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|image = [[file:TeBigBangTeam.png|265px]]
|image                 = Big-bang.jpg
|story name = The Big Bang
|series               = [[Doctor Who television stories|''Doctor Who'' television stories]]
|series = [[Doctor Who]] - [[List of Doctor Who television stories|Television stories]]
|season number         = Series 5 (Doctor Who 2005)
|number = [[Series 5 (Doctor Who)|Series 5]]
|series episode number = 13
|story number = 212b
|story number         = 212b
|doctor = [[Eleventh Doctor]]
|scripturl            = https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/documents/doctor-who-5-episode-13-the-big-bang-pink-revisions-18012010.pdf
|companions = <ul><li>[[Amy Pond]] (resurrected)</li><li>[[River Song]] (guest)</li><li>[[Rory Williams (Auton)|Auton Rory]]/[[Rory Williams]] (resurrected, rejoins)
|doctor                = Eleventh Doctor
|enemy = <ul><li>[[Time Field]]</li><li>[[Stone Dalek]]
|companions           = [[Amy Pond|Amy]], [[River Song|River]], [[Rory Williams (Auton)|Rory]]
|setting = <ul><li>[[Stonehenge]], [[Early human history|102 AD]] </li><li>[[Leadworth]], [[26th June]] [[2010]] </li><li>[[Leadworth]], [[Easter]] [[1996]]</li><li>[[National Museum]], [[London]], [[1996]]</li><li>[[Aickman Road]], [[2010]]</li><li>[[Byzantium (ship)|The Byzantium]], [[51st century]]|undefined|undefined|undefined
|featuring            = [[Sharon (The Big Bang)|Sharon]]
|writer = [[Steven Moffat]]
|enemy                 = [[The Silence]]
|director = [[Toby Haynes]]
|setting               = [[London]], [[Starless world|Starless World]], [[1996]]
|producer = [[Peter Bennett]]
|writer               = Steven Moffat
|confidential=[[Out of Time (Doctor Who Confidential episode)|Out of Time]]
|director             = [[Toby Haynes]]
|broadcast date = 26th June [[2010]]
|producer             = [[Peter Bennett]]
|format = 1 55-minute episode
|confidential         = Out of Time (CON episode)|Out of Time
|production code = 1.13
|broadcast date       = 26 June 2010
|previous story = [[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]
|network              = BBC One
|next story = [[A Christmas Carol (TV story)|A Christmas Carol]]}}
|format               = 1x55 minute episode<br/>Part 2 of 2
{{semi-protect}}
|production code       = 1.13
:''For the event known as the Big Bang, see [[Event One]]''.
|prev                  = The Pandorica Opens (TV story)
'''''The Big Bang''''' was the thirteenth episode of [[Series 5 (Doctor Who)|Series 5]], and concluded the story that began in ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]''.
|next                 = A Christmas Carol (TV story)
|clip                  = {{uc:Doctor Who clip}} 13
|clip2                = The second Big Bang - Doctor Who - BBC
}}{{you may|Big Bang|Event One|Big Bang Two|n1=the concept of a Big Bang|n2=the specific Big Bang that started off the Doctor's universe|n3=the universal reboot triggered by the ''Pandorica''}}
'''''The Big Bang''''' was the thirteenth and final episode of [[Series 5 (Doctor Who 2005)|series 5]] of ''[[Doctor Who]]''.
 
It concluded many aspects of the story begun in ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]'' — most obviously by marrying Amy and Rory and by seemingly closing the [[Time Field|cracks in time]] — but it left the audience wondering what "[[the Silence]]" was and why it wanted [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] to explode.
 
The series 5 finale kickstarted several overarching stories that would foreshadow major conflicts yet to ensnare [[the Doctor]]. While the identity of the Silence was a major topic explored in [[series 6 (Doctor Who 2005)|series 6]], the question of why they wanted to blow the TARDIS up remained what the Eleventh Doctor called "a good question for another day" until the 2013 Christmas Special ''[[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|The Time of the Doctor]]'' answered it, while the mention of "[[Foretold|an Egyptian goddess]] loose on the [[Orient Express (spacecraft)|Orient Express in space]]" at the episode's end would later be picked up again in the [[Series 8 (Doctor Who 2005)|series 8]] episode ''[[Mummy on the Orient Express (TV story)|Mummy on the Orient Express]]''.
 
''The Big Bang'' had an impact upon ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]'' as well, allowing it to, at least in [[Russell T Davies]]' mind, escape the confines of [[Cardiff]]. He said that closing the [[Time Field|cracks in time]] also resulted in the closing of the [[Cardiff Rift]].<ref>Berriman. Ian. "RTD on Torchwood". ''SFX'' #199. July 2010.</ref> Although Davies did not explicitly make this point in his subsequent ''[[Torchwood: Miracle Day]]'' scripts, neither did he allow the Rift to be central to that series, as it had been to previous ''Torchwood'' outings.
 
It was the final story for [[production designer]] [[Ed Thomas]].
 
In February 2013, Steven Moffat revealed that ''The Big Bang'' was likely his personal favourite of all the ''Doctor Who'' scripts he had written. He further revealed that the title was deliberate [[sex]]ual innuendo, and referred to what happened just ''after'' the credits rolled. Though contemporary ''Bang'' viewers wouldn't have known it, [[TV]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]'' would later explain that River Song was conceived within minutes of the conclusion of the episode. Moffat therefore claimed that the story had "a filthy joke in the title only I knew about at the time".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7VQrnMzjrU|title=Gallifrey One 2013 - Steven Moffat interview |author=[[Ed Stradling]]|date of source=20 February 2013|website name=YouTube|accessdate=20 February 2013}}</ref>


== Synopsis ==
== Synopsis ==
The Doctor is trapped in the [[Pandorica]], the [[The Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] has been destroyed, and silence has fallen. The only hope for all reality is a little girl who still believes in stars.
[[Pandorica Alliance|The Alliance]] has trapped the [[Eleventh Doctor]] in the [[Pandorica]], [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] has exploded with [[River Song|River]] inside, [[Rory Williams (Auton)|Rory]] has shot [[Amy Pond|Amy]] and the [[Time Field|cracks]] have swallowed everything but the [[Earth]] and [[Moon]].
 
The fate of all existence lies in the hands of a little girl who still believes in stars.
 
== Plot ==
In [[1996]], [[Amelia Pond]] sits in her bedroom, praying to [[Santa Claus]] for help mending the crack in her bedroom wall. Believing she has heard something in her garden, she runs to her window. The garden is empty. Later, she gives a drawing she has done of the night sky — complete with stars and the moon — to her [[psychiatrist]], [[Christine (The Big Bang)|Christine]]. Christine explains gently there are no stars. The night sky is empty save for [[the Moon]]. That night, Amelia overhears Christine and her [[Sharon (The Big Bang)|aunt]] talking about her. As she eavesdrops at the top of the stairs, she sees a pamphlet advertising the [[National Museum]] slipped through the letterbox by a [[Eleventh Doctor|familiar figure]] wearing a [[fez]]. He flees when she notices him. There is a circle drawn around a notice of the [[Pandorica]] exhibit and a note reading, "Come along, Pond".
 
Amelia and her aunt go to the museum. Amelia runs off and makes her way to the Pandorica exhibit, passing a variety of [[Stone Dalek|strange machines]] on display; other exhibits are quite wrong as well, such as penguins in the Arctic. Someone also steals her soda before she can notice who did it. At the exhibit, Amelia sees another note stuck to the face of the box. It reads, "Stick around, Pond". This prompts Amelia to hide out in the museum to find out who is leaving notes for her.
 
[[File:AmyInPandorica.jpg|thumb|left|The Pandorica opens, revealing Amy Pond.]]
After the museum's close — and Aunt Sharon's failure to find her — Amelia returns to the Pandorica and curiously sets a hand on it. Mechanisms on the face of the box glow green, scaring Amelia enough to make her back a few feet away. The Pandorica opens, but instead of the Doctor still being imprisoned inside, the occupant is instead Amelia's older self: Amy Pond. Noticing her younger self, Amy tells the confused Amelia, "Okay, kid, this is where it gets complicated..."
 
In [[102]] A.D. the Auton duplicate of [[Rory Williams]] cradles a dead Amy Pond, comforting himself by telling her how the universe ended; it would mean they never get born, twice in his case. Amy would laugh at that; he begs her to laugh. Suddenly, a [[fez]]-wearing [[Eleventh Doctor]] appears in front of them, holding a mop. He tries calming Rory by saying it is not the end of the world but then corrects himself by saying it's the end of the [[N-Space|universe]]. The Doctor vanishes and reappears without the mop. A confused Rory is instructed to free the Doctor from the Pandorica; the Doctor is already out. The Doctor explains that he ''is'' already out, but back then, which is the present for Rory, he is yet to escape. Giving Rory his [[the Doctor's sonic screwdriver|sonic screwdriver]], the Doctor wishes him luck and informs him to put the sonic in Amy's top pocket when he's done with it.
 
[[File:SonicScrewdriverDischarge_BigBang.jpg|thumb|The energy discharge that convinces the Doctor it is the same sonic screwdriver.]]
Rory follows the Doctor's instructions, opening the Pandorica with the sonic where the Doctor is revealed to still be trapped within. Exiting the prison, the Doctor [[deduce]]s he will set up the chain of events that lead to his release. Rory questions the Doctor about the stone remains of the Alliance. The Doctor explains that they are the after-images of the races that now never existed due to the destruction of the universe. The Doctor wonders where Amy is; Rory gives a remorseful look.
 
Showing Amy to the Doctor, Rory asks if there is anything he can do for her. The Doctor says he could if he had the time, angering Rory. The Doctor explains that all lifeforms except for them and humanity have been deleted from existence; "Your girlfriend isn't more important than the universe." Enraged, Rory punches the Doctor, knocking him down. The Doctor quickly pulls himself back up, laughing, and relocates his jaw, welcoming Rory back; he had to be sure Rory wasn't acting, but genuinely loved Amy like the original.
 
Putting Amy in the Pandorica, the Doctor explains that she is not an ordinary girl due to having the universe pouring through her dreams every night because of the crack in her wall, so when the Nestene took a memory print off Amy, they got a bit more than what they bargained for — Rory's soul inhabits his Auton replica. Sealing the Pandorica once more with Amy inside, the Doctor explains to Rory that it prevents people from dying as it's a form of escape; it can stasis-lock Amy in a near-death state until it gets an external sample of her [[DNA]] to revive her, which will take around 2000 years. Recovering [[River Song's vortex manipulator]] from the ground, the Doctor sets it for the future. Offering Rory a lift, the Doctor is bewildered when he decides to remain behind to guard the Pandorica. Despite the warning that he may go mad from never sleeping, Rory insists; the Doctor relents but warns him he isn't indestructible and gives him fair warning of all the things he knows can cause an Auton to be destroyed or become faulty before vanishing into the future.
 
[[File:AdultAmySizesChildAmy_BigBang.jpg|left|thumb|Adult Amy figures out what year it is.]]
In the museum, Amy compares Amelia's height to herself, Amy guesses its 1996. Sure of the year, Amy looks around the exhibit, paying no mind to the younger version of herself. She finds a video on "the Lone Centurion" — a man in Roman armour who protected the Pandorica wherever it went for 1839 years and prevented anyone from opening it. He was last seen in [[1941]], dragging the box away from a burning building; it is believed the Centurion died in the inferno as no body was recovered. Amy realises he was Rory, having retained her recovered memories of him, but there is no time for her to dwell on this. The restorative light from the Pandorica has reactivated a stone Dalek in the exhibition and it's heading straight for the Ponds.
 
The Doctor appears, having used the vortex manipulator to travel 1894 years into the future. The Dalek shoots at him and Amy, prompting them to take cover with young Amelia; they're trapped. A museum guard appears and the Dalek deems him unarmed. However, the guard uncaps his hand, revealing a laser gun to disable the Dalek. Amy rejoices when she sees that the guard is the Auton Rory. They kiss while the Doctor realises the "light" from the Pandorica revived the Dalek partially. He also takes a fez from a display, putting it on Amelia, who refuses it; the Doctor dons the hat himself. The Dalek begins coming back to life once more due to the Pandorica still being open.
 
The Doctor leads the group away from the Dalek, blocking the door with a mop to buy time. When Rory recognises his appearance, the Doctor establishes the timeline by travelling back to 102 A.D. and ordering that version of Rory to let him out of the Pandorica. He leaves the notes for Amelia, all of which led her here. The Doctor even fulfils Amelia's request for a drink while running around the timeline, snatching it from the earlier version of herself at the museum. A bewildered Amy wonders how the Doctor keeps vanishing, making him explain what the device on his wrist is: "cheap, and nasty time travel; it's bad for you. I'm trying to give it up."
 
