The Big Bang reviews

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That episode was most entertaining and did wrap up the season with a big bang. It starts as the universe is gone with only a remnant of Earth left at it’s core. The Doctor is locked within the best prison ever built, Amy is gone and River is trapped in a dying TARDIS. Can the Universe be restored?


It starts with the young Amelia saying a prayer to Santa, similar to the first episode of this series. A quick shift in gear and some discussions about the stars not really existing at all except in Amelia's imagination and artwork. Amelia finds some mysterious notes directed to her, which instructs her to see the Pandorica exhibit at the National Museum. So she does, and and finds another note telling her to stick around. One sees some Dalek artifact displays by-the-way in the museum. Anywhoos, when everyone’s left the museum, the most amazing thing happens. The Pandorica opens and out comes ... the older (current?) Amy! wait, what?


Cut back 1894 years, to 102 AD. Rory is talking to Amy’s corpse when the Doctor appears, tells Rory to get him out of the Pandorica, and then disappears and reappears multiple times. What the heck is going on? So after Rory helps the Doctor out, the Doctor puts Amy in the Pandorica, where it will revive her in 1894 years time. Aaaah, right. After Rory saying he won’t go with the Doctor to the future, there’s another jump cut back to 1996. Amy discovers that Rory is probably dead, after protecting the Pandorica all those years. Random Dalek encounter, and the Doctor jumps into action and hides the Amys behind the Pandorica, when suddenly the Dalek gets shot. By who - yep - plastic Rory who ditched his centurion garb for the museum security uniform - he's still alive after all this time !



The plot after this takes quite a few crazy tuns. After time travelling various times using River's time vortex manipulator timey-wimey thingy, he meets his dying self who passes along a message. Then he rescues River, who is stuck on a time loop in the TARDIS (smart machine is trying to save itself and occupant. The random Dalek shoots the Doctor after the rescue and he travels back in the past to meet himself and give a warning, and then River kills the Dalek while Amy and Rory check on the Doctor. His corpse is gone. He wasn’t really dead at all, apparently, and was using them as a diversion so he could get to work to effect the second Big Bang happen to recreate the universe.















After lots of discussion, he lifts off in the Pandorica into the TARDIS, and is starting to be wiped from existence. The Doctor then travels through to the past several times and finishes with meeting young Amy and tucking her in bed. The Doctor now enters the quickly closing crack and is popped from existence. The scene now shifts to Amy and Rory's wedding, where suddenly, several things assist her memory of the Doctor. She now quite amazingly imagines him back into existence. Not sure how this really happens but we're certain fans liked it anyways.

The episode ends with Amy and Rory joining the Doctor in the TARDIS, there is a call from the Queen and then they prepare to investigate an issue with a Sphinx (?) on the Orient Express in Space.

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The Big Bang Teasers

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Who but Whovians loves teasers. As we are rapidly approaching the series finale this weekend, here is some episode teasers for The Big Bang . . .


¤ The TARDIS does explode in an epic shower, but be prepared for a twist.

¤ The "Future Doctor" thing from 'Flesh and Stone' does happen, and has been confirmed by people who have seen the scripts. Matt stated that his call sheet throughout shooting the previous 12 episodes included additional scenes for the finale. "When we were doing Flesh & Stone, I'd get to the end of the day and realise that I'd got to do this extra sequence that I had no idea about. All I know is I've got to be quite concerned about Amy."

¤ The Pandorica has a rather useful feature, in that it keeps you very well preserved and alive forever. This particular feature is important in developing a strategy to bring Amy back.

¤ Having lived in the house with the crack which happens to leak a field of time energy has had an important and special effect on the development of her brain.

¤ Robot Rory (or Auton) is responsible for releasing the Doctor from the Pandorica. Amy takes his seat inside the Pandorica while the Doctor goes off to find the right "fuel" to bring her back to life, leaving Rory to guard the cube for quite some time. This gives rise to the legend of "The Lone Centurion" which is ocassionally spotted throughout time guarding the cube.

¤ Rory doesn't stay an Auton forever though, and it is reported that he does eventually make his way back as a human.

