The Pandorica

In Provence, France in 1890 Vincent Van Gogh has horrific visions of a coming explosion. He has painted a picture showing the TARDIS being destroyed in a giant explosion. The picture also includes co-ordinates inscribed for The Doctor. In 1941 London, Edwin Bracewell shows the picture to Winston Churchill, advising him to warn The Doctor. Winston Churchill tries to do so but instead of reaching The Doctor, his intergalactic phone call reaches the Stormcage Containment Facility in the 50th Century, where he gets to speak to an imprisoned River Song. This call prompts her to escape and she is next seen in the Royal Art Collection, stealing Vincent Van Gogh’s picture. River Song then procures a Vortex Manipulator from a crooked dealer so that she can reach The Doctor.

Meanwhile, unaware of these events, The Doctor decides to travel to the oldest planet in the universe so that he can use the TARDIS to decipher a message that is reported to be the oldest writing in the whole universe. To The Doctor’s surprise the legendary message says ‘Hello, Sweetie’ and so is another calling card from River Song. The message also contains coordinates which takes The Doctor, and his travelling companion Amy Pond, to Roman Britain in 102 AD. There they meet River Song posing as Cleopatra. River Song explains about the Vincent Van Gogh painting warning of the destruction of the TARDIS.

The Doctor realises the painting, and destruction of the TARDIS, may be connected to the Pandorica, a fabled prison for the universe’s deadliest being, and rationalises that it must be stored in a memorable location - like the site of Stonehenge. There they discover a passage that leads to an underground area, which The Doctor terms as an ‘Underhenge’. Inside, they find the Pandorica, a large metal box outfitted with every type of lock imaginable. It also seems to be opening from the inside and transmitting a message across time and space, drawing many of The Doctor’s foes to Earth. Enemies which include Sontarans, The Judoon, Cybermen and Daleks.

Amy is Attacked

Refusing to flee The Doctor gets River Song to seek help from the nearby Roman legion while he remains with the Pandorica. But The Doctor and Amy are attacked by the debris of a Cyberman’s suit which is trying to find a new host. Thinking that he has managed to disable the head of the Cyberman The Doctor is stunned. The rest of the Cyberman then appears forcing Amy to find a place to hide. She is rescued by a mysterious centurion, who turns out to be Rory Williams. The revived Doctor is baffled to find Rory alive, since he is supposed to have been erased from history by a crack in the universe (see "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood"). Rory is even more confused. He claims he simply remembers dying one second and being a Roman soldier the next.

With the Romans guarding Stonehenge and with the Pandorica continuing to open from the inside The Doctor instructs River Song to pilot the TARDIS to Stonehenge. But despite being an expert TARDIS pilot the time machine takes River Song to Amy’s house on the 26th June 2010 - the very date of the time energy explosion that caused the cracks in the universe. But River Song is not aware of this. Nor is she aware of the scanner screen suddenly cracking into the same shape as the other cracks in the universe as an ominous voice declares ‘silence will fall’. Outside River Song discovers burn-marks on the lawn and, when she begins to explore Amy’s bedroom, she discovers representations of The Doctor and the TARDIS. She also finds elements such as Pandora’s Box and the Roman soldiers within Amy’s drawings and books. When she relays this to The Doctor he deduces that they might all be imaginary constructs taken from Amy’s mind to entrap him. Then as the TARDIS begins to malfunction dangerously, The Doctor, upon discovering the date that River Song has been taken to, orders her to get out of that timezone. But the TARDIS is now being controlled remotely by some unknown force and despite all her efforts to escape River Song finds herself locked in.

The Daleks

Back at Stonehenge, in 102 AD, Rory tries to connect with Amy by using the engagement ring that he had left aboard the TARDIS. But Amy is unable to remember him. It is then that The Doctor discovers that the Romans and Rory are in fact Autons. As they are activated Rory struggles to retain his human consciousness and stop himself from killing Amy. Then, just as Amy at last remembers who Rory is, the Auton Rory loses control and shoots her. Meanwhile, belowground the other Autons capture The Doctor and take him to the now-open Pandorica, which proves to be empty. Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Judoon and other enemies arrive and reveal that they have formed an alliance and built the Pandorica as a prison for The Doctor, as they believe he is about to destroy the Universe, owing to the cracks in the universe. Against his will, The Doctor is secured inside, screaming that he is the only one who can stop the explosion. Despite his pleading that they have made a huge mistake and that the TARDIS, not him, is about to destroy the universe, they refuse to believe him as they believe that only he can pilot the TARDIS. A distraught Rory is left cradling the lifeless Amy. As the Pandorica closes, with The Doctor trapped inside, and with River Song still unable to get out of the TARDIS the time machine goes critical and explodes. This results in all the galaxies surrounding the Earth exploding leaving nothing but blackness as silence falls…

In 1996 a young Amelia Pond discovers a museum pamphlet that has been posted through the letterbox of her house. It contains a message to visit the Pandorica which is one of the museum’s exhibits, along with a display of what appears to be Stone Daleks. At the museum she discovers another message, stuck on the Pandorica itself, that tells her to stick around. After the museum closes she approaches the Pandorica, which opens upon her touching it, and inside is her adult self. Non-other than Amy Pond…

