From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Big Bang"

*record scratch* Yeah... it's me. You're probably wondering how I got here.
Well, to answer that, we'll have to go back a ways... or forward... it's complicated.

I'm always fashionably late to weddings, after all.

The Big Bang kicks off a lengthy recap of the previous episode. The Doctor is trapped, Amy is dead, Rory is heartbroken, and River is in an exploding TARDIS.

...oh, and the universe is collapsing.

Or, as we call it in the Doctor Who fandom - Saturday.

Anyway, 1,894 years after all that mess at Stonehenge, we arrive in a little garden in Leadworth, where a familiar set of events begin to play out with a signal difference... a police box does not crash into the garden and a young Amelia Pond is left glum and with no one to answer the question about her crack in the wall. A childhood psychologist and Amy's Aunt Sharon chastise her over a painting of the moon and stars. They show her the night sky and reiterate that there are no such things as stars...

...kind of police state-y, but never mind.

Amelia is less than pleased with this answer and, after sneaking downstairs to pick up something dropped in the mail slot, finds a brochure for a museum. The Pandorica is the main exhibit - circled in red and the back of the brochure telling her to "Come along, Pond". Presumably the next day, Amelia drags her aunt into the Pandorica exhibit, finding some stone Daleks and having her drink mysteriously taken when she arrives at the actual Pandorica. She finds another note in the same hand writing - "Stick around, Pond."

Amelia ducks out as her aunt tries to find her. Some time later, Sharon leaves and the museum is closed... and only Amelia is left, heading back over to the Pandorica. When she touches it, the device begins to open... revealing the adult Amy Pond, telling her that "this is where it gets complicated".

1,894 years earlier...

Rory is speaking to Amy as though she's still alive, clearly grieving deeply for his lost love. He echoes the Doctor's brief mention of ridiculous miracles in the previous episode and says that he could do with one. Enter the Doctor, teleporting in while wearing a fez and holding a mop.

"Hey, Rory! Check it out! That Dalek's stoned!"
"Oh, yeah! Heh heh!"

Between appearances, the Doctor explains the plan - use his sonic screwdriver to release the Doctor from the Pandorica and leave the screwdriver in Amy's top pocket. When the Doctor is released from the Pandorica, he is naturally confused as he still has his sonic screwdriver. He works out that the Doctor that Rory ran into is a future Doctor, and they observe the various races of the alien alliance having been turned to stone - after-images of time.

Rory takes the Doctor to Amy and the Doctor tricks Rory into revealing that he is, in fact, Rory... by being dismissive of Amy's status. After Rory decks him but good, the Doctor is convinced and brings Amy back to the Pandorica. The Doctor explains that Rory was brought back through Amy's memory print, the Nestenes clearly getting more than they bargained for. He also leaves Amy a psychic message for when she wakes up, sealing the Pandorica and claiming that it will fully restore her to life when it gets a dose of her genetic imprint, which he says she'll get in about 2,000 years.

Back to the present (ish) with Amy and Amelia meeting and Amy trying to work things out about where she is and what happened.

The Doctor preps the vortex manipulator and tells Rory to grab on. Rory, however, elects to stay and protect the Pandorica through whatever comes next. Despite the Doctor's insistence that he'll literally be awake and conscious for 2,000 years, Rory is adamant and begins his 2,000 year long vigil.

In the museum, Amy and Amelia watch a video on the "Lone Centurion", who apparently kept the Pandorica safe throughout recorded history. Amy weeps, led to believe that Rory died protecting the box. A stone Dalek animates and goes after them. A security guard comes out to meet them... revealing himself to be Rory with his Auton hand gun that he uses to hip fire into the eyestalk of a Dalek, taking it out.

After Rory and Amy make up for 2,000 years of no snogging, they find that the Dalek is being reanimated by the light of the Pandorica. Following a quick escape, the Doctor pops back in time to give Rory the sonic and thus complete that bootstrap paradox as well as leaving the notes for Amelia and stealing her drink. All things seeming to be on the upswing, the Doctor suddenly materializes on the step, falls, whispers something to the other Doctor and then... dies. We don't hear it, but we learn that the Doctor told the Doctor that he has twelve minutes until he dies...