[[File:EleventhDoctorWhispersToHimself_BigBang.jpg|thumb|The Eleventh Doctor whispers to himself.]]
As they head for the roof, another version of the Doctor appears at the top of the stairs, near-dead. He falls down the stairs and whispers in the younger Doctor's ear before dying. The Doctor announces he has only twelve minutes to live. Amy is confused, but Rory points out that they can't just leave his body there. Feeling challenged for who's in charge, the Doctor asks Rory what they're going to do about Amelia. They look back to see nothing but Amelia's spilt drink. The Doctor explains history is still collapsing, and now there was never any Amelia Pond, confusing Amy; how can she be there when her younger self isn't? The Doctor answers that they are just the last light to go out. They head for the roof. After they've left, the Dalek begins to restore itself.


==Plot==
On the building's roof, Rory and Amy are confused by the sudden daylight; the Doctor retorts that he already told them that the [[eye of the storm]] is closing up, so time is speeding up. Rory questions the Doctor as to why the TARDIS exploded; "Good question for [[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|another day]]." The Doctor then makes them think; the sun was erased with every other star in the universe, so what's burning in the sky? The Doctor picks up a satellite dish and sonics it, revealing the sound of the TARDIS. The object keeping the Earth warm and lit is [[The Doctor's TARDIS|his TARDIS]], exploding at every moment in history. Rory's Auton-enhanced hearing picks up a voice in the sky, which the Doctor amplifies with the dish. It's River Song's last words — "I'm sorry, my love" — repeated over and over. The TARDIS's emergency protocols have locked the console room in a [[time loop]] to save her life. The Doctor gives a smile to a shocked Amy and Rory.
In 1996, a young [[Amelia Pond]] has drawn a picture of the night sky, with the Moon and several stars. A psychiatrist called [[Christine]] explains to Amelia's aunt that there are no stars - the night sky is void of all light aside from the Moon. As they speak, a pamphlet advertising the National Museum comes through the letterbox, with a ring drawn around a cubic exhibit, and a note telling Amelia to be there. She goes along to the Gallery with her Aunt Sharon, where there are statues of strange machines on display. Amelia gets to the cube - the [[Pandorica]] - and finds another note. However, just before she finds it, her drink is snatched from her. The note says "Stick around, Pond".
[[file:AmyInPandorica.jpg|thumb|left|The Pandorica opens, revealing Amy Pond.]]
After the museum's close - and an unsuccessful attempt by Aunt Sharon to find her - Amelia returns to the Pandorica. She puts her hand on it, and the mechanisms on the faces of the cube light up bright green. The Pandorica opens - to reveal a grown Amy Pond. In 102 A.D. the [[Rory Williams (Auton)|Auton Rory]] has Amy Pond lying in his arms, dead. He is comforting himself by telling her stories, when [[the Doctor]] appears using a [[vortex manipulator]]. He explains that he needs Rory to help him to bring Amy back. He gives Rory his [[sonic screwdriver]] to open the Pandorica and asks him to put it in Amy's top pocket when he's done before disappearing.


Rory goes to the Pandorica and re-opens it. The Doctor inside the Pandorica is curious, and realises that it is the same screwdriver but from later in its timeline. He then has Amy put in the Pandorica, since it is a prison so secure not even death can be allowed as a means of escape. However, to heal Amy, an exterior DNA supply is needed, and one can only be supplied in 2000 years time. The Doctor picks up River's vortex manipulator from near the Pandorica and prepares for a quick jump to the future, inviting Rory to come with him. However, Rory decides to stay and protect the Pandorica. The Doctor warns Rory to avoid heat, radio waves and trouble as even though he is plastic, he is not invincible.
River is seen repeating her attempts to open the TARDIS doors three times, each time failing and saying she is sorry to the Doctor as the TARDIS begins exploding. On the fourth attempt, the Doctor appears via her vortex manipulator, saying he's home. River looks at her watch and gives an annoyed look; she's been aware of the time loop the entire time and has been waiting for him to come and get her. They travel back to the roof, the Doctor introducing River to Rory. River explains she has questions, but number one is, "What in the name of sanity do you have on your head?". The Doctor explains he wears fezzes now since they're cool; Amy removes it from his head and tosses it in the air, where River blasts it to pieces. However, the regenerated Dalek elevates onto the roof and shoots at the group. They retreat to the museum below.


In the Gallery, the older Amy watches a video exhibit on the Centurion - a man dressed in Roman clothes who followed the Pandorica wherever it went, protecting it; his last appearance was in 1941 when he was dragging it away from the crash site of an incendiary bomb. Meanwhile, the light from the Pandorica, a universal restorative field, has re-activated a [[Stone Dalek]] in the exhibition. Until touched by the light, the Dalek had been only an echo in time, as the end of the universe had caused everything to be erased, leaving stone forms around the Pandorica in 102. The Doctor appears, having used the vortex manipulator to return to 1996. A museum guard arrives, holding a torch, which the Dalek orders dropped. The Doctor explains it is not a weapon, and the Dalek can scan it. The guard appears unarmed, but then he raises his hand, which flips open to reveal a gun. He shoots the Dalek, temporarily deactivating it. The guard is actually the plastic Rory.
The Doctor runs through the museum, deducing that, along with the restoration field, the Pandorica contains a few billion atoms of the universe as it was, hence how the Dalek returned despite being erased from history. River tells him there's tiny fault of the Pandorica not being able to properly restore a single Dalek. The Doctor proposes getting the Pandorica to the exploding TARDIS, not only giving it unlimited power, but allowing it to scatter the atoms of the original universe throughout time and undo [[total event collapse]]. When asked how they can do this, the Doctor smug tells his friends to listen before turning to lead them back to the Pandorica; however, he is shot by the laser blast of the Dalek, which managed to locate them. The Dalek briefly powers down due to the amount of energy it expended, while the Doctor uses the manipulator to vanish into the past. Amy and Rory head back to his body, while River stays behind. As River is an associate of the Doctor's, the Dalek believes she will show mercy; she tells it her name and to look her up in [[Pathweb|its database,]] knowing one blast from her gun to its eyestalk will kill it. After seeing [[The Wedding of River Song (TV story)|its information on River Song]], the terrified Dalek begins begging for mercy.


The Doctor leads the troupe away from the Dalek and then, with Rory's guidance, restores the timeline, helping the Rory in 102. Amelia asks for a drink, so the Doctor once again uses the Manipulator to get the one she had had earlier. Then, another Doctor appears. He has been shot with an energy weapon. He whispers something into the earlier Doctor's ear, before closing his eyes. The Doctor says the his future self is dead. The Doctor seems to only have twelve minutes to live. Young Amelia has now disappeared. The universe is still collapsing and things are disappearing from existence, with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory being temporarily immune since they are anomalies in time from the "eye of the storm". The Dalek starts reactivating, and the trio flee to the roof.
Downstairs, Amy and Rory find The Doctor's corpse is not where they left it. River returns to remind them the Doctor lies, informing them the Dalek is dead as well. The Doctor had pretended to die to make them decoys to buy him time. They return to the exhibit and find the dying Doctor has strapped himself into the Pandorica. River realises he plans to use the vortex manipulator to fly the box into the heart of the TARDIS, exploding at every point in history. The explosion will release the atoms of the preserved universe, restoring it. River admits gravely that the plan will work only if the Doctor seals himself on the other side of the cracks. The entire universe will be restored, but not the Doctor. He will never have existed at all. However, all the good he has done for the universe until now will remain.


The Doctor finds that, with the loss of the Sun along with every other star in the universe, the object keeping the Earth warm is actually the exploding [[The Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]], which, due to the machine's nature, is simultaneously exploding at every moment in history. He uses a satellite dish to pick up [[River Song]]'s last utterance from the TARDIS, which is replayed over and over. The emergency program has locked the console room into a [[time loop]] to protect the occupant. The Doctor uses the vortex manipulator to rescue River and bring her back with him to the roof, but a new problem arrives - the stone Dalek has regenerated enough power to use its hover system.
[[File:Geronimo.jpg|thumb|The Doctor's message to the Ponds.]]
The Doctor and Amy say their goodbyes, and he admits that he took her with him because her life didn't make sense... living in a large house with only her aunt. He then asks Amy what happened to her parents, and she answers that she lost them but is alarmed when she cannot recall the specific details. He explains that they weren't killed when Amy was young, but consumed by the [[Time Field|time field]] in her bedroom wall which has been eating away at her whole life. He assures her that as long as she remembers her parents, she can bring them back like she did Rory and with her family around her she won't need her imaginary friend. He pilots the Pandorica into the explosion, texting River "Geronimo!" on the way, and resets the universe, disappearing from existence...


The quartet run back into the building, but the Dalek follows them and shoots the Doctor. He activates the vortex manipulator as he begins to fall. As River occupies the stone Dalek by making it beg for mercy, Amy and Rory return to the stairs where they had left the body.
...and sits up on the floor of the TARDIS console room. He rejoices he has survived being erased — until he sees Amy and himself from a week earlier, travelling to [[Space Florida]]; his timeline is unravelling, meaning, "Hello, universe, goodbye, Doctor." He calls over to Amy. She hears him, but cannot see him. His life rewinds further. He is in a street in [[Colchester]], watching Amy leave a note for him underneath [[Craig Owens|Craig]]'s advertisement for a new lodger. She still cannot see him. The Doctor notices a [[Time Field|crack]] in the road behind him, sealing itself.


The body is not there. Since the Dalek weapon did not have full power, the shooting of the Doctor had not been fatal. He had only ''pretended'' to die in front of Amy, Rory, and his own past self, as a distraction. River joins Amy and Rory, reporting that the Dalek died. The three go back to the Pandorica, where the Doctor is strapped in with the vortex manipulator wired into the prison's systems. He plans to pilot the Pandorica into the TARDIS explosion, which should reset the universe, since the Light of the Pandorica's restoration powers can be released at every point in history. However, the only way to make sure it will work will be for the Doctor to seal himself on the other side of the cracks; everything in the universe will be restored ''except'' the Doctor, who will never have existed at all.
He rewinds to the ''[[Byzantium (spacecraft)|Byzantium]]''; he approaches Amy — her eyes shut to avoid being killed by the [[Weeping Angel]] — and encourages her to remember what he told her when she was seven. He rewinds to 1996 and finds Amelia asleep in her back garden, awaiting his return. He carries her to bed and tells her the story of how he stole — or, rather, "borrowed" — the TARDIS, describing it as "ancient and new, and the bluest blue ever." He sees the crack in her wall and tells her it can't close properly until he's on the other side and steps through, preferring not to see the rest of his life rewind. The crack in her wall closes. She wakes to an empty room and quickly goes back to sleep.


He says goodbye to Amy, encouraging her to remember her parents, whom he reveals weren't killed when Amy was young, but erased from history by the crack in time in her wall. He then pilots the cube into the maelstrom, resetting the universe successfully, and ending up, much to his surprise, in the TARDIS, circa a week before, when he and Amy went to "Space Florida", complete with an earlier version of himself and Amy. He calls for Amy, but while she seems to hear him, she cannot see him. His life then rewinds to Amy putting up the sign in a window about [[The Lodger (TV story)|The Lodger]] lodging - Amy still cannot see him, and this time there is a crack in the road.
In [[2010]], Amy wakes on her wedding day, surprised when [[Tabetha Pond|her mother]] brings her breakfast. Her mother informs Amy she may toss the breakfast out the window as her father's a terrible cook. Amy races downstairs to see [[Augustus Pond|her father]], studying a joke book for his speech at the reception. Amy finds her reaction to her parent as odd and she has the lingering feeling there is someone or something else missing. When she phones Rory to see if he feels the same way, he agrees with her because he loves and fears her. Excited, Amy gets ready for her wedding.


He then goes to the events that took place on-board the ''[[Byzantium (ship)|Byzantium]]'', where he tells Amy to remember what he told her when she was seven. He then rewinds to [[1996]], where seven-year-old Amelia is waiting for the TARDIS to reappear in her back garden. The Doctor takes her to bed, and tells her about himself while she sleeps. He tells her about how he stole (or rather, "borrowed") the TARDIS, and describes it romantically as "Ancient and new, and the bluest blue ever." He sees the crack in the wall, and says that it can't properly close until he steps through. He expresses his dislike toward his current rewinding through his life, and, through a few nearly silent tears, says he'll probably skip the rest. As the crack in Amelia's wall closes, the Doctor walks into the light and disappears.
At the reception, she enjoys listening to her mother whisper insults about her father or giggles that her father is taking time to correct his speech. Amy then spots River Song outside, walking past the window. Rory presents her with a wedding gift someone has left — [[River Song's diary|River's blue TARDIS diary]], all its pages now blank. Amy begins to cry, wondering why she is sad. Rory tries to explain away the diary by reminding her of the old wedding saying: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue." She notices some of the guests at the other tables; a bow tie and braces catch her attention just as a tear hits River's diary.


