(all spoilers! don’t read till you’ve seen the episode! this is a love fest only — all complaints and bitching must come from a place of love / previous: “The Pandorica Opens”)
So, I was wrong. That’s okay (as the Doctor might say) — wrong is good. Wrong means I get to be surprised. Surprise is good.
And I was a bit surprised, in fact, that everything was pretty much what it seemed to be. The Daleks and the Cybermen and everything that ever hated the Doctor really did team up to imprison him in the Pandorica — which also a real thing, not a metaphor for the Doctor’s neuroses or anything — to stop him from, so they believed, destroying the universe. None of this was a dream, or all in the Doctor’s head, or any kind of fantasy (or nightmare). It was all timey whimey — boy, was it timey whimey! — and it was all a big reboot in the end, but it didn’t much feel like any kind of cheat.
It could have felt that way. It probably should have. Anytime a writer paints himself into this kind of a corner, almost anything he does to get out of that corner — assuming that he is not, in fact, actually going to kill off his protagonists and destroy the entire universe — is going to feel somewhat deux ex machiny. Clever of Steven Moffat to not hide the elephant in the room but to stick a party hat on it and throw confetti at it. Ridiculous miracle, indeed:
The variety of notions about where this season might have been going that I have been entertaining involved a lot more torment for the Doctor than having to wear a fez and carry a mop, a lot more angst and self-recrimination on his part. (I had been wondering if New Who was basically fan-fiction-proof, but I think the fact that what was in my head was much more intense and personal about the Doctor means that there still is room left here for fan-fiction extrapolations.)
Not this episode didn’t tear me apart. Yeah, hey: wait! Was I just praising Steven Moffat? I take it back. I hate him (no matter how many Princess Bride “mostly dead” references he trots out). I bawled my way through much of this episode… and, like Amy, I wasn’t even sure half the time why I was crying. I can take the usual sort of torture — the Doctor’s imprisoned forever; no, he isn’t; but it’s worse, he’s dead; no, he isn’t; but it’s worse, he’s gonna be erased forever…
But there was a lot more than that going on. This season has been so much… wow. So much crazy passionate fun ripping apart each episode and waiting for the next one with ludicrous, is-it-Saturday-yet anticipation — it’s been like the night before Christmas when you’re five since Easter. Part of my uncontrollable sobbing was, I’m sure, simply a physical release after months of tension now that it was finally over. Because even enjoyable tension is, you know, tense. (Was this the most perfect season of Doctor Who ever? I think maybe it was.)
I lost it for good, though, when the Doctor was talking to seven-year-old Amelia after he put her to bed. This brought a motif of the season full circle from “The Eleventh Hour,” and it’s a motif that I find deeply poignant, particularly when Moffat spins it (as he’s done before, like in “Girl in the Fireplace”). It’s the one about the Doctor as imaginary friend to all of us, at least to those of us who are in love with him. “I’ll be a story in your head,” he says sadly, talking to himself as much as to Amelia, lamenting himself. “You’ll dream about that box…” Crap, it almost felt like Moffat was wrapping up the show itself forever — this is how it would end, the Doctor sacrificing himself to save the universe, isn’t it? — and I don’t ever want to think about that. “I think I’ll skip the rest of the rewind, I hate repeats”? That’s what’s supposed to sustain us till there’s more new stuff to watch? arrgh
And Amy only has to wish to bring him back, to turn the imaginary real:
Why can’t I do that?
Then there’s River, who is pretty much the most awesome babe ever
and not just because she wears a thigh holster. Amy may be special because of the crack in the universe in her bedroom and that lets her remember the Doctor when no one else can. But how does River remember him? How is she even more special? River keeps her diary, even though it’s now blank, and gives it to Amy to force Amy to remember the Doctor back… but River has to remember him in order to do that.
So, next season, it seems, will be all about River. (Unless Moffat’s being a bastard again.) I was terrified she was going to be erased by the crack in the universe, thereby cleaning up a potential storytelling mess before it got any more cornered. And now I’m terrified about what Moffat is going to do with her. It’s clear that Doctor Who is not going to turn into a romance, at least not of the traditional sort. Knowing Moffat, it could well be one that’s thwarted until it’s doomed. Because they’re never ever going to be in the same place, are they? He’s just starting to fall for her… constantly has a little knowing smile for himself when she can’t see… is really enjoying flirting with her (“Hi, honey, I’m home”):
But he’s not quite there yet, and so she’s still waiting for him to catch up. I was forced to yell at the TV, during the Doctor and River’s final meeting outside the TARDIS, when he gives her back her diary and vortex manipulator, helpfully instructing her to just kiss him already:
But my pal bronxbee, watching with me, pointed out that she wants the moment to be mutual, so she can’t just kiss him yet.
River is going backwards, though, it seems. So there might be one brief moment where they’re both equally in love, but then it will pass, and he’ll be forever watching her know him less and less.
We’re in for a lot of heartache, I think. And a lot of ground to cover next year. We have to find out who River is and why she wouldn’t show a Dalek mercy. We have to find out who is controling the TARDIS and why the TARDIS exploded. And we have to find out why River would kill, ahem, the best man in the universe. Which is, presumably, “when everything changes.”
