S5 EP12 The Pandorica Opens

The Pandorica Opens

EPISODE: 212A

AIRDATE: June 19,2010

COMPANIONS: Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song

VILLIANS/ALIENS/MONSTERS: Time Field, The Alliance, The Silence

OTHER CHARACTERS: Dorium, Claudio, Amy's Mother

LOCATION: France, 1890; London, England, 1941; Stormcage Containment Facility, 5145;
Royal Collection, 5145; The Maldovarium, 5145; Stonehenge, Earth 102 AD; Leadworth, Earth, 26th June 2010; Planet One

PLOT: France, 1890
Van Gogh lies in bed, screaming. His doctor, Gachet and Madame Vernet are at his side. The woman comments on one of his paintings, saying it's worse than the usual ones.

Cabinet War Rooms, 1941
Professor Edwin Bracewell carries a rolled-up sheet under his arm. With Winston Churchill looking, Bracewell confirms the canvas to be a Van Gogh original, and Churchill is advised to get a message to the Doctor about it. Churchill makes a phone call.

Stormcage Containment Facility, 5145
A phone call is received. A young prison guard, only on his first day, answers, and says that there is no Doctor at the facility. River Song is in the cell, and demands that she talk to the person on the end. Having received the phone she is informed by Churchill of Van Gogh's painting and it's message, until the guard takes it away. River realises he is new, and kisses him, using a hallucinogen in her lipstick to make him delirious, and she escapes.

River Song walks among the paintings in the Royal Collection gallery and finds the one she is looking for. However, on her way out she trips an alarm, and is attended to personally by the Queen - Elizabeth the Tenth. River tells her that this is for the Doctor, and Liz recognizes the name. Song shows her the picture - it is an impression of an exploding TARDIS.

The Maldovarium, 5145
River talks to a salesman at a bar, asking for a vortex manipulator from a Time Agent in return for a device for deactivating micro-explosives from up to 20ft - micro-explosives similar to those she had planted in the salesman's drink.

The TARDIS
The Doctor and Amy are in the TARDIS, and the Doctor has decided to go to the oldest cliff faces in history, made of pure diamond, to decipher the writings on the face that up until now have not been translated. When the TARDIS lands, however, the writing simply says "HELLO SWEETIE" and a set of temporal coordinates are written underneath.

The TARDIS lands in Roman Britain in the 2nd century AD, to be greeted by a guard. Amy comments on how the Romans, given that they were her favourite history topic at school, are unlike what she had been expecting languagewise. The guard takes them to "Cleopatra" - who actually turns out to be River Song in disguise. River shows the Doctor the painting, which given that he had retrieved a fragment of the TARDIS from a Time Field in the Silurian city in 2020, concerns the Doctor. River's previous warning to the Doctor, from her future self, that the Pandorica would open, also concerns him, and the Doctor decides to look for it.

He looks at the Roman maps, since if someone had built such a device, they would want to remember where they left it.

The trio arrive at Stonehenge to look for the Pandorica. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to search, and River uses a device from the 52nd century. The Pandorica is tracked to the underground, and they find the opening by night - also, by which time, nobody had noticed the Cyber-head on the ground, which begins to reactivate.

The Doctor finds the Pandorica, much more than just a legend, a large cube-shaped device with mechanics on the sides. There are many levels of security to this machine, and they are being de-activated one by one from the inside out.

The Doctor speculates on what it could have been designed to contain, and Amy says how similar it is to Pandora's box, her favourite childhood book. River detects a signal coming from the area - six pillars lining the entrance are transmitting outwards, and she detects at least ten thousand ships in orbit - she cannot detect any more since signals overlap and confuse her scanner - potentially there could be a million objects above the sky, among which are a Dalek saucer, a Cyber Ship, a Sontaran flagship, a Slitheen vessel, a Judoon Rocket and an Atraxi, all presumably after whatever the Pandorica contains.

