Closing Time

Chapter The 100th, which will not celebrate meaningless milestones.

Plot: 
The Doctor decides to spend the precious last hours before his foreseen death at Lake Silencio with a bloke he once lodged with for a few days many years earlier. This is Craig Owens, who is having a crisis of confidence as a new Dad, looking after his baby son for the first time on his own. The Doctor can't help noticing odd things, like a few local disappearances and fluctuations in the power supply. Craig is later surprised to find the Doctor working in a local department store, which upon investigation contains a teleport to a Cyber-spaceship. After some scares, comic interludes and a tussle with a Cybermat, they both find themselves trapped on the ship. The Cybermen start to convert Craig, but the sound of his baby crying helps him resist the process, and the resultant emotional feedback destroys the Cybermen and their ship. A little bit more confident that he's going to manage being a Dad, Craig says goodbye to the Doctor. The Doctor, stetson on and blue notepaper in hand, goes off into his destiny. Somewhere else, River Song is kidnapped by the Silence, forced into a spacesuit, and dropped in a lake (one might think it's a bit unrealistic to be a credible assassination plan, but then one reads the news about Russians in Salisbury and it doesn't seem quite so far fetched).

Context:

Murky evening pic of store

In a very small example of the kind of cosmic coincidences that the Doctor waxes lyrical about in one nice moment during Closing Time, I had to go to Cardiff for day job stuff at the same time a story was settled upon by the randomiser that was not only filmed in that city, but also which had a really easy location to find: the exterior of the department store. I was relieved that I didn't have to explain to either of the two colleagues who accompanied me why I had to go to some back street to take photos before we could have dinner. In fact, after we'd had something to eat and drink, we were walking back to the hotel and literally stumbled across Sanderson and Grainger (Howells / House of Fraser, in real life).

Easier to see shot from next morning

I took the episode with me on my phone to watch in the hotel room - the BBC iplayer app still has every episode from 2005 available in the UK to download for a little while longer. Apart from that, and a bit of work obviously, the trip was a whistle-stop affair - up, one night in a hotel, half a day in the office, then home - so there was no time to go out of the centre to Cardiff Bay. But I'm sure there will be a next time (and I'll keep my fingers crossed for Boom Town or The Last of the Time Lords that I can take with me to watch on that particular trip).

First-time round:
I don't have clear memories of many of the Matt Smith episodes; the only thing I recall clearly about  first seeing this story (at the time of its first BBC broadcast in 2011) was that an online Doctor Who forum that I frequented at the time was down, because of some server problem or other. During this period, I was still habitually rushing straight on to the internet after a story was transmitted to see what everyone else thought of it. For the sake of my mental fitness, I don't do this anymore. At the time - with that site unavailable - I had to go cold turkey. When the site was was back up a couple of weeks later, I was very surprised to find most people had despised Closing Time and loved The Wedding of River Song. For me, it was indubitably the other way round.

Reaction

As well as being the sequel to 2010's previous Matt Smith and James Corden story The Lodger, Closing Time is also the middle part of a loosely connected set of stories by writer Gareth Roberts where the Doctor gets himself an ordinary job (with The Caretaker completing the trilogy in 2014). I love this type of story. The intertwining of the domestic with the fantastic always appeals, and is one of Doctor Who's celebrated story generating engines. As I said above, though, a lot of people reacted badly to this story when it was first shown, with comments that it was an 'insulting misuse of the Cybermen'. Seriously. Probably they also moaned about Doctor Who 'becoming a soap'. I can't understand this attitude: from the very beginning, the show had characters in it worrying about their cardie or their tie, even at moments of high adventure. It's part of the fun to bring things down to Earth occasionally. More than fun, it's essential: without grounding in real life, Doctor Who stories can float off into a rarefied geeky atmosphere which depletes its appeal.

