'Doctor Who' - 'The Pandorica Opens' Recap

(S05E12) Tonight's episode accomplished something pretty major for Matt Smith's incarnation of the Doctor. I won't go into what until after the jump for fear that the Spoiler Police will clap me in irons, but the image along with this article is a pretty big clue.

This episode highlighted one of Moffat's greatest strengths as a writer: the ability to weave an interconnected story using plot points that viewers would dismiss as unimportant. As with RTD before him, the penultimate episode of the season brings together all the hints we've seen before and the last episode will be their resolution.

It must be a logistical nightmare to have an episode that occurs after the end of the universe like the next in the series, but 'Doctor Who' has done it before and it's the sort of thing Moffat excels at. It's one of the reasons I love this show.

The Doctor's enemies have had alliances before, but never to this degree. Everyone seemed represented except for the renegade Time Lords he has fought (most notably the Master. Where was he? Perhaps he was the voice. But I digress ... ). It should be no surprise that all of them have developed technology to communicate through time and space via the cracks. The Pandorica itself was presumably set up by the Cybermen with instructional help from the other races. Apparently the only reason we didn't see many of those other races mentioned by the Doctor was the limitations of the BBC wardrobe department (it would have been nice to see the Chelonians).

The major accomplishment of this episode that I mentioned before is that it allowed Matt Smith's Doctor to have fought with all of his non-Time Lord enemies. Moffat won't feel obligated to throw in a Cybermen episode or a Sontaran episode because they've been covered. It gives him more creative freedom for future seasons. That's utterly brilliant.

Another revelation was that Amy's thoughts were apparently directing the enemy in their plan. This entire incident reeks of a mastermind behind it, manipulating the Daleks, Cybermen and everyone else. Who destroyed the TARDIS? Who said beforehand that "silence will fall"? I have some ideas (see above), but let's see where Moffat takes it.

When the Doctor was describing the "prisoner" in the Pandorica as a warrior and trickster, I thought to myself how apt a description that was of the Doctor himself. Little did I know ...

In case it wasn't mentioned, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were at the top of their acting game this time around. Kudos to all.

And now, the extra-nerdy bits ...

'Doctor Who' has always had subtle nods to its own long history when it was relaunched in 2005 and tonight was no exception. Under River's message on the cliff face were the letters Theta and Sigma. Theta Sigma was the Doctor's nickname in school, which was established during the Tom Baker era of the show.

Unlike River's statement, not all of the races that were conspiring against the Doctor actually hate him. The Doctor is actually a noble in Draconia. However, time is wibbly-wobbly and timey-wimey and its possible that the Draconians had their own motivations for helping imprison the Doctor.

Overall, an enjoyable episode. What did you think?