Doctor Who (2005)

The Pandorica Opens (1)

Season 5, Episode 12, Aired 6/19/10

Episode Summary

Location: Multiple locations, primarily Stone Henge, UK, Earth''Date: Multiple dates, from 102AD, through 2010, to 5145''Enemies: The Alliance, The Silence''''A Van Gogh painting ferried across thousands of years, communicating a disturbing prophecy to the Doctor, a message on the oldest cliff-face in the universe and a love that lasts a thousand years. In 102 AD England, Romans receive a surprise visit from Cleopatra. Nearby, Stonehenge conceals the Pandorica, a prison-box of legend. As it slowly unlocks from the inside, terrible forces gather in the heavens above. The fates are drawing close around the TARDIS is this the day the Doctor falls? There is just one certainty: Silence will fall...moreless

9.2

EPISODE RATING: Superb

356 votes

Your Rating: 10

"Perfect"
Your Rating: 9.5

"Superb"
Your Rating: 9

"Superb"
Your Rating: 8.5

"Great"
Your Rating: 8

"Great"
Your Rating: 7.5

"Good"
Your Rating: 7

"Good"
Your Rating: 6.5

"Fair"
Your Rating: 6

"Fair"
Your Rating: 5.5

"Mediocre"
Your Rating: 5

"Mediocre"
Your Rating: 4.5

"Poor"
Your Rating: 4

"Poor"
Your Rating: 3.5

"Bad"
Your Rating: 3

"Bad"
Your Rating: 2.5

"Terrible"
Your Rating: 2

"Terrible"
Your Rating: 1.5

"Abysmal"
Your Rating: 1

"Abysmal"

Rate It

Watch Online

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Matt Smith

The Doctor
Karen Gillan

Amy Pond
Arthur Darvill

Rory Williams

Fan Episode Reviews (9)

See All

Mother of all cliffhangers

8.5

"Great"

By logossun, Nov 21, 2011 Report Abuse

I like that things are finally climaxing. This "tip-toeing" around the cracks in the universe/end of all things was getting a bit tiresome.
Now, there is almost too much in the final 10 minutes of this episode; the first part ties it all up, but then the mad dash begins.
I really like how the Pandora's Box was meant for the most powerful being in the universe - and judging by the little speech on the top of Stonehenge in which he "shooshes" thousands of alien starships, this may well be true.
The intricate ploy to capture the doctor is indeed monumental, as all these powerful races throw their considerable differences aside to capture him; it is worth exploring that their case has merit - the Doctor is, after all, a time and space traveler who frequently changes various things in the fabric of the universe, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he is indeed - the greatest threat to the universe!
Obviously, it will probably not turn out to be this way, but wouldn't it be the biggest shocker in British TV history?
I was a bit overwhelmed by the last 10 minutes, it seemed too forced and could use better spacing/timing and, please forgive me, but a couple of times my thoughts were: "Oh, man, how great Tenant would be here".
Looking forward for Part 2!moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
9 5
Fantastic cliffhanger but raises a lot of questions.(SPOILERS)

7.0

"Good"

By youngmeph, Nov 21, 2011 Report Abuse

I thought this episode was good for a penultimate episode, it ticked all the boxes; brought in a lot of enemies for the Doctor to face,gave some hint to explaining what's been happening throughout the series and having a a great cliffhanger at the end. I loved the opening scene which brought many of the Doctors friends together and followed one painting through a huge span of years. It was great to have River come back, especially considering she's a bit less smug this time around and I've got to say I found the scene between Rory and The Doctor was quite funny. On a small note I'm glad we had a finale which didn't revolve around the Daleks (though I liked some of the previous finales I did think the Dalek storylines got a bit repetative)
However there were a few things I didn't like. The fact that all the Doctors enemies came together to imprison him was a fresh idea but it raised a lot of questions; How come the cybermen are back in this universe and at pretty much full strength? The last time we saw them the Doctor destroyed them all and the time before that he sent them all into the void. Plus The Doctor mentions that there a large number of Dalek ships in the atmosphere (somewhere in the hundreds) but there were only five last time we saw them and they only had one damaged ship, so the Daleks have managed to replicate an army yet have not done anything with it, like I mentioned I like the fact that the last few episodes don't revolve around the Daleks but still at least give some reason why the Daleks haven't tried to exterminate the rest of the universe. The Doctor using the roman army to defend the pandorica, admittedly they weren't real soldiers and they didn't actually fight any of the aliens but if they were human and had actually fought then they wouldn't have lasted five minutes, why would the Doctor put people in danger when he knows they can't win, I mean what are they going to do? Throw spears at the Spaceships? One other thing; how does the doctor know the pandorica is at stonehenge? There's a ton of exposition which brings the Doctor to the the right time but then he just up and rides to stonehenge and don't say why.
All in all a good set up for the season finale hopefully it will answer all the questions.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
7 1
the doctor takes amy rory and river to stone hnge were alians attack them so do roman robot's [and rory is one]river is in the tardis witch is about to destroy space the mosters lock the doctor in the pandorica then boom.moreless

9.5

"Superb"

By jamieor, May 15, 2011 Report Abuse

it was good and cofusing i loved it.
featuring my favrot ailien the sicorax who did not play a magor roll but evry one count's.
it was oh i'd say 3rd or 4th best 11th doctor episode yet but time of the angel's is better but flesh and stone is even better than that it has one of the scaryest monsters ever in it the weaping angel's.
the pandorica alince does not hav any of the 5 scaryest monster's in it [weping angel's silent children silence varesc nerada and scarecrow's]
i think it was a very good episode the actor's did very well.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
1 0
Sometimes the end justifies the means.

