Rate and Discuss: The Big Bang

[SiHart]

It's the end of the series. The Doctor is in the Pandorica, Amy is dead, Rory's an Auton and the TARDIS is exploding as the Universe disintegrates...

How will they get out of this one?

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

Aw, I was hoping for "Was that bang big enough for you, Brigadier?"

[SiHart]

Oh I wish I'd thought of that!

And I thought you'd have gone for "We're heading for the biggest explosion in history!"

Si xx

[Jon Masters]

Sheldon's the best character, though Raj gets some great one liners.

[Alex]

Well that was an enormous disappointment - for me it's my least favourite finale yet. Last week was amazing, but this felt drawn out, tedious and just...rubbish.

3/10 - and that's being bloomin' generous.

Edit: Just to go in to a bit more detail: I just feel so let down by that right now - last week's moved at such a pace, and was so exciting, but this was so tortuously slow. Okay, the first 20 minutes were alright, but the Doctor and Amy being brought back to life was just oh so convenient, and then there was just lots of long and drawn out scenes until we reached (what I thought was at least) an incredibly predictable denouement with the Doctor's return.

It was just another rubbish use of the reset button, it never really felt like the Doctor was in danger, or anyone else for that matter. The only bit I liked was the Dalek's "Mercy" moment, and some bits with River Song, but bar that it just seemed so...pointless. Obviously the lead character's never going to die - at least not when we know another season's been commissioned, but the best episodes make me forget that and really worry for the Doctor - but I never felt that in the slightest here.

I'm annoyed that not everything was wrapped up, either, so we still have to wait til god knows when to find out what's really going on with River Song (which I'd been led to believe would be answered this year) and what the voice in the Tardis last week was.

Bah, it just felt so lifeless, and rubbish. And such a massive, massive let down.

[shada pavlova]

It's what I feared from day one.

An epic buildup, so much promise - but it was all spoiled by a rubbish finale.

I mean, the first half-hour or so was great, but after that, well...let's just say there's a reason stories tend not to end halfway through. I'm quite disappointed.

The only glimmer of hope on the horizon is that there are still some secrets left to be revealed (presumably in the 2011 season finale), but, to be honest, they could have dispensed with most of the last fifteen or so minutes and had more big reveals. That would have been the perfect end to a perfect series, and would have gone down in the annals of Whodom as the greatest year since...ever.

I honestly thought better of the Moff.

[Rob McCow]

Unfortunately I seem to have thoroughly enjoyed that, I thought it was brilliant, clever, witty, emotional etc.

So I'll keep quiet.

[SiHart]

I suspect the big revelas are still to come... it's an ongoing story, not closed completely at the end of a season. That, I think, is a great thing. A really great thing! It makes a change.

I loved it! It was clever and witty and scary and very Steven Moffat, but without the Steven Moffat-y bits I don't like. Fabulous end to a fabulous series of the show.

Si xx

[Martin Penny]

I thought it was all very clever, and a refreshing change from the typical epic-finale we've gotten for the past few years.

Unfortunately, my signal was lost at a pivotal moment, which left me rather confused about what was going on with Amy and the house...

Also, the stone Dalek looked much better than the other, ridiculously coloured Daleks, despite being the same shape. I kinda wish we had seen more of the big alliance as well.

[egdcltd]

That actually all seemed to make sense. Everything that happened seemed to have had a good reason for why it worked, often explained earlier in the series.

Still don't know who the mystery voice is and WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DUCKS?

[Andrew Curnow]

I thought it was one of the most enjoyable episodes of Doctor Who - in fact, of anything - that I've ever seen. It was complex, but not too complex, it was funny, it was unexpected, it was sad - quite a small cast, but all played superbly, Matt Smith in particular keeping the whole thing moving along, and being so dignified at the end... and then just heartbreaking when he reappeared.

Loved it!

[Dino]

Well that was that then.
Still never found out who that voice was? Lost a couple of points for some "knowing" dialogue. It didn't make the "Moonlighting" series any better, rather not see it on this show cheers!
Rather low key for a series finale wasn't it? I know the time scale was epic and the episode was extended, but I can understand how some felt cheated.
Still gave it an 8 though.

[SiHart]

I liked the Fez.

