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Yes, I know I've missed out the Christmas Carol. I'll get to it next, but I've written this now and it seems a shame not to post.
The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang is the finale of Moffat's first season at the helm of Doctor Who. It's an odd two parter with two distinctly different episodes, the first being a somewhat Davies-style, throw-all-the-monsters-at the screen in which a massive plot between just about everyone is revealed to trap the Doctor in a box, and then a part two which is much more of a chamber piece focussing in on the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River. The whole thing ends with a handwave which, in retrospect, is Moffat arbitrarily rewriting the Doctor Who universe so that he can ignore any past continuity that might prove inconvenient.
When I first saw this two parter, I quite liked it (judging from my review back then) and felt it was more coherent that Davies's season finales had been (admittedly not a high bar to clear). I think, in isolation, it probably is more coherent but its is very heavily embedded in Moffat's ongoing plot about the Silence, Demon's Run, River Song, the Death of the Doctor, the Name of the Doctor, etc., etc., which to be honest, I felt became less coherent the further it progressed. I actually strongly suspect it all makes a fairly tightly plotted kind of sense, but it was revealed in such dribs and drabs and involves so many disparate elements that I'd sort of lost interest in it before it was resolved and so, in my mind, its all kind of blurred into "names and stuff". In retrospect, therefore, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang suffers from being so reliant on some continuity I'm rather bored of.
What I liked about this two parter, on rewatching, was mostly Rory. Having spent most of his earlier episodes reprising Mickey's role as unwanted fifth wheel (albeit rather more sympathetically portrayed), Rory here slips easily and dramatically back into the team so that, by the end of the story, he is clearly a companion in his own right. Some of the best moments in the two parter are those between the Doctor and Rory, or Amy and Rory and while his wait as the lone centurion through the centuries is necessarily somewhat under-examined, it is a captivating idea.
It's a NuWho season finale and they are what they are. While they all have distinguishing features, they probably have more similarities than differences even across the divide between show runners. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang is, at the end of the day, fairly typical. It's not the worst by a long shot, but there is a lot of NuWho I like better than this.
metanews coding: <a href=http://louisedennis.livejournal.com/304211.html>NuWho Rewatch: The Impossible Astronaut/The Day of the Moon</a> (LJ) <i>Discussion of the sixth series opening two-parter</i>
The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang is the finale of Moffat's first season at the helm of Doctor Who. It's an odd two parter with two distinctly different episodes, the first being a somewhat Davies-style, throw-all-the-monsters-at the screen in which a massive plot between just about everyone is revealed to trap the Doctor in a box, and then a part two which is much more of a chamber piece focussing in on the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River. The whole thing ends with a handwave which, in retrospect, is Moffat arbitrarily rewriting the Doctor Who universe so that he can ignore any past continuity that might prove inconvenient.
When I first saw this two parter, I quite liked it (judging from my review back then) and felt it was more coherent that Davies's season finales had been (admittedly not a high bar to clear). I think, in isolation, it probably is more coherent but its is very heavily embedded in Moffat's ongoing plot about the Silence, Demon's Run, River Song, the Death of the Doctor, the Name of the Doctor, etc., etc., which to be honest, I felt became less coherent the further it progressed. I actually strongly suspect it all makes a fairly tightly plotted kind of sense, but it was revealed in such dribs and drabs and involves so many disparate elements that I'd sort of lost interest in it before it was resolved and so, in my mind, its all kind of blurred into "names and stuff". In retrospect, therefore, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang suffers from being so reliant on some continuity I'm rather bored of.
What I liked about this two parter, on rewatching, was mostly Rory. Having spent most of his earlier episodes reprising Mickey's role as unwanted fifth wheel (albeit rather more sympathetically portrayed), Rory here slips easily and dramatically back into the team so that, by the end of the story, he is clearly a companion in his own right. Some of the best moments in the two parter are those between the Doctor and Rory, or Amy and Rory and while his wait as the lone centurion through the centuries is necessarily somewhat under-examined, it is a captivating idea.
It's a NuWho season finale and they are what they are. While they all have distinguishing features, they probably have more similarities than differences even across the divide between show runners. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang is, at the end of the day, fairly typical. It's not the worst by a long shot, but there is a lot of NuWho I like better than this.
metanews coding: <a href=http://louisedennis.livejournal.com/304211.html>NuWho Rewatch: The Impossible Astronaut/The Day of the Moon</a> (LJ) <i>Discussion of the sixth series opening two-parter</i>