Closing Time (24 Sep. 2011)

After traveling for 200 years and leaving messages for Amy Pond across time and space, the Doctor realizes his time is up, its time to settle down and accept his future at Lake Silencio. . ... See full summary »

Director:

Steve Hughes

Writers:

Gareth Roberts, Kit Pedler (characters: "Cybermen"),

Stars:

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Matt Smith	...	The Doctor
Karen Gillan	...	Amy Pond
Arthur Darvill	...	Rory
James Corden	...	Craig Owens
Daisy Haggard	...	Sophie
Alex Kingston	...	River Song
Frances Barber	...	Madame Kovarian
Seroca Davis	...	Shona
Holli Dempsey	...	Kelly
Christopher Obi	...	George (as Chris Obi)
Lynda Baron	...	Val
Paul Kasey	...	Cyberman
Nicholas Briggs	...	Cybermen (voice)

Storyline

After traveling for 200 years and leaving messages for Amy Pond across time and space, the Doctor realizes his time is up, its time to settle down and accept his future at Lake Silencio. . . . . .But not before one last goodbye. The Doctor travels to England and visits Craig and Sophie, who are now happily married and struggling with parenthood. Not everything is well, as the Doctor soon finds himself miraculously working at a shop and battling Cybermen.

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Plot Keywords:

mistaken for gay | department store

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 September 2011 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Cymru Wales

Technical Specs

Runtime:

46 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The perfume ad that Amy is seen in is for Petrichor perfume. Petricor means the smell of dust after rain. The tagline for the ad is "for the girl who is tired of waiting", the doctor frequently calls Amy "the girl who waited".

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Quotes

Craig Owens: You've noticed something. You've got your noticing face on. I have nightmares about that face.
The Doctor: Nope! Given all that up. Done noticing things.
[the lights flicker]
The Doctor: Didn't even notice that, for example.

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Connections

References Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965)

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Soundtracks

"Doctor Who Theme"
(uncredited)
Written by Ron Grainer
Arranged by Murray Gold
Performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales

User Reviews

Let's Close Time On Moffat And Roberts Vision Of The Show

A companion less Doctor goes and visits acquittance Craig Owens and his new born baby only to find there's a Cyberman plot to take over the world

DOCTOR WHO is a unique show . The very fact that it often involves verbal fisticuffs between fans and the general public that it is /isn't a children's show speaks volumes . Likewise the differing factions of fandom . By this I mean fans of the classic series are somewhat cynical to the new series causes friction amongst the fans of the new series . In short the programme has a flexibility of format which leads to discourse as to what a " proper " DOCTOR WHO story is . One person may love a story whilst another hated it . Let me put my cards on the table by saying I hated Closing Time

One of my favourite pieces of television has been the mete-fictional Love And Monsters from season two of NuWho . It was a witty black romantic comedy that sent up fandom . Closing Time also tries to be a witty comedy but as Jon Pertwee once said " it's easy to be silly but it's difficult to be funny " and this episode is very silly , almost to the point of embarrassing . The Cyberman take over a shopping mall in order to conquer the world ? Would it not be better taking overa government or an industrial complex ? I guess if they did that then Roberts wouldn't be able to graft on any punchlines involving " a pervy bloke " hanging around the underwear section of a store . This is the major malfunction of the story - the plotting is written around the jokes . In fact Closing Time sees some of the weakest plotting NuWho has come up with . It's just a series of sketches

The other problem is the Cybermen themselves . There's absolutely no reason for them to be reintroduced . They are classic television monsters second only to the Daleks but since they're heyday in the 1960s writers have become lackluster on how to use them . There's also something painfully illogical and that is if they're such fearsome foes for the Doctor then why are they so easily defeated on their appearances . This episode reaches a complete nadir for the cybes when Clive thinks about his girlfriend and new born baby which causes the Cybermen to explode . If he pulled out a magic wand and caused to Cybermen to disappear that would have probably been a better resolution

Series six of NuWho picked up in the second half but Closing Time is a painful comedown . DOCTOR WHO works at its best when it's at its most serious , a feeling reinforced by me after recently watching a few classic stories from the Jon Pertwee era , especially Day Of The Daleks which involved iconic monsters with a timey wimey paradox that was easy to follow . Series six has seen classic monsters ruined in a running theme of time paradox and this fan looks forward to seeing the show return to its traditional roots