The Big Bang- the ending of our fairytale
I’d do more of an intro here, but then I’d start fangirling and talking about everything that should be behind a cut and I wouldn’t be able to stop.
No, no, no-why would there be spoilers here? It’s not like this was the season finale or written in the same format I’ve only been using for the other 12 episodes or anything. Bitches, you crazy.
Hey, the pre-credits recap is helpful when they don’t air the previous episode right before! I feel mildly bad about doubting it now… (Still wondering why the blue and orange Daleks didn’t get to come put the Doctor in the Pandorica, though.)
I’ve never been so disappointed to see an intact garden shed.
’What do you see, Amelia?’
‘The moon.’
‘And what else?’
‘Just the dark.’
‘But no stars? If there were stars up there, we’d be able to see them, wouldn’t we? Amelia, look at me-you know this is all just a story, don’t you? You know there’s no such thing as stars?’
Wait, what?
Has any other living person been name-checked in DW as many times as Richard Dawkins has this season?
That was the Doctor! (Wtf is on his head?) How did the Pandorica end up in a museum?
More importantly, how did Daleks end up in a museum that isn’t the sci-fi section @ the EMP?
Who steals sodas from children?
Strange that no one noticed the Post-It note left on an ancient artifact, what with the no-touching policy museums tend to have on such things.
’Okay, kid, this is where it gets complicated!’
But, but-the Doctor was in the Pandorica, not Amy! How did she get in there? Or has that old joke about him regenerating into a girl someday finally come true?
’So the universe ended. You missed that. 102AD. Suppose this means you and I never get born at all…twice in my case. You would have laughed at that…Please laugh. The Doctor said the universe was huge and ridiculous, and sometimes there were miracles. I could do with a ridiculous miracle about now…’
*zap* ‘Rory! Listen! She’s not dead! Well, she is dead, but it’s not the end of the world. Well, it is the end of the world. Actually, it’s the end of the universe. Oh, no, hang on.’ *teleports*
O_O ‘Doctor? Doctor!’
*zap* ‘You need to get me out of the Pandorica.’
‘But you’re not in the Pandorica!’
‘Yes, I am. Well, I’m not now, but I was back then. Well, back now from your point of view, which is back then from my point of view. Time travel-you can’t keep it straight in your head. It’s easy to open from the outside, just point and press. Now go!’ *teleports*
D=
*zap* ‘And when you’re done, leave my screwdriver in her top pocket. Good luck!’ *teleports*
‘What do you mean?! Done what?!’
Well. Okay then. Let’s…yeah.
Does the bit where the present-and-future sonic screwdrivers spark when they touch remind anyone else of how Harry and Voldemort’s wands reacted to each other in… (I believe it was) HP and the Goblet of Fire?
’Can you help her? Is there anything you can do?’
‘Yeah, probably. If I had the time.’
‘The time!’
‘All of creation has just been wiped from the sky. Do you know how many lives now never happened? All the people who never lived? Your girlfriend isn’t more important than the whole universe.’
*insert 60s-Batman fight sound effect of your choosing here to represent Rory’s punch*
‘SHE IS TO ME!’
‘Haha! Welcome back, Rory Williams! Sorry! Had to be sure. Hell of a gun-arm you’re packing there.’
O_o
‘Right! We need to get her downstairs. And get that look off your plastic face, you’re getting married in the morning!’
D’aww, Auton!Rory’s still so sweet. Is the Doctor really planning on having Amy keeping a robot-boyfriend though?
Ah, that’s why she’s in the box instead of the Doctor. So, if you can’t escape the Pandorica even by dying, does that mean it keeps you in suspended animation, or do you just sit in there staring at the walls for eternity? Cos if you’re awake the whole time, then her mental state is not going to be pretty back in the museum. Ninja edit: nevermind, answered in the next few lines.
’This box needs a guard. I killed the last one.’
‘No, Rory, no. Don’t even think about it.’
‘She’ll be all alone.’
‘She won’t feel it!’
‘You bet she won’t!’
‘2,000 years, Rory. You won’t even sleep, you’ll be conscious every second. It would drive you mad.’
‘Will she be safer if I stay? Look me in the eye and tell me she wouldn’t be safer.’
‘Rory, you-‘
‘Answer me!’
‘…yes, obviously.’
‘Then how could I leave her?’
‘Ohh, why do you have to be so…human?’
‘Because right now, I’m not.’
Damn. I’m thinking he might just be the best boyfriend ever, even if he is a living action figure.
’According to legend, wherever the Pandorica was taken throughout its long history, the Centurion would be there, guarding it. He appears as an iconic image in the artwork of many cultures, and there are several documented accounts of his appearances and his warnings to the many who attempted to open the box before its time. His last recorded appearance was during the London Blitz in 1941. The warehouse where the Pandorica was stored was destroyed by incendiary bombs, but the box itself was found the next morning, a safe distance from the blaze. There are eyewitness accounts from the night of the fire of a figure in Roman dress carrying the box through the flames. Since then, there have been no sightings of the lone Centurion, and many have speculated that, if he ever existed, he perished in the fires of that night, performing one last act of devotion to the box he had pledged to protect for nearly 2,000 years.'
Yep, best boyfriend ever. Does this mean he died again? =(
’EX-TER-MIN-ATE!’
What do you know, they’re just as good at killing touching moments as they are living things…
Okay, so he steals the fez from a random mannequin in the museum why?
