Blink

Blink
by Steven Moffat
Originally Broadcasted: June 9th, 2007

A young woman named Sally Sparrow comes across an abandoned house where strange things are occurring. Her best friend disappears and moments later she gets a letter from the same friend, but from back in the past. Sally then meets a man and then sees him die. It has something to do with the ominous statues lurking around the house...

Steven Moffat has done wonders with Doctor Who ever since he took the helm of the show in 2010, but none of his stories so far have lived up to the pure brilliance of Blink. Like Love and Monsters the year before, Blink was written as a Doctor-lite episode, so that it could be filmed at the same time as another episode. So because of that, The Doctor is barely in it. But that really doesn't matter in this story. He doesn't need to be, for Moffat came up with the wonderful lead character of Sally Sparrow, played by the then relatively unknown actress Carey Mulligan. Blink has one of the most complex plots ever used in a Doctor Who story. In many ways it was the template for many of the stories in the Matt Smith era. But if you pay attention, this plot is pretty easy to follow, and pays off wonderfully. Only in Doctor Who can a girl meet a handsome young man, and then only a few minutes later see that same man in his dying moments. This of course leads to a truly touching moment. I remember being mesmerized by the scene where Sally has a "conversation" with The Doctor on a DVD. The Doctor only knows what Sally was saying because Larry (Sally's future boyfriend) wrote it down. And then at the end of the episode it's revealed Sally herself gives The Doctor all the information, after the events of the story had happened to her, but before they happened to him. Blink of course featured the first ever appearance of the Weeping Angels, and by far their greatest appearance. All the succeeding Weeping Angels stories have been a bit of a let down to me. To me they just lost the appeal that they had in Blink. Or maybe it's just too much of a good thing. Overall though, Blink proves that a Doctor Who episode can be great even if The Doctor is barely in it!

Luke's Rating: 10/10