Doctor Who S5e13 "The Big Bang" [Spoilers]

[Admiral Valdemar]

The impression I got was that if he hadn't gone through the crack in Amelia's room, he'd have kept going back through his incarnations, hence the quip about hating reruns.

There is that. It's possible the cracks not shown that existed before, since Moffat had this foreshadowing last year, would draw him back too, even if he hadn't seen them. Or maybe they would just rewind his existence as they slammed shut.

I'm hoping the writing keeps the crap out and all Amy brought back was her 'rents and The Doctor, while Davros and the Cyber King remain in total non-existence.

[D.Turtle]

Brilliant, simply brilliant.

And for those people who (once again) are thinking/complaining about stuff being undone etc:

WE HAVE NEVER EVER EVER SEEN THE FUCKING CRACKS UNDO ANYTHING PHYSICALLY DONE.

They erase the MEMORY of something.

Fucking get it already.

Sheesh.

[NecronLord]

Humm. Finally seen it. Interesting. Lack of closure is good, though I am surprised that the Doctor being at the heart of the new universe didn't cause the Time Lords to be reborn as he'd want them or something. Though the angst content of this series was nicely low, I think that would have been rather cooler as a sting than "your majesty"

[Admiral Valdemar]

I don't think we're done with them yet. If it is Rassilon or Omega related to these cracks, then we could see the Time Lords appear again, if not in cahoots, then to help The Doctor with a threat that even he's not fathomed yet. It's not like the Daleks or Cybermen have much subtlety, and even The Master was quite easy to figure out in the end. Whoever is pulling the strings this time likes to do it without getting dirty themself.

[Drooling Iguana]

So it would appear that the Inverse Ninja Law also applies to Daleks. Explains a lot, really.

[NecronLord]

I don't think we're done with them yet. If it is Rassilon or Omega related to these cracks, then we could see the Time Lords appear again, if not in cahoots, then to help The Doctor with a threat that even he's not fathomed yet. It's not like the Daleks or Cybermen have much subtlety, and even The Master was quite easy to figure out in the end. Whoever is pulling the strings this time likes to do it without getting dirty themself.

I would rather like the Silence to be something else, really. Much as I love Omega, he worked best, for my money, as a tragic character in The Three Doctors. Him being the Silence would be while perfectly logical, a little disappointing to me. The universe is after all, vast and full of wonders and terrors.

[Drooling Iguana]

You know, it occurs to me that both of the Doctors companions are going to be older than he is next season. Has that ever happened before?

[Crossroads Inc.]

So it would appear that the Inverse Ninja Law also applies to Daleks. Explains a lot, really.

Explain? Inverse ninja law means the more ninjas oyu fight, the easier they are, but if you fight one ninja, its life and death.

We saw One Dalek here that was barely functioning and shot and killed.

[Big Orange]

I wonder if the mysterious party which was behind the destruction of the TARDIS was also behind that equally unexplained non-Time Lord fourth dimensional vessel from "The Lodger"?

[Stark]

'Fourth dimensional vessel'? I hope that's not something you made up.

[Drooling Iguana]

Explain? Inverse ninja law means the more ninjas oyu fight, the easier they are, but if you fight one ninja, its life and death.

We saw One Dalek here that was barely functioning and shot and killed.

We saw a lone Dalek that, despite being heavily damaged, still managed to be a more threatening villain than the armies of fully-functioning Daleks that we saw in earlier episodes. The single Dalek in "Dalek" was also far more of a threat than the armies of Daleks that followed.

(Of course, the real monster in this episode was River Song, for killing that poor, innocent fez. At least now we know what she was put into Stormcage for. A hero to many, indeed.)

[Admiral Valdemar]

'Fourth dimensional vessel'? I hope that's not something you made up.

I don't know about you, but I only exist in three dimensions. Oh, and time. Okay, I am also four dimensional.

BO, just call it a damn TARDIS clone, 'kay?

[Stark]

If I hadn't read the other thread I wouldn't even know what he's talking about. If he means vortex travel or dimensional transcendentalism he should say so.

I mean, we're ALL travelling in time.

[Big Orange]

OK, I'm saying the TARDIS that isn't a TARDIS seems like a pretty significant plot development that shouldn’t just be thrown away. The Time Lords would be aware if another race would develope similar technology and make their own TARDISes - looking at the interior and the exterior of the pilotless TARDIS, its design asthetics kinda resemble the equally mysterious Pandorica, both sharing a shiny blue finish and being driven by mechanical gears.

Anyway I mostly liked "The Big Bang", it has a few less punch the air moments than the funner and dumber "The End of Time", but is a lot more cleaverly plotted with a narrative that flows naturally and not so abrubtly cut short (although there's a danger that Moffat's story arcing gets too drawn out and convoluted, alienating casual viewers like The X-Files ended up doing).

[mr friendly guy]

Random thoughts

1. Well I enjoyed the time travelling things and how it explains the inconsistencies, especially how future Doctor saved himself. Man if only I could travel back in time and give myself the answer to exam questions. .

2. Rory after staying there for almost 2000 years must have matured as a character. After knowing he pulled the Pandorica from the burning warehouse etc he might actually be more than just the boyfriend who competes with the Doctor. Might make him more interesting.

