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Bullz-Eye: Well, I’m a big “Doctor Who” fan, so I followed your exploits all last season, and I’m sure you’re as excited as I am for these new episodes to hit the air, since you worked on them awhile back now.

Arthur Darvill: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we’re really excited about it coming out. The scale of it has gone up, and it’s bigger and better and more exciting. Yeah, I just can’t wait for people to see it, really.

Plus, of course, you’re in the States, which really ups the ante.

Absolutely.

Now, obviously, we’re excited about you guys having filmed here, but do you have a sense for how folks back home feel about you making your American debut?

I mean, it’s quite cool, I think, because “Doctor Who” is such a British institution, and it will always be quintessentially English, but to do an episode in America…? You know, we have so many… (Hesitates) All my old favorite films are American movies, and I think our cultures are very much linked, so to have an episode in America, yeah, I think everyone’s really excited about it.

I’d think that, at least to a certain extent, people would be, “Well, it’s about time you guys came around.”

Yeah, exactly! It’s, like, “Why hasn’t this been done on this scale before?” So, yeah, it’s great. It’s really good.

There are actually a lot of things about this season that I’m excited about. In addition to being in America, you had Neil Gaiman writing an episode of the show. Were you a Gaiman fan prior to him coming aboard?

Yeah, I mean, well, again, he�s just one of those people who�s…he�s brilliant, and his stuff�s everywhere, so, yeah, it was such an honor to have him on. I can�t really talk about the episode, because there�s so much secrecy involved in that, but, yeah, we�ve been so lucky with all the writers, and I think Steven (Moffatt) is such a brilliant puppet master of the show. I don�t know how he fits it all into his brain! But we get these world-class writers in, and they�re given as much free reign as they want under this umbrella Steven�s got crafted for the whole story arc. It must be an almost impossible job to kind of keep it all together, but he�s so brilliant at it and surprises us all with what he writes. Yeah, it�s great.

Was Neil actually on set during the filming of the episode?

Yeah, Neil came down for a couple of days. It�s always funny when writers are on set. It kind of makes you slightly nervous! But he seemed to really enjoy it.

So you get to be the Doctor�s first male companion in almost 30 years. Are you prepared for that kind of responsibility?

The pressure�s on! (Laughs) I suppose I am. I mean, it�s such a… (Hesitates) Actually, I don�t know! I don�t really think about it. You�ll drive yourself mad if…if I really started delving into that. I�m just kind of trying to do my job. But it feels great, actually. I mean, I work with such great people. Me and Karen are such good chums that it just feels kind of natural and cool to be doing it.

Now, are you learned enough in the �Who� mythos that you know who the Doctor�s last male companion was?

(Hesitates) Now, I did look this up the other day. Who was it?

Vislor Turlough.

Vislor Turlough. Right.

Traveled with the Fifth Doctor.

Brilliant. I need to go and check out some of the old episodes. I think…I kind of feel like if I watch too much, I�ll kind of start copying stuff. I just need to kind of wait �til we�re finished filming, and then I can start watching other things.

So how quickly did you and Karen find a chemistry as a couple?

I don�t really know! It�s, like, it�s a funny thing we have to do as actors, isn�t it? You turn up and you�re playing… (Hesitates) I suppose you try and forge a relationship that you think is believable and real, but…I don�t know. I suppose…we got on immediately, and it�s a really good bunch of people, everyone working on it. I don�t know, I don�t think we consciously were, like, �Right, we need to sort some chemistry out.� I think that would�ve blown it. We just kind of did our job and hoped for the best, really.

You had a unique situation last series where you had to do a death scene which, at the time you were filming it, you already knew wasn�t truly a death scene. What was that challenge like?

Yeah, that was really interesting. Um…yeah, I think I actually died quite a lot last series. (Laughs) Yeah, I mean, you just…I don�t know. Again, if you overthink these things, you won�t be able to do it, you know? It was just…a scene that you just try and invest all of what you�re doing. But I think to try and unravel it would be foolish of me. But, yeah, I mean, it was a great challenge to do stuff like that. But every day�s an exciting challenge, I suppose.

I was talking to my wife about the fact that I was going to be chatting with you today, and she said, �It was very sad when Rory died, but somehow it was even more sad when Amy forgot him.�

Yeah, completely. Oh, wow, thank you. Yeah, that is it. It really tugs at the heartstrings, that bit with Rory, doesn�t it? That was…I mean, those episodes, �The Pandorica Opens� and �The Big Bang,� were such epic episodes for us to film. It was really good stuff.

Are we going to see the Centurion apparel making a reappearance at any point?

I�m not going to deny or confirm any rumors or bits of speculation. (Laughs) You�ll just have to wait and see. You�ll just have to wait and see what Rory�s going to be wearing!

I�ll just ask this, then: at the end of the last series, were you hopeful at that time that it would make a reappearance?

Was I hopeful? Hmmm…

I didn�t know how much fun it was to wear.

