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Entry tags:
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DW 5x12 - The Pandorica Opens
It's taken me a while to cull my masses of random thoughts on the episode into something vaguely resembling a coherent post. And it's still probably not that coherent - more of a ramble about stuff that happened. I've only watched it once so far, so I'm sure there's stuff I've missed.
That was a fabulous pre-title sequence – but how come Bracewell was there? If that scene was supposed to take place after the Dalek episode (which I presume it was, because Bracewell knew who the Doctor was) , I thought he’d buggered off to the country to seek out his lost love.
Interestingly, River is already in prison when this episode starts. So whoever she kills, and whenever she kills him, she’s already done it at this point. Loved the little stick-drawing, complete with curly hair :-)
The TARDIS diverted Winnie’s phone call? Was that explained? I know there was some kind of technobabble there about the reception in the vortex, but surely the TARDIS would have needed to receive the signal in order to reroute it?
Nonetheless, River continues to be pretty damn awesome, and I confess, I do rather like the “Hello Sweetie” thing.
This is also clearly not River’s first meeting with the Doctor; I’m guessing we probably won’t ever see that. It's too good a plot device to be able to have this person who shows up at various points in the Doctor’s life with knowledge of things and events that haven’t happened to him yet.
I liked the conversation about the story of Pandora's Box being Amy's favourite as a child - I think that was when the penny finally dropped that this was all likely to be some kind of construct based on her memories. I know the importance of memory has been one of the key elements of this series and that there has been a lot of discussion of the importance of stories and dreams, but that was the moment when the idea that it was all in - or from - Amy's head really crystallised for me.
Doesn’t it worry you that your life doesn’t make sense?
FINALLY – the Doctor tells Amy that he didn’t just pick her up at random (which I had suspected before, vaguely), but because of her house being "too big". Which begs the question, did the TARDIS crash-land deliberately in her garden? At the end of EoT, Eleven is standing at the console, wearing Ten’s clothes – including his jacket. At the start of TEH, he’s discarded the jacket and is hanging out of the TARDIS. Did anything significant happen between those two scenes? Probably not, I’m just rambling.
But the idea that all of this has been constructed from Amy’s memories as an elaborate plot to lure the Doctor into captivity is wonderful – but… by whom? I admit, that creepy voice at the end reminded me of Davros, who would definitely be clever enough to come up with the idea and carry it out, but would Moffat want to reuse him at this stage? The other person capable of manipulating the Doctor AND all the others in that way is, of course, the Master, but I can’t see Moffat using him, either. (And that’s without thinking about how he’d get out of the time lock he presumably got sucked into at the end of EoT).
Whoever it is has not only got to be clever enough to be able to manipulate the Doctor, but also to manipulate all those other races into forming that unholy alliance, united by their mutual fear of destruction.
Presumably this is also the "person" who is controlling the TARDIS and going to blow it up.
I know there’s speculation among fans that it’ll be Omega or maybe the Valeyard… but I think that may be going a bit too far back for a lot of viewers. It’s easy to think that the show’s audience is mostly made up of fans, but it’s not – like most TV programmes, the audience is split between fans and casual viewers; which is what makes me think whoever it is is more likely to be someone we’ve come across since 2005. (I know Daleks and Cybermen are “old enemies” too, but they’re pretty iconic and I'd think more likely to be known by casual viewers.) Which is why there’s no-one else I can think of at this stage, because I'd be surprised if it's someone we’ve never met – it wouldn’t have the same dramatic impact, would it? If it’s a toss-up between the Master and Davros, I suppose my money would have to be on the latter.
But what do I know?
Rory and Eleven are still awesome together - such a shame he couldn't have been the regular companion, or at least been part of Team TARDIS for longer, because he and Eleven worked so well together. I think it’s time for a male companion (and not in a slashy way!)
I mean, this scene was fabulous. The Doctor is preoccupied and chatting away to Rory as if nothing has happened -
Doctor: I'm missing something obvious Rory, something big, something right slap in front of me, I can feel it!
Rory: Yeah I think you probably are.
Doctor: Teah, I'll get it in a minute.
*poke*
Doctor: There we go.
So it was nice to see Rory back, even though I wasn’t expecting a happy ending for him and Amy. But I liked the fact that Moff didn’t cop out on their story; he let us hope for a bit that maybe somehow Amy would be able to convince him he’s “him” and that he would be able to override his programming, but… no. And I think that was a brave move, and the right one.
Besides, it would never have worked. She’s a human, he’s an auton...
And the tragedy of it is that (I assume) she will now be able to remember Rory and mourn for him. I’m still fairly ‘meh’ about Amy, but the good news is that she didn’t annoy me this episode – I think there was too much else going on for that. Overall though, she didn’t seem as smug and abrasive as she’s been in the past – and I hope that continues. I imagine that the fact that she’s now re-gained and lost the man she loves in the space of a few minutes will have changed her. Oh, and the fact that she’s currently, you know, dead. I’d imagine that can be quite life-changing. *ahem*
But I’ll admit that I thought KG pitched her performance well in that scene.
