The Big Bang.

"I just don't want her joining one of those star cults. I don't trust that Richard Dawkins" - Aunt Sharon

The finalé gives us something the Doctor Who has been missing in a finishing episode since 2005, something with big implications that's also small and intimate, which this episode gives in spates.

"Oh, and when you're done, put my screwdriver in her top pocket"

Moffat gives us a deluge of delicate strands woven together to form a clever story. We begin by wondering what on earth is going on, why is the Doctor wearing a fez and why is Amy alive and in the pandorica? As the story progresses though we see everything come together, which seems a neat contrast, as the universe is falling apart the story is perfectly forming itself. Of course this then allows the haunting apparition of the seemingly dead Doctor to make an appearance, so just as everything seems like it's going to be tickety. Sorry, can't do.

"Restore. Restore. RESTOOOOOOORE"

Last week the Cybermen were given Moffat's sinister magic wand, this week it's the Daleks. The issue with the Daleks is they've never really been scary, yet in this episode there is an air of menace to them. Possibly helped by the fact they're partly fossilised, but mainly it draws on their artificial nature and plays on how simple the effect of having the eye stalk slowly begin to glow can be. We're also treated to the sheer malevolence of River Song as she mercilessly teases a begging Dalek, making a bizarre yet satisfying turnaround.

"Is he magic?"

And after her brilliant performance in The Eleventh Hour my favourite child star makes a return. Caitlin Blackwood was again a treat in this episode, and plays her role on a perfect pitch, and even gets a museum full of anachronistic monsters to play with, which sadly aren't apparent in the episode, but such treats as Nile Penguins are on display. Just to ram home the universe is fucked.

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

I'm sorry but the above line is hands down ingenious. And that's what makes me love this episode, the cleverness of it all. Under Davies we'd get a bunch of psychobable which meant the Doctor could fix the universe with his screwdriver, but instead we have a sincere attempt to try and make this insane situation plausible. The idea behind using the TARDIS to spread the saved molecules of the universe through time and space is a much better attempt then saying rerouting the clempix matrix of the pandorica might stimulate the bilflab enzymes of the fabric of the universe causing a zigboobon reaction which should make everything fine again, as we might have got under the old regime. Indeed Moffat isn't even happy with having everything the way it was, instead giving Amy a Mum and Dad and finally giving her her wedding.

"Did I tell you I stole it? Well, borrowed. I was going to give it back one day."

The Doctor's trip through time was the emotional highlight of the episode, giving the Doctor his chance to say goodbye to everything and reflect, not only on the past series, but goes way back to before we met Billy Hartnell in a junk yard in 1963. His final scene with Amelia is sweet and touching, as we see a touch of despair mixed in with the acceptance of his fate. I also couldn't help but get giddy when I realised it wasn't just a wardrobe malfunction in Flesh and Stone, and for once, the Who conspiracy theorists were right!

Next up is Christmas with his or her majesty and an Egyptian on the Orient Express. In space. But we can't wait till then, we've got three and a half decades and a movie to cover...