"The Pandorica Opens" has aired and while we're waiting for the finale, let's talk about the finle specifically and the season overall. My notes on "Pandorica":
- River has some pretty epic ways of getting the Doctor's attention. This time, she used a Time Agent's vortex manipulator (the same kind Captain Jack used) taken from a deceased agent. Funny that she had to acquire one illegally - isn't Liz X still hooked up to Torchwood or something?
- OTOH, the gallery where River pinched the painting has obviously seen better days. Liz X is wil over two thousand years old by that point, but it seems her looks are the only thing the monarchy is maintaining.
- If Rory was erased from time, why is there a picture of him in Amy's house?
- When the Romans were revealed as Autons, why did they suddenly start making wierd robat servo noises? No other Autons have done this - they're just animated plastic, after all.
- Likewise, Rory's hand laser gun sound is like the Cyberman's guns, not the classic "choom" sound. An alliance upgrade?
- Speaking of Cybermen, these are the "Cybus" universe Cybermen, so they must be more survivors who didnt' get sucked back into the void. I guess they must have rebuilt their empire in some time or space and are back for good this time, as the Daleks have apparently done.
- And as such, they may be SLIGHTLY different this time. These Cybermen are supposed to be brain-only, but at least the one playing sentry in the basement still had a skull. Also, after ditching said skull the Cyberman was still able to move, probably on a "need braiiiins" automatic program.
- Similarly, the Cyberman was dispatched by what LOOKED like a Roman sword through the chest. That alone should have tipped the Doctor some...
- Aliens mentioned by River:
Daleks Cybermen Sontarans (The Doctor stole their... Handbags?) Terileptils (Fifth Doctor foe) Slitheen Chelonians (Doctor Who novels) Nestene Consciousness Drahvins (First Doctor foe) Sycorax (and their robotic pilot fish) Hemacog (sp? Not familiar with these guys) Zygons (Fourth Doctor foe) Atraxi Draconians (odd, since they aren't really bad guys)
Also seen in the mess of aliens standing around or in spoiler pictures are a Hoix ("Love and Monsters" and Torchwood); Weevils and a blowfish (also from Torchwood); Silurians and Judoon; an Uvodni (from "The Sarah Jane Adventures"), and who knows what else. Of the spaceships seen, we have Daleks, Judoon, Sontarans (motherhsips and the fighters), Atraxi, and at least two designs we haven't seen before.
- Many of the above aliens aren't known to be time travellers; either they had been given a lift by others in the Alliance, or they come from a time or place where they'd eventually figured it out.
- Obviously the Pandorica is some fancy prison. I understand that that Alliance thought up all this really, really convoluted stuff to ensure the Doctor wouldn't be able to figure out the trap. But after all that, why don't they simply KILL him? They have him caught, they have all sorts of fancy guns that could end his life. That would pretty assuredly keep him from blowing up the universe, no?
- And before anone wonders how the TARDIS can destroy the universe, it's already been mentioned before. When the Fifth and Tenth Doctors ran into each other in "Time Crash", Five pretty clearly mentions that the event could detonate, well, everything. Apparently Gallifreyan technology has failsafes.
Much, much more coming!
Mark
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I assumed that the legend of the Pandorica holding the most feared being in the universe, something that could never be stopped or reasoned with, was true: That being is the Doctor, and the above-mentioned alien races fear him so much (remember the Doctor mentioning "think what kind of fear went into building this") that they may not believe he *can* be killed (he keeps coming back, after all, and I don't know how much the various races of the universe know about Gallifreyans or Time Lords since the Time War locked the lot of them out of history). Or maybe they'd just rather play it safe and chain him up where he can't get free rather than shoot him and find out he is invincible after all.
The picture of Rory bugged me too. But then, why does the ring still exist either? Shouldn't it, at least, have zipped back to whatever jeweler's he bought it from when he was erased from history? Or was it inside the TARDIS at the time?
I will say, when I realized the Pandorica was a prison for the Doctor (and that he must be the Great Scary Being Thing) I had shivers. I really didn't see that coming at all. Great ending to a good episode.
