Saturday, 16 June 2018

CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WEEPING ANGELS

It is with heavy heart that I must announce that the CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES-style posts won't be around for much longer. I've covered the timelines of almost all the great recurring baddies. Unless the show creates an ongoing monster/villain/wife for the Doctor that she meets several times in a non-chronological order, we don't have much left to look at. 

We do still have the Weeping Angels, though. I'm actually a bit excited to be examining them. They're the only monster in the New Series that seem as popular as classic monsters like Daleks and Cybermen. They have definitely merited the repeat appearances they've been given. Thankfully, those appearances have not been in proper order. So now I get to fix that!    



ORIGINS

It's difficult to say how the Weeping Angels began. We know so little about them. So far, Blink has given us the most explanation about how they work and where they came from. But even that doesn't tell us much. It's believed they're very ancient. That they first began sometime when the Universe was very young. That's as much as we know. 

The End of Time - Part 2 offers us a huge tease that explains vaguely how they may have started.  Rassilon claims that a big vote was taken about breaching the Time Lock they were trapped in during the Time Wars and initiating The Final Sanction. Everyone in the High Council agreed with the plans except two members. "As a monument to their shame," Rassilon pronounces, "they shall become the Weeping Angels of Old." (or words to that effect, I'm terrible with quotes.). The two Time Lords who voted against the decision are seen standing with Rassilon in the traditional Weeping Angels pose.

Is this where it all starts? Did two Time Lords get changed into Weeping Angels and were sent back in time to somewhere near the Dawn of the Universe? Did they, after that, somehow find some way to procreate so that other Angels could stalk the cosmos? It does support a remark the Doctor makes in Blink that the Angels were originally good so there is a bit of cross-referencing to back this idea up.

The Master stopping Rassilon's plans in End of Time and the Doctor, ultimately, saving Gallifrey in Day of the Doctor may mean judgement was never passed on these two Time Lords. It's difficult to tell. Rassilon is a pretty harsh guy who likes to turn people to stone. So, even with all these events getting in the way, he may have made sure his decision was followed through. Since it's implied that one of the Time Lords was the Doctor's mother - this may be one more thing that motivates the Doctor to kick Rassilon off of Gallifrey.

Whatever the case, little is still known of where the Weeping Angels truly came from. It could've started with these two Time Lords. It could've been something entirely different.

I'm more inclined to believe that it was just some ancient race whose experiments with quantum locking went horribly wrong. That the two punished Time Lords never got properly punished. Or, if they did, they simply joined a race of Angels that were already roaming about causing trouble. But all of this is highly subjective. So if you want to think that it all started with those two Time Lords I can't really argue against you.



THE ANGELS VISIT EARTH

Once we move past the vague reference in End of Time, we don't see much of the Angels until the 20th Century. No doubt, from the Dawn of Time to The Angels Take Manhattan, they invaded a whole bunch of worlds and terrorized various cultures. But we see none of this on the show.

Chronologically speaking, the true first adventure involving the Weeping Angels would be Angels Take Manhattan. A substantial number of Angels have established themselves on Earth during the 1930s and are setting up their first "battery farm" in New York City. They are luring humans into the Winter Quay Building on Manhattan Island and subjecting them to a sort of vicious Time Loop that enables them to feed off their potential energy. As the energy builds, the Angels become stronger and stronger. 

This would be, I presume, how they take over any civilization. The Angels establish an initial power base, then expand their feeding ground. Until, eventually, the entire population of a planet is set up in such a manner. Battery farms exist everywhere and the Angels can subsist indefinitely.

Fortunately, Rory and Amy put a stop to this process in 1938. They introduce a huge paradox into the battery farm which spoils the time energy the Angels are feeding off of and kills most of them.





SPECIAL NOTE: This is the first time we see Baby Angels (we'll only see them very briefly one other time in Hell Bent). We should probably speculate about them for a bit:

It's entirely possible that Baby Angels are a clue regarding the reproductive cycle of the species. The Weeping Angels were gathering a lot of potential energy from their battery farm in Winter Quay. Could it be possible that they were using some of it to propagate themselves? I doubt that Weeping Angels copulate in the way that organic creatures do, but they might use raw energy to create smaller versions of themselves that can slowly grow in size as they're fed more and more.

Having said that, Baby Angels could just as easily be a different strain of Weeping Angels. Creatures of the abstract that have just chosen to take on a smaller form. As usual, we have little or no information to go on, here.




THE AFTERMATH OF MANHATTEN

Rory and Amy's actions in 1938 certainly put a kibosh in the invasion plans of Earth, but it did not completely wipe out the Angels as the Doctor predicted. Some of them survived and continued to cause problems.

