kerravonsen | Doctor Who 5x12: The Pandorica Opens

(look, I made a new icon too!)

Well, well, well. That gives us much food for thought, something to sink your teeth into.

I think I'm going to react to this story backwards. Or perhaps backwards and sideways.

I congratulate myself for deducing half of the twist about the Pandorica. When the Doctor was describing what was reputed to be inside the Pandorica - trickster, warrior, if it comes to your planet there will be nothing but destruction - I thought, "Hmmm, but isn't that the way that the Doctor's enemies would describe the Doctor?" And with the remark that Moffat had apparently made about "pushing all the buttons twice" I thought that the Pandorica would open and reveal... the Doctor! I never guessed that the Pandorica would open and that they would put the Doctor into it! The end is the beginning.

"The Pandorica is a myth." Yes and no, Doctor, yes and no.

Bravo for putting a new twist on the Ultimate Showdown: enemies become allies to save the universe from the Doctor!
And it kind of explains why everyone knew about it except the Doctor.
It also is no great surprise that they think him capable of destroying the universe; after all, from his enemies' point of view, they're just looking for a bit of lebensraum and glory, and this blot on the universe keeps on going around and blowing up suns and destroying planets and burning armies; why wouldn't he do a bit of universe-destroying on the side? He's a trickster, and one should never listen to anything a trickster says.

Oh Rory! A fake Rory who didn't want to be an Auton. A plastic Rory-doll who wanted to be a Real Boy. How to have your Rory and kill him too. I'm sad all over again. Waaah!

But it was so sad and funny how the Doctor was talking to Rory without realizing that he should actually be surprised that he was talking to Rory.

As for the all the business at the start with the painting... (sigh) Certainly a very round-about way of getting River Song onto the scene. Half of me wants to roll my eyes, and half of me wants to go "Aw, but it's fun!" I mean, I have to say "Yay!" for Vincent and for Liz Ten, even though I could have done without Winston Churchill ringing up 5124 or River Song putting graffiti on the oldest planet in the universe. Every time she says or writes "Hello sweetie" I wince. (sigh) I think she's supposed to be a sort of cross between Indiana Jones, Han Solo and James Bond. (sigh)

"Silence will fall." Who is it who has taken control of the TARDIS? A raspy male voice.

Okay, the sequence of events is this:
1) Vincent Van Gogh paints a picture of the TARDIS being destroyed, including a time and place. He is in a very bad way after he paints it.
2) The painting gets into the hands of Churchill, who attempts to contact the Doctor.
3) The call is rerouted to River Song, ostensibly by the TARDIS.
4) River Song escapes and steals the painting from Liz Ten's collection.
5) River Song acquires a vortex manipulator, goes to the planet Yob, and leaves graffiti.
6) River Song then goes to Roman Britain; this presumably is the time-and-place left in the painting.
7) The Doctor finds the graffiti and meets up with River Song.
8) Together they find the Pandorica under Stonehenge.
9) The Pandorica starts opening.
10) The Doctor offhandedly asks River to bring the TARDIS to where they are.
11) The TARDIS instead takes River to 2010-06-26, to Amy's house, where she finds evidence of an alien break-in, and enough evidence to deduce that the Doctor is in a trap, but not soon enough for the Doctor to escape before the trap is sprung.
12) Something takes control of the TARDIS, and River can't land it.
13) River attempts an emergency landing, and appears to have succeeded, but can't open the doors.
14) River opens the doors, but they open on stone. She can't get out. We don't know where or when this is. "Silence will fall."

Some theorizing.

