River warns the Doctor that it is summoning all of his enemies, but he refuses to listen, or, indeed, to flee. Rather, he realises that the greatest fighting machine ever invented, the Roman army, is nearby, and goes on to enlist their help.
Back in Underhenge, Amy questions the Doctor about the engagement ring she has found; in his replies, there begins the very faintest stirrings of memories of Rory (who, to recap, had previously been wiped from her mind because, courtesy of the crack in time, it appeared that he previously seemed not to have existed at all). They are distracted by something that starts firing at them: it turns out to be the arm of a Cyberman, which has been severed from the rest of its body. As the two try to escape, Amy is attacked by flailing steel cables, which appear to be attached to a Cyberman’s head. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the Cyberman appears, and so it proves: the body storms in, releases the skull of the previous host from the head, and attempts to capture Amy, who just manages to escape. She is rescued by an enigmatic Roman centurion, who turns out to be none other than the previously disappeared Rory – whose reappearance even the Doctor can’t explain. Neither can Rory: one minute he was dying, he said, and the next part of the Roman legion. Still, however, Amy can’t quite remember who he is.
By this time, matters are getting urgent. The Doctor tries to keep the circling enemies at bay and tells River to bring the Tardis to Stonehenge: instead, she is unable to control it, and finds herself flying to Amy’s house on 26 June 2010, the date of the time energy explosion in the universe (and the date of the transmission of the finale). Once there, the scanner shows the same crack in the universe that has been reappearing throughout the series; she hears a voice saying, ‘Silence will fall.’ River makes her way to Amy’s bedroom and finds it full of representations of the Doctor and the Tardis, of Roman soldiers and a copy of Pandora’s Box. This is not a coincidence. River and the Doctor begin to realise that their foray into Roman Britain might be something very different: that they have entered a trap, which has been constructed using the contents of Amy’s mind.
Everything begins to happen very quickly. The Doctor suddenly realises the date on which River has been taken: he orders her to fly the Tardis away immediately, but she cannot. It is now being controlled by something else. Rory, meanwhile, is finally getting Amy to remember who he is, but just as he manages to do so, it turns out that he and the other Roman centurions are, in fact, Autons. (Autons are another classic set of Doctor Who monsters: first introduced to Jon Pertwee’s Doctor in the 1970 serial ‘Spearhead from Space’, they are life-sized plastic dummies animated by the Nestene Consciousness, and quite as dangerous as all the other nasties the Doctor encounters.)
Rory, realising what has happened, begs Amy to flee before he does her harm, but Amy, now that she has remembered him, will not. Unfortunately, he loses control of himself and kills her. Nor is the Doctor having much fun: the other Autons capture him and take him to the Pandorica, which is now fully open – and empty. As Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and numerous others gather at the scene, it becomes clear that the Pandorica is indeed a prison – for the Doctor, himself. They all believe that the Doctor is about to destroy the universe; he tries to tell them that it is, in fact, the Tardis that is in danger of doing so, but they refuse to listen and drag him, inexorably, towards his fate. And so the episode draws to a close, with Rory cradling the lifeless Amy, the Doctor about to be shut into internal imprisonment, and River trapped in the Tardis. ‘I’m sorry, my love,’ she says. The Tardis explodes.
Even for a Doctor Who cliffhanger, this was a showstopper. Not since David Tennant’s Doctor had been imprisoned by the Master over the course of a previous two-part story had viewers been left so intrigued as to what was going to happen next: the fate not only of the earth but time itself was at stake.
Fans and critics alike loved it. ‘Moffat delivers’, wrote Michael Henderson, editor of Slice of SciFi website. ‘Superb in every sense of the word. THAT is how you do a Doctor Who season finale! Ever since the Doctor returned to our screens in 2005, each season of the show has tried to create a season-long story arc, with varying degrees of success. In the first season, ‘Bad Wolf’ proved to be a fun novelty, let down by its resolution. Part of the problem with the previous season story arc was that the concept of the arc often proved to be far more interesting that the execution and resolution. For all its trying, the new series has yet to have a truly satisfying season finale. Until now… We’re halfway there.
