Rate: "Closing Time"

by **Patrick** Thu Sep 22, 2011 7:44 am

Episode 12, the penultimate story for Series 6, is upon us. And we have Gareth Roberts at the keyboard. And we have James Corden at, well, at something. And we have Cybermats getting mouthy on us.

So, what did you think of it? Did it open doors for you, or is the slamming noise still reverberating about your head?

This thread will remained locked until after UK transmission of the episode this Saturday, September 24th. North American members, normal spoiler rules apply, as UK transmission will precede transmission on this side of the Atlantic by seven hours- if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read!

by Tessellated Facsimile Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:20 pm

Initiating ship to outer world communication...

Greetings!

Well for once our entire crew compliment totally enjoyed this week's episode. A big thumbs up to Gareth Roberts for his warm and witty script. The same for the performances.

And that Cybermat must be a Christmas toy.

So for the second week in a row our our collective rating is 4/5

All hail Eocene supremacy!

Terminating ship to outer world communication...

by **Dave Webb** Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:26 pm

That was fun.

by John the Vic Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:09 pm

Absolute Class.. Tips the "best ever" list upside down again.. This must be in the top six episodes ever made..

by **Zoltar** Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:56 pm

Dave Webb wrote:That was fun.

Indeed it was. "Stormageddon", eh? I like the kid already.

by Rich Flair Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:03 pm

Top stuff. 5/5, awesome.

by **Patrick** Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:41 pm

Well, at least Linda Baron didn't make a Wrack of things. She even seemed a bit enlightened.

Why are you all holding tomatoes and aiming them at me?

Alright. First things first. That lyric is actually a Mark Gatiss composition:

Tick tock goes the clock
And what then shall we see?
Tick tock until the day
That thou shalt marry me

Tick tock goes the clock
And what now shall we play?
Tick tock goes the clock
Now summer's gone away?

Tick tock goes the clock
And all the years they fly
Tick tock and all too soon
You and I must die

Tick tock goes the clock
He cradled her and he rocked her
Tick tock goes the clock
Even for the Doctor...

I feel we should make sure it's archived. Well, it may be important.

Now, to the story itself, all I can say is wonderful! I have this vivid memory of cybermats from Revenge of the Cybermen being sort of long, clunky snakes with sections to them. They were fantastically realized here. And I loved how Craig disabused the Doctor of the notion of the notion that he always puts people in dange. It was a brilliant story, and my own personal favorite scene was when the Doctor gave "Stormageddon" a proper planetarium light show in his room.

So, we now know who it was who killed the Doctor in Utah. What we don't know is whether it was the Doctor who got killed. Remember, he said his age was eleven hundred. Our Doctor is still in his 900s. The Wedding of River Song should be epic.

by barnaby morbius Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:59 pm

thought it was good fun-it seems to have upset lots of fans on Gallifrey base which is always a good thing.

4

by **Johnstone McGuckian** Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:13 am

I think that, for the Doctor, 200 years have passed since God Complex.

4/5 for me anyway,'good episode but having the Cybermen killed by love was a bit of a cop out. Loved the Stormageddon stuff though.

by Rich Flair Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:46 am

Patrick wrote: Remember, he said his age was eleven hundred. Our Doctor is still in his 900s. The Wedding of River Song should be epic.

The Doctor in Closing time was the 1100 year old. Her said he's been on his own for a bit. And his hair was longer. And he got a cowboy hat.

by Rich Flair Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:46 am

barnaby morbius wrote:thought it was good fun-it seems to have upset lots of fans on Gallifrey base which is always a good thing.

4

That's good. I don't go there, so it would be interesting to know what's been liked and hated this year.

by **Dave Webb** Sun Sep 25, 2011 4:23 am

I was terribly amused by: the Doctor's "Shhh" trick works on aliens with underdeveloped brains (humans) but generally only works once. Except on Kelly the shopgirl. It seems to work every time on her.

Cybermen killed by Love is not a cop-out. Re-introducing emotion to the emotionless Cybermen is an established way of dealing with them.

