'DOCTOR WHO' 5.12 – "The Pandorica Opens"

[SPOILERS] The return of Steven Moffat to guide series 5 to its conclusion worked very well in terms of untangling this year's deeper puzzle, and certainly did a nifty job of retroactively making previous episodes feel more relevant and interesting, with regards to the overall arc. "The Pandorica Opens" delivered an abundance of action, adventure, chills, thrills, explanations, and ridiculously big stakes that actually made sense. It wasn't perfect, but it came damned close, and was certainly an impressive hour of ambitious British sci-fi action that left you desperate to see next week's conclusion.

The extended opening was the kind of dizzying treat only this show is capable of pulling off on TV right now; The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy (Karen Gillan) were appraised of a dire warning from Vincent Van Gogh (Tony Curran), by way of a painting that found its way first to Winston Churchill's (Iain McNeice) bunker and then to an imprisoned River Song (Alex Kingston) in the distant future. The difficulty in getting word to a Time Lord who could be anywhere and anywhen was already played with in "The Time Of Angels", but it proved just as interesting and exciting here, as River eventually snagged The Doctor's attention by etching "HELLO SWEETIE" on an ancient cliff-face with co-ordinates pointed to Roman Britain...

Arriving on the outskirts of Stonehenge, The Doctor saw Van Gogh's painted premonition that his TARDIS will be destroyed (assumedly causing the "cracks in the universe" that have been scattered throughout most episodes this series), and with the help of River had to get to the bottom of the mythical Pandorica – a large prison-cube buried beneath Stonehenge, in the so-called "Underhenge", that's mysteriously started to open while broadcasting a signal that's alerted every single one of The Doctor's enemies -- from Daleks and Cybermen, to Sontarons and Sycorax. Can The Doctor prevent the TARDIS from being destroyed and causing these worrisome time-cracks before it happens? Can he defeat thousands his greatest enemies, all swirling above Stonehenge in countless spaceships? What's inside the ominous Pandorica? Why has the Rory (Arthur Darvill) , who was erased from existence in "Cold Blood", suddenly reappeared as a Roman soldier? And why is Amy and her peculiarly nonsensical life the key to solving this maddening riddle?

"The Pandorica Opens" was modern Doctor Who at its most creative and exciting best, expertly weaving together a story in the confident and spritely manner we've come to expect from Steven Moffat. Ultimately telling a simple story, this meant there was time to have fun in different corners of the plot; from the teaser's joyous leaping about in space-time (reacquainting ourselves with guest stars from recent episodes), to wonderful action sequences (Amy being attacked by a Cyberman's disembodied head with "tentacles" sprouting from the neck, a la The Thing), and the fact the mysteries over Amy and the Pandorica were explained in a fairly intelligent and rational way. Given most fan's annoyance about Russell T. Davies' similarly bombastic finales suffering from a paucity of logic and dues ex machina solutions, this was by far the most satisfying aspect of "The Pandorica Opens": a story that came together in the telling, connecting snugly. Let’s hope that continues into next week.

For the few people still scratching their heads: The Doctor's enemies had calculated the universe-threatening cracks were caused by the exploding TARDIS in the near-future, so had scanned Amy's memories as a child to create a scenario designed to get their common enemy into the Pandorica prison-box using his own companion. It was essentially a trap designed specifically for him -- taking millennia to achieve, if you consider that they must have built that Pandorica (and Stonehenge itself?) purely for this purpose of neutralizing the last Time Lord, once and for all.

What more can be said? Part 1 of this finale was gripping and enthralling stuff from beginning to end, with any bumps in the road forgotten about within seconds. The tense ending served up three mini-climaxes that would have made a fitting cliffhanger individually, too: Amy shot in the stomach by her fiancé (revealed to be an Auton doppelganger) seconds after she regained her memories of the lover she lost; River Song trapped in the TARDIS as it was apparently destroyed by whatever force has been controlling it, and the defeated Doctor frogmarched into the Pandorica (a prison created from the imagination of his own trusted companion), finally outwitted by an alliance of his greatest enemies.

Easily the best episode of this series (and maybe for a good few years), "The Pandorica Opens" also found both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan on fine form together -- arguably because Moffat's still the only writer attuned to their particular characters. Certainly that feels more true of Amy, under his pen. Smith's been good all year considering the daunting challenge of stepping into David Tennant's shoes as an unknown actor with a less photogenic look, but his rock star-like diatribe to the armadas buzzing above Stonehenge seemed to cement his ownership of the role. He wasn't just The Eleventh Doctor here, now he's The Doctor. Gillan was also a lot better than she's been recently, particularly in her entertaining tussel with an injured Cyberman and the emotional moment of her struggling to remember Rory. Speaking of which, it was a nice surprise that the Amy/Rory relationship somehow overcame its flaws in that moments --possibly because of Murray Gold's stirring music (very Michael Giacchino for that scene, no?), but also because true love trying to overcome death is inherently more interesting than unconvincing lover's tiffs.

Fantastic episode; let's hope "The Big Bang" lives up to its title as next week's conclusion.

Asides

• One fascinating aspect of this episode is how the villains formed an alliance to defeat their common enemy, whom they believed will cause the end of reality itself, and that's a very understandable reaction! Of course, The Doctor won't be proven responsible for the "cracks" and is the only one who can actually save the day, but you can see where the villains were coming from.
• There were some fantastic production values here. I assume that's because series 5 actually had two "cheap" episodes in which to conserve budget for the finale ("Amy's Choice" and "The Lodger"). The alien world in the teaser, the twinkling ships flying around Stonehenge like something from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and the intricate Pandorica's external workings were especially good effects. Kind of makes you wish the BBC would double the show's budget, or they co-financed it with a big US broadcaster, a la Torchwood.
• This episode marks director Toby Haynes' Who debut, having previously worked on Being Human.
• I'm a little confused about why Winston Churchill didn’t just call The Doctor directly on his phone about the painting, rather than River Song. Maybe I missed a line of dialogue to hazily explain that? Also, how did River know The Doctor would visit that cliff to see her message?
• The enemies united to defeat The Doctor were: the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Autons, the Slitheen, the Sycorax, the Atraxi, the Sontarons, the Zygons (last seen in 1975's "Terror Of The Zygons"), the Drahvins (last seen in 1965's "Galaxy 4"), the Draconians, the Terileptils, the Nestene, the Drahvins, the Hoix, the Judoon, the Silurians, and the Chelonians. Not all were seen on screen.
• For River Song, this adventure is taking place before "The Time Of Angels" and "The Silence In Library" adventures, so she obviously survives the TARDIS being destroyed -- right? But as she's clearly aware of The Doctor while locked in her Stormcage prison, we can clearly expect more adventures to come. It'll be fun to see the day when, to River, The Doctor is a complete stranger! And maybe there's even a reason Churchill has River's phone number?
• Who is controlling the TARDIS, intent on its destruction so that "silence will fall"? A villain we haven't seen before? The return of a familiar foe, like Davros of The Master? Or something more mindbending?
• If this episode was all about The Doctor's enemies succeeding in eliminating him, might his friends come to his rescue next week? Let's see, you have the Ood, Captain Jack, River Song... oh, and the rest are all humans without the capability of time-travel, damn. Unless one of them releases him in the present-day, echoing a situation that happened to Captain Jack in that Torchwood episode.

WRITER: Steven Moffat
DIRECTOR: Toby Haynes
GUEST CAST: Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, Iain McNeice, Sophie Okonedo, Tony Curran & Nicholas Briggs (voice)
AIRDATE/CHANNEL: 19 JUNE 2010: BBC1/HD, 6.40PM