The Pandorica Opens (TV story)

The Pandorica Opens was the twelfth episode of series 5 of Doctor Who. It was the first of a two-part series finale. Its narrative concluded in the following episode. River Song made a reappearance in this episode, as did the Autons, along with the stunning return of Rory Williams, after losing his life and every trace of his existence, save one link that provided the means for his resurrection.

At the time of its release, it was unique amongst BBC Wales series finales as the first series-ender with significant principal photography outside Wales. It was also the first to have been the Doctor Who debut of its director and cinematographer. It was the first finale to have used major guest actors — aside from companions — who had featured in previous single episodes of the series. Finally, it featured the largest number of individual alien species seen in a single episode of Doctor Who ever.

Synopsis
A Van Gogh painting ferried across thousands of years offering a terrifying prophecy, 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 hides a legendary prison-box. As it slowly unlocks from the inside, terrible forces gather in the heavens. The fates are closing around the TARDIS. The Pandorica, which contains the most dangerous threat in the Universe, is opening. Only one thing is certain: "The Pandorica will open... Silence will fall".

Plot
In France in 1890, Vincent Van Gogh, who has finished his sunflower painting and dedicated it to Amy, screams and sobs unceasingly. Doctor Gachet and Madame Vernet are at his bedside; Gachet tries to calm Vincent with Venet complaining about how much worse Vincent's screaming is compared to his drinking as the whole neighbourhood can hear him. Gachet firmly tells Venert Vincent is ill before she notes the painting displayed on a nearby easel is worse than his usual work. Gachet stops attending to Vincent briefly to see the painting; both wonder what it can be.

In the Cabinet War Rooms in 1941, Professor Edwin Bracewell (now with a working replacement left hand) carries a rolled-up canvas to Winston Churchill's office. Bracewell shows it to the Prime Minister, explaining it's a Van Gogh original found behind a wall in an attic in France. Obviously, the painting is a message; Churchill doesn't understand it. However, Bracewell points out that he's not to understand it, but to deliver the message instead; they both know who needs to see it.

At the Stormcage Containment Facility in 5145, a guard answers the phone outside River Song's cell and says there is no "Doctor" in the prison. River tells the guard she's entitled to phone calls and receives the phone. Once she realises it's not the Doctor on the other end of the line, Churchill demands to know where the Eleventh Doctor is. River explains that phoning the Time Vortex doesn't always work; however, the TARDIS cleverly rerouted the call to her. River demands the message. She returns the phone to the guard and asks if this is his first day. When he says it is, she apologises and kisses him. Her hallucinogenic lipstick makes him delirious and enables her escape.

In the Royal Collection that same year, River walks among the paintings in the gallery. She finds the one she is looking for, but trips an alarm on her way out and is held at gunpoint by Liz 10. River asks Liz if she has met the Doctor, making the Queen smile while remembering her adventure with him; she explains to Liz that the Doctor is in trouble, making the Queen wonder why she is stealing a painting if it's true. River explains the Doctor must see the painting; she has Liz look at the painting, which horrifies the Queen.

River speaks to Dorium Maldovar at the Maldovarium. Dorium has heard rumours that she is seeking time travel; he offers her a vortex manipulator taken from the wrist of a Time Agent. Dorium informs her that it is not cheap, wondering if she's brought him another "pretty toy." River offers him a Callisto Pulse, which can deactivate micro-explosives from up to twenty feet away. Dorium wonders why he'd need it and learns that she had slipped some micro-explosives into his wine.

In the TARDIS, Amy is sitting on the swing below the console floor, examining the ring she found in the Doctor's jacket before. The Doctor pops his head down from above, making her hide the ring. The Time Lord tells Amy that he has just had the most brilliant idea; they're going to visit Planet One, the oldest planet in the universe, where an undeciphered message has been carved into a diamond cliff face and never translated before. The TARDIS translation matrix will crack the inscription and reveal to them the oldest message in creation. When they step out to see it, the message reads, "Hello, sweetie," with a set of temporal coordinates carved beneath.

