Foggy on Doctor Who - Closing Time

The James Corden Show returns...

Before I really get under this episode, I have to give some background check on The Lodger, the episode that introduced us to the character of Craig, played by comedian James Corden. So quickly, I hate it.

Airing at the same time as the World Cup, which Mr. Corden did a World Cup song for England with Dizzy Rascal, and being a well known football fanatic. The exact moment where I knew the episode was a piece of crap is when they had The Doctor get involved into a Pub football match, with tons of wacky hijinks's.

The episode failed where it was more excited in it's guest star over the main character, in a time where we were just around the corner from a huge finale, where we were eager for answers. Instead we got the story of a guy struggling with his humble mundane life and The Doctor comes, stuff comes a muck, lights flicker and people start disappearing, and they have to work together to sort it out. The scene where The Doctor headbutts information into Craig is one of the worst in the revival of Doctor Who, and that includes the Lard Monsters.

So coming into Closing Time, I had little in the terms of hopes for a great episode. So, coming out of Closing Time, I was pretty entertained, for a throw away episode, it's just a nice entertaining episode, similar to Vampires of Venice last series, coming off from a few great episodes, that episode was just an adventure episode, but people didn't take to it too kindly. However, this episode is coming off from 4 fantastic standalone episode, and there is nothing that makes this episode purposeful. Except some people liked James Cordon.

Basically, this episode is about The Doctor going around doing things he wants to do before he dies, which we are consistantly told is tomorrow (although he's a time traveller, he can hold it back for as much as he wants really) as he decides to visit his old friend (although they've only really had one episode together) in the form of Craig, who is being left alone for the weekend with his new born child called Alfie, in which zero members of his family think he will be able to cope.

So, basically, guy struggling with his humble mundane life and The Doctor comes, stuff comes a muck, people go missing and lights are a flickering and they have to work together to sort it out.

Not the most inventive of episodes, as it is the exact same plot as the original Corden episode, just swap a flat to a shopping center and strange Tardis to Cybermen and hey presto, new episode.

Good news is that it cuts most the rubbish out of The Lodger, there is still silly humour, like gay jokes and more baby talk from A Good Man Goes To War, but slapstick is gone, and there is a bit of charm to be had between the two, although it really wants to shove the fact that the two are good friends although there was only one episode between the two.

The episode can be narrowed down to two problems, it's cliched and filler. There is nothing inventive in terms of plot in the episode, Cybermen add nothing to the story, and really had little point in the episode, and pose little threat. And the biggest question of all, Why is The Doctor wasting his time with this dude? All we hear is this is The Doctors last journey, and this is what he chooses to do, visit James Cordon and shoot the shit. You'd think for his final Adventure, he'd be doing something bigger, over helping Craig become more dependant, heck, he uses his final hours cleaning up his house.

And the episode knows it's filler, not a lot of money was spent on it, and lame CGI provides unintentional laughs. And this makes it really hard to stand up for, when its got this many problems, and the only comeback is "it's fun", it really doesn't look good.

But it's the truth. I got into a few arguments about Curse of the Black Spot earlier this year, that episode isn't nearly as flawed in the writing as this one, but that episode offers nothing, it's boring, people walking around a boat complaining. This at least shows Amy and Rory, and reveals what they got up to after the Doctor left them, and the ending clearly leads up to a fantastic finale.

So, final thoughts, it's fun, sue me!

6/10