It was modified by the end of filming those episodes, �cause at first it was really heavy. (Laughs) D�you know? It�s like wearing a one-man band. You just kind of clank around. Yeah, every day was like a bit of a workout. But that was fun as well. I got a cape!

Do you tire of the jokes about your nose?

Oh, look, it�s funny, you know? I�m 28. I�ll get over it.

I didn�t know if this was a case where you walked onto the show and, when they started writing those jokes into the show, you were, like, �Wait, what�s this about my nose?�

(Laughs) Yeah. �Hold on a minute!� No, I think it�s all done with affection. Well, I hope it is!

So what was your �Who� knowledge prior to coming aboard the series? Had you been a fan?

Well, it�s one of those things that�s part of British culture. It�s so sort of deep in there that, yeah, it�s kind of unavoidable. You can�t really get away from it, and it�s always been since I was a kid. It wasn�t really on when I was younger, but, still, I seem to know about it, and have watched reruns and a few episodes and thought it was great.

I mentioned the chemistry aspect, but I would think that all three of you – including Matt – would�ve formed a bond simply by virtue of having a similar learning curve on the show.

Yeah, it really has been a massive learning curve for us.

What�s it like working with the green screen?

Yeah, it�s kind of interesting. To be honest, they�re so good at building sets and taking us to amazing locations that they try and minimize the number of green screen stuff that we do. Or we�ll be in kind of a set where most of it�s there, and they�ll add on bits after. But it�s very rare that we come up against just…nothing. They�re very good at having things there for us to react to. But when you do have to do that stuff, it�s always a worry that you�re pitching it wrong. But the directors are great, so they really take us through it.

Obviously, you�ve got a very strong writer working behind you at all times, but what have you yourself been able to bring to the character of Rory?

Well, I don�t know! It was so funny when I went for the job that I didn�t really…I had no idea what he was like. I was given such a small amount of script, and with no real clues as to what his personality was. I just got that first scene from Episode 1, from �The Eleventh Hour,� on the village green, when Rory first meets the Doctor. And then a little speech from �Vampires in Venice.� But it was, like, three pages. So I think in that situation, I just went, �Right, I just have to make a few decisions and go with them.� So, yeah, I don�t know. I mean, it�s obviously kind of very well crafted by Steven, but, yeah, we see it, at least, that we�re given a certain amount of freedom, and whether or not that�s just to make us feel good, I don�t know! (Laughs) But it feels like they trust us to go where we want to go with it. But he�s definitely at the helm of it all. But I think you have to, as an actor, just go for it and make decisions and hope that they�re the right ones.

I just wanted to touch on a couple of other roles that you�ve played over the years. First of all, did you get any opportunity to meet with Mickey Gallagher before you did �Sex & Drugs & Rock �n� Roll�?

Yes, I did! Oh, Mickey�s a dear, dear man, and a brilliant musician. Yeah, I mean, that film was really funny, �cause we were basically just in the band. We didn�t really…we just had to have a laugh and play some gigs. And I�d worked with Andy Serkis a couple of times before, and he�s so easy to get on with. Yeah, we just played a load of music. But, yeah, we went and met the Blockheads at their rehearsal rooms and went to see them play a gig and stuff. Yeah, I mean, they�re great.

Were you an Ian Dury fan prior to that?

Yeah, yeah, completely. He�s just a brilliant lyricist, and that music…I�m a big fan of soul music, and I think they�ve got real funk-based music, done in a really English way. I really like it.

Having done �Little Shop of Horrors� in the London theater, is there any chance that we�re going to see you singing on �Doctor Who�?

I don�t think they�d let me! (Laughs) They keep threatening to do a musical episode, but I don�t think they�re going to go with that.

So can you tell me anything at all, really, about the upcoming season? I mean, I know you�ve got to play it pretty close to the chest, but…

I�m going to play it close to the chest, but the scale�s bigger, it�s scarier but funnier, and it�s… (Hesitates) I think it�s become more magical and more psychological. I think it�s really going to surprise people with how good it is. And I�m not just saying that �cause I work on it. I�ve been so…it�s funny when you film stuff and you have an idea in your head what it�s going to look like, and then every time we�ve sat down to watch one of the episodes, it�s always surpassed what we think it�s going to be. We�re getting really excited about it, and I just can�t wait for people to see it. Because they�re going to like it, but also because I can finally talk about it! (Laughs)

My only real question is whether or not the estate of Richard Nixon will approve of the episodes.

You�ll just have to wait and see.

Oh, dear.

I love it when there�s real people in �Doctor Who� as well. The Nixon stuff…I can�t wait to watch it with an American audience. You guys are much more vocal and responsive than a lot of the UK audiences, and there�s so many America references in it that I think it�s going to be…well, I just can�t wait to see what people think about it.

Just this one phrase in within the episode synopses – �Aided by President Nixon and Neil Armstrong�s foot…� – is more than sufficient to pique my curiosity.

