Rate & Discuss: Flesh and Stone

May 1st, 2010
Warning! This article and its comments may contain spoilers...

There’s no way back, no way up and no way out. Trapped among an army of Weeping Angels, the Doctor and his friends must try to escape through the wreckage of a crashed space liner. Meanwhile, in the forest vault, the Doctor’s companion, Amy, finds herself facing an even more deadly attack.

Our first two-parter of the year concluded tonight as the Weeping Angels set their plans in stone. Continuing from last week’s cliffhanger, the latest episode got off to a flying start, with the Doctor & Co moving onward with determination through the shattered remains of the Byzantium. But there they found themselves in even deeper trouble.

With the Weeping Angels playing peek-a-boo behind the trees in the oxygen factory, Amy’s bravery was put to the ultimate test as she looked into the eyes of her most challenging dilemma yet. But there was more than just the statues to deal with, as that mysterious crack we’ve been encountering since the beginning of the series returned to remind us of the dark and difficult times that undoubtedly lie ahead for our heroes. Not only that, but more strands were added to the River Song mystery, with plenty of twists and turns to dissect – but are we any closer to finding out who she really is..?

It’s over to you! Here’s where you can discuss everything and anything to do with tonight’s adventure. Was it a worthy conclusion? Let us know by sharing your thoughts below, and don’t forget to give the episode a star rating out of 5 and drop by at our latest poll on the homepage! When you’re done here, you can also piece together the latest crack developments in its ongoing discussion! Can you crack it? Happy discussing!

Rate this episode
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars
(41 Votes, Average: 4.68/5)
56 comments on this article
  1. pirko
    May 2nd, 2010 at 9.07pm | #1

    Thanks admin

  2. TWWL
    May 2nd, 2010 at 9.14pm | #2

    Just watched again, and good golly was it a great episode! On second viewing it was even better than yesterday! Moffat, at his best, is just so far ahead of any other Who writer at the moment. I also think, five eps in, that this series is a major step up to this point in the series four. Just remember what the first five episodes of series four gave us. Put each ep against its counterpart in series four, and this series wins every round. Yes, even Victory, which I know some hated. To be fair, that was only up against Planet Of The Ood though, which was just dull! Sontarons or Angels? Easy! Eleventh Hour or Partners in Crime? No contest! Beast Below or Pompeii? Closer, but Beast nips it for me. We really are getting something special so far; often in previous series, we’ve had to wait for the second half of the series to get to the real crackers, this yea, we’ve already had a couple!

  3. Ash
    May 2nd, 2010 at 9.50pm | #3

    like your thinking there, well said. :) @TWWL

  4. David
    May 2nd, 2010 at 11.31pm | #4

    Rewatched TTOA and FAS.

    The Moff’s mind works in weird, but amazing, ways. He is, as I’ve said before, a genius (it’s a Paisley thing :) )

    Alex, Karen and, in particular, Matt were all fantastic in these two episodes.

    I like that River has already become something of a DW legend, despite only appearing in two stories (four eps).

    Series Five is, so far, very very good (would’ve been excellent but VOTD was a bit of a letdown).

  5. Steve
    May 3rd, 2010 at 11.32am | #5

    Brilliant…until the last 10 mins. The ending was a rehash of Doomsday and Amy went from
    intelligent and level headed for no reason whatsoever…

  6. JC
    May 3rd, 2010 at 11.48am | #6

    After thinking about this two-parter, I’ve had some other ideas and I thought I’d write them down here just incase anyone was interested.

    I think I missed another reference to the 2009 Specials in these episodes. We know that the Cybermen are coming back towards the end of the series and in these episodes, The Doctor made reference to how nobody remembered the Cyberking Machine rampaging London.

    That was the one most of us caught, but then I thought about it more and I think there may have been another reference tucked in there, mind you, this is a long shot.

    We know the Daleks may be returning towards the end of the series too. Amy Pond can’t remember the planets in the sky and the Daleks and The Doctor in these episodes was deep in thought and said time could be re-written.

    So going back again this time to the Waters of Mars, the 10th Doctor said that some things were constantly in flux, that they could be changed, but some things were fixed points in time and that what happpened at Bowie Base was always supposed to happen. Then of course, the 10th Doctor said that time could be rewritten and saved the crew of Bowie Base, BUT even though Adelaide Brooke committed suicide, that fixed point in time that was always meant to happen was changed by the 10th Doctor, the records showed she died on Earth instead of Mars, two crew members were saved and lived when they should have died, the Doctor rewrote a fixed point in time that should always have happened.

    Going back a bit further though, and this is where I saw the link but I have no idea what it is. Amy can’t remember the Daleks and the Planets In The Sky, but when Adelaide Brooke was young (during the Daleks and the Planets In The Sky), she saw a Dalek and it looked at her and decided, completely against it’s nature, to spare her life.

    Perhaps the Doctor was right, perhaps that Dalek did see something but perhaps it wasn’t that her death was a fixed point in time, but rather that the 10th Doctor would one day cause something to happen that in Season 5 would bring about the restoration of the Daleks. Therefore maybe sparing Adelaide’s life wasn’t it’s regard for a fixed point in time, but rather a knowledge that it’d be to the benefit of the Dalek race.

