Overdue Doctor Who Review: The Big Bang 

I love the ending. It's the first time we got a really joyful season finale ending in modern Who. At first it looks like we're gonna get another lonely Doctor brooding alone in the universe ending but then Amy & Rory barge into the Tardis & ain't gonna let that happen.

Me Before the Video: Right I like this episode, Nathaniel doesn't. So I will listen, but I bet he won't be able to change my mind whatsoever Me After the Video: Godammit.

Honestly as much I tend to enjoy Moffat's writing, I think I can sum up his biggest problem as a writer with a quote from Sherlock... "That’s your weakness. You always want everything to be clever". He can sometimes focus too much on making a story clever, rather than engaging and enjoyable & while it doesn't bother me too much in this episode, I know it does in some of the other episodes he has written.

Does it have a different tone than The Pandorica Opens? Yes Is the tonal shift a bad thing? Not necessarily

That metaphore really helps me see where and why we differ on episodes. I love finding out how magicians do tricks.

River Song: What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?

I still think is a very fun finale. Great pacing, nice jokes, it ties things relatively well (one has to consider that some loose threads, at the time, we thought could be resolved in the future), and the wedding scene is great. I don't know... i still think its one of the new series best finales, probably the best of moffat's era.

Moffat writing most of his season finales "Started writing it, had a breakdown... Bon appetite"

I loved this story. As far as I'm concerned, the story wasn't about some big threat to the universe, it was all about the journey of the characters. I think this was a really nice change of pace from most of the other finales that are about stopping some big bad. I sort of wish that we had satisfying resolution to some of the dangling plot threads of the season but imo that's a problem with the later seasons and not this story in and of itself.

One issue I had with this story: we find out in the beginning that there are no stars, except for the TARDIS acting as the sun. Which means that sea exploration would be either ridiculously hard or altogether impossible (no north star). Yet history flows exactly the same? Rory should have 2,000 years of alternate history memory.

Nathaniel, I always feel bad when you don’t like an episode, because I know how that feels. But not this one though. One of my all time favorite finales, and episodes. The lovely scene between the Doctor and Amy in her bedroom, a happy ending, for once. The “continuity error” in the Time of Angels scene. I laughed at that one. I just love this one so much and absolutely nothing anyone can say will change my mind. I know that’s not really you’re intent here, I just used that last bit for emphasis, lol. 😊

I love River shooting the fez.

How can you say theres no consequences. When a major factor of season 6 is a consequence of the Doctor resetting he universe...

The whole episode feels like the ending to clue and Tim Curry is explaining how he did it.

8:48 It’s funny how you go on about there being no consequences of the Universe blowing up, because all they would’ve had to do to fix that was have a line in “The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon” about how the Silence didn’t exist until they reset the Universe and then the Silence would’ve been a lasting consequence. I’m actually going to make that headcannon because it explains how neither the First or Second Doctors ever encounter the Silence despite the fact the Silence had control over the Earth throughout the entirety of both their tenures as The Doctor.

I feel like this is a recurring theme with Moffat's finales; the build up is always better than the conclusion.

Wish you had had a fez destruction joke in this review

Moffat's "Look at how clever I am, love me!" style of writing has always been a big part of why I'm not a big fan of him. Focuses too much on sounding clever then being logical. I think The Angels Take Manhattan is a perfect example of it.

As a huge Penn and teller fan you metaphor is lost on me

I love this, thought you’d ruin it for me but I disagree with what you say. Still respect your opinion 😂 Like the Big Bang 2 for me was PERFECTLY written

This episode introduced me to the _Something old, something new_ tradition, which I'd never heard of before. It helped me understand the double entendre in the title of the Buffy episode _Something Blue._ Actually, I like hearing how a magician does his'er tricks. So I don't mind the cleverness in tying up all the loose ends. What I dislike is the copout of the reboot, where nothing that happened before matters anymore. Also, the TARDIS blowing up is never satisfactorily explained.

My favorite part of The Big Bang is almost always cut from the episode for time. The timeline of the centurion makes me emotional even knowing he doesn't perish.

I think it's pretty obvious that Moffat creates plotlines that are wayyyy too big and spectacle-y for him to handle, to the point where he ends up just wimping out and avoiding all of those plotlines (TBB and Hell Bent are probably the best examples of this). I think he finally figured out how to handle this type of thing with The Doctor Falls, focusing more on emotion and making the conflict more of an obstacle to overcome by the characters.