‘The first words out of my mouth after I picked my jaw up off the floor Saturday evening were, “Now THAT is how you do a season finale!” They were followed by, “Is it next Saturday evening yet?”’
Self-confessed sci-fi geek Eoghann Irving, who had been following the series on his website eoghann.com, was similarly enthusiastic. ‘“The Pandorica Opens” had most of the hallmarks of modern Doctor Who season closers,’ he wrote. ‘Guest appearances from earlier episodes; a threat to the universe etc. But on top of that it had that Steven Moffat style. The snappy dialogue we’ve come to expect; some heart-wrenching character moments; a story that holds to it’s own internal logic and an underlying mystery (to be solved in the final episode perhaps). From the opening scenes as a message winds its way through time from Van Gogh all the way to the Doctor (courtesy of River Song), I was captivated. The pace is fast from beginning to end, but the tone changes ever so slowly as the episode progresses. Starting off as pure action and adventure, it gradually develops darker elements and by the final third I was just waiting for the shoe to drop.’
On IGN UK, Matt Wales was also impressed, all the more so as he had felt some of the earlier episodes in the series didn’t quite pull it all off. ‘Skirting around the episode’s bigger reveals – and there were plenty – “The Pandorica Opens” managed to pack in an absurd number of standout moments,’ he wrote. ‘From River’s message, to the truth about the Pandorica – not to mention Matt Smith’s show-stopping speech to the oncoming alien horde – it was all beautifully delivered, if not quite as satisfying as other two-part openers thanks to its wilful evasiveness. And true, the extended slo-mo denouement dipped a little too violently into melodrama but it’s hard to fault that bravado downbeat cliffhanger. Indeed, in a season that’s largely struggled to spark much emotional investment in its frequently two-dimensional characters, “The Pandorica Opens” really went for the heartstrings. Even among the relentless gobsmacking spectacle, both Karen Gillan and the always-stunning Alex Kingston gave proceedings real soul as their predicaments became increasingly catastrophic.’
There were a few reservations. Was it wise to pack quite so many alien enemies into just the one story? And Rory’s reappearance had at that point simply been described as ‘a miracle’, not, it was generally felt, a good enough explanation for a writer as talented as Moffat. There were also those who said that they had had no problem working out the twist – that the Pandorica was actually a prison for the Doctor himself, surely one of the most powerful beings in the universe, even if, rather than being evil, he was ultimately utterly benign.
But on the whole it was a hugely impressive beginning to the finale. By drawing in so many strands and so many characters that had appeared early in the series, there was a sense of continuity and enormous satisfaction to the fans as the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle finally began to slot into place. And as for the cliffhanger ending: the Doctor was about to be encased in a giant prison that it was all but impossible for anyone to get out of. His enemies had gathered – hordes of them, in every species available. Just how was the Doctor, for all his many and varied talents, going to be able to get out of that?
And so the excitement surrounding the airing of the thirteenth and final episode in the Eleventh Doctor’s new series was palpable. Entitled ‘The Big Bang’, it actually represented a change of tone from the first half of the two-part story in that in lieu of all the monsters gathering, only one Dalek was left, and the plotting was at times so confusing that you neede
d to be very sharp to keep up. But it wrapped the series up nicely and left the viewers desperate for more.
The opening scene went straight back to the opening of the very first episode: little Amelia Pond is praying for help about the growing and ominous crack in her wall. The Doctor is trapped in the Pandorica, however, and time has been rewritten, so this time he does not appear. But strange forces are at work: when Amelia gets up the next morning, she finds a pamphlet posted through her letterbox, telling her to go to see the Pandorica at her local museum. She enlists the help of an aunt, who goes with her, where Amelia finds another note, this one telling her to stay in the vicinity. She manages to hide until the museum closes, at which point she approaches the Pandorica and touches it. It opens, revealing not the Doctor, but her adult self.
