That Time Doctor Who Rebooted The Universe

oh boy i'm gonna get absolutely flamed for this one [Music] as we all know modern doctor finales are a big event they're grand epic tales with high stakes and dramatic revelations naturally it makes sense series 5 would follow in these footsteps although it would change things up with a highly ambitious finale with parts filmed throughout the production of other episodes all should create an immersive story pulling from the catalogue of series 5 itself however despite the serial being planned from a very early stage showrunner stephen mother ultimately lost two months of writing time because of scheduling issues which i think shows in the highly disappointing two parts of the pandora opens and the big bang yes despite being an incredibly popular finale i absolutely can't stand this story well the second part at least so why exactly do i hate this explosive tiny why me climax to one of the most beloved series of modern doctor who will buckle in because i'm about to send obsessive moffett fans into meltdown what kind of starships most archie finales don't really take the other episodes of that series into account with the exception of the series 4 finale there usually isn't much of a connection to people or places that have shown up in the earlier episodes the pandorica opens however turns out completely on its head which i really like almost all the previous episodes play a role because a mysterious van gogh painting finds itself in possession of characters like winston churchill and list 10. it creates a sense of cohesion revisiting all these locations they're all connected to the doctrine one way or another and we've seen those interactions play out over the course of the series so it's a rewarding nod making them feel more important to the wider series it also kind of sows the seas for rory garden of pandorica we're showing this painting making its way slowly through time before river recovers it in the 52nd century that's a similar route rory has to take guarding the pandora for 2 000 years going the long way around it's a nice subtle way of setting up that plot point it also introduces us to the idea of time shenanigans because river graffiti is the oldest planet in the universe attracting the doctor in a very similar way to time of angels usually i get a bit fed up with moffat being all cutesy with tiny wyoming stuff but i think it works well to set up this episode a whistle-stop tour throughout time culminating that brilliant reveal of the paintings showing that's hardest exploding it's a cold open that maneuvers everyone into place successfully and sets the stage for an epic finale stonehenge has always been a big mystery these weirdly arranged stones in the middle of a field in england with no clear indication of how or when they got there therefore it makes a lot of sense that doctor who would explore such historical mystery i love the tense atmosphere as the trio descend into the underground chamber housed in the pandorica it's lit only by moonlight and flaming torches so i get a very strong the mummy vibe with good directing and scoring i like the big reveals it turns out tens of thousands of ships have come for the grand opening it's a pretty big party up there and i guess this this star-studded although i'm not sure who invited the dravens jokes aside it's a good scene as the situation goes from bad to worse as a viewer we initially expect it to be yet another dalek invasion but then it turns out there are cyber ships entire battle fleets and dozens of other well-known monsters like zygons and jejune it creates a sinking feeling of dread because this is too much for the doctor to handle creating incredibly high stakes very early on doctor this one's just this one time please you have to run i do like the idea of monsters banding together against the doctor it's a very strong concept especially for modern doctor where there's a more consistent universe and the doctor is more of a godlike figure constantly foiling all their schemes therefore it's only logical that all these villains would decide to work together and fight their common enemy however that doesn't really get explored at all because they're all conveniently killed off before the events of the big bang i know it might have ventured into saturday morning cartoon territory but i wouldn't have been against the idea of the alliance being a consistent villain of the series they could have done something like spectre in the james bond series these villains all part of a wide organization which is constantly being hinted at i feel like that would have made the reveal of the alliance feel more punchy and climactic the payoff to a series long story arc but instead they're just some props and costumes being reused because they were lying around in the warehouse so why not pandorica opens is quite a slow burn story simply setting up a lot of the story beats to come one of these is the return of rory williams who died in cold blood and was erased by the cracks in time you know adding insult to injury because just dying apparently isn't bad enough in the subsequent episodes this loss was referenced but it's not until the pandora opens that it gets properly addressed