The Big Bang (TV story)

The Big Bang was the thirteenth episode of Series 5 of Doctor Who. It concluded the story that began in The Pandorica Opens. Though the Doctor rectifies the problem at the end of the episode, it left the audience wondering what the Silence was and why it wanted the TARDIS to explode. These questions are answered later in the next season.

Synopsis
The Alliance has trapped the Doctor in the Pandorica, the TARDIS has exploded with River inside, Rory has shot Amy, and the cracks have swallowed everything but the Earth and Moon.

The fate of all existence lies in the hands of a little girl who still believes in stars.

Plot
In 1996, Amelia Pond sits in her bedroom, praying to Santa Claus for help mending the crack in her bedroom wall. Believing she has heard something in her back garden, she runs to her window. The garden is empty. Later, she presents a drawing she has done of the night sky -- complete with stars and the moon -- to her psychiatrist, Christine. Christine gently explains there are no stars. The night sky is empty save for the moon. That night, Amelia overhears Christine and her aunt talking about her. As she eavesdrops at the top of the stairs, she sees a pamphlet advertising the National Museum slipped through the letterbox as a familar person wearing a fez quickly flees when she notices him. There is a circle drawn around a notice of the Pandorica exhibit and a note reading, "Come along, Pond."

Amelia and her aunt go to the museum. Amelia runs off and makes her way to the Pandorica exhibit, passing a variety of strange machines on display. At the exhibit, Amelia sees another note has been stuck to the face of the box. It reads, "Stick around, Pond."(When Amelia is running to the Pandorica,The Doctor can be seen straightening his bowtie.)

After the museum's close -- and Aunt Sharon's failure to find her -- Amelia returns to the Pandorica and sets a hand on it. Mechanisms on the face of the box glow green. The Pandorica opens to reveal a fully grown and resurrected Amy Pond, who says that this is where things get complicated.

In 102 A.D., a dead Amy Pond is cradled by the Auton Rory, comforting himself by telling her how the universe ended. Suddenly, the Doctor appears in front of them. He tells Rory he needs his help 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 finished with it, then vanishes.

Rory follows the Doctor's instructions. He opens the Pandorica to release the current version of the Doctor, who deduces the Doctor who contacted Rory was a future version. Hearing of Amy's death, he orders Rory to put her in the Pandorica. It is a prison so secure no one inside can escape, even by dying. However, to fully heal Amy, an external DNA supply is need and the nearest one is two thousand years away. He sets River's vortex manipulator for two thousand years in the future. Rory opts to remain behind to protect the Pandorica. He is still plastic, so the Doctor warns him to avoid heat, radio waves and trouble.

In the museum, Amy explores the Pandorica exhibit. She finds a video on the Lone Centurion -- a man in Roman armour who protected the Pandorica wherever it went. He was last seen in 1941, dragging the box away from an incendiary bomb. Amy realises he was Rory, but there is no time for her to dwell on this. The restorative light from the Pandorica has reactivated a stone Dalek in the exhibition.

The Doctor appears, having used the vortex manipulator to travel straight to 1996. The Dalek shoots at Amy and him. They take cover with the young Amelia. A museum guard appears and the Dalek deems him unarmed. However, the guard uncaps his hand, revealing a laser gun to disable the Dalek's weapons. Amy rejoices when she sees that the guard is the Auton Rory.

The Doctor leads the group away from the Dalek and, with Rory's guidance, restores the timeline by travelling back to 102 A.D. and ordering that version of Rory to let him out of the Pandorica. He leaves the notes for Amelia, all of which led her to this point.

As they head for the roof, another version of the Doctor appears at the top of the stairs, badly injured; he falls down the stairs and whispers something into the Doctor's ear before dying. The Doctor announces he has only twelve minutes to live. Amy is confused. The Doctor draws her attention to Amelia's disappearance. The universe is still collapsing, things are being erased from existence and the Doctor and his friends are alive only because they stand at "the eye of the storm." The Dalek begins to reactivate and the trio flee.

On the building's roof, the Doctor's attention is drawn to the "sun" in the sky. The sun was erased with every other star in the universe. The object keeping the Earth warm and light is his TARDIS, exploding at every moment in history. Rory's enhanced hearing picks up a voice in the sky, which the Doctor amplifies with a satellite dish. It is River Song, whose last words -- "I'm sorry, my love" -- are repeated over and over. The TARDIS's emergency protocols have locked the console room in a time loop to save her life. The Doctor uses the vortex manipulator to rescue her and bring her to the roof, where the group is shot at by the regenerated Dalek and forced to retreat to the museum below.

