{"id":299,"date":"2010-06-29T14:44:17","date_gmt":"2010-06-29T14:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=299"},"modified":"2011-01-03T22:11:11","modified_gmt":"2011-01-03T22:11:11","slug":"so-what-did-i-think-about-the-big-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/06\/29\/so-what-did-i-think-about-the-big-bang\/","title":{"rendered":"So… what did I think about The Big Bang?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Doctor Who - Series 5 - Episode 13 - The Big Bang<\/p><\/div>\n

Spoilers abound! Keep away if you haven\u2019t seen the episode.<\/p>\n

I wrote last week that Steven Moffat had painted himself into a corner somewhat. This episode saw him not so much leap the wet paint in a single bound as redefine the notions of \u201cpaint\u201d, \u201cwet\u201d and \u201ccorner\u201d. This is a totally different episode to The Pandorica Opens<\/em> in a quite remarkable way \u2013 so much so that at times it barely feels like a continuation of the same story.<\/p>\n

Much of it is absolutely dazzling. The return to the time and place of The Eleventh Hour<\/em>, the brief sketch of a starless Earth (recalling Asimov\u2019s famous short story \u201cNightfall\u201d), the reveal of Amy inside the Pandorica \u201cOkay kid, here\u2019s where it gets complicated\u201d and that\u2019s just before the titles roll. Some of it is genuinely affecting \u2013 Rory\u2019s double millennium stint on guard duty is a beautiful conceit \u2013 much of it is terribly funny \u2013 \u201cI wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool. *toss* *zap* – a lot of it is both complicated and satisfying \u2013 Amelia is thirsty because the Doctor stole her drink in the past to give to her now because she\u2019s complaining of thirst.<\/p>\n

However, much of it is also very dry. As the Doctor bounces back-and-forward in time, we delight in seeing the pieces of the puzzle come together, but it tends to feel more like completing a Sudoku than the catharsis of a dramatic narrative. Part of the problem is that stakes having been raised through the roof and then up another twenty storeys last week, many of the solutions come very easily this week. Moffat\u2019s a rigorous enough writer to have provided one-line explanations for most if not all of the following gripes, but the fact is that none of them feel properly integrated into the story. A contradiction is still a contradiction, even with a throwaway pseudoexplanation.<\/p>\n