The coordinates lead them to Roman Britain in the 2nd century, where Amy notes that Roman history was her favourite topic at school. They are greeted by a Roman soldier with a lipstick smear across his mouth; he thinks the Doctor is Caesar. He takes them to meet "Cleopatra," who is actually River in disguise. he scolds River for her graffiti, only for her to retort that he doesn't answer his phone. She shows them Vincent's painting; they are shocked to see it's a painting of the TARDIS exploding. As the Doctor has already retrieved a TARDIS fragment from a Time Field in a Silurian city, this new find worries him greatly. He asks if it has a title; River informs him it's "The Pandorica Opens", and that Vincent left coordinates in the painting to lead him there. Amy wonders what it is; River explains the Pandorica is a prison designed to contain the most feared thing in all the universe. The Doctor then begins looking at maps, despite River's protest that it won't be on one; however, the Doctor says that if someone buried the most feared thing of all, they'd want to remember where.

The Doctor, Amy and River ride to Stonehenge to find the Pandorica. Amy explains to River that she warned them about this after climbing out of Byzantium; River says that she hasn't, but will. River's scanner also gives a reading that shows energy weapons have been fired on that spot, implying that the Pandorica is there. The Doctor quickly deduces that they need to get underground; by nightfall River has placed devices that move a stone on the ground away from a secret entrance. They descend, not noticing a Cyber-head, which begins to reactivate. They discover the Pandorica, much to the Doctor's disbelief, as he thought it was simply a fairy tale. He goes on to reexplain that the most feared being in all creation, a trickster soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies, who could not be reasoned with, was locked in the Pandorica. Amy wonders how; the Doctor says that like most fairy tales, a good wizard tricked it. River expresses her hatred for good wizards in fairy tales as she feels they always turn out to be the Doctor. Amy notes the name is similar to Pandora's box, her favourite childhood story.

The Doctor quickly notes the link between the Pandorica and the Romans... both of them have been claimed by Amy to be her favourites; he tells her that one should never ignore a coincidence, "unless you're busy; in which case, always ignore a coincidence." Scanning the Pandorica and the surrounding area, River finds its security failsafes are turning on and the box is opening. Amy then wonders how Vincent could know about it, prompting the Doctor to scan the pillars of the room; the pillars are acting a big transmitters, sending a warning to every across time and space that the Pandorica is opening. Poor Vincent heard the message in his dreams. River then makes the Doctor realise that anyone who can hear the message might be showing up; they quickly reverse the signal to scan for any time-active species, learning, much to their horror, that there at least ten thousand ships into Earth's orbit. Every one belongs to the Doctor's enemies.

They return topside, where they see several ships entering Earth's atmosphere. River warns the Doctor that "everything that ever hated you is coming here tonight," asking him to run for once. The Doctor ask where he can run, making River wonder how he can fight. The Doctor simply tells his worrying companions, "the best fighting machine in the history of the universe — the Romans!" The Doctor sends River back to camp to appeal to the Roman commander for help. However, he has realised that she is not actually Cleopatra and refuses. River fires a pistol shaped advanced energy weapon, disintegrating a cabinet to demonstrate her power. Before the commander can grasp the implications, a centurion arrives to volunteer.

Back at Stonehenge, the Doctor monitors the Pandorica and uses its force field technology to buy them half an hour. She then wonders what the Pandorica has to do with the TARDIS exploding, but the Doctor tells her that they have to focus on one problem at a time. Amy asks about the engagement ring she found in his jacket pocket. He explains that it belongs to a friend of his and that it's a memory of that friend; he says sometimes people fall out of the universe, but leave traces behind that can bring them back. Not getting what the Doctor is encouraging her to remember, Amy asks if his friend was nice. He then asks her if she remembers the night she flew away with him. He admits he was lying when he told her there wasn't a reason he was taking her. He draws her attention to her house; it's too big with too many empty rooms and her life doesn't make any sense. Before she can respond, a dismembered Cyber-arm shoots at them.

