Doctor Who: 20 Things You Didn't Know About Blink
How much do you know about one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever?
On 9 June 2007, the tenth episode of the third series of revived Doctor Who hit the airwaves.
It was an odd episode, as the Doctor and companion Martha Jones were barely in it. They had been sent to the past, and were stuck there without the TARDIS.
All this trouble was caused by a brand-new monster - terrifying statue-like creatures that could send people back in time with a single touch, and could only move when nobody was looking at them.
They were the Weeping Angels, and this episode was called Blink.
Written by then-future showrunner Steven Moffat, Blink has since become a legendary episode in Doctor Who canon. Not only did it introduce the world to one of the show's most popular monsters, it also won multiple awards, and was voted the second-best story of all time in a 2009 Doctor Who Magazine poll.
An episode this famous has been discussed and written about a lot over the years, but there are still quite a few things about it that you may not know.
20. The Title Wasn’t Decided Until Production Began
Every episode of Doctor Who needs a title. It's a running joke among fans that these usually end up being "Something of the Something" or "Something and the Something", and initially, Blink also used that format.
Due to some tight scheduling, there was just one script meeting for this episode. It was originally called Sally Sparrow and the Weeping Angels, but showrunner Russell T Davies didn't like that title. So, Steven Moffat offered some alternatives, one of which caught RTD's eye.
No pun intended.
RTD was captivated by the idea of calling the episode Blink, and instructed Moffat to go back through the script and add the word in as many times as possible, like a cheesy '50s movie trailer.
Moffat obliged, and the word "blink" is heard over 20 times throughout the episode.