(Laughs) Yes. It�s official: �Doctor Who� has hit America!

To be fair, they got better as they went along, with only the bloated disaster yarn, “Voyage of the Damned,” bucking that trend, although last year’s episode was barely even a Christmas tale, being the first half of “The End of Time” and all. More than anything else, though, what was most disappointing about Davies’ Christmas outings is how none of them ever became holiday traditions for me as a “Doctor Who” fan, which is pretty amazing since there were four to choose from. Indeed, the best Christmas tale the series had unveiled prior to this past Saturday night was Season One’s “The Unquiet Dead,” penned by Mark Gatiss, which of course wasn’t even a holiday special. As you’ll no doubt remember, “The Unquiet Dead” detailed the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) meeting Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) right before Christmas in 1869 Cardiff, and here we are, well over five years later, returning to Dickens once again, and once again we discover that Dickens and “Doctor Who” make for a potent combination.

At its start, “A Christmas Carol” alarmingly resembles a Davies-era holiday adventure, with a giant spaceship plummeting through the atmosphere towards the ground below. Honestly, I was scared at this point – not over the potential fate of Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), but that I was being set up for “Voyage of the Damned II.” But the story quickly shifts gears into far more character driven territory, as we move onto the surface below and meet the cantankerous Kazran Sardick, played by the great Michael Gambon. Most people equate Gambon with Dumbledore these days, and with good reason, because it’s the role he’s been seen in more than any other. Myself? I first became acquainted with the man 20 years ago via Peter Greenaway’s “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover,” in which he played the thoroughly despicable Albert Spica alongside Helen Mirren. His performance in that film is so perfect, playing such an awful man, that to this day it’s the role I still associate him with the most, and it was cool to see him return to that shouting, obnoxious type of character. It’s interesting to note the decision to give neither Gambon nor the other high profile guest star, Katherine Jenkins, billing in the opening credits, while Gillan and Darvill – neither of whom have an enormous amount of screen time during the hour – are credited at the top.

By the time the Doctor (Matt Smith) made his entrance via a chimney, my interest was gaining, and the moment in which he realized exactly the route he needed to take to whip Sardick into shape and save the day (“A Christmas Carol!”), I was sold. And who better than the time travelling Doctor to take up the mantle of the Ghost of Christmas Past? So he plunders Sardick’s abusive childhood (in which Gambon plays Kazran’s father as well) and befriends the boy version (Laurence Belcher) of the man and together the two begin to explore the planet’s peculiar relationship to its fish. I’m not even going to get into the finer points of this, except to say that the whole fish thing (and then later, sharks) is a delightfully batty idea, which somehow brought an immense amount of magical holiday whimsy to the table.

Soon enough, the radiant opera singer Jenkins is released from her icy tomb, and Sardick’s life begins to be rewritten in a whole new way, as he and the Doctor spend one Christmas Eve after the next with the girl, never quite realizing what seems apparent to the viewer from early on – that the numeric countdown makes the case more of a casket than an icebox. By the time Sardick, and then later the Doctor, learn the truth, it’s too late – the Sardick in the future has been rewritten in an entirely different fashion. It seems that maybe the Doctor went too far with his plan. If only he’d just rewritten the childhood itself, perhaps the resolve wouldn’t have been so complicated, but therein lies much of the beauty of the story – just when you thought you’d figured it out, it took a left turn into even darker territory, and the situation became all the more complicated.

In the end, it took a sacrifice on Sardick’s behalf to fix the problem of the plummeting ship, and in turn a Christmas carol was needed to save the day, which gave the story its title. What I loved about “A Christmas Carol” was just how damn Christmassy it really was. Moffat had promised that it would be, and so did Matt Smith, but the proof needed to be on the screen, and it very much was. This is a “Doctor Who” Christmas special I can actually foresee myself pulling out every year and imbibing in. It was so good, and so full of holiday spirit, that the mind boggles as to what Moffat will whip up next Christmas. How can he possibly top this? But praise should not be heaped upon Moffat alone. Director Toby Haynes has quickly established himself as the ideal helmer for this series. With only three episodes under his belt (the others being the Season Five two-part finale), this guy has proven that he knows exactly the right tone to set for the material, his camera movement is positively cinematic, and the lighting of his episodes, which he must surely have some say in, is the bomb diggity. Over the past five years, few – if any – directors have made their mark on the series. Euros Lyn probably came the closest with several of his outings, but Haynes is the one to beat. It’s a shame he can’t direct every episode at this point.

BBC America also deserves some major kudos for not only seeing to it that here in the States we got the special mere hours after the Brits, but also for promoting the hell out of it, running a massive marathon that kicked off the midnight before the special, as well as making time for the “Doctor Who at the Proms” special on Christmas afternoon. BBC America is even currently running a competition exclusive to American viewers, in which you must build your own TARDIS. The winner will have a “Who” screening in their hometown that they can invite 50 people to, as well as a copy of every single “Doctor Who” story currently available on DVD. Find out more at WherestheTARDIS.com. These folks are treating “Doctor Who” with some major respect, and it appears to be paying off for them. One wonders how much bigger “Doctor Who” might currently be here in the States if Syfy had done the same throughout the Eccleston and Tennant years.

