Doctor Who: Closing Time
Well, I can confidently predict that some people really won't like this episode of Doctor Who. After the intensity and iconoclasm of the past few weeks, a sequel to The Lodger feels like a real change. And I'm all for it, quite frankly. Doctor Who has one of the most versatile story telling formats in the world. Why not have an episode about the trials of parenthood, working in a shop, the awkwardness of an alien in suburbia and the ways in which you can deal with a Cybermat with razor sharp, high-voltage teeth? Why not have the occasional episode that tries to be funny?
Especially since it succeeds in being funny. The baby called Stormageddon, the Doctor as toy shop owner, the confusion about his relationship with Craig, his ability to shush people - I could go on, but this was an episode based around banter and that banter worked. In the past, a lot of the comedy in Doctor Who has been based around, say, Tom Baker's inability to take the story seriously. The new series has instead employed genuinely funny writers - such as tonight's author, Gareth Roberts.
Yet it wasn't just about laughs. This was, in the few scenes they were in, quite an effective use of the Cybermen. Finally, perhaps for the first time since the series returned, someone clocked that the true horror of the Cybermen is in their conversion process. They will make you into monsters. Also, the damaged, worn out Cybermen somehow looked more effective than their perfect counterparts.
But for some, the relative lack of menace and the increased comedy quotient won't work. They'll complain and bellyache that it was all a bit silly, and that these episodes aren't a patch on The Doctor's Wife or Let's Kill Hitler. And in doing so they will miss the point that not every episode can be an iconoclastic classic, and sometimes you just have to let the good Doctor breathe, and have some fun in the process.
And if anything didn't work in this episode, it was the tacked on stuff about River Song. Yes, there was a need to remind people of the overall story arc, and there arguably was a need to create a cliffhanger for the no doubt epic season resolution next week. But do we really need a kid's nursery rhyme being sung in the background to point out what is, has, and will be going on? Why can't we just have the Doctor visiting his old mate and telling him that he is off to his death after this? Isn't that enough?
Still, this episode worked. I don't what every Doctor Who episode to be like this, but every now and again, it is a real delight to see my favourite show doing comedy so well.
Labels: Cult TV, Doctor Who, Reviews, TV
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 11:47 pm
19 Comments
19 Comments:
Truly terrible. A flimsy, uninspired and largely pointless episode virtually devoid of meaningful plot. Predictable, dull - a total clunker. By halfway through I was bored enough to go and make a cup of tea, safe in the knowledge that I wouldn't miss much. I didn't. Horribly, horribly mawkish - scary monsters defeated by a father's luuuurve... yeah, right. How often is that little trope going to turn up in this series? To be fair there was a bit of a variation this time, in that the monsters here were about as scary as Rose Tyler's mum. A sad waste of a classic enemy. All this capped off by a clumsily tacked-on ending featuring Madame Kovarian gurning like an escapee from an amateur pantomime - it's verging on the laughable. the whole thing was embarrassingly bad.
In my opinion, I think this episode helped to signify the true selflessness of the Doctor. He missed an event he looked most forward to (heading to his death, mind you) in order to help another person. Whether or not it was scary, it was still an episode that made me leave with emotion. I believe one of the underlying morals of this weeks story was to be confident in yourself and maybe even realize that it's okay to need help sometimes. On the other hand, I will give you that it wasn't an incredibly important episode to the main story-line. Despite the positives or negatives, I still look forward to next weeks episode.
Jim,
I thought that would be your response to the episode... For me, it was on a par with Night Terrors which, if memory serves, you very much enjoyed. The two episodes, while trying to do very different things with the show's format, were similar in that they did what they wanted to do really rather well and, as anonymous points out, contributed little to the overall story. When I look back on this season, Closing Time won't be the story that first jumps out at me. But nor will Night Terrors.
And as for the clunker of this season (so far)? The Curse of the Black Spot. Closing Time is streets ahead of that one.
TNL
Predictable – well yes, fair enough – after all, I loathed The Lodger with a passion. I entirely agree with you that the versatility of the Doctor Who format is one of the show’s greatest strengths, and I’m all for utilising that potential. The preceding three episodes demonstrate this: eclectic, largely stand-alone and, to varying degrees, very effective. However, whilst Doctor Who can be many things, there are some things that it definitely isn’t. One of these is ‘Friends’. What we saw last night could easily have been re-titled The One with the Fat Bloke and the Rather Silly Tin Men. Doctor Who is often brilliantly funny, but it’s not a comedy with a bit of sci-fi thrown in; it’s sci-fi with comedic moments – and these are very different things.
Even if I go with the idea of occasional comedy episodes, I’d question the decision to stick it in at this point in the run. Juxtaposing a humorous bromance with the Doctor’s descent into darkness in the face of his oncoming doom jarred horribly. It also broke the mood of gathering crisis which had been built up pretty effectively over the previous few weeks. Granted that the episode tried to salvage that with the tacked-on ending, but for me it only succeeded in jarring even more with what had preceded it.
