,“Blink” establishes the Weeping Angels as the installment’s primary antagonists, but their on-screen endeavors see them coming after Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) rather than the Tenth Doctor himself.
By the time “Blink” begins,the Tenth Doctor is already trapped decades in the pastafter having come into contact with the Weeping Angels. The fact that the Doctor knows so much about them strongly implies that either Ten or a previous version of the Doctor had encountered the Weeping Angels before “Blink.”
This is softly supported by Rassilon (Timothy Dalton) and his reference to the “Weeping Angels of old” in Tennant’s final episode, “The End of Time.” Although this doesn’t necessarily prove that the Doctor had met the Angels before “Blink,” it’s likely to mean that he was, at the very least, already aware of them.
Ten is never given the chance to face them directly, instead of just serving as a remote coach/mentor to Sally Sparrow.
Still, the Weeping Angels are defeated by the end of “Blink,” and it’s initially unclear how many more there are out there - if any.They don’t come back again during Tennant’s time as the Doctor, so Ten is never given the chance to face them directly, instead of just serving as a remote coach/mentor to Sally Sparrow.
Neither Tennant’s return in 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor” nor in 2023’s 60th-anniversary specials allowed his Doctor to meet the Weeping Angels either. While it’s always possible that Tennant will come back again, especially as the Fourteenth Doctor, it remains to be seen ifDoctor Whowill ever allow him to be shown doing battle with the Weeping Angels.
The Real Reason Why Doctor Who Didn’t Show Ten Meeting The Weeping Angels
Ten was off on another adventure for most of “Blink”
“Blink” provides a perfect explanation for why the Doctor has been stranded in the past, as it’s revealed to be directly linked to what Weeping Angels do. So, in the context of the story,Ten’s reduced role makes sense, and actually makes the episode scarier due to the limited input from the show’s main hero in the face of a new threat.
However,there’s a real-world explanation for Tennant’s general absence from “Blink.“The 2007 installment is one of the earliest examples ofDoctor Who’s Doctor-lite episodes. This type of story is essentially a production technique that accounts for a Doctor actor’s low availability. For “Blink,” Tennant was busy doing something else.
“Blink” was a Doctor-lite episode, so the villain wasn’t for him to face. Tennant was busy filming another episode. While one crew was filming “Blink” with Sally as the main character,another crew was filming a separate installment forDoctor Whoseason 3 starring Tenand Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman).
This technique allowed two episodes to be shot simultaneously and aided inDoctor Who’s production when it came to things like deadlines. So, althoughthe Tenth Doctor and Martha are in “Blink,” their presence on-set was required to be substantially reduced as they focused on the other episode in question.
There have been several Doctor-lite episodes since “Blink,” but they don’t all happen for the same reason.Some Doctor-lite episodes happen simply for story purposes. On the other hand, they do sometimes come into existence when the show’s lead actor is unavailable, such as Ncuti Gatwa in season 14’s “73 Yards,” when he was busy shootingSex Education.
Doctor Who Still Hasn’t Done The Weeping Angels Better Than In “Blink”
Moffat brought back the Angels several times (Chris Chibnall used them too)
Perhaps he didn’t know it at the time of writing the script for “Blink,” but Steven Moffat ended up creating one of the mostcommonly recurring bad guys inDoctor Whohistory. They have returned again and again since “Blink,” and while these adventures are often good, they’ve never lived up to the monsters' 2007 debut.
Moffat took over as theDoctor Whoshowrunner when Davies stepped aside in 2010. Moffat’s time in charge saw him revisiting and expanding upon ideas he had introduced in scripts he’d written under Davies, and the Weeping Angels were included in this trend. As such,Moffat’s era is the most Angel-dense.
Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor had the most episodes with the Angelsposing a threat, although they also appeared in episodes with Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor and Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth. Despite their borderline ubiquity since “Blink,” the Angels have never appeared in a more compelling story.
“Blink” has an impressive score of 9.8/10 onIMDb, making it the show’s highest-rated episode of anyDoctor Whoera.
Of all the attempts to live up to “Blink,“Doctor Whoseason 5, episodes 4 and 5, “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone” certainly come close. Unfortunately, while still scary, the Angels just aren’t quite as mysterious anymore in the Matt Smith two-parter. None of the other installments are anywhere near as good.
The idea behind the Angels in “Blink” was incredibly simple, but that didn’t stop them from being effective. It was so much being unknown about the villainous race that made them so enigmatic and intimidating. AsMoffat continued to add to the Angels' lore, they became too familiar and understood, which ultimately hurt their reputation.
Seeing the Angels move was also a big reason why the fear factor started to vanish. The idea of them being able to move so quickly without ever being seen was vital to their initial character design, so it was a poor decision to show them in any state other than completely static, like in David Tennant’s 2007 Angels episode ofDoctor Who.
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An alien from the planet Gallifrey travels through time and space to explore, solve problems and fight injustice while also making friends with human beings. His spaceship, called TARDIS, resembles a police box, but it is much more than it appears to be.
