Series 5 Finale

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Things are wrapping up to quite a big bang with the finale almost in sight for Series 5 of Doctor Who. In fact, the 13th episode is called 'The Big Bang'. This being part two and final episode of the season and the previous 12th episode properly named The Pandorica Opens (no surprises really with the name).


Back in February it was reported that the season's finale would feature a whole host of the Doctor’s deadliest enemies. Well, it looks like Whovians will not be disappointed.

The embargoed publicity photos for the episodes confirm the monster line-up as; Cybus Cybermen with Cyberleader; Black-robed pilot fish; the new Daleks (red, white, and yellow flavours); Sycorax; Silurians; Judoon; the Hoix; Torchwood’s Weevils and Blowfish; and an Uvodni from The Sarah Jane Adventures. Not pictured but also apparently appearing are the Sontarans and Autons.

Let's have us a closer look . .

The Pandorica Opens will be the twelfth episode, and first in a dramatic two-part story of Series 5 and is written by Steven Moffat.

Synopsis
A Van Gogh painting ferried across thousands of years, communicating a disturbing prophecy to the Doctor, a message on the oldest cliff-face in the universe and a love that lasts a thousand years. In 102 AD England, Romans receive a surprise visit from Cleopatra. Nearby, Stonehenge conceals the Pandorica, a prison-box of legend. As it slowly unlocks from the inside, terrible forces gather in the heavens above. The fates are drawing close around the TARDIS – is this the day the Doctor falls? But there is just one certainty: Silence will fall...

“There was a Goblin. Or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. Nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it – one day it would just drop out of sky and tear down your world.”

The Big Bang is the thirteenth episode, and second in a dramatic two-part story of Series 5.

Synopsis
The cracks are meeting, and silence has fallen. The Doctor and friends face the ultimate challenge as secrets are revealed and the true power emerges. Whilst the Doctor discovers a message, Amy faces a great terror. Is this the day the Doctor falls?

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Some rumours about the origin . . .

Pandora was an ancient female Time Lord that existed early in Gallifreyan history and was the first female President of her people.

According to legend, she sought to overthrow the traditions of Rassilon, to lead Gallifrey to war and attempted to use the power of time travel to reshape the Web of Time to suit her own design. She was also known to have taken an offworld bodyguard who killed all those that opposed Pandora's will. To this end she declared herself Imperiatrix. In time, however, the High Council managed to convince the bodyguard to betray her master on the condition that the Time Lords would help improve her people's livelihood. However, once Pandora was betrayed, the High Council took the bodyguard back to her planet where she was placed in an eternal 6.8 second time loop from which there was no escape.

The captured Pandora was dispersed and executed in such a thorough manner in that she never existed in the first place. This was why she existed only in legends and not in history. The dispersal chamber itself was located in the old Capitol where it was destroyed in Gallifrey's civil war. The new Capitol was built over the ruins which became the Vaults. The legends said that Pandora's dying screams still could be heard in the Vaults where she eternally cries out for vengeance.
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Pandorica

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"The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall"

If you had studied any Greek mythology, one would immediately link this interesting Doctor Who season 5 sub-theme, 'Pandorica' with Pandora of legend. In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth, created and endowed by many of the gods (Pandora means 'all-gifted'. Long story short, Pandora had a jar which she was instructed not to open under any condition. Impelled by her natural curiosity, Pandora opened the jar, and all evil contained escaped and spread over the earth. The Pandorica or crack we have seen to date in this season's episodes also have something rather ominous about it.


The Eleventh Doctor first meets his new companion Amy Pond in "The Eleventh Hour", when she is seven years old. She complains about a crack in her wall, which the Doctor realises is actually a crack in the "skin of the universe". During its recapture by the Atraxi (big-eyed things they are), after escaping from one of their prisons through the crack, Prisoner Zero warns the Doctor after he had suggested Prisoner Zero open another crack to escape. Prisoner Zero replies the cracks were not its doing, but cracks in the skin of the universe, and taunted the Doctor over his lack of knowledge before warning "The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall".


Further cracks, unseen by the Doctor or Amy, appear in the monitor on the TARDIS at the end of "The Eleventh Hour", on the hull of Starship UK in "The Beast Below" and a wall in the Cabinet War Rooms in "Victory of the Daleks". In "Flesh and Stone", a crack appears inside the control room of the starship Byzantium, and both the Doctor and Amy recognize its shape as that of the one on Amy's wall; Amy worries that the crack is following her in time and space. In "The Vampires of Venice", the alien cites the cracks as a reason for fleeing her home planet, as well as the means to do so. She also warns the Doctor "Through some of them we saw silence"


So what exactly is this crack, now named Pandorica ?

The answer had not been fully explained, but it appears we are additional clues with each new episode. This is certainly the epic stuff that this season's finale is likely to be constructed of. To date, there appears to be only one singular crack, which can appear anywhere in time and space. We also know that when the crack widens, it releases "pure time energy", which can remove individuals and events from history. We also know from from the "Flesh and Stone" episode that there may exist a possibility of closing it by "feeding" it a complicated space-time event (like a Time Lord, or an army of Weeping Angels - which by the way was great !).

Chime in on your local fav forum or drop a comment here as to your speculation.

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