As for the horribly mawkish daddy’s-love-saves-us-from-the-monsters element (AGAIN, get a story editor in for God’s sake) pass the sick bag. Maybe we’re being set up for a final episode in which Rory saves the universe by telling River that he loves her and they can all have a good cry together.
Anyway, if they’d really wanted to go for the comedy, it would have been better if Cordon had been saved because his fat belly wouldn’t fit inside a cyber-suit. Now THAT would have been a moment to cherish.
Ha ha ha. The new series has employed "genuinely funny writers" you say. Maybe it is true as Moffatt has written some of the best recent comedies, but your swipe at Tom Baker is truly silly.
Have you never heard of Douglas Adams?
Jim,
I will concede that this episode's place in the running order is a little curious. It is odd to have a comedy episode just before the main character is about to die. Then again, given the character of the Doctor, he probably would go off and have a silly adventure with an ordinary man just before he went off to die. It is in keeping with the character, even if it is dramatically questionable.
Jonathan,
Of course I've heard of Douglas Adams. What a fucking stupid question. Although, for the record, Douglas Adams is a science fiction writer who over-used comedy to hide the flaws in his plots (often nothing more than concepts in dire need of being fleshed out and thought through). His jokes missed just as much as they hit.
And Tom Baker? Go watch The Invasion of Time. Or Nightmare of Eden. Or, worst of all, The Horns of Nimon. In each of those, Baker did supposedly comedic things that totally destroyed whatever credibility those stories could have had. When Baker the First was on form, he was utterly convincing as an alien genius. When he wasn't on form, he made it very clear that he couldn't give a flying fuck about the show that made him famous.
TNL
Agreed. Some people just really hate James Corden and won't like this episode. Personally, I loved The Lodger and think this sequel was welcome. Though I must admit that the way in which the Cybermen are defeated was a bit weak, it was still a fun episode. Still have no idea how they plan to wrap everything next week!
http://igp-scifi.com/2011/09/dr-who-review-closing-time/
In my opinion, Doctor Who hasnt been the same without Davi Tennant. I'm not saying he was better, just saying diffferent. Many of teh series 1 episodes were light episodes, Same for series 2, 3, and 4. After that, the show changed a little too much, bringing on much more complicated and dark storylines. There are few stories that resemble the first four series. This episode (in a way, mind you) resembles the first four more than any other. (As did the Lodger (brought back a light episode)) Overall, I don't think this episode was bad (I actually like it more than some of teh others) but it was different to the way we've warmed up to Matt Smith's Doctor Who. Remember, it's not just the actor, but the writing has also changed drastically. Once we've become accustomed to this new, darker version of Doctor Who, we start to see episodes differently. Imagine Amy's Choice (if the tenth Doctor travelled with Amy and Rory) being set with the tenth doctor. It doesn't fit as well because the writing has been changed. Now, fit the lodger into the tenth Doctor and I think it fits great. It all depends on how fast you adapt to the new writing and if you can adapt to the new writing while keeping an open mind to the old writing.
I don't think the change in writing style is as dramatic as you make it out to be. The tone might be slightly darker, but it still remains family friendly entertainment. If anything has changed it is that people are expected to pay a little bit more attention as the plots have got a little bit more complicated and involved. That seems to be the gripe of many.
TNL
Funnily enough I’m not convinced that the real issue is complexity – I know that people bang on about it, but to my mind it’s a bit of a red herring. Granted, the scripts are a bit more complicated than before, but not THAT much. Personally I’d argue that the supposed complexity is largely an illusion. Let me explain why.
Moffat does a great job of grabbing viewers and dragging them off on a high-octane rollercoaster ride which fizzes with ideas: it’s great fun, superficially dazzling, and along the way he throws in so many teaser threads that he successfully intrigues. But the viewer has to take the rough with the smooth – and while the smooth is very polished indeed, the rough is pretty bloody bumpy. His writing is frequently so disjointed that it degenerates into a mess (I’ve argued before that Moffat desperately needs an editor, and the more I see of his work on this series, the more I think so).
So in my view some of the ‘complexity’ that people go on about is an illusion generated by a degree of narrative incoherence. It bothers me that when one stops to draw breath at the end of recent Moffat episodes, one sees logical gaps (and sometimes chasms) and observes that characters have a worrying habit of inexplicably changing their behaviour to suit the demands of the plot. A bit more thinking reveals that as a narrative, it often doesn’t quite make sense. This is a real problem when you’re writing scripts which are deliberately designed to provoke thought and to stimulate the viewer to examine the material to seek answers to intriguing unanswered questions.
It’d be unfair to accuse Moffat of wearing the emperor’s new clothes (as some people do) as there are undeniably great things in these episodes, but it’s equally undeniable that the surface flash-bang-wallop conceals some deep-seated flaws (actually, I’ve occasionally wondered whether the sheer speed of the action is a deliberate tactic to draw attention away from these underlying deficiencies). What’s really irritating is that the great majority of the flaws could have been ironed out relatively easily: and then something genuinely great would have emerged.
It’s like eating a Chinese meal without bothering with the rice – varied, tasty and superficially enjoyable, but if you leave out the bit that actually underpins the meal and holds it all together, you discover a few minutes later that it’s ultimately unsatisfying.