In 2010, Amy wakes up to [[Tabetha Pond|her mother]] bringing in breakfast which [[Augustus Pond|her father]] has made for her. That strikes her as odd in some way she can't quite understand. She feels and acts as though she's not seen her parents before, but cannot explain why. She realises today is the day of her wedding to [[Rory Williams|Rory]], but feels as if there is something in her head, something important, that she should remember but can't. She phones Rory and asks him a series of questions to see if he is in the same state, to which he answers "Yep," in the process confirming that he is just saying that.
Amy interrupts her father's speech to announce that her imaginary childhood friend, "the raggedy Doctor," is real and he is late for her wedding. Her mother and aunt sigh, remembering how many psychiatrists they sent her to. Amy continues yelling that she brought everyone else back from the time field, so she can for him as well, which is why he told her that story when she was little, about the ancient, brand new box. The TARDIS — old and new, borrowed and blue — materialises in the middle of the room. Amy walks up to the TARDIS and asks the Doctor if she's "...surprised him this time." The Doctor steps out in a top hat and full evening dress, admitting that he is completely astonished. Everyone at the wedding is shocked to discover that the Doctor wasn't a figment of Amy's imagination, while Rory now remembers everything that happened to him and doesn't understand how he could have forgotten, especially being nearly 2000 years old. The Doctor introduces himself to the crowd; no doubt Amy's parents are feeling like apologising for not believing Amy.


At the reception, she starts to remember. She sees River Song walking down the road outside the windows after delivering her wedding gift: a blue book, River's [[River Song's diary|diary]] - but the pages are all blank. This troubles Amy greatly. She sees a wedding guest straightening his bow tie, another with suspenders, and she begins to cry from sadness, even though she should be happy. Rory attempts to explain away the book with "the thing they say you should have at weddings". This train of thought leads Amy to a realization, as she finally realises why the book is so familiar; the cover design - eight square panels - is the same as that on the TARDIS exterior. As her father starts his speech, she tells him to shut up, and announces that her imaginary friend from her youth, the "raggedy Doctor" was real. She is greeted by awkward silence, with Amy's mum muttering "Not this again..." under her breath. She screams out at the Doctor, laughing at how he hid his memories in words, how the TARDIS fits the old expression for the perfect wedding gifts: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue..." As she cries out for the Doctor, telling him he is late for the wedding, a strange wind picks up and an alien noise fills the room. The TARDIS materialises, fully real, old and new, borrowed and blue, in the middle of the floor.
Amy imitates part of the wedding ceremony, telling him he can kiss her. However, the Doctor stops Amy, informing her the brand new Mr Pond will be taking care of the "kissing duties" from now on. Annoyed, and thinking the Doctor doesn't understand earth customs well, Rory tries explaining that marrying Amy gives her his last name, but relents when the Doctor says his version is correct. The Doctor says he'll move the TARDIS as they're gonna need the space for dancing, which is why he came. When everyone starts dancing, the Doctor does so badly, making Amy giggle ("You're terrible! That is embarrassing!" she shrieks) and amusing the children present; he even tries teaching them his moves. Later, watching Amy and Rory slow dance, the Doctor notes to himself that Rory is 'the boy who waited' and, after guarding her for two thousand years, deserves his happiness.


As Rory begins to remember, wondering how he forgot, Amy opens the door, asking if she finally surprised the Doctor. He comes out wearing tails and a top hat; "Yes. Completely astonished."
The Doctor leaves to return to the TARDIS, now parked in Amy's garden. River Song appears behind him. He returns her vortex manipulator and her diary, explaining that the writing has come back, but he didn't peek ahead. As River thanks him, the Doctor asks if she's married herself. She wonders if he is asking, and he says, "Yes," then stammers when he realises he accidentally proposed to her. River teases him with further affirmations. The Doctor wonders who she really is. She says he will find out [[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|very soon when everything changes]]. She leaves abruptly via her vortex manipulator.
[[file:Yes.png|thumb|River tells the Doctor a clue to her identity, a deadly warning for who she is.]]
At the reception, the Doctor dances manically, until the slow-dancing song, at which he stands aside. He returns to the TARDIS, which is now in Amy's garden. River Song appears and asks the Doctor if he danced, commenting that he "always dances at weddings." After retorting with "you tell me" the Doctor returns River's diary and vortex manipulator to her (mentioning that as the Universe has returned to normal the writing in the diary is back, but he didn't peek - something she thanks him for) and asks her if she is married, to which River replies "are you asking?" The Doctor says "yes" and then, realising he has unwittingly proposed to her, asks her to clarify her answer - specifically, was she affirming that she was married or accepting a proposal from him? After River teases him with further "yes"s the Doctor asks her who she really is, to which she replies "you're going to find out very soon now, and I'm sorry but that's when everything changes," before leaving via vortex manipulator.


Amy and Rory come to the TARDIS, encouraging the Doctor to "take the night off". However, the Doctor is still concerned as to why the TARDIS exploded - something led it to that date and deliberately destroyed it. He is also still unaware of the meaning of the "silence". As he ponders, he receives a phone call: an Egyptian goddess seems to have escaped onto the Orient Express in outer space, somewhat concerning the royal who is on the other end of the line. As the Doctor finishes the call, Amy says her final goodbye, but not to the Doctor, nor to Rory. She waves farewell to her house and her previous life, closing the TARDIS door. The Doctor smiles and fires up the engines, sending the TARDIS spinning through the [[Time Vortex]].
[[File:AmySaysGoodbyeTBB.jpg|thumb|Amy says goodbye to her backyard before returning to her travels with the Doctor.]]
Exasperated, the Doctor enters the TARDIS, placing his scarf on a nearby lever. Amy enters, trying again to entice him into kissing her; Rory follows after her, annoyed she's still trying to kiss the Doctor. Rory reminds the Doctor that he just saved reality, so he should take the night off and relax. He is reluctant — they still do not know [[Kovarian|what]] led the TARDIS to the date of the temporal explosion and destroyed it, much less why. He also has not figured out the meaning of the "[[The Silence|silence]]." As he ponders, he takes a [[TARDIS phone]] call: an [[Egypt]]ian goddess is on the loose on the [[Orient Express (spacecraft)|Orient Express]] in space and [[Gus (Mummy on the Orient Express)|the being on the other end]] is concerned. The Doctor turns to bid Amy and Rory goodbye, but Amy runs to the door, bids her former life "''adieu"'' and closes the TARDIS doors. The Doctor smiles and fires up the engines, sending the TARDIS spinning through the [[time vortex]]...


==Cast==
== Cast ==
* [[Eleventh Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Matt Smith]]
* [[Eleventh Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Matt Smith]]
* [[Amy Pond]] - [[Karen Gillan]]
* [[Amy Pond]] - [[Karen Gillan]]
* [[Rory Williams]] / [[Rory Williams (Auton)|Auton Rory]] - [[Arthur Darvill]]
* [[River Song]] - [[Alex Kingston]]
* [[River Song]] - [[Alex Kingston]]
* Young Amelia Pond - [[Caitlin Blackwood]]
* [[Rory Williams|Rory]] - [[Arthur Darvill]]
* [[Sharon (The Big Bang)|Sharon]] - [[Susan Vidler]]
* [[Amy Pond|Amelia]] - [[Caitlin Blackwood]]
* [[Tabetha Pond]] - [[Karen Westwood]]
* [[Sharon (The Big Bang)|Aunt Sharon]] - [[Susan Vidler]]
* [[Augustus Pond]]- [[Halcro Johnston]]
* [[Christine (The Big Bang)|Christine]] - [[Frances Ashman]]
* [[Christine]] - [[Frances Ashman]]
* [[Stone Dalek]] - [[Barnaby Edwards]]
* [[Dalek Operator]] - [[Barnaby Edwards]]
* [[Dave (The Big Bang)|Dave]] - [[William Pretsell]]
* [[Dalek]] - [[Nicholas Briggs]] (Voice)
* [[Augustus Pond|Mr Pond]] - [[Halcro Johnston]]
* [[Tabetha Pond|Tabetha]] - [[Karen Westwood]]
* [[Dalek|Dalek voice]] - [[Nicholas Briggs]]
 
=== Uncredited cast ===
* Museum visitor - [[Jon Davey]]<ref>http://www.jondavey.com/acting.php</ref>


==Production crew==
== Crew ==
''to be added''
{{wales crew
|1stAD=Marcus Catlin
|2ndAD=James DeHaviland
|3rdAD=Heddi-Joy Taylor-Welch
|AD=
|AD2=
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|ProductionAssistant=
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|ProductionSecretary=
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|ContractsAssistant=
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|Gaffer=Mark Hutchings
|BestBoy=Pete Chester
|Electrician=Ben Griffiths
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|Electrician3=Bob Milton
|Electrician4=Alan Tippets
|StuntCoOrdinator=Crispin Layfield
|StuntCoOrdinator2=
|Choreographer=
|Wires=
|Stunt=
|Stunt2=
|Stunt3=
|Stunt4=
|Stunt5=
|Stunt6=
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|SFXCoOrdinator=
|SFXSupervisor=
|SFXSupervisor2=
|SFXTechnician=
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|OnSetProstheticsSupervisor=
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|ProstheticMakeUpArtist=
|DubbingMixer=Tim Ricketts
|DialogueEditor=
|SupervisingSoundEditor=
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|SoundEffectsEditor=Paul Jeffries
|ModelUnitSupervisor=
|ModelUnitDOP=
|ModelUnit=
|ModelMaker=
|FoleyEditor=
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|Colourist2=
|SeniorVFXArtist=
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|3DArtist3=Wayde Duncan-Smith
|3DArtist4=Nick Webber
|3DArtist5=Andy Guest
|3DArtist6=Ruth Bailey
|3DArtist7=Serena Cacciato
|3DArtist8=Dominic Alderson
|3DArtist9=Nick Bell
|3DArtist10=
|3DArtist11=
|3DArtist12=
|3DArtist13=
|3DArtist14=
|3DArtist15=
|2DSupervisor=Izzy Barber
|2DArtist=
|2DArtist2=
|2DArtist3=
|2DArtist4=
|2DArtist5=
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|2DArtist7=
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|2DArtist10=
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|Compositor2=James Etherington
|Compositor3=Joe Courtis
|Compositor4=Arianna Lago
|Compositor5=Bryan Bartlett
|Compositor6=Sara Bennett
|Compositor7=James Moxon
|Compositor8=Lyndall Spagnoletti
|Compositor9=Graine Freeman
|Compositor10=Tim Barter
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|Thanks=
|Thanks2=
|ConductedAndOrchestratedBy=Ben Foster
|Vocals=
|CounterTenor=
|RecordedBy=Gerry O'Riordan
|MixedBy=Jake Jackson
|CrouchEnd=
|FromIdeaBy=
|Character1=Dalek{{!}}Daleks
|CharCreatedBy1a=Terry Nation
|CharCreatedBy1b=
|Character2=
|CharCreatedBy2a=
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|Character3=
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|CharCreatedBy3b=
|OriginalTheme=Ron Grainer
|CastingDirector=Andy Pryor CDG
|CastingDirector2=
|ProductionExec=Julie Scott
|SeniorProductionAccountant=
|ProductionAccountant=Ceri Tothill
|SoundRecordist=Bryn Thomas
|CostumeDesigner=Ray Holman
|Make-upDesigner=Barbara Southcott
|VisualEffects=
|SpecialEffects=Real SFX
|Prosthetics=Millennium FX
|Music=Murray Gold
|Music2=
|Editor=Mat Newman
|ProductionDesigner=Edward Thomas
|ProductionDesigner2=
|DOP=Stephan Pehrsson
|LineProducer=Patrick Schweitzer
|AssociateProducer=
|CoProducer=
|Writer=Steven Moffat
|Writer2=|Producer=Peter Bennett
|Producer2=
|Director=Toby Haynes
|ExecutiveProd=Steven Moffat
|ExecutiveProd2=Piers Wenger
|ExecutiveProd3=Beth Willis
|DedicatedTo=<!--This exact credit never actually used as of April 2010; left for future use-->
|InMemoryOf=
|Note=This story had no direct [[Visual Effects]] credit, which means that it unusually didn't credit [[The Mill]]. Instead, the roll credited many more workers from The Mill than usual, and even changed [[Will Cohen]]'s normal title to the grander, "[[Executive Visual FX Producer]]".
}}


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
===[[:Category:Individuals|Individuals]]===
=== Cultural references from the real world ===
*River Song mentioned she once went out with a [[Nestene]] [[Auton|duplicate]] who had swappable heads.
* Prominent scientist [[Richard Dawkins (in-universe)|Richard Dawkins]] is mentioned as involved in a "[[Star Cult]]" which believes stars are real in the timeline created by the Alliance's actions.
* The Doctor dances to "[[Crazy Little Thing Called Love]]" by British rock band [[Queen (band)|Queen]].