Paradox in place of solutions. In fact, paradox as the solution. It's like seeing how the trick was done and realising it was a very cheap trick the whole time. And not even that good

Hmm... fair enough. I can appreciate why this episode just doesn't work for you, however, I think you do yourself a disservice by arbitrarily deciding that this is the one two-parter you get to break your own rules and rate separately. Just because you don't like how part-2 resolves the problem, doesn't mean the "sins" of part-1 should be forgiven for creating that problem in the first pace. The fact that part-2 is as you put an episode only about untying knots really just betrays how intrinsically linked these two episodes are, that they pretty much had to be written side by side and so maybe even more so than any other two-parters HAVE to be evaluated as a singular work. Trying to review them separately feels a tad hypocritical, like you're just trying to salvage one from the other to suit your own personal bias. If you're going to say big stakes should have big consequences, or else don't make the stakes so big in the first place... well, this wasn't the episode that raised those stakes, so arguably the blame should be more on part-1.

Is this episode more of a fun romp ending for the series rather than a big dramatic ending? Yes. I had fun watching it, YMMV

Revealing how the magician does the tricks can be a a good show. But it's a different kind of show, and if you are expecting a magic show it isn't likely to work, so yeah.

In all honesty, I can't remember what I thought of this episode on first watching it, but in retrospect I find it just another example of the all-to-frequent use of the reset button in NuWho, especially during the Moffat era.

I feel like rebooting the universe here is much better than the ending to "The Last of the Time Lords." In that story, it was never set up that destroying the paradox machine could reverse time. It was so randomly thrown in. Here, fixing the universe was the goal of the episode, and it's method of doing it was explained well before doing so. Also, blowing up the universe did have consequences. It was how the cracks were created, and it sets up how big of a threat the silence are before we even know about them.

Honestly, I think it tied up all the loose ends with as much elegance as it could have done. And that ending with Amy bringing the Doctor back (while dumb) is beautiful. It should have had a primary narrative and a secondary narrative, rhe second of which would be the plot fixing. Instead, it just had the secondary. That's not a massive problem for me, tbh, but I acknowledge it.

D&D did the same thing over at Game of Thrones. Yeah on paper Dany going crazy and destroying Kings Landing makes sense but in execution it doesn't.

one thing soured my enjoyment of the episode, the doctor and the sonic are both in the pandorica, so how did the loop even start?

So when River tells the Doctor that his solution is brilliant, essentially Moffat is telling himself how brilliant his story is.

2nd parts of two parters being a lot weaker than the 1st part seems to be a common thing with Moffat season Finales. This, Heaven sent/Hell Bent, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. Often the first part is amazing and the 2nd part just can’t live up.

Watching Moffat tie up the loose threads and complicated strands he has woven? Hey - I'll take that any day! Sure, there is not a huge sense of threat or high stakes but you don't need that all the time. It's fun and I love it. I am missing Moffat

I think one solution for the "such a big setup, no consequences" thing could be at least making the Doctor regenerate

I could tell just by the thumbnail that we're returning to another episode of *_Screw You, Moffat!_*

I love this story, but funnily enough the way you feel about this is similar to how I feel about Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, another Moffatt story I don't like as much as everyone else seems to. (Ie it's clever more than it is a good watch.)

I got the impression that the consequences were that, as a resultof the rebooting of the universe, several things would have been changed majorly, such as the daleks now having a different structure. I assumed the episode was meant to be a continuity safety net to let moffat tell stories that didn’t mesh with past events, but we never got anything to justify that later since he played pretty close to established events. So this episode is only bad for me now that the moffat run is complete. There was no attempt to explore how the new universe might have changed apart from maybe the dalek invasion and related events didn’t happen.

This is a great review. SM does tie up the lose ends but it lacks tension and it is without consequence. Doctor Who should be bold and heart breaking and we haven't had that since season 1 really

I like the episode, but upon reflection that tonal shift that you mentioned may be the reason why I found it a bit hard to follow and more confusing than it perhaps should be. I don't mind it feeling that it's like seeing the method behind a magic trick but your absolutely right that it lands differently.

Almost unsubscribed after the opening image. The Big Bang is my favourite finale. A very clever slotting together of the jigsaw pieces. I swear I didn't see the wedding rhyme coming until it happened. Lighten up crumpy chops.

