Don't look now. Or, rather, do...

Don't blink. How many times have I heard that during a near-lifetime of regular optician visits? Those hazy early days of getting to grips with contact lenses must have yielded more cries of “Don't blink” from the optician than the Doctor Who story called – er, I think, it's called, Blink.

You know – Blink. Also known as the one with the creepy statues. Or the one with the companion that never was. Or the one in which the Doctor Who team produce a Doctor-lite story that's to practically everyone's tastes, fans and casual viewers alike. It's another award winner for author Steven Moffat, who's luckily back on form after the so-so Girl In The Fireplace. Unlike the tale of the Fireplace Man, there's fortunately very little that's wrong with Blink. Thankfully the smugness has been toned down. The story's actually a lot more gripping and a lot more scary than Fireplace. And it's also crafted with such intricate skill and detail which makes it one of the most tightly plotted stories in the entire Who canon. That it's also wrapped up in a matter of 45 minutes is also something of an achievement, considering how Moffat likes to take about 78 years these days to wrap up unsolved plot strands.

Looking back at Blink and comparing it with Matt Smith's tales, you can see how both this story and Moffat's other RTD-produced stories effectively act as dummy runs for the future. There's two notable aspects of Blink that Moffat would slavishly depend on during his time as producer. The first is the deadly child's game. Moffat likes to take an innocent kid's game and turn it into something altogether more threatening – in this case, it's that old chestnut of statues, the game that you'd play at kiddie birthday parties in order to win the gaudy goodie bag. In Blink, this is turned on its head by the dreaded Weeping Angels, one of the finest alien races to grace 21st century Doctor Who. The Angels are a masterpiece of design, with those hellish, tongue-waggling demon faces. What really makes them work is the way in which they are shot. Director Hettie McDonald uses fast, jerky cuts to indicate movement. Note that we never see the Angels move of their own volition – but the short, sharp camera cuts convey that sense of fast movement very well, and what's more they add to the horror, especially when there's a sudden close-up of a leering Angel face.

I'm surprised that McDonald was never invited back to Doctor Who, since she makes the very most of Moffat's script, and really goes to town with a creepy, off-kilter look. Look at the shots of Wester Drumlins – all low camera angles and moody lighting, resulting in one of the most convincing haunted houses seen in Doctor Who. Not only that, but McDonald has assembled a pretty impressive cast to bring the story to life – more on the dramatis personae later, but altogether McDonald's contribution is just as important as Moffat's in making this story such a success.

Getting back to the other notable Moffat staple, which is what's known as the Timey Wimey bit. Incidentally, the Timey Wimey phrase is about the only thing wrong with this story, since it's one of those irritating catchphrases that Moffat delights in using over and over again to the point of head-butting annoyance. It's one of those meaningless turns of phrase that battle it out with “Spoilers!” or “Hello Sweetie” as the smuggest Moffat phrase ever.

"In Blink, the time travel idea is used well and imaginatively, but it's a shame that Moffat would plunder this concept just a bit too much in the future"

But that aside, Blink does at least deal with the concept of time travel very well. It's done so in an intelligent, original and very well thought out way. What I like about this is the way in which clues are slowly dotted throughout the story. At the time, they seem like random, throwaway ideas, but they are in fact, key elements of the story: The Doctor talking to Sally on a TV. Sally's DVD list. Billy's occupation. Larry scribbling notes for a transcript of The Doctor's apparently random burblings. They all come together and make sense at the end when Sally hands a passing Doctor all the notes that he'll need for when he lands in 1969. All very clever stuff – just like a tricky crossword puzzle, the solution of Blink isn't completed until the very end. Those vital gaps are missing along the way, but it's fun trying to piece it all together. And by the story's end, it's satisfying that all the loose ends are tied up in a way that makes logical sense and in a manner that doesn't feel too contrived.

Perhaps the only downside of this is the way in which Moffat would repeat this complicated time travel theme to the point of boredom in his own time as producer – and with diminishing results, whether it's the weak resolution of The Big Bang, the convoluted Impossible Astronaut two-parter or the overkill of A Christmas Carol. At least in Blink, the time travel idea is used well and imaginatively, but it's a shame that Moffat would plunder this concept just a bit too much in the future.

Another notable point about the solution of Blink is how it's all achieved with such mundane, everyday objects and gadgets. One of the best of these is the use of the DVD Easter Eggs, surely a sly nod to the Doctor Who range of DVDs, which is packed to the gills with sock puppets, continuity announcements and blank title sequences. Even the bumbling Larry, it could be argued, is the stereotypical geeky Doctor Who fan, although thankfully, it's a step-up from the Whizzkid of The Greatest Show In The Galaxy. With that in mind, there's also the transcript of what The Doctor says – just look at the countless transcript websites for Doctor Who, plus practically every TV show under the sun. And elsewhere we have The Doctor rigging up a handy timey wimey detector from what looks like a Fisher Price egg making machine for kids. It's a refreshing change from the usual Deux Ex Machina get-out clauses that sometimes hamper NuWho stories. This time around, it's all down to a considerable amount of brainpower and smart thinking – not to mention a machine that can boil an egg at only a few paces.

