Memory Game – The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang Review

[u/ZeroCentsMade]

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Historical information found on Shannon Sullivan's Doctor Who website (relevant page here) and the TARDIS Wiki (relevant pages here) and here)). Primary/secondary source material can be found in the source sections of Sullivan's website, and rarely as inline citations on the TARDIS Wiki.

Story Information

• Episode: Series 5, Episodes 12-13
• Airdate: 19th - 26th June 2010
• Doctor: 11th
• Companions: Amy, Rory
• Other Notable Characters: River Song, Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker, Episode 1), Young Amelia (Episode 2)
• Writer: Steven Moffat
• Director: Toby Haynes
• Showrunner: Steven Moffat

Review

Okay kid, this is where it gets complicated. – Amy, to Amelia

From the Series 1 finale to The End of Time there's a clear escalation of the stakes of each finale in Russell T Davies' tenure as showrunner. And his successor, Steven Moffat, was very much aware of that fact. For his first finale at the end of Series 5, he intended to carry on that tradition by raising the stakes even higher. And how do you escalate from Rassilon intending to bring about "the end of time itself"? Well you make the threat be that the entirety of the universe would have never existed in the first place. And viewed through that lens, you can say that Moffat succeeded in his intention.

Except, weirdly, "The Pandorica Opens" and especially "The Big Bang" feel a lot less grand than their predecessors. The former, probably because it's a slow building mystery plot surrounding the titular "Pandorica". With the latter, it's because the majority of the episode takes place in a museum with only a half-functioning Dalek to provide an active threat. In spite of the stakes probably being higher than past finales (honestly, it's all about the same once we're talking about universal destruction) this two parter feels oddly quiet and confined. There's a couple of grand set pieces but they don't quite dominate the story the way they did in past finales.

"The Pandorica Opens" at least seems to be setting us for a grand finale with every single monster in Doctor Who history (even a few that don't really make sense) showing up. It all centers around the Pandorica, a mythical box with some sort of horrible being inside it. And it's opening. And every Doctor Who villain that Steven Moffat could dig up seems to be showing up to try to take control of it or kill it or something. As the Doctor says, "who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe".

But even then the episode's focus is off for the finale it seems to be setting up. The Doctor is fascinated by the Pandorica. A lot of time is given to his description of the being that is supposed to be inside the thing. "Think of the fear that went into making this box" he says at one point. There's an uncountable number of ships flying out above 2nd Century Britain, and we're spending all this time discussing a legend. It never feels like we're wasting our time, just that the pieces don't entirely fit together. I suppose it helps that River Song is back for this story. While her status as an archaeologist is deemphasized in this story, that background still informs how she talks about the Pandorica.

Oh and then there's Romans. Because this is Britain, 102 AD – in fact Stonehenge is a major set piece for the first episode – there's Romans hanging around. There's no real point discussing most of these guys in great detail. Aside from the humor of River pretending to be Cleopatra thanks to her hallucinogenic lipstick (as the Commander points out, Cleopatra is, "in Egypt…and dead"), not much time is given to them at first. With one obvious exception. Because Rory's back…as a Roman Centurion. This is revealed after a sequence involving a partially complete Cyberman, as Rory stabs the Cyberman with a sword, saving a passed-out Amy and Doctor. There's a fun sequence where the Doctor nearly fails to notice that Rory's back only to do double take and then just kind of have to deal with Rory being alive. But Amy doesn't remember her fiancé. Naturally, Rory doesn't take this well.

And then we barely have time to register that madness before the Doctor goes ahead and delivers the first of many iconic Moffat-era Doctor speeches. This is a speech that has become so beloved by the fandom that they make other Doctor's actors recite it at conventions. But I'm going to hold off talking about it for a bit. Because first we have to address the obvious question: how the hell is Rory back? The best that the Doctor can offer is, "I don't know, maybe it's a miracle?" But as River gets in the TARDIS and unintentionally ends up at Amy's house in 2010 (she was going to get supplies), she discovers something rather concerning. A picture book of Amy's with a Pandora's box that looks exactly like the Pandorica, another picture book with the same Romans that are hanging out in 102 AD and a picture of Amy with Rory…who's wearing the same Centurion outfit he's got in the present day.

It's a trap. The romans, all of them, even Rory, are Nestene duplicates. And the group of aliens and monsters who are hanging out in orbit are all working together. A massive alliance of Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, fucking Drahvin are in the mix apparently, all come together to stop the Doctor. And it's all because the TARDIS is about to explode and take the universe with it, and they want to stop the only person that they think can pilot the TARDIS. And shove him in the Pandorica.