The Doctor tries scrambling its circuits with the sonic screwdriver, but knows it could be bluffing. Amy is ordered to stay a safe distance away, but she is grabbed by the wires coming out of the Cyber-head, which has worked its way down the steps, as the arm shocks the Doctor unconscious. The head grabs Amy's arms with its wires and opens, ejecting the skull of its last occupant and tries to assimilate Amy. She shakes the head off and it fires a dart into her neck. The head tells Amy she will be assimilated, calling its body to it; reattaching its head the Cyber-sit advances on an increasingly drowsy Amy. She takes cover in a side chamber, where she hears it banging on the doors in its attempt to get in. However, when things grow silent, she wonders if the Doctor woke and stopped it. Suddenly a blade comes through the door, barely missing her head and the doors open to reveal the Cyberman stuck to the door. Seeing a centurion on the other side, Amy asks who it is. The centurion steps into the light and removes his helmet to reveal Rory. Amy finally succumbs to the dart's effects and faints.

The Doctor wakes and enters the side chamber to find Amy alright. He initially doesn't register Rory's reappearance, as he's trying to puzzle out the latest attack. He notices that the room is a sentry box with Cyberman weaponry, and the "headless wonder" was a sentry that the Cybermen left behind that got damaged by the locals. However, the Doctor is only left further confused; is it a Cyberthing in the box? He then thinks better of the idea, knowing the Cybermen won't lock up one of their own. He tells Rory that he is missing something standing right in front of him. As he still hasn't really noticed him, Rory emphatically agrees; the Doctor says he'll figure it out in a minute. He leaves the room, only to return a moment later to prod Rory in the chest in disbelief. They have an awkward conversation. Rory knows he died near the Silurian city, but can't account for how he ended up in the 2nd century. They are alerted to the descending alien fleet and the Doctor leads the way outside. He stands on a rock and addresses his enemies over a communicator. He informs them that he has the Pandorica and it's opening. They have plenty of weapons, but he has nothing to lose. He reminds them of all the times he has defeated them in the past, and encourages them to consider who wants to go first. The fleet promptly flees.

Rory and the Doctor return to the Pandorica and try to make sense of what has happened; Rory explains his time with Amy and the Doctor felt like a dream he woke from when he found himself a Roman in this era. Amy wakes, but fails to recognise Rory, devastating him. The Doctor admits he can't explain Rory's appearance, supposing it to be something like a miracle, which he hasn't seen in all his years. He gives Rory the engagement ring and encourages him to go after Amy; "she's Amy, and she's surrounded by Romans; I'm not sure history can take it."

River tries to return the TARDIS to the Doctor, but the engine take-off noise is not quite right, making her wonder what's wrong with it. The TARDIS is thrown through the vortex and materialises outside Amy's house on 26 June 2010, the date of the explosion that caused the cracks in time and space. As she leaves the TARDIS to explore, a crack splits the scanner screen and a voice cries, "Silence will fall!" River notes landing patterns of alien crafts and enters the house. She realises it belongs to Amy. In Amy's room, she finds a book on Roman Britain and a copy of The Legend of Pandora's Box. There is also a photograph of Rory and Amy, where Rory is dressed as a centurion. All of the pictures from the books resemble things and people back in the second century, near the Doctor. She rushes to the TARDIS and, once there, contacts him to warn him.

The Doctor has become impatient with River and demands to know where she is. River explains her discovery and is confused as to how they can be fake as her lipstick works on them. The Doctor comes to the conclusion that these projections or duplicates may believe that they're real — the perfect disguise. However, when River tells him the date, the Doctor tells her about the cracks and to go to any other date to prevent them from occurring. When this doesn't work, he tells her to land and leave the TARDIS as the engines will shut down automatically when there is no-one inside. Though she manages to land, the doors are locked.

A piercing, shrill noise comes from the Pandorica, that can be heard above ground; the Romans begin falling asleep on their feet. Even Rory, who is talking to Amy, has to resist shutting down. The Romans wake and advance on the Doctor. They are Autons controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. They seize the Doctor, explaining the Pandorica is ready. Much to the Doctor's shock, he sees Daleks, Cybermen, Sycorax, Judoon, Silurians, Sontarans, Roboforms, Hoix, Zygons, Terileptils, Slitheen, and many other past foes materialise in the room. They explain that the Pandorica is ready for him; inside the box is a chair meant to hold one person.

