Doctor Who: All 40 Steven Moffat Episodes Ranked From Worst To Best
14. The Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone
Admittedly, the scariest parts take place early on in each episode. The first, when a grainy video recording of an apparently dormant Weeping Angel slowly and terrifyingly begins reaching out malevolently to Amy like Samara from The Ring. It makes your skin crawl, but that's nothing because the Angel gets under Amy's skin.
In Flesh and Stone, it's your classic yet effective Moffat psychological nightmare where the remaining survivors are trapped in a claustrophobic corridor facing an oncoming onslaught of Angels, the Doctor doesn't have a manual for a seemingly hopeless situation, and the clerics' gunfire is the only means of keeping the advancing Angels in some sort of sight.
Moffat took inspiration from Aliens by wanting to create a sequel to Blink that was more a "highly coloured, loud, action-movie". True enough, but this story still masterfully exhibits the low-key horror of the seminal Blink.
We see a flash here and there of an Angel's face; the torches atop the guns flickering on and off; panicked gunshots; darkness, then the sound of someone's neck snapping; the sound of the spaceship's creaking wreckage; then the sudden realisation that they're actually surrounded by Weeping Angels.
The whole spectacle is a visual delight. The Maze of the Dead is beguilingly ancient, as is the trees plus technology forest.
Matt Smith excels with enthusiastic glee as if he still can't believe he's landed the best acting gig that anyone could ever wish to have. You simply cannot take your eyes off his, er, eyes, which furiously and frantically scan in wonderment, despair and constant figuring out.