The Weeping Angels, often referred to as “crying angels” by Doctor Who fans, are among the most terrifying creatures in the Whoniverse. Their stone-cold exteriors and seemingly simple quantum locking mechanism belie a formidable power that, according to hints within the series, stretches far beyond what is immediately apparent. While their appearances often depict them in a seemingly weakened state, the full scope of their abilities, when unleashed, paints a picture of truly terrifying beings.
Initially, Weeping Angels are typically encountered in a hibernating state, which explains their relatively slower movements. However, this is merely a fraction of their potential. As they begin to feed on temporal energy, their speed and capacity to manipulate their surroundings drastically increase, drawing power from their environment to enhance their capabilities. This transformation from sluggish statues to powerful predators is a key aspect of their threat.
A close-up of a Weeping Angel statue, its face in shadow but the weeping eyes clearly visible, conveying a sense of menace even in stillness.
One of the most chilling aspects of the Weeping Angels is the concept that “the image of an Angel IS an Angel.” This suggests a theoretical capability to move at the speed of light, or at least as fast as a species’ communication systems allow. By converting themselves into energy and transmitting through images, their potential for rapid movement and widespread threat becomes horrifyingly clear.
Observed Abilities of the Weeping Angels:
Throughout their appearances, the Weeping Angels have demonstrated a range of disturbing abilities, showcasing their escalating power:
- Spatial Manipulation: They can warp the layout of spaces, creating inescapable traps and transforming even recorded images into active threats. In “The Time of Angels,” they manipulated video footage, turning a mere four-second loop into a tangible danger.
- Temporal Teleportation: Weeping Angels can send objects back in time to drain their chronal energy. This act of time displacement inherently involves spatial displacement as well, as any object moving through time is also shifting its position in space relative to the universe’s expansion.
- Spatial Teleportation: They are capable of teleporting beings across space within the same time period. In “The Angels Take Manhattan,” a young Weeping Angel teleported Rory to a different location within New York City.
- Memory Implantation and Conversion: Angels can infiltrate a being’s mind, embedding themselves in their memory and slowly transforming the victim into another Weeping Angel. During this insidious process, they can mentally torment their prey, creating illusions and manipulating perceptions, as seen in “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone.”
- Radiation Consumption: They can sustain themselves by feeding on various forms of radiation, even in environments lethal to most life forms. While not immortal, they exhibit extreme longevity, enduring even when starved of temporal energy within confined spaces.
- Animation and Conversion of Statues: Perhaps most alarmingly, Weeping Angels can animate other statues, turning them into new Angels, including iconic structures like the Statue of Liberty. This ability highlights their potential for large-scale invasion and conquest.
The Statue of Liberty, now a terrifying Weeping Angel, strides through a city street, showcasing the immense and unsettling power of the Angels.
The animation of the Statue of Liberty and its rapid movement across Manhattan in “The Angels Take Manhattan” raises profound questions about the limits of their power. This feat, in particular, prompts us to consider:
- Superposition Movement Limits: If well-fed Angels can move something as massive as the Statue of Liberty using their quantum-locking based movement, what are the true boundaries of this ability?
- Space Escape Potential: Could they utilize this unobserved movement to escape a planet’s atmosphere and venture into space?
- Interstellar Travel: If undetected, could a “superposition jump” translate to vast interstellar distances? In the emptiness of space, observation would be scarce. Would a jump last until they encounter observation again? Could they traverse the cosmos in what seems like an instant?
The Statue of Liberty Weeping Angel looms over buildings, emphasizing its gigantic scale and the overwhelming threat it poses.
These possibilities begin to explain the Gallifreyan Time Lords’ profound fear of the Weeping Angels. The vastness of space, normally a barrier, would become inconsequential to beings capable of such instantaneous, unobserved movement. Arriving at their targets across galaxies, though likely ravenous, would be entirely within their potential.
Weeping Angels are chronovores, beings that feed on temporal energy, a concept that instilled fear even in the Time Lords. Their status as a long-standing threat to Gallifrey is underscored by Rassilon’s declaration in “The End of Time,” where he likened rebellious Time Lords to the “Weeping Angels of old,” monuments of shame for covering their eyes. This historical reference reinforces the Angels’ deep-rooted and terrifying reputation within Time Lord society.
A stone hand, clearly belonging to a Weeping Angel, reaches out, its details sharp against a blurred background, creating a sense of impending danger and inescapable grasp.
Unconfirmed accounts even suggest Weeping Angel attacks on 33rd-century colony worlds, including New Moscow. These accounts imply that swarms of Angels descended upon these worlds, darkening the very sunlight to feed. The lack of mention of starships in these rumors suggests a chilling possibility: they may have traversed interstellar distances under their own terrifying power, solidifying their place as one of the universe’s most feared and potent forces.