Also, Amelia has disappeared. Now, Amelia has never existed... or has she? The Doctor likens the situation that he, Amy, and Rory are in to being at the eye of a storm. The universe is still collapsing... and the Dalek is once more rejuvenating in the light of the Pandorica.

"Yes, yes, I know. I already did this in Battlefield."

On the roof, the Doctor uses a satellite dish to locate the TARDIS (exploding or otherwise) and realizes that the Sun is the TARDIS. The last act of the TARDIS being to try and keep all of humanity alive. Clearly, she's taking after her pilot. She's also taken after her pilot in that River is stuck in a time loop to keep her alive. River goes through a few more iterations of what we saw in the previous episode - left staring at a stone wall as the TARDIS explodes... before the Doctor pops in to rescue her, bringing her back to Earth just in time for her and Amy to have mother-daughter bonding time some fun at the Doctor's expense as they destroy his fez.

After escaping the Dalek attack, the Doctor comes up with a plan using the Pandorica - the light containing billions of molecules from the universe as it once was. With a moment of infinite power behind it, they could reboot the universe. River calls it impossible, and the Doctor insists that it's almost  impossible. However, the Dalek has by this point caught up to them and shoots the Doctor. Using the vortex manipulator, the Doctor disappears. The Dalek is once more reviving... River tells Amy and Rory to go to the Doctor's body.

We get a terrifyingly awesome moment where River gets a Dalek to beg for mercy before not even giving it the dignity of an on-screen death.

Amy and Rory arrive at the sight where the Doctor's body should be and find the coat Rory draped over him lying on the floor. As River brings up: "Rule #1: The Doctor lies." The three run to the Pandorica to find the Doctor seated in it once more, on the verge of death. River is able to work out what the Doctor is planning to do - throw the Pandorica into the heart of the exploding TARDIS, a TARDIS that is exploding across all of time at once, and bring everything back.

With River's help, the Doctor is able to make final preparations. She explains to Amy and Rory what will happen - everything will reset to where it was and no one will have any memory of this. The Doctor will fly the Pandorica into the heart of the explosion and the Cracks will close, leaving him on the wrong side of them. The Last of the Time Lords will be erased from time... forever.

The Doctor requests to speak to Amy, asking her if being the Girl Who Waited was worth it (which, of course, she says it was). He mentions Amy's mother and father, and she insists that she lost them... but can't remember how. The Doctor took her along because, as he said in the previous episode, she was the girl who didn't make sense. He tells her to try and remember her family, and they'll be there. She'll have her family back, and she won't need her imaginary friend anymore...

The Pandorica closes and the Doctor sends off one last message as he flies into the heart of the exploding TARDIS.

The message? Geronimo!

The Pandorica explodes the sun... and time rewinds itself through the entire episode and finally back to the beginning... ish. The Doctor awakens on the TARDIS console room floor. He thinks he's escaped... and then sees himself and Amy preparing to go to Space Florida last week. At the last moment, Amy hears him... but doesn't seem to see him. His time stream is working in reverse, and he comes back through the events of The Lodger, then back further back to the events of Flesh and Stone on the Byzantium. Here, we see the Doctor with the different watch on his wrist from the other perspective as he encourages Amy to remember and - before he leaves - kisses her forehead.

Time continues to reverse... through Starship UK and Daleks in World War II... back to a little house in Leadworth, where he finds little Amelia out with a packed suitcase, waiting for her Raggedy Man to come back to her. He gingerly tucks her into bed and talks to her, telling her that he thought he could hold on if she could hear him, but that doesn't appear to be the case...

Hearbreaking scene as the Doctor decides to face his death before he becomes David Tennant again.

Matt gives a hell of a performance with the monologue.

DOCTOR: It's funny... I thought if you could hear me, I could hang on, somehow. Silly me, silly old Doctor. When you wake up... you'll have a mum and dad, and you won't even remember me. Well... you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head. And that's okay, we're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? 'Cos it was y'know. It was the best! A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it. I was always gonna take it back. Oh, that box. Amy. You'll dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient and the bluest blue ever! And the times we had, eh? Would've had. Never had. In your dreams, I'll still be there... the Doctor and Amy Pond. And the days that never came.