On a personal note, I’d also like to use this space to bitch about the fact that DIRECTV doesn’t offer BBC America in HD, as we recently bumped up the service to HD in our house, only to discover this sad fact. When I called to complain, the woman I talked to at DIRECTV asked me – and I’m not making this up – “What’s BBC?” Get with the times, folks at DIRECTV, and get me some BBC America in HD by this spring, or else…Oh yes, the sixth season of “Doctor Who” will be kicking off sometime this spring on BBC America, and there are rumblings at the moment which suggest that, like “A Christmas Carol,” we may just get the episodes on the same night they air in the U.K.

I didn’t go into “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang” expecting a whole lot, conditioned as I am on Russell T Davies’s extravagant-yet-ultimately-lightweight season finales. Don’t get me wrong, they were most always a great deal of fun, but they most always left me somewhat wanting – excepting Season Three’s Master trilogy, although I’m not sure that’s in line with popular opinion. Oh, and “The Parting of the Ways.” Wait a minute…I loved most of his finales! But I often felt as if they didn’t go as far as they could. Part of the way through the current season the Pandoricrack, as I’ve come to call it, started to annoy me, and I began not so much resenting the thread, but rather simply dismissing it – assuming that whatever it was about wouldn’t be terribly thrilling. It turned out to be not only thrilling, but strange and deep and stimulating. This was Steven Moffat’s trademark “Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey” taken up to 11. (Maybe next year will go to 12?) This two-part finale forces viewers to go back and reexamine most of the season, and that isn’t something that can really be said for the Davies finales, which isn’t to imply they’re inferior. More on that later…

My first viewing of “The Big Bang” left me pretty disoriented. The tone of the thing felt very different from the graveness of “The Pandorica Opens.” Subsequent viewings have alleviated much of that, and I’m not sure it needed to feel like a Part Two, as much as its own dog. It’s a majestic piece of television, really, that celebrates the wonder of this series, as well as its darkness. A universe without stars – hell, a cosmos without the Doctor, as the Master once said, scarcely bears thinking about. The fez. How was a fez jammed into the narrative in such a way that while it had virtually nothing to do with the plot, and yet you can’t imagine the episode without it? The raggedy Doctor? All a result of the TARDIS blowing up at the close of “The End of Time.” Love the fact that he becomes the raggedy Doctor once again, after being shot by the Dalek. Back when I wrote up “Flesh and Stone” I mentioned the scene where a version of the Doctor from the future came to briefly visit Amy. Turns out that theory was correct! The stone Dalek was good stuff. A finale with loads of Dalek, and yet it never became too much. Oddly though, my favorite moment in the entire hour is when Amy sees the display in the museum charting the sightings of the centurion who guarded the Pandorica. That was just brilliant. It was so very much like the kind of thing you see in a museum or in a book and dismiss as legend. But here the centurion was real, or at least as real as an Auton can be I suppose. Who doesn’t love Rory, the boy who waited, at this point, and look forward to seeing what he brings to the TARDIS crew as a companion?

A while back I wrote about the feeling that a reset button of sorts had been pressed with this season, and how the season wouldn’t make perfect sense until the finale had played. Clearly I was onto something. Indeed Amy Pond has even been branded by the Doctor “the girl who doesn’t make any sense.” A huge amount of this season, as we’ve now found out, has been very much about Amy. Far more so than I think anyone was able to clearly see as the season moved forward. As “The Big Bang” ends, you almost feel as if you’re for the first time seeing the real Amy Pond, and that her journeys with the Doctor are just beginning. This couldn’t have been as easy role for Karen Gillan to play, and I’ve much more respect for her as an actress, now knowing the heavy narrative load she was carrying.

Here’s the thing, as great and complex as this finale (as well as the season) was, I don’t think there’s any way this could have been executed and accepted by the average BBC TV viewer five years ago when Davies unveiled his first season. It took five years worth of the less complex Davies structure, as well as him introducing and reintroducing all the ideas that make up this series, to get the show to a point where someone like Steven Moffat could come along and attempt something this elaborate. And make no mistake – it is elaborate, not to mention confusing. (One need only take a look at this graph to get an idea of how complexly structured the two-part finale is. Another great piece of reading is over at Den of Geek.) But this doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Even before he started working his magic on “Doctor Who,” as far back as “Coupling,” Moffat showed how skilled he was at twisting narrative structure around, and in that show he didn’t have the benefit of time travel as a means to accomplish it. So even though I’ve had issues from time to time with some of the choices Davies made during his tenure, I give him several warm rounds of applause for being the guy whose choices allowed for Steven Moffat to step up to the plate and give it a go. Anything great that happens with “Doctor Who” in the coming years owes a huge debt to the groundwork laid by Russell T Davies.