    Now, why this means that Amy can’t remember the events of that episode, the Daleks and the Planets in the sky, I have no idea and I could be completely wrong, I just saw that link and wanted to post.

  7. JC
    May 3rd, 2010 at 11.55am | #7

    Sorry for the second post, but I thought while writing that post that clearly that’s a problem because the Daleks were restored before the end of the episode. Conjuring up a really random theory, the 11th Doctor interupted the Daleks when he boarded their ship during Victory of The Daleks and assumed that they were another ship that fell through time, but what if the Daleks that activated the progenitor didn’t fall through time and instead, fell through the crack?

  8. Jamez
    May 3rd, 2010 at 2.01pm | #8

    I don’t think the crack is the only link to the season finale going on here. On the second viewing I noticed something that I hadn’t before, and that was the scene where the Doctor shows up and talks to Amy seconds after he’s just left her in the forest, telling her she needs to remember what he told her when she was seven, and if you look carefully, you can see he’s wearing his jacket. I know a lot of people are passing that off as a production goof, but what tipped me off was the fact that the Doctor’s insistence that Amy needs to remember what he told her never gets paid off in the episode, and I know the Grand Moff would never be that careless in his writing. There’s definitely something going on there!

  9. Dave
    May 3rd, 2010 at 5.27pm | #9

    Having watched the moment again where the Doctor returns to speak to Amy, I don’t think that the Doctor wearing his jacket is an error. This is possibly the Doctor from the future trying to interfere in their past. I think that there was a similar moment in The Beast Below. When Amy was in the booth she was suddenly seen on the screen sending a warning to get the Doctor off the ship. Was this Amy from the future also?

  10. Ash
    May 3rd, 2010 at 9.03pm | #10

    i think that the jacket thing may be a mistake, seeing as in that scene, when you see the doctors hands hold amys, the sleeves are nowhere to be seen (either rolled up or not there at all). Although ive been very wrong in the past, so im probably going to be proven completely wrong on this. Oh well :P

  11. matthew hall
    May 4th, 2010 at 11.07am | #11

    when they moved their heads that was ultra-freaky cos they don’y normally move

  12. Revenant
    May 4th, 2010 at 2.56pm | #12

    To me it seems with the Doctors comments about re-writing time, coupled with Amy not remembering the Daleks, or no one mentioning the Cyberking, that someone is re-writing time. Who would have the power? Only the Time Lords, The Doctor or the Daleks have time travel capabilities of that extent. The Pandorica is apparently, just a fairy tale (like the Toclafane) but it will open, and River will be there so will the Doctor.. The cracks are caused by an explosion, the ‘fire at the end of the universe’

    I can’t make sense of it yet, but somehow history is changing around the Doctor and it has something to do with the opening of the Pandorica.

  13. The9th10th11th12thDoctor
    May 4th, 2010 at 4.54pm | #13

    @Dave
    No, in the Beast Below did you notice there was a record button? Amy probably recorded her message after watching the film, then pressed forgetWe just didn’t see it because it was sped up.

  14. demousa
    May 6th, 2010 at 11.02am | #14

    it does my hearts good to hear the bbc’s respones to this. I LOVE THE BBC

  15. 100thDoctor
    May 10th, 2010 at 7.14am | #15

    @The9th10th11th12thDoctor
    Why would they put in a record button if they don’t want people to remember? It makes no sense!! What if in the recording they say what they have seen on the video. Why would you give someone a chance to record something you don’t want them to konw?? Apart from that i liked the episode. I think the best 2nd episode scince the new series.

  16. Patrick
    February 15th, 2011 at 12.05pm | #16

    Magnificent conclusion at the end when she says “You’ll see me again when the Pandorica Opens.” Great banter between them and Amy as well. The crack appeared once again as it had done in the first 3 episodes. When I watched Vampires of Venice I recall Rosanna saying “Through some cracks we saw other worlds, through others the end of all things.” When the energy source was pouring out from the Time Crack and Amy had a look at it with the Clerics as she “needed to see it”, I saw shadows of movement within the crack. Don’t know who it was but I think it was the Romans.

Comment pages
Leave a comment
By commenting you agree to our comment rules.
Search
“Stetsons are cool”
You've seen the trailer, now dissect it! Share your Series 6 theories and speculate the nights away in our ongoing discussion, Silences, Rivers and Songs!
Torchwood Series 4
What are your hopes for Miracle Day? Have your say in our ongoing Series 4 discussion!
News Categories
News Archives
RSS Feeds

WhovianNet offers RSS feeds, so you can get our latest news posts to your preferred RSS reader! Here are the links you need...

Windows Live Alerts

You can recieve an alert in Windows Live Messenger each time we add a new post - simply click the button below!

Windows Live Alerts
Top Commentors
  • TSG (750)
  • TE (576)
  • pirko (394)
  • Steve (326)
  • dani (252)
  • TWWL (249)
  • JC (221)
  • Sam (219)
  • David (166)
  • Lee (159)
Get an avatar!
Want your own avatar next to your comments on WhovianNet? No problem - find out how to get one by clicking here!