that's quite a nice touching scene as the doctor gives a speech about memories obviously this is another bit of cheeky foreshadowing because what he says here inspires amy to remember the doctor and bring him back at the end of the big bang but on its own it's quite an emotional scene however before the doctor can open amy's eyes to all the things she's forgotten including her parents they're menaced by the arm and the head of a cyberman whilst i appreciate the cameo of my favorite metal stompy boys it's a really unintentionally comedic scene you get the doctor fighting with an arm like he's in rose and amy tussling metal tentacles enough to make rule 34 artist blush oh and then she's shot by kamino in saberdog it's a funny little cats on the side to give it away and don't forget the unbearably goofy chompy cyberman head you're telling me this is meant to be scary i understand the davis era did plenty of goofy things like this but this moment is intended to be very scary so it just doesn't work in my opinion it's way too comedic working against the intended drama and intensity of the moment to top it all off just as amy is cornered by the partly reassembled cyberman it's somehow killed by rory now i'm no forced in fire blacksmith but surely it's not exactly possible to penetrate a cyberman's armor with a roman sword right is that just me however it is still a good reveal and i love the comedy as the doctor completely sandbags the return of this very much dead very much a raise from time person yes i know that rory i'm not exactly want to miss the obvious if i get stuck in the kiln i know the risks and the duck hello sir i know the risk what the hell are you doing in the kill there was a good throwaway line in vincent and the doctor just two episodes before that was kind of similar okay here's the plan amy rory sorry um that showed just how much the doctor had become used to rory's traveling so i appreciate they continue that idea here he's so wrapped up in the mystery that he completely misses the obvious which is a recurring trait for the character stretching back into the early days of classical the doctor has always had a reputation for moments like this which adds some good consistency and flavor to the episode obviously as the audience we know it's literally impossible for rory to be here so say brilliant sequence to almost mess with us like we've missed something there's also that good awkward chat have you been good yeah good the great little marigold jingle adds to the absurdity of it all and i just think it's a wonderful exchange to reintroduce rory matt smith and arthur darvill show some amazing chemistry i also really love rory's heartbreak of finding out amy has forgotten him we understand why she wouldn't remember him but he never found out how the cracks work so it's a horrifying realization for him having to see the love of his life completely look through him as if he was just a random guy in another doctor adventure although it doesn't quite make sense that river his literal daughter never even shows the slightest glimmer of recognition throughout the entire story but then again i guess moffat hadn't come up with that bit yet it's then that the pandorica starts to open get it this is the name of the episode this all leads to one of the most overrated and overly parroted speeches in all of doctor who and of course it has on the doctor plane because this is a smith era i won't deny that this is an epic speech it has just been ruined by the fan base like pretty much everything else in the show i mean seriously at conventions they make other actors read out which that's always just rubbed me the wrong way hey read this thing a different dude did all right you gave me this earlier uh it's a bit strange really i'm gonna do this it's a very tenant style moment keeping that intense aura of the character even in this new incarnation i also think it's a good way to hold the alien threat at bay there's no way for him to stop them in a conventional way or even play them against one another like in doomsday so all he can do is stall for time even without knowing he's the reason they're here he plays up their fear and hatred of him because they are familiar with him i know of course some flack for criticizing series 5's hero worship of the doctor but this is one of those moments where the worship is justified he's a big deal and times like these reflect that i just hate how moffat played it up by making this a staple of every smith era series he really overdid them and beat him into the ground but again that's not really a thought with this story itself remember every black day i ever stopped you first of all i don't like the way you guys are saying black one of the big mysteries surrounding the cracks in time is the cause of them cold blood had that earth shattering reveal as the doctor found a piece of the tardis within the crack and flesh and stone dated the explosion as amy's wedding day so indeed the time machine takes river to amy's house where she makes the shocking discovery that the whole thing has been an elaborate setup to trap the doctor a trap the doctor could not resist this is such a weird twist the doctor was always going to show up here because of river