BBC 1
The most recent season of Doctor Who has ended, and the Doctor and his associates won’t be back for new adventures until Christmas. So, if the BBC viewers aren’t going to have much new Doctor Who for a while, it would make sense for the series to end on a high note – and thankfully it does. It takes everything that made ‘The Pandorica Opens’ such a joy, builds on it and adds a whole lot more to make this the perfect episode to end a season on.

As Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) tells her younger self, the story is where things get complicated. At the end of the previous installment, it looked as if Amy was dead and the entire universe was going to be wiped out of existence. Then Rory (Arthur Darvill) sees a vision of an awkward Doctor (Matt Smith) asking to release him from the Pandorica and giving instructions on how Amy could be saved. Freed from his cubical prison, the Doctor travels to 1996 to find the revitalised Amy and to close the cracks completely to stop the universe being erased. Complicating matters is a stone Dalek brought back to life and a deceased Doctor that appears out of nowhere.

As mentioned before, this is quite a complicated story, but that is to be expected when dealing with time travel, and good use is made of this complicated plot. The story isn’t told in a straight line, and manages to keep itself interesting through being unpredictable, and frightening in its unpredictability. River Song in the exploding Tardis caught in a timeloop is especially distressing to watch, even if one knows it’ll be resolved.

There is more to this episode than fear and frights though, in fact, this episode pretty much has everything one could ask. There’s humour, sadness, thrills and a little bit of romance. When the Doctor has to keep going back in time to make sure all the pieces fall into place, it’s hilariously awkward, and there are some rather amusing changes in the alternate universe created, including a clever reference to Richard Dawkins. The relationship between Rory and Amy is both impressive and believable, especially through how the now-artificial Rory guards Amy in the Pandorica.

The story is, of course, aided by some truly spectacular performances. Matt Smith is once again a blast to watch as the Doctor, and from an entire season of stellar performances, it is now safe to say that he can now proudly stand beside David Tennant and Tom Baker as one of the greatest actors to play the iconic science-fiction role. He may have his more humorous and human side, but still is a master strategist and is more than ready to save the world. Karen Gillan also proves herself a worthy companion, shown from her relationships with the Doctor and Rory. She deeply loves and cares for these two people, and they help make her what she is, but she’s still a fascinating character on her own. Arthur Darvill and Alex Kingston are also enjoyable as Rory and River Song, respectively, and all the cast succeed at creating characters the viewer would want to see time and time again.

It is really hard to find words to say how successful this episode was, as it would be better for the viewers to find out for themselves the wonder of this story. It’s a true treat for all fans of Doctor Who, and just a plain good experience.

Reviewed by Gareth Barsby June 2010

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