Yay! Auton!Rory’s still alive! Aww, he became an official security guard to look after her…
Ah, so it was the Doctor outside Amelia’s door. Still not understanding why he stole daytime!Amelia’s soda to give back to nighttime!Amelia. Creates a slight paradox, doesn’t it? She wouldn’t be thirsty if he hadn’t taken it (I think she’s smart enough to ration it out for a few hours, assuming it wasn’t nearly empty already).
’What is that? How are you doing that?’
‘Vortex manipulator. Cheap and nasty time travel. Very bad for you, trying to give it up.’
And this is the thing Captain Jack was running around with for all those years? That is terrifying.
The Tardis becomes our sun while she explodes? That’s actually kind of sweet of her, IMO-- still protecting the Earth even as she dies…
This little repeat of the same clip of River to show that she’s in a time-loop is the one thing I don’t like about this episode. Find a slightly more interesting/less repetitive way to show that, and it’s perfect.
’Hi, Honey. I’m home.’
‘And what sort of time do you call this?’
As much as I enjoy this conversation being between the two of them, I can’t help but agree with what I’ve seen other people say and be just a little disappointed that it wasn’t saved for the Master.
’All right then, I have questions, but number one is this: What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?’
‘It’s a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool.’
*Amy and River exchange glances*
*Amy steals the Doctor’s fez and flings it into the air*
*River blasts it to hell with her gun*
*Dalek floats up the side of the building* ‘EX-TER-MIN-ATE!’
Right, so Daleks are skilled at killing living things, touching moments, funny moments, and tryouts for the British Olympic shot put/skeet shooting/whatever-the-fuck-it’s-called team.
Is this ‘memory of the universe’ inside the Pandorica just like some atomic time capsule, or are these memories left from the Doctor and Amy being stuck in there?
Does anyone else think that a remake of Star Wars with River as Han Solo and Rory as Luke (and…I dunno, the Doctor could be Obi-Wan and Amy could be Leia) would be awesome?
’YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATE-D!’
‘Not yet. Your systems are still restoring, which means your shield density is compromised. One alpha-meson burst through your eyestalk would you stone dead.’
‘REC-ORDS IN-DI-CATE YOU WILL SHOW MER-CY. YOU ARE AN ASS-O-CI-ATE OF THE DOC-TOR’S!’
‘I’m River Song. Check your records again.’
‘MER-CY?’
‘Say it again?’
‘MER-CY.’
‘One more time.’
‘MER-CYYYY!’
River’s a dominatrix in her spare time, isn’t she? It would explain why her meetings with the Doctor involve handcuffs so frequently.
’But he was dead!’
‘Who told you that?’
‘He did!’
‘Rule one: The Doctor lies.’
‘Where’s the Dalek?’
‘It died.’
Are we absolutely sure she isn’t a future, regenerated-and-fobwatched-into-a-human Master? Cos I’m more convinced than ever now…
This thing with the Pandorica-restoration-light shining at every point in history through the Tardis exploding is the first bit of kooky, pseudo-super-science in a New Who finale that’s ever even begun to make sense to me. It’s at least the first one without so many plotholes and handwaving that my face gets stuck on O_o
So the time-crack in Amy’s wall (which I assume was also leaking a bit of the time-energy) ate her family? I never would have guessed that. I’d thought her parents died when she was too little to really remember, then her aunt died sometime when she was older, and that’s why she was all alone in a big house-she simply inherited it. I mean, it seemed crappy to me that her aunt would have ‘gone out’ and just left a seven-year-old all by herself, but maybe I’m just desensitized from all the stories of shitty parents on the news here anymore that it’s not unusual enough to really stick out.
Does Space Florida have a Space Disneyworld? Or a Space Miami Metro PD Homicide Division? Shut up. You know you’d watch Space Dexter and love it.
Ah! It wasn’t a continuity error with the jacket in Flesh and Stone after all! Oh, despite my still being disappointed that the Weeping Angels were reduced to a plot device later on in it, my approval for that two-parter just went way the hell up.
’It’s funny. I thought if you could hear me, I could hang on somehow. When you wake up, you’ll have a mum and dad, and you won’t even remember me. Well, you’ll remember me a little. I’ll be a story in your head. That’s okay, we’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Cos it was, you know, it was the best. A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it. I was always gonna take it back. Oh, that box. Amy, you’ll dream about that box. It’ll never leave you. Big, and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient. And the bluest blue ever. And the times we had, eh? Will had…never. In your dreams, they’ll still be there. The Doctor and Amy Pond, and days that never came. The cracks are closing. But they can’t close properly ‘til I’m on the other side. I don’t belong here anymore. I think I’ll skip the rest of the rewind, I hate repeats. Live well. Love Rory. Bye-bye, Pond.’
Gah! OMG, I have so much to say about this, but it’s kind of a thing that goes through the whole episode, so I’ll do it at the end. We’ll get completely sidetracked if I don’t. (FYI, it’ll be the stuff about regenerating.)
Now that she’s living with her parents, is Amy still a kiss-o-gram?
Wait, how is River there? If the Doctor’s never existed, then how does she know to be at Amy & Rory’s wedding reception, and to leave Amy the Tardis-cover journal? This is the one bit of this episode that hasn’t made sense. Guess it wouldn’t be a New Who finale with at least one… Or is this future!River from after everything’s all fixed being slightly paradoxical and coming back to ensure that it does in fact get fixed by jogging Amy’s memory with the journal?