Before we get into those problems, we need to briefly divert our attention to the planet Tivoli.  At some point around this time, the Angels must have attempted to invade there, too (how could they resist? Everyone else loves to take the place over). I would doubt it was the same group that tried to invade Earth. They took too heavy a blow. My guess is that there are several groups of Angels out in the cosmos.

The attack probably took place place sometime in the late 20th or early 21st Century. Recently enough that Gibbis remembers it vividly and it has left some deep psychological scars. More than likely, the Angels scared Gibbis so much because they didn't dominate in the way that most oppressors did on Tivoli. The Angels were probably kicked off  by another group of invaders that wanted the planet. This seems to be the usual pattern of things. 

In 2007, a group of four Angels that survived Amy and Rory's Paradox had banded together and were inhabiting the abandoned Wester Drumlins House. They were living as scavengers. Occasionally sending curious explorers of the house into the past and feeding off their potential energy. By a pure stroke of luck, they do this to the Doctor and Martha Jones. They discover, of course, that the Doctor has a TARDIS and they want to use it for their own nefarious purposes. Thanks to the timely intervention of Sally Sparrow, all four Angels are now permanently quantum locked as they stare at each other in the basement of the house. These are, of course, the events of Blink.

In 2011 (if we go by the date it was transmitted) the automated prison ship that houses the Minotaur-like alien that is meant to be an off-shoot of a Nimon picks up Gibbis from his homeworld along with three humans from Earth. Gibbis sees Weeping Angels in the hotel room that is meant to be housing his greatest fear. Some might dispute that this is not a true appearance of the Weeping Angels but just an illusion projected by the prison ship. But that opinion is subjective since we do learn in another story that anything that holds the image of an Angel can become one.

Finally, there is a Weeping Angel and a Baby Angel that survived Rory and Amy's Paradox that are scavenging in New York in 2012. The Baby Angel resides in the Angel of the Waters statue. The Weeping Angel lurks in a nearby cemetery. Both play pivotal roles in displacing various characters in The Angels Take Manhattan. It's entirely possible that they actually recognize Rory and Amy for what they did and are trying to exact revenge. The Baby Angel doesn't actually realize that it set the events in motion that would lead to the destruction of the Battery Farm of Winter Quay. 



INTO THE FUTURE....

After the failed invasion attempt on 20th Century Earth and the exploits of various teams of surviving scavengers during the 21st Century, little is seen of the Angels for quite some time (at least, within context of the TV show, thus far). Their next appearance is sometime within the 51st Centurry. No specific date is given during The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, but several characters do state the century.

Prior to that appearance, we know that a huge host of Angels gathered on Alfava Metraxis and, somehow, became stranded there. We're guessing they had something to do with the extinction of the Aplans: a two-headed humanoid species that were native to the planet. I suggest that Weeping Angels arrived on the planet sometime around the 47th Century and actually accomplished what they had set out to do on Earth. The entire population was placed into Battery Farms and the Angels thrived for quite some time.

Somehow, however, the Aplans worked out a way to strand the Angels on their world before they were wiped out. We don't know for sure how as we're not sure how Angels actually travel through the Universe. It could be as simple as making sure every form of interstellar technology was utterly destroyed so that the Angels couldn't use any ships to get them off-world. Or it could be something far more complex if the Angels have some natural ability to transport themselves through space. A special jamming signal, perhaps, that nullifies that ability. Whatever the case, once the Weeping Angels had absorbed all the potential energy of the Aplans, they retreated to a temple-like structure known as the Maze of the Dead and began to decay.

A single Weeping Angel that had been held in human custody manages to commandeer a space freighter that was shipping it. The Angel intentionally crashes the vessel into the Maze of the Dead on Alfava Metraxis and the army stranded there start absorbing radiation from the ship's reactor core. Slowly coming back to life as they do.

They didn't count on a Crack in Time caused by the Doctor's TARDIS exploding to interfere with things the way it did. In the end, the Doctor fools the Angels and causes them to fall into the Crack and seal it up.  





ANOTHER SPECIAL NOTE:

In this particular story, we see the Angels displaying abilities that were, hitherto, unseen:


That Which Retains the Image of an Angel Can Become One:   We're still not entirely sure of the full extent of this power. Apparently, however, if you capture an image of an Angel in some way, the Angel can come into your location through that picture/footage. Whether it can fully manifest itself through the image or just uses it as a sort of portal to look through - it's uncertain to say. But it's definitely very creepy and makes them even deadlier than ever. 


Don't Blink and Don't Look in Their Eyes:    As if fighting a Weeping Angel wasn't complicated enough! We know that we can freeze an Angel by staring at it, yes. But now, you mustn't look into its eyes or the Angel can transplant itself into you and turn you into one of them. 

