Bangdemonium!

Doctor Who: The Big Bang

Airdate: June 26th 2010. UK. BBC1

Ok then. That one was okayish.

A bit complex as it tried to make sense of it’s own tangled threads but complexity should not in itself be confused with something being good.

The direction was quite slick and, for Doctor Who, quite “big budgety” looking.

The music was good and it was also that new subtheme (which I really wish they’d release on CD right now!) repeated over and over again as it has been all series. Think they’re going to have to bundle the new album with the scores from the specials if they want enough new material to fill up the disc.

But whatever... it was a fairly entertaining 55 minutes.

River Song was excellent as always but the mysteries surrounding her have become... I dunno... a little overwrought perhaps. Moffet’s been a little clever in that the audience is forever now going to be looking over its shoulder during the following series to figure out what River is up to next. We know she is a rutheless killer and that she probably killed The Doctor at some point. No great shakes as he can always regenerate... unless she caught him on his last generation... ooh a footnote about that down below methinks.*

As the universe rewinded and the Doctor tracked back through his adventures he visited Amy during the Flesh and Stone episode (and a big shout out again to flaysomewench who brought that little gem to my attention in her speculative review blog when it happened the first time round... http://flaysome-wench.blogspot.com/2010/05/time-of-angelsflesh-and-stone-review.html) and interacting with Amy in what now seems like a very Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn “Remember” moment.

However... I have a few problems with the “Happy Ever After Ending” lets all go off to the Orient Express but, hold on, make sure Amy and Rory get their own room to consummate their marriage in before you go off jeopardising everyone’s lives won’t you Doctor?

Um... where was I?

Oh yeah.

If the Doctor has just been remembered back in to existence and the people he knows all remember him... then is that just a ghost echo from a life they never had or did it really happen? Is this a “reboot” series like the last Star Trek movie?

If things actually happened then they are not where they are... without significantly screwing up their own timelines. Amy Pond's parents can’t surely exist in the same universe as The Doctor. On the other hand... if they didn’t happen and it all came out of Amy Pond’s imaginary memory... then what does that say about the last forty odd years of the show? Did that stuff “happen” or not?

I don’t think anyone cares at the moment and I don’t think we’re supposed to look at it too closely. I think the show has become kind of a parody of itself and I think there’s going to be a lot of explaining to do if and when people start asking those kinds of questions.

Am I missing something here people?

I think I’m going to have to relegate this series of Doctor Who as being the worst of the last five years but certainly a lot better than some of the late 80s and early 90s seasons.

Maybe now Moffet’s got that out of his system he’ll start to explore the characters and situations a little less gung-ho in later episodes. We shall see what we shall see.

*Oh yeah, my little footnote... forgot about that. In the 80s it was established that, as a timelord you get twelve generations and yer out! The Masters 13th regeneration was explained by him nicking Tremas’ body. His 14th and 15th regenerations (Derek Jacobi and John Simm) have never been explained. Are they going to use the whole Doctor has never really existed before now timeline thing from this episode as a convenient "fob us off" excuse to say the whole regeneration life-cycle has been rebooted back to number 1? And what about those “previous” incarnations shown in The Bain of Morbius? Are we expected to believe that The Doctor has lived nine hundred and whatsit years and has been so careless with his lives lately that he shot off eleven of those lives in just the last 47 years? I know continuity is the hobgoblin of small minds but come on people... this stuff needs to be addressed!