The Doctor decides to call on the Romans to help, and River goes back to use her influence as "Cleopatra" to talk them into helping. However, the legion commander has arrived with news that Cleopatra is in Egypt - and dead. River attempts to talk the commander into helping, eventually resorting to using her disintegrator pistol to demonstrate her power. However, before the commander can react, a volunteer arrives.

Back at Stonehenge, a Cyber arm on the floor of the chamber has reactivated, sending bolts of energy from its gun around the room. The Doctor tries to pick it up, but the electronic grip function on the arm incapacitates the Doctor. By now, the head has also worked its way down using tentacle-like wires from the neck section and a sleeper dart from one of the pipes hits Amy. The head opens - it is a type-2 upgrade, with the parts grafted directly onto the body. The skull of the previous occupant is ejected, and the body attempts to assimilate Amy. Amy manages to shake off the head, which the body of the Cyberman - missing an arm - replaces the head. Amy takes cover in a side room, but before the Cyberman can get to her, it is killed by the volunteer Roman, who is actually Rory.

The Doctor wakes and notices Rory, hardly reacting, and begins his speculations again. However, after a few minutes, he notices and they go through an awkward phase. The Doctor decides to address the fleet of ships in orbit, while River goes to fetch the TARDIS for some technology. The Doctor gives a speech on how he had defeated most of those aliens at some point, and the fleet falls back, giving them about half an hour to think things through.

Once River is in the TARDIS, she attempts to go back to Stonehenge, but instead is thrown to 26th June 2010 - the date of the explosion that caused the cracks, as the Doctor previously discovered. She leaves the TARDIS just before an ominous warning is broadcast on the speakers - "Silence will fall", and then the screen at the centre console cracks. There are scorch marks on the ground, and River enters the house nearby, which has been broken into. By some of the things she finds, she deduces that this is Amy Pond's house, and finds a book on Roman Britain and Pandora's Box - things are exactly the same as they were where the Doctor is working - even the soldiers look identical. She attempts to return, but is instead thrown uncontrollably around the Time Vortex. She phones the Doctor to get help, who tells her to shut off the engines once he learns the date she is at - 26th June 2010. She can't deactivate the engines, so he tells her to shut them off automatically by landing and leaving the TARDIS. She lands, but the doors are locked.

The Romans begin falling asleep, but remain standing. Even Rory, who is talking to Amy and is not being recognized, begins to fail, but he resists. The Romans suddenly look up, and their hands fall away to reveal guns - they are in fact Autons, under the control of the Nestene Consciousness. The Doctor is escorted to the Pandorica, where he is greeted by the Dalek Supreme, Eternal and a single Drone, who have teleported in, and they state that the Doctor is responsible for the end of the universe. The Cybermen arrive and their Cyber Leader states that all evidence correlates - the Doctor is to blame. Various other species - Silurians, Sontarans, Judoon and Sycorax included - arrive and the Doctor realises that they have formed an alliance to save the universe from him. The alliance had built a perfect trap, using Amy's memories as building blocks. They believe that the TARDIS exploding will cause the end of the universe.

The Auton Rory is still fighting, but inadvertently shoots Amy while trying to resist the Consciousness' control. She supposedly dies in his arms. The Pandorica finally opens and inside is a holding cell, designed for a humanoid. The Daleks say that it is for the Doctor. The Doctor tries to protest, saying that it is the TARDIS that is the threat, not him, but the Daleks state that he is the only person who can fly it - since they are unaware of River's presence - and have him strapped into the holding cell. With the Doctor held firmly in place, the Cyber Leader orders the Pandorica to be closed but before it does, the Daleks say he will be prevented, he yells "Total event collapse! Every sun will supernova, at every moment in history! THE WHOLE UNIVERSE will never have existed, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!" River manages to open the TARDIS door, but in front of her is a wall of stone. She says that she is sorry, and the TARDIS console explodes. There are thousands of explosions across the sky, and Earth is left in the middle of a void. Silence falls.