Doctor Who: Blink

I'll be honest, despite promising trailers, I didn't have high expectations for tonight's Doctor Who. Everyone knew it was this year's "budget-saving, Doctor-lite" episode, and the concern was that Blink would end up another Love & Monsters.

However with Girl In The Fireplace's Steven Moffat on scripting duties, I should have had more faith. For an episode where The Doctor and Martha mainly appear as peripheral characters, Blink was an amazing tale: both frightening and intriguing. The Doctor is trapped in 1969 - his TARDIS has been "stolen" - and through a series of messages (hidden in DVD 'easter eggs') he communicates with inquisitive young woman Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) in the present; warning her about The Weeping Angels and guiding her to the TARDIS, so she can send it back in time to him.

Just about every detail of this story is genius; from the terrifying Weeping Angels and the messages from the past to the use of 'easter eggs'. And, if nothing else, Moffat has succeeded in putting a generation in mortal fear of statues!

It's also interesting to feature, on the heels of Human Nature, another Who adventure that was previously a published story. Blink is based loosely on a short story written for the 2006 Doctor Who Annual - What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow.

Without a doubt this season is shaping up to be the best of the new Who by a long chalk - with only two weeks until the John Simm as Master (probably) double bill finale.