Loved River flying the TARDIS - and talking to her! But - only the Doctor can fly the TARDIS. Whaaaaaaaat??! Er, no. Although I suppose there’s no reason why whoever is masterminding this would know otherwise. We saw Ten teaching Donna to fly it; there may have been others in Classic Who (other than Romana, of course, but I can't remember off the top of my head) and obviously the Doctor has taught River to fly it. Also – I’m sure many thought her “I’m sorry, my love” was meant for the Doctor, but my first thought was “she’s talking to the TARDIS!"
So the Pandorica was empty all along – but now it does indeed contain 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 - nothing could stop it or reason with it; one day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world...
And thus is created the legend - or fairy-tale.
Eleven’s been growing on me throughout the series. It’s been a slow process and I’m still not quite there yet. I’ve never NOT liked him, it’s just that for me, he’s not had the weight or maybe the ‘gravitas’ of his immediate predecessors. I realized quite early on that he was definitely more reticent and withdrawn and it made perfect sense that he would be that way given what his last two incarnations went through – but it’s still made it harder for me to connect with him. I liked his speech to the assembled masses of alien ships (I immediately thought of River’s description in S4, of watching armies turn and run from him – although of course, in this instance they came back) – it was a bit rock-star while being a bit naff and as such rather ‘typically’ Eleven. (And yes, I’m amazed I’ve just typed that!) He’s like your Dad dancing at someone’s wedding when you were little – you know, thinks his moves are cool when they’re pretty rubbish! Again, it’s that “thirty-going-on-ninety” thing that Matt does so well. Best line was I've got nothing to lose. Becuase... yeah.
His panic at being shoved into the Pandorica was a little less convincing, although I can’t put my finger exactly on why. He seemed... diminished, somehow, a little TOO desperate. Okay, so that’s stupid, he’s trying to prevent the destruction of the universe, so of course he’d be desperate… the Doctor might be a pain in the arse at times, but I don’t think he’s ever put personal pride above saving lives. And perhaps he’s supposed to look scared and desperate and less than he is so that when he comes back, he’s even MORE to be feared by those that have cause to do so.
So he's been strapped to a chair and locked in a box in order to prevent the destruction of the universe. Which has, of course just assured its destruction, because the TARDIS is going to explode without the Doctor there to prevent it.
All in all, it was a great episode. I might have problems with certain aspects of this series (which I've already gone into at length in other posts, so I won't repeat myself here), but I can’t fault the way that the threads are being pulled together. I never expected less than a cracking good story from Moffat, and he's certainly delivering that.
Time will be rewritten... Roll on next week!
That was a fabulous pre-title sequence – but how come Bracewell was there? If that scene was supposed to take place after the Dalek episode (which I presume it was, because Bracewell knew who the Doctor was) , I thought he’d buggered off to the country to seek out his lost love.
Interestingly, River is already in prison when this episode starts. So whoever she kills, and whenever she kills him, she’s already done it at this point. Loved the little stick-drawing, complete with curly hair :-)
The TARDIS diverted Winnie’s phone call? Was that explained? I know there was some kind of technobabble there about the reception in the vortex, but surely the TARDIS would have needed to receive the signal in order to reroute it?
Nonetheless, River continues to be pretty damn awesome, and I confess, I do rather like the “Hello Sweetie” thing.
This is also clearly not River’s first meeting with the Doctor; I’m guessing we probably won’t ever see that. It's too good a plot device to be able to have this person who shows up at various points in the Doctor’s life with knowledge of things and events that haven’t happened to him yet.
I liked the conversation about the story of Pandora's Box being Amy's favourite as a child - I think that was when the penny finally dropped that this was all likely to be some kind of construct based on her memories. I know the importance of memory has been one of the key elements of this series and that there has been a lot of discussion of the importance of stories and dreams, but that was the moment when the idea that it was all in - or from - Amy's head really crystallised for me.
Doesn’t it worry you that your life doesn’t make sense?
FINALLY – the Doctor tells Amy that he didn’t just pick her up at random (which I had suspected before, vaguely), but because of her house being "too big". Which begs the question, did the TARDIS crash-land deliberately in her garden? At the end of EoT, Eleven is standing at the console, wearing Ten’s clothes – including his jacket. At the start of TEH, he’s discarded the jacket and is hanging out of the TARDIS. Did anything significant happen between those two scenes? Probably not, I’m just rambling.
But the idea that all of this has been constructed from Amy’s memories as an elaborate plot to lure the Doctor into captivity is wonderful – but… by whom? I admit, that creepy voice at the end reminded me of Davros, who would definitely be clever enough to come up with the idea and carry it out, but would Moffat want to reuse him at this stage? The other person capable of manipulating the Doctor AND all the others in that way is, of course, the Master, but I can’t see Moffat using him, either. (And that’s without thinking about how he’d get out of the time lock he presumably got sucked into at the end of EoT).
