Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E12 Closing Time

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Craig: You've noticed something. You've got your noticing face on. I have nightmares about that face.

The penultimate episode of the 2011 Doctor Who season. It is a sequel to the 2010 episode "The Lodger", bringing back Craig and Sophie.

Clerks close up a contemporary department store at night, complaining of brief power flickers in the lights. One clerk enters the changing rooms, appalled at the mess, but discovers someone still in one of the stalls. She goes to open the door, telling them the store is closing up, but soon lets out a scream...

Craig now lives in a nice big house with his girlfriend Sophie and their baby boy Alfie. Sophie is going out for the weekend, leaving the baby with Craig. And although Craig insists he can be responsible, several of Sophie's friends and family call to check up on him, leaving him feeling quite unsure of himself as a father.

Someone knocks on his door, and Craig is surprised to find the Doctor there. He immediately suspects the Doctor is investigating something alien. The Doctor refutes this, and is only there to drop by and say hello. Why? No reason. He's just making a normal social call in Craig's normal house. That's what normal people do. After speaking to little Alfie and learning that the boy really wants to be named "Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All", the Doctor turns to leave as suddenly as he arrived.

Outside, the Doctor notices a brief flicker in the streetlights. He tells himself he shouldn't investigate: he has spent the last two hundred years saying goodbye to friends and allies, knowing that he is destined to permanently die tomorrow in his relative timeline. But the lure of the mystery is too much for the Time Lord...

Craig takes Alfie with him shopping at the department store the next day, and is shocked to find the Doctor there, working as a clerk in (where else?) the toy department. The kids love him. He's got a name badge and everything. The Doctor takes Craig aside, explaining that he's traced power fluctuations to the store, and has heard rumors of a "silver rat". While they investigate, Craig tries the same methods that the Doctor always uses: be brass, be confident, talk to everyone. He's immediately mistaken for a pervert. The baby doesn't help either, even though the Doctor claims that carrying a baby makes everyone act nice towards you. In fact, that's why he always takes a human along. The Doctor has to bail Craig out of a very awkward talk with the store's clerks, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief when they realise that Craig isn't a pervert—he's obviously just the Doctor's boyfriend.

As the two step into a lift, they quite suddenly find themselves transmatted onto a spaceship—one built by Cybermen hands. The Doctor's first instinct is to distract Craig from the approaching Cybermen by wrapping himself around Craig, declaring his passionate love for him and attempting to kiss him to prove it, all the while configuring his screwdriver behind Craig's back. Craig is just extremely confused and dodges, reminding the Doctor that he's already taken. With the Doctor's plan failing quite spectacularly, Craig inevitably notices that they're in space.

The Doctor quickly reverses the transmat before they are discovered, and disables the transmat device. As Craig departs, the Doctor spots a familiar couple in the department store: Amy and Rory. He stops himself from going to see them and instead hides himself behind some underwear. The two are doing well: Amy has become a famous model for a line of perfume called Petrichor, a scent for "the girl who is tired of waiting".

That night, the Doctor and Craig sneak into the store after hours to track the "silver rat": a Cybermat. Though they capture it, the Doctor is set on by a poorly-functioning Cyberman in the store's basement, but he is quick to disable it. However, the Doctor is curious as to how it got into the store with the transmat disabled.

The Doctor and Craig return to Craig's home, and the Doctor starts to investigate and reprogram the Cybermat to locate the Cybermen. Craig is forced to go out to get milk for Alfie. The Doctor puts the baby to bed, where he learns the child has very little respect for his father. The Doctor tells "Stormageddon" that Craig is trying really hard to be good dad. And that Stormy is so, so young. He's got his whole life ahead of him. The Doctor doesn't, now being 1003 years old and very, very tired. However, during all this, the Cybermat has become active in the kitchen, and by the time the Doctor returns, it has started moving on its own. The Doctor gets locked out, and when Craig returns, he smashes through the kitchen window to stop the Cybermat in time, leaving the place a mess.