3. As far as deus ex machina goes, its ok. The Doctor flying the Pandorica into the explosion and due to some temporal physics things which we don't understand he ends up flying back in his timestream. I guess we can overlook this as just some part of advance physics that we humans don't understand and even the Doctor might not understand all of it.

4. I think its neat that whoever manipulated the TARDIS is still out there, however how well that story is told IMO will effect how well this is remembered, simply because this still has a loose end to it.

[Straha]

The episode was incredibly convoluted, bonkers, made no sense at all and only gave a tissue thin answer to all the questions that were brought up.


THAT SAID, I really really really really enjoyed it. I can only explain it by saying Matt Smith and Karen Gillan were amazing actors, as was Arthur Davill (who I am genuinely excited to see as a companion for the next season,) and that I'm interested to see where the River arc takes us.

With all that in mind I can never, ever, ever, watch this episode again, because I know I will hate every last second of it with a burning firey passion.

[Azazal]

hmmm very intersting. Amy getting the TARDIS diary as a wedding gift if solidifying my theory, it's daft I know, but it just has that feel to me, but only time will tell.


Spoiler

Amy Pond is River Song, and the good man that she kille, Rory

[DarkSilver]

hmmm very intersting. Amy getting the TARDIS diary as a wedding gift if solidifying my theory, it's daft I know, but it just has that feel to me, but only time will tell.


Spoiler

Amy Pond is River Song, and the good man that she kille, Rory

....are you daft?

the gift was given to Rory by River in order to help jog Amy's memory of the Doctor, it was empty at that time. Later, the Doctor gives River back the diary, saying "all the writing it back, but don't worry, I didn't peek."

[Ryushikaze]

MULTI COMPANION TRAVELS, YES!

Sorry, I've wanted multi companion long term for quite some time now, in fact, since the 5th doctor era.

I quite liked this episode. It stopped the problem without solving the underlying cause- it got rid of the cracks but not the force behind them, it's leading to a greater arc, not something entirely wrapped up in a single season, and I like that.

Yes, the backwards skipping is strange, but it follows a sort of logic- his explosion is fixing time and space, undoing the cracks, so it feels right that he'd be pulled along through the cracks until he was on the other side of them. As a whole, the stumbling blocks of this episode are totally overshadowed by the giant heaps of what it did right.

[Jade Owl]

I absolutely loved this episode. Marvelous!

On a more shallow note, it is a testament to Karen Gillan’s beauty that she can look so hot even while wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

[hongi]

Huh. The Daleks nearly killed the Doctor in this one. Not quite sure what to think about Mr Dalek screaming "MERCY!". Is that in-character for Daleks?

Did anyone hear that bit about Richard Dawkins and the star cults?

[Jon]

Is there anyway around the paradox of the doctor being out of the pandorica to give rory the sonic screwdriver to get him out?

[mr friendly guy]

Is there anyway around the paradox of the doctor being out of the pandorica to give rory the sonic screwdriver to get him out?

Isn't this a common cliche among time travel stories? His past self is saved by his future self, so when the past self ages he makes sure that history occurs as how he remembers it. Its intuitively seems wrong but if you think about it, there is no paradox in the sense that he never changed history, but made sure that it occurred how he remembered it.

Huh. The Daleks nearly killed the Doctor in this one. Not quite sure what to think about Mr Dalek screaming "MERCY!". Is that in-character for Daleks?

Daleks will do whatever is necessary to survive. They have even pretended to be slaves of humanity once, I think it was in power of the daleks. So no matter how degrading (not that they have an ego) they will do it, if thats what it takes to survive. I can totally buy him saying mercy and hoping that it gives him more time to recharge.

Did anyone hear that bit about Richard Dawkins and the star cults?

I heard that one as well. The question is in the AU is Dawkins a crazy suggesting that there used to be stars, or is Dawkins the rational one who worked out there must have been stars sometime in the past.

[Stark]

Avoiding 'not really' paradoxes like that is helped by Time Lord senses. Really, all he had to do the first time is think 'when I get out I'll give Rory the screwdriver and then I'll get out'. Like in Bill and Ted's. He's a professional, after all.

[El Moose Monstero]

I enjoyed it, mainly due to Matt Smith's acting. I think he's my favourite of the most recent three, but I'm not sure. I think the problem is that there wasn't enough Ecclestone, but there were some fantastic scenes. Tennant was excellent when the story was good, but bad when he wasn't, but Matt Smith is consistently good regardless of the plotline. I think the main thing for me was that the universe ended, the doctor was facing obliteration, and it wasn't screaming at us about it - there wasn't the pretend 'omg, how will the doctor escape'. He had a plan, we knew he had a plan, and if it didn't work, he was going out in style, not crying that he didn't want to go. Much more like Ecclestone's 'maybe it's time' remark. Good stuff, and I'm very pleased to see Rory and Amy carrying on with him, I've warmed up on Rory now we've got the pointless 'dramangst' tension out of the way and the two are married, I am optimistic for the new series. Without having to establish the status quo in the next series, they might actually have time to produce some better episodes.

I've watched it a second time, and I think the only thing that still nags at me is how the 'conjour the tardis' bit worked. I assume that at the moment she remembers him, the universe painted him back into the timeline and so the timeline which they'd all experienced together was finally restored. So what was the whole deal with him 'being trapped in the void' and having to be on the other side of the cracks? Did he still exist somewhere out in the void, like the cult of Skaro?