wowza

This episode is just iconic.

It pulls together a bunch of plot threads from throughout the season as The Doctor is cornered by all the enemies he has faced up to now. River gets up to the usual antics, Rory's reunion with The Doctor and Amy is bittersweet as the Doctor remembers him but Amy has no idea who he is.

Of course, this episode has the legendary pandorica speech, one of the most memorable moments in the entire show, and Matt Smith does a fantastic performance here

If you hear me crying, it's because of this.

I can't see Matt Smith or Amy Pond sad, it instantly ruins my dad.

Man, at least when Davies brought out all the recognizeable faces for one last parading hurrah, he managed to pull some emotional weight out of it.

The Pandorica Opens is a strange beast, to say the least. On the one hand it has some really memorable moments with both Rory's return and the Doctor. You've got to love the part where the Doctor is able to bring entire armies to a stand still. And it feels like pretty good pay-off, of sorts, to some of the plot threads in Series 5 with The Big Bang. I do love all the costumes that show up at the end of this episode, yet another very memorable highlight that makes The Pandorica Opens more compelling.

There's serious issues with the writing here. It's very silly and awkward at times. Arthur Darvill and Matt Smith do some amazing acting, but it is that much more impressive that some of their lines are just really silly and over the top. I do like the detail that the allaince of bad guys basically cause the TARDIS to explode, kind of creating the problem they were trying to stop. In retrospect, it works okay with what we later learn about the Silence and the crack in reality being Gallifrey, but it is a little janky in these two stories. Still, these episodes work more than they don't, especially for showing just how far the Doctor's reputation can go at this point.