Doctor Who: Flux brings back the Weeping Angels, but changes the rules and lore surrounding these stony-hearted villains. Here's every addition.

Doctor Who: Flux drops fresh details about the delightfully creepy Weeping Angels - here's every new power, trait, and piece of backstory. Modern Doctor Who has inducted many a new villain into franchise canon, but few have enjoyed the lasting impact of the Weeping Angels. Devised by Steven Moffat for Doctor Who season 3's "Blink," these statues boast a quantum lock defense mechanism, meaning they only exist while unobserved. With incredible speed, a Weeping Angel will sneak up on its prey and send them back through time via a single touch. The victim is forced to live in the past, while the Angel feasts upon the energy of unspent years.

The Weeping Angels have barely stopped pestering The Doctor since that initial 2007 meeting, and they return once more in Doctor Who: Flux, terrorizing a Devonshire village that vanished without a trace in both 1901 and 1967. Following the previous week's "the Angel has the TARDIS" cliffhanger, The Doctor must protect innocent villagers while figuring out whether a lone Weeping Angel commandeered her blue box for the fresh air and friendly locals of England's rural west, or for a more sinister purpose.

Though The Doctor is well-versed in the "don't blink" rule by this point, Doctor Who: Flux alters Weeping Angel mythology. Viewers learn more about their history and motivations, and potential future victims have more to remember than just keeping their eyes open. These are the changes and retcons made by "Village of the Angels."

Doctor Who's Weeping Angels Choose Their Victims

When the Weeping Angels debuted in Doctor Who's iconic "Blink" episode, they weren't fussy about whose time energy they snacked on. Anyone who entered the abandoned Wester Drumlins house was sent back through time, including Sally Sparrow's avian-themed friend, Kathy Nightingale. When Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor hears how the Weeping Angels attacked Claire Brown in "Village of the Angels," however, she asks, "But why? What did it want with you?" This line of questioning implies Weeping Angels usually need a reason to hunt, which contradicts previous portrayals.

Maybe the Weeping Angels in "Blink" were so starved after dwelling in an abandoned house, they'd munch the energy of anyone who came close, whereas a sated Angel can be more choosy - only targeting time travelers or other meals brimming with paradox juice.

Weeping Angels' Psychic Communication In Doctor Who: Flux

While Weeping Angels are unable to communicate in the traditional sense, they've found other ways to be heard in past Doctor Who seasons. Season 5's "Flesh & Stone," for example, featured a flock of Weeping Angels communing with Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor by hijacking the consciousness of a deceased soldier called Bob over radio. When Yaz and Dan encounter Peggy in Doctor Who: Flux, she describes how the Weeping Angels put thoughts in her head - a form of psychic communication. There's no one else the Angels could've used as a vessel, and it's strange they haven't used this technique before, relying instead of third parties like Bob to speak through.

In a later "Village of the Angels" scene, one Angel uses Jericho's own voice to speak through a TV screen. Once again, this represents a deviation from the rules established by Bob, whose cerebral cortex was rewritten into a Weeping Angel Google translate after his death. Weirdly, the Angels also seem to possess insight into Jericho's psyche, accusing him of being "loveless... childless... hiding in academia."

How Claire's Weeping Angel Possession Is Different To Amy's

The concept of Weeping Angels possessing human hosts was introduced with Amy Pond in Doctor Who season 5. The "Time of Angels/Flesh & Stone" two-part story made its own retcon, revealing one glance directly into a Weeping Angel's eye imprints an image into that person's mind. Amy made that fatal mistake, and carried an Angel in her eyes until The Doctor erased it by sending the offending statue through a crack in time. For Amy, the Weeping Angel sought only to escape, killing its host from within.

Claire's Weeping Angel possession in Doctor Who: Flux is a more complete version of Amy's. Rather than the Angel entering through the eye, Claire is a percipient who psychically witnessed a Weeping Angel premonition, allowing it to invade her mind directly. Where Amy hallucinated turning to stone, Claire's graying arms are visible to The Doctor and Professor Jericho, suggesting this is no mere mind trick, and The Doctor herself describes the phenomenon as "impossible." Amy's inner Weeping Angel lived inside her visual cortex, which meant closing her eyes halted the process, but Claire's is a full-fat psychic manifestation deep within her consciousness, which Jodie Whittaker's Doctor reveals would take "incalculable" energy to pull off. Unlike Amy, Claire closing her eyes won't help.

The Division Employed Doctor Who's Weeping Angels

The origin of the Weeping Angels remains a mystery, even in Doctor Who: Flux, but "Village of the Angels" confirms they serve(d) the mysterious Division. Once upon a time, The Doctor and the Weeping Angels apparently fought for the same side, as strange as that uneasy alliance may seem. Doctor Who season 12's finale strongly implied (if not outright stated) The Division was specifically a Time Lord squad, but season 13 is rapidly proving otherwise, with other species such as the Lupari and now the Weeping Angels also recruited. As well as altering the racial composition of The Division, the Weeping Angels working for a larger organization expands their motivations beyond just consuming as much time energy as possible. The Angels must have a deeper reason for staying so loyal to The Division, they'd even hunt down one of their own kind.

Two Weeping Angel Touches Are Deadly

The Weeping Angels earned a merciful reputation by sending victims to the past rather than slaughtering them, but the villains have still killed in Doctor Who. Previously, a swift death would come via off-screen neck snap, but Doctor Who: Flux reveals another instance when a Weeping Angel encounter can prove fatal. According to Peggy, should a person who has already been sent through time by a Weeping Angel be attacked again, the second touch will kill them. For instance, if post-Doctor Amy and Rory Pond were attacked by a Weeping Angel a second time, they'd have died, rather than being sent further back.

Doctor Who Introduces A Weeping Angel Transport

Peggy takes Yaz and Dan to a supposed burial site in the Devon countryside, only for the child's future self (Mrs. Hayward) to appear on the other side of the time divide and explain the truth. According to 1960s Peggy, the huge lump of stone is "how they [the Weeping Angels] got here" and the slab later shines with brilliant blue light. This could be a Weeping Angel ship or teleport, seen for the very first time in Doctor Who. The construct might move through space, time, or both, but however it operates there's no reason to doubt Mrs. Hayward's assessment that it's a Weeping Angel mode of transport.

Is Quantum Extraction A Weeping Angel Power, Or Division?

Weeping Angels of Doctor Who's past have proved adept at sending individuals through time, but "Village of the Angels" reveals a technique known as "quantum extraction." The Thirteenth Doctor explains this means removing an entire location - a quaint English village, for example - from the timestream. It's not clear whether quantum extraction is an inherent power of the Weeping Angels, a side-effect of the Flux, or a Division power, but it's not something the Weeping Angels have performed before on such scale.

Whatever's Happening To The Doctor In Flux's Cliffhanger

The final moments of "Village of the Angels" see Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor turned into a Weeping Angel herself, but it's not yet clear what's really going on. Has she been transformed into an Angel? Has she been turned to stone by the Angels' ship? Or is this a hallucination similar to Amy and Claire? Though the full explanation may prove otherwise, the Weeping Angels' ability to turn The Doctor to stone from afar seems to be a new ability for Doctor Who.

More: Doctor Who Theory: The Mouri Are The Original Weeping Angels