I think it works better as a sort of goofy back and forth mish-mash thing with no sense of incurring threat is because... there basically isn't an incurring threat. I mean they lost. The universe literally ended. They're not trying to save it. They're just kind of stuck in the aftermath. It's like the end of a battle. There's no tension anymore, there's just emptiness. But, there's still that little sense of optimism from the Doctor and the team and they carefully figure out a clever way to, not save everyone, but basically start over with a whole new universe. I do have a question, though. You said multiple times that there have to be lasting consequences and "if you're not gonna have consequences, don't go that big!". But... why? Seriously. Is there a reason for not being allowed to do that that you can put into words other than "don't" and "NO"?

The line from Amy precedening her 'something old something new...' where she said 'that's why you told me the story the brand new ancient blue box oh how very clever' encapsulated your feelings 100% for me of Moffat's self congratulation. Despite that I still like this finale more than Last of the Time Lords.

I actually liked this one better, but I also like learning how magic tricks work, so maybe I'm just weird.

The main reason that seemingly impenetrable plots are reset at the end "without consequences" is the British television landscape. Unlike the US, so-called genre television sits alongside current affairs, light entertainment, soap operas, cookery shows, and sport. As such, not everyone will watch every episode. Yes there's iPlayer and its ilk, but they're only used by small percentage of viewers. The result is that however big the threat Doctor Who cannot, and indeed should not, keep plots going indefinately. Shows like Game of Thrones or Supernatural require viewer loyalty; you can't begin with season 4 and expect to know what's going on. Doctor Who is different: you can start with series 11 and not have to worry about missing anything. As for The Big Bang itself, it has a very British sitcom vibe, most akin to Coupling. Personally, I think it's great.

I like seeing how the problems were fixed. Would be kinda cool if there had been some consequences like Rory remaining an auton or something though.

I have to agree that this episode does not live up to the promise of The Pandorica Opens. However, I did like some moments. For me the wedding reception redeems this episode. When Amy recites, "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," I get goose bumps. P.S. I was surprised that the original version ended with "a sixpence in your shoe" which represents prosperity and makes it end with a rhymed couplet. www.theknot.com/content/wedding-traditions-the-meaning-of-something-old

I have to disagree with your point that all it is just a wrapping up of plot threads. This episode is subversion in a lot of sense which is what I like about it so much. It's basically a reverse two-parter where usually the first part is all set up/exposition while the second part is grandiose and action-filled. Like a lot of season five, it's kind of a counterpoint to the Russell T Davies Era. Example: Pointing out how kind of creepy/weird a romantic relationship with the Doctor would be for a human companion. Davies had a big problem where he kept escalating his finales to a point where it kind of got ridiculous. And with that escalation came the problem of: "How do you raise the stakes after you threatened all of reality?" So what Moffat does is do the threaten to destroy the entire universe thing but, instead of focusing on the grand nature of it he brings it down to a character level. He focuses on the characters and how much they're personally struggling. It's not about tying up loose ends, it's not even about the end of the universe, it's a story about a man who didn't come back when a girl needed him. I know it probably won't change your mind but that's my two cents on it.

I like the ending of the episode. Doctor telling little amy the story of himself. Him appearing at her wedding. The dancing. I love that bit. But as far being a conclusion to the pandorica opens or even the most of the rest of this episode, it doesn't actually go together. And the fact that there's no consequences, yeah that's a missed opportunity. Still a good episode though, esp compared to the other finales 11 got. Sad that this was the best finale to me until capaldi.

@Council of Geeks, So which do you prefer, this or Last of the Timelords?

Honestly... I really have to disagree with you on this one. I can see where you're coming from though. First off, the Doctor didn't really create a new universe where history happens to play out the same, he basically just reinstated the "old" one. Also, Amy's parents weren't a result of the "new" universe, it was from Amy's mind, like bringing back the Doctor. I also think that the weight of the universe being reduced to Earth and the threat of the universe ending are very much omnipresent with the lack of stars, the "sun", and the lack of people. There's a creeping, sinking feeling of a clock winding down throughout the entire episode. I think this story works and works well. I don't think it needs a ton of emotional weight either? The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River all know what needs to be done, so they're getting down to business. And, these episodes might be a case of Heaven Sent and Hell Bent (although not as great and awful as those stories) - The Pandorica Opens' story was done and The Big Bang had to pick up where it left off on the cliffhanger, the same way Hell Bent had to pick up from Heaven Sent with the link of the Doctor and the godawful Hybrid. Also, I think Amelia (young Amy) still serves a purpose in her vanishing. It's not much, but it demonstrates how the universe is slowly fading away, being chipped away at. I think this has humor where it needs to (The Doctor is out of the Pandorica? With a mop and fez? Wha??) The universe wasn't *ending* it had already *ended* really, so they had a bit of "time". I really like The Big Bang and I hope you come to like it too. It's such a great finale. Cheers!