summoning him so why did they need all this crazy stonehenge pandora's box roman stuff even the doctor calls it out why who do that what thought it doesn't make sense and don't even get me started on the fact roy was able to come back because of a photo the engagement ring would survive because it was already in the tardis that works but in this episode there's still a picture of rory in a centurion outfit explaining how he came back and why he's a roman but it doesn't make any sense to be erased from time would mean all traces of him go we saw that in flesh and stone and river's empty diary in the big bang to be caught by the cracks mean you never existed to begin with so why then does this photo remain it should just be amy liking back to the future by the rules series 5 itself set up these cracks rory shouldn't be able to come back so it's a huge breach of internal logic that could easily have been avoided and yes you can point to the speech the doctor makes about memories and stuff but that also directly conflicts with what we've already been shown like a lot of smith era stuff it's simply style over substance representing the turning point of this story going from really promising and gripping to complete nonsense much like the cracks throughout series 5 we've heard whisperings of the mysterious pandorica it's only in this episode that we find out what it is a convenient macguffin buried understone henge designed to hold the most dangerous thing in the universe it's a good mystery i just hate the big reveal that was made for the doctor it seems like a good idea on paper but it's just kind of cringe-worthy in execution the whole episode has this big buildup of who could possibly be bad enough to deserve such a fate a nameless terrible thing soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies but the whole ooh look the doctor is evil thing is a plot point that can only work with certain incarnations and the 11th doctor is pretty much the least suited one series 5 made him very bloodless without destroying many villains sure this is the same character as always so villains wouldn't care if the face has changed but it just feels unsuitable on a surface level the ending also traps river in the tardis which is being controlled by an external force yeah that never gets explained it's up to the fans to headcannon it away as a silent chilling in there and deciding to blow it all up despite the end result being the total collapse of the entire universe yeah this is a problem when you start writing a sprawling story arc without knowing what comes next in your own narrative however what i do like about the ending is that it's one of the darkest and most pessimistic endings of any doctor story river is trapped in an exploding tardis the doctor is outsmarted by his enemies and locked in the pandora begging them to let him save them because they've got it wrong and lastly rory shoots amy and kills her which you know i actually kind of wish didn't get reversed it's a really dramatic and crushing ending i don't think there's another first part ending quite this overwhelmingly negative even in stuff like utopia it didn't feel this utterly hopeless instead this time everything is lost however the problem is that it's too hopeless the ending of the episode is so pessimistic and downbeat that there's no satisfying way to resolve it everything the big bang does to reverse these character fates feels cheap because nothing it does could ever live up to the setup of the pandora opens so it's a huge example of a first part actually holding the wider story back by over juicing the ending and the setup to be epic i'm just gonna rip the blaster off raw and tell you right now that the rest of this video is going to be very negative because i hate the big bang however i do appreciate the subversion at the very beginning with the episode opening just like the 11th hour but without the doctor around to crash into a media's life since the universe collapsed and rat she got erased it's an effective switcheroo to show how history has changed although i hate the whole stars aren't real thing it's just one of those cutesy moffettisms that wraps me the wrong way for some reason there is a snapping enjoyable sequence as the doctor guides emilia into opening the pandorica which is now a museum exhibit there's good sound design editing and music in the scene all culminating in that mind-blowing twist of amy being inside the box it's an extremely shocking fake out but that's its biggest flaw because it's written as a moment rather than being a good plot reveal it's there to surprise you because you expected the doctor whilst also conveniently undoing amy's death but in doing all of this the entire episode has to perform olympic level mental gymnastics to justify it it leads to some of the most baffling paradoxical storytelling i have ever had to suffer through especially because the doctor ends up back there anyway to save the day the big bang has multiple versions of the doctor zapping around in a painful bootstrap paradox how did he get out of the pandora in the first place in order to give rory the sonic screwdriver to get him out of the pandorica hey don't question it just laugh because haha mop