Moffat is also clearly able to indulge in ludicrous flights of fancy in the same way Davies did. “If something can be remembered, it can come back.” What the fuck is all that about? It has no basis in science, not even wacky “Doctor Who” science, and yet it’s immensely pivotal to the story. There’s a poetry to it, no doubt, but it’s strictly fantasy, and really has no more business being a component of this series than the mumbo-jumbo sprinkled liberally throughout “The End of Time.” But “Doctor Who” is an ever-evolving beast, and it has to be to survive. These are the kind of ideas that it pulls out to assert its place in the TV universe. No other sci-fi series would dare display something so baroque, and ultimately its peculiar bits and bobs such as that are quickly becoming hallmarks of this show. Nevermind that Philip Hinchcliffe wouldn’t have dared try something of that ilk; the fact is Steven Moffat did and it somehow works.

One of the serious ideas Moffat has brought to the series is the notion that “time can be rewritten,” which is in stark contrast to Davies use of “fixed points.” Fixed points indicate rules and structure; time can be rewritten means all bets are off. Now this isn’t necessarily a brilliant move on Moffat’s part, as much as it is a bold one. It says, “I’m not going to play by the rules. Instead I’m going to invent some new ones.” Steven Moffat’s style of writing practically begged for this development, as I suspect he’d have felt stifled by hanging onto the old rules. For some this could be considered heresy, but ultimately that’s what any good showrunner will do with this series. He or she will find a way – their way – to reinvent it. What’s interesting is how this is quite logically an extension of what was going on in the last few Davies specials, starting with “The Waters of Mars,” and the Doctor’s trashing of the fixed point at Bowie Base One, because as far as he was concerned, the Laws of Time were now his to play with. Furthermore, everything that went down with the Time Lords in “The End of Time” could easily have exacerbated this attitude in the Doctor. Whether Moffat and Davies ever discussed this we do not know, but it’s worked out beautifully, and it’s taken the series to a whole new, exciting level. Whether or not the Doctor will someday have to pay the piper remains to be seen, but for now it sure seems that his abilities to see through and manipulate time are at an all time high.

I also conjectured a while back that Moffat had a longer-range plan in mind than just the components of this season, and sure enough, we were left with numerous, important dangling threads. What is The Silence? Whose nasty, ugly voice is uttering those words? Who ‘sploded the TARDIS? Exactly how different is the rebooted universe of Big Bang 2? Oh, and pretty much everything about River Song, who remains almost as much of a mystery as she did when we first met her in Season Four. If time can be rewritten, does that mean it’s possible that River’s death will not be in the Library after all? (By the way, Alex Kingston was especially strong in this hour.) Exactly how far does Moffat plan to take this idea? This show can seemingly go anywhere it wants at this point. I suppose that’s always been the case, but it’s feeling unusually fresh at the moment. Moffat had a very tough job putting his stamp on “Who” after the Davies renaissance, but now he’s got an entire season under his belt, and I’d like to believe that Season Six will be considerably tighter. For the time being though, just the seasonal arc as presented in “The Eleventh Hour”, the Weeping Angels two-parter, and the two part season finale is a five hour testament to what Moffat’s capable of doing with this series.

Finally we come to Matt Smith. Taking over from David Tennant’s near-unanimously beloved portrayal was never going to be an easy task for any actor. When Smith was announced it was very easy to be skeptical about what he could bring to the table. Right off the bat, his age seemed as if it could only work against him. The fact that he was a total unknown didn’t seem to help matters. And yet he somehow projects all the hundreds of years the Doctor has lived seemingly effortlessly. Back before there ever was a new series, I think every “Doctor Who” fan had his or her idea of what they thought a new Doctor should be like. Matt Smith is almost alarmingly close to what I’d always thought a modern Doctor should be like – a heroic fogey trying desperately to get with the times; someone who’s equal parts clueless and clued in. Christopher Eccleston and Tennant were both great Doctor’s as well, but neither of them had a true sense of the alien about them. They sort of tried to chisel it into Eccleston, but there was so much going on with reinventing the series at the time, I don’t think it was the kind of thing that anyone really concentrated on. (Who knows what Eccleston may have done with the character had he done another season?) Tennant never seemed even remotely alien, and that’s fine. Not every Doctor must project that (Peter Davison certainly didn’t, and he was a great Doctor). Smith loses himself in the alien nature of this character. It’s a gorgeous thing to behold, and I imagine he’ll only get stronger and stranger as time moves on. The man is a fine actor and this series is lucky to have him.

If you’ve been reading throughout this season, I’d like to extend a thank you to you – and then an even bigger thank you to those of you who took time out to drop some comments my way. That really makes my day, when a reader takes the time to write a few words. I hope you’ve enjoyed this season as much as I have, and until Christmas, I think it’s time to say goodbye. So, goodbyyyyyyyye!