With a newly reprogrammed Cybermat, the Doctor leaves Craig a note and heads to the store himself. Craig finds the note and shortly follows with Alfie. The Doctor is surprised to find the Cybermat pointing to the changing stalls, and in one, discovers a tunnel leading underground. He follows the tunnel, discovering a centuries-old Cyberman ship buried in the ground. Aboard, he is caught by six Cyberman, their entire force at the time. The Cyberleader explains that they were awakened when the store was built, and are now siphoning small amounts of power to recharge themselves and to grow their army to take over the world.

Meanwhile, Craig learns where the Doctor has gone to, and leaves Alfie with one of the clerks. Finding the tunnel, Craig enters the ship and is also captured by the Cybermen. The Cybermen decide to convert Craig into a new warrior, and put him into the cybernetic transformation device. The Doctor pleads for the Cybermen to stop and to take him instead, but they refuse. As the process nears its end, Alfie's cries, heard through monitors the Cybermen have in the store, echo through the ship. Craig, on hearing this, fights to be the best dad he can be, and rejects the cybernetic transformation. The emotional feedback of The Power of Love causes the other Cybermen to regain their full consciousness and sanity. As happened before, the ensuing Body Horror causes them to overload, and they die in anguish. It sends the ship into a self-destruct cycle. The Doctor and Craig safely escape while the ship explodes, the damage confined to the rocky underground chamber. Craig quickly reunites with Alfie, and the Doctor comments that Alfie now finally considers Craig to be his dad.

After a long sleep, Craig wakes up not only to find his home spotless and the damage from the night before cleaned up, but even repainted. The Doctor appears and admits he used his TARDIS to complete all the work in time before Sophie arrived home. The Doctor explains, with sadness and resignation, that he is now off to America. Craig gives him a Stetson hat from a mate's stag night, while the Doctor borrows four deep-blue envelopes. When Sophie arrives, the Doctor vanishes, leaving Craig to explain what happened that weekend. And why Alfie's first word is "Doctor".

The Doctor walks slows to his TARDIS, a slow, purposeful stride in his step. Three children watch him enter the TARDIS, and suddenly we're hearing their voices, as adults, commenting on how sad the Doctor looked that day.

In the 51st century, Dr. River Song has earned her degree in Archaeology, specialising in the Doctor's history. Now studying the last days of the Doctor, she recalls the testimony of those children. She is surprised when Madame Kovarian enters her room with two of the Silence. Her childhood memories have been quite thoroughly wiped, and she doesn't remember anything about the Silence from her first regeneration. Kovarian tells River that there was no place for her to hide, and that the Silence still have a use for her. They grab her, and soon we see River, trapped in an astronaut's suit, sinking to the bottom of Lake Silencio to wait for the Doctor's arrival.

All in all, a happy ending.

Tropes

"It's not his fault he doesn't have mammary glands… No, neither do I."

