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.

‘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.

‘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).

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).

Recorded viewers:

‘The Pandorica Opens’ – 7.57 million

‘The Big Bang’ – 6.696 million