Review: Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens

The Urban Dictionary describes a fangasm as "A mental or emotional climax obtained by an obbsessive fan of a series." This episode is designed for this reaction, and while messy in places, it serves as brilliant entertainment. Spoilers follow.

Vincent Van Gogh has painted a painting of the Tardis exploding, which is left to Winston Churchill who telephones River Song who steals the painting in the future while meeting Liz 10 and are you keeping up?

The Doctor finds that a fabled message from the creators of time, etched onto the cliffs of the earliest planet in the universe, is in fact a message left by River with coordinates. Following them, he finds himself in Roman Britain at Stonehenge. There, they find the fabled Pandorica, which is said to contain the most powerful creature in the universe, and as the opening box is sending a signal to all of The Doctor's old enemies, he assumes they've come to fight over it.

Meanwhile, Rory has suddenly turned up as a roman soldier and helps save Amy from a Cyberman sentry, but is dismayed when The Doctor explains that because he was erased from time Amy doesn't remember him, and that he shouldn't be there. Meanwhile, he asks River to take the Tardis into the Pandorica chamber. During flight, she discovers that there is something wrong with the Tardis - very wrong.

After a rousing speech by The Doctor, the alien fleets go away, but when the Pandorica finally opens, it is revealed that (via some help by a time-travelling River) the entire scenario was pulled from Amy's head, and that all of the Romans - including Rory - are Autons. When the Pandorica opens, is revealed that it is a holding pen for The Doctor's anhialation - the aliens were in fact part of an alliance, that think that erasing The Doctor will stop the cracks in the universe that have appeared throughout the series. Meanwhile, the Tardis explodes. And the Universe ends. To Be Continued.

There's a lot of pleasing stuff in here, and every time Moffat leaves a loose end it is closed by the end of the episode. As an end of the series proper, it would be a decent (if not very emotional, which it deserves to be) send off. As a penultimate episode, it's a bit like a brick wall covered in fog that's painted black. There is no conceivable idea, on any spectrum of thought, about what can happen next. The Doctor, dead. Amy, dead. Rory, an Auton. River, dead. The Universe, dead.

The climax of the episode, in which there are all sorts of aliens and enemies, struck me as rather cheesy. But not as cheesy as I thought it would be. It felt somehow justified, and not at all clogged up by too many threats. The tables were turned, with the alliance actually doing the honorable thing by erasing The Doctor.

Next week, we look at the effects of The Big Bang.

Thanks.