Back in 102 AD, The Doctor, wearing using the Vortex Manipulator, visits the Auton Rory who is still cradling the dead Amy Pond in his arms. The Doctor hands over his sonic screwdriver while quickly explaining that he needs Rory to release him from the Pandorica before he disappears again. Rory does as The Doctor instructed. The Doctor is at first confused as to how Rory managed to free him from the Pandorica until he realises that it must have been him in the future that returned to the past. As he looks around all of The Doctor’s enemies appear to have been turned to stone and aged a few thousand years. The Doctor realises that the universe is ceasing to exist, and these are just echoes of what one was. The Doctor then places Amy into the Pandorioca – explaining to Rory that being such a secure prison the Pandorioca will not even allow death to be used as a means of escape. This means that Amy will be kept just alive and will only brought fully back to life when she comes into contact with a living part of her DNA – which can occur in 1884 years time when the young Amelia Pond visits the museum. The Doctor then prepares to leave but Rory refuses to accompany him. He is unwilling to leave Amy unprotected and decides to stay with the Pandorica.

The Cybermen

The Doctor then uses the Vortex Manipulator to travel to 1996 so as to be reunited with Amy and Rory (who has followed and protected the Pandorica with Amy inside for nearly 2000 years). There The Doctor discovers that the opening of the Pandorica, that allowed Amy to live again, also revived one of the other exhibits in the museum – a stone Dalek. It chases after them, only to become deactivated when Rory uses his Auton gun on it. Then, after questioning Rory, The Doctor uses the Vortex Manipulator to travel back to 102 AD, to get Rory to free him from the Pandorica, and 1996 to leave the messages for the seven year old Amelia Pond to free her adult self from the Pandorica.

They then realise that the young Amelia Pond is no longer with them as her part of the universe has now ceased to exist meaning that they have very little time to find the source of the collapse and to find a way to reverse its effects. Moments later The Doctor from twelve minutes into the future arrives, appearing badly hurt. The future Doctor urgently whispers something to the present Doctor before dropping to the floor. The Doctor has in fact been shot at by the Stone Dalek. Before this though The Doctor and his companions arrive on the roof of the museum, so as to escape from the reactivated Stone Dalek. There The Doctor discovers that the only astral body in the sky is the sun. But he deduces that it cannot be the sun as every single star in the universe has collapsed and so what they are witnessing is actually the explosion of his TARDIS, which is exploding at every moment in history. Inside the TARDIS, River Song is stuck in a time loop - the TARDIS’s way of keeping her alive. The Doctor, hearing her through a transmission, uses the Vortex Manipulator to rescue her.

They are immediately discovered by the Stone Dalek, who begins to attack. Back inside the museum The Doctor realises that the Pandorica still holds a memory of the old universe. He begins a plan to create a second Big Bang, where the atoms in the Pandorica can bring back the universe as it was before. However, before he can carry out his plan the Stone Dalek catches up with them and before River Song can kill it, The Doctor is shot. To escape from the Dalek Amy and Rory find themselves back in the area of the museum where they left The Doctor, who had arrived from the future, only to discover him missing. It is only when River Song catches up with them that they realise that The Doctor is not dead.

River Song

They find him sitting inside the Pandorica having used the time they spent distracting the Stone Dalek to rig the machinery of the Pandorica with the Vortex Manipulator so that he can fly it into the heart of the exploding TARDIS so as to allow the contents of the Pandorica touch every part of the universe through the cracks so returning everything to normal. Further more he tells Amy that she will have the power to bring her parents back, who the crack took when she was a child. He then flies the Pandorica into the burning TARDIS and the universe is restored. The Doctor’s act though means that he will become trapped, in an alternative universe, once all the cracks in the universe are sealed. But he is content knowing that Amy can live her life with both of her parents and can at last have the opportunity to marry Rory.

And so in 2010, Amy wakes up to her mother bringing in breakfast which her father made for her. Even though it is her wedding day, and so should be the happiest day of her life, she realise that there is something missing in her life. Something important, that she should remember but can’t. It is not until during the reception, when she sees various things that remind her of The Doctor that she starts to remember. When she realises that a blue book, that had been given to her by River Song, has an eight-square grid design on the front, similar to the TARDIS door, it dawns on her that her ‘raggedy Doctor’ is real. A strange wind picks up in the room and the TARDIS materialises in the middle of the floor. The Doctor, wearing a tuxedo, exits and introduces himself as Amy’s imaginary friend and tells them that he has come for the dancing. Afterwards he returns to his TARDIS and lands his time machine outside Amy’s home. There says his good-byes to River Song and gives her back the Vortex Manipulator which she uses to teleport away.

Back in the TARDIS, The Doctor is still concerned as to why the TARDIS exploded and who manipulated it to that date and then purposefully destroyed it. He is soon joined by Amy and Rory just as he receives a phone call about an Egyptian goddess who seems to have escaped onto the Orient Express - in outer space. The Doctor says his goodbyes to Amy and Rory but instead of leaving The Doctor and the TARDIS they both elect to stay and so all three of them are sent spinning through the Time Vortex in the TARDIS.