DOCTOR WHO 5.12 – "The Pandorica Opens" WRITER: Steven Moffat DIRECTOR: Toby Haynes GUEST CAST: Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, Iain McNeice, Sophie Okonedo, Tony Curran & Nicholas Briggs (voice) [SPOILERS] The return of showrunner Steven Moffat to guide series 5 to a climax worked extremely well in terms of untangling some of this year's more puzzling elements, and certainly did a nifty job of retroactively making the previous episodes look more relevant and interesting with regards to the overall story arc. "The Pandorica Opens" gave us action, adventure, chills, thrills, explanations, and ridiculously big stakes that actually made sense. It wasn't perfect, but it was certainly a tremendous hour of television that delivered the goods and left you desperate to see next week's conclusion. The extended opening was a treat, with The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy (Karen Gillan) being appraised of a dire warning from Vincent Van Gogh (Tony Curran), painted on a canvas that found its way to Winston Churchill (Iain McNeice) and the imprisoned River Song (Alex Kingston) in the far-future. This notion of the difficulty in getting word to a man who could be anywhere in space and time was already played with in Moffat's own "The Time Of Angels", but it proved just as interesting and exciting here, as River eventually drew The Doctor's attention by etching "HELLO SWEETIE" on an ancient cliff-face with co-ordinates pointed to Roman Britain. Arriving just outside of Stonehenge, The Doctor was told of Van Gogh's premonition that the TARDIS will be destroyed, assumedly causing the "cracks in the universe" that he's been noticing throughout his journeys through time, and with the help of River he had to get to the bottom of the mythical Pandorica – a large prison-cube stored beneath Stonehenge, in the so-called "Underhenge", that's mysteriously started to open while broadcasting a signal that has alerted every single one of The Doctor's enemies. Can The Doctor prevent the TARDIS from causing the time-cracks before it happens? Can he defeat thousands of Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarons, and Sycorax that are swirling above Stonehenge in countless spaceships? What's inside the Pandorica? Why has the erased Rory (Arthur Darvill) suddenly reappeared as a Roman soldier? And why is Amy the key to solving this maddening riddle? "The Pandorica Opens" was Doctor Who at its most creative and exciting best, expertly weaving together a story in the confident and spritely manner you've come to expect from Steven Moffat. Ultimately a simple story, this meant there was plenty of time to have fun in different corners; from the teaser's leaping about in space-time (reacquainting ourselves with guest stars from older episodes), to wonderful action sequences (Amy being attacked by a Cyberman's disembodied head with tentacles sprouting from the neck), and the fact the mysteries over Amy and the Pandorica were explained in an intelligent and logical way. For the few people still scratching their heads: The Doctor's enemies had calculated the universe-threatening cracks were caused by the exploding TARDIS in the near-future, so had scanned Amy's memories as a child to create a scenario designed to get their common enemy into the Pandorica prison-box. It was essentially a trap designed specifically for him -- taking millennia to achieve, if you remember that they must have built that Pandorica (and Stonehenge itself?) purely for this purpose. What more can be said? Absolutely gripping and enthralling stuff from start to finish, with any bumps in the road forgotten about within seconds. The ending served up three mini-climaxes that each would have made a fitting cliffhanger moment, too: Amy shot in the stomach by her fiancé (revealed to be an Auton doppelganger), River Song trapped in the TARDIS as it's apparently destroyed by whatever force has been controlling it, and The Doctor frogmarched into the Pandorica (a prison created from the imagination of his own trusted companion), outwitted by an alliance of his greatest enemies. Let's just hope next week's "The Big Bang" lives up to its name. The Good Fantastic production values here (owing to the few "cheap" episodes we've had recently like "Amy's Choice" and "The Lodger"), particularly that alien world in the teaser, and the ships flying around Stonehenge like something from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. The most cinematic of nu-Who offerings, by far. Beyond the fact some of those aliens still look very cheesy, this had a movie quality about it everywhere else. The mystery revealed. It made sense! I'm sure there will be nitpicks, but I was pleased the oddness of Amy's existence and the "cracks" actually got some plausible explanation. I'm sure we'll get more next week to fill in a few remaining gaps, too. Karen Gillan. A lot better here, especially in her flaming torch fight with the Cyberman and her touching scene trying to remember Rory. Yes, somehow Rory and Amy almost worked as a couple here, for a few seconds at least. Matt Smith. Really coming along fantastically in recent episodes, looking a lot more confident, like he OWNS the part. Loved his "rock star" moment in the centre of Stonehenge, scaring off all those alien ships with simple words. The Bad Ummm... well, I guess it got a bit choppy in places? But with so much going on I can forgive that. Any other issues I have with the story could easily be cleared up in part 2. The Geeky This episode marks director Toby Haynes' Who debut, having previously worked on Being Human. The enemies assembled were: the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Autons, the Slitheen, the Sycorax, the Atraxi, the Sontarons, the Zygons (last seen in 1975's "Terror Of The Zygons"), the Drahvins (last seen in 1965's "Galaxy 4"), the Draconians, the Terileptils, the Nestene, the Drahvins, the Hoix, the Judoon, the Silurians, and the Chelonians. For River Song, this adventure is taking place before "The Time Of Angels" adventure, so she obviously survives the TARDIS being destroyed. Rating: 5 / 5 Doctor Dan

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