Flesh and Stone
In the episode, the alien time traveller the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), his companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), River Song, and Father Octavian (Iain Glen) and his militarised clerics have escaped entrapment by the Weeping Angels, creatures who only move when unobserved by others.
Both the Angels and the Doctor's team face danger from a widening crack in space and time which has the power to erase persons from history.
The episode was watched by 8.495 million viewers in the United Kingdom and received mostly positive reviews from critics, though many commented that it did not live up to the quality to the first part and disagreed about the decision to show the Angels moving.
As they pass the primary flight deck, the Doctor notices a crack in its wall just like the one in Amy's bedroom[N 1] is leaking time energy from the end of the universe that the Angels are being drawn to.
Octavian has the clerics guard Amy while he, the Doctor and River make for a secondary flight deck on the other side of the oxygen factory.
[3] Moffat designed the two-part story to be a more action-oriented sequel to "Blink", an episode he wrote for the third series that introduced the Weeping Angels.
[8][9] He also discovers that the time explosion that caused the crack is due to occur on 26 June 2010, which is also the original airdate of the final episode of the series, "The Big Bang".
[9] It is revealed in "The Big Bang" that this was in fact the Doctor from later in his timeline, setting up events in Amy's past to try to help her remember him after he has rebooted the universe.
It reflected the narrow escape from death and challenging experience the two had just shared, and Amy's tendency to do things "in the heat of the moment" – although Moffat later admitted he regretted the way he wrote the scene, saying "I played it for laughs, and it was so wrong".
[3] The scene in which the Doctor, Amy and River are horizontal in mid-air when the gravity field fails on the Byzantium was achieved by using wires and powerful wind machines.
[25] IGN's Matt Wales gave the episode a 10 out of 10 rating, saying it was "packed with huge, iconic moments" and stated, "by the end of it, we were left with more questions than answers and a far better sense of Moffat's meticulous planning".
However he expressed uncertainty over Amy's "attempted seduction of the Doctor", claiming that it "did seem out of keeping with the usual tone of the series", and that "Given the number of young children who watch, it may not have been the most appropriate of scenes to screen".
He noted the difference between Moffat's more obvious story arc as opposed to others in the revived series, believing it to be possibly a "long-overdue innovation" for the show.
[9] SFX Magazine's Dave Golder agreed, calling the scene "very creepy" and the Angels moving "effective", but feeling that "these once great monsters come across a bit wussy and stupid".
However, he thought it was "a solid, exciting, pulse-pounding 45 minutes" that was "tense, action-packed, and stuffed with memorable one-liners and touching character moments", particularly praising Amy's countdown and Octavian's death, and gave the episode four out of five stars.
[8] A Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray containing "Flesh and Stone" together with the episodes "The Time of Angels" and "The Vampires of Venice" was released on 5 July 2010.
[31] The DVD also contains a cut scene set between "Flesh and Stone" and "The Vampires of Venice" where the Doctor tries to explain to Amy that he needs companions, not out of any ulterior motive but to help him see the universe with fresh eyes.
