S5 EP13 The Big Bang

The Big Bang

EPISODE: 212B

AIRDATE: June 26,2010

COMPANIONS: Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song

VILLIANS/ALIENS/MONSTERS: Time Field, Stone Dalek

OTHER CHARACTERS:

LOCATION: Stonehenge, 102 AD ; Leadworth, 26th June 2010 ; Leadworth, Easter 1996; National Museum, London, 1996 ; Aickman Road, 2010 ; The Byzantium, 51st century

PLOT: In 1996, a young Amelia Pond has drawn a picture of the night sky, with the Moon and several stars. A psychiatrist called Christine explains to Amelia's aunt that there are no stars - the night sky is void of all light aside from the Moon. As they speak, a pamphlet advertising the National Museum comes through the letterbox, with a ring drawn around a cubic exhibit, and a note telling Amelia to be there. She goes along to the Gallery with her Aunt Sharon, where there are statues of strange machines on display. Amelia gets to the cube - the Pandorica - and finds another note. However, just before she finds it, her drink is snatched from her. The note says "Stick around, Pond".

After the museum's close - and an unsuccessful attempt by Aunt Sharon to find her - Amelia returns to the Pandorica.

She puts her hand on it, and the mechanisms on the faces of the cube light up bright green. The Pandorica opens - to reveal a grown Amy Pond.
In 102 A.D. the Auton Rory has Amy Pond lying in his arms, dead. He is comforting himself by telling her stories, when the Doctor appears using a vortex manipulator. He explains that he needs Rory to help him to bring Amy back. He gives Rory his sonic screwdriver to open the Pandorica and asks him to put it in Amy's top pocket when he's done before disappearing.

Rory goes to the Pandorica and re-opens it. The Doctor inside the Pandorica is curious, and realises that it is the same screwdriver but from later in its timeline. He then has Amy put in the Pandorica, since it is a prison so secure not even death can be allowed as a means of escape. However, to heal Amy, an exterior DNA supply is needed, and one can only be supplied in 2000 years time. The Doctor picks up River's vortex manipulator from near the Pandorica and prepares for a quick jump to the future, inviting Rory to come with him. However, Rory decides to stay and protect the Pandorica. The Doctor warns Rory to avoid heat, radio waves and trouble as even though he is plastic, he is not invincible.

In the Gallery, the older Amy watches a video exhibit on the Centurion - a man dressed in Roman clothes who followed the Pandorica wherever it went, protecting it; his last appearance was in 1941 when he was dragging it away from the crash site of an incendiary bomb. Meanwhile, the light from the Pandorica, a universal restorative field, has re-activated a Stone Dalek in the exhibition. Until touched by the light, the Dalek had been only an echo in time, as the end of the universe had caused everything to be erased, leaving stone forms around the Pandorica in 102. The Doctor appears, having used the vortex manipulator to return to 1996. A museum guard arrives, holding a torch, which the Dalek orders dropped. The Doctor explains it is not a weapon, and the Dalek can scan it. The guard appears unarmed, but then he raises his hand, which flips open to reveal a gun. He shoots the Dalek, temporarily deactivating it. The guard is actually the plastic Rory.

The Doctor leads the troupe away from the Dalek and then, with Rory's guidance, restores the timeline, helping the Rory in 102. Amelia asks for a drink, so the Doctor once again uses the Manipulator to get the one she had had earlier. Then, another Doctor appears. He has been shot with an energy weapon. He whispers something into the earlier Doctor's ear, before closing his eyes. The Doctor says the his future self is dead. The Doctor seems to only have twelve minutes to live. Young Amelia has now disappeared. The universe is still collapsing and things are disappearing from existence, with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory being temporarily immune since they are anomalies in time from the "eye of the storm". The Dalek starts reactivating, and the trio flee to the roof.

The Doctor finds that, with the loss of the Sun along with every other star in the universe, the object keeping the Earth warm is actually the exploding TARDIS, which, due to the machine's nature, is simultaneously exploding at every moment in history. He uses a satellite dish to pick up River Song's last utterance from the TARDIS, which is replayed over and over. The emergency program has locked the console room into a time loop to protect the occupant. The Doctor uses the vortex manipulator to rescue River and bring her back with him to the roof, but a new problem arrives - the stone Dalek has regenerated enough power to use its hover system.

The quartet run back into the building, but the Dalek follows them and shoots the Doctor. He activates the vortex manipulator as he begins to fall. As River occupies the stone Dalek by making it beg for mercy, Amy and Rory return to the stairs where they had left the body.

