Episode 10: Blink (The Jones Review)

Well that was good, possibly even great. But it should not have left me with the odd taste of having the equivalent of a Doctor Who happy meal. Satisfying, for the moment, tasty and fun, but hardly nutritious. Metaphorically speaking of course.



Realistically of course it would be hard to top the previous two episodes, much like it was hard to top The Satan Pit. The answer to this was to go different and provide Love & Monsters, ergo this year's Love and Monsters is Blink.

Creepy villains, but not as speedy as the title implies due to the horrendous number of blinks, blackouts, glances askew and out of sight moments where they fail to capitalise on their supposed strength. Also the crappy montage (a cheap scare the kiddies sequence) was not only unecessary but it was downright awful and I wish I had never seen it as it dropped the tone and watered down the story.

Good parts were the hidden faces, the dilapidated house and the tidy nod (make that huge arm waving) to Back to the Future 2 & 3. Carey Mulligan and they Rhys Ifans-alike were interesting (ok Carey was yummy as well), and they were nice counterpoints to us not having the Doctor's viewpoint for once. In particular the penultimate sequence of "it hasn't happened to you yet" turned the usual perspective on it's head.I don't know if it was deliberate again, but that sequence felt like "The Zeppo" - a lot. The Easter Eggs, the 17 DVDs (brilliant), and the 38 year conversation were all very, very good.

But instead of having a story in the long annals of Who-dom in mind, this felt more like a school boy essay based on a what if scenario. Or perhaps the "have you tried writing it from someone else's point of view" type exercise. And so this feels academic, not like entertainment.

The placement of the episode also felt tired, is this how number 10 goes every series? Also what's with the obvious video shop theft from Torchwood? Is it a clue or are we not supposed to notice? It does, however, nicely support my theory last week about the habit of post-modern Who to focus on the impact of the Doctor rather than the Doctor himself. Next week brings Derek Jacobi AND John Barrowman, let's hope I can suspend the disbelief that permeated every minute of Blink.