I really like “The Pandorica Opens.” I can barely remember what “The Big Bang” is about, that’s how disappointed in it I was.

just a thought that I want to put out there (not really a video request but maybe) how would the Doctor have attempted to stop Thanos, considering he's a much less battlefront person

I personally love The Big Bang, and at several points I say something along the lines of 'Ah! That's clever!' and I like the fact that it is like a puzzle, because it's so enjoyable to fix it and to think about how it could be resolved. And at the end, I think 'Brilliant'. In my eyes, it is a very good finale, and has a wholesome ending, tying up most of the loose threads, and then it adds intrigue when River Song says that the Doctor will find out very soon who she is. In my opinion, The Big Bang is better than The Pandorica Opens, and that episode is fantastic, absolutely fantastic, and you know what? So was this. I don't know why I did a 9th Doctor reference. It just happened. The humour is great and made me laugh plenty of times. It's hard to describe. It's exciting how you find out how the puzzle works and how to solve it, at every turn. It's packed with lots of content and quite fast-paced, but it also slows down a bit sometimes.

Although I loved the ending of "The Big Bang," I agree that it's a big letdown after "The Pandorica Opens." It reminds me of "The Best of Both Worlds Part 2" (Star Trek: The Next Generation)...an absolutely tremendous first episode and one hell of a cliffhanger, and then....

Moffat's problem, in my opinion anyway, is that he's so busy being clever that he forgets to tell a good story. And, of course, he's always trying to one-up himself, so he goes to greater and greater lengths to be cleverer - to the point where it stops being clever and just becomes ridiculous. He did it with Doctor Who and he did with Sherlock and now he's apparently got Dracula in his sights. I am very wary of watching that.

If we are talking logic... The end of universe was brought about by the explosion of one Tardis. That's some unbelievable OP Time Lord black magic. Also, there was a time war. (The impact of which is very... convenient throughout the new series.) The universe would have vanished like a million times over if it was that easily eliminated. I guess I've just swept these under the "DW black magic" mat which I've long since turned my brain off for lol

I do love the ending where Amy brings the TARDIS back at her wedding

Sorry, but this finale still sits as one of my Favourites of New Who.....alongside Stolen Earth/Journey's End. Your review hasn't changed that opinion at all. Had a great "Bill & Ted" vibe to it that I really enjoyed.

There are consequences to the universe ending. It’s what caused the cracks in time.

I greatly enjoyed Big Bang. I'm fine with all of that and filed it under entertainment factor while better defining the characters and Amy's universe.

I understand and agree with all your criticisms BUT can't help but love seeing how far Rory would ho for Amy and seeing how old The Doctor sounds as he talks to a sleeping Amelia. Every time I see the part Rory says that Amy is more important to him than the entire universe it moves me

Before watching this I can already hear "deus ex machina" 😂 it definitely is one but I don't see a way out of that situation without one and tbh, it works fine for me. The whole madness as reality collapses is done great.

I actually like it that everything is restored and there’re next-to-no consequences at the end, both here and in Last of the Time Lords. I like this idea that the world ended… and nobody realised. It’s a surprisingly effective way of making it feel like this could have actually happened IRL. I see where you’re coming from. I just have a different POV.

Maybe it doesn't work because they couldn't think outside the box and do more than 1 follow up episode. It needed more time. That said, I liked it because I wanted to. I wanted to have this wrap up positively and I appreciated a happy ending. Still, it was like Bad Wolf. I felt like we never got a good answer.

I feel the same way about this episode, I'm so glad someone put it into words (Awesome video as always, keep up the good work)

really unrelated to anything but one of the things that annoys me the most is the fact that they got Richard Dawkins (an evolutionary biologist) is explaining why stars should exists when an astrologist would be more appropriate and the fact that they would assume that an exploding tardis would have similar properties to our sun when the tardis has large amounts of metals and alien technology when our sun can only have elements up to iron at the very very most and greater levels of hydrogen so the fact they could hypotheses the existence of other galactic bodies would exist i am aware that it might be possible in a world with no other data points but the old adage absence of evidence is not evidence of absence but we have to be realistic with this since this has to be based in some similar realm of reality if the scientists are suggesting this hypothesis

“ treats it kinda like a puzzle”; the Endgame syndrome.