I’m gonna give this episode some time to settle into my head, and then I’ll rewatch the entire season, and see if any of my overall impressions change. I am already wondering, however, whether the many apparently anomalous things we’ve been noticing over the past 13 weeks that don’t seem to tally here can all have been accidents or unintentional goofs or just the kind of unavoidably messiness that is inevitable when producing an episodic TV series. (Is the Doctor’s line here about how “you can do loads in 12 minutes” meant to smooth over the several instances this past season when he seemed to accomplish way too much in only a few minutes?) I don’t doubt that Moffat might have thrown in deliberate red herrings simply to keep us on our toes. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he threw in things that won’t get resolved till next year.
Random thoughts on “The Big Bang”:
• Oh dear, Steven Moffat had to sit through those terrible Night at the Museum movies with his kids, didn’t he?
Well, his pain is our gain.
Those movies could have been so much better, so much smarter. And now we get a taste of, in detail, how. Like, for starters: penguins of the Nile, dinosaurs in ice, petrified Daleks, and a honking big mystery box.
• Hey, if the two sonic screwdrivers spark when they touch
shorting out the time differential, how come that doesn’t happen to Amy when she touches Amelia? Or when the Doctor touches himself from 12 minutes in the future? (Remember when the Doctor told Rose in “Father’s Day” not to touch the baby version of herself, because that would be as bad as crossing the streams?) Or does the almost-finished collapsing of the universe mean there’s little spacetime left to care about such things?
• Okay, so, on this alt starless Earth, does “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh still exist? I think it must, mustn’t it? Because now, in retrospect, though “Vincent and the Doctor” didn’t originally seem to have any connection to the season’s arc, it was foreshadowing the motif here about seeing with more than your eyes. Amelia’s drawing of the starry night sky is an obvious echo of Vincent’s painting, and this drawing next to her bed
sure reminds me of a Van Gogh irises picture, too.
• Poor sad sweet dedicated in-love Rory!
How did Rory not go mad for 1,894 years?
• See? The Doctor doesn’t need to headbutt someone to communicate telepathically:
• Couple of things we don’t know (yet):
= How much Amy and Rory remember. Presumably Rory does not remember babysitting Amy in the Pandorica for 2,000 years, since that wasn’t really him anyway. But if Rory remembers the Doctor then their memories have at least filled in from Prisoner Zero events onward. Does that mean the last thing he remembers is his own death? But how can that be, since he’s alive? Does Amy remember the universe ending, or not? My head hurts trying to think about this.
= Where River ended up after the Doctor flew the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS. She says “we all wake up where we ought to be,” but where ought she to be? We don’t know anything about her: not even where and when she’s from. Obviously she likes hanging out in the 51st century, but with that vortex manipulator — not to mention her relationship with the Doctor — that doesn’t mean she has to be from then. So: did River end up in 1996 on Earth, where she was when Big Bang 2 happened, and then lived on Earth till 2010 and Amy’s wedding?
• Nooooo!
“An Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express. In space.” That’s just a cheeky tease. “Don’t worry about a thing, Your Majesty — we’re on our way.” Is that Liz Ten on the other end of the line?
This is gonna be some honeymoon for Amy and Rory. A married couple as companions? That’s gonna bring a whole new kind of interesting to life on the TARDIS…
• Great quotes:
“I just don’t want her growing up and joining one of those star cults. I don’t trust that Richard Dawkins.” –Aunt Sharon, about Amelia
“I’ve got a future. That’s nice.” –the Doctor
“Your girlfriend isn’t more important than the whole universe.” –the Doctor
“She is to me!” –not-Rory
“Rubbish way to time-travel… Cheap and nasty. Very bad for you. I’m trying to give it up.” –the Doctor, about the vortex manipulator
“What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?” –River
“It’s a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool.” –the Doctor
(I think Moffat is testing all the little eight-year-old fans: Will they all start wearing fezzes? How far can he push the kids? Ah, the power, the mad sweet power, to make the children of an entire nation do anything, wear anything. There’s a Doctor Who villain for ya: the Pied Piper of the BBC.)
“That’s my TARDIS burning up.” –the Doctor
“I dated a Nestene duplicate once. Swappable head. Did keep things fresh.” –River (and that would be true of regenerating-Time Lord boyfriends, too, wouldn’t it?)
“Rule One: the Doctor lies.” –River
“I was lying.” –the Doctor
“You always dance at weddings, don’t you?” –River
“You tell me.” –the Doctor
“You just saved the whole of space and time. Take the evening off. Maybe a bit of tomorrow.” –Rory
(next: not till frakkin’ Christmas!)
woo hoo usually have to go to sleep and then your review in the morning!!!!
Going to read it now!!
Goodness, that review went up fast!
Anyway: this was a good episode, but…not as good as I was hoping for. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se; everything just ended a little too nicely. Still, it did have some great emotional moments (I love Rory so much right now.) Also, the Richard Dawkins line made me totally crack up.
The Doctor, Amy, River… they rocked, but I fell in love with Rory in this episode. And the Doctor might’ve as well. His “boy who waited” quote was very heartfelt. So happy Rory seems to be sticking around.
Well at least now we know what River was in Stormcage for. After all, what could be a greater “hero to many” than that magnificent fez?
