Sunday 27 June 2010

The Blink Review: The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang


I’m confused. Really confused. So please excuse me for this confusing review of the confusing series finale which had some clever and confusing points but also lacked some crucial confusing details which left me confused and wondered how I would be able to write a review without saying the word ‘confused’. I think I’ve managed not to say it so far…

‘The Pandorica Opens’ was an absolutely brilliant episode, and by far my favourite of the series, with an engaging and emotional script by Steven Moffat, a surprisingly good use of CGI effects, and a tantalising cliffhanger that left everyone in suspense. A great first part to a story, which surely the second part couldn’t live up to.

And sadly it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. There were some really great ideas in ‘The Big Bang’, in particular Rory guarding Amy throughout the centuries to protect her, and it was a very enjoyable episode to watch, but overall it seemed a bit shambolic, with lots of jumping between locations and coming up with random explanations.

Wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff is great in small amounts, when the Doctor can use it to cheat his way out of small problems. However, using it every five seconds to get out of every problem makes the viewer feel cheated for having watched the first part, as every threat that occurred was overwritten with a quick trip using the vortex manipulator. Similarly, the sonic screwdriver was really overused in this story, and provided a ridiculously simple solution to opening up the Pandorica, which supposedly nothing could open.

“Silence will fall!” screamed the menacing voice at the end of ‘The Pandorica Opens’, who turned out to be… Oh wait, that wasn’t answered! If there’s one thing that annoys me, it’s having to wait for ages to get an answer to a question, and we’re going to be waiting for another year to find out whose voice that was!

However, I’m probably being a little harsh here. In fact, I’m being very harsh. It’s in my Weeping Angel nature. There were some fantastic scenes in the episode, mainly the terrifying Stone Dalek chase sequences, and the sad departure of the Doctor before he zoomed off into the greatest explosion in history.

The series as a whole was fantastic, with my favourite episode being ‘The Pandorica Opens’ and my least favourite being ‘Victory of the Daleks’, which still feels like an incomplete story despite the return of the Daleks in the finale. ‘The Big Bang’ was a pretty decent story, with many ups but also some irritating downs. I think it’s time we meet the Yeti! Roll on Christmas…

Rating: 4/5 stars

You can also give your rating in the new poll, ‘BANG! And the world is gone…’

3 comments:

Mr Dalek said...

Un answered questions god i hate that! RTD used to wrap it all up by the end of the series but Moffat had to be diffrent! And the worst thing of all: We didnt get the X-mas special title!

Anonymous said...

as Pandorica Opens was bad because some of the creature never were his enemy nor could be there because of the previous storielines, Big Bang showed that Moffat had to return to the Weeping Angels trick to get the Doctor out of the box. For me he, he just was a bit lazy this time and could do better.

Blink said...

Yeah, I felt that the script was more in the style of Russell T Davies, especially the constant use of spiritual messages and the lack of resolved questions.

It reminded me of 'The End of Time', where we'd followed the story for ages and then were disspointed by unanswered questions.