’Sorry, sorry everyone. But when I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend. The raggedy Doctor. My raggedy Doctor. But he wasn’t imaginary, he was real. I remember you! I remember! I brought the others back, I can bring you home too! Raggedy Man, I remember you, and you are late for my wedding!’ I found you, I found you in words like you knew I would. That’s why you told me the story-the brand new, ancient, blue box. Oh, clever. Very clever.’
*glass rattles* ‘Amy, what is it?’
‘Something old, something new, something borrowed…’
*vworp, vworp*
‘Something blue.’
‘It’s the Doctor! How did we forget the Doctor?’
*knocks on Tardis door* ‘Okay, Doctor, did I surprise you this time?’
‘Uh, yeah. Completely astonished. Never expected that. How lucky I happened to be wearing this old thing. Hello, everyone! I’m Amy’s imaginary friend! But I came anyway.’
‘You absolutely, definitely may kiss the bride.’
‘Amelia, from now on I shall be leaving the…kissing duties to the brand new, Mister Pond!’
‘No! I’m not Mister Pond, that’s not how it works.’
‘Yeah, it is.’
‘Yeah…it is.’
‘Right then, everyone, I’ll move my box-you’re gonna need the space. I only came for the dancing!’
1) You know, renting a British 1950s-style police box for the day would take care of at least 3/4 of the old wedding checklist-thing (oldness/newness may vary depending on where one gets such a thing)…
2) I love how the Doctor and Rory both know just how whipped they are.
3) I see growing up with her parents still around hasn’t affected Amy’s odd ways of showing affection to other guys in front of her boyfriend/fiancé/husband.
4) Hmm…Eleven cleans up nice. Wonder if this means he’s finally gotten rid of Ten’s slightly-cursed tuxedo? (I liked it, but as unlucky as it seemed to be, it’s probably for the best if he did.)
I approve greatly of their playing Queen, but I thought Rory said they had a mariachi band? And what the flying fuck is the Doctor doing? I think we’re seeing the real reason he says he doesn’t dance: because that is what happens when he does. *facepalm*
’Did you dance? Well, you always dance at weddings, don’t you?’
‘You tell me.’
‘Spoilers.’
*hands her the journal* ‘The writing’s all back, but I didn’t peek.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Are you married, River?’
‘Are you asking?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yes.’
‘No, hang on. Did you think I was asking you to marry me, or, or, or asking if you were married?’
‘Yes!’
‘No, but was that "yes", or "yes”?’
‘Yes.’
‘River, who are you?’
‘You’re going to find out very soon. And I’m sorry, but that’s when everything changes.’ *teleports off*
‘Nah…’
*ahem* Yes, well, that certainly cleared things up. Glad we’ve got that sorted. Can move onto new mysteries now…
…Wait, hold up. ‘That’s when everything changes’? Okay, so it’s either just during the 21st Century, or… oh god, she’s not somehow Jack is she? The horror… The horror!
’You just saved the whole of space and time? Take the evening off, maybe a bit of tomorrow.’
‘Space and time isn’t safe yet. The Tardis exploded for a reason. Something drew the Tardis to this particular date and blew it up. *ring, ring* Why? And why now? The Silence, *ring, ring* whatever it is, is still out there, and I have to-excuse me a moment. *answers phone* Hello? Oh, hello! I’m sorry, this is a very bad line. No, no, no, but that’s not possible. She was sealed into the seventh obelisk, I was at the prayer meeting. Well, no, I get that it’s important-an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express…in space. Give us a mo. *turns to Amy & Rory* Sorry, something’s come up. This will have to be goodbye.’
‘Yeah, I think it’s goodbye. Do you think it’s goodbye?’
‘Definitely goodbye.’
*sticks her head out the Tardis door* ‘Goodbye! Goodbye.’
‘Don’t worry about a thing, Your Majesty-we’re on our way.’
Ooh, we get a multi-season plotline now? Neat. Now I know the next episode is the Christmas special, but the ‘Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express in space’ thing doesn’t sound very Christmas-y, so I don’t know if it’ll be in that, but hopefully it at least ends up as a comic or a novel someday. It sounds fun. =D
Next episode: ??? All I know is that it’s Christmas, and Michael Gambon and some opera singer are guest stars. For those of you more familiar with a normal season of DW’s airing schedule, how long is it usually until we get a trailer for the Christmas special? Last year, it was kind of all-DW-all-the-time (well, all DT-all-the-time, but close enough), but I’m pretty sure we got a trailer for the 2008 one in November. Is that earlier/later than normal, or is that about when we should get the one for this year’s?
Next season: Also ??? All anyone knows right now is that Matt Smith’s still the Doctor, Amy’s still traveling with him, and her new husband Rory is now a full-time companion as well. It airs in 2011, Steven Moffat’s writing five episodes, Neil Gaiman is writing one, and everyone keeps saying Neil’s is #3 for some reason. I assume the Doctor and Co. are going to go find this Silence person/people/thing and give it an ass-whupping for thinking that blowing up the Tardis was a good idea. We may or may not also get to find out who River really is. Personally, I hope that’s a red herring and we never find out, as even with Moffat’s genius, it could still turn out to be like the shark puppet in Jaws: something that will never live up to what we’ve imagined in our heads thus far.
This year’s finale was just exquisite. It was big, and epic, and at what I thought was (your mental imbalances may differ from mine) this perfect emotional level where it was both a bit heartwarming and a bit heartbreaking without being sappy or turning into a tearjerker. It was built up brilliantly, and by someone who clearly had things planned out and worked in from the beginning, unlike Lost where they looked at what they'd ended up doing and added new stuff later as if the past things were ‘Easter eggs’ and just made themselves look clever. (That’s not just an opinion of mine btw, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse admitted as much during one of those Lost recap specials they seemed to need to show after every couple episodes.) I’ve never felt so rewarded for sticking with a show for the entire season. Most other series, and even DW is a bit guilty of this sometimes, only make a few episodes near the end really relevant to their season finales, and have the majority of the season turn out to be throwaway episodes (I’m looking at you filler-tastic Heroes s3 episode about Angela Petrelli’s sister!), whereas this finale made each and every one important in some way.
I want to thank everyone involved in making this season of DW, and particularly those who worked on this episode. You lot have taken any and all fears and doubts I’d had about the changes to the show or about specific episodes and cast them back into the fires of Mt. Doom from whence they came. I’ve known DW could be good since the first episode I ever watched, but I didn’t know it could be this good.
This season made me mourn for what could have been, fall in love with what is, and become downright giddy about what will be. I honestly have to say now that as grateful to RTD as I am for getting the show back on the air, casting (and therefore allowing to be brought to my attention) a certain bit of pinstriped-sex-on-legs, creating Donna Noble, the Doctor/Master bondage scene on New Year’s, etc., I wish there was a way to rewrite history so that Steven Moffat could have been head writer all along. (I’m wanting for us to still have had all the same basic stories and whatnot that we did, but he’d have been the one to oversee them and make sure they were good.) RTD’s finales were things that were a little wtf but otherwise fine on the first viewing, but then really started to fall apart when you paid closer attention and weren’t distracted from the plotholes by all the fanservice or technobabble he threw in (fanservice here = ‘omg, all these characters are in a room together, omg’). Moffat’s finale was a well-thought-out, as-logical-as-this-show’s-gonna-get, carefully pieced together episode where questions were answered, and while still including small amounts of fanservice, didn’t have to rely on pandering to the fanboys-and-girls to work. And you guys should know how seriously I’ve taken these last few paragraphs, as I haven’t been saying fuck in every other sentence for once. (Look! The Moff even gets his own tag proclaiming his awesomeness now!)
Also, and I hate, hate, hate that I’m saying this, or even feeling it, but I don’t think Ten is my favorite Doctor anymore; Eleven is. Ten will always be my DILF, though. =D Okay, okay! Let’s not dwell on it too much, it makes me feel like an adulterous wench…
One thing that did kind of keep popping up in the back of my mind, though, and I’m wondering if anyone else got this impression, was that this felt like it could have been a regeneration story. Specifically, the regeneration story Moffat might’ve had written for Ten, had David Tennant stayed on for one last full season (he’d already taken over as head writer for s5 before DT had officially decided anything, so I do believe this was a real possibility). The reason I think it was possibly for Ten is just because of how the Doctor kept saying ‘well’ and then correcting himself when he explained things in this episode, which is something I’d associated with Ten’s personality/speech patterns and not Eleven’s, so it really just struck me as odd. Take that part how you will, but I have no doubts about my sense that this was some Doctor’s regeneration at one point. It had the usual universe-wide level of danger of a regular finale, but it seemed like there was more an emphasis on the Doctor maybe having to sacrifice himself to save everyone than normal. The calm, dignified farewells to Amy in the museum and as he tucked Amelia into bed, plus the way the Doctor bravely resigned himself to the probability he’d be erased from existence are at least more like how I’d hoped the Tenth Doctor’s story would end, anyway, instead of the temper-tantrum RTD had him throw for so much of it.
Now! The only question I have left that may not be answered next year is just what actually still happened in the timeline this season? The Doctor was erased from time and space, Amy woke up in her room the morning of her wedding day, and then she remembered him back at the reception. At least parts of The Eleventh Hour should have still happened now, but since the Doctor didn’t exist on the eve of Amy & Rory’s wedding, she couldn’t have left on it to travel with him, and since Rory’s still alive, he never could have either, otherwise Restac would have still killed him. In this somewhat-revised series of events, did the Doctor, Amy, and Rory even still travel together on the adventures we saw, from The Beast Below through The Big Bang, or are those just memories they have now (kind of like how people on the Valiant remembered the year that never happened when the Master was PM)? And how much of it do they remember? After they take care of the escaped Egyptian goddess, will they have to go around and redo everything since it maybe never happened now? Pop back to Starship UK, go straight to Liz Ten, and have her tell ‘em to stop hurting the star-whale? Make sure Churchill knows that Daleks are NOT a viable defense strategy before he even meets Bracewell? Tell Venetians to not send their daughters off to the school that’ll turn them into vampiric space-fish? Finally bitchslap Ambrose to prevent her from doing stupid shit? (Pretty please?) What, exactly, have we been left with here?
*sigh* Guess this now begins the long wait until the Christmas special, although I do suppose we have s4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures (and the episodes of it with both Eleven and Jo Grant) to look forward to this September/October. Still kind of a long wait in any case… Here. Have this. You’ll either laugh for five minutes, or you’ll scratch your head in confusion for five minutes. Either way, it’ll be five minutes less that you have to think about there being a distinct lack of new DW episodes during. Consider it your reward from me for sticking around and reading all my DW episode posts for season 5 (normally, I'd give that link its own post, with as much as it made my day, but I'm hiding it in here for you lot instead). Enjoy. If you'll excuse me, I still have a papercraft/origami cake to find for my Eleven figure (someone has to have instructions for a round, 3-tiered cake, and not just a triangular slice!). See you later. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow. ♥♥
No, no, no-why would there be spoilers here? It’s not like this was the season finale or written in the same format I’ve only been using for the other 12 episodes or anything. Bitches, you crazy.
Hey, the pre-credits recap is helpful when they don’t air the previous episode right before! I feel mildly bad about doubting it now… (Still wondering why the blue and orange Daleks didn’t get to come put the Doctor in the Pandorica, though.)
I’ve never been so disappointed to see an intact garden shed.
’What do you see, Amelia?’
‘The moon.’
‘And what else?’
‘Just the dark.’
‘But no stars? If there were stars up there, we’d be able to see them, wouldn’t we? Amelia, look at me-you know this is all just a story, don’t you? You know there’s no such thing as stars?’
Wait, what?
Has any other living person been name-checked in DW as many times as Richard Dawkins has this season?
That was the Doctor! (Wtf is on his head?) How did the Pandorica end up in a museum?
More importantly, how did Daleks end up in a museum that isn’t the sci-fi section @ the EMP?
Who steals sodas from children?
Strange that no one noticed the Post-It note left on an ancient artifact, what with the no-touching policy museums tend to have on such things.
’Okay, kid, this is where it gets complicated!’
But, but-the Doctor was in the Pandorica, not Amy! How did she get in there? Or has that old joke about him regenerating into a girl someday finally come true?
’So the universe ended. You missed that. 102AD. Suppose this means you and I never get born at all…twice in my case. You would have laughed at that…Please laugh. The Doctor said the universe was huge and ridiculous, and sometimes there were miracles. I could do with a ridiculous miracle about now…’
*zap* ‘Rory! Listen! She’s not dead! Well, she is dead, but it’s not the end of the world. Well, it is the end of the world. Actually, it’s the end of the universe. Oh, no, hang on.’ *teleports*
O_O ‘Doctor? Doctor!’
*zap* ‘You need to get me out of the Pandorica.’
‘But you’re not in the Pandorica!’
‘Yes, I am. Well, I’m not now, but I was back then. Well, back now from your point of view, which is back then from my point of view. Time travel-you can’t keep it straight in your head. It’s easy to open from the outside, just point and press. Now go!’ *teleports*
D=
*zap* ‘And when you’re done, leave my screwdriver in her top pocket. Good luck!’ *teleports*
‘What do you mean?! Done what?!’
Well. Okay then. Let’s…yeah.
Does the bit where the present-and-future sonic screwdrivers spark when they touch remind anyone else of how Harry and Voldemort’s wands reacted to each other in… (I believe it was) HP and the Goblet of Fire?
’Can you help her? Is there anything you can do?’
‘Yeah, probably. If I had the time.’
‘The time!’
‘All of creation has just been wiped from the sky. Do you know how many lives now never happened? All the people who never lived? Your girlfriend isn’t more important than the whole universe.’
*insert 60s-Batman fight sound effect of your choosing here to represent Rory’s punch*
‘SHE IS TO ME!’
‘Haha! Welcome back, Rory Williams! Sorry! Had to be sure. Hell of a gun-arm you’re packing there.’
O_o
‘Right! We need to get her downstairs. And get that look off your plastic face, you’re getting married in the morning!’
D’aww, Auton!Rory’s still so sweet. Is the Doctor really planning on having Amy keeping a robot-boyfriend though?
Ah, that’s why she’s in the box instead of the Doctor. So, if you can’t escape the Pandorica even by dying, does that mean it keeps you in suspended animation, or do you just sit in there staring at the walls for eternity? Cos if you’re awake the whole time, then her mental state is not going to be pretty back in the museum. Ninja edit: nevermind, answered in the next few lines.
’This box needs a guard. I killed the last one.’
‘No, Rory, no. Don’t even think about it.’
‘She’ll be all alone.’
‘She won’t feel it!’
‘You bet she won’t!’
‘2,000 years, Rory. You won’t even sleep, you’ll be conscious every second. It would drive you mad.’
‘Will she be safer if I stay? Look me in the eye and tell me she wouldn’t be safer.’
‘Rory, you-‘
‘Answer me!’
‘…yes, obviously.’
‘Then how could I leave her?’
‘Ohh, why do you have to be so…human?’
‘Because right now, I’m not.’
Damn. I’m thinking he might just be the best boyfriend ever, even if he is a living action figure.
’According to legend, wherever the Pandorica was taken throughout its long history, the Centurion would be there, guarding it. He appears as an iconic image in the artwork of many cultures, and there are several documented accounts of his appearances and his warnings to the many who attempted to open the box before its time. His last recorded appearance was during the London Blitz in 1941. The warehouse where the Pandorica was stored was destroyed by incendiary bombs, but the box itself was found the next morning, a safe distance from the blaze. There are eyewitness accounts from the night of the fire of a figure in Roman dress carrying the box through the flames. Since then, there have been no sightings of the lone Centurion, and many have speculated that, if he ever existed, he perished in the fires of that night, performing one last act of devotion to the box he had pledged to protect for nearly 2,000 years.'
Yep, best boyfriend ever. Does this mean he died again? =(
’EX-TER-MIN-ATE!’
What do you know, they’re just as good at killing touching moments as they are living things…
Okay, so he steals the fez from a random mannequin in the museum why?
Yay! Auton!Rory’s still alive! Aww, he became an official security guard to look after her…
Ah, so it was the Doctor outside Amelia’s door. Still not understanding why he stole daytime!Amelia’s soda to give back to nighttime!Amelia. Creates a slight paradox, doesn’t it? She wouldn’t be thirsty if he hadn’t taken it (I think she’s smart enough to ration it out for a few hours, assuming it wasn’t nearly empty already).
’What is that? How are you doing that?’
‘Vortex manipulator. Cheap and nasty time travel. Very bad for you, trying to give it up.’
And this is the thing Captain Jack was running around with for all those years? That is terrifying.
The Tardis becomes our sun while she explodes? That’s actually kind of sweet of her, IMO-- still protecting the Earth even as she dies…
This little repeat of the same clip of River to show that she’s in a time-loop is the one thing I don’t like about this episode. Find a slightly more interesting/less repetitive way to show that, and it’s perfect.
’Hi, Honey. I’m home.’
‘And what sort of time do you call this?’
As much as I enjoy this conversation being between the two of them, I can’t help but agree with what I’ve seen other people say and be just a little disappointed that it wasn’t saved for the Master.
’All right then, I have questions, but number one is this: What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?’
‘It’s a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool.’
*Amy and River exchange glances*
*Amy steals the Doctor’s fez and flings it into the air*
*River blasts it to hell with her gun*
*Dalek floats up the side of the building* ‘EX-TER-MIN-ATE!’
Right, so Daleks are skilled at killing living things, touching moments, funny moments, and tryouts for the British Olympic shot put/skeet shooting/whatever-the-fuck-it’s-called team.
Is this ‘memory of the universe’ inside the Pandorica just like some atomic time capsule, or are these memories left from the Doctor and Amy being stuck in there?
Does anyone else think that a remake of Star Wars with River as Han Solo and Rory as Luke (and…I dunno, the Doctor could be Obi-Wan and Amy could be Leia) would be awesome?
’YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATE-D!’
‘Not yet. Your systems are still restoring, which means your shield density is compromised. One alpha-meson burst through your eyestalk would you stone dead.’
‘REC-ORDS IN-DI-CATE YOU WILL SHOW MER-CY. YOU ARE AN ASS-O-CI-ATE OF THE DOC-TOR’S!’
‘I’m River Song. Check your records again.’
‘MER-CY?’
‘Say it again?’
‘MER-CY.’
‘One more time.’
‘MER-CYYYY!’
River’s a dominatrix in her spare time, isn’t she? It would explain why her meetings with the Doctor involve handcuffs so frequently.
’But he was dead!’
‘Who told you that?’
‘He did!’
‘Rule one: The Doctor lies.’
‘Where’s the Dalek?’
‘It died.’
Are we absolutely sure she isn’t a future, regenerated-and-fobwatched-into-a-human Master? Cos I’m more convinced than ever now…
This thing with the Pandorica-restoration-light shining at every point in history through the Tardis exploding is the first bit of kooky, pseudo-super-science in a New Who finale that’s ever even begun to make sense to me. It’s at least the first one without so many plotholes and handwaving that my face gets stuck on O_o
So the time-crack in Amy’s wall (which I assume was also leaking a bit of the time-energy) ate her family? I never would have guessed that. I’d thought her parents died when she was too little to really remember, then her aunt died sometime when she was older, and that’s why she was all alone in a big house-she simply inherited it. I mean, it seemed crappy to me that her aunt would have ‘gone out’ and just left a seven-year-old all by herself, but maybe I’m just desensitized from all the stories of shitty parents on the news here anymore that it’s not unusual enough to really stick out.
Does Space Florida have a Space Disneyworld? Or a Space Miami Metro PD Homicide Division? Shut up. You know you’d watch Space Dexter and love it.
Ah! It wasn’t a continuity error with the jacket in Flesh and Stone after all! Oh, despite my still being disappointed that the Weeping Angels were reduced to a plot device later on in it, my approval for that two-parter just went way the hell up.
’It’s funny. I thought if you could hear me, I could hang on somehow. When you wake up, you’ll have a mum and dad, and you won’t even remember me. Well, you’ll remember me a little. I’ll be a story in your head. That’s okay, we’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Cos it was, you know, it was the best. A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it. I was always gonna take it back. Oh, that box. Amy, you’ll dream about that box. It’ll never leave you. Big, and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient. And the bluest blue ever. And the times we had, eh? Will had…never. In your dreams, they’ll still be there. The Doctor and Amy Pond, and days that never came. The cracks are closing. But they can’t close properly ‘til I’m on the other side. I don’t belong here anymore. I think I’ll skip the rest of the rewind, I hate repeats. Live well. Love Rory. Bye-bye, Pond.’
Gah! OMG, I have so much to say about this, but it’s kind of a thing that goes through the whole episode, so I’ll do it at the end. We’ll get completely sidetracked if I don’t. (FYI, it’ll be the stuff about regenerating.)
Now that she’s living with her parents, is Amy still a kiss-o-gram?
Wait, how is River there? If the Doctor’s never existed, then how does she know to be at Amy & Rory’s wedding reception, and to leave Amy the Tardis-cover journal? This is the one bit of this episode that hasn’t made sense. Guess it wouldn’t be a New Who finale with at least one… Or is this future!River from after everything’s all fixed being slightly paradoxical and coming back to ensure that it does in fact get fixed by jogging Amy’s memory with the journal?
’Sorry, sorry everyone. But when I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend. The raggedy Doctor. My raggedy Doctor. But he wasn’t imaginary, he was real. I remember you! I remember! I brought the others back, I can bring you home too! Raggedy Man, I remember you, and you are late for my wedding!’ I found you, I found you in words like you knew I would. That’s why you told me the story-the brand new, ancient, blue box. Oh, clever. Very clever.’
*glass rattles* ‘Amy, what is it?’
‘Something old, something new, something borrowed…’
*vworp, vworp*
‘Something blue.’
‘It’s the Doctor! How did we forget the Doctor?’
*knocks on Tardis door* ‘Okay, Doctor, did I surprise you this time?’
‘Uh, yeah. Completely astonished. Never expected that. How lucky I happened to be wearing this old thing. Hello, everyone! I’m Amy’s imaginary friend! But I came anyway.’
‘You absolutely, definitely may kiss the bride.’
‘Amelia, from now on I shall be leaving the…kissing duties to the brand new, Mister Pond!’
‘No! I’m not Mister Pond, that’s not how it works.’
‘Yeah, it is.’
‘Yeah…it is.’
‘Right then, everyone, I’ll move my box-you’re gonna need the space. I only came for the dancing!’
1) You know, renting a British 1950s-style police box for the day would take care of at least 3/4 of the old wedding checklist-thing (oldness/newness may vary depending on where one gets such a thing)…
2) I love how the Doctor and Rory both know just how whipped they are.
3) I see growing up with her parents still around hasn’t affected Amy’s odd ways of showing affection to other guys in front of her boyfriend/fiancé/husband.
4) Hmm…Eleven cleans up nice. Wonder if this means he’s finally gotten rid of Ten’s slightly-cursed tuxedo? (I liked it, but as unlucky as it seemed to be, it’s probably for the best if he did.)
I approve greatly of their playing Queen, but I thought Rory said they had a mariachi band? And what the flying fuck is the Doctor doing? I think we’re seeing the real reason he says he doesn’t dance: because that is what happens when he does. *facepalm*
’Did you dance? Well, you always dance at weddings, don’t you?’
‘You tell me.’
‘Spoilers.’
*hands her the journal* ‘The writing’s all back, but I didn’t peek.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Are you married, River?’
‘Are you asking?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yes.’
‘No, hang on. Did you think I was asking you to marry me, or, or, or asking if you were married?’
‘Yes!’
‘No, but was that "yes", or "yes”?’
‘Yes.’
‘River, who are you?’
‘You’re going to find out very soon. And I’m sorry, but that’s when everything changes.’ *teleports off*
‘Nah…’
*ahem* Yes, well, that certainly cleared things up. Glad we’ve got that sorted. Can move onto new mysteries now…
…Wait, hold up. ‘That’s when everything changes’? Okay, so it’s either just during the 21st Century, or… oh god, she’s not somehow Jack is she? The horror… The horror!
’You just saved the whole of space and time? Take the evening off, maybe a bit of tomorrow.’
‘Space and time isn’t safe yet. The Tardis exploded for a reason. Something drew the Tardis to this particular date and blew it up. *ring, ring* Why? And why now? The Silence, *ring, ring* whatever it is, is still out there, and I have to-excuse me a moment. *answers phone* Hello? Oh, hello! I’m sorry, this is a very bad line. No, no, no, but that’s not possible. She was sealed into the seventh obelisk, I was at the prayer meeting. Well, no, I get that it’s important-an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express…in space. Give us a mo. *turns to Amy & Rory* Sorry, something’s come up. This will have to be goodbye.’
‘Yeah, I think it’s goodbye. Do you think it’s goodbye?’
‘Definitely goodbye.’
*sticks her head out the Tardis door* ‘Goodbye! Goodbye.’
‘Don’t worry about a thing, Your Majesty-we’re on our way.’
Ooh, we get a multi-season plotline now? Neat. Now I know the next episode is the Christmas special, but the ‘Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express in space’ thing doesn’t sound very Christmas-y, so I don’t know if it’ll be in that, but hopefully it at least ends up as a comic or a novel someday. It sounds fun. =D
Next episode: ??? All I know is that it’s Christmas, and Michael Gambon and some opera singer are guest stars. For those of you more familiar with a normal season of DW’s airing schedule, how long is it usually until we get a trailer for the Christmas special? Last year, it was kind of all-DW-all-the-time (well, all DT-all-the-time, but close enough), but I’m pretty sure we got a trailer for the 2008 one in November. Is that earlier/later than normal, or is that about when we should get the one for this year’s?
Next season: Also ??? All anyone knows right now is that Matt Smith’s still the Doctor, Amy’s still traveling with him, and her new husband Rory is now a full-time companion as well. It airs in 2011, Steven Moffat’s writing five episodes, Neil Gaiman is writing one, and everyone keeps saying Neil’s is #3 for some reason. I assume the Doctor and Co. are going to go find this Silence person/people/thing and give it an ass-whupping for thinking that blowing up the Tardis was a good idea. We may or may not also get to find out who River really is. Personally, I hope that’s a red herring and we never find out, as even with Moffat’s genius, it could still turn out to be like the shark puppet in Jaws: something that will never live up to what we’ve imagined in our heads thus far.
This year’s finale was just exquisite. It was big, and epic, and at what I thought was (your mental imbalances may differ from mine) this perfect emotional level where it was both a bit heartwarming and a bit heartbreaking without being sappy or turning into a tearjerker. It was built up brilliantly, and by someone who clearly had things planned out and worked in from the beginning, unlike Lost where they looked at what they'd ended up doing and added new stuff later as if the past things were ‘Easter eggs’ and just made themselves look clever. (That’s not just an opinion of mine btw, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse admitted as much during one of those Lost recap specials they seemed to need to show after every couple episodes.) I’ve never felt so rewarded for sticking with a show for the entire season. Most other series, and even DW is a bit guilty of this sometimes, only make a few episodes near the end really relevant to their season finales, and have the majority of the season turn out to be throwaway episodes (I’m looking at you filler-tastic Heroes s3 episode about Angela Petrelli’s sister!), whereas this finale made each and every one important in some way.
I want to thank everyone involved in making this season of DW, and particularly those who worked on this episode. You lot have taken any and all fears and doubts I’d had about the changes to the show or about specific episodes and cast them back into the fires of Mt. Doom from whence they came. I’ve known DW could be good since the first episode I ever watched, but I didn’t know it could be this good.
This season made me mourn for what could have been, fall in love with what is, and become downright giddy about what will be. I honestly have to say now that as grateful to RTD as I am for getting the show back on the air, casting (and therefore allowing to be brought to my attention) a certain bit of pinstriped-sex-on-legs, creating Donna Noble, the Doctor/Master bondage scene on New Year’s, etc., I wish there was a way to rewrite history so that Steven Moffat could have been head writer all along. (I’m wanting for us to still have had all the same basic stories and whatnot that we did, but he’d have been the one to oversee them and make sure they were good.) RTD’s finales were things that were a little wtf but otherwise fine on the first viewing, but then really started to fall apart when you paid closer attention and weren’t distracted from the plotholes by all the fanservice or technobabble he threw in (fanservice here = ‘omg, all these characters are in a room together, omg’). Moffat’s finale was a well-thought-out, as-logical-as-this-show’s-gonna-get, carefully pieced together episode where questions were answered, and while still including small amounts of fanservice, didn’t have to rely on pandering to the fanboys-and-girls to work. And you guys should know how seriously I’ve taken these last few paragraphs, as I haven’t been saying fuck in every other sentence for once. (Look! The Moff even gets his own tag proclaiming his awesomeness now!)
Also, and I hate, hate, hate that I’m saying this, or even feeling it, but I don’t think Ten is my favorite Doctor anymore; Eleven is. Ten will always be my DILF, though. =D Okay, okay! Let’s not dwell on it too much, it makes me feel like an adulterous wench…
One thing that did kind of keep popping up in the back of my mind, though, and I’m wondering if anyone else got this impression, was that this felt like it could have been a regeneration story. Specifically, the regeneration story Moffat might’ve had written for Ten, had David Tennant stayed on for one last full season (he’d already taken over as head writer for s5 before DT had officially decided anything, so I do believe this was a real possibility). The reason I think it was possibly for Ten is just because of how the Doctor kept saying ‘well’ and then correcting himself when he explained things in this episode, which is something I’d associated with Ten’s personality/speech patterns and not Eleven’s, so it really just struck me as odd. Take that part how you will, but I have no doubts about my sense that this was some Doctor’s regeneration at one point. It had the usual universe-wide level of danger of a regular finale, but it seemed like there was more an emphasis on the Doctor maybe having to sacrifice himself to save everyone than normal. The calm, dignified farewells to Amy in the museum and as he tucked Amelia into bed, plus the way the Doctor bravely resigned himself to the probability he’d be erased from existence are at least more like how I’d hoped the Tenth Doctor’s story would end, anyway, instead of the temper-tantrum RTD had him throw for so much of it.
Now! The only question I have left that may not be answered next year is just what actually still happened in the timeline this season? The Doctor was erased from time and space, Amy woke up in her room the morning of her wedding day, and then she remembered him back at the reception. At least parts of The Eleventh Hour should have still happened now, but since the Doctor didn’t exist on the eve of Amy & Rory’s wedding, she couldn’t have left on it to travel with him, and since Rory’s still alive, he never could have either, otherwise Restac would have still killed him. In this somewhat-revised series of events, did the Doctor, Amy, and Rory even still travel together on the adventures we saw, from The Beast Below through The Big Bang, or are those just memories they have now (kind of like how people on the Valiant remembered the year that never happened when the Master was PM)? And how much of it do they remember? After they take care of the escaped Egyptian goddess, will they have to go around and redo everything since it maybe never happened now? Pop back to Starship UK, go straight to Liz Ten, and have her tell ‘em to stop hurting the star-whale? Make sure Churchill knows that Daleks are NOT a viable defense strategy before he even meets Bracewell? Tell Venetians to not send their daughters off to the school that’ll turn them into vampiric space-fish? Finally bitchslap Ambrose to prevent her from doing stupid shit? (Pretty please?) What, exactly, have we been left with here?
*sigh* Guess this now begins the long wait until the Christmas special, although I do suppose we have s4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures (and the episodes of it with both Eleven and Jo Grant) to look forward to this September/October. Still kind of a long wait in any case… Here. Have this. You’ll either laugh for five minutes, or you’ll scratch your head in confusion for five minutes. Either way, it’ll be five minutes less that you have to think about there being a distinct lack of new DW episodes during. Consider it your reward from me for sticking around and reading all my DW episode posts for season 5 (normally, I'd give that link its own post, with as much as it made my day, but I'm hiding it in here for you lot instead). Enjoy. If you'll excuse me, I still have a papercraft/origami cake to find for my Eleven figure (someone has to have instructions for a round, 3-tiered cake, and not just a triangular slice!). See you later. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow. ♥♥