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'Doctor Who' - 'The Big Bang' Recap (Season Finale)
by Brad Trechak, posted Jul 24th 2010 10:00PM
(S05E13) Only in a show like 'Doctor Who' can you end the universe and then have an episode afterwards.Showrunner Steven Moffat proved his writing chops in this one as he tied together the nagging issues of the season's arc fairly well. Of course, he did leave a plot thread dangling, but somehow I suspect he left it to deal with next season or quite possibly as a story arc for his entire run on the program. 2013, which would be 50 years of 'Doctor Who,' isn't that far away.
Had Russell T. Davies written this season, he would have had the Doctor fighting all of the enemy aliens we saw in the last episode and outsmarting them in the end with a deus ex machina. Moffat's way is better even though he used a completely different deus ex machina.
Moffat also accomplished the rather admirable goal of having an unrealistic ending, even by 'Doctor Who' standards. The show, however, has always been more fantasy than science fiction (just ask Terry Pratchett), so the ability of Amy to "remember" the Doctor into existence is forgiven. Hell, Moffat has been building up to it since the premiere and the idea of memory being the binding force of creation has been prevalent throughout the season.
There are still unanswered questions, of course. Who blew up the TARDIS? Who was the voice that said "silence will fall?" I suspect the two are related. It would be an awesome way to return the Master (the only major enemy absent from the lineup in the last episode). I'm just saying.
Did I mention that the episode was awesome? It was. When Amy's parents suddenly appeared at the end, I had originally thought that the cracks made them vanish, but then realized that it would mean Amy had never been born. The Christmas Special will represent the first time the Doctor has ever traveled with a married couple (Ian and Barbara were close, but not quite). It took a former English teacher as a showrunner to realize that the TARDIS is old, new, borrowed and blue at the same time. Moffat excels at writing non-chronological stories.
Once we learned that there were no stars in the sky, my first thought was how could Earth survive without the sun? Moffat's twist provided a nice explanation. It's funny how well those Vortex Manipulators work under the Doctor's care.
Now that the 'Doctor Who' universe has reset (again), Moffat can arbitrarily ignore events in the history of the program that inconvenience him which will probably include every attack on Earth by an alien species since the series was relaunched.
I still like David Tennant more as the Doctor. Perhaps it was the idea of "living the dream" in which a 'Doctor Who' fan actually got the leading role. However, Matt Smith has grown on me. Still, I imagine what the show would have been like with Tennant as the lead and Moffat as the showrunner. Ah, one can dream.
There's so much more to say, but I'll leave it to you. What did you think of the season?
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