"Sally Sparrow would have made quite a good companion. She's clever and independent without being too smug (a miracle, considering that Steven Moffat's the author here)"

So with The Doctor and Martha stuck in 1969, it's left to other characters to drive this episode forward. Blink is mainly carried by Sally Sparrow, a one-time character that's been touted so many times as a possible future companion by the fans. It's unlikely that this will happen, given that actress Carey Mulligan is a bit too busy these days with countless film projects on the go. So it's nice to see her in the days before she made it as a big film star. If Sally Sparrow's popularity has been overstated, then it's only by a little. On paper, she's really nothing that we haven't seen before – the tough but sensitive girl who's prone to making sly wisecracks when the fancy takes her. But Carey Mulligan adds a lot of charm to Sally, adding the required pathos when needed, such as when she reads the goodbye letter from Kathy or when she's saying goodbye to old Billy in the hospital. She also gets a lot of great lines as well, such as “I'm clever and I'm listening. And don't patronise me because people have died and I'm not happy” or my own personal favourite “I love old things – they make me feel sad” to which she replies to Kathy's bemused question of what's good about sad - “It's happy for deep people”. I think that Sally would have made quite a good companion. She's clever and independent without being too smug (a miracle, considering that Steven Moffat's the author here), and in a way harks back to the golden age of Sarah Jane. Maybe Moffat might persuade Mulligan to come back for a 50th anniversary special, but in the meantime, savour Sally while you can.

Sally generally gels well with the geeky Larry, although to be honest, it's stretching credibility a bit by suggesting that she'd walk off hand in hand with such a wet blanket. Unfortunately, when I checked out the episode again recently, whenever Larry's dopey mug appeared on screen, the only thing I could think of was that bloody Halifax ISA ISA Baby advert – naturally, this should make Finlay Robertson's Larry a scoundrel of the highest order, but actually, it's a good performance, and he conveys the shy geekiness of the character well.

"Blink absolutely deserves its reputation as one of the modern classics of Doctor Who"

Elsewhere in the story we get two Billy Shiptons for the price of one. It's odd – the Billy character, young and old, doesn't take up that much screentime, but despite this, he becomes one of the most effective characters of the story. Billy's story is a bit of a sad one – he starts out all hip and blustering and trying to snag a date off Sally (“See, you're missing the big question... will you have a drink with me?”). But in only a matter of minutes, he's no longer the cool dude, but an elderly dying man, sadly contemplating his last few moments in a hospital on a rainy day (“Oh look at my hands,” says the old Billy wistfully. “They're old man hands. How did that happen?”). The character of Billy shows that Moffat can do emotion very well indeed – some might argue better than RTD himself, since in this case, it's not overstated with overblown histrionics. No, it's just a quiet chinwag with his former hot girl, full of regret at the passing of time – and the subtlety makes this final farewell to Billy rather moving, even if he's been on the screen for about 10 minutes. It also helps that both actors do a sterling job. Michael Obiora (better known at the time for his work on Hotel Babylon) is excellent as the younger version, making for a character who's super-confident, yet still somehow likeable. Just as good is Louis Mahoney who makes a welcome return to the show after two cameos in Frontier In Space and Planet Of Evil. Neither of his earlier roles as the newscaster or Ponti really showcased what Mahoney could really do, but in this instance, he delivers a belter of a performance, full of understated charm and mournful sadness at his coming demise.

In fact, all of the actors do very well, even though most of the characters get limited screen time. Richard “Son Of Brian” Cant delivers a quietly subtle turn as the enigmatic Malcolm. It's a nice twist that at first, we think he's some slightly creepy alien, when in fact, he's just an ordinary guy delivering a message on behalf of his granny, Kathy Nightingale. Lucy Gaskell also does well as Kathy, and again, there's a nice turnaround in the fact that Kathy isn't going to be a central character – at the beginning, there's every reason to think that Sally and Kathy will solve the mystery of Wester Drumlins, but in fact, she becomes the first victim of the Weeping Angels.

Creepy, memorable monsters. Well-drawn characters. An ingenious and tightly plotted script. This is everything that you could ask for in a Doctor Who script, and more so than in Love And Monsters, the fact that The Doctor's hardly around much seems like an irrelevance (and even in his cameo role, David Tennant turns in another strong performance). Blink showcases the very best of Moffat's skills as a scriptwriter, and amazingly keeps the smugness and over-complexity to an absolute minimum. On screen, it's beautifully shot, superbly acted, and even boasts a fantastic refined score from Murray Gold, which mercifully reins in the over-indulgence. Blink absolutely deserves its reputation as one of the modern classics of Doctor Who as well as its Hugo award for Short Form Best Dramatic Presentation. Blinkin' good.

John Bensalhia limbered up for this mammoth task with a full four-series review of Blake's 7, and writes professionally and recreationally all over the web. Check out his portfolio of work here.

Check out John's previous Doctor Who review, Human Nature

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