Above, the Auton Rory continues to fight against the Nestene's command to drop his personality and join the other mindless drones. Repeatedly yelling that he is Rory, he manages to finally jog Amy's memory. She asks him if he remembers the ring he never let her wear in case she lost it; he shows her the ring. As Rory continues crying, Amy hugs him, saying she won't lose him again. However, Rory's Auton body betrays him as his hand opens to reveal the gun inside; he shoots Amy in the stomach. Amy hugs Rory as she dies; Rory is left to grieve while fighting for control of himself.

Back below, the Autons drag the Doctor to the prison and clamp him into the chair inside. The Doctor is aghast that all of these races have managed to form an alliance and asks how that is possible. They explain that it is an alliance against him, as he will cause the end of the universe. They know that the TARDIS will be at the centre of the explosion that ends the universe and (as they wrongly believe) he is the only one who can fly the TARDIS; they will imprison him in the Pandorica to stop the explosion. To lure him to this spot, they built the perfect trap, using Amy's memories as building blocks. He shouts his innocence, that the threat to the universe is the TARDIS, not him as the alliance doesn't know about River and that he can stop the explosion. The alliance refuses to listen to their hated enemy, and the Cyber-Leader orders the Pandorica closed over his desperate pleas.

Somewhere in time, River improvises a way to open the TARDIS doors by using a controlled explosion. However, upon opening the doors, River finds a stone wall blocking her departure. Apologising to her love, she turns to face the exploding TARDIS console just before it is destroyed.

Thousands of echoing explosions erupt across the sky, ripping the universe apart.

Earth is left in the middle of a spreading, black void.

Silence falls.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Auton Rory - Arthur Darvill
 * Bracewell - Bill Paterson
 * Winston Churchill - Ian McNeice
 * Liz 10 - Sophie Okonedo
 * Vincent van Gogh - Tony Curran
 * Dr. Gachet - Howard Lee
 * Madame Vernet - Chrissie Cotterill
 * Guard - Joe Jacobs
 * Dorium - Simon Fisher Becker
 * Claudio - Marcus O'Donovan
 * Commander - Clive Wood
 * Marcellus - David Fynn
 * Dalek Operator - Barnaby Edwards
 * Cyber-Leader - Ruari Mears
 * Commander Stark - Christopher Ryan
 * Judoon - Paul Kasey
 * Daleks/Cybermen (voice) - Nicholas Briggs

Uncredited cast

 * Dalek, Cyberman sentry - Jon Davey
 * Roman Extras - The Ermine Street Guard

Individuals

 * Vincent van Gogh has nightmares/visions about the destruction of the Doctor's TARDIS.
 * Winston Churchill attempts to contact the Doctor after Edwin Bracewell shows him Van Gogh's painting.
 * River Song steals The Pandorica Opens from Elizabeth X's Royal Collection.
 * River detects Fry particles around Stonehenge.

Locations

 * The Pandorica is located under Stonehenge on Earth. The Doctor calls it "Underhenge".
 * River Song is in prison in Stormcage Containment Facility in 5145.
 * The Doctor's TARDIS takes River to Amy Pond's house.

Planets

 * Planet One is the oldest planet in the universe. It has "Hello Sweetie" and space/time coordinates written into one of its cliff faces in a language only the TARDIS can translate.

Species

 * The Alliance consists of Atraxi, Blowfish, Chelonians, Cybermen, Daleks, Draconians, Drahvins, Hoix, Judoon, Nestene Consciousness/Autons, Roboforms, Silurians, Slitheen family, Sontarans (including Commander Stark), Sycorax, Terileptils, Uvodni, Weevils, and Zygons.

TARDIS

 * The Doctor's TARDIS can re-route calls to the vortex.

Technology

 * Dorium Maldovar who sells River a vortex manipulator says he got it off the wrist of a "handsome Time Agent".

Books

 * Amy has a book called The Legend of Pandora's Box.