Running through the museum, the Doctor deduces that, along with the restoration field, the Pandorica contains a few billion atoms of the universe as it was; this explains how the Dalek returned despite being erased from history. The Doctor formulates a plan involving these atoms, the restoration field and the exploding TARDIS. Just as he is about to reveal it, he is shot by the Dalek who has followed them. He uses the vortex manipulator to disappear; Amy and Rory know where he is and go to him while River stays behind. She makes the Dalek beg for mercy, then shoots it dead.

Downstairs, Amy and Rory are confused. The Doctor's corpse is not where they left it. River returns to remind them the Doctor lies. He had pretended to die to distract them. The trio return to the exhibit and find the Doctor has strapped himself into the Pandorica. He will use the vortex manipulator to fly the box into the heart of the TARDIS, exploding at every point in history. The explosion will release the atoms of the preserved universe, restoring it. River gravely admits that the plan will only work if the Doctor seals himself on the other side of the cracks. The entire universe will be restored apart from the Doctor, who will never have existed at all.

The Doctor and Amy say their goodbyes. The Doctor encourages Amy to remember her parents -- who weren't killed when Amy was young, but consumed by the time field in her bedroom wall. He pilots the Pandorica into the explosion, resetting the universe and disappearing from existence...

...and sits up on the floor of the TARDIS console room. He believes he has survived being erased -- until he sees Amy and himself from a week earlier, travelling to Space Florida. He calls to Amy. While she hears him, she cannot see him. His life rewinds further; he is in a street in Colchester, watching Amy leave a note for him underneath Craig's advertisement for a new lodger. She still cannot see him. The Doctor notices a crack in the road behind him, sealing itself.

Next, he rewinds to the Byzantium; he approaches Amy -- her eyes shut to avoid being killed by the Weeping Angel -- and encourages her to remember what he told her when she was seven. He rewinds to 1996 and finds Amelia asleep in her back garden, eagerly awaiting his return. He carries her to bed and tells her the story of how he stole -- or, rather, "borrowed" -- the TARDIS, romantically describing it as "ancient and new, and the bluest blue ever." He sees the crack in her wall and tells her it can't close properly until he's on the other side, and steps through. The crack in her wall closes. She wakes to an empty room and quickly goes back to sleep.

In 2010, Amy wakes on her wedding day and is surprised to see her mother bringing her breakfast. Her reaction to her parent strikes her as odd and she has the lingering feeling there is someone or something else missing. When she phones Rory to see if he feels the same way, he blithely agrees. Amy excitedly gets ready for her wedding.

At the reception, she spots River Song outside, walking past the window. Rory presents her with a wedding gift someone has left -- River's blue TARDIS diary, all its pages blank. Amy begins to cry from sadness. Rory tries to explain away the diary by reminding her of the old wedding saying: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue."

Amy interrupts her father's speech to announce that her imaginary childhood friend, "the raggedy Doctor," was real and he is late for her wedding. Abruptly, the TARDIS -- old and new, borrowed and blue -- materialises in the middle of the room. The Doctor steps out, admitting that he is completely astonished.

Later, after dancing maniacally and amusing Amy and Rory, the Doctor leaves to return to the TARDIS, now parked in Amy's garden. River Song appears behind him. He gravely returns her vortex manipulator and her diary before asking if she is married. She wonders if he is asking, and he says, "Yes," then stammers when he realises he has just unwittingly proposed to her. River teases him with further affirmations. The Doctor wonders who she really is. She says he will find out very soon, when everything changes. She abruptly leaves via vortex manipulator.

Amy and Rory, still in their wedding finery, enter the TARDIS and encourage the Doctor to take the night off. He is reluctant -- they still do not know what led the TARDIS to the date of the temporal explosion and deliberately destroyed it, much less why. He also has not figured out the meaning of the "silence." As he ponders, he takes a phone call: an Egyptian goddess is on the loose on the Orient Express in space and the royal on the other end is concerned. The Doctor turns to bid Amy and Rory goodbye, but Amy runs to the door, bids her former life farewell and closes the TARDIS doors. The Doctor smiles and fires up the engines, sending the TARDIS spinning through the time vortex.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams / Auton Rory - Arthur Darvill
 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Young Amelia Pond - Caitlin Blackwood
 * Sharon - Susan Vidler
 * Tabetha Pond - Karen Westwood
 * Augustus Pond- Halcro Johnston
 * Christine - Frances Ashman
 * Dalek Operator - Barnaby Edwards
 * Dalek - Nicholas Briggs (Voice)

