The Weeping Angels were a new creation within the world of Doctor Who created by Steven Moffat for the Series 3 Episode 10 story "Blink." The Angels are statues that do not move when they are being observed, but the second a person blinks or turns away from them, they launch and attack, sending the person back in time and feeding off the days they could have lived. While they remain one of the scariest villains of The Doctor's rouge gallery, a fan theory started circulating back in 2010 after the premiere of the Series 4 special episode "The End Of Time" that might explain the horrific origins of the Weeping Angels.

During "The End Of Time" story, the high council of Gallifrey escapes the Time War and heads to present-day Earth. This voyage consists of Rassilon, the President of Gallifrey, and his accomplices along with two punished Time Lords who Rassilon states are punished "like the Weeping Angels of old." The punished Time Lords stand in the exact same hidden position that a Weeping Angel does, and so a theory was born that all Angels are in fact punished Time Lords forced to spend eternity in Angel Form, feeding off the time energy of victims to keep themselves alive.

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There is logic towards this theory. While it could be argued that Rassilon uttering the phrase "of old" means the Angels existed well before Time Lords, both species possess time travel abilities, which places them in a long-winded game of the chicken and the egg. The Time Lords could have easily and accidentally created the Angels who traveled far and wide throughout the cosmos and the temporal vortex to place themselves as timeless myths and legends, giving them the ability to exist outside of the time-locked event of the Time War -- but as Angels they lose all memory of being Time Lords. The time dependence of the Angels also plays into confirming the theory as Time Lords in their own right are beings more powerful than the concept of time itself, and if they were punished by holding still and hidden from the universe, they could easily decay into stone and lose their minds, thus incorporating a hunger for time energy.

Another interesting point within "The End Of Time" story is that one of the two punished Time Lords might be The Doctor's mother. While this was not confirmed, there are hints that indicate that she might be. When The Doctor first sees the punished Time Lords, one of them lowers her hands to look at him and The Doctor holds a look of regret towards her specifically. Near the end of the episode when The Doctor is saying his goodbyes to all his old companions, he visits Donna Noble's wedding and is asked by Wilfred Mott who those punished Time Lords were. Without saying anything, The Doctor looks at Sylvia, Donna's mother and then at Donna, thus confirming that she was his mother or at the very least, a member of his family. Given her intense punishment, her being his mother makes more sense as someone had to take the blame for The Doctor activating The Moment that decimated Daleks and Time Lords alike.

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The Doctor's lineage is never shown apart from the very first series of Doctor Who back in 1963 when he travels with his granddaughter. The Doctor mentions he used to have children of his own, but that look near the end of "The End Of Time" might have confirmed that his mother became a Weeping Angel, which in turn makes the villains sadder as the knowledge that his species survived only to end up as monsters makes The Doctor sympathetic towards them. However, the Angels have been deformed to the point they are no longer Time Lords and the damage they cause throughout the timeline makes them a threat The Doctor needs to stop.

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