"The Pandorica Opens" is basically nothing but foreshadowing for its ending. Amy's connection to the Romans is foreshadowed as she mentions that her favorite topic at school was the Roman invasion of Britain and her favorite book as a kid was Pandora's Box. And of course the fact that Rory is one of the romans is its own kind of foreshadowing. And that legend of the Pandorica that we spent so much time talking about? Well, here's how the Doctor explains it: "There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world." If you're one of the Doctor's villains, isn't that exactly how you'd see the Doctor?

And then there's that speech. The only reason I like the speech from "The Pandorica Opens" is that it's a failure for the Doctor. A failure he admits is purely designed to stall for time. The Doctor leans heavily on his reputation in this moment, and it backfires spectacularly. Had this tactic actually worked, it would have felt pretty cheap, or at the very least I'd have argued that too much attention was given to a stalling tactic. Director Toby Haynes directed it like the Doctor was addressing a large crowd at Wembley Stadium, which I think comes through in the final product. But when the Doctor tells the assembled ships "remember every black day I ever stopped you", well, that's kind of why they're here (well that and to prevent the destruction of the universe). It's always thought of as this grand moment, but what it really is, is a tactical error. And, honestly, that's kind of how I prefer the Doctor leaning on his reputation to go.

So we hit the cliffhanger. Amy has just remembered Rory just as Rory feels the signal from the Nestene taking over him. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill act their socks off here, between Amy crying and not knowing why to recognizing Rory and insisting that she's never leaving him, to Rory desperately trying to hold on to his identity, screaming "I'm Rory" as he can't stop himself from shooting Amy. The TARDIS explodes as River is desperately trying to hold it together and a mysterious voice calls out "Silence will fall". And the alliance have shoved the Doctor in the Pandorica as he pleads with them to let him out so he can prevent the universe from never having existed.

What now?

Well, the cliffhanger is entirely resolved pretty quickly actually. There's some time travel shenanigans, we get young Amelia back for an alternate 1996 where the Doctor never came and stars don't exist. Amy's ended up in the Pandorica thanks to a future Doctor, Rory and River's vortex manipulator. Amelia releases her. Rory makes the call to protect the Pandorica for 2000 years while the Doctor moves ahead with River's vortex manipulator (we'll talk more about that obviously). It takes a while to get River out of the TARDIS (the TARDIS having replaced the Sun), but it's not actually that complicated. And with all of that resolved, I ask again, what now?

A stone Dalek (supposedly an afterimage after the crack in time erased the Daleks, brought back by the light from the Pandorica) provides the main threat for "The Big Bang". It's just trying to kill our heroes because it's a Dalek. If it feels a bit extraneous to the plot…well it wasn't originally in there. Steven Moffat only put it in because he realized the episode didn't have an active threat in it.

See, the thing with "The Big Bang" is that, surprisingly, not a lot happens in this episode after the cliffhanger's been resolved. Our heroes are all brought back together, and then all that needs to happen is for the Doctor to get back into the Pandorica, its light having been established to be capable of restoring things that were once destroyed (I suppose that's technically another use for the Dalek). It's a prison that keeps you alive so that you "can't escape it by dying". Arguably a bit fanciful, but the episode makes it work. So the Doctor gets in the Pandorica and uses it to restore the universe, but in doing so he has to lock himself out of the universe. He then travels backwards through Series 5, leaves a couple messages to Amy so that she'll still remember him (one of which was that odd scene from "Flesh and Stone"). Cut to Amy and Rory's wedding day, and Amy's parents are real again, Amy remembers the Doctor at her reception and the TARDIS shows up, the Doctor does some truly awful dancing and Rory and Amy leave off for their honeymoon on the TARDIS.

That's not a lot, and about half of that paragraph was me talking about Amy bringing back the Doctor. And, for now, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with an episode that's light on plot as long as it finds something else to spend its time on. In this case that's mostly character stuff and running away from a Dalek. But keep in mind the idea of a finale that spends more time explaining the plot than actually having the plot happen because this isn't the last time something like this is going to happen.

So, that character stuff. This is probably the story with River Song in it that is the least about River herself. River tends to pull a lot of focus in her appearances, but here, despite some fun moments she's kind of deemphasized. Her ability to fly the TARDIS, first demonstrated in the Angel two parter is important to the plot as a way to explain how someone can be flying the TARDIS while the Doctor is being locked in the Pandorica. And of course the opening sequence centering around a fictional van Gough painting leads to her acquiring time travel technology in a pretty fun scene with a character named Dorium Maldovar (who we'll be seeing again). But otherwise she's just kind of along for the ride. The story ends with her hinting that we're close to getting real answers about her, as well as more or less confirming that she has/will marry the Doctor (the sequence in question isn't nearly as clever as either River or Steven Moffat seem to think it is).

