The Pandorica Opens (TV story): Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 21:53, 7 July 2012

RealWorld.png

You may be looking for the painting of the same name.

The Pandorica Opens was the twelfth episode of series 5 of Doctor Who. It was the first of a two-part series finale. Its narrative concluded in the following episode.

At the time of its release, it was unique amongst BBC Wales series finales for a number of reasons. It was the first series-ender with significant principal photography outside Wales. It was also the first to have been the Doctor Who debut of its director and cinematographer. It was the first finale to have used major guest actors — aside from companions — who had featured in previous single episodes of the series. Finally, it featured the largest number of individual alien species seen in a single episode of Doctor Who since the programme began in 1963.

Synopsis

A Van Gogh painting ferried across thousands of years offering a terrifying prophecy, a message on the oldest cliff-face in the universe and a love that lasts a thousand years: in 102 AD England, Romans receive a surprise visit from Cleopatra. Nearby, Stonehenge hides a legendary prison-box. As it slowly unlocks from the inside, terrible forces gather in the heavens. The fates are closing around the TARDIS. The Pandorica, which contains the most dangerous threat in the Universe, is opening. Only one thing is certain: "The Pandorica will open... silence will fall".

Plot

France 1890: Vincent Van Gogh screams. Doctor Gachet, and his caretaker, Madame Vernet, are at his bedside. Vernet notes the painting displayed on a nearby easel is worse than his usual work.

Cabinet War Rooms 1941: Professor Edwin Bracewell carries a rolled-up canvas to Winston Churchill's office. Bracewell shows it to the Prime Minister and confirms it is a Van Gogh original. It is also a message of some sort and Churchill can see who it is for. The Prime Minister picks up his phone to make a call.

Stormcage Containment Facility 5145: A prison guard answers the phone outside River Song's cell. He says there is no "Doctor" in the facility. River demands to speak to the caller. She tells Churchill the TARDIS rerouted his phone call to the Doctor and demands his message. She returns the phone to the guard and asks if this is his first day. When he says it is, she apologises and kisses him. Her hallucinogenic lipstick makes him delirious and enables her escape.

River Song in the Maldovarium Bar

The Royal Collection 5145: River walks among the paintings in the gallery. She finds the one she is looking for, but trips an alarm on her way out and is held at gunpoint by Liz 10. River reminds her of her meeting with the Doctor and informs her she must pass on the message; to assure her of the gravity of the situation, River shows her the painting. The Queen is horrified.

The Maldovarium 5145: River speaks to Dorium Maldovar. He knows she is looking for time travel and offers her a vortex manipulator, taken from the wrist of a Time Agent. The device is not cheap. River offers him a Callisto Pulse, a device which can deactivate micro-explosives from up to twenty feet away. Dorium wonders why he'd need it. River informs him she has slipped micro-explosives into the wine he has just drunk.

The TARDIS travels through the time vortex. The Doctor has decided to visit the Universe's oldest cliff-face, made of pure diamond. He will use the TARDIS' translation matrix to crack an inscription that has never been translated. When Amy and he step out to see it, the message reads, "Hello, sweetie," with a set of temporal coordinates carved beneath.

Van Gogh's Painting

The coordinates lead them to Roman Britain in the 2nd century, where Amy comments that Roman history was her favourite topic at school. They are greeted by a Roman soldier with a lipstick smear across his mouth. He takes them to meet "Cleopatra." It is River in disguise, who shows them the painting, "The Pandorica Opens", of an exploding TARDIS. As he has already retrieved a TARDIS fragment from a Time Field in a Silurian city, this new find worries him greatly. He also recalls River allusion to the Pandorica opening in their last meeting on the Byzantium.

Convinced the two events are linked, he asks for maps of the area; if someone were to bury such a device, they would want to remember where they left it.

File:Pandorica.png
The Pandorica

The Doctor, Amy and River ride to Stonehenge to find the Pandorica. They trace it underground and descend, not noticing a Cyber-head, which begins to reactivate. They discover the Pandorica. The Doctor explains it was designed to hold the most dangerous creature in the galaxy. Amy notes the name's similarity to Pandora's box, her favourite childhood story. Scanning the Pandorica and the surrounding area, River finds its security failsafes activating and the box opening. Six pillars around the box are transmitting a signal across all space and time, bringing at least ten thousand ships into Earth's orbit. Every one belongs to the Doctor's enemies.

The Doctor sends River back to camp to appeal to the Roman commander for help. However, he has realised that she is not actually Cleopatra and refuses. River fires her disintegrater pistol to demonstrate her power. Before the commander can grasp the implications, a centurion arrives to volunteer.

