How Steven Moffat Created The Scariest Doctor Who Monster | Video Essay

We look back at one of Doctor Who's most iconic monsters: The Weeping Angels.

Twitter: @FullFatVideos

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Edited by Harry Bagg

All footage used in this video is for educational purposes only.

[FullFatVideos]

Hey guys, thanks for watching and leaving your comments. It's great to see so many people praising Moffat and I'll definitely be doing more positive videos on him in the future. We had our very good friend, Harry Bagg, edit this one. Not only did he help lighten our load so we could commit to some longer projects (cough cap essay cough) but he's done a fantastic edit. He's launching his own channel in the coming weeks, why not subscribe now and get ahead of the curve!

[iloveyourunclebob]

Doctor Who is an absolute gold mine for a game I like to play called "where have I seen this UK actor before".

[Lifeinerinn]

You missed my favorite terrifying bit about the weeping angels (at least, until their return which sorta ruined it...)
In 'Don't Blink' the angels pop up right behind people several times when they leave and then just... stop. Definitely a point at which they could've killed them, but instead they just froze there.
And the reason they did is because the viewer can see them there, behind the characters. It's a great minor 4th wall break that usually doesn't get noticed until a second or third viewing, and ups their terror factor to me in a unique and weird as hell way.

[diekje]

I once walked past a cathedral that had four bronze statues standing outside. I remember standing there thinking “these are beautiful, but something’s off”. Didn’t really think about it until I walked past again an hour later, to find one of the statues missing. Turned out to be the best living statue artist I have ever seen

[chilliicecream]

I cannot even begin to explain how much Blink screwed me up. Soooo many sleepless nights.

[matthewmcneany]

"I died afraid and alone and in pain" is such a brilliant line.

[purplehaze]

I just realized that there were multiple occasions in which the Weeping angels could have succeeded in getting a character, being right behind them...but the only thing keeping them from doing so was the audience observing them.

I’m going to put that under the “Yikes” category and move on.

[sircharlesninefingers]

I remember when I was younger my parents had this angel statue that sat in the front yard. Wasn't quite weeping angel, but it was very much a eerie thing under the right context.
So when the doctor who episode blink aired, I remember the night afterward driving to their house in the middle of the night to take that statue and move it till it was facing the kitchen window.
The kitchen window is fairly high off the ground. In fact, just high enough that only the eyes and up on the angel are available to be seen...almost like it was peeking in.

I got a call the next day from my dad to come help him move the statue as they were going to sell it.

[amfcapone]

I had two problems with the weeping angels:
1. When you see them move in 'Flesh and Stone' it breaks the 4th Wall mystery that has been building up the whole time. The Angels never move so long as they are being observed by any living thing. The viewer at home is a living thing as well. That's why the idea that "whatever holds an image of an angel becomes itself an angel" was so terrifying, because your own TV set was holding the image as well. So when you see them move, it breaks that whole 4th Wall mystery. They are just like any other monster, bound to the TV show.
2. They were used too much and so subsequently defeated too much. Take "The Angels Take Manhattan". Too much.


Otherwise, probably the best Moffat contribution to Doctor Who.

[glebstepkin]

Me, as the big-brained 7-yr-old that I was: "Just wink and swap eyes when that eye gets tired."

[IndiBrony]

16:20 - no, I disagree with the angels moving on screen being cool. It's a shame if you ask me, because never seeing them move on screen could have been a brilliantly subtle 4th wall break.
We know the angels can't move when they're being observed. So why **shouldn't** that extend to the viewer? It's a minor thing, but I think it would have been more enjoyable to never see them move on screen.

[coladict]

I wish you had also pointed-out how he set-up the angels defeat at the start of Flesh and Stone.
Amy: So what if the gravity fails?
Doctor: I've thought about that.
Amy: And?
Doctor: And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See? I've thought about it.

It's played-off as little comedy, but it in fact prepares us to accept the change in gravity again once the power is drained.

[moonraven]

Tbh seeing them move kinda ruined them in some way, I liked the idea that their true form was some unimaginable being that could do all these seemingly impossible things, but revert back into a mundane Statue form when viewed, like when at the end of Blink where they were tilting and tipping the Tardis around whenever the light flickered off.

[vdesatch]

If this does become a _"Moffat wasn't the devil incarnate, here's his good stuff"_ series, I am all for it. He seems to get the blame for every tiny flaw his era ever had thanks to his actual flaws being so publicised. The balance needs to be restored.

[caseywellington]

Weeping Angels
The Silence
Vashta Nerada
The Empty Child

These are all reasons why Moffat is my favorite writer on the show.

[TacTehCoolest]

The weeping angels were the scariest things I'd ever seen in my life whenever i was younger. The fact that they were virtually unstoppable, and their fangs shooting out of their faces whenever they're inches away from getting you, essentially displaying the inevitability of your own demise... terrifying.

[TheAstip]

The “walk like you can see bit” along with seeing the angels moves makes me so annoyed with that episode. The angels turn to stone when viewed. It’s not that they won’t move if seen, it’s that they can’t. It’s to do with their biology. They would know any couldn’t see them because they could move. They were no longer stone.

[samuelbarber]

8:11 that's horrifying when you consider just how many pictures of the Statue of Liberty there are.

[keyan]

2:40 the angels were actually warning us about the disease know as the dab

They truly are a mistaken creature

[JAProductions]

“The image of an angel becomes itself an angel”
But Sally had a picture of an angel at the end of Blink, unless that was the angel which sent the Doctor and Martha back