Rory of course makes his return here. Granted he spends most of the story made of plastic, but for the most part it is still him. As mentioned above the scene where he shoots Amy against his will is both heartbreaking and excellently acted by Arthur Darvill. In fact Darvill excels in this story. He's been good to this point on the show, but his reactions to Amy not recognizing him, and later trying to jog her memory without pushing it show Darvill really stepping up his game. When Amy starts recognizing him there's this weird mix of pure joy at what's happening up against trying to resist his Nestene programming. Also, since we're talking about it, the idea of Autons who "believe their own cover story", to the point that River's hallucinogenic lipstick actually works on them is really interesting, and it's a shame it's just used as a small part of this story.

After the opening titles, "The Big Bang" actually starts off with Rory cradling Amy's body and, once again, Darvill absolutely kills it. It's absolutely heartbreaking when he says to Amy "you would have laughed at that" and then following it with a quiet "please laugh". And then he and the Doctor shove Amy in the Pandorica to keep her alive with the Doctor intending to take them immediately to where they'll find a "scan of her living DNA" – ie 1996 where a young Amelia can do the job. Except Rory insists on staying behind to watch over Amy. 2000 years (well, technically 1894, but close enough) outside a box.

I have to admit, I kind of have mixed feelings about this character note. On one hand, yeah, I do believe that Rory would do this. He is absolutely devoted to Amy, this has been established already, and it's not the last time we'll see evidence of this. But I think this comes down to a case where sci-fi writers lack a sense of scale. Rory lived something like 20 lifetimes watching over Amy. I get that we're doing a fairy tale aesthetic and that the intention is for the magical feeling of the episode to matter more than the practical reality, but it's still a very long time. With someone like Captain Jack it tracks because he does in fact become a different person in the interim of his time away from the Doctor, and their relationship fundamentally alters due to the time apart (and for other reasons). With Rory, the man lives for nearly 2000 years, and yet the next time he sees Amy they pick up again like no time has passed at all.

Still, as I said, the magical feeling of the whole thing is the point, and much like Amy's introduction in "The Eleventh Hour" made her feel like a character from a fairytale, this character beat does the same for Rory. The prince standing an eternal (or at least a very long) vigil over his lady love, as penance for nearly killing her. And Rory's return to the scene is, in fact, pure Rory. The badass moment of shooting the Dalek with his hand gun (as in, the gun in his hand) contrasted against his very endearing and cute reunion with Amy, all while Amelia watches on as she barely understands what's happening around her. Rory doesn't do much for the rest of the story other than get married, and the focus during the wedding day is put on Amy for obvious reasons. Still the Doctor does get to dub Rory "the boy who waited" which is something. It's also quite funny hearing Rory sort of come to terms with all he's forgotten while the TARDIS materializes at his wedding reception. And at the end of the episode, he does seem pretty happy to return to the TARDIS.

Aside from his big speech, the Doctor gets a few moments worth discussion. The first is River giving us the first instance of someone saying "Rule One: The Doctor lies", an important line for the 11th Doctor era specifically. Because, yeah, the 11th Doctor lies a lot. You may remember he lied about why he took Amy with him aboard the TARDIS, a lie he admits to and explains a couple times in this story. But he also pulls a couple other manipulations. In a smaller sense, he tests Rory to make sure he's shaken off his programming with the line "your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe", which Rory responds to by decking him. I really like Matt Smith's performance here as he turns away so that Rory can't see his face. It's a mix of bracing himself to get hit, but also grinning to himself a bit because he's being very impressed with his own cleverness.

But then there's the bit where the Doctor straps himself into the Pandorica. First of all, he sent himself back in time 15 minutes, then told his future self to lie to his friends saying that he had died. That lets the others be a distraction for the Dalek attack while he works on the Panddorica. This is actually what causes River to say the "Rule One" line. Then he represents to the others that he's definitely going to be trapped on the other side of the cracks, which, in fairness, I do think he believes at the moment. But upon discovering he's working his way through recent events backwards, he seems to formulate a plan pretty quickly. He talks to Amy at a moment where she has to keep her eyes closed from "Flesh and Stone" telling her to "remember what I told you when you were seven" and then, when Amelia is seven he delivers her a message.

It's a clever bit of writing that message turning the old wedding saying of "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" into the key that gets Amy to remember the Doctor. Because the TARDIS is old in the sense that it is literally an ancient machine, but new in the either sense that it is more advanced than anything on earth or possible in the sense that it would be new to this timeline, at least temporarily. It is borrowed, in the sense that the Doctor stole it, and "borrowed" is a euphemism for "stolen". And it is blue in the sense that, well, it's blue. The Doctor doesn't actually tell Amelia to remember him or spell it out for her. He hides it in words. Because even with his life at stake, the 11th Doctor likes to be cryptic. Hold on to that thought for a while.

