Title of the work
Studio / Production Company
Country of the First Edition
Original Language
First Edition Date
First Edition Details
June 19, 2010 / June 26, 2010.
Running time
Date of the First DVD or VHS
Awards
2011 – Hugo Award, Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Film.
Genre
Science fiction
Television series
Time-Slip Fantasy*
Target Audience
Crossover
Cover
We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.
Author of the Entry:
Richard Scully, University of New England, rscully@une.edu.au
Peer-reviewer of the Entry:
Elizabeth Hale, University of New England, ehale@une.edu.au
Daniel A. Nkemleke, University of Yaounde 1, nkemlekedan@yahoo.com
Lindsey Alford
Script Editor
Toby Haynes (Director)
Steven Moffat
, b. 1961
(Screenwriter, Scriptwriter)
Steven Moffat (1961– ) is an acclaimed Scottish TV writer and producer, who has been a significant force in British television and film since the late 1980s. Having studied at the University of Glasgow, he began writing creatively for the stage while working as a teacher in Greenock (near Glasgow). A play – War Zones (1985) – and a musical – Knifer (1989) – garnered some acclaim, but his big break came with a sample script for a show about a school newspaper. This was picked-up by ITV as Press Gang (1989–1993), showcasing much of Britain’s up-and-coming young talent. From there, he worked on the series Joking Apart (1993–1995) and Chalk (1997), before having a huge hit with the relationship-themed comedy Coupling (2000–2004). Moffat was a long-time fan of Doctor Who – writing a comedy spoof for Comic Relief entitled The Curse of Fatal Death (1999) – and when it was re-launched under Russel T. Davies from 2005, he contributed scripts for perhaps the best episodes of the revamped series: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (2005). He contributed The Girl in the Fireplace (2006), and Blink (2007), as well as the short charity episode Time Crash (2007). Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (2008) followed; and on the strength of this – and his reputation with the outgoing showrunner, Davies – Moffat took over as executive producer from 2010. Moffat hired Matt Smith to replaced David Tennant as the Doctor (the Eleventh incarnation of the Time Lord), writing or editing in some form on almost every series of the programme from 2010 to 2017. Concurrently, Moffat collaborated with Mark Gatiss on the series Sherlock (2010-2017); six episodes of Jekyll (2007); and worked with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson on feature-film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011).
Bio prepared by Richard Scully, University of New England, rscully@une.edu.au
Casting
Matt Smith – The Doctor,
Karen Gillan – Amy Pond,
Arthur Darvill – Rory Williams,
Alex Kingston – River Song,
Tony Curran – Vincent van Gogh,
Bill Paterson – Bracewell,
Ian McNeice – Winston Churchill,
Sophie Okonedo – Liz Ten,
Marcus O'Donovan – Claudio,
Clive Wood – Commander,
Christopher Ryan – Commander Stark,
Ruari Mears – Cyber Leader,
Paul Kasey – Judoon,
Howard Lee – Doctor Gachet,
Barnaby Edwards – Dalek,
Simon Fisher-Becker – Dorium,
Joe Jacobs – Guard,
Chrissie Cotterill – Madame Vernet,
David Fynn – Marcellus,
Caitlin Blackwood – Amelia,
Susan Vidler – Aunt Sharon,
Frances Ashman – Christine,
Barnaby Edwards – Stone Dalek,
William Pretsell – Dave,
Halcro Johnston – Augustus Pond,
Karen Westwood – Tabetha Pond,
Nicholas Briggs – Dalek voice.
Summary
‘The Pandorica Opens’ and ‘The Big Bang’ contain numerous mash-ups of Classical myth and history. The two-part story opens with the Doctor (in his Eleventh incarnation, played by Matt Smith) and his companion, Amy Pond, arriving in Roman Britain in AD 102, where they find the Doctor’s past and future wife, River Song, impersonating the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra VII. The ‘Pandorica’ of the title is a direct reference to Pandora’s Box: an advanced prison wherein the universe’s most dangerous being is to be incarcerated. Faced by an attack from the combined armies of his deadliest enemies (the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, and more besides), the Doctor is backed by a cohort of Roman legionaries, commanded by Amy Pond’s fiancée, Rory Williams. As ‘the Last Centurion’, Rory stands guard over the Pandorica for centuries, down to the present day. In a remarkable intertextual narrative device, the whole scenario in which the Doctor finds himself is revealed to be a construct, drawn from Amy’s childhood memories of a book The Story of Roman Britain (inspired by the real-world The Romans, from the Ladybird Story of Britain series). The Doctor himself is revealed to be the universe’s most dangerous being, and thus is destined for the Pandorica.
Analysis
‘The Pandorica Opens’ and ‘The Big Bang’ are significant examples of early-21st century British television drama. Watched by close to 7 million viewers during its initial broadcast (and an additional million or so on catch-up services and other media), the episodes are notable examples of a science fiction appropriation of Classical myth, and history. The time-travelling theme of the program was a handy device for justifying the incursion into Roman Britain; and the Doctor and his companion serve as useful avatars for the audience-members as they are introduced to and familiarised with the historical and mythical context of the storyline (or, rather, reacquainted with matters with which they may already have been; with Latin language and Roman history still being widely-taught in the British education system in the 2000s).
Further Reading
Harmes, Marcus K., Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation; Fifty Years of Storytelling, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, esp. pp. 68 ff.
Keen, Anthony G., "It's about Tempus: Greece and Rome in “Classic” Doctor Who", in David C. Wright, Jr., and Allan W. Austin, eds., Space and Time: Essays on Visions of History in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010, 100–15.
Keen, Anthony G., "Sideways Pompeii! The Use of Historical Period to Question the Doctor's Role in History", in Ross P. Garner, Melissa Beattie, and Una McCormack, eds., Impossible Worlds, Impossible Things: Cultural Perspectives on Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2010, 94–117.
Potter, Amanda, "Classical monsters in new Doctor Who fan fiction", Transformative Works and Cultures 21 (2016), at journal.transformativeworks.org (accessed: August 17, 2018).
Addenda
Recorded viewers:
‘The Pandorica Opens’ – 7.57 million
‘The Big Bang’ – 6.696 million
