Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 13: "The Big Bang"

I am very confused. Usually I can follow confusing time travel storylines, but this finale threw me off at the end! And it totally wasn't what I was expecting. As Matt Smith said in the BBC america event a few months ago, there was a lot of time travel here. And it was played out well, albeit confusing.

So, spoilers from here on out. The episode seemed split into two parts. One was the conclusion of the destruction of all the universes. Although the pandorica itself seemed like a reset button, it was played well, and all the time jumping in this half made sense to me. So, after a bunch of various time stops that brilliantly linked back to the first episode, the pandorica flew into the exploding TARDIS and the universe was restored, sans doctor.

Now, here is where I started to lose things. So, the doctor is slowly getting erased from time, as the cracks start erasing him. In his last moments, he tells Amelia Pond all these things about the TARDIS, and how he actually borrowed it and then kept it, and so on. And then he disappeared from history. River's journal was blank. Amy lived a normal life, with parents and Rory. However, just like Amelia Pond, she had dreams and memories of a doctor that did not exist. Yet, the fact that she was able to remember him brought him back at the end, TARDIS and all. I don't understand how that works out. Wasn't he literally erased. I mean, so was Rory before, but the Rory that came back was an automaton. This doctor is all real, although he was erased.

And on top of that, what happened to all of the doctor's adventures with Amy? We know the crash of the byzantium happened, because it's now in River's journal. But the Amy we knew didn't live that adventure, because that was from the previous universe, right? Yet she remembers doing it all.

And of course, as expected, that odd scene in Flesh and Stone made its appearance here, as it well should have.

And is Rory going to be a major companion next year? Can we expect to see more from River, and does that more mean it's going to be more significant as well this time? This is when everything changes, she says. And she's married, it seems. We got some answers, and a nice tease for next time.

But now to my biggest gripe with this episode. It's less of a flaw than an annoyance. What caused the TARDIS to explode? I have a feeling it has something to do with River Song. The fact that Moffat addressed the issue right at the end, yet didn't answer a single thing, leads me to believe that it'll carry over to the next series, and that makes it carry even more weight. The only thing that carries this much weight so far is River, and I feel like she and this whole exploding TARDIS is linked.

In the end, I don't even know what to make of this episode. It was very enjoyable, but my perplexity at the end leaves me somewhat unable to fully grasp what this episode means. I have to go read some reviews, watch it again, and fully assess it. But Moffat answered the major questions this season, and left the major big bad annoyingly unanswered. Why does it have to end now? Must we wait till next spring?

Next time: everything changes?