There are many reasons why The Lodger shouldn't have worked, but through some indescribable magic it does.The Doctor is stranded on Earth when a malfunction causes the TARDIS to dematerialise shortly after landing, hurling it (and Amy) off into The Void, leaving The Doctor behind in Colchester, Essex.
The disruption is caused by "something" in a nearby flat and so The Doctor has to pass himself off as human and lodge with Craig (James Corden) in the downstairs flat, while investigating the mystery at the top of the stairs.
He dare not be too forward in his approach, in case something goes wrong and Amy (and the TARDIS) is lost forever.
The Doctor's time on Earth is a peculiar cocktail of sitcom, soap opera and Doctor Who mystery as he can't resist meddling in Craig's lovelife - Craig is in love with his best friend and work colleague, Sophie (Daisy Haggard), little realising that she feels the same way, but both are too scared to admit it.
British television already has its fair share of sitcoms and while one might praise the versatility of the Doctor Who format that it can embrace a variety of genres, thankfully The Lodger never forgets that at its heart the show is a science-fiction adventure programme.
So, no matter how the 'odd couple' set-up of The Doctor flat-sharing with Craig pans out, and no matter how great The Doctor turns out to be at football (or even doing Craig's job), the plot about the strange goings-on in the house is never far from the surface.
Writer Gareth Roberts delivers - with the aid of confident performances from Corden and Haggard - some great one-liners and comedy moments between the unnerving scenes of passers-by being lured into the upstairs flat.
The Doctor - possibly because of his extended close proximity to 'normal' humans - comes across as even more alien, and out of touch, than usual, with Matt Smith turning in another blinding performance, and continuing to improve his chances of one day being named 'the best Doctor of all time'.
The only real let-down with the story is its reliance on that hoary old chestnut of "the power of love" to save the day, and it was a shame that the plot also required Amy to spend the whole episode trapped in the TARDIS, communicating with The Doctor via his new bluetooth headset.
Since I learned some early details of this episode, I had been secretly dreading it because, although I consider myself a massive fan of Corden's comedy work (and one of the few people on the planet who rates Lesbian Vampire Killers as a great movie), I'd also be the first to admit that not everything he touches turns to comedy gold (c.f. the Horne & Corden sketch show).
Whenever 'big name' actors are revealed as key characters in a story, especially when they are actors strongly associated with one particular genre, I get nervous.
I was afraid that the whole episode would devolve into a sitcom (given the number of sitcom writers who have worked on this show this season, I feared this is what it was all building up to) - sans laughter track - which Doctor Who certainly doesn't need; but I was pleasantly surprised.
The story resolution didn't quite add up, even ignoring the corny 'love' angle and a slight reliance on 'silliness', and it would be nice to see a few more adventures with real monsters (be they men in rubber suits or CGI) and set on alien planets (we've only been to one this year and that was obviously a Welsh quarry).
However, even with those reservations, The Lodger was a lot funnier and a lot more thrilling than I was expecting.
I thought this episode was a cracker and it seemed to flash by in about 20 minutes. Matt Smith is really making his own Doctor.
ReplyDeleteI thought the mind meld headbutt was a bit of a deus ex machina. The horror of the passers-by disappearing upstairs was genuinely chilling.
it would be nice to see a few more adventures with real monsters
ReplyDeleteThat's not what you said last week. ;)
Oh yes, I was distracted by the England game and forgot to mention the "mind meld headbutt", thanks, Clare.
ReplyDeleteThat would come under the heading of "a bit silly" as, in a sense, it was a whole new 'power' of The Doctor's that we've never seen before - not in that format anyway.
""it would be nice to see a few more adventures with real monsters
ReplyDeleteThat's not what you said last week. ;)
No, I said, last week's could have been worked in some way without the monster ;)
But I do think this season has suffered from a lack of great 'new' monsters (if we can now count The Weeping Angels as old monsters, as we've seen them before).
There have, so far, been no memorable monsters/aliens (that we haven't encountered before). Last week's giant, invisible, plucked chicken was memorable for all the wrong reasons!
No mention of next weeks trailer? They name checked a lot of aliens... but how many will we see? It'll be interesting to see a medieval setting though.
ReplyDeleteI tend not to mention trailers for upcoming episodes of Doctor Who during my reviews, but may well do a separate post about it closer to the time of broadcast of the next episode.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'd read somewhere - for what it's worth - that many of the aliens appear in an hallucination/dream sequence, but I guess we'll have to wait and see the reality behind that.
I believe it's an Ancient Roman setting though, rather than medieval.
Good episode although this felt like an episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures but with the Doctor (who suddenly seems to know nothing about current British culture). It did unfortunately have a big hole - the TARDIS-like spaceship sitting on top of Craig's flat is never explained. What was it doing there? Who created it? Where are the pilots? Where did it come from?
ReplyDeleteWouldn't the Doctor be interested in finding out more about this ship that can seriously affect his TARDIS and cause loops in time? Rather than just shrugging it off after it "imploded".
Also, why was Craig's house the only single storey building in a street full of two-storey buildings?
And yes, the "mind meld headbutt" was silly.
"Wouldn't the Doctor be interested in finding out more about this ship that can seriously affect his TARDIS and cause loops in time? Rather than just shrugging it off after it "imploded"."
ReplyDeleteDon't forget this is the same Doctor that left a potentially-planet-destroying dalek bomb wandering around in wartime London, as well, in Victory Of The Daleks.
Perhaps it's a character flaw of this iteration or perhaps it's simply poor or lazy writing/directing/production?
Along with The Doctor's amnesia when it came to 21st Century culture ;)
The writers often make out that Earth is only one of the many, many planets The Doctor visits and aso he can't always remember every detail of every planet's culture that he visits... just a shame we only seem to see him visiting Earth!
"Also, why was Craig's house the only single storey building in a street full of two-storey buildings?"
Oh, I'm glad it wasn't just me. The house looked very strange - but I put it down to my lack of architectural knowledge. But it looked like a two-storey house that had had the top floor replaced by a roof! Rather than a single-storey house.