At this point, with time travel responsible for just about every twist coming, the plot becomes complex as never before. Way back, 2,000 years previously, the Doctor had returned from the future to give Rory his sonic screwdriver, which in turn allowed Rory to open the Pandorica and release him. That done, the two of them place Amy’s body inside it to preserve her for the next two millennia until her younger self opens it, thus providing the DNA which will bring Amy back to life. In an admittedly extremely touching scene, Rory insists that he will stay with the Pandorica for the next 2,000 years (or, to be accurate, 1,894) to guard it and its precious content; indeed, in the museum itself, a guide is seen giving a speech about the Pandorica and the mysterious Roman legion that was said to have appeared periodically over the thousands of years of its existence, but which had not been seen since the Blitz. Rory is about to reappear, though: Amy and Amelia are attacked by a Dalek, which is shot at by the museum’s security guard and thus saving them. The guard is, of course, Rory, still faithfully guarding the treasure that has now been brought back to life. The Doctor appears, having got there using River’s Vortex Manipulator to travel into the future; River, and the Tardis, appear to have been destroyed.
Matters promptly get more confusing still. Another Doctor arrives, from 12 minutes into the future, and tells the Doctor in the present to distract the Dalek while he sets up the Pandorica to fly into what appears to be the sun but is, in fact, the Tardis burning up. He has realised that the Pandorica has the power to restore life – hence the newly rejuvenated Dalek – and has worked out that if he flings it and himself into the centre of the Tardis, time will no longer be destroyed and the universe, which is visibly crumbling around them, will come back to life. In fact, it will be a reworking of the Big Bang.
In the meantime, River is still trapped in the Tardis; the Doctor rescues her using the Vortex Manipulator. But increasingly, it is becoming clear that the Doctor is going to have to sacrifice himself to save everyone else. There’s still that Dalek to deal with, though: it attacks the Doctor, Amy, Amelia and Rory, shooting the Doctor, who promptly travels 12 minutes back in time. River, showing none of the Doctor’s mercy towards others, kills the Dalek, which has still not quite regenerated. She is clearly made of pretty stern stuff.
The Doctor who has just come from 12 minutes into the future has managed to finish rigging the Pandorica, so it can fly straight into the Tardis, and thus touch every bit of the universe through its many cracks. Crucially, before he sets off on his final voyage, the Doctor tells Amy that she has to power to bring people back through the cracks, as she did Rory. With that he flies the Pandorica into the Tardis, and the universe is restored once more.
Initially the Doctor thinks he has escaped once more (‘Love it when I do that’) until he realises that the only way to close the crack in Amelia’s bedroom wall is to lock himself on the other side of it. He revisits every episode in his life as the Eleventh Doctor, ending with little Amelia and his first visit. He picks her up in the garden where she has fallen asleep, having been waiting for him, and carries her up to her bed, telling her a story about a daft old man who had borrowed a really blue magic box which was brand new and ancient at the same time. Then he passes through the crack – and disappears.
The adult Amy wakes up on the morning of her wedding, to find the mother and father she had remembered back to life. As the day progresses, however, she increasingly realises that she has forgotten something very important, so much so that at the reception after the wedding, she finds herself in tears. She catches a glimpse of River walking past, outside. She is given a very blue diary, which is empty. Something borrowed, something blue …
Suddenly, it all comes back and to the consternation of the wedding guests, Amy stands up in the middle of the reception and calls out for the Doctor. The Tardis appears, and the Doctor steps out, in full morning dress, dances wildly and extremely badly at the wedding, and there is much rejoicing all round. Finally, he gives River back the diary, which is empty no longer, and her Vortex Manipulator, which enables her to go back to her life. The Doctor, Amy and Rory all rush back to the Tardis, where they are summoned – to deal with an escaped Egyptian goddess on the Orient Express in space. It is an immensely satisfying and very moving end.
