Closing Time

You've redecorated. I don't like it.

Closing Time is a follow up to The Lodger with Craig Owens serving as the Doctor's companion. Amy and Rory have a brief appearance but they don't even see the Doctor so you can't count them as companions for this story. It also serves as a wrap up for other loose ends as it takes place shortly before his appointment to be killed at Lake Silencio. However, how does the story stack up on it's own merit?

Plot Summary

The Doctor, traveling on his own, approaches his appointment where he is to die at Lake Silencio. He stops by to visit Craig, last seen in The Lodger. Craig and Sophie are now living together and have a child, Alfie. The Doctor arrives shortly after Sophie has left for a relaxing girls weekend to give Craig time to bond with Alfie, whom he is still very jittery around. The Doctor helps Craig settle Alfie down for the night, having accidentally woken him and prepares to leave. However, he cannot help but notice surges of power, causing the lights to flicker here and there. He tells himself to ignore it and stop helping others, but he can't help himself.

Craig takes Alfie for a walk at the store the next morning and finds the Doctor working in the toy department. He has detected three different people having gone missing in the last few days, all of whom were last seen around the shop. The Doctor attempts to shoo Craig off and accidentally discovers a Cyberman teleport hidden in an elevator. They are transported to the Cyberman ship but the Doctor manages to reverse it back to the shop and disable the teleport.

The Doctor again urges Craig to go away but he insists on helping as he views it will be safer to be closer to the Doctor than away from him. Craig and the Doctor split up to ask around for unusual activity. The Doctor finds from another worker named Val that a silver rat has been seen around. He also learns from another worker named Kelly that her supervisor Shona has also gone missing.

The Doctor, Craig and Alfie sneak into the store that night and capture a Cybermat wandering around. The Doctor disables it with his sonic screwdriver but overhears a scream from the security guard. The Doctor investigates and finds the guard's body. However, he is attacked and knocked out by a Cyberman. Craig finds him a few minutes later and wakes him. The Doctor was spared due to his different body chemistry and the fact that the Cybermen's arm was in disrepair or the blow might have killed him.

The Doctor and Craig take the Cybermat back to Craig's house. Craig runs out, needing to get milk and the Doctor heads up to Alfie's room to try and get him to go back to sleep. While upstairs, the Cybermat awakes and scours the house. The Doctor realizes it has become active and tries to disable it again, but it is shielded. Realizing it was only playing dead, he grabs Alfie and hurries out of the house.

Craig returns and misses the Doctor's warnings. The Cybermat attacks him but he is able to hold it away from him long enough for the Doctor to burst through the back door glass. The Doctor pulls it away and Craig restrains it under a cookie sheet. The Doctor changes setting and disables it. He later reprograms it as Craig and Alfie fall asleep on the couch.

Craig wakes in the morning to find the Doctor gone. He hitches Alfie up and goes after him. The Doctor meanwhile discovers a passage from one of the changing rooms to the Cyberman ship underground. He goes down and confronts them, learning that the ship crashed hundreds of years ago, destroying the crew. However when the council built the store, it laid electrical cables above the ship which activated the Cybermat. The Cybermat transmitted power to the ship and allowed it to rebuild Cybermen from captured humans. The Cybermen advance and capture the Doctor, preparing to use his brain for their own purposes.

Craig leaves Alfie with Val and runs after the Doctor. He tries to bluff the Cybermen into letting the Doctor go but is captured. Realizing Craig's potential due to his knowledge of the Doctor, they begin to convert him, intending to make him Cyberleader. The Doctor tries to activate the altered Cybermat but a Cyberman destroys it. As Craig is converted, the Cybermen drain his emotions with the Doctor pleading for Craig to fight it.

Over the security cameras, Alfie begins crying. Craig overhears Alfie and fights back against the Cyber-conversion. His resistance sets an emotional feedback loop in the Cyber-computer and the Cybermen begin to experience emotions. The feedback overloads them and they explode as does the entire mainframe of the ship. The hull however contains the explosion, leaving the shop intact.

