7.5. The Angels Take Manhattan

Series 7 - 2012/2013

Writer: Steven Moffat
Produced by: Marcus Wilson
Director: Nick Hurran
Music: Murray Gold

Synopsis

New York, 1938. There are stories of statues moving in the dark. Mr Garner has been hired to take a case investigating the moving statues. Mr Grayle tells him that of course statues can't move - when you're looking at them. As Garner leaves Grayle spots a statue. He looks away, and when he looks back one of the statues has moved.

The address Grayle gave leads Garner to the Winter Quay apartment block in Battery Park, which is where the statues lived. From the windows people watch Garner approach. Garner takes the elevator up to the top floor, and finds a room with the name S. Garner on the door. He checks inside. Inside there is a coat and hat the same as the ones he is wearing, and a wallet with the same identity card, but older and tattier. He hears a noise from another room, and finds an old man in bed. The old man is Garner, and tells the younger Garner to beware. Outside in the corridor two statues are waiting for him. He runs to the roof, but behind him is the biggest statue in New York - the Statue of Liberty.

In modern day New York the Doctor is reading out loud from a book, by Melody Malone, in a park, much to Amy's annoyance. Before an argument breaks out Rory offers to get coffees, and Amy then asks the Doctor to continue reading. Before he does he rips out the last page so the story doesn't have to end. The story starts to sound like what is currently happening in New York. The Doctor reads a part where a 'skinny' guy says he went to get drinks for the Amy and the Doctor.

On his way back from getting coffees Rory suddenly finds himself in New York at night. River Song is there, and suggests that he puts his hands up as a man points a gun at Rory. River is referred to as Melody Malone, and both River and Rory are forced into an old style car.

The Doctor realises what the book is saying, and takes Amy and the TARDIS back to April 3rd 1938. Reading ahead River says that the place is full of time distortions so it would be impossible to land the TARDIS. The Doctor tries anyway, but the TARDIS cannot land, and instead bounces off it and materialises in a grave yard in 2012. River used a vortex manipulator to get to New York, but Rory doesn't know how he got there.

After reading about moving statues the Doctor and Amy realise there are Weeping Angels in New York, 1938, and that Rory must have been in contact with one in 2012. Amy tells the Doctor that they must get back there somehow as they appear in the book. The Doctor quickly stops her reading any more. So far events have been happening in parallel - the same amount of time has elapsed in 1938 as it has in 2012. Knowledge of future events makes them fixed. Amy reads about the Doctor breaking something, so at some point he will break something.

In 1938 River and Rory are taken to Grayle's mansion. Grayle tells a henchman to put Rory somewhere uncomfortable - with the babies. Rory is pushed down stairs into a cellar where he can hear high pitched giggling in the dark. Rory uses some matches to try to see where he is. Looking round he sees, and hears, small cherub statues. In order to get to 1938 the Doctor needs to set up a beacon. River identified a vase as early Qin dynasty so the Doctor goes back in time to commission the vase. In 1938 River sees a message imprinted in the vase. She is trying to work out why Grayle took her, and behind a window she sees a shackled statue. Using her vortex manipulator she sends a signal to the Doctor that he uses as the beacon.

Grayle knows River knows about the Angels. He turns out the lights for a second and the Angel grabs River's wrist. Grayle explains that he is a collector, and who could resist the Angels. As they are talking the TARDIS materialises inside the mansion. The difficult landing knocks Grayle unconscious into a side room.

Amy immediately starts looking for Rory whilst the Doctor tends to River. The Angel is holding on too tight, and River asks the Doctor if he is going to break the Angel's wrist or hers. Although the can't read ahead in the book at all, as River has yet to write it, Amy suggest reading the chapter titles. One is titles 'Roman in the Cellar', and Amy runs off with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. In the cellar Rory is nowhere to be found. To Amy's relief Rory has not been sent in time, but has been sent to Winter Quay. River is able to track him, and using equipment from the TARDIS they are able to get a lock on him. They take Grayle's car and go after Rory, but leave the door open. Grayle recovers, but some face to face with an Angel.

In Winter Quay Rory is wandering down different corridors. The Doctor, Amy and River arrive and start looking for Rory. They find him in one of the rooms, a room with R. Williams on the door. Inside there is also an old man in one of the beds - another Rory. Rory asks what is going on, and the Doctor explains that he just died. The Doctor realises that the Angels have created themselves a form of farm where they can take victims, and send them through time repeatedly, feeding off the time energy.