Cultural references from the real world

 * Prominent scientist Richard Dawkins is mentioned as being involved in a "Star Cult" which believes stars are real. Dawkins is a self-professed fan of Doctor Who and is married to former star Lalla Ward. They were introduced by his friend and former series writer/script editor, the late Douglas Adams. This was the second consecutive series finale to reference Dawkins. In the first he appears in a cameo role being interviewed about the planets in the sky (DW: The Stolen Earth).
 * The music playing to which the Doctor briefly dances very badly is "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by British rock band Queen.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor tells young Amy while asleep that he stole/borrowed the TARDIS.
 * The Doctor briefly sees the Saturnyns, Weeping Angels, Silurians, Daleks, the Star Whale, Craig Owens, Vincent Van Gogh, Dr. Black, some Smilers and a Supreme Dalek during his re-wind.

Individuals

 * River Song mentioned she once went out with a Nestene duplicate who had swappable heads.
 * Rory states he remembers being an Auton. He would later compare his Auton memories to a door in his head; he could open it when he wanted to, but tended to keep it shut. (DW: Day of the Moon) Having spent two millennia guarding the Pandorica, Rory became a very effective warrior, as shown in A Good Man Goes to War.
 * Tabetha mentions taking Amy to psychiatrists about her 'imaginary friend'.

Objects

 * The Doctor wears a fez during the episode. He believes "fezzes are cool". Neither Amy nor River are impressed by it, Amy grabs it and throws it in the air. River destroys it with her blaster.
 * The fez may have also been a small nod to DW: Silver Nemesis, wherein the Seventh Doctor briefly wore a fez while going through the storage room at Windsor Castle looking for Nemesis' silver bow.

Theories and concepts

 * The Blinovitch Limitation Effect occurs in a very small way when the Doctor taps the sonic screwdriver iterations together.

Story notes

 * This is the first episode in the entire history of Doctor Who where the current Doctor has interacted with a version of himself in the same incarnation. The Third Doctor spoke briefly with a future version of himself in the same incarnation in DW: Day of the Daleks, but did not have physical contact with his counterpart. Similarly, the Ninth Doctor saw an earlier version of himself in the same incarnation in DW: Father's Day, but did not speak nor interact with himself.
 * This episode was incorrectly entitled Cyber War and Enemies of a Time Lord.
 * Both the date of the in-universe 'unidentified explosion' and the real-world date of broadcast were 26/06/2010.
 * This is the second of only three times in the revived series this has occurred, the others being DW: The Impossible Astronaut on April 22, 2011 and DW: The End of Time on December 25, 2009.
 * The Pandorica and a Stone Dalek appeared in the museum that Amelia visited.
 * Rory and Amy get married in this story, and continue their travels in the TARDIS. This marks the first occasion a married couple have been companions.
 * This is the first time a BBC Wales finale does not feature the departure of a main character. However, it does result in a change of cast, in that Rory, who had previously been a recurring character who had ostensibly died, becomes a full-time companion in the final scene.
 * Amy is the first new series companion since Rose to travel with the Doctor through a whole season and to continue doing so after the finale.
 * The museum included a number of anomalies as a result of the altered timeline, including penguins in the Nile, Egyptians in the Himalayas and dinosaurs in ice.
 * This is the first finale of the BBC Wales series that didn't feature David Tennant; the first since The Parting of the Ways not to feature Freema Agyeman; and the first with no reference to the Torchwood Institute whatsoever. It is also one of only two finales not to include John Barrowman.
 * According to the DVD commentary, director Toby Haynes continued to use playback while recording this episode, just as he had for The Pandorica Opens. In particular, it was used with Caitlin Blackwood's solo scenes in the museum.
 * 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)
 * According to Russell T. Davies, closing the cracks in time resulted also in the closing of the Cardiff Rift.

Ratings

 * 6.7 million.

Rumours

 * A sinister voice declaring, "Silence will fall", in the previous episode The Pandorica Opens led some fans to speculate that Omega or another rogue Time Lord would appear in this episode. While this wasn't the case and the ultimate identity of the sinister voice is unknown, Steven Moffat has suggested the mystery antagonist will play a key role in the next series.
 * The Internet Movie Database incorrectly stated that Doctor Who veteran actor Philip Madoc would guest star. He did not appear.