===[[:Category:Objects|Objects]]===
=== The Doctor ===
*The Doctor wears a [[Fez]] during the episode. He believes "fezzes are cool", similar to his belief that "bow ties are cool". He seems to think this about a lot of unusual articles of clothing, part of his slight cheekiness.
* The Doctor tells the sleeping Amelia that he stole/borrowed [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]].
*The fez may have also been a small nod to [[DW]]: ''[[Silver Nemesis]]'', wherein the [[Seventh Doctor]] briefly wore a fez while going through the storage room at Windsor Castle.
* The Doctor briefly sees the [[Saturnyn]]s, [[Weeping Angel]]s, [[Silurian]]s, [[Dalek]]s, the [[Star whale (The Beast Below)|star whale]], [[Craig Owens]], [[Vincent Van Gogh]], Dr [[Henry Black]], some [[Smiler]]s, and a [[Supreme Dalek (New Dalek Paradigm)|Supreme Dalek]] during his re-wind.


==Story notes==
=== Individuals ===
*This is the first episode in the entire history of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' where the current Doctor has ''interacted'' with a version of himself in the same incarnation.
* [[River Song]] claims she once went out with a [[Nestene]] [[Auton|duplicate]] who had swappable heads. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Suspicious Minds (short story)|Suspicious Minds]]'')
*This episode was incorrectly entitled '''Cyber War''' and '''Enemies of a Time Lord'''.{{fact}}
* [[Rory Williams]] says he remembers being [[Rory Williams (Auton)|an Auton]]. He would later compare his Auton memories to a door in his head; he could open it when he wanted to, but tended to keep it shut. ([[TV]]: ''[[Day of the Moon (TV story)|Day of the Moon]]'') Having spent two millennia guarding the [[Pandorica]], Rory became a very effective warrior, as shown in ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]''.
*Both the date of the in-universe 'unidentified explosion' and the real-world date of broadcast was 26/06/2010.
* [[Tabetha Pond]] mentions taking [[Amy Pond|Amy]] to psychiatrists about her "imaginary friend".
**This is the second of only three times in the revived series this has occurred, the others being [[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'' on April 23, 2011 and [[DW]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'' on December 25, 2009.
 
*The Pandorica and a Stone Dalek appeared in the museum that Amelia visited.
=== Objects ===
*Rory and Amy get married in this story, and continue their travels in [[the TARDIS]]. This marks the first occasion a married couple have been [[companion]]s.
* The Doctor wears a [[fez]] during the episode. He believes "fezzes are cool". Neither Amy nor River are impressed - Amy grabs it and throws it in the air, and River destroys it with her blaster.
*This is the first time a BBC Wales finale does not feature the departure of a main character. However, it does result in a ''change'' of cast, in that Rory, who had previously been a recurring character who had ostensibly died, becomes a full-time companion in the final scene.
** The fez has become a popular part of the Eleventh Doctor's outfit - at the 2010 ''Doctor Who at the Proms'', for example, the TV version opens with a shot of Prince Albert's bust wearing a fez.
*Amy is the first new series companion since [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] to travel with the Doctor through a whole season, and to continue doing so after the finale.
 
*The museum included a number of anomalies as a result of the altered timeline, including [[penguin]]s in the [[Nile]], [[Egyptian]]s in the [[Himalayas]], and [[dinosaur]]s in ice.
=== Theories and concepts ===
*This is the first finale of the BBC Wales series that didn't feature [[David Tennant]]; the first since ''[[The Parting of the Ways]]'' not to feature [[Freema Agyeman]]; and the first with no reference to the [[Torchwood Institute]] whatsoever. It is also one of only two finales not to include [[John Barrowman]].
* There is a small explosion when the Doctor taps the two versions of his sonic screwdriver together. It is possible to read this as an expression of the [[Blinovitch Limitation Effect]], though this term is never used in the episode. Moreover, no such explosion occurs when both Amy and the Doctor touch their younger selves. No explanation for the discrepancy was provided by the script. (It is possible that the collapsing of the universe would allow this the closer to the end it got).
*Prominent scientist [[Richard Dawkins]] is mentioned as being involved in a "[[Star Cult]]" which believes stars are real. Dawkins is a self-professed fan of ''Doctor Who'', and is married to former star, [[Lalla Ward]], to whom he was introduced by his friend and former writer of the series, the late [[Douglas Adams]]. This was the second consecutive series finale to reference Dawkins, the first of which he appears in cameo.
 
*The music playing to which the Doctor briefly dances is ''Crazy Little Thing Called Love'' by the British rock band [[Queen]].
=== Influences ===
*According to the DVD commentary, [[director]] [[Toby Haynes]] continued to use [[playback (terminology)|playback]] while recording this episode, just as he had for ''The Pandorica Opens''. In particular, it was used with [[Caitlin Blackwood]]'s solo scenes in the museum.
 
*River's main costume in this story was deliberately designed to evoke both [[starwars:Princess Leia|Princess Leia]] and [[starwars:Han Solo|Han Solo]], so that she looked like, according to Toby Haynes, a "female Han Solo". ([[DCOM]]: ''The Big Bang'')
* River's main costume in this story was designed deliberately to evoke both [[Leia (fictional character)|Princess Leia]] and [[Han Solo]], so that she looked like, according to [[Toby Haynes]], a "female Han Solo". ([[DCOM]]: ''The Big Bang'')
*According to Toby Haynes, this episode had no bigger budget, "and maybe even a little less", than other episodes in the series. ([[DCOM]]: ''The Big Bang'')
* The opening sequence featuring young Amelia is filmed from her height, and was inspired by [[Steven Spielberg]] films in which people would look at things in awe.
 
== Story notes ==
* The broadcast and narrative dates were the same: [[26 June (releases)|26]]/[[June|06]]/2010. This is one of only four times in the revived series in which the date of broadcast and narrative date are the same. The others are [[TV]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)|The Impossible Astronaut]]'' on [[22 April]] [[2011]], part one of [[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'' on [[25 December]] [[2009]], and [[TV]]: ''[[Resolution (TV story)|Resolution]]'' on [[1 January]] [[2019]].
* This was the first [[BBC Wales]] finale which featured neither [[David Tennant]] nor the departure of a main character.
* According to the DVD commentary, [[Director (crew)|director]] [[Toby Haynes]] continued to use [[playback]] while recording this episode, just as he had for ''The Pandorica Opens''. In particular, it was used with [[Caitlin Blackwood]]'s solo scenes in the museum.
* According to [[Toby Haynes]], this episode had no bigger budget "and maybe even a little less" than other episodes in the series. ([[DCOM]]: ''The Big Bang'')
* According to the episode commentary, [[Karen Gillan]] was genuinely laughing at [[Matt Smith]]'s dancing at the reception scene.
* [[Alex Kingston]] was having trouble walking in heels during the scene where River gets her diary back from the Doctor; due to the ground being too soft after rainfall. So they avoided long-range shots, allowing Alex to wear practical footwear. She can subtly be seen sinking down after walking up [[Matt Smith]].
* The closing credits play over a textless version of the opening title sequence rather than the usual closing title sequence.
* In the script it was written that the Doctor was a "terrible dancer" and danced like a "drunk giraffe", and [[Matt Smith]] additionally came up with his own routine.
* [[Steven Moffat]] named this episode as his personal favourite among the episodes he wrote. "I thought it was just a great, fun, funny, witty episode. I was proud of that."
* The opening sequence featuring young Amelia is filmed from her height, and was inspired by Steven Spielberg films in which people would look at things in awe.
* Originally there was a scene after the four had been reunited in the museum where Amy had a "meltdown" and Rory assured her it was okay; this was cut due to pacing issues, which pleased [[Arthur Darvill]] as he disliked his performance in the scene.
* [[Steven Moffat]] was inspired to use the idea of a character travelling backwards along his own timeline from ''[[The Making of Doctor Who]]''.
* A stunt performer for [[Matt Smith]] performed the sequence in which a future version of the Doctor who had been shot by a Dalek fell down the museum stairs three times before [[Toby Haynes]] captured the angles and shots he wanted. On the DVD commentary, Haynes stated that the shot in the episode is mostly the first take.
* During the cold open, Amelia overhears her aunt Sharon expressing concern that Amelia will join a "star cult", saying that she "doesn't trust that [[Richard Dawkins (in-universe)|Richard Dawkins]]." In real life Dawkins was actually married to [[Lalla Ward]].
* [[Karen Gillan]] revealed in the episode's commentary that during Amy and the Doctor's farewell scene, before he leaves in the Pandorica, she actually turned the sonic screwdriver on by accident. This can be seen in the finished episode.
* [[Karen Gillan]] found wearing the dress strange, while [[Arthur Darvill]] felt as if he was gate-crashing someone else's wedding, as he did not know any of the extras there.
* This is the first time a season finale does not feature a change of cast since [[Season 25 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 25]]'s [[TV]]: ''[[The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (TV story)|The Greatest Show in the Galaxy]]'': both the Doctor and this season's companions stay on at the end.
* [[Steven Moffat]] had suggested that [[Matt Smith]] wear a fez in this episode to give the Doctor some character, as well as for comic relief. Others on the production staff, who had seen Smith's enthusiasm for costume items for the Doctor, were concerned that the fez might become a permanent part of the Doctor's wardrobe. Moffat had, however, already written the fez-destruction scene (in which, in one fluid movement, Amy throws the fez in the air and River shoots it) with this in mind. [[Piers Wenger]] said that Smith is one of the few people who could pull off a fez.
* [[Steven Moffat]] stated that the title is his favourite dirty joke in the series as it is a reference to the fact that Amy and Rory conceive their child on the TARDIS that night, as revealed in ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]''.
* [[Karen Gillan]] stated that the episode was the "most difficult" for her, as it was "a big climax for Amy and her story that's been building through the series...it just required a lot of kind of concentration and emotion." In [[August]] [[2011]], she stated that the Doctor and Amy's farewell was the most emotional scene for her to film.
* [[Toby Haynes]] wanted to first show the revelation that the TARDIS would appear at the reception in a small way with minor changes such as the glasses tinkling and chandelier shaking, and build it up from there.
* When Amy meets her younger self, she lifts up the girl's hair on either side of her head in what seems to be an odd gesture. She's checking to see if her younger self has had her ears pierced yet, which would be a good way of determining her age.
* The bride figurine on the wedding cake has red hair, and both the bride and groom figurines are wearing the same outfits as Amy and Rory.
* During the scene in which the Doctor and Rory are talking after Rory has let him out of the Pandorica, one of the stone Daleks was originally supposed to move, operated by [[Toby Haynes]] himself. However, the scene was cut from the final episode.
* This two-parter was originally meant to form Block Seven of season five. However, it became clear that this would give The Mill insufficient time to complete their contributions to what would no doubt be an ambitious pair of episodes, so it formed Block Six. [[Steven Moffat]] lost two weeks' writing time as a result.
* [[Steven Moffat]] wanted to exploit chronology  by having the Doctor use time travel to manipulate the course of events more explicitly than had previously been depicted. To this end, he incorporated the complex sequence in which the Doctor hopped back and forth through time in order to save Amy and then gain access to the Pandorica. Moffat acknowledged that this kind of paradoxical business could undermine the drama, but he felt that the story's cataclysmic stakes warranted the Doctor breaking the rules by which he normally lived.
* A late addition to the finale was the stone Dalek, which [[Steven Moffat]] devised after realising that the script lacked an imminent, tangible threat.
* To help viewers navigate the complexities of the Doctor's time-bending, [[Steven Moffat]] included the elements of the fez and the mop, which would serve as visual clues.
* The two stone Daleks were modified versions of the blue and orange Paradigm Dalek casings created for ''[[Victory of the Daleks (TV story)|Victory of the Daleks]].''
* [[Steven Moffat]] thought that Amy would want a big wedding with a lot of dancing. In the script it was written that the Doctor was a "terrible dancer" and danced like a "drunk giraffe", and [[Matt Smith]] additionally came up with his own routine.
* According to [[Toby Haynes]], [[Matt Smith]] nailed the Doctor's goodbye to Amelia Pond on the first take. He repeatedly listened to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash Johnny Cash]'s rendition of "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_(Nine_Inch_Nails_song)#Johnny_Cash_version Hurt]" to put himself in the right frame of mind.
* The part of the museum where the future Doctor teleports in was previously used as part of [[Library]] in ''[[Silence in the Library (TV story)|Silence in the Library]]/[[Forest of the Dead (TV story)|Forest of the Dead]].''
* There was originally a shot of the village when Amy and Rory take off with the Doctor, which would have shown a family of ducks in the pond, as a bit of a nod to ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]'', where the Doctor notices the "duck pond" doesn't have any ducks, implying they were taken by a crack in time too, but have now been restored. The scene had to be relocated to Amy's garden.
* [[Karen Gillan]] described Rory's vigil for Amy as the "ultimate romantic gesture" which showed how much he loved Amy, and was where Amy realised how much she loved him. [[Steven Moffat]] thought that standing guard for two thousand years would make up for shooting her.
* [[Steven Moffat]] had always intended for Amy and Rory to get married "from the off".
* [[Steven Moffat]] described the conclusion as the story of how Amy has been changed by the Doctor and the Doctor's success at restoring her spirit to the girl he first met, believing that a man could drop out of the sky and "fix everything". However, he did not return for her as he had promised and she grew believing that he was a liar and could not be trusted; Amy returns to her original belief when she stands up at her wedding and proclaims that the Doctor is real and that he will arrive.
* It was [[Toby Haynes]]' idea for the TARDIS to appear in the time vortex during the closing credits.
* The scenes in the TARDIS were the first material filmed for the episode.
* As the episode was filmed near the end of production of season five, it had a smaller effects budget than other episodes, but this was compensated with cinematic lighting.
* [[Toby Haynes]] wanted the museum to feel "massive and eerie", and coached [[Caitlin Blackwood]] to "live in the moment". 
* The museum set was filled with things that would seem like typical exhibits in the daytime, but appeared spooky at night. The exhibits also included historical anomalies which were the result of history collapsing, such as penguins on the Nile.
* Though [[Caitlin Blackwood]] appeared as the seven-year-old version of Amy in [[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|''The Eleventh Hour'']], the episode marked the first time she acted alongside her cousin [[Karen Gillan]]. Gillan initially found this "weird", but she commented that they quickly got used to it.
* The two versions of Amy were purposely dressed in similar colours.
* As the production had run out of time filming in the museum, all of the shots looking into the Pandorica were filmed three weeks later in the Pandorica chamber set.
* After seeing the rushes, [[Steven Moffat]] ordered the scene where Amy tells her younger self that this is where it gets complicated to be reshot, as [[Karen Gillan]] had said "really complicated", which conveyed a different meaning.
* The scene in which the Doctor gives a final speech to young Amelia was not filmed with [[Matt Smith]] and [[Caitlin Blackwood]] on the same set. Smith's dialogue was shot first in the bedroom set, while the corner with the bed was recreated and filmed with Blackwood as a pick-up. Blackwood fell asleep during filming.