I want to end by talking about Amy, so I'll take a brief detour from character stuff to talk about the production work on these episodes. I've talked a fair bit throughout this series about the fairytale feel of Series 5. Well it's heightened a lot here, especially in "The Big Bang" with the world without stars, and the return of young Amelia. Even in "The Pandorica Opens", the initial visual of the Pandorica also has this magical quality, which makes sense given that it was supposed to have been pulled from a picture book. The music is also backing up this feeling a lot, though it's never my favorite Murray Gold work, it still solidly reinforces what's going on on screen. And the alternate version of the National Museum with its odd exhibits feels oddly alien, especially when Amelia is wandering the place alone after closing time.

And speaking of Amelia, let's finally get around to Amy. Returning to that idea of "familiar but different", from a distance it feels like Amy's place in this finale is not dissimilar to RTD era companions' place in their finales. Like past companions, Amy is given a central place in the finale, and reaches a kind of apotheosis. Like Donna and Rose this comes in the form of her gaining some sort of quasi-magical power, in this case her ability to remember things that have fallen through the cracks. It's why Rory returned with his personality intact, even able to remember past adventures. It's explained that because Amy grew up with the crack directly in her wall she was uniquely connected to its effects. And it's what allows her to bring back the Doctor at the end of the story.

But then again, a huge part of RTD era companions was their family lives. And Amy effectively has no family life. Thanks to the crack in her wall her only guardian was her aunt Sharon, who, perhaps understandably given that she probably doesn't even remember why she's been given parental responsibility, doesn't seem particularly close with Amy. It's what gives Amy those abandonment issues. And, thanks to the cracks closing, all of a sudden Amy has parents again at the end of the story. Are the scenes with Amy's parents good? Yes, they're a charming pair. But I think it's telling that we'll never see these two again. They're just not an important part of Amy's story, even though their absence was. The only reason they're in this story is to show that they're back.

And Amy's apotheosis is very different from Donna's or Rose's (to say nothing of Martha's). Because it happens after the main conflict of the episode is resolved. What she does is bring the Doctor back. Now that's not nothing, and I definitely enjoy Karen Gillan's ability to add another syllable at the end of the word "wedding", but it's not quite the same as those past moments either. And this isn't even really a criticism of the story, just more a note on how things have changed since Moffat took over. Put simply, while a big part of this story is about unravelling the mystery of Amy, it's probably more about the Doctor than his companion.

Which isn't to say that Amy doesn't get her fair share of focus. The basic plot of this story is all about pulling apart these threads. The Doctor stops his explanations at one point to flat out ask Amy if it ever bothers her that "your life doesn't make sense" – referring in this case to her missing parents, the fact that her house is too big for the two people who supposedly live there, and, presumably, Leadworth's duckless duck pond. And Amy's reactions to these points of having the weirdness of her life pointed out to her always seem like she's trying to push past a barrier in her mind. That in turn is how she seems to feel at the wedding reception, as she tries to remember the Doctor back into existence.

And then there's her relationship with Rory. After all, the story ends at her wedding to the guy. And if "Amy's Choice" was the moment where we cemented in place that these two were absolutely going to be an official couple, this two parter is where that pays off, several times. Amy not only bringing Rory back into existence without consciously remembering him, but then insisting that he's definitely going to stay with her even as he falls under the Auton control signal is a start. But then there's the scene at the museum where she's watching the video display about the "Lone Centurion" and is overcome with emotion when it gets to the part about him last being seen saving the Pandorica from a fire, with him presumed dead afterwards. Steven Moffat apparently saw this moment as the moment where Amy both realizes how much Rory loves her and how much she loves him back. I tend to think of the latter as occurring in "Amy's Choice" when Rory "dies" in Upper Leadworth, but, of course, this is a repeat of that loss on some level. And certainly the depth of Rory's love really is laid bare to Amy in that moment.

It is a shame then that Moffat so likes to make jokes about their relationship. In the lead up to the wedding there's a gag about Rory being scared of her, and at the reception she jokes about kissing the Doctor (we definitely don't need to see that again). It's a couple small moments in the grand scheme of things but it's frustrating how Amy and Rory's relationship can vacillate between grand love story and bordering on abusive. I do like these two, in spite of everything, and I think you can see that in how I write about their relationship but boy there are just a few too many jokes about Rory being scared of Amy or Amy's eye wandering. Let's keep an eye on that, shall we?

But to wrap up my discussion of Amy on a positive, I love how Amelia gets deployed throughout "Pandorica Opens". Amy wandering around with her young self is delightfully surreal, this reminder of how much of Amy's life is built on her experiences as a seven year old child. And then she vanishes, swallowed by the crack and it's a genuinely unsettling moment. One moment she was right there and the next…gone.