Story notes

 * Almost every major enemy since the beginning of the new Doctor Who series, along with a few from the show's orignal run, are featured. The list of enemies seen include the Daleks, (TV: The Daleks) the Cybermen, (TV: The Tenth Planet) the Sontarans, (TV: The Time Warrior) the Judoon, (TV: Smith and Jones) the Hoix, (TV: Love & Monsters) the Weevils, (TV: Everything Changes) the Uvodni, (TV: Warriors of Kudlak) the Sycorax, (TV: The Christmas Invasion) the Silurians (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians) the Autons, (TV: Spearhead from Space) and the Roboforms (TV: The Runaway Bride). Also mentioned, but unseen, were the Slitheen, (TV: Aliens of London) the Nestenes, (TV: Spearhead from Space) the Chelonians, (PROSE: The Highest Science) the Drahvins, (TV: Galaxy 4) the Atraxi, (TV: The Eleventh Hour) the Zygons, (TV: Terror of the Zygons) the Terileptils, (TV: The Visitation) the Draconians, (TV: Frontier in Space) and the Haemogoths. (PROSE: The Forgotten Army)
 * In the fairy tale of the Pandorica, the Doctor is not the good wizard. Rather he is a "nameless, terrible thing soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos...[who would] just drop out of the sky and tear down your world." While the Doctor considers himself non-violent, his name means "warrior" in the native tongue of the Gamma Forests, and he is specifically referred to as such in the story of the Pandorica. "There was a goblin, or a trickster. Or a warrior." (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * This is the first episode to feature an in-narrative use of the time vortex seen in the series 5 title sequence.
 * The Weevils, Blowfish and Uvodni are the first aliens originally from a spin-off series to appear in the main show.
 * The Chelonians from the novels get their first mention in a TV episode.
 * When River starts mentioning the aliens that are approaching the Doctor, the Cyber-Leader and the Supreme Dalek are heard talking about their plan for the Doctor.
 * At least one reviewer thought this message on the cliff of Planet One was not unlike a scene in in Douglas Adams' book, So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, which featured the last message of God to his creation lit in flames on a cliff face.
 * This episode deliberately evoked the feel of the . River's scene at the Maldovarium is a gag drawn directly from the teaser sequence of '. The use of flambeaux in the cavernous "under Henge" was directly inspired by the teaser to '. Finally director Toby Haynes played back a cue from Raiders while filming the sequence of the Doctor, River and Amy entering the "under Henge" to give the sequence appropriate tempo. (CON: "Alien Abduction")
 * The disembodied Cyberman head tells Amy, "You will be assimilated." Though modern viewers might think this a line borrowed from the Borg, a Star Trek cybernetic species similar to Cybermen, in fact the line is in The Tenth Planet.
 * Amy Pond describes her deep interest in Roman culture. Karen Gillan's original appearance on Doctor Who was that of a soothsayer from Pompeii in The Fires of Pompeii.
 * The story is set at Stonehenge and the episode broadcast just a few days before the real Summer Solstice.
 * When River begins having problems flying the TARDIS, the Doctor tells her she's not flying it right, to which she promptly replies, "I'm flying it PERFECTLY. You taught me!". In their previous meeting (from the Doctor's POV), River mocked the Doctor for not being able to properly fly the TARDIS, always leaving the brakes on when it lands. She also implied that the Doctor might not have been the one who had taught her. It would be revealed in Let's Kill Hitler that it was the TARDIS herself who taught River.
 * This story marks at least the fifth time in televised Doctor Who that the fate of every universe is at stake. (TV: The Invasion of Time, Logopolis, Journey's End, The End of Time)
 * Amy doesn't know who the Cybermen are, despite meeting them in GAME: Blood of the Cybermen.
 * River's main costume in this story was deliberately designed to evoke both Princess Leia and Han Solo, so that she looked like, according to Toby Haynes, a "female Han Solo". (DCOM: The Big Bang)
 * According to Toby Haynes, this episode had no bigger budget, "and maybe even a little less", than other episodes in the series. (DCOM: The Big Bang)
 * Similar to TV: Rise of the Cybermen and TV: The Stolen Earth, this episode is the first part of a two-part story, and features no "Next Time" trailer at the end.