=== Ratings ===
=== Ratings ===
*6.7 million.
* 6.7 million. (UK final)<ref>[http://guide.doctorwhonews.net/info.php?detail=ratings&type=date Doctor Who Ratings - UK final]</ref>
* This marked the first time in the new series that the final episode of the series did not get higher ratings than the penultimate episode of the series. This occurred in every series finale episode before this one, this would not occur again until [[Series 9 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 9]]'s ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'' in December 2015.


=== Rumours ===
=== Rumours ===
*A sinister voice declaring ''"silence will fall"'' in the previous episode ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'', led some fans to speculate that [[Omega]] or another rogue [[Time Lord]] would appear in this episode. ''While this wasn't the case and the ultimate identity of the sinister voice is unknown, [[Steven Moffat]] has suggested the mystery antagonist will play a key role in [[Series 6 (Doctor Who)|the next series.]]''
* The Internet Movie Database incorrectly stated that ''Doctor Who'' veteran actor [[Philip Madoc]] would guest star. ''He did not appear.''
*The Internet Movie Database incorrectly stated that Doctor Who veteran actor [[Philip Madoc]] would guest star. ''He did not appear.''


=== Filming locations ===
=== Filming locations ===
Miskin Manor - Cardiff
* Miskin Manor - Cardiff


=== Production errors ===
=== Production errors ===
{{Discontinuity}}
{{Discontinuity}}
*In the museum, when the trio see the "future" Doctor die, Amy walks up the stairs. The camera cuts to the Doctor, then back to Amy, when she walks up the stairs again. It was too quick for her to go back down the stairs.
* When Amy is praying as a child when the TARDIS should have crashed and she runs to the window you can see it crashed out of the window before she sees the shed.
*Also, when the Amy that has just came out of the [[Pandorica]] compares height to younger Amy and guesses the date, you can see a shadow back away from the side of the camera when it pans out.
* In the museum, when the trio see the "future" Doctor die, Amy walks up the stairs. The camera cuts to the Doctor, then back to Amy, when she walks up the stairs again. It was too quick for her to go back down the stairs.
*In the museum, the Doctor is talking but a shot of him turning around shows that his lips are not moving
* When the Amy that has just come out of the [[Pandorica]] compares height to younger Amy and guesses the date, you can see a shadow back away from the side of the camera when it pans out.
*The museum scenes are set in 1996, but when the Doctor and crew make it to the roof, you see the Gherkin in the skyline - a building that was built in the twenty-first century.
* In the museum, the Doctor is talking but a shot of him turning around shows that his lips are not moving.
*When the stone Dalek rises above the museum to exterminate the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song just after they have destroyed the fez, the Dalek is the Supreme Dalek, not the stone Dalek. This is corrected when the camera zooms into the Dalek which is then seen to be the stone Dalek.
* The museum scenes are set in 1996, but when the Doctor and crew make it to the roof, you see the Gherkin in the skyline - a building that was built in the twenty-first century.
* While travelling backwards, the Doctor is seen wearing the vortex manipulator in the TARDIS on the way to Space Florida. In the next scene, while telling Amy to remember, it is absent. It returns in the following scene when he picks up the younger Amy.
* In the museum, after the two Amys, the Doctor, and Rory escape the stone Dalek, we see the Doctor use the vortex manipulator to go back and talk to Rory, as seen at the beginning of the episode. The third time, in the wide shot of Rory and Amy, Amy's abdomen moves from the actress's breathing. During Rory's speech at the beginning of the episode, there is faint breathing heard during his dialogue, probably from Amy.
* Directly after the Stone Dalek shoots the Doctor, his clothes remain unscathed as he collapses, when they should appear frayed and scorched as they do in the closeup showing him collapsed on the floor of the museum. This exposes that [[Matt Smith]] is wearing two different versions of his costume- the normal attire and a battle-damaged replica- and switched clothes in between takes, which the special effects crew neglected to hide.
* In the scene where Rory opens the Pandorica with the sonic screwdriver, you can see he stops using it, however in the next shot, he is still using it.
* During the wedding, guests change places.
* In the same scene, Amy's father is NOT writing anything, let alone a speech as he claims.
* During the last scene, a crew member can be seen at various points. This crew member also wears glasses, and you can see the glasses reflecting under lights.
* Amy's wedding dress varies from the one seen in ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]''.
* Amy's room also varies from the one seen in ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]'' and ''[[Flesh and Stone (TV story)|Flesh and Stone]]''.
* The Dalek in the museum actually slides sideways when it halts.
* A crew member can be seen slightly in the dancing scene, amongst the wedding guests.


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
*The [[Blinovitch Limitation Effect]] occurs in a very small way when the Doctor taps the sonic screwdriver iterations together. It ''does not'' noticeably occur, however, when Amy and her past/alternate universe selves touch, nor when the two iterations of the Eleventh Doctor physically touch. The Doctor has previously been shown to have physical contact with himself without invoking the effect. Here, the entirety of space-time is collapsing, which appears to have reduced any energy output from the effect.
* When the Doctor winds back to the ''[[Byzantium (spacecraft)|Byzantium]]'' and encourages Amy to remember what he told her the night she waited he hadn't yet said anything to her yet. ([[TV]]: ''[[Flesh and Stone (TV story)|Flesh and Stone]]'') Knowing that his timeline was unraveling and that he'd get to speak with her that night he tries to get an older Amy to remember what he is ''planning'' to tell her.
*The Doctor tells young Amy while asleep that he stole/borrowed the TARDIS.
* Rory mentions how the Doctor told him the universe was "big and ridiculous...but sometimes there are miracles." ([[TV]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')
*Amy and Rory's bodies were rebooted along with the universe, but their minds are almost two thousand years old. However, Rory is the only one who actually experienced anything during the years with the Pandorica, as Amy was technically dead. It is clear that Rory at least vaguely recalls his time as an Auton.
* Rory says of the Doctor: "He was the stripper at my stag..." ([[TV]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice (TV story)|The Vampires of Venice]]'') and notes that "I was plastic!" ([[TV]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'') Rory later hinted in ''[[Day of the Moon (TV story)|Day of the Moon]]'' and elsewhere that he had a memory of [[Rory Williams (Auton)|his Auton duplicate's experiences]], but it was never made clear just how this was possible.
*Rory also mentions the Doctor as: "He was the stripper at my stag..." ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'')
* River mentions having dated a Nestene duplicate, possibly tying into her previous statement "I've dated androids. They're rubbish." ([[TV]]: ''[[Silence in the Library (TV story)|Silence in the Library]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[Suspicious Minds (short story)|Suspicious Minds]]'')
*The Doctor travels back through his time stream, visiting the events of [[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'', ''[[Flesh and Stone]]'' and ''[[The Lodger (TV story)|The Lodger]]''. Also seen are the events of ''[[Vincent and the Doctor]]'', ''[[Cold Blood]]'', ''[[The Hungry Earth]]'', ''[[Vampires of Venice]]'', ''[[Victory of the Daleks]]'' and ''[[The Beast Below]]''. It is implied that he would have continued travelling backwards through his entire life, with all of his former incarnations, but that he decided to stop the rewind early by walking into a crack in time.
* After this episode, Rory has lived more than twice as long as the Doctor, over 1800 years, compared to the Doctor's 900-plus years. This changes in Series 6 when the Doctor spends about two hundred years apparently trying to postpone his own death at [[Lake Silencio]], leaving him aged 1106. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)|The Impossible Astronaut]]'', ''[[The Wedding of River Song (TV story)|The Wedding of River Song]]'')
*The Doctor states that fezzes are cool, much in the same way he has said bow ties are cool throughout the series. ''This may also be a reference to the fact Matt Smith wanted the costume to develop, even saying he would like a hat.'' ([[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'', ''[[Amy's Choice]]'', ''[[Vincent and the Doctor]]'')
* The Doctor travels back through his time stream, visiting the events of [[TV]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]'', ''[[Flesh and Stone (TV story)|Flesh and Stone]]'' and ''[[The Lodger (TV story)|The Lodger]]''. Also seen are the events of ''[[Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)|Vincent and the Doctor]]'', ''[[Cold Blood (TV story)|Cold Blood]]'', ''[[The Hungry Earth (TV story)|The Hungry Earth]]'', ''[[The Vampires of Venice (TV story)|The VampirEs of Venice]]'', ''[[Victory of the Daleks (TV story)|Victory of the Daleks]]'' and ''[[The Beast Below (TV story)|The Beast Below]]''. It is implied that he would have continued travelling backwards through his entire life, with all of his former incarnations, but he decided to stop the rewind early by walking into a crack in time.
*The Doctor sends a message to River Song saying "Geronimo", a catchphrase often repeated by the Eleventh Doctor. (''[[DW]]'': ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'' et al)
* The Doctor says "fezzes are cool", echoing the "bow ties are cool" mantra that surrounds the Eleventh Doctor. He also sends the one-word text message, "Geronimo", another catchphrase of this incarnation. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Beast Below (TV story)|The Beast Below]]'')
*The Doctor previously has been involved in the weddings of companions [[Sarah Jane Smith]] ([[SJA]]: ''[[The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith]])'' and [[Donna Noble]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Runaway Bride]]'', ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'')
* The Doctor has worn [[fez]]zes in other incarnations. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game (comic story)|Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game]]'', [[TV]]: ''[[Silver Nemesis (TV story)|Silver Nemesis]]'')
*This is the second time that the Doctor has been seen to (willingly) dance. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Doctor Dances]]'')
* The Eleventh Doctor ponders his life and how it was like a story, hoping Amy Pond would "make it a good one" when speaking about him. The [[Tenth Doctor]] said similar remarks to a dying [[Hame]] ([[WC]]: ''[[The Secret of Novice Hame (webcast)|The Secret of Novice Hame]]'') while on his [[Farewell tour|goodbye tour]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'')
*This is the third time that the Doctor has been shot by a Dalek. ([[DW]]: ''[[Planet of the Daleks]]'', [[DW]]: ''[[The Stolen Earth]]'').
* The Doctor has been involved in the weddings of companions [[Sarah Jane Smith]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)|The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith]])'' and [[Donna Noble]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Runaway Bride (TV story)|The Runaway Bride]]'', ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'')
*The Doctor briefly sees the [[Saturnynian]]s, [[Weeping Angel]]s, [[Silurian]]s, [[Dalek]]s, the [[Star Whale]], [[Craig Owens]], [[Vincent Van Gogh]], Dr. [[Black]], some [[Smiler]]s and a [[Supreme Dalek (Victory of the Daleks)|Supreme Dalek]] during his re-wind.
* Another Moffat script, ''[[The Doctor Dances (TV story)|The Doctor Dances]]'', suggests — and even demonstrates — that the [[Ninth Doctor]] is a capable dancer, this episode proves that the Eleventh Doctor is either deliberately, or actually, uncoordinated. Other Doctors have occasionally displayed a talent for dancing, such as when the [[Sixth Doctor]], through a bit of "timey-wimey-ness", taught himself how to [[waltz]] and [[foxtrot]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Teach Yourself Ballroom Dancing (short story)|Teach Yourself Ballroom Dancing]]'') Likewise, the [[Fifth Doctor]] once claimed to know how to [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]] but refused to do so. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Primeval (audio story)|Primeval]]'')
*Tabetha mentions taking Amy to psychiatrists about her 'imaginary friend'.
* This is the third time a Dalek has been put on display in a museum. An empty Dalek casing was on display in the [[Space Museum]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Space Museum (TV story)|The Space Museum]]'') and one Dalek was kept in [[the Cage]] in [[Henry van Statten|van Statten's]] underground museum. ([[TV]]: ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'')
*This is the third time a Dalek has been put on display in a museum. An empty Dalek casing was on display in the [[Space Museum]] ([[DW]]: ''[[The Space Museum]]'') and one Dalek was kept in [[The Cage]] in [[Henry van Statten|van Statten's]] underground museum ([[DW]]: ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'')
* The Doctor has previously been shot and mortally wounded by a Dalek [[gunstick]] before, however, this time the shot fully connected rather than grazing him. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Stolen Earth (TV story)|The Stolen Earth]]'')
*Early in the episode, Amy's aunt states that she does not trust [[Richard Dawkins]] (who appeared as himself in [[DW]]: ''[[The Stolen Earth]]'') due to his support for the existence of stars.
* Early in the episode, Amy's aunt stated that she didn't trust "that [[Richard Dawkins (in-universe)|Richard Dawkins]]" because he was trying to get people to believe that somehow the stars had disappeared. In the shrinking universe, just as in the normal one, Dawkins is portrayed as a scientific rationalist opposing majority views. Dawkins is seen in the "normal" DWU in ''[[The Stolen Earth (TV story)|The Stolen Earth]]'', also explaining an altered firmament. On that occasion, he was seen on television addressing the sudden appearance of multiple planets in the sky, stating (correctly) that they had not come to Earth, but Earth to them.
*The Doctor last wore a Fez in his [[Eighth Doctor|Eighth Incarnation]]. ([[DWM]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game]]'')
* The Doctor says, "Gotcha", to Amy, which was uttered by both aboard the [[Starship UK]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Beast Below (TV story)|The Beast Below]]'')
*The Doctor says "Gotcha" to Amy, a phrase which was uttered by both aboard the [[Starship UK]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Beast Below]]'')
* On this occasion, the younger Amy meets a future version of herself. The older Amy would go on to have similar experiences. ([[TV]]: ''[[Space (TV story)|Space]]'', ''[[Time (TV story)|Time]]'', ''[[The Girl Who Waited (TV story)|The Girl Who Waited]]'')
*According to Russell T. Davies, closing the [[Time Field|cracks in time]] resulted also in the closing of the [[Cardiff Rift]].[http://tardisspoilers.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-torchwood-updates.html]
* The Doctor mentions "the footprints of the Neverwere" which may have been a reference to the Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. ([[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'')
* The Doctor's called for help on the [[TARDIS phone]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Beast Below (TV story)|The Beast Below]]'')
* A renegade chapter of [[the Church]] led by [[Madame Kovarian]] was later uncovered as the group who interfered with the TARDIS and made it explode. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|The Time of the Doctor]]'')
* Just after the Doctor triggered the [[Big Bang Two]], he wakes up in the TARDIS and says "Legs. Good." This echoes his first words in [[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]''.
* The Doctor, Amy and Rory apparently take off to go after an Egyptian goddess on the [[Orient Express (spacecraft)|Orient Express]] in space. The [[Twelfth Doctor]] and [[Clara Oswald]] later visit the same train and the Doctor mentions this. He indicates that it was another trap by [[Gus (Mummy on the Orient Express)|Gus]] to get him on board and as such, they may have never actually made the trip. ([[TV]]: ''[[Mummy on the Orient Express (TV story)|Mummy on the Orient Express]]'')
* The Doctor has previously interacted with another version of his current incarnation when two versions of the [[Sixth Doctor]] were tricked into materialising in a duplicate of [[Pease Pottage]] outside of Time ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Wrong Doctors (audio story)|The Wrong Doctors]]'') and when the [[Eighth Doctor]] confronted [[Grandfather Paradox]], a version of the Eighth Doctor from a timeline where he was corrupted by the [[Faction Paradox]] [[biodata]] virus. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Ancestor Cell (novel)|The Ancestor Cell]]'')
* The Doctor leaves a written message for Amelia that says, "Come along, Pond" and later tells Amy and Rory to: "Come along, Ponds." ([[TV]]: ''[[Victory of the Daleks (TV story)|Victory of the Daleks]]'')
* The Doctor previously rebooted the universe in his [[Seventh Doctor|seventh incarnation]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Two Masters (audio story)|The Two Masters]]'')
* Rory and Amy finally get married in this story and continue their travels in [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]]. This marks the first occasion a married couple have been [[companion]]s.
* The museum includes anomalies as a result of the altered timeline, including [[penguin]]s in the [[Nile]], [[Egypt]]ians in the [[Himalayas]] and [[dinosaur]]s in ice.
* While in the rewind the Doctor says "I can buy a fez", later she will receive fez via teleport delivery. ([[TV]]: ''[[Kerblam! (TV story)|Kerblam!]]'')
* Amy would later express confusion over remembering two versions of her life before and after the Big Bang Two to the Doctor. ([[HOMEVID]]: ''[[Good Night (home video)|Good Night]]'')
* The Doctor tells Rory, that, as an Auton, he can be damaged from [[radio]] signals. This fact was first theorised by [[Lieutenant|Lt]] [[David Judd]] in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Operation Mannequin (short story)|Operation Mannequin]]''.


