Overnight viewing figures for The Pandorica Opens show that the story achieved a Rating of 5.9m viewers (inc Hd) with a 31.5% audience share.

5.4m Watched on BBC1

Full figures including those who recorded it and watched it within 7 days will be available form BARB in a couple of weeks time.

Source: Doctor Who News page

SFX was lucky enough to get a seat at this week’s very special Bafta screening of “The Pandorica Opens”, the first half of this year’s Doctor Who season finale. Here are some of the highlights of the audience Q+A that took place afterwards.

Before this series began you said that one of the things you were going to be guided by was this idea of a fairy tale, and that’s something we can see really clearly in “The Pandorica Opens”. This is about things that go pretty deeper, stories that we almost half remember from our childhoods…

Steven Moffat: Fairy tales are the way we warn our children of the dangers of the world, and that’s what Doctor Who is. Doctor Who more commonly than it goes into outer space takes outer space and makes it under your bed or in the back of your cupboard.

What are you trying to warn us about then?

SM: That everything is genuinely frightening and children, you’re right – there is something in the back of your cupboard!

When did you know that you’d got the new series right?

SM: I avoided the press on the day after broadcast, because I thought there was bound to be quite a lot of negatives because David was so brilliant and so popular. I didn’t realise that the press would be amazing, we got all these responses and I hear “Best Doctor ever” quite often. I didn’t expect it to be, none of us did, that instant. It was just instant, so that was brilliant.

What did you expect before you started, Matt?

Matt Smith: I guess you just hope to come out alive, really. It’s impossible to calculate before it happens, but what we have received has been overwhelming and very positive, pretty humbling and very exciting.

It wouldn’t have got this much attention in the old days…

SM: And that’s shameful, actually. It should have had that attention, there was absolutely brilliant stuff. I hate the orthodoxy that Doctor Who became good in 2005, that’s not true. I didn’t fall in love with that show because it was rubbish, it was because it was brilliant.

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Karen Gillan has promised "revelations" in the upcoming Doctor Who series finale.

The actress told Digital Spy that the two-parter resolves a lot of unfinished business from the past eleven episodes, especially for her character Amy Pond.

Gillan said: "There may be cracks in time and space involved. There's a lot of loose ends being tied up and things being explained and revelations."

Matt Smith added: "Let's just say that The Doctor's up against it. He's as up against it as I've ever seen. So whether that be a Dalek, or a Cyberman, or a Silurian. Who knows?

"I think they're certainly two of our most ambitious episodes - they're certainly the most accomplished. I think Steven [Moffat's] writing has somehow got better... It's everything that Doctor Who should be and could be when it's firing on all cylinders."

Gillan also officially confirmed that her character will be "coming back" to "do it all over again" when the show returns in 2011.

Source: DigitalSpy

1. Steven Moffat’s on top form with a brilliantly crafted episode – the perfect start to a two-parter.
2. The Doctor and Amy visit the oldest planet in the universe, where the first words in history have a familiar ring to them.
3. The stakes are every bit as high as in an RTD season finale.
4. Characters from earlier in the series make surprise appearances before the opening titles – and we’re not just talking about the series recap.
5. There’s something funny going on at Stonehenge.
6. If you thought “The Lodger” looked like a money-saving episode, you soon realise where all that spare cash went.
7. There’s a scene in a bar rather reminiscent of the Star Wars cantina.
8. There’s an armada of alien spacecraft.
9. The Doctor gets to deliver one of his “Get out of here!” speeches.
10. There’s a brilliant scare involving a human skull.
11. You could market an entire range of action figures on the back of this episode alone.
12. Amy’s engagement ring is crucial.
13. It’ll make you want to go back and watch the whole series again.
14. Someone other than the Doctor pilots the TARDIS.
15. The Doctor and Amy face a foe reminiscent of fembots.
16. There’s a fantastic nod to The Thing.
17. The Pandorica does indeed open.
18. It also closes.
19. The episode ends in a cliffhanger so devilish that it seems utterly inescapable. It’s going to be a very, very long week.
20. 26 June 2010 is a very important date indeed – and not just because it’s the day of the series finale.

1. Hello sweetie writ large. Literally.

2. "This is royal collection and I'm the ****** *****!

3. Cleopatra's comin' atcha!

4. Drahvins, Zygons, Draconians, oh my!

5. A nifty new Cyber-feature is revealed.

6. An unlikely alliance is formed.

7. The Pandorica opens. And closes.

8. We finally find out where those pesky cracks are coming from.

9. Death. A whole lot more death than you probably anticipated.

10. But don't despair, the last word of the episode is "love".

Source: DigitalSpy

The first part of the stunning series finale, The Pandorica Opens, is on BBC One on Saturday at 18.40. But BAFTA will be hosting a special preview screening of the episode tonight, followed by a Q&A session with members of the cast and crew including Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.

We've been asked to issue a reminder that sadly, tickets are not available and no further tickets will be available on the evening. But the good news is, we're bringing you an exclusive clip from the episode (above) and we'll fill you in on the night's events later in the week.

Source: BBC 

Source:  Peter McKinstry

Karen Gillan shares her thoughts on this episode.

The Doctor’s friends unite to send him a terrible warning; the Pandorica – which is said to contain the most feared being in all the cosmos – is opening, as the time travelling drama continues. But what’s inside, and can the Doctor stop it?

The Pandorica Opens is written by Steven Moffat and stars Matt Smith as the Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond.

Doctor Who is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC’s high definition channel, available through Freesat 108, Freeview 50, Sky 143 and Virgin 108.