With the big dramatic ending and the very heavy situation you might have expected something with high terror, and a tense as a person can get. The Big Bang delivered almost exactly the opposite.
Was there some tension? Sure, where there several live and death moments, yup. But on the whole The Big Bang is a totally uplifting and lighthearted story that is just plain fun.
It’s not what you would expect from a season finale, the tension isn’t from the saving of the universe, it comes afterwords and plays itself very well.
Arthur Darvill’s Rory nearly steals the first third of the episode, his scenes with the Amy and the Doctor are powerful and really make the episode in a lot of way. Most of the “heavy” time comes from it yet even so the writing is so good that it isn’t so heavy that we can’t deal with it.
Alex Kingston has a much smaller part, but that’s ok, she is not the focus of the episode and she does have one very memorable moment.
One attractive piece of the story is the fact that not everything is resolved. That gives us something to look forward to for next season.
One final thing about all of this there is a big discontinuity with the fifth Doctor Episode Mawdryn Undead that longtime fans will spot right off, but we’ll let the BBC handle that.
That last 10 minutes contain not only some of the most pleasant moments of the entire run and something takes place that has never ever happened in the whole 47 years.
I’d have to say The Pandorica Opens is slightly better but the difference is so slight as to be almost meaningless.
One last thought, this episode is 55 minutes long, The Pandorica is 50 minutes long, that leaves only 15 minutes in two hours for commercials so I expect they will do some cutting. Perhaps they will cut the opening credits in the 2nd episode to save a few but I will be very upset if they slice and dice this thing.
Rating *****
Last Episode: The Pandorica Opens
Next Episode: Only 5 months away!