  • Bi the Way: The Doctor once again shows how, pretty much ever since 1997, the Doctor Who writers all collectively refuse to write him as straight. He sees nothing special about trying a Fake-Out Make-Out on Craig and doesn't stop to consider that Craig may have some hangups. Very much lampshaded throughout this episode.
  • Billing Displacement: Despite only appearing in a 30-second cameo, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill receive star billing as Amy and Rory anyway.
  • Black Dude Dies First: ..and Second.
  • Bottle Episode: This episode takes place mostly in an entirely pedestrian, modern-day[1] department store and Craig's flat.
  • Breather Episode: Quite light and fluffy in comparison to the last two episodes, although it manages to stuff in some angst. And the breather ends before the episode itself ends.
  • Brick Joke: When the Doctor first shows up at Craig's house, Craig sarcastically asks if there are aliens hiding in his fridge. At the end of the episode, the Doctor checks the fridge just to make sure.
  • Bumbling Dad: Craig starts out here. He ends up Papa Wolf.
  • Call Back:
  • Catch Phrase:
    • "Come along, Bitey."
    • "I'm the Doctor, here to help."
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Even though he tries to tell himself that he's done saving humanity, the Doctor can't help himself.
  • Comforting Comforter: The Doctor, to Craig and Alfie.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: In "A Good Man Goes To War", the Doctor and Rory are able to singlehandedly destroy the whole of the fifth Cyberlegion in the first five minutes. In this episode, six Cybermen are able to almost defeat the Doctor, kill Craig, and assimilate the whole planet - and are given the full forty minutes to do it.
    • However, in the earlier story, the Cybermen were not expecting the Doctor and Rory to ambush them. The Cybermen in this episode have had ages to prepare for the assimilation of Earth.
      • Also, to be fair, the Cybermen had the advantage of Rory not being around (or, at least, they had enough sense not to attack when he and Amy visited the shop).
      • And more to the point, the Doctor didn't have any time to prepare. Undoubtedly he went into the Cyberlegion with all his resources amassed and a plan in hand; this time he was, as is more usual, working on the fly.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • "I speak Baby."
    • The scene where Craig opens the door in mid sentence to find the Doctor is a Call Back to "The Lodger".
    • The Doctor's comment "You've redecorated! I don't like it." is a tip of the hat to the Second Doctor.
    • Amy's perfume being advertised in the store is called "Petrichor" - for the girl who's tired of waiting. I wonder if it smells of dust after rain?
    • The Doctor tries to give a rational explanation as to why Craig was able to overcome the Cyber-conversion process, but gives up and just passes it off as The Power of Love. He attempted something similar in "A Christmas Carol", only to be told to just go with the simple explanation.
    • The Cybermen state that six of them are enough to take over Earth — a nod to "The Invasion", where (because of the number of costumes available) at most six Cybermen are seen together at any time.
    • Once again, the Cybermen undergo headsplosion when overwhelmed by emotions.
    • Even K-9 gets a nod when the Doctor gushes over a toy robot dog he dubs "Yappy" and claims that it's not quite as fun as before.
    • The Doctor once again battles non-organic lifeforms in a department store, a la Rose.
    • The Doctor has also made the observation "Not a rat, a Cybermat" at least once before.
    • The Doctor refers to Craig as his "mate." When Donna joined the Doctor he told her "I just want a mate."
    • As we previously heard in "The Satan Pit", if the Doctor believes in one thing, it's his companions...
  • Contrived Coincidence

Doctor: "It's a coincidence! It happens; it's what the universe does for (sees Rory and Amy shopping)...fun."

  • Cool Car: The Doctor leans over a Lamborghini Gallardo toy while looking for the Cybermat.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Not even the Doctor is immune to babies. Of course, being the Doctor, his inanity is still more profound than most.
  • Darkest Hour: The Doctor is forced to watch helplessly as Craig, struggling and screaming for help, is sealed into a Cyberman suit, with his face going supernaturally calm as his emotions are deleted right before the mask closes… and then he hears Alfie crying over the monitor.
  • Deathbringer the Adorable: Meet Craig's son: Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All. Also known as Alfie.
    • The cybermat is kind of cute, until it inspires Craig to chant

Craig: Metal rat! Real mouth! Metal rat! Real mouth!