==Timeline==
== Home video releases ==
[[File:Series-5-volume-4-dvd-cover.jpg|thumb|Series 5 Volume 4 DVD Cover]]


*DW: ''[[The Big Bang]]'' takes place after DW: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'' for River Song, but she  is conceived between the end of the episode and DW: ''[[A Christmas Carol]]''.
=== DVD & Blu-ray releases ===


==Home video releases==
* Series 5, Volume Four was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in region 2/B on [[6 September (releases)|6 September]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]] and region 4/B on [[7 October (releases)|7 October]] 2010. The volume features ''Vincent and the Doctor'', ''The Lodger'', ''The Pandorica Opens'' and ''The Big Bang'', and the featurette ''The Monster Diaries''.
[[File:Series-5-volume-4-dvd-cover.jpg|thumb]]
* The episode was later released in the Complete Fifth Series boxset on both DVD and Blu-ray, in region 1/A on [[9 November (releases)|9 November]] 2010, in region 2/B on [[8 November (releases)|8 November]] 2010 and in region 4/B on [[2 December (releases)|2 December]] 2010.
[[BBC Video]] - "Doctor Who Series Five - Volume Four" features ''[[Vincent and the Doctor]]'', ''[[The Lodger (TV story)|The Lodger]]'', ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'' and ''The Big Bang''. It was released on 6th September 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray see picture below.<ref>DWM 421, Page 18</ref>
* A DVD-only release of Series 5, Part Two, containing the latter seven episodes of the series, was released in region 1 on [[26 July (releases)|26 July]] [[2016 (releases)|2016]].
It was released on a full series box set on 8th November 2010 but as two sets. One is a limited edition steelbook and the other one is a Lenticular Sleeve.


==See also==
=== Digital releases ===
''to be added''


==External links==
* In the United Kingdom, this story is available on [[BBC iPlayer]].
''to be added''


==Footnotes==
== Footnotes ==
<references/>
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
{{dwrefguide|who_tv56.htm|The Big Bang}}
{{DWTV}}
{{DWTV}}
{{Auton stories}}
{{Dalek stories}}
{{Dalek stories}}
{{Auton stories}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Bang, The}}


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[[Category:Dalek television stories]]
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[[Category:Stories set in the 51st century]]
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Latest revision as of 17:49, 3 November 2024

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The Big Bang was the thirteenth and final episode of series 5 of Doctor Who.

It concluded many aspects of the story begun in The Eleventh Hour — most obviously by marrying Amy and Rory and by seemingly closing the cracks in time — but it left the audience wondering what "the Silence" was and why it wanted the TARDIS to explode.

The series 5 finale kickstarted several overarching stories that would foreshadow major conflicts yet to ensnare the Doctor. While the identity of the Silence was a major topic explored in series 6, the question of why they wanted to blow the TARDIS up remained what the Eleventh Doctor called "a good question for another day" until the 2013 Christmas Special The Time of the Doctor answered it, while the mention of "an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express in space" at the episode's end would later be picked up again in the series 8 episode Mummy on the Orient Express.

The Big Bang had an impact upon Torchwood as well, allowing it to, at least in Russell T Davies' mind, escape the confines of Cardiff. He said that closing the cracks in time also resulted in the closing of the Cardiff Rift.[1] Although Davies did not explicitly make this point in his subsequent Torchwood: Miracle Day scripts, neither did he allow the Rift to be central to that series, as it had been to previous Torchwood outings.

It was the final story for production designer Ed Thomas.

In February 2013, Steven Moffat revealed that The Big Bang was likely his personal favourite of all the Doctor Who scripts he had written. He further revealed that the title was deliberate sexual innuendo, and referred to what happened just after the credits rolled. Though contemporary Bang viewers wouldn't have known it, TV: A Good Man Goes to War would later explain that River Song was conceived within minutes of the conclusion of the episode. Moffat therefore claimed that the story had "a filthy joke in the title only I knew about at the time".[2]

Synopsis[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Alliance has trapped the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica, the TARDIS has exploded with River inside, Rory has shot Amy and the cracks have swallowed everything but the Earth and Moon.

The fate of all existence lies in the hands of a little girl who still believes in stars.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

In 1996, Amelia Pond sits in her bedroom, praying to Santa Claus for help mending the crack in her bedroom wall. Believing she has heard something in her garden, she runs to her window. The garden is empty. Later, she gives a drawing she has done of the night sky — complete with stars and the moon — to her psychiatrist, Christine. Christine explains gently there are no stars. The night sky is empty save for the Moon. That night, Amelia overhears Christine and her aunt talking about her. As she eavesdrops at the top of the stairs, she sees a pamphlet advertising the National Museum slipped through the letterbox by a familiar figure wearing a fez. He flees when she notices him. There is a circle drawn around a notice of the Pandorica exhibit and a note reading, "Come along, Pond".

Amelia and her aunt go to the museum. Amelia runs off and makes her way to the Pandorica exhibit, passing a variety of strange machines on display; other exhibits are quite wrong as well, such as penguins in the Arctic. Someone also steals her soda before she can notice who did it. At the exhibit, Amelia sees another note stuck to the face of the box. It reads, "Stick around, Pond". This prompts Amelia to hide out in the museum to find out who is leaving notes for her.

The Pandorica opens, revealing Amy Pond.

After the museum's close — and Aunt Sharon's failure to find her — Amelia returns to the Pandorica and curiously sets a hand on it. Mechanisms on the face of the box glow green, scaring Amelia enough to make her back a few feet away. The Pandorica opens, but instead of the Doctor still being imprisoned inside, the occupant is instead Amelia's older self: Amy Pond. Noticing her younger self, Amy tells the confused Amelia, "Okay, kid, this is where it gets complicated..."

In 102 A.D. the Auton duplicate of Rory Williams cradles a dead Amy Pond, comforting himself by telling her how the universe ended; it would mean they never get born, twice in his case. Amy would laugh at that; he begs her to laugh. Suddenly, a fez-wearing Eleventh Doctor appears in front of them, holding a mop. He tries calming Rory by saying it is not the end of the world but then corrects himself by saying it's the end of the universe. The Doctor vanishes and reappears without the mop. A confused Rory is instructed to free the Doctor from the Pandorica; the Doctor is already out. The Doctor explains that he is already out, but back then, which is the present for Rory, he is yet to escape. Giving Rory his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor wishes him luck and informs him to put the sonic in Amy's top pocket when he's done with it.

The energy discharge that convinces the Doctor it is the same sonic screwdriver.

Rory follows the Doctor's instructions, opening the Pandorica with the sonic where the Doctor is revealed to still be trapped within. Exiting the prison, the Doctor deduces he will set up the chain of events that lead to his release. Rory questions the Doctor about the stone remains of the Alliance. The Doctor explains that they are the after-images of the races that now never existed due to the destruction of the universe. The Doctor wonders where Amy is; Rory gives a remorseful look.