and fez in isolation this scene would be fine but it's more the fact that this is the whole episode summed up in a single moment of theory one of the most glaring plot holes in the big bang is rory remaining they try to explain it with this line so how can we be here what's keeping us safe nothing either still on that so we're just the last light to go out but besides his sense of identity rory is just another autumn sure he has those memories but he was created in the same way as all those other romans so by the show's logic of erasing the alliance and the ought on romans he should be gone as well either storm or not the script even acknowledges this you're a nesting duplicate a lump of plastic with delusions of humanity like cool he feels independent enough to punch the doctor and he has the heart and soul of amy's memory print but the nesting never existed to cream in the first place adding on to the mountainous pile of horrendous plot holes issues collapsed our races have been deleted from existence like i said this story is all moments it's just style over substance throwing things at you however it's then that rory has his defining heroic moment insisting he stays with a pandorica to make sure amy is safe it's a powerful scene highlighting just how dedicated he is to amy even if that's a little bit unwarranted because of how horrible she has been only really caring whenever he dies like rory mate you could do so much better go clap the cheeks of some warrior queen or something and also so for god's sake however bored you get stay out of i think big finish took that as a challenge i do think it's a clever idea that runs parallel to vincent's painting at the beginning of pandaraka opens but it feels almost sickeningly over romanticized once again showing moffat's obsession with making this era a fairy tale going so far as to have rory remain in a centurion costume for almost all two thousand years it's solely that it can become some story told in a museum to show amy how much she should care about him even though he tells her anyway also i don't know how it took him nearly 2 000 years to find a new pair of clothes i feel like this two-passer poses the question of how enjoyable can a doctor's story be without making any sense there's a common saying amongst fans that pretty much goes is doctor who it doesn't need to make sense but this story really stretches the ability to overlook consistency issues sure it's punchy with lots of memorable moments and good acting so you enjoy the ride but the problem is it's just all over the place and falls apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny it's almost insultingly blase of its nonsense because it feels like a consumed product story like don't think about it shut up and watch in my opinion that's never really been what doctor is now not saying every story needs to make you write 4 000 word essays but it should always challenge you to think about concepts in a productive way this episode has plenty of concepts but none of them feel suitably rationalized and the ones that are done so in horrible redundant ways you can poke holes in any doctory story but the problem with this one is that as soon as you open your mouth to point out a problem their story has already crumbled because it's just that flimsy i won't deny it feel slick and entertaining but it's all for show that's basically the story it just throws things at you and spouts technobabble wowing you of all these spectacular things but they don't hold up a soul when you actually think about them i feel like it's so confident with all this nonsense that most viewers think everyone else understands it so they play along and pretend they understand it too otherwise they'll be embarrassed all the characters just say random things that sound like they somewhat make sense because it's spoken with authority so you just go along with it already how did that happen history is shrinking is anybody listening to me mate it doesn't matter if we listen or not because it doesn't make any sense to begin with and because this story needs some kind of villain a stone dalek somehow manages to come back to life because of the pandora's light don't question it just accept it like everything else actually wait no it does explain it how well apparently the restoration field of the pandorica still contains a few billion atoms of the universe as it was before the targets began exploding despite it being reopened twice in the new timeline then somehow these atoms in the restoration field managed to land on a dalek and bring it back to life and then this apparently means the entire universe can come back by being extrapolated from these few billion atoms what the [ __ ] is going on you're telling me every single part of the infinite expanse of the universe can be boiled down to some atoms inside a box underneath stonehenge in a field in wiltshire anyway before my brain explodes the visual of the dalek looks cool but it feels so shoehorned in and out of place it's just there as a plot device to show how the doctor can reboot the universe and then it gets all scared of riversong begging for mercy god mother really liked to do this a lot didn't he no wonder people think he hates the