Regarding Rory’s memories, he did mention that he was plastic at the wedding reception (just after the Doctor pops up), though he must remember his vigil.
River knowing that she has to give the battered blue (and empty) notebook in her possession to Amy is the biggest mystery of the episode to me, although it was nicely underplayed.
So…
1. Will every story from now on begin with the Doctor coming back in time and telling himself (or companion) how to solve the trouble ahead? If that’s how he escapes the ultimate prison, then surely that’s the solution to every crisis from now on.
2. If all of the Doctor’s enemies can meet in Roman Britain, does that mean they can all time travel now? The Doctor may have his rules about not changing certain key moments in time, but they won’t.
3. If the Doctor reboots the universe exactly as it was, only without him having existed (before Amy’s wedding), then what happened when all those aliens invaded Earth in the past only to be stopped by the Doctor? “Turn Left” has already dealt with this idea, so you can’t simply ignore it now. Indeed, without the Doctor, would the Time War have had a different outcome?
4. If you can create a Time Lord and a Tardis by thinking about them, are we now watching a fantasy series where any magic is possible instead of a science fiction show?
I love Doctor Who, I’ve loved this season, and Matt Smith is fantastic. But it ended on the weakest episode, one that threw sense out of the window for the sake of a sentimental climax.
I thought this episode was fantastic. And how cool was it to see that Doctor-with-the-jacket in Flesh and Stone really was a future Doctor and not a continuity error! That whole rewind scene was probably the best of the whole episode. And I also totally teared up when the Doctor was talking to little Amelia as she slept. Best acting from Smith all season, in my opinion.
My opinion of the season is not quite as high, however. I don’t really get the point-of-view that this has been the best season yet (which a lot of people have.) I thought it was really great when Moffat was writing it (although I did have some major problems with Flesh and Stone). So in other words, the beginning of the season and the end of the season. But there was a serious decrease in quality whenever it was written by other writers besides Moffat (with a few notable exceptions). The characterizations and relationships were not handled nearly as well. I fell in love with Amy as a companion instantly in The 11th hour, but her character fizzled in the middle of the series and her relationship with the Doctor just didn’t have the emotional depth of the relationships he’s had with other companions. It didn’t quite ring true.
And plus, I thought the sexual tension thing was handled a little sloppily. It was Amy’s choosing Rory that resolved that issue between Amy and the Doctor, so when Rory is written out of history, shouldn’t it once again be unresolved? Shouldn’t Amy’s entire relationship with the Doctor be rewritten since Rory influenced it from the beginning? I suppose you can sort of explain that away by saying that a little bit of Rory was left in Amy’s memory, but still, it’s not quite satisfying. Stuff like that bugged me.
Basically, I think that although Moffat is a fantastic screewriter, he’s still finding his feet as a showrunner. I think he needs to learn how to manage the work other writers better (especially with regards to how they handle his characters.) And I just think there need to be some better writers besides Moffat working on show. Whatever the very loud, obnoxious Davies-haters may say, he is a loss because he wrote a lot of really excellent episodes. I’d love to see Paul Cornell of Father’s Day and Human Nature/Family of Blood return. And the promise of a Neil Gaiman episode is certainly exciting. (I just hope it’s “American Gods” Neil Gaiman and not “Neverwhere” Neil Gaiman).
So yeah, this series had a great beginning a great end, and some great spots scattered in between but I’m hoping that next season Moffat will be as good a showrunner as he is a writer. That would be amazing.
Quick note before I get my thoughts in order: Isn’t that first picture a little too spoilery to have on the front page for the handful of saintly types who just finished Vincent and the Doctor and still think Rory is lost?
About the reset, we don’t know had much of the events from the previous season (or how much of anything in the universe really) got restored after the Big Bang 2 universe reboot. Think Moffat really just gave himself carte blanche to carry on any way he feels like now. Anything can now be different as a side effect of how it was restored (or not restored) by Big Bang 2.
The whole episode was quite the temporal paradox. Rory frees the Doctor from the pandorica because future Doctor came back using the vortex manipulator to give Rory his sonic screwdriver to open the pandorica. The Doctor is in the future because he used Riversong’s vortex manipulator he picked up just after being freed from the pandorica. So which version of the Doctor came first? Very timey-whimy indeed.
Maryann didn’t mention the scene during the Doctor’s rewind where he appeared during the Weeping Angel’s episode to talk to Amy while she had her eyes closed. We speculated this was a future version of the Doctor because it could be seen he was still wearing a coat (and a slightly different version at that) than he had been before the Angel grabbed the coat off the earlier version.
The part about Amy being able to pull the Doctor back into existence did seem rather magical. Wonder if we ever get more of an explanation for how this happened. This whole season seems to be a prelude to an even larger story arc to continue next season. It was a very good season and am looking forward to see where Moffat takes it from here.
I’m fascinated with the way Rory went from useless schlub to romantic hero through this series. The guy won us over!