As long as we're discussing the fifth season in general, I thought The Doctor and Vincent was abysmal. Online it looks as though it's garnering mostly positive reviews, but I hated it. It seemed like the writer was just creaming for Van Gogh or something; the episode (or so it came across to me) was basically saying "Van Gogh rocks so hard and is the best artist *ever* bar none" (which is a subjective judgement) - and since when does the Doctor take people from the past for a quick nip to the future to see how famous they get post-death? Doesn't he frown on that sort of thing? Or was it just that he knew Van Gogh would soon kill himself, and so figured the timeline would be OK? The villain wasn't scary; there didn't even seem to be any real problem. No urgency, really, just "psychic genius insane painter sees something invisible, the Doctor says oh interesting, said painter sees his future and cries, end of episode."
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
There certainly were plenty of hints that the Doctor was the universally feared warrior-trickster-god, though for a minute there I thought it might be some future incarnation of him.
As for why they didn't just kill him: well on the one hand if they did that then there's no show and on the other hand most of them have been trying to do exactly that all across time and space for what adds up to about 900 years. He's a slippery bugger. Trapping him makes sure they know where he is and that he's not getting out. No regenerating, no meta-crisis-wotsit or any other time lord jiggery pokery.
As for the Alliance, I think it's safe to say that they just grabbed every mask, costume and make-up appliance they could to make the crowd look as diverse as possible. I doubt that there was much thought put into who was there beyond the major ones. Similarly they only have the new Cyber costumes knocking around so they had to use those too. I choose to pretend this lot afr from a group that linked up and integrated with the the "proper" Cybermen.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Regarding "The Doctor and Vincent", I really liked it. Yes, even the musical montage at the end. Yeah, it was "mentally-ill painter fights the invisible monster that is depression", but the story of Van Gogh is affecting. All the other famous people the Doctor has met have been famous during their time. One of the most gifted painters ever - and you can argue whether he is the best ever or not, but you can't say he's not a genius - who only ever sold one painting, and that to a friend, was a different story to the others.)
I've seen the final ep, but I won't say anything yet because I don't know when BBC America shows it. Regarding the one before:
Moffat has apparently stated that they are the Cybus Cybermen. One does say that the danger was "across all universes", which also hints at that.
The thing I don't get about the TARDIS being able to destroy the universe: the Time Lords had at least one Really Big War. Were no TARDISes blown up at any point before?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The incredibly awesome, brain-tangling series finale has aired! Notes:
- This is the first finale since the return of the show that ends on a truly positive note. No one significant dies, no one leaves the Doctor, and no one regenerates. The episode ends with the Doctor and his companions (plural! and MARRIED!) joyously diving into their next adventure.
- The Doctor describes a vortex manipulator as a "cheap" form of time travel. Perhaps it's dangerous, but it's certainly really quick compared to a TARDIS...
- So all the aliens from last week amount to glorified cameos, except for one Dalek and the Cybermen (who don't even show up here). The alliance of evil (sic) were all pawns, and "the Silence" is the real power behind what's going on, manipulating even the Daleks into trapping the Doctor. It/they/whatever wanted the TARDIS to explode, though perhaps not take all universes with it. And it/they/whatever are still out there. Were they the ones who built the Pandorica?
- All the Roman Autons started making robot noises when they shed their facade personalities, but Rory didn't. However, he can still use his Gadget Gun with the fancy newer sound effects. Also, he was much more detailed than the plastic Mickey from five years ago. Much closer to the Auton leader dummy from 1970, really.
- Line of the show: "It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool." Followed by Amy and River unceremoniously destroying the thing. Thing is, Matt Smith had been hinting at a hat for next year - I wonder if that was really just a joke meant for this. The Confidential episode notes that the producers dreaded giving the Doctor a fez, thinking that Matt Smith is nuts enough to insist on continuing to it from then on if they DIDN'T explode it in the story.
- I can accept that the Dalek that was chasing everyone around in this ep was not fully restored, and thus was almost easy to deal with. But still, these ARE supposed to be the bigger, badder breed of Dalek. I hope that whenever they show up next, they prove to be pretty darned tough cookies.