Showing Amy to the Doctor, Rory asks if there is anything he can do for her. The Doctor says he could if he had the time, angering Rory. The Doctor explains that all lifeforms except for them and humanity have been deleted from existence; "Your girlfriend isn't more important than the universe." Enraged, Rory punches the Doctor, knocking him down. The Doctor quickly pulls himself back up, laughing, and relocates his jaw, welcoming Rory back; he had to be sure Rory wasn't acting, but genuinely loved Amy like the original.

Putting Amy in the Pandorica, the Doctor explains that she is not an ordinary girl due to having the universe pouring through her dreams every night because of the crack in her wall, so when the Nestene took a memory print off Amy, they got a bit more than what they bargained for — Rory's soul inhabits his Auton replica. Sealing the Pandorica once more with Amy inside, the Doctor explains to Rory that it prevents people from dying as it's a form of escape; it can stasis-lock Amy in a near-death state until it gets an external sample of her DNA to revive her, which will take around 2000 years. Recovering River Song's vortex manipulator from the ground, the Doctor sets it for the future. Offering Rory a lift, the Doctor is bewildered when he decides to remain behind to guard the Pandorica. Despite the warning that he may go mad from never sleeping, Rory insists; the Doctor relents but warns him he isn't indestructible and gives him fair warning of all the things he knows can cause an Auton to be destroyed or become faulty before vanishing into the future.

Adult Amy figures out what year it is.

In the museum, Amy compares Amelia's height to herself, Amy guesses its 1996. Sure of the year, Amy looks around the exhibit, paying no mind to the younger version of herself. She finds a video on "the Lone Centurion" — a man in Roman armour who protected the Pandorica wherever it went for 1839 years and prevented anyone from opening it. He was last seen in 1941, dragging the box away from a burning building; it is believed the Centurion died in the inferno as no body was recovered. Amy realises he was Rory, having retained her recovered memories of him, but there is no time for her to dwell on this. The restorative light from the Pandorica has reactivated a stone Dalek in the exhibition and it's heading straight for the Ponds.

The Doctor appears, having used the vortex manipulator to travel 1894 years into the future. The Dalek shoots at him and Amy, prompting them to take cover with young Amelia; they're trapped. A museum guard appears and the Dalek deems him unarmed. However, the guard uncaps his hand, revealing a laser gun to disable the Dalek. Amy rejoices when she sees that the guard is the Auton Rory. They kiss while the Doctor realises the "light" from the Pandorica revived the Dalek partially. He also takes a fez from a display, putting it on Amelia, who refuses it; the Doctor dons the hat himself. The Dalek begins coming back to life once more due to the Pandorica still being open.

The Doctor leads the group away from the Dalek, blocking the door with a mop to buy time. When Rory recognises his appearance, the Doctor establishes the timeline by travelling back to 102 A.D. and ordering that version of Rory to let him out of the Pandorica. He leaves the notes for Amelia, all of which led her here. The Doctor even fulfils Amelia's request for a drink while running around the timeline, snatching it from the earlier version of herself at the museum. A bewildered Amy wonders how the Doctor keeps vanishing, making him explain what the device on his wrist is: "cheap, and nasty time travel; it's bad for you. I'm trying to give it up."

The Eleventh Doctor whispers to himself.

As they head for the roof, another version of the Doctor appears at the top of the stairs, near-dead. He falls down the stairs and whispers in the younger Doctor's ear before dying. The Doctor announces he has only twelve minutes to live. Amy is confused, but Rory points out that they can't just leave his body there. Feeling challenged for who's in charge, the Doctor asks Rory what they're going to do about Amelia. They look back to see nothing but Amelia's spilt drink. The Doctor explains history is still collapsing, and now there was never any Amelia Pond, confusing Amy; how can she be there when her younger self isn't? The Doctor answers that they are just the last light to go out. They head for the roof. After they've left, the Dalek begins to restore itself.

On the building's roof, Rory and Amy are confused by the sudden daylight; the Doctor retorts that he already told them that the eye of the storm is closing up, so time is speeding up. Rory questions the Doctor as to why the TARDIS exploded; "Good question for another day." The Doctor then makes them think; the sun was erased with every other star in the universe, so what's burning in the sky? The Doctor picks up a satellite dish and sonics it, revealing the sound of the TARDIS. The object keeping the Earth warm and lit is his TARDIS, exploding at every moment in history. Rory's Auton-enhanced hearing picks up a voice in the sky, which the Doctor amplifies with the dish. It's River Song's last words — "I'm sorry, my love" — repeated over and over. The TARDIS's emergency protocols have locked the console room in a time loop to save her life. The Doctor gives a smile to a shocked Amy and Rory.

River is seen repeating her attempts to open the TARDIS doors three times, each time failing and saying she is sorry to the Doctor as the TARDIS begins exploding. On the fourth attempt, the Doctor appears via her vortex manipulator, saying he's home. River looks at her watch and gives an annoyed look; she's been aware of the time loop the entire time and has been waiting for him to come and get her. They travel back to the roof, the Doctor introducing River to Rory. River explains she has questions, but number one is, "What in the name of sanity do you have on your head?". The Doctor explains he wears fezzes now since they're cool; Amy removes it from his head and tosses it in the air, where River blasts it to pieces. However, the regenerated Dalek elevates onto the roof and shoots at the group. They retreat to the museum below.

The Doctor runs through the museum, deducing that, along with the restoration field, the Pandorica contains a few billion atoms of the universe as it was, hence how the Dalek returned despite being erased from history. River tells him there's tiny fault of the Pandorica not being able to properly restore a single Dalek. The Doctor proposes getting the Pandorica to the exploding TARDIS, not only giving it unlimited power, but allowing it to scatter the atoms of the original universe throughout time and undo total event collapse. When asked how they can do this, the Doctor smug tells his friends to listen before turning to lead them back to the Pandorica; however, he is shot by the laser blast of the Dalek, which managed to locate them. The Dalek briefly powers down due to the amount of energy it expended, while the Doctor uses the manipulator to vanish into the past. Amy and Rory head back to his body, while River stays behind. As River is an associate of the Doctor's, the Dalek believes she will show mercy; she tells it her name and to look her up in its database, knowing one blast from her gun to its eyestalk will kill it. After seeing its information on River Song, the terrified Dalek begins begging for mercy.

Downstairs, Amy and Rory find The Doctor's corpse is not where they left it. River returns to remind them the Doctor lies, informing them the Dalek is dead as well. The Doctor had pretended to die to make them decoys to buy him time. They return to the exhibit and find the dying Doctor has strapped himself into the Pandorica. River realises he plans to use the vortex manipulator to fly the box into the heart of the TARDIS, exploding at every point in history. The explosion will release the atoms of the preserved universe, restoring it. River admits gravely that the plan will work only if the Doctor seals himself on the other side of the cracks. The entire universe will be restored, but not the Doctor. He will never have existed at all. However, all the good he has done for the universe until now will remain.

The Doctor's message to the Ponds.

The Doctor and Amy say their goodbyes, and he admits that he took her with him because her life didn't make sense... living in a large house with only her aunt. He then asks Amy what happened to her parents, and she answers that she lost them but is alarmed when she cannot recall the specific details. He explains that they weren't killed when Amy was young, but consumed by the time field in her bedroom wall which has been eating away at her whole life. He assures her that as long as she remembers her parents, she can bring them back like she did Rory and with her family around her she won't need her imaginary friend. He pilots the Pandorica into the explosion, texting River "Geronimo!" on the way, and resets the universe, disappearing from existence...

...and sits up on the floor of the TARDIS console room. He rejoices he has survived being erased — until he sees Amy and himself from a week earlier, travelling to Space Florida; his timeline is unravelling, meaning, "Hello, universe, goodbye, Doctor." He calls over to Amy. She hears him, but cannot see him. His life rewinds further. He is in a street in Colchester, watching Amy leave a note for him underneath Craig's advertisement for a new lodger. She still cannot see him. The Doctor notices a crack in the road behind him, sealing itself.

He rewinds to the Byzantium; he approaches Amy — her eyes shut to avoid being killed by the Weeping Angel — and encourages her to remember what he told her when she was seven. He rewinds to 1996 and finds Amelia asleep in her back garden, awaiting his return. He carries her to bed and tells her the story of how he stole — or, rather, "borrowed" — the TARDIS, describing it as "ancient and new, and the bluest blue ever." He sees the crack in her wall and tells her it can't close properly until he's on the other side and steps through, preferring not to see the rest of his life rewind. The crack in her wall closes. She wakes to an empty room and quickly goes back to sleep.

In 2010, Amy wakes on her wedding day, surprised when her mother brings her breakfast. Her mother informs Amy she may toss the breakfast out the window as her father's a terrible cook. Amy races downstairs to see her father, studying a joke book for his speech at the reception. Amy finds her reaction to her parent as odd and she has the lingering feeling there is someone or something else missing. When she phones Rory to see if he feels the same way, he agrees with her because he loves and fears her. Excited, Amy gets ready for her wedding.

At the reception, she enjoys listening to her mother whisper insults about her father or giggles that her father is taking time to correct his speech. Amy then spots River Song outside, walking past the window. Rory presents her with a wedding gift someone has left — River's blue TARDIS diary, all its pages now blank. Amy begins to cry, wondering why she is sad. Rory tries to explain away the diary by reminding her of the old wedding saying: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue." She notices some of the guests at the other tables; a bow tie and braces catch her attention just as a tear hits River's diary.

Amy interrupts her father's speech to announce that her imaginary childhood friend, "the raggedy Doctor," is real and he is late for her wedding. Her mother and aunt sigh, remembering how many psychiatrists they sent her to. Amy continues yelling that she brought everyone else back from the time field, so she can for him as well, which is why he told her that story when she was little, about the ancient, brand new box. The TARDIS — old and new, borrowed and blue — materialises in the middle of the room. Amy walks up to the TARDIS and asks the Doctor if she's "...surprised him this time." The Doctor steps out in a top hat and full evening dress, admitting that he is completely astonished. Everyone at the wedding is shocked to discover that the Doctor wasn't a figment of Amy's imagination, while Rory now remembers everything that happened to him and doesn't understand how he could have forgotten, especially being nearly 2000 years old. The Doctor introduces himself to the crowd; no doubt Amy's parents are feeling like apologising for not believing Amy.

Amy imitates part of the wedding ceremony, telling him he can kiss her. However, the Doctor stops Amy, informing her the brand new Mr Pond will be taking care of the "kissing duties" from now on. Annoyed, and thinking the Doctor doesn't understand earth customs well, Rory tries explaining that marrying Amy gives her his last name, but relents when the Doctor says his version is correct. The Doctor says he'll move the TARDIS as they're gonna need the space for dancing, which is why he came. When everyone starts dancing, the Doctor does so badly, making Amy giggle ("You're terrible! That is embarrassing!" she shrieks) and amusing the children present; he even tries teaching them his moves. Later, watching Amy and Rory slow dance, the Doctor notes to himself that Rory is 'the boy who waited' and, after guarding her for two thousand years, deserves his happiness.

The Doctor leaves to return to the TARDIS, now parked in Amy's garden. River Song appears behind him. He returns her vortex manipulator and her diary, explaining that the writing has come back, but he didn't peek ahead. As River thanks him, the Doctor asks if she's married herself. She wonders if he is asking, and he says, "Yes," then stammers when he realises he accidentally proposed to her. River teases him with further affirmations. The Doctor wonders who she really is. She says he will find out very soon when everything changes. She leaves abruptly via her vortex manipulator.

Amy says goodbye to her backyard before returning to her travels with the Doctor.

Exasperated, the Doctor enters the TARDIS, placing his scarf on a nearby lever. Amy enters, trying again to entice him into kissing her; Rory follows after her, annoyed she's still trying to kiss the Doctor. Rory reminds the Doctor that he just saved reality, so he should take the night off and relax. He is reluctant — they still do not know what led the TARDIS to the date of the temporal explosion and destroyed it, much less why. He also has not figured out the meaning of the "silence." As he ponders, he takes a TARDIS phone call: an Egyptian goddess is on the loose on the Orient Express in space and the being on the other end is concerned. The Doctor turns to bid Amy and Rory goodbye, but Amy runs to the door, bids her former life "adieu" and closes the TARDIS doors. The Doctor smiles and fires up the engines, sending the TARDIS spinning through the time vortex...

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Uncredited cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
          

This story had no direct Visual Effects credit, which means that it unusually didn't credit The Mill. Instead, the roll credited many more workers from The Mill than usual, and even changed Will Cohen's normal title to the grander, "Executive Visual FX Producer".


Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cultural references from the real world[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Objects[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor wears a fez during the episode. He believes "fezzes are cool". Neither Amy nor River are impressed - Amy grabs it and throws it in the air, and River destroys it with her blaster.
    • The fez has become a popular part of the Eleventh Doctor's outfit - at the 2010 Doctor Who at the Proms, for example, the TV version opens with a shot of Prince Albert's bust wearing a fez.