The body is not there. Since the Dalek weapon did not have full power, the shooting of the Doctor had not been fatal. He had only pretended to die in front of Amy, Rory, and his own past self. River joins Amy and Rory, reporting that the Dalek died. The three go back to the Pandorica, where the Doctor is strapped in with the vortex manipulator wired into the prison's systems. He plans to pilot the Pandorica into the TARDIS explosion, which should reset the universe, since the Light of the Pandorica's restoration powers can be released at every point in history. However, the only way to make sure it will work will be for the Doctor to seal himself on the other side of the cracks; everything in the universe will be restored except the Doctor, who will never have existed at all.

He says goodbye to Amy, encouraging her to remember her parents, whom he reveals weren't killed when Amy was young, but erased from history by the crack in time in her wall. He then pilots the cube into the maelstrom, resetting the universe successfully, and ending up, much to his surprise, in the TARDIS, circa a week before, when he and Amy went to "Space Florida", complete with an earlier version of himself and Amy. He calls for Amy, but while she seems to hear him, she cannot see him. His life then rewinds to Amy putting up the sign in a window about The Lodger lodging - Amy still cannot see him, and this time there is a crack in the road.

He then goes to the events that took place on-board the Byzantium, where he tells Amy to remember what he told her when she was seven. He then rewinds to 1996, where seven-year-old Amelia is waiting for the TARDIS to reappear in her back garden. The Doctor takes her to bed, and tells her about himself while she sleeps. He tells her about how he stole (or rather, "borrowed") the TARDIS, and describes it romantically as "Ancient and new, and the bluest blue ever." He sees the crack in the wall, and says that it can't properly close until he steps through. He expresses his dislike toward his current rewinding through his life, and says he'll probably skip the rest. As the crack in Amelia's wall closes, the Doctor walks into the light and disappears.

In 2010, Amy wakes up to her mother bringing in breakfast which her father has made for her. That strikes her as odd in some way she can't quite understand. She feels and acts as though she's not seen her parents before, but cannot explain why. She realises today is the day of her wedding to Rory, but feels as if there is something in her head, something important, that she should remember but can't. She phones Rory to see if he is in the same state, which he isn't.

At the reception, she starts to remember. She sees River Song walking down the road outside the windows after delivering her wedding gift: a blue book, River's diary - but the pages are all blank. This troubles Amy greatly. She sees a wedding guest straightening his bow tie, another with suspenders, and she begins to cry from sadness, even though she should be happy. Rory attempts to explain away the book with "the thing they say you should have at weddings". This train of thought leads Amy to a realization, as she finally realises why the book is so familiar; the cover design - eight square panels - is the same as that on the TARDIS exterior. As her father starts his speech, she tells him to shut up, and announces that her imaginary friend from her youth, the "raggedy Doctor" was real. She is greeted by awkward silence, with Amy's mum muttering "Not this again..." under her breath. She screams out at the Doctor, laughing at how he hid his memories in words, how the TARDIS fits the old expression for the perfect wedding gifts: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue..." As she cries out for the Doctor, a strange wind picks up and an alien noise fills the room. The TARDIS materialises, fully real, old and new, borrowed and blue, in the middle of the floor.

As Rory begins to remember, Amy opens the door, asking if she finally surprised the Doctor. He comes out wearing tails and a top hat; "Yes. Completely astonished."

At the reception, the Doctor dances manically, until the slow-dancing song, at which he stands aside. He returns to the TARDIS, which is now in Amy's garden. River Song appears and asks the Doctor if he danced, commenting that he "always dances at weddings." After retorting with "you tell me" the Doctor returns River's diary and vortex manipulator to her (mentioning that as the Universe has returned to normal the writing in the diary is back, but he didn't peek - something she thanks him for) and asks her if she is married, to which River replies "are you asking?" The Doctor says "yes" and then, realising he has unwittingly proposed to her, asks her to clarify her answer - specifically, was she affirming that she was married or accepting a proposal from him? After River teases him with further "yes"s the Doctor asks her who she really is, to which she replies "you're going to find out very soon now, and I'm sorry but that's when everything changes," before leaving via vortex manipulator.

Amy and Rory come to the TARDIS, encouraging the Doctor to "take the night off". However, the Doctor is still concerned as to why the TARDIS exploded - something led it to that date and deliberately destroyed it. He is also still unaware of the meaning of the "silence". As he ponders, he receives a phone call - an Egyptian goddess seems to have escaped onto the Orient Express - in outer space, somewhat concerning the royal who is on the other end of the line. As the Doctor finishes the call, Amy says her final goodbye, but not to the Doctor, nor to Rory. She waves to her house, waves her previous life goodbye, and closes the door. The Doctor smiles and fires up the engines, sending the TARDIS spinning through the Time Vortex.