Sunday, August 29, 2010

Doctor Who Series 31: The Big Bang

Following from the cliffhanger of the previous episode, the Doctor is sealed in the Pandorica, a prison designed for him by his greatest foes and baited by elements of Amy's childhood imagination; River Song is trapped in the TARDIS as it explodes, triggering the end of the universe, leaving only the Earth, Moon, and a sun-like object within a starless black void. In 102 AD, the Auton replica of Rory, having shot Amy, is still holding her lifeless body when a future version of the Doctor, using River's Vortex Manipulator, briefly appears and gives Rory his sonic screwdriver, with instructions to open the Pandorica and release the imprisoned Doctor. Together, they place Amy's body inside the Pandorica where she will be held in stasis. The Doctor uses the Vortex Manipulator to jump to 1996, while Rory, ageless due to his Auton nature, opts to stay with the Pandorica and protect Amy's body until that time. His presence near it as the "lone Centurion" creates a mythology around the box that survives to the present day.

In 1996, young Amelia Pond has received clues that lead her to the National Museum, where the Pandorica is on display. Amelia's touch opens the Pandorica, reviving and releasing her older self; they are soon joined by the Doctor, arriving from 102 AD, and Rory, now a security guard at the museum. Amy and Rory have an emotional reunion before the four flee from a fossilised Dalek re-energised by the restoration field of the open Pandorica. After temporarily disabling the Dalek, the Doctor uses the Vortex Manipulator to set up the events that frees him from the Pandorica and brings Amelia to the museum. Amelia soon vanishes; the Doctor worries that the star-less universe is collapsing from the TARDIS explosion, and while they are safe at the "eye of the storm", they do not much have time before complete failure.

Suddenly, a mortally-wounded near-future Doctor appears via the Vortex Manipulator, and falls; the future Doctor whispers something to his earlier self before dying. As they continue to flee the Dalek, the Doctor postulates that a fragment of the original, star-filled universe is inside the Pandorica, and if they can transfer it to every point of the collapsing universe simultaneously, they may be able to "reboot" their old reality. Escaping to the roof, the Doctor realises the sun-like object is the TARDIS, having created a time loop to contain the explosion, with River still inside. The Doctor rescues River using the Vortex Manipulator, and devises a plan to fly the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS to create a second Big Bang and restore the original universe. He is then shot by the Dalek, and jumps twelve minutes into the past. Rory and Amy escape, while River confronts the Dalek, which uncharacteristically begs for mercy when told her name.

The wounded Doctor, twelve minutes in the past, appears to his older self, and directs him to create a diversion; the Doctor uses the time to prepare the Pandorica. When his companions return, the Doctor explains that once the universe is rebooted, Amy—having lived near the cracks in the universe all her life—will be able to use her memories to restore people who have been erased, and that he himself will be trapped in the void between universes once the cracks close. The Doctor then pilots the Pandorica into the TARDIS explosion and initiates a second Big Bang.

After the explosion, the Doctor finds himself rewinding through his life as an observer as the cracks in the universe start to close. Amy can hear but not see him, and as he passes through the events of "Flesh and Stone", he takes advantage of her closed eyes to tell her to remember what he told her when she was seven years old. Arriving on the day he met Amelia Pond ("The Eleventh Hour"), he finds the young girl asleep outside, waiting for her "raggedy Doctor" to return. The Doctor carries her to bed, and tells her a story about a daft old man who "borrowed" a magic box that was "big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient. And the bluest blue ever." He then steps into the crack in Amelia's bedroom wall, sealing it completely.

Amy wakes up on 26 June 2010, the day of her wedding, to find she has remembered her mother, father and the human Rory back into existence. During the wedding reception, however, she feels as if she is forgetting something. When she sees River Song's diary, its cover fashioned after the TARDIS, she tearfully recalls the Doctor's story of "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue", causing the Doctor and the TARDIS to be restored. The Doctor joins in the wedding celebration.

After the wedding, the Doctor gives River her diary and the Vortex Manipulator to return to her time. River dodges his questions about marriage, and sadly warns him he will soon learn who she truly is, and that it will change everything. Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor explains to Amy and Rory that unanswered questions remain about the destruction of the TARDIS and the nature of "the Silence" that will fall, but before they can contemplate that, the Doctor receives a telephone call alerting him to the presence of an escaped Egyptian goddess on the Orient Express in space. Rory and Amy decide to join him, and the three leave on their next adventure.
source: wikipedia

Cast
Doctor

* Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)

Companions

* Karen Gillan (Amy Pond)
* Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams)

Others

* Alex Kingston – River Song
* Caitlin Blackwood – Amelia
* Susan Vidler – Aunt Sharon
* Frances Ashman – Christine
* Barnaby Edwards – Stone Dalek
* William Pretsell – Dave
* Halcro Johnston – Augustus Pond
* Karen Westwood – Tabetha Pond
* Nicholas Briggs – Dalek voice

Production
Writer Steven Moffat
Director Toby Haynes
Script editor Lindsey Alford
Producer Peter Bennett
Executive producer(s)

* Steven Moffat
* Piers Wenger
* Beth Willis

Production code 1.13
Series Series 5
Length 55 minutes
Originally broadcast 26 June 2010

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