Closing Time (Doctor Who)
The Doctor's farewell tour leads to a Cybermen threat.
"Closing Time" is the twelfth episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 24 September 2011. Written by Gareth Roberts and directed by Steve Hughes, it serves as a sequel to the earlier episode "The Lodger". The episode features the Doctor visiting his friend Craig Owens and encountering a Cybermen invasion.
Quick Facts
- Number
- 223
- Serial name
- Closing Time
- Doctor
- Matt Smith – Eleventh Doctor
- Companion
- James Corden – Craig Owens
- Director
- Steve Hughes
- Writer
- Gareth Roberts
- Producer
- Denise Paul
- Executive producers
- Steven Moffat
- Piers Wenger
- Beth Willis
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The Eleventh Doctor, with one day left before his death, visits Craig Owens in present-day Colchester. Craig is caring for his baby son Alfie while his girlfriend Sophie is away. The Doctor notices an electrical disturbance and investigates, taking a job at a local department store. He and Craig are teleported to a Cyberman spacecraft; the Doctor reverses the teleporter. Later, the Doctor catches a Cybermat siphoning energy and reprograms it to track the Cybermen signal. He finds the spaceship beneath the store, accessed from a changing room. The Cybermen plan to use the siphoned energy to convert humanity. Craig follows the Doctor, is captured, and placed in a conversion machine to become the Cybermen's new leader. Alfie's cries over closed-circuit television echo in the ship. Hearing his son, Craig fights the conversion, and the other Cybermen experience repressed emotions, causing their circuits to overload. The Doctor and Craig escape via teleporter as the ship explodes. The Doctor leaves to face his death. In the far future, River Song is interrupted by Madame Kovarian and agents of the Silence, who force her into an augmented astronaut suit and submerge her in Lake Silencio in 2011 to await the Doctor.
Production
Writer Gareth Roberts considered bringing back Craig after seeing James Corden's performance in "The Lodger", feeling he was already part of the Doctor Who family. Showrunner Steven Moffat, who called "The Lodger" close to his heart, wanted Craig's return and noted Corden played the straight man to the Doctor. Director Steve Hughes compared the duo to Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The episode was designed to be fun while setting up the finale and the Doctor's death; the final scene, written by Moffat, concluded events in River's life hinted since "Flesh and Stone". Roberts suggested other titles including "Everything Must Go", "The Last Adventure", and "Three Cybermen and a Baby". A prequel mini-episode titled "Up All Night" is part of the Night and the Doctor series on the Series 6 DVD. Roberts proposed bringing back the Cybermen to give a sense of history to the Doctor's final battle, consistent with the series' theme of death. He wanted the audience to think Craig might be converted. Moffat felt the resolution of blowing up the Cybermen with love was a father-son bonding moment. Roberts saw the episode's Cybermen depiction as on the "silly/terrifying axis" common in Doctor Who.
Broadcast and reception
"Closing Time" aired on BBC One on 24 September 2011 and on BBC America. Overnight ratings were 5.3 million viewers, second in its time slot behind All-Star Family Fortunes. Final consolidated figures rose to 6.93 million, making it the second most watched programme of the day after The X Factor. It was the fifth most-downloaded programme on BBC iPlayer for September and received an Appreciation Index of 86. Reviews were generally positive, praising the comic interplay between Smith and Corden. Dan Martin of The Guardian questioned airing a standalone episode as the penultimate show, calling it "something of a curiosity" and noting the Cybermen lacked menace. Gavin Fuller of The Daily Telegraph gave three out of five stars, comparing Smith's performance to Patrick Troughton. Neela Debnath of The Independent called it an "intriguing change of pace" with great comedic moments and chemistry between the Doctor and Craig, praising Corden's improvement over his "average" performance in "The Lodger".
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