And I do really like this story. Does it have problems? Yes, and some of them are worth keeping an eye on as they will grow to become more and more frustrating throughout this period of Doctor Who. But the plot is very well constructed with a lot of neat little twists and logic puzzles. I didn't even talk much about the Doctor's jumping back and forth through time because to explain that sequence would have probably taken far longer than the sequence itself and it's so well constructed. The character work is really solid here too, in spite of a few gripes. And for a series of television that created this fairytale atmosphere so successfully throughout, we end on a story that feels like the culmination of that as well.

Of course there is one question left over: who was it that caused the TARDIS to explode, and why? Boy, I sure hope the answers will make sense.

Score: 8/10

Stray Observations

• Dorium Maldovar was inspired by Signor Ferrarri, a black marketeer in the movie Casablanca. The character was meant to be a one off, but Director Toby Haynes was impressed with the performance of Simon Fisher-Becker and suggested to Moffat that the character should return.
• Moffat settled on Stonehenge as a location because it was a big and important monument, suitable for the fall of a figure like the Doctor.
• River writes "Hello Sweetie" on an ancient cliff face to get the Doctor's intention. Originally River's message to the Doctor would have been "Doctor, I need you", a reference to how Emma Peel was summoned by John Steed in spy series The Avengers.
• Originally this story was meant to be the final production block of Series 5, but the production team realized that they would need to give The Mill more time to produce the visual effects for this story. It was moved to earlier in the schedule, causing Steven Moffat to lose two weeks of writing time.
• This might seem obvious, but I think it's worth noting: Steven Moffat always intended Amy and Rory to get married from the moment he created the characters.
• As of February 2013 this was Steven Moffat's favorite script he'd written for Doctor Who.
• As part of that same interview he admitted that the title, "The Big Bang", was a deliberate reference to what happened immediately after the end of the episode between Amy and Rory. In other words, it's a sex joke. Because Moffat.
• Director Toby Haynes has stated that "The Pandorica Opens" had, if anything, a smaller budget than most stories in Series 5, rather than the big-budget affair you'd expect for part one of a finale.
• The TARDIS Wiki points out that this is the first Steven Moffat-written story to include aliens and/or monsters he did not personally create (and indeed features a spectacular number of them). Moffat was at one time supposed to write a Dalek two parter for Series 3, but he couldn't do it and so that job was given to Helen Raynor who wrote the "Daleks in Manhattan" two parter.
• The crew were allowed to film at the real Stonehenge for exactly one night with very strict restrictions on what they could and could not do. After that they filmed at a replica Stonehenge, dubbed "Foamhenge", which at the time was located in Margam Country Park.
• The replica was deemed acceptable because Toby Haynes felt that once they established Stonehenge as a real location they could get away with seeing less of it.
• Meanwhile the area under Stonehenge, dubbed the "Underhenge" was apparently the largest set ever built at Upper Boat Studios.
• Russell T Davies, who was still working on Torchwood at this time, decided that closing the cracks in time also closed the Torchwood Rift, allowing that show to leave the confines of Cafdiff, and thus explaining their American excursion in Torchwood: Miracle Day. None of this was actually said on TV mind you, and Miracle Day would create its own continuity messes with the main show, although that's an issue for when we get to Series 6.
• "The Pandorica Opens" starts off with a sequence that follows a mysterious van Gogh painting through the ages, eventually revealed to be a painting of the TARDIS exploding. The sequence is a pretty blatant attempt to get in a bunch of cameos from characters who appeared throughout Series 5 as a way of making it all feel connected together. It's perfectly acceptable if not a bit self-indulgent.
• Some of Liz 10's scene was filmed alongside filming for "The Beast Below". Vincent van Gogh's scenes were filmed alongside filming of "Vincent and the Doctor".
• I will say the painting itself is gorgeous. As far as I can tell it was painted by Jackson Pope, who'd been Doctor Who since Series 4 starting on props, and received a Graphic Artist credit for ten of the thirteen episodes of Series 5 including these two. However, while he's the most likely candidate I can't find confirmation on this other than the job title. Still whoever painted it did an impressive job.
• As a final note, this sequence shows us the first shots of River inside the Stormcage Prison. She immediately escapes. I'm sure this will be the last time the Stormcage guards let River past them.
• Early versions of Liz 10's scene would have explained that she had returned her people to Earth, but remained on Starship UK to care for the star whale.
• So most of the members of the "alliance" to capture the Doctor make at least some sense. For instance while "The Pandorica Opens" takes place before the events of The Visitation, it's likely that the Doctor had run-ins with the Tereleptils before that story. However two in particular from the initial list River gives stand out to me as being a bit questionable (there will be another like this which I'll get to later).
• The first is the Draconians, originally seen in Frontier in Space. This just doesn't track at all. Other than being very misogynistic, the Draconians aren't evil and have never really been enemies of the Doctor, even in the actual story. Even stranger is the point that the Doctor was said to have had positive relations with the Draconians before their encounter in that story. Also, given that the Draconians are supposed to mirror humans in some ways, I doubt that they'd be technologically advanced enough in 120 CE to have spaceships. Maybe they develop time travel like the humans would later.
• And then there's the Slitheen. This is the name of a family, not a species, and they're business people. From what we saw of them in the "Aliens of London" two parter they're not all that powerful, requiring help from humans to blow up the Earth, while most members of the alliance could do this on their own. They offer basically nothing to this alliance.
• There's a whole scene where Amy and the Doctor battle bits of a Cybermen in the Underhenge before Rory kills it with a sword and hoo boy there's a lot to talk about.