The Doctor slips out ahead of Craig from the shop, allowing him to go back in time and clean up Craig's house. He takes four blue envelopes and a stetson hat from Craig as a thank you and slips out just as Sophie returns home. The Doctor then departs for Lake Silencio in the TARDIS.

Having just received her doctorate, River Song is studying the Doctor's trail prior to his death at the lake when she is confronted by the Silence and Madame Kovarian. River is drugged, placed in the astronaut suit and dropped into Lake Silencio as the Doctor, Rory, Amy and her future self approach for their picnic.

Analysis

For me, this story is a mixed bag. There are moments, especially when the Doctor is being reflective, that are very good. There are moments that are also very funny, especially with Alfie (or Stormy as he calls himself). But there are also some real clunky moments where the comedy falls flat. I also do not like the resolution to the Cyberman story. It is hokey claptrap that didn't work in the past and I don't understand why writers keep going back to it.

For the most part, the Eleventh Doctor is really good here. He is all over the map emotionally but he is always giving off the vibe of an older Doctor than previous and one who is trying desperately to put off something that has to be done. His moments with Stormy when Craig has gone out for milk are some of the most poignant and you really feel his pain as he knows that it's time to die and he just doesn't want to give up. It's quite touching yet his other moments lose none of this in their more humorous aspects.

That being said, the culmination moment with the Cybermen make him look very weak. He has no plan and can do essentially nothing as Craig is turned into the Cyberleader. He is knocked out in one instance and held down in another by only two Cybermen, both of whom are made from scavenged parts. The Doctor has had the Cybermen and other baddies get the drop on him before, but these are effectively bottom feeders and he is rendered ineffective by them which feels very wrong.

Craig is not bad as a companion stand in, but he is better in The Lodger than he is here. The father scared of his baby is a bit overdone and it gets tiring to listen to. It also brings Craig's whininess out more than it needs to. In The Lodger, his whining was understandable as he was just totally confused by the Doctor and caught up in an emotional turmoil. Here he just simpers about needing to protect Alfie but being afraid of him as well.

Let's also address the big point: I hate the love conquers all bit. This is not the first time it's been used but the idea that any one person is strong enough to resist the technological power of the Cybermen due to their love is just garbage. Of all the others who were converted, did they not have love in their life? Why was the love they had for their children, spouse, parents, etc. not have the effect of saving them? Why is Craig's love for Alfie so much more powerful than others that he is able to resist the power of Cyberman technology? I get that it was briefly set up that he is far stronger than he looks but it still feels like the lamest resolution that could be thought of.

The secondary characters aren't even worth mentioning as they are in it so little. The gay couple joke was mildly funny the first time, even if it was a bit awkwardly set up. But the second and third time around made it a bit stale and the characterization of Val as the kindly older lady suffers a bit as it reduces the dimension of her character.

The Cybermen aren't much as bad guys either. The Cybermat gets more screen time than the Cybermen proper and neither of them seem like they should be a threat. The Cybermat does create some chaos but the Doctor does disable it eventually. Still, he should have been more aware of the possibilities given his problems with them in the past. The Cybermen themselves are very lame, having no plan and only the weakest capture of the Doctor. They honestly feel like they should have been dealt with by the Doctor in less than five minutes while he is laughing at them. Of course, given that he didn't find their lair until the last quarter of the episode, he really does deal with them in five minutes, although Craig is the one who actually defeats them.

If it wasn't for the more poignant moments and the coda at the end, this would probably be considered a turd of a story. However, there are those nice moments and the comedic interplay between the Doctor and Craig, especially when the Doctor is translating for Alfie is pretty good. This is an episode that can be enjoyed but it does have that highly sour moment at the end. If a better end could have been devised, I think the story might have merited a 4. However, the central conflict is resolved with a "love saves the day" ending that gives the whole story a pall of stupidity that is difficult to overcome.

Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5