11.26: Closing Time
In which the Doctor speaks baby.
Broadcast: September 2011
Watched: January 2022
“Yappy, the robot dog! Not as fun as I remember.” Really? Way more fun than I do.
For the second time in a couple of years, the Doctor is visiting old friends while running away from his death. For the second time in two episodes, I’m wondering how a couple of young-ish people afforded that house. Also, for the second season running the Doctor does a big speech about how old and tired he is and how it’s time to die... is Moffat feeling the workload a bit, do we think?
It is, again, a story about a baby in which nobody mentions the missing baby, but never mind that now because the episode itself is actually quite fun, and “The Doctor deals with Cybermen in the underwear department, while also looking after a baby” is a terrific pitch. I love the joke that the Doctor takes a human with him so people will talk to him, and can shush anyone but only once. Also, nice to see Lynda Barron, being very sweet in her belief the Doctor and Craig are a couple. [She’d previously been the villain in 1983’s Englightenment and provided a song for 1966’s The Gunfighters. There’s a varied Who CV for you if ever there was one.]
Other good bits... the teleport/lift is fun. I like the cybermat redesign, giving them teeth (one of the show’s weirder and less discussed recurring monsters, I think). It’s actually sort of lovely that the Doctor wants to say goodbye to his friend before going to his death – lovely enough you can sort of cope with James Corden. Also, Craig’s “You can’t help who your mates are” is sort of the necessary counterpoint to the Doctor’s self pitying “Nobody is safe with me” act.
Less good bits... The Amy/Rory cameo feels a bit forced (why are they in Colchester? Or has Craig moved? Or what?). Also sort of depressing that, faced with coming up with a job for Amy, Moffat went, “Eerrrr model?” and then has a little girl asking for her autograph. Kudos on sticking her face on a poster in the background next to the word “petrichor” for about a minute before you realise she’s there, though.
I am also not convinced by an ending in which cyber conversion is defeated by the power of parental love. Not least because if it’s that bloody strong then why didn’t anyone go looking for that poor sodding baby.
I had remembered the very ending, with the kids watching the Doctor go to death and doing adult voiceovers, as quite stupid. I had forgotten how it links to River and that the last one just says “I really liked his hat” which undercuts it enough that it kind of works.
It’s only when you see it from River’s point of view that you realise quite how stupid a plan “Put an astronaut under this lake” actually is.
Other things:
The pre-credits sequence, with someone being murdered by a classic Who monster in a department store, feels like a conscious Rose tribute.
Stormageddon/Alfie’s first word being “Doctor” is quite funny.
I do like Craig giving him the Doctor a hat and blue envelopes at the end, to take us back to episode 1.
And the next week trailer looks awesome.