I think the only “consequences” of the rebooted universe is all of the RTD era invasions of earth have now never happened! As in the Daleks never stole earth, gallifrey never appeared in the sky, and a giant robot cyberking never stomped through Victorian London - because nobody remembers that happening! Anyway, love your thoughts! I always find it so interesting when you have an opinion that is contrary to “accepted fandom”... because you spell it out thoughtfully and politely, without malice. Thank you for that!!

One thought that occurred to me, is the sometimes excessively clever writing of Moffat's more pronounced during the 11th doctors run? With him being the "clever" doctor? For the record I am generally a Moffat supporter, I started noting his work after he wrote "Coupling".

I can tell you what's changed at the end of this episode, because I know that this was a very deliberate outcome of it: the human race no longer has memories of all the alien attacks and encounters that happened to it during the RTD years. Moffat wanted to reset all that and have a clean slate, and this is how he did it.

IMO this is the most successful season arc in new who history.

This is interesting, because I almost always agree with your take on Doctor Who stories, but here I don't. It seems to me that you're taking The Big Bang too seriously because you liked The Pandorica Opens and you took it seriously, and you wanted a fitting continuation to it. Fair enough. Whereas I really disliked the whole galaxy ganging up on the Doctor, I thought it was ridiculous and over the top, and I didn't want any more of that, I wanted a completely different story next, and that's what I got. I suppose The Big Bang was also over the top, as you say: destroying the universe and recreating it unchanged; but I didn't really bother me because I largely ignored it. I liked seeing a number of favourite characters getting some more exercise and interaction, and I also liked the timey-wimey bits. As for the universe getting destroyed in the background, bah, that's the sort of Moffat excess that I politely disregard if I can. I'd have preferred him not to do it. As you say, it makes no sense that a reboot of the universe would result in exactly the same history all over again. But I enjoy The Big Bang, oddly enough because the universe getting destroyed and recreated becomes a background detail that doesn't have enough impact to spoil the rest of the story.

I liked the episode, but I had some issues and they were possibly different issues than you addressed. I agree that destroying the entire universe wasn't done right...it didn't even need to be done at all. This is more, to us fans, about the destruction of the Doctor. That was more our focus and would have made a better story. I don't know how the writer would have re-created him without the New Big Bang, but something less catastrophic might have worked better as a story. Just the attempt to get the Doctor out of the Pandorica and hi-jinks ensue.

Where did the crack come from in the first place? Does the TARDIS have the blow up the entire universe because that would seem to be a design flaw!

Yeah I don’t think the Big Bang works the weird thing is to is that when Amelia wakes up she is instantly an adult with a mum and dad. There’s no repercussions for that she brings the doctor back then flies off again with Rory and he is not plastic no more.

What bothers me about this episode isn't really the tone. What bothers me is that the story arc doesn't even end. Sure it's set up for the Silence in series 6, but in my opinion it wastes series 6 by stretching out the arc. If the Silence were revealed and dealt with at the end of series 5 and not at the beginning and end of series 6, I'd be happier with this episode.

I agree, this episode never really worked for me either. I never cared for Moffat's approach to series finales. The finales of series 5, 6, 8 and 9 all fall flat on their face for me, largely because of the issues pointed out on this video. I like the finale of series 7 quite a bit, certainly an improvement. But for me, series 10 is the only one with a finale that delivers like the T Davies ones used to. I also find the series 11 finale to be weak but that's for other reasons.

This episode definitely doesn't hold up on the rewatch, but it's worth giving credit where it's due; the sheer spectacle of "untying the knot" was enough to convince me that the show would keep me interested, and of course the characters and acting got me emotionally invested on that end. Even if this isn't one of the series highlights, I still think it and the previous episode make for a decent jumping off point to see if a prospective viewer will be able to handle the confusing complexities of the series and still enjoy themselves; maybe that's just personal bias talking, but I don't think the more emotionally intense episodes would have hooked me if this two-parter hadn't primed me for the rest of the show.

I think Moffat would write himself into an impossible corner giving you a brilliant 1st half and cliffhanger but then forced to struggle out of it in the 2nd half giving you a messier overly complicated finale

I love this episode lol

Sorry, but there are loads of consequences......that keep cropping up all the way through to Time of the Doctor.

