@Jay

You make some good points but with the greatest respect, I really don’t think one random kid and his pal going off DW represents the general consensus on S5, and I certainly wouldn’t use that opinion as a “barometer of what people think”.

Of course that is going to be how some younger viewers feel, but there will be many who feel the completely differently.

You say the series is in decline, based on the overnight viewing figures? These figures aren’t sensational I agree, but I don’t think they are an indication of a decline. If you look at the final ratings for Matt’s episodes, they aren’t too different to previous series. The overnight figures, which attract most attention, have made it appear this series was far less popular than it was.

Moffat can’t really win. If he had continued with RTD’s “crash, bang, wallop” people would have moaned he was copying his predecessor. He decided to go for more intricate, plot driven episodes and they are being described as “slow, slow, slow”.

Not everyone needs spaceships every third scene and The Doctor running down yet another corridor to be entertained and enthralled.

Ultimately this could run and run… Some of us are going to have really enjoyed S5 and others less so. Constant debating it on here won’t change any of our minds.

I am not a fan of series five for many reasons but I thought The Pandorica Opens was a great little story, however The Big Bang just felt empty, there was no real action apart from The Stone Dalek and it didnt really answer any questions of ours. I also thought all the monsters gathering up on him last week and Amy dying was all a bit pointless too and just a way to get people watching this week. It didnt really have the wow factor that other series finales had and everything had a Happy Ending, which sort of proves this show is targettting children a lot more. Having said that I am 17 and didnt really understand the switching back and forth storyline so I’m not sure how children are supposed to understand it. All in all, not a bad episode but it was a bad finale and hopefully Moffet steps up for series 6.

@Ruby

1. This show or this episode is NOT aimed at children! and do u think that towing the earth home was not aimed at children!? this final was the only one you could take seriously!
2. Just becuase it didnt answer ur questiosn dosnt make it a bad episode! in fact it just shows that the writers have sooo much more to be added to the story!
3. The ‘wow factor’ was replaced with a good storyline,
4. The episode had as much action as it needed to have, it was based on charector and time, in RTDs series’ they would just throw a random action scene in, cuase the storylines weren’t good enough to engage the audences (with a few execptions like tooth and claw where the story was about the action.) this is what doctor who is about, not running down corridors and random action scenes! its about time and space and the charectors

I am still stuck on how the Doctor got out of the Pandorica. How can he time travel with the vortex manipulator to talk to Rory to ask him to get him out when he is STILL in the box in the present time, sans vortex manipulator? He only gets the manipulator AFTER Rory frees him.

He shouldn’t be able to time travel!

If I got this wrong, please someone explain this, as it really is boggling my mind!

Again, whether it was a good storyline is debatable, since I kind of hated it, but as someone else said earlier, it’s one of these issues that are going to go round in circles cos everyone has their own view and that won’t be changed.

@JC

What what do u think a good storyline is then?

that was by far the best episode of who ever that i’ve seen in my lifetime. when i watched it it was really confusing but also really fun at the same time it was really freaky when the future doctor appeared and died in the museum it made me think that he might actully die but he didn’t and that was the best part of it to be honest. i didn’t like the fact that river was making amusing comments at serious times. the only time a actual funy comment came out of her mouth was when she said the dalek had ‘died’.

@JC
hi rousan, i see your point, i think its a paradox, when something that needs to happen in the past, has to happen in the future first! a bit like a circle. timey whimey, hope this helps a little

@Steve
Basically, not that. It’s tempting to make a scathing attack on Season 5 like others have done to the previous series and finales, indeed I’ve just written an entire post in this text box about everything that was wrong with this Season’s finale, but it’s not worth it.

All I need to say is that Season 5 was not ended correctly and I was disappointed. Was the episode itself ok?……….yeah, it was just ok, it was a watchable Doctor Who episode but it wasn’t what I’d call a finale, I was underwhelmed by the whole thing and the Season finished with me asking, was that it?

But that’s just my personal opinion and unfortunately, it can’t be changed. The reality was that I was sat there at the end of Episode 13 asking if the whole of Season 5 had seriously just been leading to that, and that’s how it was.

I think series 5 ended just right, questions, paradoxes and all! Of course I am ecstatic that Rory was restored and he got his girl after all — for me, if that hadn’t happened, I would have been severely disappointed [not enough to put me off watching the show], and I’m guessing that other fans had other issues that were not resolved, and so it didn’t work for them — a lot is a matter of personal taste, which characters, aspects you’re most invested in, but for me, it just worked! Also, I really enjoy it when they play with time travel more than just going to different times and places just to further their adventures. Meeting people before they meet you, getting out of the box while you’re still in it, and all that stuff! It’s mind boggling and confusing, but I love watching and thinking about that sort of thing, and I don’t always need an explanation to enjoy the ride, alternately, trying to explain what just happened can be great fun as well!