¤ There is a wedding at the end of the episode (use your imagination).

¤ Strong indications that Omega makes an appearence near the episode's end. Rumour has it that Omega is played by Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy of Harry Potter fame).

¤ When asked about River Song, Matt comments: "There is a a scene near the end of the episode where River Song and The Doctor have a little chat about the exact nature of their relationship"

And one last thing -
¤ Filming on Christmas Special starts on July 12. It's the "most Christmassy special there'll ever be" with an equally special cast list.

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Lastly -

You know that crack in time and space . . . well NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope located it about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.


That is all - transmission end.

The Big Bang Trailers

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The Big Bang
18:05, Saturday 26 June, BBC One

The Doctor is gone, the TARDIS has been destroyed, and the universe is collapsing. The only hope for all reality is a little girl who still believes in stars.

The Big Bang is a dramatic finale to the Eleventh Doctor's first incredible series. Find out more about it now.

nuff said already - let's watch the preview trailers . . .

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We trust that you have your priorities correct and will be ditching any responsibilities you may think you have to glue yourself to the telly when this airs in less than four days.

The Pandorica Opens

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On Saturday, if you were geographically blessed (in the UK), you took in a very exciting episode - part one of two in the Doctor Who Series 5 finale. If you do not live the UK, you have to wait another three weeks or sneak it on line somewhere (that's what we did).

How was it ? Let's have a look at the numbers - this Doctor Who episode averaged a respectable 5.9 million viewers for BBC One on Saturday evening, according to early overnight data.

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If you do not want spoilers, escape now before we roll into the episode details from wiki . . .

The Doctor and Amy Pond travel to the oldest planet in the universe where a legendary message turns out to be another "calling card" of Dr. River Song. Following the coordinates from the message, they arrive at Roman Britain in 102 AD and find River posing as Cleopatra. River explains that she has received warning of the destruction of the TARDIS from a painting by Vincent Van Gogh ("Vincent and the Doctor") that in 1941 reached Winston Churchill and Professor Bracewell ("Victory of the Daleks"). Churchill had attempted to warn the Doctor himself, but the TARDIS instead connected his call to River; she subsequently escaped from prison and encountered Liz 10 ("The Beast Below"), who had Van Gogh's painting in her collection, and then used a Vortex Manipulator to transport herself to the oldest planet then to the coordinates in the painting. The Doctor realises the painting and destruction of the TARDIS may be connected to the "Pandorica", a fabled prison for the universe's deadliest being, and rationalises that it must be stored in a memorable location, the site of Stonehenge.


At Stonehenge, the Doctor, Amy, and River find a passage to an underground area, which the Doctor terms "Underhenge". Inside, they find the Pandorica, a room-sized metal box outfitted with every type of lock imaginable. The Doctor and River become concerned when they discover that the Pandorica is opening from inside and transmitting a message across time and space, drawing many of the Doctor's foes to Earth. River warns that "everything that ever hated [the Doctor] is coming tonight". The Doctor refuses to flee and instead enlists the help of some of the nearby Roman soldiers, led by a mysterious centurion who volunteers.


Back underground, while Amy questions the Doctor about the engagement ring she has found, the pair are attacked by the debris of a Cyberman's suit trying to find a new host. The Doctor is stunned and Amy sedated with a flechette. She runs away and is rescued by the mysterious centurion, who turns out to be Rory Williams. The revived Doctor is baffled to find Rory alive, since he is supposed to have been erased from history by the crack in the universe ("Cold Blood"). Rory is even more confused and says he simply remembers dying one second and being a Roman soldier the next. Rory tries to connect with Amy using the engagement ring that he had left aboard the TARDIS, but she is still unable to remember him.