daleks the stone daleks serves his plot function and shoots the doctor leading to him teleport him back 12 minutes before the reveal in the present that he was just pranking the protagonist with river summoning it up as rule 1 the doctor lies words cannot describe how much utter contempt and disdain i have for this recurring line it annoys me endlessly and makes river sound like a child you would really have me believe that the first rule of the doctor is lying not something more inspiring or moral yeah okay sure lying okay cool yeah they're fit it's made so much worse by the fan base constantly dredging it up as a quirky explanation for everything is there some kind of plot hole who won the doctor lies just shut up people ask why i hate the smith era when i really don't but if i did have a reason it'd probably be the fans i can't stand them the whole resolution to the story is the doctor flying the pandorica into the heart of the exploding tardis to reset the universe by causing a simultaneous explosion throughout time which no longer exists by the way to spread the restoration field and restore the universe what like i understand the concept but it's so wild and nonsensical you have to make so many leaps of logic to try and explain this whole plan because it so needlessly bonkers half this episode ends up as fast-paced technobabble because moffat needed to dig himself out of the hole he dug by up in the ante too much in the pandora opens i mean he literally destroyed the entire universe wiping out all of reality itself that's a pretty extreme thing to do and something you can never backtrack on in a satisfying way so everything just gets reset because nothing actually matters the universe reset stuff has always led to far more questions than answers some alien invasions theoretically never took place because the whole universe was rebooted so what does that mean for certain past companions where does that leave the state of the universe it's also ambiguous and up in the air with some episodes acting like the world has forgotten events whilst others maintain that certain events still happened doctor who has always been very unstable lore wise but this story just makes things even more confusing for basically no reason except [ __ ] and giggles in my opinion it's pretty much only at the half an hour mark of big bang that there's anything worth watching there's a good emotional moment between the doctor and amy where it reveals that her family were taken by the cracks although i guess she had enough plumber to survive it's a touching moment but it comes too little too late for me you have to drag yourself through 30 painful minutes of nonsense just for the episode to get to this emotional payoff of the doctor and amy's relationship indeed time rewinds because this powerful character climax isn't good enough for old stevie boy over here he has to add some more confusing flair yes the doctor finds himself going back through time to previous instances of the cracks in time trying to get through to amy so that she can remember him and magically bring him back at the end i will admit this is executed really well especially the flesh and stone callback there was a perceived continuity error where the doctor appeared with his coat despite having been pulled off that actually turned out to be a genius move by moffat because this was actually the future version of the doctor regardless of my thoughts about the big bang too this is a fantastic little twist paying off that moment in a previous episode if only he could have put that same effort into mel but that's a story for another time if i haven't given up on doctor who by then there's also a very touching scene between the doctor and emilia one of matt smith's best moments in the show it's a beautiful melancholic speech bidding farewell although much like the pandorica speech it's been beaten to death by fans even still it's a strong moment of reflection for him he's facing the complete erasure of his existence if she doesn't manage to remember him that's it he can't just regenerate it's a strong and emotional farewell the ultimate sacrifice knowing he'll now just be amy's imaginary friend from her childhood despite all my reservations about mother and this story this is a solid payoff i really like it with the doctor erased and the universe inexplicably restored amy wakes up on her wedding day complete with her parents who never existed before this and will stop existing again in about eight minutes time i've always found it funny how this episode makes such a big deal out of her parents coming back only for them to literally never show up in a single scene after the wedding it's so goofy like it doesn't feel like there are any consequences because moffat just gives up on this whole plot point the preparation for the wedding and the wedding itself is very bright and exciting although it takes a weird turn as river leaves behind an empty diary to help amy remember the doctor so is this a future river from a timeline with the doctor back if not how does she know to come here and leave her empty diary so that amy could remember him and theoretically without the doctor river couldn't even exist in the first place so that opens up his