Whoever it is has not only got to be clever enough to be able to manipulate the Doctor, but also to manipulate all those other races into forming that unholy alliance, united by their mutual fear of destruction.
Presumably this is also the "person" who is controlling the TARDIS and going to blow it up.
I know there’s speculation among fans that it’ll be Omega or maybe the Valeyard… but I think that may be going a bit too far back for a lot of viewers. It’s easy to think that the show’s audience is mostly made up of fans, but it’s not – like most TV programmes, the audience is split between fans and casual viewers; which is what makes me think whoever it is is more likely to be someone we’ve come across since 2005. (I know Daleks and Cybermen are “old enemies” too, but they’re pretty iconic and I'd think more likely to be known by casual viewers.) Which is why there’s no-one else I can think of at this stage, because I'd be surprised if it's someone we’ve never met – it wouldn’t have the same dramatic impact, would it? If it’s a toss-up between the Master and Davros, I suppose my money would have to be on the latter.
But what do I know?
Rory and Eleven are still awesome together - such a shame he couldn't have been the regular companion, or at least been part of Team TARDIS for longer, because he and Eleven worked so well together. I think it’s time for a male companion (and not in a slashy way!)
I mean, this scene was fabulous. The Doctor is preoccupied and chatting away to Rory as if nothing has happened -
Doctor: I'm missing something obvious Rory, something big, something right slap in front of me, I can feel it!
Rory: Yeah I think you probably are.
Doctor: Teah, I'll get it in a minute.
*poke*
Doctor: There we go.
So it was nice to see Rory back, even though I wasn’t expecting a happy ending for him and Amy. But I liked the fact that Moff didn’t cop out on their story; he let us hope for a bit that maybe somehow Amy would be able to convince him he’s “him” and that he would be able to override his programming, but… no. And I think that was a brave move, and the right one.
Besides, it would never have worked. She’s a human, he’s an auton...
And the tragedy of it is that (I assume) she will now be able to remember Rory and mourn for him. I’m still fairly ‘meh’ about Amy, but the good news is that she didn’t annoy me this episode – I think there was too much else going on for that. Overall though, she didn’t seem as smug and abrasive as she’s been in the past – and I hope that continues. I imagine that the fact that she’s now re-gained and lost the man she loves in the space of a few minutes will have changed her. Oh, and the fact that she’s currently, you know, dead. I’d imagine that can be quite life-changing. *ahem*
But I’ll admit that I thought KG pitched her performance well in that scene.
Loved River flying the TARDIS - and talking to her! But - only the Doctor can fly the TARDIS. Whaaaaaaaat??! Er, no. Although I suppose there’s no reason why whoever is masterminding this would know otherwise. We saw Ten teaching Donna to fly it; there may have been others in Classic Who (other than Romana, of course, but I can't remember off the top of my head) and obviously the Doctor has taught River to fly it. Also – I’m sure many thought her “I’m sorry, my love” was meant for the Doctor, but my first thought was “she’s talking to the TARDIS!"
So the Pandorica was empty all along – but now it does indeed contain 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 - nothing could stop it or reason with it; one day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world...
And thus is created the legend - or fairy-tale.
Eleven’s been growing on me throughout the series. It’s been a slow process and I’m still not quite there yet. I’ve never NOT liked him, it’s just that for me, he’s not had the weight or maybe the ‘gravitas’ of his immediate predecessors. I realized quite early on that he was definitely more reticent and withdrawn and it made perfect sense that he would be that way given what his last two incarnations went through – but it’s still made it harder for me to connect with him. I liked his speech to the assembled masses of alien ships (I immediately thought of River’s description in S4, of watching armies turn and run from him – although of course, in this instance they came back) – it was a bit rock-star while being a bit naff and as such rather ‘typically’ Eleven. (And yes, I’m amazed I’ve just typed that!) He’s like your Dad dancing at someone’s wedding when you were little – you know, thinks his moves are cool when they’re pretty rubbish! Again, it’s that “thirty-going-on-ninety” thing that Matt does so well. Best line was I've got nothing to lose. Becuase... yeah.
His panic at being shoved into the Pandorica was a little less convincing, although I can’t put my finger exactly on why. He seemed... diminished, somehow, a little TOO desperate. Okay, so that’s stupid, he’s trying to prevent the destruction of the universe, so of course he’d be desperate… the Doctor might be a pain in the arse at times, but I don’t think he’s ever put personal pride above saving lives. And perhaps he’s supposed to look scared and desperate and less than he is so that when he comes back, he’s even MORE to be feared by those that have cause to do so.
So he's been strapped to a chair and locked in a box in order to prevent the destruction of the universe. Which has, of course just assured its destruction, because the TARDIS is going to explode without the Doctor there to prevent it.
All in all, it was a great episode. I might have problems with certain aspects of this series (which I've already gone into at length in other posts, so I won't repeat myself here), but I can’t fault the way that the threads are being pulled together. I never expected less than a cracking good story from Moffat, and he's certainly delivering that.
Time will be rewritten... Roll on next week!