The fact that it makes their heads explode is thoroughly amusing too. I've often wondered whether it's a sly comment on early fan reactions to the emotional content of the revival.

In any case, the cybermen were hardly central to the story. I imagine that some of the adverse reaction to this episode was because the cybermen were very much sidelined in favour of telling a rather different story.

by **Patrick** Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:09 am

Rich Flair wrote:
Patrick wrote: Remember, he said his age was eleven hundred. Our Doctor is still in his 900s. The Wedding of River Song should be epic.

The Doctor in Closing time was the 1100 year old. Her said he's been on his own for a bit. And his hair was longer. And he got a cowboy hat.

Did he explicitly say he was 1100 in Closing Time? If he did, I missed it. I think what we got last night was the set up to finish the big loop, with the Stetson and the TARDIS-blue stationary. But this is the Moff we're talking about, and misdirection is his personal forte. It won't be as simple as he mails the invitations and arrives in Utah to stick his head in the noose. And I'm still not convinced we haven't seen the last of the Gangers or Morpeth Jetsan.

by The Browncoat Cat Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:22 am

Well, I liked that. I liked it a lot.
I wonder if the lines about The Doctor being able to speak Baby were grafted onto the script of A Good Man Goes to War because it worked so well in this script, or vice versa.
Given that it has been at least two years since Craig last saw The Doctor, I would say that at least that much time has passed since The Doctor dropped of Amy and Rory at the end of The God Complex. Giving her enough time to launch a sucessful perfume and to become a minor celebrity.
And the "Gay Agenda" returns with a vengeance.
Even though I knew that something would stop the cyberconversion, I was still at the edge of my seat. I suspect that Craig and his family and friends are ideal material for a new spin-off, now that The Sarah Jane Adventures are sadly no longer possible. A four part adventure where Craig stumbles upon an alien conspiracy and only he can stop it. Any takers.
Nice to see proper Cybermen as well, not the brains as SIM card Cybusmen from earlier in the series. Maybe they will get a bit of a redesign for their next appearance.

In total 5/5

by Rich Flair Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:25 am

Patrick wrote:Did he explicitly say he was 1100 in Closing Time? If he did, I missed it.

He did say he was going to die tomorrow. then went off to America with the hat. I don't think there's going to be any ganger shenanigans, it will all be resolved Timey-Wimeyly.

by Rich Flair Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:26 am

The Browncoat Cat wrote:I wonder if the lines about The Doctor being able to speak Baby were grafted onto the script of A Good Man Goes to War because it worked so well in this script, or vice versa.

Vice versa - Gareth mentions in DWM that he added the talking baby stuff after reading A Good Man Goes to War.

by **Patrick** Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:46 am

Rich Flair wrote:
Patrick wrote:Did he explicitly say he was 1100 in Closing Time? If he did, I missed it.

He did say he was going to die tomorrow. then went off to America with the hat. I don't think there's going to be any ganger shenanigans, it will all be resolved Timey-Wimeyly.

That there will be some timey-whimey is a virtual certainty. But remember, this is Doctor Who, and the show has never been able to resist a good anagram. "Morpeth Jetsan", the company that brought us the gangers, is an anagram of Phantom Jester. They fooled the Doctor with a ganger Amy (how they did this has yet to be explained), and then they fooled him again with the ganger baby Melody. The Silence are in league with Madam Kovarian. I think it's reasonable to conclude that gangers will feature in this in some way.

by Rich Flair Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:10 am

Wow, I totally missed that Morpeth Jetsan anagram. Good call!

by **Zoltar** Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:24 am

Dave Webb wrote:I was terribly amused by: the Doctor's "Shhh" trick works on aliens with underdeveloped brains (humans) but generally only works once. Except on Kelly the shopgirl. It seems to work every time on her.

Loved that bit, I hope it turns up again in some future episode.