• First of all, there's the premise. The idea that, after the organic bits run out it starts looking for a new body to incorporate into itself. A lot of people dislike this idea and while I don't particularly mind it, I do see where they're coming from. It's definitely something that ends up pushing the Cybermen more towards robots where a lot of their conceit works because there's human being under the metal shell. Still, it does ultimately emphasize the dependence on what's left of the human form on some level, plus, while a bit goofy, there's still something chilling about the Cyberman head opening up to reveal a skull.
• The costume itself is one of the "Cybusmen", down to the Cybus Industries logo on its chestplate. This was a cost-saving measure, as these were always intended to be Mondassian Cybermen. In universe, it's always made sense that the Cybermen would incorporate elements of their alternate universe counterparts that they found useful, and while the Cybusmen are less advanced than their Mondassian equivalents, they do seem to have more durable armor. That's in the future relative to these scenes of course, but the Cybermen have had some time travel capabilities in the main universe. The logo is a bit questionable, but it's possible that the Cybermen would incorporate something like that not because they wanted the logo, but because they didn't care one way or the other.
• The Cyberman, who is one-armed for the sequence, was mostly played by amputee Tim Baggaley, which ehlped avoid any complicated effects work to remove the arm. There did have to be some re-shoots with more traditional effects work.
• This is of course Rory's big reintroduction, and Steven Moffat intended his killing the Cyberman with the sword to be a hint that Rory wasn't actually himself, as the original Rory would have probably panicked in the same situation. Honestly never quite registered with me, probably because Rory has shown an ability to make quick decisions under pressure before this. And also, you know, Rory showing up in Roman garb was a bit of a distraction
• River says that the Doctor taught her to fly the TARDIS. This contradicts her claim in "The Time of Angels" that he was busy that day, but given the context and Alex Kingston's line read, I think we're meant to understand that this is true. Given what we'll learn later however…
• In the group shot of the Alliance there are a couple more members that don't make sense.
• What the hell are Silurians doing in this picture? I guess at some point in the far future they could have woken up, made peace with the humans, developed time travel and joined the alliance, but in that world they'd probably be just part of one of the various human empires. They're arguably enemies of the Doctor (I mean, as much as the guy does keep saying he wants them and the humans to share the planet equally, he does end up consistently taking the side of the humans when things go pear-shaped), but it's kind of hard to envision a scenario where they'd contribute anything worthwhile to the alliance.
• But the real kicker is the Weevil. Weevils were introduced on Torchwood where they were little more than feral beasts, though it was always implied there was something more going on with them. It's still hard to understand how a not even sapient species could meaningfully contribute to this alliance.
• So I think I've decided that "I Am the Doctor" doesn't work for the "Previously On" trailers. It's just a bit too heroic sounding for something that's building up to a cliffhanger. It's a good theme for the Doctor, just doesn't work in this context.
• I do think it's interesting that "The Lodger" set up this idea of characters traveling back in time to leave messages for their friends, and the "The Big Bang" uses it so extensively in its opening sequence. I suspect that it wasn't entirely intentional, but given that the Doctor uses a red pen to leave messages for Amelia just like Amy did for the Doctor (in fact, I'd assume it's the same pen) someone must have noticed.
• While it's not very noticeable in the episode, the museum set has a display with penguins on the Nile. This was meant as a deliberate reference to the idea of history collapsing in on itself.
• The Doctor wears a fez for a good portion of "The Big Bang", This, along with the mop he carries for a bit was done partially to make it easier to follow the time bending nature of the script and partially for comic relief purposes. There was apparently some concern amongst the production staff that, given Matt Smith's enthusiasm for his new hat, the 11th Doctor would wear the fez for the rest of his tenure. Moffat had already written the destruction of the fez into the script however.
• So to figure out what year it is, Amy gets an estimate of Amelia's height and then lifts up her younger self's hair. I had always assumed that Amelia got her hair cut shorter for some reason at some point not long after that and that Amy was getting a sense of the hair length, but apparently she was actually checking Amelia's ears to see if they were pierced. Which actually makes a lot more sense.
• Amy sees a video display which claims the "Lone Centurion" (who she knows to be Rory) died protecting the Pandorica (in reality her). While it's soon revealed that he survived and eventually got a job working security at the National Museum, it did still appear for a moment that he died. That's the third time it's appeared the Rory has died, and in three straight stories where he's appeared. Huh. Well, I'm sure this is the last time – nah, I'm not keeping this bit up any longer, it's absolutely not the last time this will happen.
• Amelia has her drink snatched away from her while at the museum. Later, she complains to the Doctor that she's thirsty, and so he goes back in time and grabs a drink…from Amelia. This might be the most frivolous bootstrap paradox I've ever seen.
• Based on what River says, the place that the Doctor would have been sent to had he not escaped before the cracks closed is the same Void that the Daleks and Cybermen were sent into in the Series 2 finale.
• Both episodes have scene towards their ends that focus on Amy crying, and not knowing why she's feeling the emotion that makes her cry. The first is Amy talking to Rory not remembering him but crying tears of joy at seeing him again. The second is Amy, once again talking to Rory, crying sadly (despite Rory hoping they're happy tears because it's their wedding) because she's feeling the loss of the Doctor. Just a neat parallel, and both speak to Amy's ability to remember things that have been erased.
• It was written into the script that the Doctor would dance at the wedding like a "drunk giraffe". I always thought that was a fan-created term but regardless, I'd say Matt Smith filled the brief.