  • Demoted to Extra:
    • An interesting example with Craig's girlfriend Sophie. Sure, she wasn't in the whole episode of "The Lodger", but she was at least a major plot point. This time, she just appears at the beginning to hand off Alfie to Craig and re-appear at the end in time for her son's first word.
    • This trope may also apply to Amy and Rory, who are only seen for about twenty seconds of screen time tops. Definitely this year's "companion lite" episode, just like -- if not even more than --- the last time we saw Craig.
  • Double Meaning Title: The Cybermen take people from the shop after closing time; the Doctor dies tomorrow.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: The buried Cybership.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a sonic screwdriver, of course it doesn't have a quiet mode!
  • Eyepatch of Power: The Doctor wears a jeweler's loupe, and Madame Kovarian makes another appearance.
  • Fake-Out Make-Out: The Doctor tries one with Craig. Craig dodges.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: The Doctor calls the reprogrammed Cybermat "Bitey."
  • Foil: The Doctor to baby Alfie/Stormageddon. One's just been born, and has his whole life ahead; the other is about to face his death.
  • Friend to All Children: The Doctor.
  • Genre Savvy / Wrong Genre Savvy:
    • Craig recognizes that everywhere the Doctor goes, disaster will come, and also that the safest place for him and Alfie is by his side, because the Doctor always wins. Normally, this would be true, but in light of the last episode and the Doctor's impending death, it's not quite true. Of course, it works.
    • Also, Craig checked both the upstairs and the neighbors to make sure it was real and no one were aliens.
    • "Alfie, why is there a sinister beeping coming from behind me?"
  • Goomba Stomp: The Cyberman stepping on Bitey the Cybermat.
  • Henpecked Husband:
    • Rory and Amy are only in the episode for a handful of seconds and he still manages to be this by carrying her many, many bags of clothes.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
    • In-universe, this happens to a girl who sees Amy, who's become a model featured in a perfume advert — she asks for an autograph.
    • Also, Val, the lovely lady who is a colleague of the Doctor's at the department store, and who mistakes the Doctor and Craig for a couple, is Lynda Baron, AKA Nurse Gladys Emmanuel, who also featured as Captain Wrack in Enlightenment. British kids who grew up watching Come Outside might have also gleefully recognised her as Auntie Mabel.
  • Hidden Depths: Craig, Bumbling Dad and chubby First Girl Wins, is immediately chosen as the new cyberleader. And immediately destroys the cybermen through the Power of Love.
  • Impairment Shot: Used when the Doctor regains consciousness after being knocked out by a Cyberman, and then when Madame Kovarian and the Silence knock out River Song.
  • Informed Ability: Six Cybermen being able to conquer the planet is not consistent with what we've seen. Bad guys aren't known for their humility, though.
  • Ironic Nursery Tune: Tick Tock Goes the Clock is reprised to chilling effect:

Tick tock goes the clock
And all the years they fly
Tick tock and all too soon
 Your love will surely die
Tick tock goes the clock
He cradled her and he rocked her
Tick tock goes the clock
 'Till River kills the Doctor…

Shop Girl: Why are you telling me this?
Doctor: I don't know.

  • Large Ham: It would appear Madame Kovarian had been holding back on us a bit before, eh?
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Kovarian implies the Silence have erased River's memories of her past with them, explaining why she doesn't recognise the woman who trained her to be an assassin and why she doesn't remember being in the spacesuit in "The Impossible Astronaut".
    • It was also explained as a result of repeated exposure to the Silence.
  • Last Dance: The Doctor implies he is on one of these, it being the day before his prophesied death.
  • Made of Explodium: The cybership. As soon as Craig loves the cybermen to death.
  • Madness Mantra: A smaller example than usual. "Metal rat! Real mouth! Metal rat! Real mouth!"
  • Meaningful Echo: "I'm the Doctor. I was here to help."
  • Mistaken for Gay: The Doctor and Craig. "There's no need to be coy these days." Val has more reason than most do for this trope, what with the way Craig and the Doctor act throughout the episode. She sees them hug, and they refer to each other as their 'partner'.
  • Mood Whiplash: The episode easily has some of the funniest moments of the series, but also features an infant in mortal danger and a nigh-immortal alien coming to terms with his immanent death.
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: The Cybermat.
  • Nice Hat: When the Doctor says he is going to America, Craig gives him the Stetson as a parting gift.
  • No Name Given: The Doctor, as usual, but this makes a joke out of it by having him get a job at a shop with the name "The Doctor". He even gets a name tag, and everyone in the shop calls him "The Doctor".
    • But, no, sadly, Craig did not name his baby "The Doctor."
  • Oh Crap: "Alfie… why is there a sinister beeping coming from behind me?"
  • Oops, I Dropped the Keys: The Doctor manages to lock himself outside of Craig's house when the Cybermat attacks him, by dropping his Sonic Screwdriver right as the door closes.
  • Papa Wolf: Craig… eventually.
  • Pet the Dog: The Doctor really loves his Companions.

