I go through The Pandorica Opens, the first half of the Series 5 finale of Doctor Who, where River Song’s message sends the Doctor and Amy to Roman Britain and Stonehenge, Rory turns up in Roman times, and the Pandorica turns out to be a prison built for the Doctor himself. It has spoilers throughout.
I loved it. It’s a finale that lives up to the hype, the trap is brilliant, and I can’t wait for the next part.
OK what else can I say but WOW! This is a series finale that definitely lives up to the hype, and I’ll tell you now, do not read any further if you aren’t interested in hearing how the story goes. Spoilers are definitely here and they are here a-plenty!
Gradually throughout the series different pieces of the puzzle were introduced to us, starting with the mention of the silence in the episode with the vampires in Venice. Everything finally starts to fit together in this final two part episode to end the 1st season of Matt Smith’s reign as the Doctor. It’s a lot to keep track of across a whole run, and the fact that it all lands in one story is a big part of what makes this one feel like an event.
A finale is a tough thing to get right. It has to answer questions without losing the mystery, it has to feel bigger than anything that came before it, and it has to leave people wanting more. This one does all three by building on what’s already been established rather than throwing out something new at the last minute. That’s why it works as the end of a season and not just a big special episode, and it’s what I loved most about it.
All the threads in one tapestry
Moffat made the entire season of threads into a single tapestry, and one that moved at just the right pace, infusing a sense of dread with glimmers of hope and mystery and paranoia. There’s the shard of the TARDIS that turned up in the episode in which Rory dies, and there’s the crack that has been following the Doctor around all year. None of it felt like filler in hindsight, and I loved watching it click into place. It’s the kind of payoff you only get from a show that’s been planning ahead.
Moffat also understands that sometimes less is more, and just the basic name-checking of a plethora of old and new school adversaries is enough to give the season finale the epic feel the series has been struggling to find since 2005. You don’t need to see every monster in a huge battle, you only need to hear that they’re all coming. That restraint is what gives the story its weight, and it’s what makes the threat feel so big even though the cast is still small. The episode never has to shout to make the stakes clear.
The crack in the universe has been the thread running under everything since Amy’s bedroom wall in the very first episode. Every time it has appeared it has taken something away, whether that’s a person, a memory or a piece of time itself, and the Doctor has never quite explained why. Seeing it come back around here, with its effects still being felt in what Amy can and can’t remember, is a good reminder of how carefully the season was laid out.
A painting, Cleopatra and Stonehenge
The episode starts with a new enigmatic painting, one that shows the destruction of the TARDIS. Tying in characters from some of the other episodes of the show, River Song is able to transmit a message to the Doctor, and responding to it, the Doctor and Amy head back to Roman times. There they find River waiting for them, masquerading as Cleopatra. She informs them that the Pandorica is opening, the very box that came up in the story with the Angels and River, and it’s good fun seeing that mention pay off.
Riding to Stonehenge, the Doctor discovers the ancient site is a transmission center, alerting a plethora of factions across the universe that the mysterious box will open. The Doctor assumes there’s something inside trying to get out that many of his foes want, but the truth is something else entirely. While the punch line to this episode is, I think, fairly obvious even from the early stages, it’s still really well done, and getting there is a lot of fun. It’s a great place to put the Doctor too, standing on the stones with everyone looking at him and nowhere to hide.
Setting it in Roman Britain is a clever choice too. The Roman soldiers, the torches and the stones give the whole thing a very old, very strange feel, and it’s a different look from the usual spaceship corridors or modern streets. River turning up as Cleopatra is a fun touch, and she’s clearly enjoying herself. The mix of history and science fiction is exactly what Doctor Who does best, and here it also sets up the idea that something very old and very dangerous has been buried at Stonehenge for a long time.
Rory in Roman times
The introduction of Rory in Roman times is actually a real shocker and something I was definitely not expecting at all. Amy’s story picks up from last week, when we didn’t really get a chance to see her, with Rory’s engagement ring in hand. Confronting the Doctor with the ring, she learns that the Doctor lost a friend and, due to the effects of the crack, cannot remember that it was Rory. However, when Rory shows up in Roman times he’s able to gradually restore her memories to her.
It’s a really nice bit of writing, because it gives Amy something to do that matters while everything else is rushing toward the big reveal. She’s been through a lot this series, and watching her fight to remember someone she’s lost is far more affecting than another monster in a corridor. It also brings the whole Amy and Rory thread back to the front of the story, which is where it needs to be for a finale.
The Doctor and Amy’s relationship has also been the real engine of this whole season. She’s the girl who waited, he’s the man who left her waiting, and the Rory business has put a strain on both of them. Seeing all three of them dragged back into the middle of the same story makes the finale feel personal as well as huge. It’s one of the reasons the trap hits so hard, because the people the Doctor cares about are used as bait to lure him in. That’s a cruel thing for his enemies to do, and it fits their character perfectly.
The box is a prison
As the Pandorica gradually opens, River is sent by the Doctor to the TARDIS to retrieve some tools. Entering the TARDIS, however, she’s catapulted into the future and discovers clues that point to the fact that this is all a trap for the Doctor, and that someone has been using Amy’s memories to create an elaborate ruse to capture him. Once the Doctor realizes she’s in Amy’s time, and that this is when the TARDIS is going to explode, causing the end of all universes, he begs her to escape. She can’t, because something else is controlling the TARDIS.
The enemies are the part that really sold the finale to me. Once the Doctor realizes what’s going on, he’s surrounded by Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Judoon, Sycorax and Slitheen, all of whom have set aside their own plans to deal with him together. It’s a great idea, because it’s the ultimate compliment to the Doctor, and it also means that the same enemies who normally fight each other are suddenly on the same side. That’s what makes the threat feel genuinely different from anything earlier in the season, and it’s why seeing the Doctor so scared lands as hard as it does.
At the same time the Pandorica has finally opened, and it’s not what the Doctor thinks at all. There was nothing being held inside the Pandorica. It’s a prison to hold him, something that all the greatest villains of the Doctor Who universe have banded together to build. Seeing Smith terrified as his enemies lock him up, begging them not to do this, is one incredible moment. And realizing that in another time the TARDIS is exploding, and all the suns in the universe are exploding with it, is an awesome scene. Next Saturday cannot come fast enough, and I hope that Moffat is able to complete the story, somehow, in a satisfying manner. The trap has been set so well that the follow-up has a lot to live up to, and I’m honestly not sure how he gets the Doctor out of this one.
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