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Classic “Who” DVD Recommendation of the Week: No DVDs to recommend this week. Instead I want to recommend a book: “The Writer’s Tale” by Russell T Davies. I finally just found a copy of it myself today, and I’ve been paging through it and it appears to be every bit as good as everyone says it is. If you really want to have a better understanding of what it takes to put this series together, there is no better text. Make sure and pick up the edition subtitled “The Final Chapter,” as that includes an extra 300 pages worth of material that wasn’t in the previous edition.

(Thanks as always to Sonic Biro for the screencaps.)

In the TARDIS, Amy (Karen Gillan) ponders the wedding ring, while the Doctor (Matt Smith) hatches a plan to take her to the oldest planet in the universe to see the oldest piece of writing, which is chiseled onto a cliff face. The TARDIS doors open and the translators show the words as “Hello Sweetie.” Bam! Britain, 102 AD. The TARDIS arrives in front of a Roman army, and Amy mentions that Roman soldiers were her favorite topic in school. A soldier, whose face is smeared with lipstick, mistakes the Doctor for Caesar and takes the pair to see Cleopatra, whom River is impersonating. Finally we get to see the painting, which shares its name with this episode, and it’s a vision of the exploding TARDIS, painted exactly as we’d imagine van Gogh would paint such a vision. (Surely poster prints of this will be available for fans to hang on their walls any day now? I know I’d buy one.) Finally, seven minutes into the episode, we get the opening credits.

And thus begins what’s easily the most ambitious setup for a season finale the new series has yet done. “The Pandorica Opens” is positively cinematic in scope, direction, editing and, of course, writing. These setup installments were never this good in the Davies era, and it’s almost a shame it isn’t the season finale proper, as it would be an unbearable, months-long wait to see the resolution to everything this episode does. It would be the “Doctor Who” equivalent of Part One of “The Best of Both Worlds,” which ended the third season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” In fact it’s somewhat strange that “Doctor Who” – a show infamous for its end of episode cliffhangers – has yet to end a season on any kind of serious hang (stuff like regenerations or Donna suddenly appearing in the TARDIS doesn’t really count). The feeling I got watching “The Pandorica Opens” is the exact same feeling I got while watching the last 20 minutes of “Utopia” from Season Three – only this thing kept up that level of intensity for nearly a whole hour.

The episode shifts into an almost “Indiana Jones” type of piece for a while, as the trio of time travelers make their way to a secret area beneath Stonehenge, to find the massive Pandorica prison, which is somehow tied to the exploding TARDIS. Whatever’s housed in it is the most feared thing in the entire universe. As with the Romans, Amy mentions that the story of Pandora’s Box was a favorite of hers as a child. This catches the Doctor’s attention, but there’s too much going on for him to focus on it. The box finally begins opening – from the inside, no less, but it’s a process that could take hours, as there are many locks and mechanisms to work through, and so the tension continues to ratchet upwards.

The Doctor: “Think of the fear that went into making this box. What could inspire that level of fear? Hello you. Have we met?”

Another nice, yet expected (provided you’ve been paying attention), flourish is that for River, these events take place before “The Time of Angels” two-parter, although I’m still confused then about River and Amy’s first meeting in that story, as River didn’t seem to recognize her. Or has she become so used to her life being out of whack with the Doctor’s that she’s learned how to play along when the time is right? Does it hurt the tension of this story knowing that no matter what happens in it, River will survive these events?

The Doctor deduces that Stonehenge itself is essentially one giant radio transmitter, sending signals out across the universe that are warning the cosmos about the opening Pandorica. All across the universe, starships begin responding to the signal: Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and probably a dozen other races the Doctor’s encountered in his many lives are all coming to this one place and time in Earth’s history. (Draconians – really?!?) It’s just amazing how epic this thing feels. Once again, the Doctor marvels at what the box must contain; of course, by the end of the episode he probably feels quite the fool for not figuring out the puzzle ahead of time.

The Doctor: “Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And if something can be remembered, it can come back.”

In one of the episodes only absurd gestures, River, at the Doctor’s behest, goes off to enlist the aid of the Roman army to help fight the myriad fleet of aliens, while the Doctor and Amy battle three different pieces of a half-dead Cyberman that’s lurking around and beneath the monument. The sequence is easily the coolest thing the series has done with the Cybermen since they were first reintroduced back in Season Two. It’s funny, frightening, and intense, and a great chance for the audience to depressurize from the escalating drama. And then – surprise, surprise – Rory (Arthur Darvill) shows up as a Roman centurion to slay the silver beastie and rescue Amy. He’s short on explanations – “I died and then I came back as a Roman.” He’s pained over Amy’s failure to remember him, but he seems to have been through enough at this point to know how to handle himself in this sticky situation. Darvill is just excellent here, and this guy’s proven himself to be a worthy addition to the show.