@Vix
Yeah, don’t get me wrong Vix, it’s easy when I say I didn’t like the episode as the Season Finale to think I hated the whole episode, when I didn’t.

I loved that Amy came back to life, she’s a great companion, and I’m probably one of the few people (but including you) who actually really liked the character of Rory and I’m glad that he was restored to life and to human, it wouldn’t have been right for him to continue as an Auton.

I also liked the humour, “Fezzes are cool”, before it was blown apart by River’s gun and I found it weirdly uncomfortable to see a Dalek begging for mercy before being killed.

Personally I don’t really understand the idea that anyone could love the RTD years but not feel the same way about this current run, baffles me. It’s not like it’s radically different all of a sudden. There are differences of course, but there are far more similarities, it’s not had the complete overhaul many people thought, and in some cases hoped, was coming when Moffat took over; it’s very recognisably a continution of what’s gone before, with a few tweaks here and there.

For me, it was great under RTD, and it’s still great under Moffat. Have there been weak stories this year? Yes. Were there weak stories in every other year? Yes, yes, yes.

This finale was very different in style to previous ones though, I agree. In an RTD finale, that final episode would have had more in the way of monsters and big visual spectacle, under Moffat it was a much more intricate affair. Personally, I’m happy with either take.

@JC
I think you were supposed to feel uncomforatbele, it was a character revealing moment; River wasn’t content with killing the threat, she wanted to hear it beg. Another thing to ponder over as we move clsoer to finding out who or what she is.

@TWWL
Absolutely, it was weirdly uncomfortable to watch, but in a good way.

The best way to settle this whole argument is to basically say what some other clever person has said on this forum…

RTD is a good writer and so is Steven Moffat but they are VERY different writers. What may work for one audience, wont work for another. I’ll stay poud that I preferred RTD’s era (but that is MY choosing so I dont want anyone attacking me further over it) but I didn’t like moffats’ series. I respect SM, but I just dont rate his contributions.

What is the guessing with the NEXT writer who takes over from Moffat that we will be suddenly praising him and knocking Moffat…

i think we all need too calm down here.
at the end of the day sum of us liked it others didnt, i personally didnt enjoy the big bang, although i didnt find it confusing one bit, the story just didnt go anywhere for my taste

@JC

I see your point, anyway i agree we all have our own opinions, hopefully u will like it when we find out whats going on, maybe its just that ur not used 2 the overall storyline going for 2 series instead of 1, but i think its a good change

@iyc thanks for the reply.

@twwl i never thought that that was the intention of the scene with river. i thought it was just weird that the dalek begged.

i did enjoy their year’s series and i now love matt smith’s doctor. i just think they should’ve given us a meatier finale since they have a lot of unanswered questions. I don’t mind cliffhangers on season finales as long as they gave me some good action. I am so not satisfied on how he got out of that box! it should’ve been harder than that! should’ve taken more than sonicing! sigh.

the bits i enjoyed are: “fez are cool”, the doctor talking to the sleeping little amy pond, doctor dancing. rory was adorbs.

and it bothered me that amy still wanted to make out with the doctor on her own wedding. i felt bad for rory. I hope that’s not how next season still goes.

I like the fact that there are unanswered questions. They are not going to be unanswered for too long.

River: “You’ll find out soon enough, and I’m sorry, but thats when everything changes”.

That’ll be the end of series 6 I’m guessing, when according to moffat something big happens that changes how The Doctor sees himself and everything around him.

I’m intrigued and excited, but the moaners will be crying because its not how it used to be, even though how it used to be wasn’t really indicative of Dr. Who.

@rousan As far as Amy wanting to make out with the Doctor…you know, Rory takes an awful lot, but he can and will make his boundaries known when necessary, as we saw when the Doctor dared to detract from Amy’s importance! At this point, I’m not so worried about it…now I may be if they keep going in that direction, but I’m choosing not to take it too seriously yet!

Even in the finale, Moffat is playing games with us! Leading us down the River killing/marrying the Doctor…or not, and such. Some questions answered, some issues resolved, but others just as much or even more mysterious than ever! It makes for lots of anticipation! I’m very much looking forward to series 6! I think companions Amy and Rory together will be amazing, and I hope that doesn’t change for a long time!