As more enemies gather in orbit, the Doctor temporarily delays the aliens and instructs River to bring the TARDIS to Stonehenge. Although shown to be an expert TARDIS pilot ("The Time of Angels"), River now finds the machine impossible to control and gets locked on course for Amy's house on June 26, 2010 - the very date the explosion is to happen ("Flesh and Stone"). Whilst she ventures outside, the scanner screen suddenly cracks in the familiar shape, while an ominous voice declares "silence will fall". River finds huge foot prints in the garden and explores Amy's bedroom, still full of representations of the Doctor and the TARDIS. She also finds elements such as Pandora's Box and the Roman soldiers within Amy's drawings and books. She relays this to the Doctor, who starts to worry they might all be imaginary constructs taken from Amy's mind to entrap him, and believing their own cover story until they are activated. Amy meanwhile has an emotional conversation with Rory who is attempting to get her to remember him. The TARDIS begins to malfunction dangerously. Upon discovery of the date to which River has been taken, the Doctor orders her to get out of that timezone, but the TARDIS is now controlled remotely. He urges her to get out, as the TARDIS engines are supposed to shut down automatically when no one is on board, but she finds herself locked in.















Suddenly, Rory and the 'legionaries' with the Doctor are activated: they are Autons. 'Rory' remains with Amy, struggling to retain his human consciousness and stop himself from killing her. Shortly after she remembers who he is, he loses control and shoots her. Meanwhile, the other Autons capture the Doctor and take him to the now-open Pandorica, which proves to be empty. Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen and others arrive and reveal that they have formed an alliance and built the Pandorica as a prison for the Doctor, as they believe he is about to destroy the universe. The Doctor pleads that they have made a mistake and the TARDIS, not him, is about to destroy the universe but the Daleks refuse to believe that anyone else can fly the TARDIS.


River frantically manages to hot-wire the TARDIS door, but finds her way blocked by a stone surface. She declares, "I'm sorry, my love," as the TARDIS goes critical and explodes. Rory is still cradling the apparently dead Amy. The Pandorica closes on the Doctor, and a dramatic reveal shows explosions surrounding the Earth.

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Pandorica BAFTA screening

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Things are really starting to heat up with 'The Pandorica Opens' début just right around the corner on BBC One and BBC HD. Make certain you have your priorities in order this Saturday evening.

Righto - onto the title of today's post . . .

We have some additional tidbits as to what to expect during the next show from a recent (Wednesday 16th June) screening of 'The Pandorica Opens' at The British Academy of Film and Television Arts. BAFTA hosted this special preview screening of the episode yesterday which was followed by a question and answer session with members of the cast and crew including Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.

Matt Smith has suggested that The Doctor may wear a new outfit when Doctor Who returns next year. Matt also made these comments after the press screening, when he was asked who came up with the jacket-and-bow-tie combination he has sported in the past series.


Next up . . .

Some teasers from Digital Spy from the screening -

1. Hello sweetie writ large. Literally.

2. "This is royal collection and I'm the ****** *****!

3. Cleopatra's comin' atcha!

4. Drahvins, Zygons, Draconians, oh my!

5. A nifty new Cyber-feature is revealed.

6. An unlikely alliance is formed.

7. The Pandorica opens. And closes.

8. We finally find out where those pesky cracks are coming from.

9. Death. A whole lot more death than you probably anticipated.

10. But don't despair, the last word of the episode is "love".


While we are on teasers, we might as well have some from SFX :

1. Steven Moffat’s on top form with a brilliantly crafted episode – the perfect start to a two-parter.

2. The Doctor and Amy visit the oldest planet in the universe, where the first words in history have a familiar ring to them.

3. The stakes are every bit as high as in an RTD season finale.

4. Characters from earlier in the series make surprise appearances before the opening titles – and we’re not just talking about the series recap.

5. There’s something funny going on at Stonehenge.

6. If you thought “The Lodger” looked like a money-saving episode, you soon realise where all that spare cash went.

7. There’s a scene in a bar rather reminiscent of the Star Wars cantina.

8. There’s an armada of alien spacecraft.

9. The Doctor gets to deliver one of his “Get out of here!” speeches.

10. There’s a brilliant scare involving a human skull.

11. You could market an entire range of action figures on the back of this episode alone.

12. Amy’s engagement ring is crucial.

13. It’ll make you want to go back and watch the whole series again.

14. Someone other than the Doctor pilots the TARDIS.

15. The Doctor and Amy face a foe reminiscent of fembots.

16. There’s a fantastic nod to The Thing.

17. The Pandorica does indeed open.

18. It also closes.

19. The episode ends in a cliffhanger so devilish that it seems utterly inescapable. It’s going to be a very, very long week.

20. 26 June 2010 is a very important date indeed – and not just because it’s the day of the series finale.

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5x12 & 5x13 Image Spoilers

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Hello my pickles,

We have from Popping Vicodin, some very interesting images from the upcoming Doctor Who season finale. These images are from episode 12 (The Pandorica Opens) and episode 13 (The Big Bang). If you do NOT want to see these Doctor Who Spoilers, we suggest that you pull the chute now.

What will happen ?
(from a variety of sources such as TV Times, Radio Times, What's On TV, etc.)

The Doctor takes Amy to the very first planet in existence where they find a message from River Song.

The couple find River Song is dressed as Cleopatra.

A painting by Van Gogh, found in Winston Churchill's bunker, reveals something about The Doctor's fate, a "desperate message." It has been passed along by Churchill through River Song and Liz Ten - who all return in the finale.

Dark forces gather at "under Henge"; returning monsters include: Daleks (the new kind), Cybermen, Sycorax, a Blowfish (originally from Torchwood), Weevils (originally from Torchwood), Autons, a Hoix, Sontarans, Judoon, a Kudlak (originally from The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Silurians (new series).

Lets go . . .

That's some crowded real estate above Stonehenge - looks like an inter-galactic party and every one of the Doctor's nemesis has come.

Who exactly is invited ? Looks like the Silurians and the Weevils (from our other fav show, Torchwood). Oh right - might as well have the Romans come too.

Speaking of Romans, we see here that Rory (who we thought took a dirt nap after being hit by a Silurian weapon in 'Cold Blood' has made a miraculous recovery and has acquired some spiffy wardrobe.

Also - a blast from the recent past - the Sycorax ! These critters were last seen during the Christmas Invasion special.

And who could not invite the Daleks, now available in red, white and Kill Bill jumpsuit.

And finally, it looks like Amy Pond (the child version) is rather enthralled by the Pandorica thingy.

Looks like this season finale is heating up to be epic . . . don't blink, don't miss it.
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Big Bang Spoilers

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We are getting some details on this season's huge Doctor Who finale, The Big Bang (S5E13). If you do not care for spoilers ruining it all, we suggest that you may want to move along. Anywhoos, BBC has just released this programme press release . .

Doctor Who – The Big Bang Ep 13/13
High Definition programme
Saturday 26 June
Time to be confirmed BBC ONE and BBC HD
The Doctor is gone, the Tardis has been destroyed, and the universe is collapsing. The only hope for all reality is a little girl who still believes in stars, as this series of Doctor Who concludes with an episode written by Steven Moffat.

The Doctor is played by Matt Smith and Amy Pond by Karen Gillan.

Doctor Who is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC's High Definition channel, available through Freesat 108, Freeview 50, Sky 143 and Virgin 108.

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

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?


And here are the rumours . . .

It is rumoured that all of the enemies confirmed by pictures to appear in 'Story notes' are beings that were absorbed by the cracks, and that somehow they have all come back through because of the Pandorica opening. This could also explain the Silurians appearing, as there was a crack near their civilization. This could mean the Weeping Angels would make an appearance due to getting absorbed by a crack, and possibly Saturnynians, although none of the existing spoilers mention either race. This theory would also explain Rory's apparent reappearance. This is further fueled by the fact that spoilers mentioned many of the enemies being in what they call the Pandorica Chamber benath Stonehenge.


The Doctor's enemies will throw him into the Pandorica, as one of the released pictures show romans pulling him to a mysterious, large mountment believed to be the entrence to the Pandorica, as a few of his enemies stand and watch him helplessly struggle to escape (its possible that as the cracks, the box need a complicated space and time event and the races want to try and prevent the boxs opening). It is also rumoured that something very bad (so bad that "silence will fall" when the Pandorica opens) is locked away in the Pandorica, and could even be the Doctor's future self if the former mentioned really happens.
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