Remember how I said I had high expectations for the God Complex? Well, they were NOTHING compared to my expectations for this one. The Lodger, where Craig Owens first appears, is one of my favorite episodes of all time. It also spawned the brilliant Chameleon Circuit song “Kiss the Girl”, which is one of my favorites from their recent album, Still Got Legs. (I also really liked “Mr. Pond”, and “Traveling Man” for the whispered line at the end, “just this once, everybody lives”, from one of my OTHER all-time favorite episodes). Anyways, moving on. I was SO excited for this episode, and for the most part, it did not let me down.
First of all, I freaking love the character of Craig. He’s brilliant and funny and interesting and an all-around great character. I loved him in the Lodger, and I loved him in this. My favorite part of the episode, though, was Craig’s toddler Alfie, who, according to the Doctor, prefers to be called “Stormaggedon.” I loled hard.
This episode marked the most obvious, explicit use of “The Doctor freaking hates himself” theme, which is good, considering the episode before, but is also a little too on the nose. I mean, we get it. We’ve understood this about the character for a while. I do like that he’s trying to change, but some of the lines were a bit obvious.
We’ve heard that this was supposed to be the “return of the cybermen” episode, but in all honesty, they were sort of underused. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the tone of the episode, but the cybermen were more like random scene extras than an actual threat. I’m just used to them doing a whole lot more.
Amy and Rory made a quick cameo, in which the Doctor discovers Amy is now a model. That was… random. I hope this becomes important in some way, otherwise I’m not really sure the point of it. Hm.
What I liked about the climax/defeat-the-monsters scene was that in the end, it wasn’t the Doctor who saved the day, it was Craig and his love for Alfie. All the things the Doctor said were great, but he didn’t deliver the final catalyst for Craig to break free of the cybermen. I think that humbled him a little bit, which is something he needed. And it would have been too similar to the past couple episodes if the Doctor had, once again, hammered the final nail into the victory.
Final thoughts: Kyle Anderson, my favorite DW blogger, pointed out something about a weird father-son theme that’s been done a lot this season.
First there was Henry and Toby Avery in “The Curse of the Black Spot,†then there was Jimmy and his son in the hologram in “The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People,†then Alex and George in “Night Terrors,†and now Craig and Alfie in “Closing Time.â€
I didn’t even notice that until he pointed it out, but geez, he’s right! It’s strange, because you’d think, as Anderson points out, that there would be more focus on mother-daughter relationships to compliment the Amy-River storyline which, I’d like to point out, isn’t really being explored at all. I mean, Amy knows that Melody turns into River, but I don’t think she’s gone through the motions of grief over losing her freaking baby enough.
Speaking of River, I guess she does kill the Doctor? I still don’t believe it, since future River is so freaked out, but who knows. Maybe Anderson and I were wrong.
Final FINAL thought: Please tell me they’re going to tell us why the TARDIS exploded during last season.
…in other news, I’m at the Portland Airport on my way to Washington, DC right now, so I’ll have to add pictures later. BYE!
