In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) takes his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) to Central Park.

"The Angels Take Manhattan" was watched by 7.82 million viewers in the UK and received positive reviews, though critics noted some plot holes and other logical issues.

The Doctor deduces that the Weeping Angels have been using the building as a battery farm, sending the victims to their past while feeding off their time energy.

As a final request from Amy, the Doctor goes back to her garden in 1996, the morning after young Amelia Pond had waited for him, to tell her about her future adventures.

[1] Amy's afterword contains several references to her adventures with the Doctor: fighting pirates; falling in love with "a man who will wait two thousand years to keep her safe"]]; giving hope to "the greatest painter who ever lived"; and saving "a whale in outer space."

In December 2011, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat announced that Amy and Rory would leave in the seventh series in "heartbreaking" circumstances.

[14] The read-through for "The Angels Take Manhattan" took place in the Upper Boat Studios on 23 March 2012, alongside that for the episode "Asylum of the Daleks".

[21] Fellow executive producer Caroline Skinner felt that the location "has such scale and romance" which "[gave] the episode a real atmosphere and a very different tone for Doctor Who".

[15] The Doctor Who logo in the title sequence featured a texture showing the Statue of Liberty's crown,[23] in keeping with the varied "blockbuster" themes for each of the opening five episodes of the series.

[23] On 4 October 2012, BBC Books released the ebook The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery, a prequel to the story that the Doctor was reading in the episode.

[28] The final consolidated rating rose to 7.82 million viewers, making it the thirteenth most-watched programme of the week on British television.

Dan Martin of The Guardian gave a positive review, writing, "This was a fitting end to a golden era, and bravo to Steven Moffat for telling such an involving, emotional story with such style".

[38] The Daily Telegraph reviewer Gavin Fuller gave it five out of five stars, concluding "'The Angels Take Manhattan' brought this mini-run of the series to a close with easily the best episode of the five: a powerful, taut, compelling, filmic, emotionally punchy affair which re-established the Angels as one of the standout monsters of the series and gave Amy Pond a fine send off".

Club gave "The Angels Take Manhattan" a grade of A, attributing its success to "the way it does double duty as a twist adventure and a highly emotional story of farewells".

However, she considered the "only flaw" to be "the rule that time cannot be changed if one knows what is going to happen ... though it is probably best not to question the timey wimey side of things and just accept it and enjoy the adventure".

[33] Digital Spy reviewer Morgan Jeffery gave "The Angels Take Manhattan" five out of five stars, despite noting "plotholes ... and slightly-too-convenient plot contrivances" and that Rory did not get a heroic exit.

[32] Dave Golder of SFX awarded the episode four out of five stars, believing that the "bittersweet exit" of the Ponds distracted the viewer from various narrative problems, such as the Statue of Liberty.

He felt that Gillan and Darvill "were on top form" as well as Smith's "brilliant performance" and a "less over-the-top River", and also wrote positively about the noir theme and the Angels using the Winter Quay apartment building as a battery farm.

[23] The Huffington Post writer Maureen Ryan was more critical of the episode, worrying that the BBC's international promotion of the show was to the detriment of the quality of the writing.

She felt that Amy deserved a better exit and "was crowded out by the distracting presence of River Song and by the fact that Rory was the one to make the essential choices first".

She also personally disliked the "timey-wimey" devices, and commented that the "big and operatic tone the director was clearly going for clashed with the mood of film noir" and that the Angels "felt less menacing" and the "pace was a little too frantic".