Once more, this could reveal a method of reproduction among their species. Do they do it in two ways? Can they make Baby Angels but also convert humans into Angels? As usual, who can say for sure?!   


Snap!!!   Not so much a hidden power as a deficiency. Sometimes Angels are so low on energy that they can't send you back in time when they touch you. They will, however, still snap your neck.




We don't know if the Angels have always had these abilities. They were never seen until now. Could these be skills they've developed over the 5 000 years between 2012 and the 51st Century? Do Angels evolve? Or are these tricks they've always had but we've never seen until now.  Thus far, these powers have only been witnessed in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.






THE FAR-FLUNG FUTURE

 As has been established in other Chronologies and Timelines entries, the events of Time of the Doctor take place sometime around the 44th Century (the entry that truly commits to a date is in my History of the Cybermen series, Part 5 - http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of_27.html). Like several other aggressive species, the Weeping Angels respond to the distress call Gallifrey is putting out on Trenzalore and come to investigate

It is interesting to note that they are the one species that could easily slip past the forcefield the Papal Mainframe put around the planet. This says something about the nature of the Angels' power and technology. They seem to be more advanced than any other species out there.

It is also interesting to note that we don't seem to see any sort of Weeping Angel spaceship. Could my idea that they can just warp across space unassisted by technology be correct? It's entirely possible that they snuck aboard the ship of another species and traveled that way. But it's just as possible that, when they've gathered enough potential energy, they can somehow just will themselves to another part of the Universe. Which would also make getting past the Papal Mainframe's force field make more sense. Once an Angel has decided to arrive somewhere, there's no stopping it.


THE FAR FAR-FLUNG FUTURE

It is to my great shame that I must admit: I missed a Cybermen cameo when I was compiling my History of the Cybermen series a few months back. Technically, this event should also be in my Dalek History series but, in my defense, the episode wasn't out yet when I was putting together that particular chronology.

Fortunately, this cameo also involves Weeping Angels. So I can, at last, cover it here. If you want to imagine these next few paragraphs appearing at the bottom of my Dalek and Cybermen Histories - be my guest. I suppose I could cut and paste this in but I prefer to leave my acts of shame visible for all the internet to see!

It would appear that there were a set of Cloister Wars that probably happened sometime in or around the Time Wars (we see a post-Time War Dalek in the Cloisters that re-enforces this idea). Charting where this happens in Galactic History becomes a bit tricky. The Time Wars seem to take place outside of Time, itself and we can give no proper date to it. The Cloister Wars, I would imagine, happen under similar conditions. But I would like to think that there is a sort of "entry point" in the timeline where the various combatants start becoming involved with the war. The battles, themselves, take place in some sort of limbo dimension outside of time and space. There would also be an "exit point" where the war is over and various participants are now stranded in the Cloisters. We'll track these points and work out a sort of trajectory for them.

I would suggest the entry point would be some time shortly after the Andromedans breach the Matrix during Trial of a Time Lord. They seem to be the first species of non-Gallifreyans that find their way into the Super Computer of the Time Lords. Their actions attract the attention of Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels (and, perhaps, others that we just don't see trapped in the Cloisters during Hell Bent) and they attempt to penetrate the Matrix after them.

The Doctor dates The Mysterious Planet as being several million years in Earth's future. How valid this claim is can be hotly disputed since he makes his prognosis after the most cursory of glances at his pocket watch  But let's just say the Andromedan Breach happened sometime around then. This would indicate that Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels are all around for the next few million years. No doubt, there were times when we didn't see much of them. But they were always lurking in the shadows. Surviving.

What exactly went on during the Cloister Wars seems very abstract. But there must have been some sort of skirmish. This seems to be more than just some attempts to hack into a really powerful computer system.  But who can say for sure how it all played out.

They exit point from the Wars would be where the Time Lords are hiding near the end of the Universe. The Dalek, Weeping Angels, Baby Angel and Cybermen have been brought back into normal Time and Space but are trapped within the Cloisters for all eternity. No doubt, as the Universe expires once and for all - they will finally die with it. Not a great way to go out, though! 

But that does mean that, even at the end of the Universe, the Weeping Angels are still at work...



Thus resolves one of our last entries in the Chronologies and Timelines series. I am tempted to cover the Ood and one or two more New Series monsters that have made multiple appearances. We'll have to wait and see... 

In the meantime, here are a few other monsters I've covered. 

Daleks (first entry - just keep following from there):  
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/06/chronologies-and-timelines-tymecian.html

Cybermen (first entry - just keep following from there):
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html













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