Perhaps this story is caught in a triangulation of fire: from one direction, the haters of Who domestique are gunning for it; from another, those that are allergic to jokes in their sci-fi are having a pop; and, finally, there are the missiles coming from the corner where reside the James Corden Un-Appreciation Society. Yes, even before he became famous in America and kissed Sean Spicer, he was a divisive figure. Personally, I've always been tickled by the kind of stuff he delivers in The Lodger and Closing Time. Other material of his I'm not so comfortable with, so I do sort of get it, but I can't say I didn't laugh and smile at all the right moments during the story's 45 minutes - both this time and the first time. It helps that Matt Smith and Corden are old thespian muckers, and have great chemistry, much better than Smith achieved with any of his companions.  I suspect I'm alone in this, but I'd have loved Craig to join the TARDIS crew as a regular the following year in the style of Catherine Tate or Matt Lucas's characters.

There's not much else to say, I don't think. It's a slight story, yes, but nonetheless a pleasant confection. The location is different enough to be interesting. There's some nice moments of slow anticipatory dread as an innocent wanders around, before a well shot and lit Cyberman crashes blank-faced into frame and gets 'em. All the performances are seemingly effortless in their comic charm (which usually takes a lot of effort). Lynda Baron particularly gives a lot of value add in her extended cameo. The other cameo, from Amy and Rory, is also handled well and doesn't become sentimental. In fact, the story excels in those less showy moments of a rueful Doctor on his way to face his fears, and Craig's picking up on something that's wrong with his friend. The only blemish for me would be when the season's arc plot kicks in at the end. Space suits and Space men in suits are just not as interesting as the world of Colchester, and Craig and Sophie and Alfie, and Don Petheridge snogging Andrea Groom outside the Conservative Club on his so-called day off golfing.

Connectivity:

Both stories have famous A-list Doctor Who baddies (the Cybermen, and the Kandyman - OK, I may be joshing about the second on that list). Both have scenes of the bad guys being defeated by emotion. In both, there are moments of redecoration: the TARDIS is painted and repainted in The Happiness Patrol, Craig and Sophie's flat needs a lot of work done after the Cybermat battle.

Deeper Thoughts:
(You gotta have) friends, to make the day last long. Doctor Who hasn't often dwelt on friendships. In the 20th Century episodes, it was mostly - wonderfully - underplayed (cf. the Doctor's little speech to Vicki after Ian and Barbara have returned to London, 1965, or Sarah-Jane's farewell in The Hand of Fear). In the episodes since 2005, a decision was made by showrunner of the time Russell T Davies, which has been followed more or less since, that being a companion is special - not everyone need apply.  To a certain extent this undermines the ordinariness of the friendship, and makes it either implicitly or explicitly (Rose's love, Martha's unrequited love) heightened. The rare occasions where the new series episodes have dwelt on friendship - definitely Closing Time, but also Love and Monsters, a very interesting take on shifts in group dynamics, and maybe a couple of others - it's always seemed divisive. I love these stories, but some people really would rather Cybermen were just zooming around blowing things up in shiny spaceships , and never have to hear about anyone's challenges with parenthood, or their mortgage, or having to meet their kid sister outside the Chinese Takeaway.

It's a shame: friendship is an essential part of life, and avoiding it in fiction would just cut one off from a wide scope of interesting stories. I've been thinking of this a bit recently, as I've had a few occasions in the last few weeks where I've caught up with groups of old friends after not having seen them for too long. As well as spending some time in Cardiff with some new friends, as related above, I met up with some colleagues I worked with a year ago, and a group of friends who I've known for twenty-odd years. In all instances, the conversations started up immediately where they'd left off.  (Some of that last group - friends who all met in Worthing growing up - occasionally frequent this blog, so I should do a proper shout out to: Rachel, Alex, David, Bez, Bec, Mark, Rebekah, Chris, Andy and Linnie; hope I haven't missed anyone out.) It's the only form of time travel available to me, but still wonderful: to be transported instantly back to the 1990s!

I'm intrigued that pre-publicity of the new series 11 of Doctor Who has consistently described Graham, Yaz and Ryan as friends not companions - the latter a term that the Doctor muses on to great comic effect in Closing Time. It's a change I like. I wonder whether this means a difference in stories as well as overall outlook. Not long to wait: we not only have a launch date of Sunday October 7th, but a time now too - it airs in the UK on BBC One at 6.45pm (1.45PM EST in the US). Exciting!

In Summary:

Don't shop around - comic, domestic Who is worth every penny.