Graham Norton made a second, equally unwitting and unwelcome, appearance on Doctor Who last night but I hope that does not outshine the fact that The Time of Angels was fantastic.
After two weeks of stories packed full of good ideas, but not enough plot to expand on them, this gave me the "meat" I was craving for.
River Song, a character who dangerously veers towards irritating at times but just about stays clear, was a well-rounded and enjoyable addition that immediately added intrigue to the tale.
Matt Smith continues his new age-Troughton Doctor routine superbly while Karen Gillan gets to handle the key "frights" this week.
The Maze of the Dead was absolutely classic Who - as indeed are the wonderfully sinister and genuinely scarely Angels. This episode developed along nicely at a tense pace - with the predictable loss of a couple of characters that had their fate written all over them as soon as they appeared on screen.
The Doctor's sadness at the lack of "vworp vworp" was a highlight and I even enjoyed the cliffhanger - which borrowed from the Eccleston "I'm coming to get you" style. That's destined for the Smitt-era highlights reel already.
This was exactly what I'd wanted to see from Moffat-era Who. It looked great, contained fleshed out three-dimensional characters and benefitted from the chance to build up the tension steadily across the episode. Here's hoping for a similarly superb 45-minutes to polish off the story.
9/10
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