Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Pandorica Opens & The Big Bang

Last night, my family and I figured out how to hook up my Wii U to our netflix account, and we spent some time watching Doctor Who before my brother had to go to bed.

This is a short appreciation post for the two episodes I watched in the light of the 2016 Sci-Fi Experiance.

For the longest, longest time I wondered what was up with the episode "The Pandorica Opens". And for the longest time, I wondered why the Doctor kept calling Rory Williams "Rory the Roman". I finally got my answer last night.

Now, before you read any further, if you don't want to read any spoilers or if you haven't watched anything to do with the 11th Doctor yet, I would suggest you don't read any farther. After all, it's spoilers, sweetie.

"The Pandorica Opens" opens with Vincent Van Gogh writhing on the floor of his room, on death's door, screaming. Turns out, he had a dream where he saw the TARDIS exploding, heralding the end of reality. It both terrifies and confuses him. And he paints it as what seems to be his last painting. (I don't know very much about Van Gogh's role in the Whoniverse, honestly).

This episode was facinating, and together with "The Big Bang", paints a story of how they got Rory back after he fell out of the universe in a previous episode (which I must have skipped, because I have no recollection of Rory being erased from reality). One day, when me and my family have unlimited internet again, I am going to rewatch 11th's era again. Or, at least, I will watch the episodes I haven't watched yet.

"The Big Bang" explains how they fix reality after the TARDIS explodes. In "The Pandorica Opens", it showed how the Pandorica (I think it was the Pandorica) controled the numerous Roman soldiers which Rory had brought under Stonehenge (where the Pandorica was) and Rory as well, revealing that Rory and the Romans were actually plastic replicas of themselves and that they have guns in their hands. Guns in their hands.

The Pandorica manages to gain control of Rory and makes him shoot her with his hand-gun, so she dies. The Doctor's been locked in the Pandorica because, as it turns out, it was built to lock him away. But...well...if you've watched the episodes, you know how it turns out, and if you haven't...well - spoilers. If I told you the whole story, then you wouldn't want to watch it then, hmmm?

Points I liked about these two episodes:
- River Song managed to convince a whole leigon of Roman soldiers that she was Cleopatra (even though Cleopatra was dead by the time the majority of the first episode took place).
- The oldest words in the universe turned out to have been written by River Song. "Hello Sweetie".
- Turns out River Song and the Doctor can ride horses at a full-on gallop. Amy - not so much.
- I loved, loved, loved, loved the fact that Rory waited for Amy for 2000 years! The mythos built around him and the Pandorica was practically romantic!

Points I didn't like about these two episodes:
- The promotion of the Big Bang.
- How lonely Earth seemed without stars in the sky.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Ranger's Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia, a review

The Battle for Skandia . John Flanagan. 2006. Puffin Books. Pages: 294. Price: USD $8.99/$11.99 CAN. Setting: Skandia. ISBN 0142413402. [S...