The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

Could you all stay still a minute BECAUSE I AM TALKING!

The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang made an excellent end to Series Five and the start of the Eleventh Doctor. However, while good, I don't gush as profusely as others about this one.

Plot Summary

The Doctor arrives in Roman Britain with Amy. He receives a message that the Queen of Egypt has come and wants to see him. There he finds River with a painting message from Vincent Van Gogh. Also in the camp is Rory, although Amy fails to recognize him. His memory is fuzzy beyond being killed by the Silurians and then awakening as a Roman centurion but all other memories are intact.

The Doctor, Amy, River, and Rory's squad of Romans proceed to Stonehenge where they find a large stone box, the Pandorica. The Doctor realizes that it is coming on-line and will open soon. He also realizes that a signal is being sent so that all hostile races of the universe will be attempting to collect it. Several decayed Cybermen are already there and attempt to kill Amy and the Doctor before being dispatched by the Romans. A number of aliens arrive but the Doctor manages to scare them off with a speech. He then sends River to bring the TARDIS to Stonehenge. She gets to the TARDIS but gets taken instead to Amy's house where she discovers books on Roman Britain and Greek mythology. Realizing that it's a trap, River races back to the TARDIS but something goes wrong and the TARDIS explodes.

Meanwhile, the Romans (including Rory) reveal themselves to be Autons. They capture the Doctor and bring him down to face a group of his greatest foes. The Pandorica opens with only a chair inside. They lock the Doctor inside with him pleading with them to not do this as it will cause the universe to collapse. Rory, attempting to fight his Auton nature, shoots Amy and she collapses.

In the second part, the aliens have all turned to stone as their home planets are wiped out of time. Rory, mourning what he has done to Amy, sees the Doctor arrive from the future and tell him to unlock him from the Pandorica so he can help Amy. Rory does so and they place Amy in the Pandorica which will keep her alive until a sample of her fresh DNA can be used to restore her. This means that Amy will have to wait in the Pandorica until arriving at her own childhood nearly 2,000 years in the future. Rory accepts this, vowing to stand guard over the Pandorica until the Doctor and young Amy arrive.

The Doctor uses River's vortex manipulator to jump forward in time and get young Amy to touch the Pandorica, opening it and reviving Amy. She is reunited with Rory who is now a museum security guard. The light from the Pandorica also revitalizes a Dalek who had been kept in the museum. Young Amy disappears, a sign that the universe is collapsing and, urged by a visit from a wounded Doctor from the future, run to the roof where they see the TARDIS exploding. The Doctor uses the vortex manipulator again to rescue River from the TARDIS.

The Dalek emerges and shoots the Doctor. He then jumps back in time while Amy and Rory run. River shoots the Dalek, destroying it. The group reunites with the wounded Doctor who has converted the Pandorica to fly into the TARDIS explosion, which should reset the universe. Urging Amy to remember him, he flies in to the explosion and begins to seal the universe cracks. He closes the last one in Amy's bedroom by stepping into it.

Amy then wakes on her wedding day. Prompted by River's empty diary at the reception, Amy begins to recall the Doctor and focuses on her memories of him. The TARDIS then materializes and the Doctor steps out of it. After the wedding, the Doctor returns River's diary and vortex manipulator, allowing her to return to her own time while he, Rory and Amy leave on new adventures.

Analysis

Both episodes are very good, although I think I like The Pandorica Opens a little better than The Big Bang. The pacing keeps you on the edge of your seat and the mystery of what is going on causes you to lose yourself in the story. There are also great moments of comedy ("Look at me, I'm a target") that provide levity at just the right moments, pulling you actually deeper into the story.

Ironically, if there was one part of The Pandorica Opens that I didn't care for it was the Stonehenge speech which everyone else loves. There wasn't anything particularly profound in it and it was a reliance on the threat of the Doctor rather than actually seeing him do anything. It makes for a stark contrast to the Tenth Doctor who would be subtle, almost indifferent in his warnings, but then he would go forth and damn the body count.

The Big Bang was a good follow up and very different. It still held a good amount of tension but the scope was so different. While The Pandorica Opens had an epic feel with a large cast and many special effects, The Big Bang was contained with the smallness of the cast and location pressing in on you. It's such a significant contrast that it ends up flowing very well.

Like The Pandorica Opens, the pacing is tight with the emptiness providing the tension. Yet there are also dashes of humor, especially from River, that both ease the mood and yet draw you in further to the story. River's taunting of the Dalek before she kills it is especially entertaining.

On the subject of the Dalek, that begins the short list of nits that I have to pick with this episode. The Dalek wasn't really necessary and it actually ended up being mostly pointless other than to provide a substantive threat for a brief period of time. You could liken it to the Primords in Inferno in that the environmental threat was viewed as not enough and a corporeal monster was also needed. However, the Dalek's role is small and it does also provide with the fun scene between it and River so that also mitigates my annoyance with it.

My other problem with the episode was the almost magical nature of the Doctor's return. The End of Time rightly took a lot of flak for resurrecting the Master with blood magic (no matter how much they tried to claim it was "science"). I don't really see why Amy's resurrecting of the Doctor should get any less scorn. First, her memory is triggered by River and her (now empty) diary. But River got her diary from the Doctor so it's existence is questionable to begin with. Second, why is it that Amy remembering is what brings the Doctor back? Her latent memories of Rory brought him back but that was due to the Autons exploiting her memory and recreating aspects of that reality. The Doctor is more or less wished into existence by Amy calling on latent memories. I can understand how dual memories can exist when patching together two time streams, but actually being able to bring something from that other time stream by nothing other than bridging it in your mind seems a little to fanciful for a show that leans very heavily on science and logic. If you wish to indulge in magic or acts of faith, fine; I have no problem with that if it is within the context of your tale (see Harry Potter). But to indulge in that without setting up a proper context for it just doesn't sit right with me. It's more Deus Ex Machina than I can truly accept.

Still, it doesn't diminish what went on in the prior minutes. They are still very good stories and I happily sit down to rewatch them when I get a chance.

Overall personal score: The Pandorica Opens - 5 out of 5; The Big Bang - 4 out of 5