The Doctor tells Rory that the Angels are coming for him to that they can send him back in time so he would become the old man in the bed. Rory suggests that he could run. River agrees, saying that running could create a paradox. The paradox would effectively poison the farm, meaning it could destroy all the Angels, meaning Winter Quay never happened. Rory, along with Amy, starts to run. The Doctor and River try to run but are trapped in room as Rory and Amy head to the roof.

On the roof Rory sees the Statue of Liberty. Rory tells Amy to keep looking as he stands on the edge of the roof an looks down. Rory tells Amy that if he kills himself then this would create the paradox. He watches the statue as Amy tries to talk him out of killing himself. Rory can't face killing himself, and asks Amy to help. Instead Amy gets up on to the ledge, and together they jump.

The Doctor and River arrive in time to see them jump over the edge. The idea works and the paradox is created, erasing Winter Quay. The Doctor, Amy, Rory and River, along with the TARDIS, find themselves back in the graveyard in 2012. As they get ready to leave Rory notices a head stone of someone with the same name as him. As Amy turns round Rory vanishes and she sees a statue with an outstretched arm.

Amy asks the Doctor if they can go back in time, but both the Doctor and River say it's not true, and that it would rip New York apart. Amy asks if the Angel would send he back to the same time. The Doctor says no-one knows where she would end up, but River tells her to do it. The Doctor urges her to re-think, but instead she turns her back to the Angel and disappears. On the head stone Amy's name appears below Rory's.

River knows she is destined to write the book, and tells the Doctor she will find Amy and ask her to write an afterword. The Doctor rushes off to find the last page that he tore out, and finds a last letter from 'Amelia Williams' to the Doctor.

Regular Cast

  • Amy Pond: Karen Gillan
  • Rory Williams: Arthur Darvill

Guest Cast

  • River Song: Alex Kingston
  • Grayle: Mike McShane
  • Sam Garner: Rob David
  • Hood: Bentley Kayu
  • Foreman: Ozzie Yue
  • Old Garner: Burnell Tucker
  • Photoshoot PA: Zac Fox
Uncredited:
  • Hand typing double for River Song: Lorna Gibbons
  • Passers by: Nicholas Dunwell, Timothy Howard, Lindsey Morgan, Helen Murray
  • People at the windows: Roger Smith, Anghard Baxter, Jennifer Denning, Mike Britton Jones, David Tudor Greaves
  • Elderly lady: Jackie Hughes
  • Child: Gina Romanello
  • Weeping Angels: Sarah Maddison, Louise Bowen
  • Driving double for Hood 3: Steve Light
  • Double for Hood 2: Anthony Evans
  • Chinese artisans: Ann Li, Clem So
  • Stunt double for Grayle: Matthew Stirling
  • Double for the Doctor: Matthew Humphries, Ian William George
  • Double for Rory Willliams / Old Rory: John Ninnis
  • Stunt double for Amy Pond: Stephanie Carey
  • Stunt double for Rory Williams: Gordon Seed
  • Double for River Song: Sarah Phillips

Original broadcast on the BBC

Channel Title Date Viewers Rating
BBC 1 (HD) 5. The Angels Take Manhattan Saturday, September 29, 2012 7:20 PM - 8:05 PM 5.86M

Click here to show repeat broadcasts on the BBC

Studios

  • BBC Roath Lock Studios: Studio 2
  • BBC Roath Lock Studios: Studio 4
  • Upper Boat Studios: Studio 1
  • Upper Boat Studios: Studio 2

Outside Locations

  • 5th Avenue at 60th Street, Plaza, New York
  • Beach nr Manhattan Bridge, New York
  • Bristol University / Royal Fort House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol
  • Broadway at 47th Street, Times Square, New York
  • Bute Street, Cardiff Bay
  • Cardiff University, School of Physics + Astronomy, The Parade, Cardiff
  • Central Park, New York
  • Grand Central Station, New York
  • Llanelli Dtstrict Cemetery, Swansea Road, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
  • Main Street at Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, New York
  • Main Street, Brooklyn Heights, New York
  • New York inc Grand Army Plaza and Tudor City Place
  • South Street, New York
  • St. Nicholas, nr Cardiff
  • Tudor City Place at 43rd Street, New York
  • Upper Boat Studios: Exterior
  • West Bute Street, Cardiff Bay

Bloopers

The plaque in Winter Quay shows where the apartments are, and shows levels G - 7. In America the ground floor is the first floor, so this should be 1 - 8.