The sequence in which the Doctor preaches the Sermon on the Mount is likely to be a divisive one, and I suspect that had David Tennant played the same material, I wouldn’t have cared for it myself, as I never thought Tennant handled those kinds of scenes very well. But Smith has his own way of doing things, and within his delivery there’s a self-deprecating sense of, “I can’t believe I’m pulling this pompous shit again.” He’s doesn’t appear to be taking it altogether seriously, and in doing so, the scene works better than if he’d been in full-on Oncoming Storm mode.

The third act of the story is a dizzying, crazy ride. Rory, as well as the rest of the Roman army, are revealed to be Autons; River takes the TARDIS to Amy’s home in 2010 only to discover a storybooks on Roman soldiers and Pandora’s Box; the TARDIS begins to explode with River in it; Amy is killed by a broken Rory who’s succumbed to his Auton nature; all of the Doctor’s enemies gather around Stonehenge to take him prisoner and place him in the Pandorica as well as explain that Amy herself was an elaborate trap laid for the Doctor, as they’ve seen the cracks in the universe, and know that the Doctor’s TARDIS is the cause of it all, and will eventually spell the end of the universe. The only way the aliens can stop it is to take the TARDIS’ operator out of the equation. This is quite the spin on previous season finales, which were always built around alien domination of one kind or another. Here, the Doctor is the threat to the universe, and his enemies have gathered together, surprisingly enough, as something of a force for good, if that’s possible. Oh, and then the entire universe disappears, for good measure.

Evil Disembodied Voice: “Silence will fall.”

“The Pandorica Opens” is quite simply one of the best episodes of “Doctor Who” ever, and freshman “Who” director Toby Haynes knocked Steven Moffat’s superb script out of the ballpark. With a setup this perfect, the mind reels as what the conclusion will offer up.
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NEXT TIME: The fifth season of new “Who” concludes with the appropriately titled, “The Big Bang.”

Classic “Who” DVD Recommendation of the Week: Friends, Romans, countrymen – lend me your ears. Check out the first Doctor’s encounter with “The Romans.” It’s a lovely little story, really it is.

(Thanks as always to Sonic Biro for the screencaps.)

Well, it’s worth pondering why the story was made in the first place. For starters, it was very likely a chance to save some money. Aside from the episode’s climax, most of this tale is just people involved in seemingly everyday situations. But I think maybe there was more to it than just saving cash. Aside from “Boom Town,” the aforementioned stories were all designed to give the lead actors breaks. Given that this was the inaugural season of a new era for the show, it probably would have been a risky move to write the Doctor and Amy out for the bulk of a story, so instead what “The Lodger” does is remove Karen Gillan for most of the episode, while allowing Matt Smith the chance to chill out and just banter with James Corden (“Gavin & Stacey”) for an hour. Oh, and he also gets to play football, but since Smith has a history with the game, that probably wasn’t too taxing for him – the guy looks like he had a blast in that scene. Yes, for those of you who don’t know, Matt Smith once upon a time had dreams of being footballer, but a back injury led to him taking up acting instead.

Unlike Davies however, Moffat handed the oddball story over to Gareth Roberts, who has a long and winding history with “Doctor Who.” He’s one of “those” writers who’s been tied to it in one form or another for seemingly forever. I’m not familiar with the prose work he’s done over the years, so I can only really judge him on the scripts he’s written for the series, most of which haven’t been any great shakes. I quite liked “The Shakespeare Code” back when it was broadcast, but time hasn’t been too kind to my opinion of it. The following year he did “The Unicorn and The Wasp,” which I hated then, and hate only slightly less now. A recent viewing of it on BBC America led me to take it less seriously than I did a couple years ago, and hence, I was able to laugh at it a little more. The ending and the idea behind it is still pants though.

Then Roberts co-wrote “Planet of the Dead” with Davies, and we all know – the visuals aside – how underwhelming that one was. On the other hand, and to play fair, Roberts has also written a number of stories for “The Sarah Jane Adventures,” and typically the best episodes of that show have been his – although that isn’t saying much when you consider the generally dire quality of the stories produced for that series. Then again, I’m not really the show’s target audience. I originally believed it was made for fans of Lis Sladen & Sarah Jane Smith, but it’s not. It’s for kids obsessed with the new series that can’t wait a whole year for the next season, so “Sarah Jane” comes along in the autumn to tide them over. In any case, I’ve seen numerous interviews with the man, and he seems like a really good, intelligent, thoughtful guy, and I’m sure we’d get along great provided he didn’t ask me what I thought of his “Doctor Who” stories.

Ahem, clearly I have digressed. My apologies. Back to “The Lodger,” which is about a half a good episode, and half not so much. The domestic stuff between the Doctor, Craig (Corden) and Sophie (Daisy Haggard) is wonderful – really, really fun material that’s the best thing Roberts has yet to contribute to the series. The sci-fi stuff with the alien timeship upstairs is – you guessed it – pants. From the start, the Doctor moving in and renting a room from Craig is ripe with possibility. Craig and Sophie have this mutual unrequited love, and the Doctor steps smack in the middle of it. He’s supposed to be concentrating on what’s upstairs, and yet he’s hesitant to confront whatever it is head on – going so far as to not use the sonic screwdriver, as he doesn’t want to alert the presence upstairs. This strikes me as very hollow.