- It was awfully convenient that the Pandorica not only heals people fully, but can fly too. It really helps the whole story, but I wonder how they would have saved the day if what amounts to a really easy to open prison cell couldn't float away when it needed to.
- I easily buy that Amy had the fairy tale-esque power to put everything back the way it was, or how she wanted it to be, thanks to her proximity to the crack and all that. But how does that work for the Doctor and Rory? Do they remember everything that happened? Does Rory have all 1894+ years of his Auton memories (he does remember BEING an Auton, he says so in the background as Amy vaults over her head table)? Does the Doc remember all the rewinding?
- The Doctor in his ninth incarnation could dance better.
- Things I still wonder about: It doesn't really affect anything, but how much of the season still happened? Did the Daleks still invade Earth in 2008, and a Cyberking in the 19th century? What was the TARDIS noise Amelia heard in the original timeline? What about the silhouette that moved in her house that same night?
Overall, this season was just great. Like all seasons of the show since it came back, there were good and bad episodes; but like all seasons, you are satisfied with the overall product and can't wait for more. Matt Smith inhabited his role with gusto, and recreates the Doctor as an entirely different person than either of his direct predecessors. David Tennant was the most popular Doctor among fans, but Smith will make that title a hard-fought one to keep.
And for the first time in the entire series, the show doesn't tie the story up neatly by the finale: the bigger bad guy is still out there and there are likely deliberate loose ends left in at least the premiere episode that need to be explained. Even before the series returned in 2005, Doctor Who's previous attempts at story arcs were really just loose story elements that tied otherwise unrelated episodes together (The Key to Time, Turlough's story arc, and to more complex extent the Trial of a Time Lord season).
Also, the TARDIS is more crowded than it's been since the first year back, with three intentionally regular travellers plus River popping in and out. Quite a dynamic, while keeping the star man front & center. I'm definitely sold on the show's continuation, and can't wait till Christmas. Possibly on the Oriental Express! In SPACE!
Mark
PS - Anyone else think that there's no chance Amy and Rory, when it's their time to leave, will be going back to Leadworth, or even Earth? I get the feeling that whatever Steven Moffatt has planned, they won't be going back to a boring little country village when they finally decide to get re-stuck in time.
[ June 28, 2010, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Alex Kingston defies time and gravity.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
The main issue I have with the episode is that it doesn't seem to actually obey any laws of cause and effect. The Doctor got out of the Pandorica by travelling back in time and giving someone else the ability to open it. However, I can't see a way for him to get out in the first place. I can accept effect preceding cause, but there needs to be a way for cause to happen in the first place. Otherwise every time he's in prison he can get out of it by a future version of himself letting him out.
(To clarify, stuff like realising he needed his sonic screwdriver was fine. He noticed that he didn't have it, realised where it would be, then before he checked Amy's pocket went back in time to make sure that Rory put it in his pocket. That's fine. The whole prison escape I just don't get.)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Actually, I was a little annoyed by the screwdriver thing, even. Since when does the Doctor use Bill-and-Ted logic in his time travel? I thought it was well-established that he can't do that sort of thing, because, if he could, every episode would just start with him appearing from the future and telling himself how to solve the plot, and that would be the end.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I think it was a case of him saying "bugger it" to the rules. All of existence was about to collapse and what was left in this eye of the storm was a jumbled mess with penguins in Egypt and whatnot. It's not like he could make things any worse; the fabric of time, space and reality had already come undone.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I also thought that was why he was able to paradox himself out of the Pandorica; cause and effect were breaking down universe-wide.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
"Actually, I was a little annoyed by the screwdriver thing, even. Since when does the Doctor use Bill-and-Ted logic in his time travel? I thought it was well-established that he can't do that sort of thing, because, if he could, every episode would just start with him appearing from the future and telling himself how to solve the plot, and that would be the end. "
That's a bit different to the screwdriver thing though. He can't tell himself how to save the day until he's already done it once. However, the screwdriver thing was him simply realising that logically, he didn't have it on him, and then making sure of a way that he would.
There's also some argument that he was only able to use the vortex manipulator with such skill because most of time and space had been destroyed. Maybe.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)