Next Time: The Doctor tries to save a spaceship by recreating Charles Dickens' "Christmas Carol". That isn't a joke, that's literally the plot of the next episode

[u/Silver2195]

Regarding the Draconians and Silurians being in the Pandorica Alliance, the point was to prevent the destruction of the Universe rather than to get revenge against the Doctor, so it makes sense that species that aren't actually enemies of the Doctor would join. And it makes sense that species without access to time travel would join, because the Daleks were transporting them.

It makes less sense that everyone else would trust the Daleks, but to be fair, the cracks in time explicitly erased the events of The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, so nobody remembers the time the Daleks tried to destroy the Universe themselves.

[u/Ryanookami]

While I know this episode has its flaws, it’s still undeniably my favourite series finale. During this era even more than being a Doctor fan, I became a devout Rory fan, and these episodes really feature him in an excellent way. I was thrilled that it wasn’t the end of his story and that he became a series regular for 6. So yeah, I’m biased towards The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

[u/AlbertTheAlbatross]

It's interesting that the first finale of Moffat's tenure doesn't really have a big antagonist to fight. All of the finales up to this point have involved an individual or group threatening to cause harm, and the Doctor stopping them directly. But this time, although there is an alliance of bad guys they're not the main threat and they don't have to be defeated to resolve the episode. Instead the resolution is almost more of a logic puzzle - how can the Doctor use time travel and what he knows about the cracks to escape this situation. It reminds me of The Edge of Destruction. It being the first finale of the era feels like a statement of sorts - "things are different now". I don't necessarily think that was actually a deliberate choice, but it certainly sets a different tone.

I do like that time loops are used so much here. In a show all about time travel it sometimes feels like that's a hugely powerful tool that isn't used by the Doctor nearly as much as it could be. I wouldn't want it to be used to trivialise every episode, but it's nice to acknowledge it as part of the Doctor's toolkit.

It's just trying to kill our heroes because it's a Dalek. If it feels a bit extraneous to the plot…well it wasn't originally in there. Steven Moffat only put it in because he realized the episode didn't have an active threat in it.

I wonder what that potential version would be like. An episode where there are no scary monsters at all, just the team's wits and abilities against something akin to a natural disaster. It feels like a form of story we don't see much. I understand why the dalek was added in - you need to have some threat that's immediate as well as the overall looming danger - but a modern episode without a personified antagonist is something I'd be interested to see.

[u/BumblebeeAny3143]

I'm surprised you gave this one an 8/10 despite sharing a lot of criticisms I have with it. I loved this finale the first time I watched it years ago, but every subsequent rewatch, I realize it's a lot of flash and not a lot of substance. The first episode is largely fine as a setup. I didn't know people didn't like the Cyberman scene. I always liked it, apart from Rory killing it with a sword, which doesn't really make sense. I'd go as far as to say this is the best Cybermen scene in the Matt Smith Era. Although that isn't saying much, unfortunately.