IMO ‘the pandorica opens’ is far better than mthe big bang’ but they’re both just meh episodes. If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s matts and Moffats first finale and the fact it has so many different villains, it would just be a very forgettable and fluffy story.

I liked it but there were certain things that bugged me. Like a Dalek begging for its life.

I wasn't keen on the ending of "The Big Bang". Similar to how "The Last of the Time Lords" built up really nice, where you even thought the bad guys might win, the sudden victory of the Doctor wasn't really sci-fi, and more drama. In both instances we have feel good moments driven by thoughts and memories--and then BANG, all is right again. While they make nice dramatic moments, they don't gel well with either Part Ones in terms of build up, or in resolution. It's too bad, because in both instances, had the endings been better thought out, we could have had stories/arcs that rank near the top of Who all-time. As of now, they're both just....Meh.

What they should’ve done is have massive holes in the universe in which unknown threat from other universes invade our universe and the Doctor could’ve spent the next season traveling the universe to face these threats, trying to putting them back and trying to close the holes

I understand and respect your opinion, but I will always love this 2 part finale.

I've always liked this episode, I know you never did, but I think it's creative, the beginning is good and sums up things well, and unlike you I think it resolves stuff pretty well. The ending is fantastic. The emotion gets me every time. I do agree it can get a bit annoying, like with Amelia, I hate that. I still think it's stupid, but everything else works for me.

I love your facial expressions at the beginning of the reviews

If I’d have been writing this episode here’s how I’d do it. The Pandorica was designed to withstand anything. As such it is the only thing to survive the destruction of the universe. Once the universe is gone, as has happened many times, a new one begins. Billions of years later the Pandorica is discovered in an ancient ruins where it had crashed on a new planet thousands of years ago. It is brought back to a museum where after all this time the Doctor has finally managed to unlock all the locks on the Pandorica which triggers it to open. He steps out into the new universe. At first the new universe seems to be thriving and though he is devastated at everything he lost he doesn’t feel that he has to right to restore the old universe if it means deleting this one. That is until he discovers that at the Center of this universe which the planet he is on is orbiting remains his Tardis. The temporal nature of the explosion means the blast is still radiating outward. Though it has lost intensity in the last five billion years the energy from it is still deleting things at random from the universe though it now lacks the power to consume it as a whole. The doctor decides to forcefully dissipate the explosion so that it can’t harm the new universe by extinguishing the Eye of Harmony. Over the course of attempting to do so the doctor discovers that the Tardis isn’t exactly gone. It’s shattered into a thousand pieces but it’s transdimensional nature coupled with the temporal explosion have resulted in dozens of rooms scattered throughout the explosion that are mostly intact, decaying at a snails pace. He used this fact to rescue River Song then sets about on a new plan. Reconstituting the Tardis and funnelling the temporal explosion into the Eye of Harmony chamber which was created for just such a purpose. While doing so they begin to experience hundreds of temporal echoes of things that happened in Series 5. Among them is the scene where Rory shoots Amy. The Doctor switches gears and uses the Tardis console to sync their time stream with the time echo of Amy and Rory. River prevents Rory from killing Amy. These time echoes, a product of the temporal energy around them makes the doctor realize that the old universe isn’t gone. At least not completely. The exploded Tardis converted the universe into temporal energy to burn in the explosion but that energy still contains the information that made up the old universe. After five billion years of burning the old universe is now incomplete. So much data has been burned up that it cannot simply be thrown into reverse and undone exactly how it was. Using the Pandorica as a catalyst they institute an inversion of the Tardis’ destruction that causes it to explode outward, instead of sucking things inward to consume. As it does so the temporal energy is reconstituted into the remains of the old universe, where incomplete the old universe blends with the new one, maintaining much of what had been created. In the aftermath the Doctor explains that things will largely be the same but the details will be messed up. The Golden Gate Bridge is the wrong colour, people have different names, some historical events didn’t play out the same way. It’s earth but now exactly the one they left. The Doctor sits in the remains of the Tardis. The console and some of the control room is intact but the trans dimensional shell is broken and all the other rooms burned up along with anything of worth the Doctor had in them. River helps the doctor restore the exterior phone booth appearance and they attend Amy and Rory’s wedding together. Rory is still made of plastic. Not terrible for a first draft. Could use some polishing and the emotional beats are brushed over but it can’t be worse than the wishywashy consequence free mess we got instead.

not doctor who related i have been meaning to ask if you'll be doing a she-ra season 4 review and was wondering what your thoughts on the charater double trouble.