9.0

"Superb"

By noelveiga, May 07, 2011 Report Abuse

For instance, if I told you that this episode of Doctor Who holds what may be the best cliffhanger in the history of the show, what would be worth reaching that objective?

Perhaps a rushed first act, in which the story skims through history and last season like a clip montage for the sake of getting the characters where the story needs them to be? Perhaps a disjointed second act, in which each scene barely manages to stumble onto the next for no apparent reason, not to mention hold a number of inconsistencies? Ok, for the sake of internet review ranting, about that last bit, how does anybody stab through a Cyberman AND a wooden door using a sword, and if that is supposed to be explained by the culprit being somehow superhuman, how does nobody notice that? Why does the Doctor ride a horse to Stonehenge but then sends River back to the TARDIS for "equipment"? How do the bad guys extract memories of Rory from Amy's mind in 2006 if Rory has never been born? How in the world does a Cyberman continue to operate in pieces after spitting out the human head from the helmet? Isn't the whole point of Cybermen to operate a robot body using a human brain? If the Cybermen work without a brain in them why do they bother capturing and "assimilating" humans?

Ok, anyway, it's Doctor Who, it rarely makes sense. Only normally it's for the right reasons. Still. But if you put up with all that what you get is a great, great payoff. It's a great reversal that, to be frank, I did consider beforehand but still came as a surprise. It also is a gorgeous reversal of the "Doctor vs the monsters", in which we get to examine that maybe all those races perpetually locked in mortal combat against the Doctor actually think HE is the monster and, given the horrible things he has done both directly and by omission, they probably have a fair point.

Building an episode around a cliffhanger like this has the downside that it will live or die in history by the quality of its second part, but I've said before that crazy cliffhangers in wihch the odds seemed absolutely and ridiculously impossible to beat were my favourite part of the classic series, so I won't pretend I didn't love this one.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
10 1
Thanks to his allies, Vincent, Winston, Liz 10 and River, the Doctor learns the futur of his Tardis in a painting that echoes the final words that Prisoner Zero taunted him with: "The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."moreless

9.0

"Superb"

By 10thdoctorfan, Mar 26, 2011 Report Abuse

The Doctor has come to a great trial in his 11th life. He now fears his Tardis will blow up and end exestence itself. Following the hints River left on the daimond clifface on planet one, the Doctor goes to britan in 0102, where he meets River's past self. (She hadn't experience the Byzxantium crash yet)
He deduces that if you're going to leave the most danegrous being in the universe locked away in an inescapable prison, you'd want to remeber where you buried it, leading them to stone headge, which was still old even then.
Folllowing the Tv.com comment, IS that picture REALLY from a deleted scene or was jsut a teaser.
With nightfall, the scattered parts of a Cyberman trying to kill the Doctor and assimulate Amy into it, due to its human ocmponet dying. When the Doctor tries to figure out what's firing at them at first, and jumps out yelling 'look at me! i'm a target!' i couldn't help but laugh. Oh, big shocker that the Roman soilder that saves a drugged Amy from the gimp Cyberman body is RORY. When River told the Doctor that Stone hedge had been broadcasting the opening of the pandorica to several times, even to Vincent's mind, leading the poor fellow to deeper insanity, he is fearful to learn a garison of at least of 10000 starships are gathering around the Pandorica, made of several species that hate him greatly.
The species included: Atraxi, Blowfish, Chelonians, Cybermen, Daleks, Draconians, Drahvins, Haemogoth, Hoix, Judoon, Zygons, Weevils, Autons, Roboforms, Nestene Consciousness, Silurians, Slitheen, Sontarans, Sycorax, Terileptils,& Uvondni.
They foolishly thought by imprisoning the Doctor in the Pandorica, they could avoid the creation of the Time Feild that would end all exestence, but this backfired as the Silence possessed the tardis and blew it up on Amy's wedding day.
As the Pandorica closed slowly, the Doctor tried warning the Alliance of the threat still looming.
"Total event collapse! Every sun will supernova, at every moment in history! The whole universe will have never existed, please listen to me!"
The Pandorica seals itself with the Doctor inside, with his arrogant, proud enemy relishing saving the universe and too stupid to realize the end is now.
River gets trapped inside as it blows up saying, I'm sorry my love as several explosion fill space.
Everything but the earth vanished into darkness, silence has fallen...moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Write a Review

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

Trivia
ADD TRIVIA
- When the Pandorica opens and the Doctor says "The final phase. It's opening," the shot is flipped. In that shot, Matt Smith's hair falls on the left side of his face, when it normally falls on his right, while it falls on his right side just before and just after that shot. Edit
- When Vincent Van Gogh is shown, his left ear is intact. But by 1890, he had cut off the lower lobe. Edit
- Commander Strak's name is misspelled "Stark" in the closing credits. Edit
Notes
ADD NOTES
- The image that appears at the top of this page is not actually in the episode that aired on television. Possibly from a deleted scene? Edit
Quotes
ADD QUOTES
- The Doctor: One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down the world. Amy: How did it end up in there? The Doctor: You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it. River: I hate good wizards in fairy tales. They always turn out to be him. Edit
- Amy: It's weird, i feel.. I don't know, something. The Doctor: They fall out of the world sometimes, but they always leave traces. Little things you can't quite account for. Faces in photographs, luggage, half-eaten meals. Rings. Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And if something can be remembered... it can come back. Edit
- The Doctor: Go get her. Rory: But I don't understand. Why am I here? The Doctor: Because you are. The universe is big, it's vast and complicated, and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. And that's the theory. Nine hundred years, never seen one yet, but this would do me. Edit
Allusions
- Help by adding allusions to this episode. Add allusions