own can of worms is very puzzling however i do like that amy spots inane things like a bow tie and braces helping her to remember the doctor they're very normal things to see a formal event but because she had that specific association with them being the doctor's clothing it helps to remind you of how doctor is a show can change perceptions of everyday objects you see a police box no no no that's a tardis a pheasant a bow tie yeah a love of doctor and so on the show has a history of turning these mundane things into iconic visuals so i like how it plays an important narrative role what i don't like is the power of wishes bringing the doctor back i find it funny how people hate the resolution of last of the time lords but then turn around and gush over this scene it's just as bad and overly magical as that previous one maybe even worse because last of the time laws at least had the whole archangel thing going on it's just a personal gripe but i don't vibe with this resolution especially because i simply don't care for amy or the whole fairy tale stuff in series five so it makes me roll my eyes and groan every time especially because she still tries to bong him even after all of this showing she's learned nothing at all you absolutely definitely may kiss the brain throughout our two companions have often left when they get married one of the biggest examples of this is the end of the green death where joe grant gets married and the doctor slips away during the reception because he doesn't like goodbyes the ending of the big bang pays homage to that with the doctor leaving amy and rory to enjoy their married life without him because that's what the doctor does that's who this incarnation is he doesn't like endings however after river shows up to enigmatically continue her pointless mystery box existence because moth is obsessed with her amy and rory catch up for the doctor and stop him running away from them i'm in two minds about this i would have liked the continuation of him leaving at weddings especially since amy and rory's shared story wrapped up quite nicely during this episode but it's also always good to see companions seeing through the doctor's deceit in these moments like with donna at the end of a runaway bride so is a mixed bag also because there's still way too much going on when it comes to the smith era series arcs we get the promise of the doctor trying to find out who blew up the hardest and why sowing the seeds for a longer narrative arc yeah don't get too hopeful about that the grand conclusion of this comes in one throwaway line and a christmas special three years later fun times a lot of dropship stories can be summed up as a game of two halves with one good part and one bad part however i don't think there's a story that collapses quite as spectacularly as the pandora opens and the big bang the first episode is great but the second episode is absolutely atrocious there's some fantastic and fun moments but the overall two-parter feels like style over substance so much of it makes no sense from the alliance to plot holes with rory it's one of the flimsiest narratives in the entire show it relies on your love of the characters and the individual brilliance of set pieces to make you enjoy it rather than delivering on a plot you can both enjoy and easily follow there's so much missed potential and the resolution of the universe exploding feels way too overexplained for something that ultimately doesn't make a huge amount of sense as a whole i think this two-part averages out to a c rank it feels grand and epic but it's way too ambitious for its own good running into a lot of the problems davis era finales did especially with the reset button after moffat wrote himself into a corner by up in the ante too much matt smith and arthur darval's performances are definitely highlights but i just find the story overrated and disappointing the big bang has horrific pacing taking 30 minutes to actually get to the point pretty much obliterating any enjoyment i had of the overall story and yes according to mother the title is a sex joke because of course it is i know this video will rile up all the moffat supporters because according to some of my viewers he can do no wrong and he has never made a mistake in his career so by all means feel free to scream at me for not having a high enough iq to understand this genius finale because i know that's what you people will do and i'd like to give an extra special thank you to my diamond level patron family quarters and all my gold level patrons alex marston basil disco phd calvin daniel shielito franzwan ak line vortex george ceon wagner and steph never miller thank you so much for your support

Channel: Harbo Wholmes

Views: 76,429

Keywords: harbo wholmes, doctor who, harbo wholmes doctor who, doctor who season 5, doctor who 2010 series, dr who, doctor who series 5, doctor who matt smith, eleventh doctor, karen gillan, doctor who amy, amy pond, Doctor Who S05E12, steven moffat doctor who, matt smith, worst doctor who episode, best doctor who finale, doctor who pandorica, doctor who finale, doctor who flux, Doctor Who S05E13, Doctor Who Cracks

Id: gBgXYgzRUG8

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 02 2021