Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 12: "The Pandorica Opens"

The pandorica has opened. And deep inside the multiple safeguards and locks, we found the supposedly most feared being in the cosmos. A big bang is causing time and space to crack, and started back when Amy was a little girl. River Song's relationship with the doctor continues, as she promised after the crash of the Byzantium. How it all fits together is still somewhat of a mystery, but one thing is for sure: expect the unexpected. Spoilers follow, so read at your own peril.

Did anyone seriously expect the pandorica to be a prison for the doctor himself? Davros stated, in David Tennant's last full series as the doctor, that the doctor was the destroyer of universes. Everthing this season led us to believe that either the doctor or Amy were the cause of the cracks in time and space. Apparently this was true, since the TARDIS exploding is what seemingly caused everything.

But something doesn't fit. It makes sense that the varied alien races joined together to stop the doctor, since they probably realized the TARDIS caused the inciting event for the cracks. It also makes sense that they created the pandorica, somehow led the doctor to it, and used stonehenge as a signal to let them all know when he arrived. And it makes sense to lock him up, to protect the universe.

However, the essential question now is, why did the TARDIS explode? Is there someone in control of the TARDIS? And if so, who? And how is everything that just happened going to be erased?

Amy being the key to everything makes sense to some degree, since it was her life that served as the ideal illusion to fool the doctor into opening the pandorica. But again, what is up with the TARDIS?

Seeing Rory again was a disappointment for me, personally. I was hoping he was gone for good, because I like it just fine with the doctor, Amy, and the occasional visit from River. I found it weird that Amy suddenly remebered Rory, just before she died. We know River survived the whole pandorica incident, and she was right there when the TARDIS exploded, so it's safe to assume that everyone we care about makes it out relatively unscathed next week.

I don't quite know what to think now. Again, as with any two-parter, it's so hard to judge this episode without the conclusion. I'm not expecting an RTD-style reset button here, so I figure Moffat has something actually smart in mind. Something involving the doctor going to the past, to the Byzantium, to remind Amy about what he told her when she was seven.

The introduction to the episode was stellar. Seeing van Gogh, Churchill, Liz Ten, and River all interacting through time and space over van Gogh's final work was fantastic. I felt the episode got a bit slow when the cyberman started attacking Amy and the doctor. But when River realized that the whole Roman thing was a charade, the episode suddenly picked up.... and then left us somewhat lost.

The universes started dying, and silence seemed to be falling. The TARDIS exploded. Amy died. The doctor is stuck in the pandorica. How is this ever going to be reversed? I can't wait till next week, although there's a tinge of sadness that it's the final episode until December.

Next week: I have no idea.