Dave Webb wrote:Cybermen killed by Love is not a cop-out. Re-introducing emotion to the emotionless Cybermen is an established way of dealing with them.

Agreed.

Dave Webb wrote:The fact that it makes their heads explode is thoroughly amusing too. I've often wondered whether it's a sly comment on early fan reactions to the emotional content of the revival.

Heh, that's a good take on it.

Dave Webb wrote:In any case, the cybermen were hardly central to the story. I imagine that some of the adverse reaction to this episode was because the cybermen were very much sidelined in favour of telling a rather different story.

It does seem to be an issue for some folks. Great expectation seems to be put on each Cyberman-related story to show them in a fantastic new light.

Patrick wrote:Did he explicitly say he was 1100 in Closing Time? If he did, I missed it. I think what we got last night was the set up to finish the big loop, with the Stetson and the TARDIS-blue stationary. But this is the Moff we're talking about, and misdirection is his personal forte. It won't be as simple as he mails the invitations and arrives in Utah to stick his head in the noose. And I'm still not convinced we haven't seen the last of the Gangers or Morpeth Jetsan.

Did he expressly state in the episode that he'd been alone for 200 years? No. But the writer did, in an interview on the official website.

"Gareth Roberts: It's 200 years after The God Complex - for the Doctor, anyway. All the stuff you saw at the very beginning of The Impossible Astronaut, with him waving to Amy through all time and space, he's been doing that."

by **The Co=Ordinator** Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:13 pm

Gareth Roberts is a consistently good writer of Who. Excellent performance by Matt Smith in centre stage, with another fine support by James Corden. No idea why Gillen & Darvill's names were on the opening credits, and the coda was a bit meh. But a solid 4/5 overall.

by **Nick Barlow** Sun Sep 25, 2011 5:00 pm

4/5 from me - might have been shading 5 if those last couple of minutes hadn't been a reminder of everything that's been annoying me this season.

I thought not cutting Gillan and Darvill out of the credits was a missed opportunity - it might have made people think they actually had left for good last week and make the cameo an interesting surprise rather than an inevitability.

All good fun, though, and shall be considering when I can make a reference to the Cybership buried under Colchester in a council meeting. Would be nice if they filmed in somewhere that looked even vaguely like here, though...

by **The Co=Ordinator** Mon Sep 26, 2011 1:12 am

Nick Barlow wrote:All good fun, though, and shall be considering when I can make a reference to the Cybership buried under Colchester in a council meeting.

Please post a link to the minutes when you do Councillor! I think the Cybership should have been buried underneath Colchester Sixth Form College. The Doctor could have become a supply teacher - who knows what members of staff he might have bumped into.

by barnaby morbius Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:27 am

The Co=Ordinator wrote:
Nick Barlow wrote:All good fun, though, and shall be considering when I can make a reference to the Cybership buried under Colchester in a council meeting.

Please post a link to the minutes when you do Councillor! I think the Cybership should have been buried underneath Colchester Sixth Form College. The Doctor could have become a supply teacher - who knows what members of staff he might have bumped into.

smoothe

by **The Co=Ordinator** Mon Sep 26, 2011 3:13 am

Indeed!

I thought he Cyberconversion process was a throwback to days of yore, far removed from RTD's Cybus take. Not sure about being turned into a fully clothed Cyberman though!

by Guest Mon Sep 26, 2011 1:28 pm

Closing Time was an absolute delight from frame one right up until the end credits. Warm-hearted, witty, with a genuinely positive emotional content that perfectly off-set the on-coming seriousness of the threat of the Doctor’s rapidly impending demise.

The cast were pitch-perfect – and although I felt the direction lacked a certain something in the Cyber scenes, it thankfully didn’t detract to any serious extent from the otherwise all round enjoyment Gareth Roberts script elicited. In many ways this episode (for me at least) harked back to the RTD era in tone and execution – and it was certainly none the worse for that.

Undoubtedly a very strong 4/5. If the direction had been that wee touch tighter, then it would have bagged top marks.

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