From The Time of Angels: 24 April, 2010 Sometimes it's simply about the way you say something and the meaning you can pack into a few lines of speech. This moment is all about a single word: me. Here's the dialogue, just to remind you:
The Doctor: Didn't anyone ever tell you? There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never, ever put in a trap. Angel Bob: And what would that be, sir? The Doctor: Me.
The most innocuous lines of a script can get elevated in meaning to levels beyond infinity by simply dropping them into the right place in a story. This moment comes midway through a two-parter succeeded by 'Flesh and Stone', which was also penned by Steven Moffat. Things had been going from bad to worse for The Doctor, his companions and the hapless soldiery sent to guard them. A Weeping Angel had infiltrated itself into Amy Pond's eye so that ironically if she opened her eyes she would die. The guards were being picked off relentlessly and the menacing stone monoliths themselves were getting ever closer as each moment passed. To make matters worse, The Angels had made it very clear that The Doctor had been effectively manoeuvred into a trap. Playing upon everyone's fears, they explained that there was nowhere for the Doctor to escape to and that they will all be killed. These few short lines are a timely reminder from The Doctor to The Angels. They amount to a sort of Dirty Harry style, "Go ahead, make my day" argument. It's a brilliant moment when The Doctor, appearing at first to be simply frustrated actually picks up a gun something he's supposed never to do and instead of firing wildly, shoots a gravity globe after uttering this immortal little speech. From that moment on we know that The Doctor has a plan and that no matter what happens next he will win through. It's an air-puncher of a moment assisted greatly by Murray Gold's magnificent incidental music rumbling away in the background, which builds to a climax all the time until the gun goes off.
Hello, I'm Paul Hammans, terminal 'Who' obsessive, F1 fan, reader of arcane literature about ideas and generalist scribbler. To paraphrase someone much better at aphorisms than I: I strive to write something worth reading and when I cannot do that I try to do something worth writing. I have my own Dr Who oriented blog at http://www.exanima.co.uk