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

Me too - I particularly loved the way he said to River, "I wear a fez now".

Oh and I finally worked out who Rory reminded me of, it's Johnny Saunders from Chris Evan's Breakfast show.

I'm still on a happy high - energised & excited just as I was after The Eleventh Hour.

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh, and credit where it's due to the eagle-eyed who've been claiming for weeks that there were two Doctors in Flesh & Stone, which I've been dismissing as a continuity error being blown out of proportion. Clearly nothing is accidental in Moffat's Who.

Even the bowtie 'gag' had a bloody pay-off, brilliant!!

[Awesome Wells]

That was absolutely wonderful. There were a few tiny holes, but no cracks; and it's the flaws which make things truly beautiful, not absolute perfection.

[SiHart]

Moffat's attention to the little details is rather wonderful at times.

Si xx

[Alex]

I'm glad folks liked it, but I genuinely don't understand why...I feel ridiculously cheated by the way they tied up the cliffhangers to last week's episode, using the Pandorica as a magic box that can not only bring people back to life, but also fly in to a massive explosion and restore life to the entire Universe. I always thought it was supposed to be the ultimate prison for the Doctor, so why the enemies who created it added all those features is beyond me. To me it seemed another lazy use of the 'reset button' solution, which I really hoped Moffat would avoid.

[Lissa]

I feel better about it than any of the previous finales. Of course there was going to be some kind of reset button. The universe was destroyed. We need a universe and mainstream Doctor Who isn't about to have a whole new, strange, unknown universe created in place of the one with all the famous people, places and monsters in it. This is probably a good thing as previous attempts at creating a totally new universe soon disappear up the head writer's arse and become incredibly tiresome. I'm not specifically referring to Gary Russell but he'll do for the purposes of this sentence.

It was superbly written and the blipping back and forth in time, the surprise of Amy being inside the Pandorica and all the bits we saw from both the now and the then perspective were very Steven Moffat. It didn't always quite make full and complete sense but there wasn't that feeling of the day being saved by a magical thing that just happened to be there, not really mentioned before, and which did exactly what was needed. No special switch, no vortex super powers and no magic ring. Just bits and pieces that had been scattered throughout the series like clues in an Agatha Christie novel. If you're like me and you'll take Poirot's word for it because he is so certain and so well argued then you'll also take this episode's word for it. It showed its working which means it must be right.

It can probably be nitpicked to death but it felt right to me just as this entire season has felt right. It's a fitting end to the series and still leaves some important questions to be answered in later episodes.

[Larry]

a solid 8/10 for me people on other forums are saying that they were left confussed and that it all made no sense personaly I can't understand why as a lot of stuff has been sign posted right through the series and for me tonights episode was just a case of joining up the dots.eenjoyed the episode right from the moment the pandorica, open to reveal Amy pure magic by the moff that totally wrong footed me. There was a tear in the eye as the Doctor sat talking to young Amy as she lay asleep in bed. and the ending was both happy yet left some tantalising questions unanswered.

[Andrew Curnow]

To be fair the box of itself couldn't fly at all, it was only when the Doctor wired in the vortex wristband thingy.

I keep remembering little bits, which I'm sure will make my presence on this thread very annoying - but anyway, I really liked the exchange between Amy & the Doctor, when he's inside the box. Not asking her to remember him, or anything like that, his 'last thought' is to urge her to remember her parents because after this, they'll come back. So touching - as was the bit where he wakes up in the TARDIS thinking he's survived properly... only to discover that it's akin to his life flashing before his eyes.

And the dancing!!!

[egdcltd]

The reset button didn't seem to be magical, but reasonably logical. The Pandorica was a prison so powerful that it preserved parts of the universe as it was (as well as not allowing people to die). The TARDIS explosion reached all time/space so anything in it penetrated everywhere. The wristband allowed the Pandorica to be piloted into the explosion, jump starting the universe.

[Lord President]

Does anyone know why Ian Collier is on IMDB.com as Omega (Uncredited) for this episode?

[Awesome Wells]

Does anyone know why Ian Collier is on IMDB.com as Omega (Uncredited) for this episode?

"Spoilers!"

[egdcltd]

I didn't, but I can guess. That's probably a big spoiler.