I agree that the rise in complexity is exaggerated by many. It doesn't take a great deal to remember, for example, across a few months that the Doctor is facing his death in Episode 13 as depicted in Episode 1. The story arcs only seem more complicated because, under RTD, they consisted of catchphrases repeated in most episodes.
And yes, Moffat needs an editor - almost all writers do. This is a problem with the wider way in modern Doctor Who is structured, production wise. With the chief writer also the commissioning editor and executive producer, it becomes difficult to tell him when his script needs more work. As I think I've mentioned before, RTD as producer/editor and Moffat as head writer would probably be a much better way of doing things.
As for sudden changes in personality? Well, I think they are all perfectly explicable and logical within the plots. But the nature of the modern Who is that there isn't time for the scripts to breathe. Therefore, River Song has to undergo a journey in this day and age in about 45 minutes that previously would have been across six 25 minutes episodes. Both A Good Man Goes To War and Let's Kill Hitler could have done with being twice the length, to allow the themes and characters to develop.
TNL
Doubtless we may find out the answers in the "final" episode but:
1. the Doctor who it killed was some 1100 years old, whereas "our" doctor is only 900 years old. So is the Doctor in "Closing Time" the one who is 1100 years old or 900 years? Or does it not matter?
2. When the Doctor says he will die tomorrow, he does not know his age. So if we are following the 900 year old doctor, then he won't die tomorrow.
3. The Doctor who died told the others to remain where they were as he went to meet the astronaut. How does our Doctor know he will have to do that? He has to be given some information that he will meet Amy, Rory, River Song etc and go to the beach. I haven't noticed "our" Doctor receiving that information.
4. In the first episode "our" Doctor came out of the toilet and had an invite. The old Doctor did not have an invite (or did he). But he still meets Rory, Amy etc. Why? Who told him to meet them at a bus drop off point in the middle of nowhere?
5. I want to know more about Madame Kovarian and her plotting. Is this all going to be explained in a one hour episode. I suspect we will be left with a "to be continued..."
Programmes that moral-ize can be dangerous but I tend to agree we have been on a rollercoaster action packed ride with more science fanstasy than sci-fi. Perhaps the programmes have been too subtle but some science issues would have been interesting - maybe the Doctor on Planet Earth that has been frozen/boiled to death to highlight climate change. I'm sure TNL will tell us this has been done and I've forgotten...
Regards
Nice little dig in there, well done. You must be very proud.
For 1 and 2, this episode took place 200 years after The God Complex - so the Doctor is the right age to "die".
As for the others... who knows? They haven't, to my knowledge, been answered, but there may well be something in the final episode that explains it all. Although I would rather the episode focuses on the Doctor's "death" than the logistics of getting people there.
And I'd like to know more about Kovarian's plotting. Although a lot has been revealed already implicitly.
TNL
Sorry TNL, I didn't mean to be nasty...I'm just getting too old to keep up with it all.
You say the Doctor has aged 200 years since the previous episode - how can you tell? Did he say he had been travelling for 200 years by himself?!?! I'm not saying you are wrong, I just don't get why he would not change his outfit once in 200 years :-)
Kind regards
I can't remember whether he actually directly said that he had been travelling by himself for 200 years; he certainly talked about travelling alone for a long while. And the 200 years was plastered all over the promotional stuff for the episode. As for the clothes... the man never seemed to wash his clothes during the eighties. At all. Despite wearing them all the time, across massive and no doubt sweaty adventures. The very fact that he was wearing a coat rather than his tweed jacket represents a massive step forward from the guy who never got out of his cricket costume for at least three years.
TNL
One little aside that has been nagging at me. The Doctor said that he had wanted to see some planetary event and that because of the time spent with James Corden, he had missed that event. But surely the whole point of the TARDIS is that it travels in/through time. So surely he just steps in the TARDIS and goes to the event.
So is "the missing of a planetary event" just a device to show how much love the Doctor has for ordinary people? Or has the Doctor really used all his days? Or could he just have gone and seen it before popping in the spend some time with Stormargeddon. Strange.
Sorry to disturb. Good night.
I don't know, in all honesty. The Doctor must know when he is going to die age wise for that to make any sense. So if he knows he dies in the 200th day of his 1100 year (or whatever the actual numbers are), then it would make sense that his time is running out and he can't, despite owning a time machine, do anything about if he misses a particular event. Otherwise, yeah, why not hop into the TARDIS and go have some fun at the star event thingy?
That's why, as a very geeky aside, I think the Fifth Doctor killed Adric, or at the very least left him to die. Yeah, the space freighter had to crash into the Earth to wipe out the Dinosaurs. But did Adric have to be on the freighter? Nope. So could the Doctor have used his time machine to rescue Adric just before boom time? Yes. But I think he found that terrible teen so ghastly that he decided to let him burn. And who am I to argue with the good Doctor?
TNL
A very plausible theory about Adric. Though it doesn't explain why on earth a similar technique wasn't used to rid us of Bonnie Langford.
I reckon that the Sixth Doctor regenerated just to get away from her.
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