He’s separated from his TARDIS and clearly somebody’s screwing with time, so why doesn’t he just confront whatever’s upstairs? People are dying, right under his very nose (although admittedly he seems unaware of this fact). It’s very out of character for the Doctor to not just take the situation in hand. Or is it his chance to, even for a few days, live a normal life that keeps him distracted? It’s never explicitly stated in the episode, but he seems far more interested in what’s going on with Craig and Sophie than he does in getting to the bottom of his problem. In order for this episode to work, you almost have to give yourself over to the notion that the chance to just be a guy for a few days is far more interesting to him than the nightmare above. He’s mentioned this in the past numerous times – how people get to live lives that he isn’t able to. Here, for a few days, he lives one of those lives, and he really basks in it, so perhaps that’s the only way to read the episode.

The relationship between the Doctor and Craig is lovely, due to two great performances from the leads. We already know Smith is great, but having never seen an episode of “Gavin & Stacey,” I didn’t know what to expect from Corden. I had a vibe that he’d be playing a more boisterous character, not someone as withdrawn as Craig is. His friendship with the Doctor is like two little boys learning how to play together. I really felt for the guy and his failure to tell Sophie how he feels. In particular, the shot of him standing alone on the grass once the Doctor has stolen all the thunder in the football game is sad and pathetic and it works. I feel like I’ve seen that happen before. In fact, I was probably that guy.

Later on, when the Doctor takes Craig’s place at work (after saving his life), he really starts to lose it, and when he thinks the Doctor’s moving in on Sophie, it’s just too much for him to take. Funny thing is, the Doctor is oblivious to all of this. One thing that’s been played up with the Eleventh Doctor is how out of touch he is with humans and their feelings, and how he simply doesn’t see the smallest things. Case in point: when he first moves in, and Craig is trying to explain to him that should he want to bring someone around, arrangements can be made so that he can have privacy…and the Doctor just doesn’t get it (much as he didn’t get Amy hitting on him at the end of “Flesh and Stone”). It’s hilarious to watch stuff like this, and it’s one of only many reasons I’m so taken with Smith’s alien portrayal.

There’s a bunch of other great, little stuff littered throughout the episode, too: The Doctor wearing a #11 jersey for the football game; the head butting scene in which the Doctor imparts the entirety of who he is on Craig; the van Gogh exhibit postcard on the refrigerator; the contraption the Doctor builds in his room (he built a much smaller version of this thing in “The Time Monster”); the implication that at some point after the story the Doctor and Amy both travel to points and fix things so the events we see here can work out properly; the rot on the ceiling, which is not unlike the Pandoricrack in concept; the Doctor spitting his wine back into his glass; Amy finding the ring in the final moments; and no doubt many viewers enjoyed watching Smith prance around in only a towel for one scene, as well as him mistakenly think an electric toothbrush was the sonic screwdriver.

But unfortunately most everything that happens when the story comes to a head is very boring, or at least not as good as all that came before it. We never find out exactly who was behind the ship, which leaves the episode feeling incomplete, and don’t get me started on the perception filter. Some people may be tired of the sonic screwdriver, but I’m sick and tired of perception filters. And in this case – and please correct me if I’m wrong – this perception filter somehow has the ability to build a flight of stairs that doesn’t actually exist, and yet characters and cats are able to run up and down them? I don’t get it. It’s just this gigantic hole in the story that makes everything on that top floor (which is actually the roof of the building) seem really phony. And frankly, as novel as the head butting scene is, I can’t help but think Craig’s head would have exploded having been saddled with all that information, but maybe I’m over thinking it all. “The Lodger” is good, but not great, and certainly not as groundbreaking as the episodes I mentioned at the top of the recap. But perhaps it’s unfair to make that comparison, since we’re in a whole new era, and there’s a much different approach being taken with this season than the Davies seasons that came before it.

Lastly, “The Lodger” was based on a comic strip that was also written by Gareth Roberts for the Tenth Doctor and Rose, while Mickey stood in for Craig. I’ve not read the comic, but would certainly be interested in giving it a look, and apparently you can find it in Doctor Who Magazine #368, or in the graphic novel collection “The Betrothal of Sontar” (what a title!).

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NEXT TIME: All hell is going to break loose when “The Pandorica Opens,” in the first half of the two-part season finale. You don’t want to miss this one, folks.

Classic “Who” DVD Recommendation of the Week: Since I mentioned it in the review, I might as well go ahead and recommend the just released “The Time Monster,” starring Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning and Roger Delgado. Or if this isn’t up your alley, maybe you should check out “Black Orchid,” where you see Peter Davison playing cricket with as much fervor as Smith plays football.

(Thanks as always to Sonic Biro for the screencaps.)