History Recap / DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens

->''"NO!! Please, listen to me! '''The Tardis is exploding right now and I'm the only one who can stop it! ''LISTEN TO MEEEEEEE--...!'''"''

-> "NO!! Please, listen to me! ''The Tardis is exploding right now and I'm the only one who can stop it!!'' '''''LISTEN TO MEEEEEEE--...!!!'''''"

[[ArcWords Silence has fallen.]]

The TARDIS and River have landed, but the screen is showing a mess of nothing. River goes out the door and the screen cracks. Suddenly a creepy voice from ''nowhere'' announces "silence will fall". They've landed outside Amy's house on June 26th, 2010. The door's been broken wide open and there are burn marks on the grass. In Amy's room, River finds a picture book of Romans and ''Pandora's Box''. They're exactly the same Roman soldiers from Stonehenge; maybe they're illusions, maybe they're cover-ups, but they were created from Amy's memories. Then she notices a photo of Amy and Rory together, the latter dressed as a centurion, and we realize that Rory is also a construct.

->''"Hello, Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica takes the Universe! But bad news everyone -- 'cos guess [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall who]]! Hah! Except you lot -- all whizzing about, it's very distracting. Could you all just stay still for a minute, because I. AM. TALKING!"''

----

'''Original air date:''' June 19, 2010

'''Production code:''' 1.12

Written by Creator/StevenMoffat, it is the first part of the 2010 series finale.

** The Cyberman head crawling along on tentacles is straight out of ''Film/TheThing1982'' or the facehuggers in ''Franchise/{{Alien}}''.

* HopeSpot: The aliens were scared off by the Doctor's BadassBoast! Rory's been brought back! Haha, no.

** RealAfterAll: The Doctor has passed off the Pandorica as a FairyTale, now he sees the real thing. Except it is just a FairyTale, and this one has been created by the allied villains as both trap and bait for him.

** BadassBoast: The boast, while awesome, did not really make the Legion of Evil Aliens flee, they just flew off to argue about who would get to take the first shot. Then the extra reveal: they weren't even arguing. They wanted the Doctor near the Pandorica. It was all according to plan.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Commander Stark for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem General Staal]]. Completely justified, as the Sontarans are a clone race, but it's still only the third time in the entire series, old or new, that the same actor has been brought back to play a different Sontaran. Since the Sontarans only appeared in four classic-series stories, it is even more justified.

** The Nestene Consciousness also applies, as it is now capable of creating fully lifelike Autons that can fool humans. The ExpandedUniverse also makes claim to the Nestene being the leader of the Alliance, meaning it managed to corral the likes of the Daleks and the Cybermen into an EnemyMine.

[[center:'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang TO BE CONTINUED]]'''[[note]]\\
Oh, and no "Next Time" trailer, either. Creator/StevenMoffat feeds on fear and anguish.[[/note]]]]

[[ArcWords Silence has fallen.]]\\\

->'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang TO BE CONTINUED]]'''[[note]]Oh, and no "Next Time" trailer, either. Creator/StevenMoffat feeds on fear and anguish.[[/note]]\\

Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans; they've all formed [[LegionOfDoom an alliance against the Doctor]]. They have deduced that the cracks in time are threatening reality and erasing all other universes, and that they have spawned from the explosion of the TARDIS. They're here to save reality from the Doctor under the (false) logic that only he can pilot the TARDIS, shutting him in the Pandorica (while he shouts desperately) in hopes that the TARDIS won't explode without him around. Elsewhere in time and space, River opens the TARDIS doors to... a slab of concrete, as behind her the ship starts to explode. "[[TearJerker I'm sorry, my love.]]" The alliance has failed. We zoom out from Rory holding Amy's body, a shot of the Earth against stars and galaxies exploding until all fades out in a black void of nothingness–

The one where the madman gets put in a box, and Rory [[DisneyDeath got better]]. [[DeathIsCheap Again]]. [[ActuallyADoombot Sorta]].

* AllThereInTheManual: Creator/StevenMoffat said that the Cybermen seen in this episode, despite the fact that they have the Cybus logo on their chest, ''are'' in fact the Mondas Cybermen. The only reason they look that way is a low budget.

** The fate intended for the occupant of the Pandorica is to be locked into a small cube, under time stop, forever.

* ApocalypseHow: If the Alliance's predictions are to be believed, the history-erasing cracks in time will cause not just a ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 but a ''ApocalypseHow/ClassZ'' by deleting the main universe and every other universe. At the episode's very end, a ''severe'' ApocalypseHow/ClassX3 destroys every last star in the universe at every moment in history (essentially, every one of those stars are not only gone but retroactively never shone), leaving Earth floating alone in the void.

