Happy Memorial Day everyone! I had a lovely, lovely holiday spending most of the day with my wife (we went out to a double feature of Solo and Deadpool 2). After two weeks of focusing on my Fringe show it was nice to get to take a whole day off and do nothing of consequence. Tomorrow I dive back into work, and a week from Sunday I jump into my next show (Xanadu, yay!!)

But yes, I did watch Doctor Who this morning, so let's talk about that.

The Big Bang

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The previous episode ended with basically the entire universe winking out of existence, so where do you go from there? Well, if you're writer / show runner Steven Moffat you jump right back in with a bunch of timey-wimey tomfoolery. The story kicks of with young Amelia Pond praying for God to send her someone to fix the crack in her wall, except this time the Doctor doesn't turn up (what with him being locked in the Pandorica and all). Also: there are no stars, and anyone who believes in stars is automatically a lunatic. Then a mysterious stranger in a fez drops a leaflet through her door encouraging her to visit the museum, where the Pandorica is on display along with some stone Daleks. Then it turns out that adult Amy is actually inside the Pandorica instead of the Doctor, and there is a bunch of leaping around in time with the fezed-up Doctor visiting Rory the Roman, freeing the non-fez Doctor, placing Dead Amy into the Pandorica to be healed over the course of two thousand years, and - oh yeah - Rory the Plastic Roman stands guard over her for those two millennia.

This, by the way, makes Rory twice as old as the Doctor by the mid-point of the episode. So just ponder that for a bit.

Anyway, the Doctor keeps hopping around with the Vortex Manipulator, rescuing River Song from the exploding TARDIS, witnessing his own death at the hands (well, plungers?) of the stone Dalek which has been resurrected by the healing light of the opened Pandorica. Really. It makes sense in context.

So, lots more timey-wimey shenanigans unfold, and I am certain that it all makes perfect sense. Especially the part where River takes a moment to incinerate the Doctor's fez. But ultimately it comes down to the Doctor deliberately flying the Pandorica into the heart of the exploding TARDIS, thus spreading the healing restorative energy throughout all of space and time. It uses Amy's memories to resurrect the entire universe, including Amy's parents who had apparently been deleted by the crack in Amy's wall before the Doctor ever even showed up in The Eleventh Hour.

Oh, and then Amy and Rory finally actually get married, and Amy remembers the Doctor, and then...  this happens:

Who says the Doctor can't dance?

I love this story so, so much. It manages to be a story about the destruction of the entire universe, with complicated criss-crossing timelines rewriting all of history, and yet it stays focused on the personal, human dimension. As he is being erased from all of history the Doctor gets some very nice moments, and his final monologue to the sleeping young Amelia Pond is beautiful. It is some of Moffat's most intricate plotting, with details calling back to virtually the entire season, and it all fits nicely. It manages to conclude several major story arcs, while simultaneously teeing things up for the next season. Mostly, it's just a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

It also has the distinction of being perhaps the only Doctor Who story with an intentional racy double-entendre in the title. Steven Moffat has been very clear that </spoiler> is conceived mere minutes after the credits roll at the end of the story, with Mr. and Mrs. Pond setting off on their honeymoon in the TARDIS. Big bang, indeed.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Eleventh
Companion(s): Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song
Episode(s): The Big Bang
Steps Walked: 8,035 today, 3,093,214 total
Distance Walked: 4.19 miles today, 1,614.15 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 4,564 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 929 total
How Many Times has Rory Died?: 2
How Many Times has Amy Died?: 1
Is Anything Cool?: Oh yes indeed. Fezzes are cool. So are bow ties (still).
Weight: 248.42 lbs (five day moving average), net change -58.88 lbs