Back at Stonehenge, the Doctor continues to monitor the Pandorica. Amy asks about the engagement ring she found in his jacket pocket. He encourages her to remember the night she flew away with him, confessing he was lying when he told her there wasn't a reason he was taking her. He draws her attention to her house. It's too big and her life doesn't make any sense. Before she can respond, a dismembered Cyber-arm shoots at them. The Doctor tries to deactivate it, but is knocked out. The Cyber-head has worked its way down the steps and attacks Amy, shooting her with a sleeper dart. The head opens. It ejects the skull of its last occupant and tries to assimilate Amy. She shakes the head off, but the Cyber-body appears and attaches it to itself before advancing on her. She takes cover in a side chamber, where the Cyberman is killed by the arriving centurion, who is actually Rory. She faints.

The Doctor wakes. Finding Amy is all right, he inspects the side chamber, It holds Cyberman weaponry. He notices Rory, but barely reacts to his reappearance. It is not until he leaves the room that he realises what has happened and returns for an awkward conversation. Rory knows he died near the Silurian city, but can't account for how he ended up in the 2nd century. The two are alerted to the descending alien fleet and the Doctor leads the way outside. He stands on a rock and addresses his enemies over a communicator. He informs them that he has the Pandorica and it's opening. They have plenty of weapons, but he has nothing to lose. He reminds them of all the times he has defeated them in the past, and encourages them to consider who wants to go first. The fleet flees.

Rory and the Doctor return to the Pandorica, where they try to make sense of what has happened. Amy wakes, but fails to recognise Rory, devastating him. The Doctor admits he can't explain Rory's appearance, supposing it to be something like a miracle, which he hasn't seen in all his years. He gives Rory the engagement ring and encourages him to go after Amy.

River tries to return the TARDIS to the Doctor. It is thrown through the vortex and materialises outside Amy's house on 26 June 2010 -- the date of the explosion that caused the cracks in time and space. As she leaves the TARDIS to explore, a crack splits the scanner screen and a voice cries "Silence will fall!" River notes landing patterns of alien crafts and enters the house. She realises it belongs to Amy. In Amy's room, she finds a book on Roman Britain and a copy of The Legend of Pandora's Box. All of the books' pictures resemble things and people where the Doctor is. She contacts him to warn him. He urges her to return. Instead, she is thrown uncontrollably about the time vortex. Upon learning the date, the Doctor orders her to shut off the engines. When this doesn't work, he tells her to land and leave the TARDIS. Though she lands, the doors are locked.

File:DW512-2046.jpg
Amy dies in Rory's arms

The Romans begin falling asleep on their feet. Even Rory, talking to Amy, begins to shut down, but resists. The Romans wake and advance on the Doctor. They are Autons controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. They capture the Doctor and drag him to the Pandorica, where he is met by an Alliance of his enemies, including Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon, Silurians and Sontarans. They inform the Doctor that he will cause the end of the universe. They will imprison him in the Pandorica to stop him. To lure him to this spot, they built the perfect trap, using Amy's memories as building blocks.

Above, the Auton Rory continues to fight the temptation to join the others, but shoots Amy just as she remembers who he is. She dies in his arms as the Pandorica opens.

The Doctor is set inside the prison. He shouts his innocence, that the threat to the universe is the TARDIS, not him. The Daleks don't know about River. They tell him he is the only person who can fly the TARDIS. The Cybermen order the Pandorica closed over his desperate pleas.

File:Explosions 2.png
Explosions all across the universe

Somewhere in time, River blows open the TARDIS doors. A stone wall blocks her departure. Apologising to her love, she turns to face the exploding TARDIS console.

Thousands of echoing explosions erupt across the sky, ripping the universe apart.

Earth is left in the middle of a spreading, black void.

Silence falls.

Cast

Crew

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. Instead, it had a wider credits for visual effects crew than normal.


References

Individuals

Locations

Planets

  • Planet One is the oldest planet in the universe. It has "Hello Sweetie" written into one of its cliff faces.

Species

TARDIS

Technology

   * Despite belief it could possibly be from Captain Jack Harkness as that would require killing him as it was fresh off a time agents wrist, it may be his from a situation like where he blows up but still comes back to life and his VM is stolen before hes alive again.

