Weeping Angel: Difference between revisions

| name = Weeping Angel

| image = [[File:Doctor Who Weeping Angel from The Time of Angels.JPG]]

| caption = A Weeping Angel as seen in "[[The Time of Angels]]" (2010).

| series = [[Doctor Who]]

| type = Winged humanoids

| home_world = Unknown

| first = "[[Blink (Doctor Who)|Blink]]" (2007)

| creator = [[Steven Moffat]]

The '''Weeping Angels''' are a race of alien predatory creatures from the long-running [[science fiction]] series ''[[Doctor Who]]''. They were introduced in the 2007 episode "[[Blink (Doctor Who)|Blink]]", making repeat appearances in later episodes. They also appeared in the spin-off series ''[[Class (2016 TV series)|Class]]''. Since their initial appearance, they have been persistently nominated as one of the most popular and frightening Doctor Who monsters. [[Steven Moffat]] attributes their appeal to [[List of children's games|childhood games]] such as [[Statues (game)|Grandmother's Footsteps]] and the notion that everyany stone statue might secretly be a disguised Weeping Angel.''<ref name="Confidential">{{cite serial |title=[[Doctor Who Confidential]] |network=[[BBC]] |station=[[BBC Three]] |location=[[Cardiff]] |airdate=2007-06-09}}</ref>''

In their usual form, Weeping Angels resemble silent human-sized stone statues in the form of winged [[angel]]s in draped clothing, such as might appear as tomb statuary infrom a Victorian graveyard. As they close in on more aware victims they transformtend to show a more horrific, bestial, and demonic aspect with wide-open mouths, vampiric teeth, and clawed hands paired with a furious expression. It is also implied that Weeping Angels can mimic the forms or dimensions of a broader range of statuary if required: in "[[The Angels Take Manhattan]]" (2012), one Weeping Angel takes the form (or hijacks the existing form) of the [[Statue of Liberty]] (manifesting as a full-size Liberty with Weeping Angel features) and the final moments of "[[Blink (Doctor Who)|Blink]]" (2007) suggest that ''any'' stone statue might be a disguised Weeping Angel.

When they are're not being observed by another being, Weeping Angels can move veryextremely quickly andwhich is usually accompanied by a stone-scraping silentlysound. Their phenomenal speed allows them to close distances of metres literally in the blink of an eye. However, when they are're being observed they become "quantumQuantum-lockedLocked", occupying a single position in space and becoming stone. In this state, they're areentirely frozen in place and difficultcannot tobe destroykilled.

Weeping Angels are physically very strong, although they rarely physically kill a victim since this wastes the time-potential energy which the Weeping Angels would otherwise consume to survive. They prefer to take their energy from live victims, but if required, they can drain energy from other forms such as that from electric lights (typically torches or light bulbs), or other electronics.

Weeping Angels have also exhibited a startling ability to project themselves throughfrom anything that depicts a physical image of a Weeping Angel, although this requires an enormous amount of imagesenergy. Using this ability, the Weeping Angels can appear to manifest themselves from anything fromsuch as videos to drawings. Weeping Angels can also imprint a mental image of themselves into a person's mind bywhen usuallythe victim lookinglooks straight into their eyes for a certain amount of time: the image then gestates and takes over the person's body to manifest as a new Weeping Angel or can kill the host through escaping the body once fully developed.

* ''Touched by an Angel''

* ''Magic of the Angels''

* ''The Angel's Kiss''

* ''Ten Little Aliens''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cole |first1=Stephen |url=https://archive.org/details/tenlittlealiens0000cole |title=Ten Little Aliens |date= |publisher=[[BBC Books]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-849-90516-9 |language=en |url-access=registration |via=archive.org}}</ref>

* "Living History"

* "Suddenly in a Graveyard..."

* "The Garden of Statues"

* [[Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters|Fallen Angels]]

* [[Doom Coalition|The Side of the Angels]]

* [[The Diary of River Song#Series 7 (2020)|Carnival of Angels]]

==PopularIn popular culture==

''Weeping Angel'' is the name of a [[hacking (computer security)|hacking]] tool revealed in [[Vault 7]], co-developed in 2014 by the [[CIA]] and [[MI5]], used to [[Exploit (computer security)|exploit]] [[smart TV]]s for the purpose of covert [[Signals intelligence#COMINT|intelligence gathering]]. Once installed in a suitable TV, the tool enables the television to record its surroundings while appearing to be turned off (so-called "Fake-Off"). The tool was developed in 2014 as part of a joint CIA/MI5 workshop, and there's no evidence that it was ever operational.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pachal |first=Pete |date=7 March 2017 |title=CIA hack of Samsung TVs was named after a Doctor Who monster |url=http://mashable.com/2017/03/07/cia-samsung-tv-hack-weeping-angel/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307184611/http://mashable.com/2017/03/07/cia-samsung-tv-hack-weeping-angel/#UDuSXb3Iymqa |archive-date=7 March 2017 |access-date=2017-03-08 |work=Mashable}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| last = Molina| first = Brett| title = Alleged CIA hack named after super creepy 'Doctor Who' villain| work = USA TODAY| access-date = 2017-03-08| url = https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/03/07/alleged-cia-technique-named-after-doctor-who-villain/98853924/}}</ref>

* {{TardisIndexFile|Weeping Angels}}