A. The alliance of enemies forced Vincent to paint that painting; that's why he was screaming in pain. (Manic-depression doesn't manifest like that). The painting was the bait in the trap, a way of getting the Doctor where and when they wanted him to be.
B. The Pandorica detected the presence of the Doctor; that's why (a) it started opening, and (b) it started transmitting.
C. The TARDIS may not have rerouted the call; it may have been done by the One-who-wants-Silence in order to get River on the scene, so that there would be someone in the TARDIS other than the Doctor, someone who could unintentionally trigger its destruction.
D. The One-who-wants-Silence could have been interfering with the TARDIS in "The Lodger" also. It seems a bit too much of a coincidence.
E. Who is the One-who-wants-Silence? Someone we know, or someone new?
(i) Rassillon, because he wanted to destroy Time and because he's insane and powerful enough.
(ii) Not the Master, because, while he may be insane and powerful enough, he doesn't actually want to destroy the universe.
(iii) Some sort of timey-wimey entity created by the destruction of the TARDIS. Like a sort of anti-Bad-Wolf, it creates itself.
(iv) Something else I haven't thought of. This is the most likely option.
F. Either the Doctor will talk himself out of it, or he will be rescued by River Song. Alas, while I would prefer Amy to be the one doing the awesome rescuing, I don't trust Moffatt not to give all the awesome rescuing duties to River Song.
G. Why did the Doctor say that Amy's life didn't make sense? What was the reason he took her with him in the TARDIS? Why was her house full of empty rooms? If she was an orphan who lived with her Aunt, why did we never see this Aunt? Is Amy herself a trap?
H. Rory is definitely dead. (Boo! Hiss!) Amy will mourn him, and continue travelling with the Doctor indefinitely because she now has nothing to go back for.

It makes me want to go back and re-watch everything from "The Eleventh Hour" onwards and completely fail to find any significant clues. (wry smile)

Current Mood: thoughtful
Crossposts: http://kerravonsen.livejournal.com/662212.html

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kalypso

I thought that the Pandorica would open and reveal... the Doctor!

Snap!

I thought of a very silly icon during this episode, and have spent an absurd amount of time making it.

From:

kerravonsen

I'm afraid I don't understand your icon. (?)

From:

kalypso

Silence Will Fall!

From:

watervole

Good analysis there. It would make sense for the painting to be part of the trap.

I seem to be one of the very few people who realised early on that the Pandorica was there to trap the Doctor and hold him.

There's still something about Amy though. the crack was in her house before the doctor ever arrived.

From:

watervole

Groan. It needs to be Sssh, rather than 'SH'

From:

kerravonsen

There's still something about Amy though. the crack was in her house before the doctor ever arrived.
Since the Crack seems to be all over space-time, that may not be significant; when dealing with timey-wimey events, "before" and "after" are difficult to pin down.

But I'm starting to wonder if the Crack took Amy's parents, and Amy's aunt, which is why the house is so empty and Amy's life doesn't make sense. Of course, that begs the question of why the Crack didn't then take Amy also. The other odd thing about the Crack in Amy's house is that Prisoner Zero used it to escape, while the other instances of the Crack appear to have either done nothing, or wiped people from history.

From:

watervole

INteresting point. Prisoner Zero wasn't wiped from history.

Continuity error or plot point?

From:

kerravonsen

Indeed. If it had been written by RTD, it would have been a continuity error. With Moffat, one can't be sure.

From:

jaythenerdkid

Hi, great review! One thing:

(Manic-depression doesn't manifest like that)

Manic depression doesn't always manifest like that. Depression comes out in people in the oddest ways, and honestly, it's hardly ever the same for any two people.

Sorry, it's a silly little quibble, but mental health is something really dear to my heart, both as a sufferer of depression and someone who plans on becoming a psychiatrist, so I just wanted to mention it.

From:

fractured-sun.livejournal.com

I expected the doctor to be in there too... It was just such a Doctor description, the he drops out of the sky and destruction following him. I'm sure I've heard that description for him before - Queen Victoria talking about 10 perhaps or maybe I'm thinking of something earlier.

Anyway I love episodes that make you want to go back and watch the whole series just to see if there are any other clues lying around. One thing I was thinking after the last one is that there do seem to be an awful lot of perception filters and things generally not being what they appear to be in this series. I wonder if this is a deliberate theme (clue perhaps) or just a shiny toy Moffat likes to play with.

Poor robot Rory but if they stop the TARDIS exploding then does that stop the rifts and he'll come back... and what about the angels and how could River Song have been there if the TARDIS blows up but if it doesn't how could the Angels have fallen into a rift caused by the explosion (ahhhh), :0) I love timey wimey stuff.

From:

jaxomsride.livejournal.com

It's definitely a case of "Now get out of that!"

The graty voice puts me in mind of Davros.

The Doctor is pure misdirection, the villains should have been focussing on the TARDIS.

Does Moffat hate happy love stories?
Poor Rory and Amy.

From:

kerravonsen

The graty voice puts me in mind of Davros.
Yes, me too, but I deleted him from my list of possibles because it didn't make sense, and also because I would really hate it if it were him.

Does Moffat hate happy love stories?
Well, he said in the Confidential that all the greatest love stories were tragedies, so I guess so.

From:

kerravonsen

I suspect that they won't be able to heal the damage caused by the Cracks.

From:

eve11

cruising by from the whodaily flist to add a few suspects to your "something else I haven't thought of" list:

1) The Valeyard (who is the Doctor and who could fly the TARDIS)
2) Omega
3) The Celestial Toymaker (long shot but the whole fantasies coming to life thing suggests it maybe?)

From:

wendymr.livejournal.com

Every time she says or writes "Hello sweetie" I wince.

Yes. A thousand times yes.

I fear your F also.

There's definitely potential for a lot of clever stuff here - I can look at it in a detached manner despite not liking Eleven, Amy or RS at this point - and I hope that the final episode lives up to the potential and doesn't turn out to be another LotTL. Having said that, whatever else Moffat may do he doesn't tend to go in for deus - or Doctor - ex machina. Just All-Powerful River Saving the Day Yet Again!

From:

vilakins.livejournal.com

We guessed the Doctor would be in it too, not that it was a trap for him. Yes, Vincent seemed to be in physical pain; I thought that was odd too.

I still have hopes for real Rory to turn up when the crack is healed. Playing with time creates a lot of possibilities, and Amy can't have died; surely she's in the season finale. Besides, we have to get answers to questions about her, like who is she (River's daughter, perhaps, stored in the past?) and why she doesn't remember Daleks.

I'm not very up on classic DW, but weren't those Roman Autons? I remember them from the first Nine ep.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the next one.

From:

kerravonsen

Hmmm, yes, Omega did cross my mind too, but I dismissed him because I didn't think he had the motive; like the Master, he doesn't actually want to destroy the universe.

The Valeyard, (aka the Dream Lord) that's a thought. I'm 50/50 on the motives here. On the one hand, what we know of him indicates that he wants more life just as much as he wants to kill the Doctor. On the other hand, "only one person in the universe hates me as much as you do". The Valeyard might consider it a good trade, to destroy the universe with the Doctor in it.

The Celestial Toymaker? Naw, too much of a long shot, I think.

From:

kerravonsen

and why she doesn't remember Daleks
Ah, now that was something I noticed but forgot to comment on: Amy doesn't remember Daleks in "The Eleventh Hour", but she recognised them in "The Pandorica Opens". Oh, duh, of course she did, she met them in "Victory of the Daleks". Just shows how much I want to wipe that episode from my brain (or have it fall through a Crack in the universe so that it never existed).

I'm not very up on classic DW, but weren't those Roman Autons?
Yes, those Romans (including Centurian!Rory) were Autons. Very very sophisticated Autons, since this is the first time we've had Autons who had personalities. Perhaps they were co-designed by the Nestine Consciousness and some of the other Enemies so that they were really androids (a bit like Vinni) but made of plastic so that the Nestine Consciousness could control them at will.

Edited Date: 2010-06-20 10:10 pm (UTC)

From:

vilakins.livejournal.com

I agree; that was the worst ep of this season, and it started so promisingly. It was so bad, I was moved to post.

[Edited as my reply crossed your edit.]

I still wonder how they got Rory's memories though. He seemed to remember his death, but I thought they only had the chance to pick up traces of him from Amy's house. The ROman cammonader knew enough to pick River as an impostor.

I'm looking forward to answers next time instead of the usual RTD confused mess with massed Daleks and choirs.

Edited Date: 2010-06-20 10:17 pm (UTC)

From:

eve11

lol, yeah, I meant the master of fiction anyway... the dude who brought all the fictional characters to life with Two, Jamie and Zoe. Still an extremely long shot.

Does the valeyard hate the Doctor enough to kill the whole world just to see the Doctor set up for failure?

Or maybe it's the Black Guardian. He's an agent of chaos, though, so he might like the whole chaotic universe. Maybe it's the White Guardian, then? Nothing says "ultimate order" more like the destruction of everything, void and silence.

From:

kerravonsen

I'm a bit less worried about F than I was before, since someone made some spoilery-for-next-week comments in someone else's post. And I do trust Moffat not to try to resolve his cliffhanger with a deus ex machina.

From:

eve11

They may be the first Autons of New Who to have personalities, but in larger canon, they are not the first Autons to have personalities. In fact they reminded me very much of the Big Finish audio "Brave New Town" with Eight and Lucie. In that one, the Autons had been somewhat abandoned by the Netsene consciousness, but as soon as they "heard" it again, they began to be controlled by it. There was also that idea of who they thought they were (a family man, a local shop owner, a disgruntled teen-ager) warring with the emergence of the Netsene consciousness that was controlling them.

From:

kerravonsen

Maybe it's the White Guardian, then? Nothing says "ultimate order" more like the destruction of everything, void and silence.
Ouch. That would be nasty twist.

From:

kerravonsen

Ah, interesting. I haven't listened to the Eight and Lucie adventures (yet).

From:

eve11

And it would also be inspired by Big Finish, I think. The Key 2 Time series with Amy and Zara included the idea of the Black and White Guardians both being at each others' throats but not being seen in terms of "good" and "evil" but of ultimate chaos and ultimate order, both of which are bad for the universe, really. ;)

From:

kerravonsen

He seemed to remember his death, but I thought they only had the chance to pick up traces of him from Amy's house.
Now, that's a very good point. That's either an error, or a clue.

The ROman cammonader knew enough to pick River as an impostor.
Oh, I think the Roman commander was a real Roman commander. It was only Rory and his cohort that were Autons.

From:

vilakins.livejournal.com

That makes sense and explains how easily they were taken in by River. And sorry about the huge number of typos in that comment. :-P

From:

infiniteviking

Half of me wants to roll my eyes, and half of me wants to go "Aw, but it's fun!"

Heh, same here. I really wanted Vincent and Liz X to have something to do other than pass the message on, though we'd probably need a three-parter to fit more plotlines in.

If the One Who Wants Silence is Davros, I shall headdesk -- although it would fit him completely and indeed he's tried something similar already.

I still don't want Rory to be definitely dead. ;; On the other hand, Amy's dead too now, so if the one can come back....?

As to Vincent, I think delirium tremens does manifest like that. Maybe realizing that his visions would mean something to the Doctor drove him to not drink. On top of whatever various brain chemistry issues he already had (probably several codependent disorders, more than only depression or only mania or whatever), alcohol withdrawal could explain what he was going through.

From:

infiniteviking

..Aaaaaaaaaaand also as to Vincent, a simpler explanation has just occurred to me: he'd just had a vision of the TARDIS exploding, and with it, perhaps, the end of all universes everywhere. That'd give anyone the screaming heebies. :(

From:

jhall1.livejournal.com

Wasn't there a clue that they wreren't genuine, in that ISTR that the year was specified as being 102AD. Any genuine Roman would have known that Cleopatra had been dead for about 150 years.

Though I rather like River myself, it would be really cool if it should somehow turn out to be the Autonised Rory who saves the day.

From:

jhall1.livejournal.com

Who is the One-who-wants-Silence?

1. I think it could be the Master after all, if he's become crazy enough. Maybe he thinks that he can somehow survive and create a new universe that would suit him better. It would be an extreme way of silencing the drums in his head - hence the wanting silence. Also he's arguably the only being left with enough knowledge of TARDISes to be able to take control of the Doctor's and make it blow up.

2. Could it be the computer from "Silence in the Library"? That too was a Steven Moffat story, and the wanting silence would tie in. I concede that it create an awful lot of problems, but the show is good at evading those with a bit of hand-waving. :)

From:

kerravonsen

Hmmm, but we have the data point of "Father's Day", where the TARDIS was affected by the paradox, and it turned into an ordinary Police Box.

From:

jhall1.livejournal.com

[deleted and reposted to correct an error]

One little detail that's niggling me is that if the TARDIS exploded the chameleon circuit would be destroyed, so whatever the explosion looked like we wouldn't see bits of police box flying in all directions. (Nor would there have been a piece of the sign from the door for the Doctor to pull out of the Crack.)

From:

kerravonsen

Good point about silencing the Drums - I hadn't thought of that.

From:

jhall1.livejournal.com

I'd forgotten that. Good point.

From:

vilakins.livejournal.com

I like River too, but that would be cool.

From:

infiniteviking

I still call foul on the Doctor reaching into the crack in the first place, and there being "shrapnel" in the crack that hadn't been erased from all of time and space.

From:

jhall1.livejournal.com

Yes, for all that it was very dramatic it didn't really make a lot of sense.

From:

infiniteviking

It mostly worked at the time since I was all NO THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN TO RORY, but in retrospect... eh. If the Moff can rationalize it, though, I'll be impressed.