The Pandorica Opens

[daibhidc]

I'm not sure I can comment coherently on this beyond "Oh. My. Freaking. God!" In fact, I'm starting to appreciate what Terry Pratchett said in SFX about overuse of the word "awesome" - I thought I was using it carefully when I described past episodes, but now I'm in the position of having to say "That was awesomely awesome!"

I was going to start with the bits that didn't work for me, to get them out of the way, but I can't think of anything! I mean, when it happened I thought the Doctor bluffing a million spaceships into not attacking him was a bit silly, but then it turned out that they weren't attacking because they had a plan. So that's OK.

Rory's back, except he's a Roman, except he's an Auton. Did not see that coming, darn you, Moffatt! And darn you again for having River already in prison - so we're still not going to find out what "killing the greatest man she's ever known" was about.

I worked out who the nameless being that brought destruction was quite early on, but given the Moff's timey-wimey tendencies, I suspected he was already in there. Which, I now realise, would have been a total ripoff of Alien Bodies, so I'm glad they didn't do that.

Beyond that: Vincent! Winston and Paisley! River! Liz Ten! Cybermen! Daleks! Autons! Silurians! Judoon! Sontarans! The TARDIS exploding! The universe exploding! A whole week to wait! And no "Next Time" trailer, not even after the credits, so we don't even know if Amy lives! (I mean, obviously, she does, but we don't know she does!)

Comments

[julesjones]

I worked out what was in the Pandorica a couple of episodes back (although I wasn't *certain* until last night). I did not work out how it got in there. In fact, I'm not convinced that what we saw last night is how it really got in there, because there's been a lot of playing with the nature of reality in this arc, but that's irrelevant -- I still had no idea that was coming.

Rory being a Roman and then an Auton was beautifully set up. Moffatt actually drags a frigging great clue in front of you in the scene where Rory tells the Doctor he doesn't know how he got there, and does it in such a way that you still don't see what's coming.

I am so looking forward to the boxset and watching the whole thing through again to see the clues that were seeded throughout, like that photo of Rory and Amy in their costumes.

And next week we finally find out what happened after Young Amy heard the Tardis engine and looked up...

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

Timey-wimey! River could go back in time relative to her own timeline and kill the greatest man ever.

Possibly. My brain hurts.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

She certainly could, but I don't think they'd put the River who happened to be around at the time in prison for something she hadn't done yet...

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

Is she in prison in the present, or was she in prison in the future and was brought back to the present on a mission? I can't remember. Argh.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

TBH, I'm not even sure we were ever told when "The Time Of Angels"/"Flesh And Stone" actually was. But River's "fundamentally" from the future; she's a part of a human society with interstellar travel.

The point I was making was she's in Stormcage at the start of "The Pandorica Opens". So whenever it happened, it happened before that.

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I see what you mean. Guess that means she'll be coming back next season!

[moustachios.livejournal.com]

It was the year somethingsomethingsomethingslashacorn. Um. So not very helpful as a marker, although it seems to be the same calendar as they were using when the Earth got swallowed up by the sun. (That was in the year somethingsomethingsomethingslashapple.)

She was in prison in the future from us, but in the past relative to each episode she's been in. But still at some point in the future from when she'd met the Doctor and killed whoever she killed. So I guess we get to see more of her, which makes me very happy.

I began to suspect the Pandorica was meant for the Doctor between "everyone you've ever fought is up there" and the marveling over what kind of fear must have triggered its creation, but didn't think they'd manage to put him in until very shortly before they did.