TV Review: DOCTOR WHO - 6.12 "Closing Time"
The Doctor is alone and days away from his impending death by the hands of The Impossible Astronaut, feeling lonely he goes to say goodbye to one of his only friends left, in one of the best episodes this year.
Doctor Who Series 6: Episode 12 Written By: Gareth Roberts
rating: 4.5
The Doctor is alone and days away from his impending death by the hands of The Impossible Astronaut, feeling lonely he goes to say goodbye to one of his only friends left, in one of the best episodes this year.
Closing Time marks writer Gareth Roberts forth episode for New Who in a sequel to last years episode The Lodger. It continues the story of Craig Owen (James Cordon) a year after he last saw The Doctor. Now married to longtime friend Sophie (Daisy Haggard), Craig is now a father and struggling to live up to his infant child's expectations. All the while a group of Cybermen are stranded on earth with hopes to rebuild an empire. Last years episode The Lodger (also written by Roberts) took a while to grow on me due to a couple things, I didn't believe Gavin & Stacy star James Cordon could work in Doctor Who and the overall set up of the episode felt like filler to me. After a second watch I looked past my problems with the episode and simply watched it as an episode of Doctor Who. I now love The Lodger and James Cordon has earned his place on the show, much like comedy actress Catherine Tate (Donna) before him. Closing Time is, for all arguments The Lodger Part II. It feels and acts like a direct continuation of The Lodger, because it is- style, setting, direction and tone are all spot on with what has come before and then some. Primarily some of the cyber variety. The Cybermen make a long awaited return to the series in their first non cameo appearance since The Next Doctor (2009), an episode which received a very mixed reception and by no means gave justice to one of The Doctors greatest enemies. Actor Nick Briggs is back as the voices of The Cybermen with a slightly new approach to their voices. The new series Cybermen have always been an odd breed to me, taking vocal queues from to the Tomb Of The Cybermen era, the current version of the monsters have always been a bit too mono-tonal for my liking, leaving them with little character for The Doctor to bounce off of. Briggs has shaken up the monsters voices every so slightly and allowed for a little bit more emotion in their voices. During a conversation between The Cyber Controller and The Doctor in the third act, you can hear glimpses of anger in the controllers voice. Anger that adds to the characters as a whole and makes them feel more menacing and less like a walking talking dumb toaster. These Cybermen bring me back to the menacing childhood days of Earthshock without the obvious Darth Vader "Excelent...." knock off feel that era brought with it. My only gripe was the fact there was only four of these glorious creatures. Cybermats also make a long awaited return to the show after a 36 year break. This cooky 60's creation has always been a nice example of Classic Who in pop-culture and it's brings me a huge amount of enjoyment to see them grace the screens of New Who especially with the amount of screen time they have throughout the story. I was worried that such an obscure and in some sense corny creature could have come off as silly to casual viewers but thankfully I watched this episode with a group of casual Whovian friends who were eating every moment up! The re-design was superb on the creatures and props to the designers for finding a way to mix together a mechanical and organic design for them. One thing this episode did exceedingly well was juggle the elements of a monster of the week episode and the seasons over-arching story thread of The Doctors death and Melody Pond. The Doctor knows he is going to die and it effects his actions throughout this entire episode, he knows his actions get the ones closest to him killed and seeks resolution from Craig about what needs to be done. A fantastic parallel is struck between The Doctor and Craig's new born son Alfie (AKA Stormageddon), a wise man at the end of his journey embraces the friendship of a child who is only at the beginning. Truly a fantastic moment from Matt Smith. All this build throughout the episode helps the somewhat unconnected final scenes feel less jarring to the hardcore and casual viewers. Cordon's character of Craig continues to develop from a man stuck in a sofa shaped rut, to a loving husband trying to prove his worth to the world and above all his son. It would now be a true shame to not see this character for a third trip.