More thoughts on The Time of Angels

[eve11]

So, I am curious. Last week we had a giant improbable and never-explained WTF moment in the whole "stopping the Dalek bomb with love" plot point, and it really just didn't work very well at all. But this week we have another whole giant improbable WTF and not-well-explained moment in that oh yeah, "that which takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel." Just as much out of the blue and not explained, the image on the TV gets imbued with an Angel soul (somehow) and steps out of its picture to become an Angel. Think about it. This makes no sense, really. But this scene actually seemed to work, at least better than last week's, if fan reactions on lj are any account (my reaction included. I am quite prepared to handwave that moment because I thought it was a cool, creepy scene).

Why does the first giant handwave fall flat and the second one get a pass? Does it have to do with tone and pacing? Or the fact that the biology of these monsters is already so ridiculous and improbable that we can just add new talents without suspending that much more disbelief? I think maybe it is actually a case of writing the improbable to obtain the "right" emotional response. If the "magic" ability tells a better story, then we forgive it, and as an audience we are quite good at judging what a good story entails.

Thoughts?

Comments

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

i'd agree that it makes no sense except for the part where we're having a conversation about stone Angels that displace people in time. and i'm not trying to be snarky, but serious. it's *so* made up that, if done correctly, holds its own internal rules: see Tardis.

while your point about the Dalek ep holds well, i'd argue that the Angel "ability" flies better for a couple of reasons. the first, the simplest, being the scene was played soooooooo much better than the Dalek denoument, and had more substance and tension to it, so it felt, meatier (?)

but second, and more importantly i think, there is already existing mythology in most cultures about the power of the eyes to the soul. i think, imho of course, that Moffat wove that skillfully here. that Dalek nonsense was pulled out of thin air, but the Angel "ability" had some depth to it in mythological terms.

if you then add that to the Angels' existing ability to manipulate space/time, however haphazardly, and they clearly have some mojo goin' on. ymmvoc