The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
I have been hesitant to write about the Dr Who season finale. I enjoyed it (them?). I really did. But I felt I didn't ought to have because I hated all TBO RTD finales and I couldn't figure out why I should have enjoyed something that followed that mould, end of the universe (oh, come on, this isn't a spoiler - it's a tradition) and all.
There are, of course, differences. There wasn't actually a big bad, just a combination of all of the Doctor's enemies. I can't help feeling that this was, in fact, a dig at earlier season finales. It's the Daleks! No, it's the Daleks and the Cybermen! They're at war! Here, Moffat has them collaborate to pen the Doctor inside a box that is not so much bigger inside than outside as impossible to open from the inside and easy to open from the outside. What's more, their plot is little more than a sideshow, and leads to their destruction by the end of the first episode and, oddly, the saving of the universe and the Doctor.
In some ways, the two episodes fit together like a glove over the fingers of the rest of the series. In others, there is a lot of handwaving - and sometimes not even that - covering plot holes. The timey-wimey stuff works excellently, but the Pandorica is, indeed, a magic box which can do "whatever the plot needs."
But, but, but... The reason this episode succeeds is because it doesn't, for all except a couple of shots, do 'widescreen' end of the universe. Indeed, it is ending with a whimper - though the TARDIS is exploding all the way through space and time, the effect is that things softly, silently vanish away... The TARDIS has turned into a boojum and, unless I've missed something important, we still don't actually know why. It narrows everything down to a small group of people in a single building, with things vanishing around them. It's why the worst shot in the whole two partner is that of the Roman camp. (Incidentally, Rory is not a Centurion or the Autons got it wrong - his helmet crest goes the wrong way.) The whole effect is narrowing closing in on what matters, and what matters is the Doctor's cunning and his relationship with a young woman/little girl.
There is no personified villain here, no Master, no Davros. Oh, someone is behind all this, but that is going to be left for next season, when silence will fall. I'm looking forward to it. It is the Doctor and Amy and Rory and River against time and space (and the relative dimensions therein.) Those characters are true to themselves, all the way through. Amy is intelligent and quirky and quick thinking and sexy. Rory is steadfast and straightforward. River is imaginative and ruthless.
And, as always with Moffat, the wit makes the episodes work, even and above the clever timey-whimey stuff. River Song wins the prize for best intimidation of a Dalek, and best prison break cartoon. Rory for the best remark you can ever make to your mother in law. Amy wins the prize for best way of working out what year it is, and for collaboration in destruction of a fez.
And the Doctor is alien and ancient and very, very cunning.
I hate TV wedding episodes. Like Christmas episodes, they should be banned. (The Runaway Bride qualifies for banning on both issues.) When Amy woke on her wedding day I was sure I was going to hate the whole ending. I was even more sure of it when we got the Reception. (If any Americans on in the various Brit picking communities want to know what British Weddings are like we can now refer them to this.) Then River delivered her diary (adding yet another PLOT HOLE) and the Doctor's cunning was revealed. There was Amy's awesome summons, Rory's comment about being plastic, the Doctor showing just how bad a dancer he is, River telling him that "everything changes" next season - assuring us that she, too, will be back - and, finally, and joyously, Amy and Rory, in perfect accord, saying "Goodbye" - not to the Doctor, but to their families and friends to go travelling in a dangerous universe.
Oh, yes! I know I was having my buttons pushed but, in this case, it was clever and surprising and funny enough so I don't care. So there.
There are, of course, differences. There wasn't actually a big bad, just a combination of all of the Doctor's enemies. I can't help feeling that this was, in fact, a dig at earlier season finales. It's the Daleks! No, it's the Daleks and the Cybermen! They're at war! Here, Moffat has them collaborate to pen the Doctor inside a box that is not so much bigger inside than outside as impossible to open from the inside and easy to open from the outside. What's more, their plot is little more than a sideshow, and leads to their destruction by the end of the first episode and, oddly, the saving of the universe and the Doctor.
In some ways, the two episodes fit together like a glove over the fingers of the rest of the series. In others, there is a lot of handwaving - and sometimes not even that - covering plot holes. The timey-wimey stuff works excellently, but the Pandorica is, indeed, a magic box which can do "whatever the plot needs."
But, but, but... The reason this episode succeeds is because it doesn't, for all except a couple of shots, do 'widescreen' end of the universe. Indeed, it is ending with a whimper - though the TARDIS is exploding all the way through space and time, the effect is that things softly, silently vanish away... The TARDIS has turned into a boojum and, unless I've missed something important, we still don't actually know why. It narrows everything down to a small group of people in a single building, with things vanishing around them. It's why the worst shot in the whole two partner is that of the Roman camp. (Incidentally, Rory is not a Centurion or the Autons got it wrong - his helmet crest goes the wrong way.) The whole effect is narrowing closing in on what matters, and what matters is the Doctor's cunning and his relationship with a young woman/little girl.
There is no personified villain here, no Master, no Davros. Oh, someone is behind all this, but that is going to be left for next season, when silence will fall. I'm looking forward to it. It is the Doctor and Amy and Rory and River against time and space (and the relative dimensions therein.) Those characters are true to themselves, all the way through. Amy is intelligent and quirky and quick thinking and sexy. Rory is steadfast and straightforward. River is imaginative and ruthless.
And, as always with Moffat, the wit makes the episodes work, even and above the clever timey-whimey stuff. River Song wins the prize for best intimidation of a Dalek, and best prison break cartoon. Rory for the best remark you can ever make to your mother in law. Amy wins the prize for best way of working out what year it is, and for collaboration in destruction of a fez.
And the Doctor is alien and ancient and very, very cunning.
I hate TV wedding episodes. Like Christmas episodes, they should be banned. (The Runaway Bride qualifies for banning on both issues.) When Amy woke on her wedding day I was sure I was going to hate the whole ending. I was even more sure of it when we got the Reception. (If any Americans on in the various Brit picking communities want to know what British Weddings are like we can now refer them to this.) Then River delivered her diary (adding yet another PLOT HOLE) and the Doctor's cunning was revealed. There was Amy's awesome summons, Rory's comment about being plastic, the Doctor showing just how bad a dancer he is, River telling him that "everything changes" next season - assuring us that she, too, will be back - and, finally, and joyously, Amy and Rory, in perfect accord, saying "Goodbye" - not to the Doctor, but to their families and friends to go travelling in a dangerous universe.
Oh, yes! I know I was having my buttons pushed but, in this case, it was clever and surprising and funny enough so I don't care. So there.