Time Vortex: The Angel’s Kiss/ PS

The run of episodes may have ended but there’s always new Doctor Who stuff to digest! This time round I’m taking a look at a prequel and a sequel to The Angels Take Manhattan. There might be some spoilers for that episode so if you’ve not seen it you might want to avoid reading on- basically run!

First up I’ve reviewed The Angel’s Kiss.

The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery by Justin Richards
This short e-book is a prequel to the Series 7 episode "The Angels Take Manhattan". It's narrated by River Song in her guise of New York detective Melody Malone. It's actually written by Justin Richards who is the lead writer in the book range, though this is very different from any other Doctor Who book.

The story sees Melody Malone investigate when a movie star pays her a visit worrying for his life then appears to forget it ever happened the next day. It's more a story of human evil with a brief but pretty scary appearance from the weeping angel Julius Grayle has acquired in the TV episode.

It's works as a great story but the highlight here is how brilliantly Richards has managed to catch River Song's voice. It's full of great lines as she subtly talks about the bets parts of her body and flirts her way through the investigation. It's incredibly convincing that it's written by the character and sets up "The Angels Take Manhattan" TV story really well.

So that’s the prequel of The Angels Take Manhattan but we’ve also got a sequel which explains what happened to Brian Williams and to the Ponds. Sadly it was never filmed but the short scene by Chris Chibnall has been put together in the form of an animated storyboard with a voiceover by Arthur Darvill who plays Rory. It’s pretty damn good. Here’s the scene:

That’s such a great little scene and it’s just a shame that it was never filmed. Chibnall for next show-runner anyone?

One last bit for today, it’s the running order for the second half of the series:

1. 706. Written by Steven Moffat. Directed by Colm McCarthy. (Filming now)
2. 707. Written by Neil Cross. Directed by Farren Blackburn. (Not filmed)
3. 708. Written by Mark Gatiss. Directed by Douglas Mackinnon. (Filmed)
4. 709. Written by Neil Cross. Directed by Jamie Payne. (Filmed)
5. 710. Written by Stephen Thompson. Directed by Mat King. (Filmed)
6. 711. Written by Mark Gatiss. Directed by Saul Metzstein. (Filmed)
7. 712. Written by Neil Gaiman. Directed by Stephen Wolfenden. (Not filmed)
8. 713. Written by Steven Moffat. Directed by TBA. (Not filmed)

It’ll be interesting what Neil Cross does as a Doctor Who writer (he’s best known for writing crime-drama Luther). Gatiss is always welcome and the Neil Gaiman episode is very exciting. Hopefully Stephen Thompson will write something better than The Curse of the Black Spot though (well he couldn’t write anything worse!).

There’ll be more Time Vortex very soon so stay tuned!