* TheAssimilator: A Cyberman head tries to clamp around Amy's and cyberize her.

* BadassNormal: At first, Rory-as-Centurion seems like this because of his impressive "swording" of a Cyberman and then volunteering with fifty of his own soldiers to secure the Pandorica. Then it turns out that he's actually an Auton...

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: "I hate good wizards in fairy tales. They always turn out to be him." It's a CallBack to the Seventh Doctor story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield Battlefield]]", where the Doctor was revealed to be Merlin. It may be worth noting at this point that the Doctor's fate at the end of the episode is quite similar to Merlin's (sealed in an impenetrable cave/castle of air/whatever for the whole of eternity) and may lead to thematically similar results (without Merlin, Arthur's Britain falls; without the Doctor, the ''universe will cease to exist'').
* BigDamnHeroes: Rory-as-Centurion kills the Cyberman in the crypt in the nick of time to save Amy.
* BodyHorror: The Cyberman helmet trying to assimilate Amy.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Rory, who had been erased from time but came back as a Nestene copy with all Rory's memories, notices that the Doctor FailedASpotCheck.

* DarkestHour: To catalogue: Amy is dead, Rory's the undead Auton who killed her, the Doctor's locked in the perfect prison, River's in the exploding TARDIS, the crack in Amy's wall is about to devour all of time and space and that's ''because'' these things are all true. It could only be worse if there were snakes in there.

* DelayedReaction: "I'm not exactly one to miss the obvious..." and, a few seconds later, "Missing something obvious, Rory, something big, something right slap in front of me, I can feel it!" "Yeah, I think you probably are..." "I'll get it in a minute!" He does. And "it" is that the guy he's talking to ''died and was erased from time quite a while ago''. The look on his face is ''priceless''.
* DidntSeeThatComing: The alliance believe that imprisoning the Doctor in the Pandorica would prevent the universe from being completely destroyed. They discover how very wrong they were ''moments'' later.

* EvilVersusOblivion: Several of the Doctor's greatest enemies have teamed up to save the universe and all of time and space from being destroyed, because obviously that includes them. Unfortunately for the Doctor, however, ''he's'' the one they believe will be responsible for said apocalypse.

* FailedASpotCheck: The Doctor addresses Rory by name ''twice'' and ''walks out of the room'' before he realizes Rory's inexplicably come BackFromTheDead.

** The fact that the half-disassembled Cyberman attacks Amy and the Doctor in an attempt to assimilate them, yet ''hadn't'' done so to any of the Roman troops who'd been camped nearby, is an early sign that the Romans are plastic, not flesh.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: {{Implied}} to be what happened to poor Vincent van Gogh - he had a vision of ''[[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ all of reality collapsing in on itself]]'' and it was too much for him.
* GreenEyedMonster: Rory wants to know ''which'' Roman gave Amy her blanket.

* HiddenVillain: Even though we know how they caused the cracks (by destroying the TARDIS), the BigBad isn't revealed for ''[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor three and a half years]]''.

** According to River, the Doctor usually turns out to be "the good wizard". Turns out that this time he's the "goblin, or a trickster, or warrior soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies". Like in the story, he's tricked.

* LegionOfDoom: The Daleks, Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Judoon, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters the Hoix]], [[Series/{{Torchwood}} the Weevils, the Blowfish]], [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures the Uvodni]], [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion the Sycorax]], the Silurians, the Autons and Nestenes, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour the Atraxi]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E4TheVisitation the Terileptils]], the Draconians, [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride the Roboforms]], the Zygons, the Slitheen, the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 Drahvin]] and the Chelonians (from the [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]) have all joined forces to attempt to prevent the explosion of the TARDIS and thus TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt by imprisoning the Doctor in the Pandorica. It also counts as an EnemyMine for the Daleks and Cybermen in regards to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]". Of note is that the Atraxi, Weevils, Uvodni and the Blowfish are merely easily-missed extras in crowd shots whereas the Terileptils, Draconians, Drahvin, Chelonians and Slitheen only "appear" as name-checks by River. River also mentions the Haemogoth, an obscure race that were only mentioned in a novel.

