Last week’s finale, “The Angels Take Manhattan,” gave us one last adventure with the Ponds, featuring the monsters that made Moffat famous, the Weeping Angels. It was a sappy tearfest, as companion exit episodes tend to be (after all, the Doctor hates endings), yet it fell a bit flat for me.
We all expected the ending to hurt.
Here’s a small excerpt from my list of grievances:
1. We had received little hints in the last few episodes: flickering lightbulbs, lines referencing Christmas, timeline inconsistencies. These things were never explained. It’s weird. What’s going on? How can you send off the companions without clearing this up?
2. As far as Weeping Angel continuity goes, we know a few things about these creepy critters:
They send folks back in time to feed off their time energy, can only move when they aren’t being looked at (otherwise they become inanimate) and anything that takes the image of an Angel becomes one.
In this episode, though, the Angels are all random statues, even the Statue of Liberty. It’s never explained how these things became Angels — they just did. Next thing we know, Lady Liberty is standing in Midtown and no one notices. Images of Lady Liberty also don’t become Angels either. Are we just ignoring parts of canon again?
Now, I can’t deny that there are loveable, engaging characters and really wonderful moments in the show. “Doctor Who” will always have that. However, there’s only so much I can take when it comes to watching Moffat dangle resolutions over our heads. Sometimes we just need an ending, as tear-jerking and heart busting as it may be.