"Closing Time"

There has been a sense of impending doom throughout this run of Doctor Who and we know that the Impossible Astronaut will soon rise from Lake Silencio. However, as was the case the last time he knew the end was approaching, the Doctor won’t go without a farewell tour. Before he sees the Alignment of Exedor, he decides to catch up with an old friend...

Gareth Roberts always brings a real sense of joy to his Doctor Who scripts and, indeed, the first thing that must be said about "Closing Time" is just how much fun it is. The story is simple, yet satisfying, with the immediately appealing prospect of a Cyber-warship that crashed on Earth millennia ago being reawakened, and Roberts weaves elements from stories as far apart as Doctor Who and the Silurians and "Rose"- the disappearance of Shona is very similar to Rose’s discovery of the Autons. Even the denoument is satisfying, despite the ‘love conquers all’ solution being used again. However, the heart of the story is, again the Doctor’s relationship with Craig. Before, he helped Craig find the love of his life, now he teaches him that he has what it takes to be a father. The story is full of the great lines one expects from Roberts, but there is a real depth to the characters and the way that the Doctor can talk to Stormageddon/ Alfie about being old and showing him his first glimpse of the stars in the same story as the Doctor tasting a piece of chalk and comically frightening a woman in a changing room would be bathetic in the hands of a lesser writer, which Roberts is anything but.

James Corden again makes Craig a thoroughly likeable and real character- I’m sure his abject terror at the responsibilities of fatherhood have been felt by most young fathers. There is a wonderful supporting role for the inimitable Lynda Baron in her third appearance in the show and I must say that Holli Dempsey’s reaction to being shushed by the Doctor is hilarious. Matt Smith plays with helicopters, bonds with babies and makes kissy-face at Craig (I hope, for Daisy Lowe’s sake, that his real one is better) and is astonishing. But, of course, that is no surprise.

After the virtuoso shows in the directors’ chair in recent weeks, Steve Hughes opts for a more basic approach which works very well with the material. The scenes in the Cyber-lair are atmospherically shot and the only real flaw is that the attack on Craig in his house could have been mounted better. however, with great scenes such as the Doctor and the planetarium and the fantastic scene where Craig is almost converted more than make up for it.

On his own, after briefly seeing Amy and Rory and deciding to leave them be, The Doctor is soon off to keep his appointment in America and we find out (as if we needed to) who the Impossible Astronaut is, in a coda that rounds off a story that is, without the slightest shadow of a doubt, the best Doctor Who story to feature the Cybermats!

NEXT: "The Wedding of River Song"

"The Lodger"

With a production block of only 13 episodes, there was no need for a ‘Doctor-lite’ episode this year, but it is clear that the notion of doing an episode that looks at the Whoniverse from a slightly askew angle is something that has become an integral part of the programme. It is interesting that the premise of this story- the Doctor must pass himself off as human- is very similar to the premise for "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood"- with radically different results. "The Lodger" presents us with Craig Owens, an ordinary Essex lad who is so madly in love with his friend Sophie, that he cannot see the obvious signals that scream the fact that she is also in love with him. He only barely notices the mysterious and very fast-growing piece of dry-rot on his ceiling and the odd noises from the man upstairs. Not to worry- he has a new flatmate in the shape of a slightly weird man in a bow tie...

Gareth Roberts tells a wonderfully sweet story about two people in love, while the Doctor tries (and mostly succeeds) in passing himself off as a normal bloke- playing football, watching telly etc, but trying not to attract the attention of the thing upstairs. It is a paean for following your dreams at the expense of the apparent comfort that can stifle the soul. Roberts’s script has a real understanding of what makes people settle for second best. ‘I don’t see the point of (insert place here)’ says Craig a couple of times, but we don’t condemn Craig for it. The story is chock full of great lines and hilarious situations, as we have come to expect from Roberts, but this is also his warmest script for the programme- in fact the weakest element is the science-fiction aspect, with the threat raised by the machine upstairs being rather too rushed in its unfolding to have much effect, and I think that the perception filter is becoming something of a catch-all explanation.

James Corden is excellent as Craig, making him eminently likeable and very, very normal. Corden is a fine actor who has a lot of detractors due to two bad projects he did (his admittedly appalling sketch-show and Lesbian Vampire Killers, which I have not seen) but put in a great performance in The History Boys on both stage and screen. Here, he displays the qualities that made him a star. Daisy Haggard is sweet as Sophie and the two of them have a great chemistry. Dancing around them like a mad goblin is Matt Smith, in his best performance yet as the Doctor. Whether collecting junk at midnight or telepathically bonding with cats, he is mesmerising. Matt’s performance is both instantly recognisable as the Doctor and credible as a stranger who could merely be a slightly oddball human. This is, helped by Catherine Morshead’s inspired direction, making it seem slightly reminiscent of an episode of Spaced where Tim's fantasies are real. The comic and dramatic beats are expertly handled and there is, of course, the football match which, like the cricket match in Black Orchid is a sublime sequence- ‘Football’s the one with the sticks, is it?’

So the Doctor defeats the enemy and brings two lovers together. It seems everything is fine- until we see a crack behing Craig’s fridge and Amy finds a velvet box that is uncannily familiar...

NEXT: "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang"