There’s a lot to unpack here, which is appropriate. The opening of this episode ranks up there with some of the biggest, most complicated sci-fi “moments” that have ever appeared in the series. And that’s only the first ten minutes, so really, that’s establishing quite a significantly epic tone for what we know is going to be a massive cliff-hanger. That it only really features the Doctor to deliver the punchline, making those big, sci-fi moments just a long wind-up, unsettling that tone immediately, is a brilliant touch and masterful manipulation of the audience and their expectations.
After that, the rest of the episode feels startlingly procedural, with the Doctor, River and Amy trying to decipher the twin mysteries of the prophecy of the TARDIS’ destruction and the determination of what precisely the Pandorica is and who is in it. The way in which this unfolds is quite well done, with little revelations of details being wrong or out of place occurring naturally. A stray Cyberman showing up…well, that just means that the Cybermen have something to do with the Pandorica, right? Rory is still alive and he’s a Roman now? Well, that requires a little more explanation than a hand-wave from the Doctor. Virtually every enemy the Doctor has ever made is on its way to Roman Britain and the Pandorica? Steven Moffat lets the growing realization of what all these seeming inconsistencies mean dawn on the audience before the characters realize them. From the beginning of this season, the Pandorica has been presented as an event of importance in the Doctor’s future, though it’s played second-fiddle to that damn crack for the most part. Of course it was a trap for the Doctor all along. What’s clever here is that the question is raised of how much was a trap? Was everything? Was Amy? The inversion of the Doctor from the hero, the man who sets things right, to the one who comes along and destroys everything and ultimately destroys the whole universe is more than just switching the perspective on his actions from the companions to the enemies. It’s been an idea drifting around in the subtext of the show for years. But what I especially like about how Moffat handles it is the way he uses it to mark the change into tone in the show. While Russell T. Davies used his “Time Lord victorious” moment to show how bad the Doctor can be when he lets his darker side out, as an angst moment, Moffat uses it as a moment of crisis, as one more thing for the Doctor to try to fix, the ultimate misunderstanding.
The episode also stands as one of the biggest cliffhangers to date, though the over-ramping of finale cliffhangers has been notable since the series revived. I mean, why settle for the Daleks about to invade a broadly sketched future Earth when you can have for Amy dead (at the hands of her fiance), River dead (at the hands of her…whatever the Doctor is to her…TARDIS), the Doctor imprisoned for all time and, just for good measure, every star in the universe going super-nova, essentially destroying everything everywhere?
Entries (RSS)
What I especially love is that the two-part finale is also two fingers up at Russel T Davies. Davies loved upping the stakes in hsi finales to the point at which emotion is lost and it just becomes statistics (‘now there’s a billion daleks, and not only the universe is ending, but all time too…’). Here Moffat emulates Davies in the first half (‘every enemey of the Doctor ever has turned up, and all the heroes are going to die, and the universe is totally over’) – trumping him on the stakes and showing what an easy cop-out such writing is – and then switches it completely to make a final epidosde that is about none of these things, and relies instead on character, invention and wit. Moffat has certainly earned his producer’s crown.
I don’t think Moffat is delivering some kind of slapdown to RTD, just competitively one-upping him. Previous season finales have threatened various sizes of apocalypse before averting them. This one actually blows up the entire universe, on-screen and then asks ‘What next?’.
Am I the only one who detects the influence of recent US TV in the way that cliffhanger plays out? There’s just something about the slo-mo, the dropping out of the sound effects and the plinky-plonky music as the Doctor is dragged to his doom that reminds me of the way shows like LOST handle these moments. Very classily done, either way.
This was definitely faking out the fans who were expecting the usual RTD overblown season finale. I still have to see the last episode, but part 1 was so good.
Speaking of RTD, did they kill off (or at least seriously wound) Captain Jack? I was wondering where that time travelling wrist thingy came from….
I loved the way the show gave me that sudden realization that… “OOooohhhh…the most… oh yeah!” The realization that the very thing the Doctor had presented more than once as a defense this season was now backfiring on him…
RE: Captain Jack
That Vortex Manipulator might belong to another good-looking Time Agent (since they all seem to be good-looking) or might have been taken off Jack’s body while he was temporarily dead. Captain Jack is returning in Torchwood Series 4 too.
I cannot give enough credit to the actors in this, who are able to anchor such (delightful) over-the-top situations in real human connections in even the smallest moments.
Okay, there’s just not one damn thing I don’t love about River Song.
I always deeply appreciate a show which assumes I’m paying attention and can explain things with a clever shot — the Roman Guard greeting the Doctor and telling him Cleopatra is waiting for him and then stands up in frame and you see the smear of River’s psycho-lipstick … Moffatt and co. seem to do that sort of thing very well, and it’s those sorts of details which elevate the series to a treasure for me, not just an enjoyment.
Lots of payoff and lots of little clues for the climax. Chief among them (for me) being, “Amy, does it ever bother you that your life doesn’t make any sense?” Perhaps that’s just an allusion to her “story” being the bait in the trap which lures the Doctor in … but … I think there’s a bit more to it.
I know that if I poke around the interweb I will be able to find detailed spoilers to the next episode, but I am bravely holding the line on not peeking. If my heart were pure my strength would be the strength of ten, like Galahad, but my heart is more than a little soiled, so I’ve got the strength of a couple of sickly children who skip P.E. as often as they can get away with it — which translates into roughly 7 days worth of willpower to not indulge and spoil it for myself. Here’s hoping that there are no foolish BBCAmerica marathons or delays to push the conclusion much past a week’s time in being aired.
It is absolutely worth the withdrawl symptoms to leave the internet rayt neauw and spend the next seven days in sublime ignorance and anticipation of the final episode.
If it’s any consolation, I still haven’t seen the last five series of LOST, and have managed to avoid qqquite a lot of spoilery stuff – including some nationally-distributed billboards.
I thought this episode was sooooo gooood. Won’t say any more than that, until next time.
//\Oo/\\
Of course, the existence of the photo of Rory makes no sense.
“Timey-wimey”
Well, since Rory’s “timey-wimey” doesn’t involve everyone clapping hands and BELIEVING, so I’m okay. It does make a sort of sense, anyway, more than a lot of other contrivances in DW. And how awful was The Doctor’s beautiful speech about miracles, when it turns out it was quite the opposite of a miracle? Poor Rory. Poor everyone, really.
I have a feeling the second part will do what most second parts do: disappoint. Because this episode? One of my favorites ever.
Oh, and Matt Smith is a TOTAL ROCKSTAR. “Hello, Stonehenge!”
This year generally left me cold. I know the Doctor was allowed to do some clever things here but Smith’s splendid acting is going to waste on a Doctor who is being written as either incompetent or less than he should be so we all see how wonderful the narcissistic Amy is or how ab fab Iris Wildtime, I mean River Song can be…