* NotUsingTheZWord: Just like in their [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose only previous appearance]] in the revival series, the Autons are never referred to as Autons. Their being controlled by the Nestene Consciousness is mentioned, but not their name.
* NothingIsScarier: Never have the words "silence will fall" been more scary. ''Even the background music stops.'' Earlier in the episode, we suddenly hear "silence will fall" spoken by a hideous, rasping voice out of goddamn nowhere, just before the TARDIS is hijacked. The source of the sound, and hence the source of the tampering, is ''never shown''.

** The Doctor has one as well when the Alliance reveal that they truly did make the Pandorica to trap what they consider the most dangerous being in creation: '''HIMSELF'''.

* RevengeBeforeReason: The Alliance is too busy locking the Doctor away to listen to him explaining why locking him in the Pandorica is a ''very bad idea''.

* SealedEvilInACan: The Doctor investigates the eponymous Pandorica, which is advertised as containing the most feared being in the universe and is starting to open. It's empty. The Pandorica was created by [[LegionOfDoom a coalition of the Doctor's enemies]] to trap him inside, because they believe he will destroy the universe, and it's opening so that they can put him in — due to time travel, he has arrived before the myth started. The Doctor is predictably fascinated; "What could be so dangerous?" he wonders. You.

** The "oldest text in the universe" that River uses to communicate with the Doctor near the beginning sounds ''very'' similar in the Doctor's description to God's Final Message to His Creation from ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish''. [[note]]although in the book they're only 30 feet high[[/note]] Especially since, thanks to Creator/DouglasAdams being a ''Doctor Who'' writer and script editor, there's already been a fair amount of crossover and cross-pollination.

** RealAfterAll: The Doctor has passed off the Pandorica as a FairyTale, now he sees the real thing. Except it ''is'' just a FairyTale, and this one has been created by the allied villains as both trap and bait for him.

** BadassBoast: The boast, while awesome, did not really make the Legion of Evil Aliens flee, they just flew off to argue about who would get to take the first shot. Then the extra reveal: they weren't even arguing. They ''wanted'' the Doctor near the Pandorica. It was all according to plan.

* SuddenSoundtrackStop: "Silence will fall" because the Universe has just ended and the musicians no longer exist, that's why.

** Rory is no longer making a fool out of himself when he tries to fight. Now he's a Roman centurion, a proper Roman, filled with "Roman stuff" who can bring down a Cyberman! With a ''sword''.
** The Nestene Consciousness also applies, as it is now capable of creating fully lifelike Autons that can fool humans.
* UnwittingPawn: Vincent, Churchill and River Song unknowning aid the villain alliance's KansasCityShuffle to trap the Doctor along with the Doctor himself. River again, and potentially the villains themselves, for the as-yet-unrevealed real BigBad.

* VictoryThroughIntimidation: Subverted. The Doctor's epic speech ''seems'' to work, but it turns out that his enemies are luring him into a trap.

* YouAndWhatArmy: Or, rather, "You and whose body?" Cue the ''rest'' of the Cyberman's body walking out of a side room.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: The Stonehenge was built some time between 2000 and 3000 BC, meaning its builders were at least as distant from us as this episode, so it's not unreasonable for it to be in an advanced state of disrepair as portrayed in the episode. It's a little unreasonable that it would look exactly the same in the episode as it does today, though.

'''Rory:''' Yeah, I get the feeling.\\

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The Doctor correctly notes that Stonehenge was already ancient in 102 A.D., but fails to mention that it was a lot more complete, having been gradually quarried over the centuries until becoming a public site. Of course, rebuilding Stonehenge would have been beyond the show's budget.

* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: Amy thinks this is the case when the Doctor tries to remind her about Rory with his little speech about people "dropping out of the world", asking him if the "she" he lost was nice. The Doctor just decides to change tack.

* DidntSeenThatComing: The alliance believ that imprisoning the Doctor in the Pandorica would prevent the universe from being completely destroyed. They discover how very wrong they were ''moments'' later.

[[ArcWords Silence has fallen.]][[note]]Oh, and no "Next Time" trailer, either. Creator/StevenMoffat feeds on fear and anguish.[[/note]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The Stonehenge was built some time between 2000 and 3000 BC, meaning its builders were at least as distant from us as this episode, so it's not unreasonable for it to be in an advanced state of disrepair as portrayed in the episode. It's a little unreasonable that it would look exactly the same in the episode as it does today, though.

* ApocalypseHow: Metaphysical Annihilation on an omniversal scale. Every star going supernova at once. It'll be as if the universe never existed.
** It's worse than that — a Cyberman claims that "[[AC:All universes will be deleted.]]" — meaning it's a ''ApocalypseHow/ClassZ''.