I wish you were able to have a fairy tale read on this text instead of a logical one. Only then the emotional resonance of this episode falls into place. It did for me!

I love this episode and the two parter as a whole. I like the complete shift in tone, setting and feel of the episode. I understand why u want it to have stakes but u must understand that this would most likely be mandated by the BBC rather than Moffat. And in all honesty I don't mind it! I like that they fall back into the patter and adventure. I love the whole something blue bit. I think young Amy is always great and the cast do great work. Rory is especially good. Loved the through back to flesh and stone that u kinda knew was important at the time. Love his speech to sleeping Amy where u feel the weight of his 900 years in the youngest body going. Love the dalek and the slow disappearing of everything and how he uses the museum to amplify the isolation. Yeah I appreciate your well argued points but 100%disagree on this front. Keep um coming tho! I'm rewatching them too, not as consistent but yeah enjoy hearing your thoughts after I have rewatched them

At the 8 Minute marker this video about going big and having consequences while I do agree with you on that the truth is there are a lot of things where they should have been more consequences then people should have been remembering these things like all the times the Cybermen invaded and nearly destroyed the world or the Daleks or probably a dozen other things that weren't localized or in the past of the distant future but actually happened in current day I mean it should be so common that the doctor should be a household name and alien should be a everyday topic considering they get invaded so often

i just found the story confusing. i agree with you.

One fix for this would have been to make it a regeneration story.

That's cause you expect logic and sense and, you know, quality 😄 But if, like me, you have an inner 13 year old girl😏 this episode ROCKED!!!! I can watch season 5 episode 1 and then these 2 over and over again. Why? VINDICATION. Amy's belief in her so-called imaginary friend is vindicated. What sci-fi/fantasy fan wouldn't LOVE to have just one such tale come true?! But you might have to have an inner 13 year old girl to get it 😁

No offense intended here but arguing that Pandorida Opens works and Big Bang doesn't is to me akin to arguing that everything in Douglas Adams' Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy works up to the point where we get to Zaphod and Trillian in The Heart of Gold. Douglas Adams intentionally writes himself into an impossible corner and then uses the very idea of infinite improbability to write himself out of it. Why? Because it's funny. It's entertaining, and when he wrote the original radio plays he honestly didn't think anyone was really paying attention. It was a paycheck to him. It was a paying gig and he was just trying to entertain whoever tuned in. Even when decades later people were still paying him, this time to write a movie script based on the TV series and the books and the radio play and the stage version and even a text based video game and goodness knows what else.. The very idea of The Infinite Probability Drive is intentionally silly. That's the whole point. Now the end of Pandorica Opens is supposed to be completely and utterly impossible to fix. The universe is going to cease to exist if the Doctor can't get out. So we open with The Big Bang and even tho we saw everyone The Doctor's ever ticked off surround the Pandorica and The Doctor and only The Doctor could possibly get imprisoned there for all time, the person that comes out is not The Doctor but Amy. "Okay kid this is where it gets complicated." So it's yet another switcheroo. Another act of clandestine prestidigitation. The same thing that happens in practically every other episode, and the rest of The Big Bang either explains how the magic trick works or goes out of its way to ignore the icky parts. And essentially the universe gets a nice reboot. Or a reset. Or whatever you want to call it. It's cheesy. It's silly. It's not gonna make sense. However, as the best Doctor Who always does, it does hold true to its own internal logic. As for the rest we just have to quote from Joel and the Bots: repeat to ourselves it's just a show and we should really just relax. I mean you can still be upset if you want, but I'm still more upset about that episode during Peter Capaldi's run when The Moon is revealed to have always been an egg for a giant space dragon. However that's never spoken of before or since. I could probably do a twenty minute video about that one. That one really sucked, but even that one had a couple nice moments in it. This one has Amelia Pond meeting her older self and I was sold just on that premise alone. So I guess it boils down to what you want from your Doctor Who entertainment. If I wanted the science in my science fantasy stories pretend to make more sense, I'd still be watching The Expanse. Sometimes silly is just more fun than raw and gritty.

Though I liked the episode in and of itself, I was disappointed that they didn't take the opportunity to literally reboot the universe and free up some room for potential ret cons.