Ratings

 * 7.57 million (according to TV magazine)

Rumours

 * Many fans believed Omega would return. He does not appear in the episode as far as we know.
 * The Doctor himself is inside the Pandorica. At the climax of the episode, the Doctor is placed inside the Pandorica.
 * The Slitheen were among the villains mentioned by River approaching the Doctor. This was proven true; River says Slitheen whilst reading out the list.
 * It was rumoured that either the Timoreen, the Ha'rik, or the Skarkish would appear – primarily because these were all listed as "new aliens" to appear in Series 5 which had not already appeared. This was proven false.
 * According to the Radio Times, the Vincent van Gogh painting will be in Churchill's war bunker. This was proven true.
 * It was believed that the enemies would form an alliance; this was supported by the screen-shots depicting many of the Doctor's enemies together but not fighting. This was proven true.
 * Many fans believed Rory would reappear. This was proven partially true. He was an Auton duplicate.
 * It was believed the episode will take place on Gallifrey in the Death Zone. This was proven false.

Filming locations

 * Stonehenge, England
 * Margam Park, Wales

Production errors

 * The 1890 scene is set after Van Gogh famously cut his left ear in 1888, but the actor's unharmed left ear is briefly visible.
 * The Cyber-Leader's mouth glows blue when it isn't speaking, twice.
 * The Supreme Dalek's lights were flashing when it isn't speaking.
 * When River says the words, "And it's got something to do with your TARDIS exploding", as the Doctor bends down to examine the painting, a brief view of River's face shows that her lips aren't moving.
 * When the Doctor, Amy and River enter Stonehenge, the Doctor's fringe is on the right of his face. During the close-up of him, it's on the left.
 * When Amy is pushing against the Pandorica and discussing the Cyberman's arm, the Pandorica bends inwards slightly.
 * After the Pandorica is sealed, containing the Doctor, a light from inside is clearly visible through a crack between the two moving walls.
 * The Doctor takes Amy to a cliff of diamonds, but when we see it, it is made of rock and dirt like usual cliffs.

Continuity

 * Roman soldiers were among those humans abducted by the War Lords. (TV: The War Games)
 * The Tenth Doctor also rode a horse. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace, The Day of The Doctor)
 * Vincent van Gogh is sensitive to things others cannot perceive. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor) His painting is later discovered and brought to Winston Churchill by Edwin Bracewell. (TV: Victory of the Daleks) They attempt to call the Doctor, but instead reach River Song in Stormcage Containment Facility. (TV: Flesh and Stone) She then retrieves the painting from the collection of Liz Ten. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * While communicating to the alien fleet, the Doctor shouts, "I -- AM -- TALKING!!!" to shut everyone else up, similar to the Ninth Doctor addressing the Nestene Consciousness (TV: Rose) and the Tenth Doctor addressing Eddie Connolly (TV: The Idiot's Lantern).
 * Sentient Autons last appeared in AUDIO: Brave New Town.
 * The explosion of all the stars in the universe bears a resemblance to the night sky as viewed by Vincent van Gogh (and, by extension, the painting "Starry, Starry Night"). (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)
 * The Doctor starts to tell Amy about fruit flies from Hoppledom Six which live for twenty minutes and don't mate for life. Forgetting the point to that fact, he tells her he'll get back to it later. He does so later, when he lists a number of things you can do in twelve minutes, after finding out he has twelve minutes before his apparent death. (TV: The Big Bang)
 * Needing to buy some time, the Doctor goads the thousands of ships hovering over Stonehenge into fleeing back into orbit. Although she is not present to witness this, shortly after meeting the Tenth Doctor, River Song told him that she had seen "whole armies turn and run away" from "her" Doctor. (TV: Forest of the Dead)
 * River says (She) hates good wizards in fairy tales, as they always turn out to be the Doctor. The wizard Merlin of Arthurian legend was in fact the Seventh Doctor. (TV: Battlefield)
 * The writing on the cliffs reads "HELLO SWEETIE ΘΣ Φ ΓΥΔϟ". ΘΣ (Theta Sigma), informally Thete, was a nickname of the Doctor at the Time Lord Academy on Gallifrey. (TV: The Armageddon Factor)
 * The painting that Vincent Van Gogh dedicated to Amy, "The Sunflowers," is on an easel behind Van Gogh's sofa. The painting would later be shown at the Van Gogh exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)

Home video releases
BBC Video – Doctor Who Series Five – Volume Four features Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang. It was released on Monday 6 September 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray.