Blink is, somewhat surprisingly, perfect. My personal experience with this episode is mixed with what I was doing on the internet in the lead up to Tennant's second series. I'd moved on from watching episodes illegally, although I would still make effort to seek out trailers and the like to whet my appetite for upcoming adventures. Series 3 had two main trailers associated with it, one was first broadcast at the end of The Runaway Bride and generally covered the first six episodes of the upcoming series equally. The second was first broadcast at the end of The Lazarus Experiment, and previewed the next six episodes, with a distinct focus on 42, Human Nature/The Family of Blood, Utopia and The Sound of Drums. Blink didn't really factor into the equation. I wouldn't be surprised if I simply forgot that it was coming up when I was looking at the list of upcoming episodes. It aired in the UK, and I was vaguely aware of what happened in it, and that it looked reasonably interesting. But, other than that, my mind was drawn to the far more interesting prospects of episodes based around Daleks, The Master and the Doctor becoming human.
But then, out of the blue, I found a poll on the Doctor Who website that looked at the best monsters of that series. Surprisingly, the Daleks had been knocked off the number one spot, a position that they were assumed to have for the rest of time, by the Weeping Angels. My interest was piqued. How could any monster be better than the Daleks? What makes the Weeping Angels so special? Watching the episode, it's easy to see why.
The Angels are perfect as Doctor Who monsters, because Steven Moffat, the writer, has constructed them to have three key elements that makes them frightening. The first is their modus operandi, where they send people back on time and feed off their potential energy. It's a quietly frightening concept, as you're presented with the prospect of being abandoned on your own in a time period completely alien to you. And beyond that, it feeds off the idea that death could be seen as a way of preventing you from continuing your life to go forth into the future. Moffat recognises that both of these elements are worrying, but the second is often forgotten, with the first being the major draw for fear of death. By focussing the Weeping Angels' attacks on this second concept, he makes them scary in a new and interesting way.
Similarly, the prospect of them being quantum locked is the next key element as to how they're fantastic monsters. It's a ludicrously simple idea: how about having a monster that operates entirely on jump scares? Jump scares may be a cheap way of getting thrills, but they're effective, and do stick in the mind long after the event has passed. It's a simple way to ensure that the monsters are seen as memorable, and not forgotten like other creatures of time past.
And it's quite good that they go unforgotten, because unlike any other monster in the series, these Weeping Angels are real. The story doesn't end with everyone going away and being happy, instead it chooses to end on a fourth wall breaking sequence as the Doctor's warning about the Angels is repeated over images of ordinary statues throughout every day life. This entire sequence is designed for children, to frighten them by pointing out that there is no way to tell whether a statue is an Angel or not. So he proposes that they have entered the real world, and that there is no stopping them. It's a simple enough sequence, but it sticks in the mind as an example of how to play on a child's imagination, and create a monster that is truly fantastic.
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