Pandorica reaction post!

[dbskyler]

How do I even begin to react to this? Well, let's start at the beginning, and take things roughly in order:

Vincent! I must confess that when I saw that opening shot, I was worried that BBCA had pulled a fakeout on me and re-run "Vincent and the Doctor" instead of part one of the finale. It took me a moment to realize that I was in fact watching the new episode.

River! It was great to see her again, even though it wasn't a surprise. However, I was disappointed that she was already in the storm cage -- I had been expecting that the events of the Pandorica opening would be the events that caused her to be incarcerated. Apparently not, though. Does this mean we don't get to find out who River kills? I'll be disappointed if that's the case, and expecting Moffat to make it up to me next season.

I could have done without Churchill and Liz 10. I'm also not sure how I feel about River's Han Solo-esque wheeling and dealing.

Graffiti on the cliff face was clever, but not as clever as graffiti on the box-which-will-be-a-museum-piece. Is this going to be a running gag with River? I'm surprised she stuck to psychic paper in "Silence in the Library"! How mundane!

Vincent's painting of the exploding TARDIS was appropriately chilling.

Leave it to Moffat to make a Cyberman scary again. I'd been getting bored of them, but not after that empty head started going after Amy.

Rory! Rory's back! It's ROOOOOOORRRRRRRYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Then we got that scene between the Doctor and Rory, the "I'm missing something important, Rory" scene. I LOVE that scene. Seriously, I think it is my favorite Eleventh Doctor scene yet. The only problem was, the first time I saw it I was shrieking so much with laughter and general "OMG it's Rory, Doctor, catch on already!", I couldn't hear what the Doctor was babbling on about. But it's not a problem, as I've gone back to re-watch the scene something like five times or so since then. It still makes me howl with laughter. I especially love it when the Doctor pokes him. And then when the Doctor gets all happy for a moment. I also love the conversation later when Rory asks, "How am I here?" and the Doctor says, "Because you are." What a lovely and wonderful conversation.

Too bad Rory turns out to be an Auton . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Daleks! Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans, oh my! Actually, I could have done without all of them, too. I was looking forward to a new, horrendous monster to come out of the Pandorica, and wondering what it could possibly be, and like the Doctor, wondering if we'd met it before (I had visions of Sutekh . . . )

But the idea that it's the Doctor who goes into the Pandorica was pretty cool, I do have to admit it. Except -- now the Doctor's locked in the Pandorica! Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did like the name-checks on all those old Doctor Who aliens. I especially liked the Zygons. But how come there were Silurians there? Shouldn't they all be asleep? Did the Daleks wake them up just to get them to help build the Pandorica?

Speaking of Daleks, the bit about all universes exploding sounded an awful lot like Davros' plan during the finale of S4, so I don't think they have the right to complain, personally.

Triple cliffhanger! The Doctor's been sealed into the Pandorica! River's locked inside a TARDIS that is apparently about to explode! Amy's been shot by Rory! Oh NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now, some thoughts:

--Overall, that was a very fun ride.

--I think that the mysterious force controlling the TARDIS is going to turn out to be the Doctor. I really hope that it will turn out to be Jacket!Doctor. In fact, I admit it, I will be very disappointed if we don't get Jacket!Doctor.

-- I don't think the TARDIS will explode, mostly because if it was going to explode, I think we would have seen it do so in the cliffhanger. A few bangs and flashes of the console do not an explosion make.

-- I really hope that Real Rory will come back. This episode just made me realize how much I've missed him. Time can be rewritten! Except for when the Doctor is part of events, like, um, when Rory was killed. But that's okay, because the Doctor can still save dead companions! Except for Adric. And all the rest. Okay, um, well, maybe Rory wasn't quite dead yet? Because cracks in universes erasing people can be unwritten, I'm pretty sure of that . . . right?

Is it next Saturday yet? How about now? Or now? Or now?