The Angels Take Manhattan : BBC’s Fourth Dimension

The Angels Take Manhattan

• The first chapter of Melody’s book is called The Dying Detective. This was also the title of a Sherlock Holmes short story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and included in the collection known as His Last Bow. Incidentally, the TARDIS lands in China during 221 BC and Holmes’ most famous London address was 221B Baker Street…

• Another chapter is ‘Julius Grayle’ although Grayle is never addressed as Julius by anyone during the episode. The eponymous villain in the James Bond novel Dr. No was also a collector and a criminal and changed his name to Julius after beginning his life of crime.

• Steven Moffat had planned parts of the Ponds’ departure for years, but at one stage he intended their farewell story to be a Dalek adventure. He changed his mind when he realised that the Weeping Angels would be a ‘better fit’ for Amy and Rory’s swansong.

• Steven Moffat revealed that following the Angels’ debut in Blink, every few days, people had suggested to him that the Statue of Liberty could be a Weeping Angel, a concept he was finally able to develop in the Ponds’ final adventure!

• The scene where Amy and Rory plunge from Winter Quay was filmed with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill suspended upside down, to give the impression of them falling towards the ground.

• Much of this episode was shot in New York and huge crowds turned up to watch the team filming in Central Park. Alex Kingston’s scenes were all shot in Wales, however, meaning adroit editing was needed for the sequences that featured River Song and location shots filmed in the US.

• River Song is a professor in this adventure, indicating it takes place in the later stages of her timeline. She was a doctor during The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone but was Professor Song when the Tenth Doctor met her for the first time during Silence in the Library.

• Although the link is not expressly made, during an early scene in The Power of Three, a message on the Ponds’ answering machine announces that a pair of reading glasses is ready to be picked up…

• The final sequence of the episode includes two moments from Amy’s debut in The Eleventh Hour – the first when young Amelia races into the garden to wait for the Doctor, and the second when she looks up and smiles as she hears the TARDIS arrive.