The ominous Crack opens and the Doctor knows that it's his time to go. He kisses Amelia's head, whispering to her to live well, love Rory.

"Bye-bye, Pond." His last words to her before he goes to face his destiny, the Crack shutting behind him and leaving Amelia to wake up to find a featureless wall over her bed.

Years pass and Amelia Pond becomes Amy Pond and, as before, she's getting married to Rory Williams. All is well... or is it? Amy's mother and father are alive again, and Amy is temporarily surprised but cannot figure out why. In talking with Rory over the phone, Amy feels like she's forgetting something but can't remember what it is. The wedding, it seems, goes off without a hitch and it is only as they're all at the reception that Amy... begins to remember. She sees one Doctor River Song walking outside, triggering something. As when Rory was erased from time, Amy is crying and doesn't know why...

On the table, River's diary is found with the pages blank. Rory thinks it's just part of the old wedding saying - Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. As Amy's father begins to do his speech, Amy witnesses a guest wearing a bow tie, another with suspenders like the Doctor's, and as a tear falls on the diary, she starts remembering. She begins a monologue about someone missing... talking about her imaginary friend to the negative response of the family and guests... but as she insists that she remembers, the glasses on the tables begin to vibrate.

In the distance, the engines of the TARDIS can be heard getting closer.

Rory, still in shock, asks her what it is. Her response?

"Something old, something new. Something borrowed, something blue."

...look, this is just awesome. I have no joke here.

The TARDIS materializes right there in the middle of the reception and Rory remembers the Doctor as well, and out he pops in a tuxedo and top hat, ready for the festivities. The Doctor diverts all kissing duties to the brand new "Mr. Pond" (yes, that's how it works) and the Doctor perfects the "Drunk Giraffe" style of dancing at the wedding to Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".

Later on, the Doctor gives Rory an atta boy while Rory and Amy slow dance, intending to slip away while things are quiet. He gets to his TARDIS, only to be met by River. He returns River's diary to her, promising that he didn't peek, and Moffat gets his ship teasing between the two out of the way. When the Doctor, exasperated, asks her who she is, River tells him that she's sorry. He's going to find out who she is soon, and that's when everything changes.

Amy and Rory get into the TARDIS, and find the Doctor is still working out who brought the TARDIS to this particular day and blew it up. Whatever it is is still out there, and he has every intention of finding out what it is. The phone rings and the Doctor picks it up, apparently hearing something on the other line about an Egyptian goddess being loose on the Orient Express... in space. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory that this will have to be goodbye. Amy and Rory agree, the former poking her head out of the TARDIS to wave goodbye to Leadworth before the TARDIS team travels once more into space and time...

The Big Bang is the epic capstone to a fantastic Series of Doctor Who. The stakes are the highest they've ever been, with a decent amount of the alien monsters we've come to know and love from the show. The emotional resonance - particularly with Amy and Rory - is at fever pitch, and the Doctor pulling the ultimate mulligan on the entire universe is pretty damn great to boot. Not to mention Amy bringing the Doctor back into the universe through sheer force of will.

I know many people don't like Moffat's brand of "fairy tale magic" as they like to put it, but screw that! This is awesome! And it fits perfectly with the Eleventh Doctor's status as Amy's imaginary friend. Her Raggedy Doctor, brought back to her after the end of the universe.

Also, the Doctor brings a definitive end to the Doctor-Amy-Rory love triangle for a second time. Let's see if he can stick with it.

Next time... well, next in line would be the Series 6 Christmas Special - A Christmas Carol, but we won't be covering that quite yet. Don't worry, you won't miss anything in the overall narrative if you're reading these recaps (although I do encourage you to actually watch the episodes), but Doctor Who is a show that travels all around in time and we have seen from my Classic Reviews. When we return to Doctor Who, it will be time to face... the Impossible Astronaut!

Be there!