Theories and concepts[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • There is a small explosion when the Doctor taps the two versions of his sonic screwdriver together. It is possible to read this as an expression of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, though this term is never used in the episode. Moreover, no such explosion occurs when both Amy and the Doctor touch their younger selves. No explanation for the discrepancy was provided by the script. (It is possible that the collapsing of the universe would allow this the closer to the end it got).

Influences[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • River's main costume in this story was designed deliberately to evoke both Princess Leia and Han Solo, so that she looked like, according to Toby Haynes, a "female Han Solo". (DCOM: The Big Bang)
  • The opening sequence featuring young Amelia is filmed from her height, and was inspired by Steven Spielberg films in which people would look at things in awe.

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The broadcast and narrative dates were the same: 26/06/2010. This is one of only four times in the revived series in which the date of broadcast and narrative date are the same. The others are TV: The Impossible Astronaut on 22 April 2011, part one of TV: The End of Time on 25 December 2009, and TV: Resolution on 1 January 2019.
  • This was the first BBC Wales finale which featured neither David Tennant nor the departure of a main character.
  • According to the DVD commentary, director Toby Haynes continued to use playback while recording this episode, just as he had for The Pandorica Opens. In particular, it was used with Caitlin Blackwood's solo scenes in the museum.
  • According to Toby Haynes, this episode had no bigger budget "and maybe even a little less" than other episodes in the series. (DCOM: The Big Bang)
  • According to the episode commentary, Karen Gillan was genuinely laughing at Matt Smith's dancing at the reception scene.
  • Alex Kingston was having trouble walking in heels during the scene where River gets her diary back from the Doctor; due to the ground being too soft after rainfall. So they avoided long-range shots, allowing Alex to wear practical footwear. She can subtly be seen sinking down after walking up Matt Smith.
  • The closing credits play over a textless version of the opening title sequence rather than the usual closing title sequence.
  • In the script it was written that the Doctor was a "terrible dancer" and danced like a "drunk giraffe", and Matt Smith additionally came up with his own routine.
  • Steven Moffat named this episode as his personal favourite among the episodes he wrote. "I thought it was just a great, fun, funny, witty episode. I was proud of that."
  • The opening sequence featuring young Amelia is filmed from her height, and was inspired by Steven Spielberg films in which people would look at things in awe.
  • Originally there was a scene after the four had been reunited in the museum where Amy had a "meltdown" and Rory assured her it was okay; this was cut due to pacing issues, which pleased Arthur Darvill as he disliked his performance in the scene.
  • Steven Moffat was inspired to use the idea of a character travelling backwards along his own timeline from The Making of Doctor Who.
  • A stunt performer for Matt Smith performed the sequence in which a future version of the Doctor who had been shot by a Dalek fell down the museum stairs three times before Toby Haynes captured the angles and shots he wanted. On the DVD commentary, Haynes stated that the shot in the episode is mostly the first take.
  • During the cold open, Amelia overhears her aunt Sharon expressing concern that Amelia will join a "star cult", saying that she "doesn't trust that Richard Dawkins." In real life Dawkins was actually married to Lalla Ward.
  • Karen Gillan revealed in the episode's commentary that during Amy and the Doctor's farewell scene, before he leaves in the Pandorica, she actually turned the sonic screwdriver on by accident. This can be seen in the finished episode.
  • Karen Gillan found wearing the dress strange, while Arthur Darvill felt as if he was gate-crashing someone else's wedding, as he did not know any of the extras there.
  • This is the first time a season finale does not feature a change of cast since Season 25's TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: both the Doctor and this season's companions stay on at the end.
  • Steven Moffat had suggested that Matt Smith wear a fez in this episode to give the Doctor some character, as well as for comic relief. Others on the production staff, who had seen Smith's enthusiasm for costume items for the Doctor, were concerned that the fez might become a permanent part of the Doctor's wardrobe. Moffat had, however, already written the fez-destruction scene (in which, in one fluid movement, Amy throws the fez in the air and River shoots it) with this in mind. Piers Wenger said that Smith is one of the few people who could pull off a fez.
  • Steven Moffat stated that the title is his favourite dirty joke in the series as it is a reference to the fact that Amy and Rory conceive their child on the TARDIS that night, as revealed in A Good Man Goes to War.
  • Karen Gillan stated that the episode was the "most difficult" for her, as it was "a big climax for Amy and her story that's been building through the series...it just required a lot of kind of concentration and emotion." In August 2011, she stated that the Doctor and Amy's farewell was the most emotional scene for her to film.
  • Toby Haynes wanted to first show the revelation that the TARDIS would appear at the reception in a small way with minor changes such as the glasses tinkling and chandelier shaking, and build it up from there.
  • When Amy meets her younger self, she lifts up the girl's hair on either side of her head in what seems to be an odd gesture. She's checking to see if her younger self has had her ears pierced yet, which would be a good way of determining her age.
  • The bride figurine on the wedding cake has red hair, and both the bride and groom figurines are wearing the same outfits as Amy and Rory.
  • During the scene in which the Doctor and Rory are talking after Rory has let him out of the Pandorica, one of the stone Daleks was originally supposed to move, operated by Toby Haynes himself. However, the scene was cut from the final episode.
  • This two-parter was originally meant to form Block Seven of season five. However, it became clear that this would give The Mill insufficient time to complete their contributions to what would no doubt be an ambitious pair of episodes, so it formed Block Six. Steven Moffat lost two weeks' writing time as a result.
  • Steven Moffat wanted to exploit chronology by having the Doctor use time travel to manipulate the course of events more explicitly than had previously been depicted. To this end, he incorporated the complex sequence in which the Doctor hopped back and forth through time in order to save Amy and then gain access to the Pandorica. Moffat acknowledged that this kind of paradoxical business could undermine the drama, but he felt that the story's cataclysmic stakes warranted the Doctor breaking the rules by which he normally lived.
  • A late addition to the finale was the stone Dalek, which Steven Moffat devised after realising that the script lacked an imminent, tangible threat.
  • To help viewers navigate the complexities of the Doctor's time-bending, Steven Moffat included the elements of the fez and the mop, which would serve as visual clues.
  • The two stone Daleks were modified versions of the blue and orange Paradigm Dalek casings created for Victory of the Daleks.
  • Steven Moffat thought that Amy would want a big wedding with a lot of dancing. In the script it was written that the Doctor was a "terrible dancer" and danced like a "drunk giraffe", and Matt Smith additionally came up with his own routine.
  • According to Toby Haynes, Matt Smith nailed the Doctor's goodbye to Amelia Pond on the first take. He repeatedly listened to Johnny Cash's rendition of "Hurt" to put himself in the right frame of mind.
  • The part of the museum where the future Doctor teleports in was previously used as part of Library in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.
  • There was originally a shot of the village when Amy and Rory take off with the Doctor, which would have shown a family of ducks in the pond, as a bit of a nod to The Eleventh Hour, where the Doctor notices the "duck pond" doesn't have any ducks, implying they were taken by a crack in time too, but have now been restored. The scene had to be relocated to Amy's garden.
  • Karen Gillan described Rory's vigil for Amy as the "ultimate romantic gesture" which showed how much he loved Amy, and was where Amy realised how much she loved him. Steven Moffat thought that standing guard for two thousand years would make up for shooting her.
  • Steven Moffat had always intended for Amy and Rory to get married "from the off".
  • Steven Moffat described the conclusion as the story of how Amy has been changed by the Doctor and the Doctor's success at restoring her spirit to the girl he first met, believing that a man could drop out of the sky and "fix everything". However, he did not return for her as he had promised and she grew believing that he was a liar and could not be trusted; Amy returns to her original belief when she stands up at her wedding and proclaims that the Doctor is real and that he will arrive.
  • It was Toby Haynes' idea for the TARDIS to appear in the time vortex during the closing credits.
  • The scenes in the TARDIS were the first material filmed for the episode.
  • As the episode was filmed near the end of production of season five, it had a smaller effects budget than other episodes, but this was compensated with cinematic lighting.
  • Toby Haynes wanted the museum to feel "massive and eerie", and coached Caitlin Blackwood to "live in the moment".
  • The museum set was filled with things that would seem like typical exhibits in the daytime, but appeared spooky at night. The exhibits also included historical anomalies which were the result of history collapsing, such as penguins on the Nile.
  • Though Caitlin Blackwood appeared as the seven-year-old version of Amy in The Eleventh Hour, the episode marked the first time she acted alongside her cousin Karen Gillan. Gillan initially found this "weird", but she commented that they quickly got used to it.
  • The two versions of Amy were purposely dressed in similar colours.
  • As the production had run out of time filming in the museum, all of the shots looking into the Pandorica were filmed three weeks later in the Pandorica chamber set.
  • After seeing the rushes, Steven Moffat ordered the scene where Amy tells her younger self that this is where it gets complicated to be reshot, as Karen Gillan had said "really complicated", which conveyed a different meaning.
  • The scene in which the Doctor gives a final speech to young Amelia was not filmed with Matt Smith and Caitlin Blackwood on the same set. Smith's dialogue was shot first in the bedroom set, while the corner with the bed was recreated and filmed with Blackwood as a pick-up. Blackwood fell asleep during filming.

Ratings[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • 6.7 million. (UK final)[4]
  • This marked the first time in the new series that the final episode of the series did not get higher ratings than the penultimate episode of the series. This occurred in every series finale episode before this one, this would not occur again until Series 9's Hell Bent in December 2015.

Rumours[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Internet Movie Database incorrectly stated that Doctor Who veteran actor Philip Madoc would guest star. He did not appear.

Filming locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Miskin Manor - Cardiff

Production errors[[edit] | [edit source]]

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • When Amy is praying as a child when the TARDIS should have crashed and she runs to the window you can see it crashed out of the window before she sees the shed.
  • In the museum, when the trio see the "future" Doctor die, Amy walks up the stairs. The camera cuts to the Doctor, then back to Amy, when she walks up the stairs again. It was too quick for her to go back down the stairs.
  • When the Amy that has just come out of the Pandorica compares height to younger Amy and guesses the date, you can see a shadow back away from the side of the camera when it pans out.
  • In the museum, the Doctor is talking but a shot of him turning around shows that his lips are not moving.
  • The museum scenes are set in 1996, but when the Doctor and crew make it to the roof, you see the Gherkin in the skyline - a building that was built in the twenty-first century.
  • While travelling backwards, the Doctor is seen wearing the vortex manipulator in the TARDIS on the way to Space Florida. In the next scene, while telling Amy to remember, it is absent. It returns in the following scene when he picks up the younger Amy.
  • In the museum, after the two Amys, the Doctor, and Rory escape the stone Dalek, we see the Doctor use the vortex manipulator to go back and talk to Rory, as seen at the beginning of the episode. The third time, in the wide shot of Rory and Amy, Amy's abdomen moves from the actress's breathing. During Rory's speech at the beginning of the episode, there is faint breathing heard during his dialogue, probably from Amy.
  • Directly after the Stone Dalek shoots the Doctor, his clothes remain unscathed as he collapses, when they should appear frayed and scorched as they do in the closeup showing him collapsed on the floor of the museum. This exposes that Matt Smith is wearing two different versions of his costume- the normal attire and a battle-damaged replica- and switched clothes in between takes, which the special effects crew neglected to hide.
  • In the scene where Rory opens the Pandorica with the sonic screwdriver, you can see he stops using it, however in the next shot, he is still using it.
  • During the wedding, guests change places.
  • In the same scene, Amy's father is NOT writing anything, let alone a speech as he claims.
  • During the last scene, a crew member can be seen at various points. This crew member also wears glasses, and you can see the glasses reflecting under lights.
  • Amy's wedding dress varies from the one seen in The Eleventh Hour.
  • Amy's room also varies from the one seen in The Eleventh Hour and Flesh and Stone.
  • The Dalek in the museum actually slides sideways when it halts.
  • A crew member can be seen slightly in the dancing scene, amongst the wedding guests.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Home video releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

Series 5 Volume 4 DVD Cover

DVD & Blu-ray releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Series 5, Volume Four was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in region 2/B on 6 September 2010 and region 4/B on 7 October 2010. The volume features Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang, and the featurette The Monster Diaries.
  • The episode was later released in the Complete Fifth Series boxset on both DVD and Blu-ray, in region 1/A on 9 November 2010, in region 2/B on 8 November 2010 and in region 4/B on 2 December 2010.
  • A DVD-only release of Series 5, Part Two, containing the latter seven episodes of the series, was released in region 1 on 26 July 2016.

Digital releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • In the United Kingdom, this story is available on BBC iPlayer.

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. Berriman. Ian. "RTD on Torchwood". SFX #199. July 2010.
  2. Ed Stradling (20 February 2013). Gallifrey One 2013 - Steven Moffat interview. YouTube. Retrieved on 20 February 2013.
  3. http://www.jondavey.com/acting.php
  4. Doctor Who Ratings - UK final

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]