Filming locations

 * Miskin Manor - Cardiff

Production errors

 * In the museum, when the trio see the "future" Doctor die, Amy walks up the stairs. The camera cuts to the Doctor, then back to Amy, when she walks up the stairs again. It was too quick for her to go back down the stairs.
 * When the Amy that has just came out of the Pandorica compares height to younger Amy and guesses the date, you can see a shadow back away from the side of the camera when it pans out.
 * In the museum, the Doctor is talking but a shot of him turning around shows that his lips are not moving
 * The museum scenes are set in 1996, but when the Doctor and crew make it to the roof, you see the Gherkin in the skyline - a building that was built in the twenty-first century.
 * When the stone Dalek rises above the museum to exterminate the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song just after they have destroyed the fez, the Dalek is the Supreme Dalek, not the stone Dalek. This is corrected when the camera zooms into the Dalek which is then seen to be the stone Dalek.
 * While travelling backwards, the Doctor is seen wearing the vortex manipulator in the TARDIS on the way to Space Florida. In the next scene, while telling Amy to remember, it is absent. It returns in the following scene when he picks up the younger Amy.
 * In the museum, after the two Amys, the Doctor, and Rory escape the stone Dalek, we see the Doctor use the vortex manipulator to go back and talk to Rory, as seen at the beginning of the episode. The third time, in the wide shot of Rory and Amy, Amy's abdomen moves from the actress's breathing. During Rory's speech at the beginning of the episode, there is faint breathing heard during his dialogue, probably from Amy.

Continuity

 * The Seventh Doctor previously held a mop while wearing a fez during his time at Windsor Castle. (DW: Silver Nemesis)
 * Rory describes the Doctor as: "He was the stripper at my stag..." (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
 * The Doctor travels back through his time stream, visiting the events of DW: The Eleventh Hour, Flesh and Stone and The Lodger. Also seen are the events of Vincent and the Doctor, Cold Blood, The Hungry Earth, The Vampires of Venice, Victory of the Daleks and The Beast Below. It is implied that he would have continued travelling backwards through his entire life, with all of his former incarnations, but that he decided to stop the rewind early by walking into a crack in time.
 * The Doctor states that fezzes are cool, much in the same way he has said bow ties are cool throughout the series. This may also be a reference to the fact Matt Smith wanted the costume to develop, even saying he would like a hat. (DW: The Eleventh Hour, Amy's Choice, Vincent and the Doctor)
 * The Doctor sends a message to River Song saying, "Geronimo", a catchphrase of the Eleventh Doctor. (DW: The End of Time et al)
 * The Doctor has previously been involved in the weddings of companions Sarah Jane Smith (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith) and Donna Noble. (DW: The Runaway Bride, The End of Time)
 * This is the second time that the Doctor has been seen to (willingly) dance. (DW: The Doctor Dances) In this case, however, he is an awful dancer - Amy shrieks "You're embarrasing!", but the children are clearly enjoying the spectacle (perhaps he deliberately dances badly to keep them entertained?).
 * This is the third time that the Doctor has been shot by a Dalek. (DW: Planet of the Daleks, DW: The Stolen Earth).
 * This is the third time a Dalek has been put on display in a museum. An empty Dalek casing was on display in the Space Museum (DW: The Space Museum) and one Dalek was kept in the Cage in van Statten's underground museum. (DW: Dalek)
 * Early in the episode, Amy's aunt states that she does not trust Richard Dawkins (who appeared as himself in DW: The Stolen Earth) due to his support for the existence of stars; in this reality stars didn't exist.
 * The Doctor last wore a fez in his eighth incarnation. (DWM: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game)
 * The Doctor says, "Gotcha", to Amy, a phrase which was uttered by both aboard the Starship UK. (DW: The Beast Below)
 * On this occasion, the younger Amy meets a future version of herself. The older Amy would have the same experience in DW: Space, DW: Time and DW: The Girl Who Waited.

Timeline
For the Doctor: For River Song:
 * This story occurs after DW: The Pandorica Opens.
 * This story occurs before WC: Vampire Hurricane.
 * This story occurs after DW: The Pandorica Opens.
 * This story occurs before DW: The Time of Angels.

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 6 September 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray see picture below. It was released on a full series box set on 8th November 2010 but as two sets. One is a limited edition steelbook and the other one is a Lenticular Sleeve.