@Count Spatula
Here’s a worthwhile essay for you to read that addresses your #4 point: http://georgemann.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/moffats-doctor-who-or-how-i-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-dalek-bomb/
The thing I loved most about the episode was that some of the loose ends haven’t been tied up, but they clearly aren’t going to be forgotten. We saw a lot of effects and their subsequent solution, but we still didn’t find out the cause — who- or whatever made the TARDIS explode. It’s a cliffhanger, but with enough closure so that the fans aren’t beating themselves up waiting for December. Perhaps your theory about events being made up in the Doctor’s head will carry on to the Christmas episode or even Series 6? I’d love to see him facing his inner demons, although I’m not sure younger viewers would get it as much.
But I digress. I love River Song now. Like, intense-girl-crush-and-contemplating-a-marriage-proposal love, and it’s probably because she’s not flirting with My Doctor (David Tennant) anymore. I’m too territorial for my own good. But by God, if I can’t have a Doctor, I hope I can at least find a Rory for myself . . .
Ugh! Maybe! It seemed like every image I wanted to use at the top was potentially spoilish. Lessee if I can find something else…
Okay, swapped out. Better?
I love Rory and am glad he’s still on board – I think it’s great we have a male companion.
Like I said on the Pandorica thread – it was very curse of Fatal Death. I can’t figure out how the Dr got out of the box – he didn’t have the vortex manipulator with him when he was imprisoned, so that pissed me off.
I agree with Count Spatula because it’s hard to figure out how this will affect the next series, as many questions weren’t answered or even addressed. (I’ll check out that essay Ryan T). While, initially, I really liked the ending, the more I thought about it, the more I felt that Moffatt waved a magic wand and magically reset everything. That’s a disappointment when you think of how tight, clever and logical the writing is on his other scripts. Saying it’s all a fairytale does not excuse gaps in the writing.
Throughout the series I have felt that a lot of stuff has been left to the side, that the episodes have not had a cohesive feel to them so I was waiting for the finale to wrap them up … which it didn’t. We still don’t have a clue what’s going on! So the unresolved inconsistencies bother me.
It’s interesting that during the RTD era, the companions were “normal” people and yet the ones that Moffat has chosen are extraordinary. I mean, imagine what power Amy has in her head if she can bring the Dr back to reality by using only her memory! Can she use this to wipe out a Dalek? And Rory has 2,000 years of earth history in his head – nearly as good on Earth history as the Dr! I can’t wait to hear Rory say 1853 well that was a boring year – weather was good in April, though.
The rumour is that the next time River appears she’s meeting the Dr for the first time … so that’s why everything changes!
oh and sent you a cool email about Matt Smith, MaryAnn
Man, Rory was great this week. Moffat understood that in order for us to really love Rory and demonstrate that he really deserved Amy, he’d have to do something that the doctor never could. The doctor is the kind of guy who skips to the end of the story (he uses museums to keep score!) – Rory waits. And no doubt has 2000 years worth of stories to reference next year!
I think the only major negative I came away with from this season was that things were WAY too inter-twined for me. Previously, I liked the way that “Bad Wolf” was seeded; when the Slitheen survivor called the power plant “Bad Wolf” in Welsh (forget what it was), and the little hints here and there. Parts of this season felt like a 4 or 5 episode-long episode. I love picking at the details, and this was a decent season, but I thought some of it got tedious.
I had the same reaction to BSG after about 2 seasons, so maybe it’s just me.
Oh, and my girlfriend has a theory she wants me to mention here – that Moffat had a 2-year storyline mapped out before he knew David Tennant was leaving, starting with Amy’s introduction and ending with River having to kill DT-Doctor for some as-yet-unfathomable reason.
This would explain the fact that River clearly had more than one adventure with DT-Doctor before her ‘death’.
If that proves to be the case, hopefully he’s changed the outline enough that there won’t just be one more season of Matt Smith.
It’s too bad Rory didn’t know about Captain Jack. He could have dug him up and they could have shared sentry duties.
I’ve been wondering how much Amy and Rory remember as well. Does Amy remember both having and not having parents?
I liked this episode quite a bit. I had some minor problems (as Count Spatula mentioned), but you can fuzzify the logic a little by saying that since the crack was repaired and Amy was “special” in ways Donna was not, everything works.
I was thrilled when Rory was brought back. I thought he was a fun character and I hated to see him die a few episodes back, though it was inevitable. Actually, when he tried so hard to not shoot Amy in the previous episode, you knew he had quality if even if wound up almost killing her.
Ditto River Song. I thought she was about the most compelling character Moffat ever came up with, so I’m glad we will see more of her story arc. She and Alex Kingston both deserve that.
My basic beef for this year – I like the smaller, more intimate episodes. Blink is one of the best interpretations of time travel ever. It’s so heartfelt, I still cry every time I’ve seen it. “It’s the same rain” is one of the most evocative lines in science fiction. I hope they find a way to do something with Sally Sparrow in a future season. Father’s Day. The Girl in the Fireplace. Turn Left. The smaller episodes without the traditional villains.
Almost all of this year’s episodes fell into the “bigger is better” trap, which was sad.
Even the finale could have been much simpler and accomplished many of the same plot points around the characters.
I don’t think every past villainous race had to show up to “trap” the Doctor. The notion that the whole Roman situation sprang from Amy’s imaginative past was very interesting. That the Panopticon was the Doctor’s prison was a great concept. I don’t think the universe had to almost end so the Doctor could reboot it. It only mattered that the Doctor almost died/couldn’t regenerate but Amy was the one who could bring him back.
Hmm… Jack. Sorry, open endings make my head keep at it, but is River another former time agent like Jack?
She has the era, the attitude (especially the attitude), the ex-boyfriend (that’s what got me started…), the lipstick like Captain John’s, the ability to understand time wobbles like she had been trained, she can navigate the criminal underground in a way travelling with the Doctor would never teach, and she can effortlessly use a vortex manipulator. Is she part of Captain Jack’s missing time? Does this mean we’ll get to see Captain Jack’s past next year? Exciting times ahead…
At least she does care for him though, she was trying not to cry when she was freaking out that Dalek.
Much better. ^.^ River already said she’d be back. Suddenly I understand why there wasn’t a trailer for this week, much as it drove me crazy…
I’m still trying to figure out why Amy didn’t remember the Daleks. It couldn’t be as simple as the idea that, for a time, in this episode at least, the Daleks had never existed, could it?
@Mo … love the theory that River is a time agent like Jack.
I had some of my own thoughts about Rory that I wanted to share. It’s clear that the Doctor remembers Rory’s 2000 year vigil. I think it really happened and that this now is indeed “plastic Rory” … it all happened … I mean, didn’t it?
I think about the image of Rory pulling the Pandorica from the fire to save the woman he loves and I think … even if “plastic Rory” is gone … this is the “spirit of love” that Rory is capable of … and Moffit isn’t done showing us this.
In fact I think “the greatest man she ever knew” who River kills will be Rory … and it will be a sacrafice to save the Doctor. River would afford such a title to a man capable of the level of self sacrifice Rory has demonstrated.
I didn’t think I was going to like Rory … but now I want to see so much more from him. He’s a super hero.
Regards,
Jeff
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the first few moments of the show. I yelled, “Moffat is a genius!” at my computer when I saw Amy. By far my favorite moment of the episode.
So does the episode make sense compared to previous storylines from past seasons? No. But that isn’t the first time this has happened. RTD did it too (Doctor dies of radiation, when a couple years earlier he redirects a bunch of absorbed radiation into his shoe). I will take messy timey-whimey stuff compared to the Master having a horcrux any day.
I am upset that we didn’t find out who the bad guy is, or what Myth is. I guess that’s either for Christmas or next season, so we have something to look forward too. I still think it’s the Black Guardian. I still wish I knew what the point of The Lodger was in the framework of the entire season, but maybe there wasn’t one.
Some would argue that it was Amy who needed to prove she deserved Rory. Rory always loved her. It was Amy who was hesitant and jerking him around, but that’s because she couldn’t trust anyone. Everyone she ever loved disappeared in her life and she didn’t know why.
I will say, however, that Rory and Arthur Darvill had to prove himself to me, and boy did he. Arthur and Karen lacked chemistry for most of the season, but that all changed in the last two episodes. Rory went from punching bag to sexy Roman Centurion fairytale legend. Dear Edward Cullen, that is how you do protective boyfriend and make it romantic instead of creepy. Team Rory for the win.
In “Coupling” (written by Moffat) Steve tells Susan that Jane had an ex-boyfriend who always used to yell, “Geronimo!” upon making an entrance. It was the Doctor that made Jane crazy. He was the ex-boyfriend to whom Steve is referring and he left her alone on earth to become crazy Jane. (How’s that for some Fan-Fiction for you Maryann?)
Jeff
I am, perhaps, in the minority. I can’t wait for Rory to go away again. It just seemed cheesy: spending 2,000 years sitting around protecting Amy. Over-the-top. Like: We have to make Rory noble! Let’s have him do the most noble, boring thing ever! I miss what happened to Mickey. At least he became his own person. Rory’s existence still entirely revolves around Amy. I don’t like that. They are not a good fit. She doesn’t value him the way he does her, and really, I wish he would become more of his own person. Amy and the doctor make WAY more sense together. They fit. Her personality is like River’s. And ugh, I know they want this to be a family show, but Amy and 11 have SO much sexual chemistry. Why can’t the doctor and his companion become, at least, friends with benefits? I don’t think it would be so bad, in fact it might be appropriate for both of them.
Come on, Moffatt. Just a little 11/Amy, before the inevitable, and inevitably wonderful time with River. Kick boring 1-note Rory to the curb.
It’s interesting that this actually turned out to be a deus ex machina reset button episode but it *still* doesn’t feel like it, and I think I finally realized why:
There’s a big difference between spontaneously magicing something away, and logicing it away in an internally consistent way. Everything revealed all makes perfect sense (apart from that hat). Nothing came out of nowhere, it was set up well and explained away with a quick line here and there that tied in existing things. (Except for, of course next season things…) It was satisfying. Well it had me grinning ear to ear from the moment future Fez Doctor showed up, anyway.
That’s the impression I got. They lived their regular lives as if there hadn’t been any cracks, and they remember that reality, but then they got all their old memories back too from before the reset.
Well he says at the wedding: “How could we forget the Doctor? I was plastic. He was the stripper at my stag party.”
The Doctor gives Rory an explanation for how it could be after he tests Rory to see if it’s really him: “Memories are more powerful than you think and Amy Pond is not an ordinary girl. Grew up with a time crack in her wall- the universe pouring through her dreams every night. The Nestenes took a memory print of her and got a bit more than they bargained for. Like you: not just your face, but your heart and your soul.” So yes, Auton Rory was a plastic duplicate, but because he had been sucked into the crack and Amy’s memories were so connected to that crack, by copying her memories the Autons got the real deal: Rory’s original essence was trapped in the Auton shell and that’s why he could remember dying- because it really was him. Just before he flies off the Doctor tells Amy that she can bring her parents back because she already brought Rory back- which would back up his earlier explanation.
When everything reset and then Amy remembered, because it was the real Rory who had done all that stuff in his other body, he could remember his time in plastic and still be totally human now. Should make him a good match for the Doctor- 2000 years of memories is a lot more than 900.
What I’d like to know is once Amy remembered the Doctor, how much of the old timeline came back too? Most importantly, does Vincent remember them? Does the couple in the Lodger? Where’s Father Octavian now?
…And if both Rory and River are back next season, and it’s earlier on River’s time-line, how come she didn’t know him? He was just that centurion to her.
I came pretty close to sussing out where they were heading after the last episode:
I guess it was a vague notion but it sort of worked out like that…
The screwdrivers throw off sparks perhaps due to some temporally-based function or component. Whatever it is, there is something unique to the sonic screwdriver that causes it to spark when it touches another copy of itself from a different point in time. It doesn’t necessarily follow that the same thing would happen to two people, or two of anything else, touching.
Also, the reason it was fine for the Doctor to touch himself (heh) or Amelia herself, but not Rose in “Father’s Day,” is because a person touching another temporal version of themselves only normally causes a small, manageable wobble in time. It could destabilize that point in time a bit, but as long as you don’t go any farther than that, and as long as the underlying timeline is in good shape, you should be okay. But in the case of “Father’s Day,” that point in time was already weakened by Rose and the Doctor crossing their own timelines, and pushed to the breaking point by Rose causing a paradox on top of that. Things were hanging by a thread by that point so all it took was the minor irritant of her touching her baby self to allow the freaky creature things to break through.
I can’t help marvel at the fact that The Alliance Against the Doctor works because it draws on the Pandora’s Box myth. Once they have done their duty (the box has been opened and hope has been trapped inside it) they can be discarded. Is that risky story-telling that depends on fan love to go with it, or the work of a really confident script writer?
No complaints from me about the voodoo that brought the doctor back to the wedding either – it felt justified because the importance of memory had been prefigured and telegraphed through the series. It also sealed Amy’s transformation from a victim of the Doctor and four psychiatrists to a confident, sure-of-her-own-mind character. Brilliant. As Her MAJesty has said previously (in the context of Lost and American Life on Mars), it was a plot device that told us important things about the characters rather than a convenient way to get the writers out of a hole.
I’m with Newbia and Count Spatula: lovely bits as it went along, but overall it felt like sound and fury.
If anything can happen, if every problem will be solved by a new and unexpected ability (magic time stuff, magic emotional bomb, magic power-of-imagination), where’s the narrative tension? Was there any doubt at all while watching this episode that everyone would end up happy? Oh, sure, you can destroy the universe. Got the guts to leave it destroyed? Or even to have just one character’s story end? Absolutely not.
So: very pretty, and a lot better than some of this season’s episodes, but I feel I’m left with lots of loose ends and absolutely no conviction that there’s any real plan behind it (see Lost, Alias, etc.).
Rory clearly does remember being plastic (and the Doctor being the stripper at his stag do, though if I recall the Doctor didn’t take his clothes of then, well at least not on camera, but given the ominous sound of a glass being smashed he might well have had to do a bit more to get out of that situation than could be shown at prime family time). However, the nearly 2,000 years which Rory remembers would be in a timeline where history is rubbish and totally messed up.
Rory now is clearly up for adventure and his experience will probably make him a highly capable companion. Of course this now begs the question as to why River didn’t recognise him, as she clearly recognised Amy from previously (which hasn’t happened yet).
You realise that there’s a very high probability that Rory ran into Jack at some point.
The fanfic possibilities are hard to keep track of.
As for the various paradoxes, I think that’s just a result of the situation. He’s never been able to use a vortex manipulator that precisely before, but as he said, the universe is tiny now. All of the rules have been thrown out the window, so he’s not seeing any reason to stick to them.
Is there no love for him creating his own mini stable time-loop? Going back and stealing Amelia’s drink to give to her because she was thirsty because someone stole her drink?
Knowing that Moffat has used computer hard drives in stories before (the Library), I have a slightly more mechanically based thought on why Amy’s memory was able to bring the Doctor back.
When the Pandorica exploded along with the TARDIS, it’s restorative light hit every point in time with the bits contained within of the old universe. The Doctor was in that box too, but because he needed to be on the other side of the crack to close it, he needed to be erased.
On a computer, when a file is erased (unless you take extra measures to write over the old data) all that’s truly erased are the references to the file location in the drive index. There are ways to reconstruct that information in the index and recover it if the drive hasn’t been changed too much.
To me, with the help of a few pointers like River’s diary and the visual clues to the Doctor, Amy’s special crack-influenced memory was able to put back together all the places where the Doctor still occupied the universe, but had been lost to the crack’s erasure.
The way I look at it, she didn’t so much bring him back as she showed the universe where he’d been. Perhaps that was enough for him to be able to pull himself back (to me, that bookends nicely with him pulling himself up out of the damaged TARDIS in The Eleventh Hour) or perhaps it reminded the time stream that something important still needed to be recovered.
Though that still begs the question of why she didn’t remember the Daleks with her super memory or why the Cyberking in Victorian England was still forgotten.
I also wonder why River couldn’t bring him back when she so clearly remembered him more fully than Amy did? Perhaps Amy’s exposure to the crack in her wall made her more connected to the time stream, or perhaps it has something to do with how River is different. Looking forward to finding out more of that next season.
I’m also wondering why destroy the entire universe? Who would benefit? I’d have to go back and check, but when the Daleks planned to do it in series 4, didn’t they have a means to destroy everything but themselves?
Perhaps the being that set all this in motion needed the Doctor’s solution of ‘Big Bang Two’ to inject something new — and purposely placed inside the Pandorica — into the whole of the universe and time and took the gamble that the Doctor would do just what he did to save everyone? At any rate, the destruction of the TARDIS was no accident and the following universe collapse was shown as the given result of such an explosion, so we seem to be dealing with something suicidal and bent on complete destruction or something with a very complex plan.
Either way, I’m really looking forward to next season. (Oh, and have been enjoying the Who blogging and comments quite a bit, so many thanks to all.)
I’m thinking River is going to be an enemy of the Doctor. I just have this feeling, that everyone is completely off about her. Obviously it doesn’t stay that way, but we have yet to get to the point where River first meets the Doctor, it may not have gone so smoothly.
@ McFeely
That would gel with some of the negative things that have been teased of her past so far and her apology to the Doctor. Seeing the show has often been about redemption or hope, you could very well be on to something.
I can’t imagine River Song being in anyway impressed with the Dr.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/1/20100628/ten-top-secret-dr-who-script-missing-c60bd6d.html
argh!
If I got a hold of that, I would definitely read it- you can keep Pirates of the Carribean 4!
“(Was this the most perfect season of Doctor Who ever? I think maybe it was.)”
Maybe some sort of season overview is warranted?
First off – yes McFeely I do wonder if River is motivated as much by remorse as anything else.
Can I just say though that I do wonder, looking at some reviews and comments, if we’re not missing a key fact – and I’m guilty too, here, though I have a panel of three daughters to keep reminding me.
Namely: it’s a family programme – by which I mean a programme that aims to span generations but that MUST cater for, and always be partly (maybe mostly) aimed at, children.
So, if the Amy/Rory dynamic ain’t quite Shakespeare, if whatever internal consistency you expect from a light-heart time travel sci-fi romp isn’t adhered to, if the ending isn’t “brave” enough to kill off universes and/or a slew of characters… well, duh, it’s a family programme!
Let’s not forget, the target audience doesn’t stream this at 2am while referring to the past 31 series for canonical errors: it sits down at tea time between ‘Hole-in-the-Wall’ and ‘Celebrity Come Dance On Ice with Andrew Lloyd-Webber’, or some such. Jaded sci-fi grognards, fanfic addicts, people who think “Torchwood: Children of Earth” was a bit too jolly and people who are prone to say “I remember when…” a lot – we’re all here on sufferance, folks. We’re invited to the party but it isn’t being thrown for us!
And in my household the junior panel were excited, enthralled and made happy. They watched it again and talked about it over and over. That will always put it in perspective for me!
On first watch, I enjoyed this episode a lot as I was watching but it didn’t really stay with me afterwards; I couldn’t take in the story as a whole. But as with last week, I found a second viewing really opened it up and revealed its beauty. Yes, the Doctor’s escape was a bit “Bill and Ted”, but so what? ‘Blink’ was based around a similar paradox, for one.
The whole two-parter was chock-a-block with “wow” moments; the pre-credits sequences alone were a joy. And I love the way we’ve been skipping around different genres: horror, fairytale, tragi-comedy, action-adventure, you name it. The scenes in the museum were pretty much farce, with a vortex manipulator in place of opening and closing bedroom doors. And I loved the “Stay out of … trouble” line, addressed to Rory and Amelia 1800 years apart.
I can’t understand why one or two people have been left cold by the emotional content of this series. At least two or three scenes here were heartbreaking, with the “silly old Doctor” speech to a sleeping Amelia being the most moving for me. (By the way, isn’t Matt Smith superb at the emotional scenes? What a revelation he’s been.)
Overall, a terrific series with a Doctor who hit the ground running from his first minute on screen. Dull Silurians two-parter and all-new, United Daleks of Benneton excepted, a complete triumph. And I do hope that “Orient Express in space” was a throwaway pisstake of Voyage of the Damned, and not what we’ve got coming in the Christmas special.
@Mark – yes, yes, yes! and making similar points (less eruditely, I suspect) since Ep 1. My five-year-old daughter adores Doctor Who. She has made me make fish custard (twice). We have to avoid ‘the cracks in the universe’ when walking to school. She is on the lookout for blue grass (in case there are Silurians). Moffat has made this series for kids (and said so – quite explicitly) right from the start. The fact that the grown-ups can love it too merely accentuates his genius as far as I’m concerned.
I just loved this episode – it made me happy. I even started seeing the chemistry between Amy and Rory, the lack of which has been irritating me all season.
Matt Smith was rather superb, Ed, I agree. I adore River and am ridiculously excited that there seems to be a lot more of her on the way. The scene in the Tardis between the Doctor and River (the ‘hello, darling, I’m home’ scene) was fantastic – River had the measure of the Doctor and it was just great. People almost never know things that he doesn’t, so I’m finding his reaction to River’s knowing things he doesn’t brilliant. So well played by Alex Kingston and Matt Smith as well.
I was really expecting to find out who’s been controlling the Tardis, so that was frustrating but a two-series cohesive arc isn’t a bad thing so I’ll just have to lump it, won’t I?
Also really looking forward to the Neil Gaiman episode (I’ve heard it’s going to be Episode 5, I think it’s on Neil Gaiman’s blog).
Only thing is, I’m still waiting to find out why there weren’t any ducks on the duck pond!
For awesome cognitive dissonance, after reading Maryanne’s recaps, go read Jacob’s over at http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com
The finale was more ‘lowkey’ than in the past and that is a positive. RTD usually threw everything he could find but the kitchen sink (too over the top such as the Flash Gordon feel or the Cyberking) and many times ruined the episode for me. Here, you could see that Moffat actually had two themes working this series – the crack and silence shall fall. The silence will be continued into the next series.
Totally different from what I had expected but this is also a positive. Rory has become a favorite of mine (though Amy still grates on the nerves). River is also endearing and look forward to her future appearances – see seems to have the funkiest introes in her episodes. A lot of timey whimey stuff here where the supporting characters nudged the Doctor to do his pop ins and outs across the timelines. Poor pez, River so did not like the thing (way to go).
Overall this series was bland for me with just a handful (if even that) of episodes that stood out and very few I even wanted to re-watch after viewing them. The redos of the rainbow/Power Ranger Daleks was lousy and those were lizard people not the Silurians we are all familiar with. Hopefully the next series will improve and bring some stability along with better titles (dump the lightning finally) and theme.
I thought TWOP stopped doing them ages ago!
Most of the “hole” are filled in. Since Count Spatula addressed them with numbers I’ll address them the same way
1. The Doctor has met other Doctor’s several times, but always under special conditions, in Fathers Day doing so causes huge harm to the time stream. Time is ending I don’t think the Doctor cared about a little more damage if it had a chance at fixing the problem. Not something you do on a daily basis.
2. Daleks can time travel so technically they could have brought some of them along but honestly why couldn’t they have existed in that year. We never know what year it is on Earth when the Doctor is in space. My only issue is the Cybermen who I thought got sucked back into the rift but hey they got out once before.
3. Everything in the universe but Earth doesn’t exist so therefore no Daleks to attack. If you are talking about after the Pandorica explodes then you end up with different Daliks since Tom Baker changed their history at one point. Also even when other people are erased their effect on the timeline isn’t “Rory’s ring” so it all happened just no one remembers.
4. Amy was “different” as the Doctor put it. She was soaking up the light from the crack for years and years. That’s what allowed her to bring back the Doctor. If River had tried it he wouldn’t have been able to do it that’s why she had to give the book to Amy since she obviously still remembered the Doctor. River has time traveled alot and was there when the Doctor sacrificed himself so I have no issues with her remembering since the Doctor remembered Rory when he was eaten.
posted by Ken (Sun Jun 27 10, 11:24PM)
Presumably the Dalek and Cybermen invasions of RTD-era Who had been swallowed up by the cracks, so they had been erased from existence in the original Universe.
One thing bothers me about the ‘rebooted’ Universe, though. How come the various alien plans of past series weren’t now successful with no Doctor to stop them? OK, once Amy summons the Doctor at her wedding, his past timeline is presumably restored as well, and all is back as it was. But how did they even survive to the date of Amy’s wedding without the planet being wiped out by Daleks/Cybermen/Autons/The Master/Sontarans/whoever?
Of course, starting with the Ascot of #2, the Sash of #3 – the Fez of #11 will endure. Of course, I’m biased – starting watching with #2 and the ol B&W days… it’s been ‘fascinating’ to see the incarnations since. (Class Reunion had me almost to tears at the end, very classy)
And as far as fezzes, I’m really biased – http://www.fez-o-rama.com – and wait for it – a police call box fez shortly! ;)
Have fun.
Ed Duffy – Like the ring in the TARDIS a persons actions somehow aren’t erased when they are eaten by the crack just the memory of those actions.
I loved the episode, and I’m choosing to ignore many of the holes because I think the final product was worth it. (And also because, as was mentioned before, it IS a kids’ show.)
But there’s one thing that really bugs me, and I haven’t seen it mentioned: if the Pandorica was the strongest prison ever, with loads of different mechanisms keeping it shut, how could a sonic screwdriver open it? I mean, can we really believe that there was no “dead-locked seal”?
With regards to getting the Pandorica open; It’s a prison. Easier to break in than break out. From the inside it’s secure and from the outside you just have to turn the key.