Books

Story notes

  • Amy Pond appeared to die in this episode but will be resurrected by the Pandorica in the following episode, The Big Bang.
  • Almost every major enemy since the beginning of the new Doctor Who series (as well as a few from the classic series) are mentioned though not all appeared. The list of enemies include the Daleks, the Cybus Cybermen, the Slitheen, the Sontarans, the Judoon, the Hoix, the Weevils, the Uvodni, the Sycorax, the Silurians, the Autons, the Roboform, the Nestene, the Chelonians, the Drahvins, the Atraxi, the Zygons, the Terileptils and the Draconians. They formed an alliance, but some of them were unseen. The Slitheen were also mentioned but not seen. River also mentions the Haemogoths, who briefly appeared in NSA: The Forgotten Army.
  • This is the first episode to feature an in-narrative use of the time vortex seen in the series 5 title sequence.
  • The Weevils, Blowfish and Uvodni are the first aliens originally from a spin-off series to appear in the main show.
  • The Chelonians from the novels get their first mention in a TV episode.
  • When River starts mentioning the aliens that are approaching the Doctor, the Cyber-Leader and the Supreme Dalek are heard talking about their plan for the Doctor.
  • The writing on the cliffs reads "HELLO SWEETIE ΘΣ Φ ΓΥΔϟ". ΘΣ
  • At least one reviewer thought this message on the cliff of Planet One was not unlike a scene in in Douglas Adams' book, So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, which featured the last message of God to his creation lit in flames on a cliff face.
  • This episode deliberately evoked the feel of the Indiana Jones franchise. River's scene at the Maldovarium is a gag drawn directly from the teaser sequence of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The use of flambeaux in the cavernous "under Henge" was directly inspired by the teaser to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Finally director Toby Haynes played back a cue from Raiders while filming the sequence of the Doctor, River and Amy entering the "under Henge" to give the sequence appropriate tempo. (CON: "Alien Abduction")
  • The disembodied Cyberman head tells Amy, "You will be assimilated." Though modern viewers might think this a line borrowed from the Borg, a Star Trek cybernetic species similar to Cybermen, in fact the line is in The Tenth Planet.
  • Amy Pond describes her deep interest in Roman culture. Karen Gillan's original appearance on Doctor Who was that of a soothsayer from Pompeii in The Fires of Pompeii.
  • The story is set at Stonehenge and the episode broadcast just a few days before the real Summer Solstice.
  • When River begins having problems flying the TARDIS, the Doctor tells her she's not flying it right, to which she promptly replies, "I'm flying it PERFECTLY. You taught me!". In their previous meeting (from the Doctor's POV), River mocked the Doctor for not being able to properly fly the TARDIS, always leaving the brakes on when it lands. She also implied that the Doctor might not have been the one who had taught her. It would be revealed in Let's Kill Hitler that it was the TARDIS herself who taught River.
  • This story marks at least the fifth time in televised Doctor Who that the fate of every universe is at stake. (DW: The Invasion of Time, Logopolis, Journey's End, The End of Time)
  • Amy doesn't know who the Cybermen are, despite meeting them in VG: Blood of the Cybermen.
  • River's main costume in this story was deliberately designed 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)
  • 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)
  • Similar to DW: Rise of the Cybermen and DW: The Stolen Earth, this episode is the first part of a two-part story, and features no "Next Time" trailer at the end.

Ratings

7.57 million (according to TV magazine)

Rumours

  • Many fans believed Omega would return. He does not appear in the episode as far as we know.
  • The Doctor himself is inside the Pandorica. At the climax of the episode, the Doctor is placed inside the Pandorica.
  • The Slitheen were among the villains mentioned by River approaching the Doctor. This was proven true; River says Slitheen whilst reading out the list.
  • It was rumoured that either the Timoreen, the Ha'rik, or the Skarkish would appear – primarily because these were all listed as "new aliens" to appear in Series 5 which had not already appeared. This was proven false.
  • According to the Radio Times, the Vincent van Gogh painting will be in Churchill's war bunker. This was proven true.
  • It was believed that the enemies would form an alliance; this was supported by the screen-shots depicting many of the Doctor's enemies together but not fighting. This was proven true.
  • Many fans believed Rory would reappear. This was proven partially true. He was an Auton duplicate.
  • It was believed the episode will take place on Gallifrey in the Death Zone. This was proven false.

Filming locations

  • Stonehenge, England
  • Margam Park, Wales

Production errors

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.
  • The 1890 scene is set after Van Gogh famously cut his left ear in 1888, but the actor's unharmed left ear is briefly visible.
  • The Cyber-Leader's mouth glows blue when it isn't speaking, twice.
  • The Supreme Dalek's lights were flashing when it isn't speaking.
  • When the damaged Cyberman enters the room where the Pandorica is, the "missing" arm can be seen in a shadow.
  • When River says the words, "And it's got something to do with your TARDIS exploding", as the Doctor bends down to examine the painting, a brief view of River's face shows that her lips aren't moving.
  • When the Doctor, Amy and River enter Stonehenge, the Doctor's fringe is on the right of his face. During the close-up of him, it's on the left.
  • When Amy is pushing against the Pandorica and discussing the Cyberman's arm, the Pandorica bends inwards slightly.

Continuity

Timeline

For the Eleventh Doctor and Amy:

For Rory Williams:

For River Song:

Home video releases

Series-5-volume-4-dvd-cover.jpg

BBC Video – Doctor Who Series Five – Volume Four features Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang. It was released on Monday 6 September 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray.[1]

External links

Footnotes

  1. DWM 421, Page 18