Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Hettie Macdonald
“The angels are coming for you, but listen…your life could depend on this. Don’t blink. Don’t even blink! Blink and you’re dead. They are fast…faster than you could believe… don’t turn your back…don’t look away, and don’t blink! Good luck.”
Don’t get me wrong…I enjoyed Blink…immensely.
Blink is creepy. The weeping angels border on the terrifying. I never thought I’d see the day when stop-motion statues hunt innocent people on Doctor Who, but there they were…and they even had fangs! And I love the tableaux scenes as they surround the dusty, neglected TARDIS.
Blink is gorgeous to look at — a work of art. Rookie director Hettie Macdonald has fashioned an episode with intense, moody colour palates: rusty autumnal landscapes, electric blue-and-black parking garages & empty, echoing yellow hospital rooms…even different uses for rain: cold, irritating rain outside…soft, window-splattered rain, viewed from the inside. This is an episode of moods and fears…and it’s communicated beautifully to the viewer. You can virtually smell and taste the locations on display, and it reminds me very much of director David Maloney’s style on past classics such as The Deadly Assassin & The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
Blink is full of gorgeous pathos and tragedy. As the Doctor points out, the angels kill with kindness — “they let you live until you die”. Kathy and Billy survive their temporal abductions…they even manage to live out loving, fulfilling lives (and the single scene where Kathy’s soon-to-be husband refuses to stop following her is brilliant in its brevity)…but the lives they could have lived remain unfinished possibilities…something even the Doctor can’t fix. You share Sally grief, outrage, and impotence as she tries to work out what is happening…and how to solve the dilemma.
Blink introduces us to an amazing character in Sally Sparrow. She’s intelligent, quick-witted, determined, occasionally bashful, surprisingly brave…she’d be the perfect companion. Carey Mulligan does a brilliant job with the role — give her a show of her own, dammit! The video store included…and the ITV gag about Sparrow & Nightingale was very sweet. 
I liked Blink…I liked it very, very, very much. That said…
…I think it’s the weakest of Steven Moffat’s four Doctor Who episodes to date. The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances were ridiculously exhilarating epics, and The Girl in the Fireplace explored realms of romanticism and love that all but shattered boundaries previously set by the series…and reduced middle-aged men to butter. But in my estimation, Blink sits on the shelf just below them. Blink feels a bit too contrived and constructed…it’s extremely clever, extremely funny (some scenes channel Moffat’s very own Coupling), and extremely creepy…but I wasn’t involved with it as much as I was involved with the previous Moffat outings.
“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective view point, it’s more like a big ball of wibley-wobbley…timey-wimey…stuff.”
Now…let’s get some perspective. Blink is still an amazing episode, and even Moffat on auto-pilot is better than about 98% of the rest of the universe. Perhaps it’s because I’m cynical and desensitized, but the only media-horror experience that has ever affected me is The Exorcist…and Blink isn’t in that league of soul-shredding majesty. I didn’t scream watching Blink…I didn’t hide behind any cushions…I didn’t go to bed and leave the light on…
In fact, I went to bed quite happy…satisfied with a gorgeous, engaging, brilliant slice of Doctor Who. It may be splitting hairs to an Nth degree (or just quibbling over genres), but as far as this season goes, I don’t think Blink is in the same class as The Family of Blood. The Family of Blood impacted me profoundly, in a way Blink couldn’t quite manage…and that is the only disappointment I have in an otherwise fantastic episode of Doctor Who. Still, I’m pleased to hear it scared the crap out of others…
It would have made a great episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! 
9