That was it: Matt had done it. He was the Doctor, all right: the role was indisputably his own. Steven Moffat was jubilant. ‘I said to everybody else that it would be a minimum of six weeks before he broke through in the role, maybe the vampire’s episode, but it was instant for him, right from the debut episode,’ he said. ‘It was extraordinary. It was like that from the very first reading of the lines. Matt’s such a fantastically engaging actor and you don’t often get that. He’s a ready-made start who pops on to your screen. There’s something special that his look brings to Doctor Who too. He’s a cool, young guy and old fogey at the same time. He’s simultaneously your younger brother and your granddad. He can also seem cool and a geek all at once.’
The reviews were pretty positive, too. Gavin Fuller was impressed – although also a little cautious about giving too fulsome praise. ‘This was one of the most high-concept Doctor Who episodes ever,’ he wrote. ‘At one stage Rory expressed his difficulty understanding what was going on, and he might be speaking for much of the audience. Moffat’s love of playing with the potentialities of time, evident in several of his former episodes, was evident throughout. Unfortunately, this made the escape for the Doctor somewhat too easy, and rather paradoxical in nature – he only escapes as Rory lets him out once given the means to do so by the Doctor travelling back in time once he’s escaped.’
Dan Martin, blogging for the Guardian, however, thought it was brilliant. ‘Anyway, this was brilliant, wasn’t it?’ he blogged. ‘So brilliant that praising Moffat’s event scripts is giving me repetitive strain. Structurally, it was a completely different piece from episode 1 and felt more like a classic Who adventure – the team got separated, ran around a bit, found each other, exchanged heroic technobabble and had a jolly excellent time along the way, end of the universe or no end of the universe. Crucially, the alliance of monsters was barely significant; the Daleks being there, without for a moment being all that’s there.’
Dan was also beautifully able to beautifully sum up exactly what it was that had made the episode so special. ‘We got a lovely whiff of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Mary Poppins in the early museum scenes, from the cinematography as much as the timeless, almost Dickensian child psychiatrist trying to rationalise Amelia’s dreams,’ he said. ‘This was a righteous claim by Moffat to establish Who as easily the equal of those classic fables (just, you know, with spaceships). You had to hold your nerve to buy Auton Rory guarding Amy in the Pandorica for 2,000 years, but it was more beautiful just to go with it, and a classically modern fairytale unfolded before our eyes.’
Martin Hoscik, on seenit.co.uk, had previously been a little cautious about the series, but he too loved the finale. ‘Wow, that was some finale,’ he wrote. ‘I may not have enjoyed a lot of Steven Moffat’s first series of Doctor Who but credit where it’s due, he served up a thrilling final episode after a somewhat mixed run. A recurring source of my disappointment has been a “chan
ge for change sake” mentality which has peeked out from behind the scenes during Doctor Who Confidential, alongside a perceived rush to constantly distance the new run from the multiple-award winning seasons which preceded it … What the new team have got absolutely right is the casting of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan who have been great and delivered the goods each week despite some ropey scripts. Presumably the new guard have now got running around the office shouting “We’re not Russell” out of their systems so they should have a little more time to concentrate on the quality of the series’ 6 episodes which fall between the series opener and closer.’
Gerard McGarry, on blogging community Unreality Shout, adored it. ‘Oh, readers,’ he wrote. ‘I’ve just finished watching it, that final episode. Twice. It. Was. Stunning. “The Big Bang” closes off an incredible series of Doctor Who. When we last left the Doctor and chums, they were all in some kind of mortal peril. And within a few short minutes, they’re not. It’s a brilliant and daring escape that makes not much sense at all, but your head is spinning throughout and the whole thing is laced with mystery and humour. Though we could whinge about the paradox that enables the Doctor to escape the Pandorica, it set up some excellent headsmacking moments. From the outset, we see the Doctor’s hand in a million little details – nudging little Amelia towards the museum where the Pandorica is being displayed. And we see the logic behind his frequent reappearances to Rory. Both from when he initially makes them, then from the future, where he’s receiving new information from his companions and flipping back in time to tidy up the details.’
Matt Smith--The Biography Page 9
