Well..the universe ended. And that was the cliffhanger! Usually the cliffhanger is the Doctor or one of his companions in mortal danger *cough Drangonfire!* but Steven Moffat doesn't think that's good enough so in his first season finale he decides to end the entire universe! In fact it's worse than that. Not only has the universe ended but it never existed in the first place!
The first episode sees the Doctor puzzling over what great evil could be lurking inside the Pandorica, a box said to hold the most terrible creature in the universe. In fact the whole thing is a trap and an alliance of all the Doctor's greatest enemies have got together to seal him inside the Pandorica. Now the cool thing is that they aren't sealing him in there as revenge for all the times he has thwarted their plans, they are sealing him inside because they think he is the cause of the cracks in the universe and ultimately the person who will cause the destruction of the universe. So technically they are acting for the good of us all. Which is nice of them.
Unfortunately by locking him away he is unable to help River who has been trapped inside the TARDIS which is about to explode which erases the universe from existence. I can't emphasise that enough. The cliffhanger is as follows. The Doctor is locked in the Pandorica, Amy is dead, River is trapped in the TARDIS which then explodes and then we pan out to see the Earth in space as every single star around it blows up. How can you follow that???
This is one of the amazing things about this story. A lot of finale second parts have felt like a bit of a let down after the big build up of the second part but instead here the second part builds even further on the awesomeness of the first part.
Back in modern times the Earth is the last light to go out and this world is quite different from our own. The idea that there was once stars is deemed to be a myth, only young Amy still believes in their existence which leads to a funny reference to her Aunt worrying that she will run off to join a star cult "I don't trust that Richard Dawkins" Brilliant!
The resolution to the story doesn't feel like a cheat which some have done before and it's quite emotional when the Doctor starts to relive various moments from earlier in the season as his life starts to unwind. Back in Flesh And Stone there was a moment when the Doctor took Amy's hand (during the scene where she could not open her eyes or the weeping angel would take her over) and whispers to her how much he needs her to trust him and that it's important that she remembers what he told her when she was little. When this scene was shown back in Flesn And Stone many people thought there had been quite a big continuity error as the Doctor was suddenly wearing his jacket again despite the fact he lost it earlier in the episode and is not seein wearing it later. But this was no error but a clue of what was to come as this was one such moment when the Doctor is travelling back along his own time line. The next time he sees Amy is as a a little girl and this is when he tells her the thing he needs her to remember. As she sleeps he tells her all about the days she would have had with him and that even though they will now never happen she will still dream of them. He tells her how he stole (or borrowed!) the TARDIS "brand new and ancient and the bluest blue ever"
When first viewed this scene just seems like quite an emotional goodbye between the Doctor and Amy, the companion he will now never have as he accepts his fate to be erased from history. But on the day of Amy's wedding the old saying of "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" takes on a whole new meaning!
This story also features the return of River Song. In the Angel two part story she mentioned that she will see the Doctor again when the Pandorica opens so it is becoming clear that they are travelling in opposite directions through time. This will be explored to heart breaking conclusion in later stories. River does tantalisingly reveal that she may be married...interesting..
So that was it, the first season for Matt Smith aka the eleventh Doctor was done. Tomorrow I will be starting season four of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
No comments:
Post a Comment