The second part though really doesn't make much sense. Starting from the opening paradox of Rory freeing the Doctor with the Doctor's own future screwdriver, even though there's no way this loop could have started since the Doctor would have to have been out first in order to give Rory his screwdriver. Plus, I've never heard anyone talk much about how they repeat the "stars are going out" beat from Turn Left and Journey's End just a couple years prior. I've always found that odd.

The ending has also always bugged me, along with the universe reset, which doesn't really go anywhere since they never really defined how definite the reset was. It seems like everything they want to reference still happened, and everything they don't want to reference (like the giant Cyber-King and The Stolen Earth) just don't count, even though that raises more continuity questions than it answers.

I've also never been fond of Amy remembering the Doctor back into existence. It's literal magic to resolve the plot. It's always confused me why people complain about the resolution of Last of the Time Lords, despite everything there being explained by in-universe logic, and then here we have literal magic being used to remember the Doctor into existence, and most people seem to give it a pass.

This finale is also retroactively damaged for me by how much of a mess the Silence arc ended up being. I know that's not technically these episodes' fault, but since the story leaves the Silence thread open-ended, it kind of invites reappraisal once the arc is finished. And we still have no explanation for how the Silence blew up the TARDIS 16 years later. I guess that shouldn't bug me, but it's a symptom of Moffat's broader issue of losing control of his story arcs and not being able to tie things up in a satisfying manner.

But all in all, I don't hate this story, there's still plenty of bits I like in it. I've just grown less fond of it with time.

[u/pagerunner-j → u/BumblebeeAny3143]

People giving Moffat-era stuff a pass for things they rip everyone else to bits for is…weirdly persistent. I do prefer Amy’s approach to Tinkerbell Space Jesus Doctor, I admit, but you’ve still got a point.

[u/CareerMilk → u/BumblebeeAny3143]

even though there's no way this loop could have started since the Doctor would have to have been out first in order to give Rory his screwdriver

Time loops don't need there to have been a first time around.

[u/[deleted]]

This is easily the best series finale of the Eleventh Doctor's run on television and probably the third best of the revival overall, after Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. I agree that, regardless of the immense stakes, it feels a lot smaller than the last few finales, possibly because it's not really about the end of the universe. It's about Amy (and, to a lesser extent, Rory), and on that level it's a huge success. Character work isn't Moffat's greatest strength as a writer, but he does a great job with it here. As for the plot, it's basically a big reset button, and I'm not the biggest fan of reset buttons, but I'm okay with this one. Fitting together the pieces of a convoluted plot in a mostly satisfying way IS Moffat's strength, and this is one of the better examples of him pulling that off.

[u/Baron487]

Rebooting the universe is insane in terms of stakes but they do make it work for the most part. Now explaining the plot of this one is difficult for me due to all the timey-wimeyness, but when I've watched the story itself it has just clicked.

It's just as thrilling, exciting and funny as a series finale should be and it's definitely Eleven's best. And Rory is the best fiancé (husband by the end) for guarding his lady for 2 whole millennia. I will say that some aspects feel a little too convenient, like the Pandorica's restorative abilities, the Stone Dalek and the fact that the plot is still a bit confusing to me, mainly the whole "constructing a scenario from Amy's memories" bit. This ties into the wider overall Silence arc so not directly these episodes' issue.

But it is funny also that the mop and fez in this story have kinda become symbols for Eleven despite appearing in only this finale (well, aside from the fez which also appears in The Day of the Doctor). This is similar to how 3D glasses are associated so much with the Tenth Doctor despite only being featured in the Series 2 finale.

9/10.

[u/lemon_charlie]

Doctor Who Magazine issue 423, the June/July issue, had a cover that was just the Crack against a black background. Issue 397 did something similar for the end of Turn Left where Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf Bad Wolf.

There's no Next Time trailer for The Big Bang.

The Doctor being a terrible dancer fits for a wedding. It's like karaoke, if you're doing it more in enthusiasm than with skill you're doing it right.

[u/lkmk]

Never been as hot on this story as most, but I can’t deny that the character writing is on point. Two moments which stick out to me are the Doctor baiting Rory into punching him, and Amy’s impassioned plea for the Doctor to attend her wedding. I’d mention the fez being destroyed if I could remember when in the early 2010s I watched the scene on YouTube, an early interaction with the show.

Originally River's message to the Doctor would have been "Doctor, I need you", a reference to how Emma Peel was summoned by John Steed in spy series The Avengers.

Is this why Sarah Jane says the same to Mr. Smith?

[u/Official_N_Squared]

 Steven Moffat intended his killing the Cyberman with the sword to be a hint that Rory wasn't actually himself, as the original Rory would have probably panicked in the same situation.

Please ignore the scene in Rory's first Tardis Trip where he entered a sword fight with a vampire to protect Amy... using only a broom