Craig: You used up your time for me?
Doctor: Of course I did.

  • The Power of Love: Craig isn't turned into a Cyberman because he hears Alfie crying. The Doctor tries to explain that's really overly sentimental; it was the Power of the Human Instinct to Protect Their Own Genes… okay, it's Love.
  • Red Herring: The Doctor reprograms the Cybermat to use it as a weapon. The Cybermen simply stomp on it.
  • The Reveal: The final scene solves one of the 2011 season's major ongoing mysteries by revealing River is the Impossible Astronaut.
    • Major mystery? I thought we'd all figured that one out.
    • The reveal wasn't really that it was River, but that it was Older!Dr!River, not Younger!Little Time Lady!River
      • Just because we saw that happen doesn't mean there won't be some switch. The Doctor went into the Pandorica at the end of the penultimate episode last season yet at the beginning of the finale he wasn't the one in there.
      • As it turns out, there is a switch... just not with the Astronaut.
  • Robot Buddy: Bitey the Cybermat.
  • Running Gag: The Doctor "Shhh"-ing people and Craig wanting to be taught how.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sleep Cute: Craig falls asleep with Alfie on his belly. A chubby little man on his chubby little man.
  • Soft Glass: The Doctor jumps through a sliding glass door. Not a mark on him.
  • Stealth Hi Bye: Sophie knocks... on her own door (she always forgets her keys) and by the time Craig has turned back, the Doctor has once again disappeared.
  • Stealth Insult: The Doctor stating that the "Shhh" trick only works on underdeveloped brains... moments before he uses it on Craig.
    • And the "Shhh" trick is only supposed to work once on someone. The Doctor uses it numerous times on Craig.
  • Stout Strength: Craig, according to the Doctor.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Doctor is done noticing things. He didn't even notice that, for example. And he is not currently scanning around for electrical fluctuations.
    • And Craig tells Sophie that "Nothing happened. Nothing weird."
  • Tempting Fate: Heh, you're right, Craig, the Cybermat is kinda cu- OH GOD TEETH.
  • They're Back: The Cybermen along with their tiny servants, the Cybermats. And according to the writers, despite the character design (the only difference is the missing Cybus logo), the voices, the modus operandi, and the fatal weakness, these are totally absolutely for real the original Cybermen from Mondas, not the new series parallel universe ones.
    • To be fair, the Cybermen DID use the classic series Catch Phrase "You will be like us" as opposed to telling all and sundry, like the Cybusmen, that they would be "upgraded", and nobody really did have any ready access to gold in the episode...
    • They also try to assimilate Craig by closing a Cyberman head around his own. Old Series Cybermen were implied to still have their human faces underneath their masks(Earthshock even had their chins visible through a clear bit), new series ones just take the brains.
      • Then again, a Cyberman with an entire skull inside was seen in The Pandorica Opens; the Doctor mentioned that it was a lower-level conversion or something.
      • Word of God was that the Cybermen in The Pandorica Opens were also Mondas cybermen (or at least were supposed to be, but they didn't have time to change the suits.
    • Also, in the last few minutes of the episode, we see the Silence again.
  • Time Skip: Word of God states that between The God Complex and this episode, the Doctor spent the 200 years engaged in the wacky hijinks shown at the beginning of The Impossible Astronaut.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: River Song in the closing scenes.
  • You Will Be Assimilated
  • Your Head Asplode: Emotions prove too much for the Cybermen, as usual.

Tick tock, goes the clock, he cradled and he rocked her. Tick tock goes the clock, 'till River kills the Doctor.

  1. ↑ Or Twenty Minutes Into the Future, depending on how long it took for Amy to become a successful model
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