In the penultimate episode to the season finales of Moffat and Smith’s first run of Doctor Who. Things are gearing up for the epic battle against the crack in the wall/universe, so how about a nice relaxer episode before the big bang?
In this episode, after being stranded without Amy, the Doctor is forced to try and figure out what is causing his TARDIS to dislodge from the proper time stream as well as hideout for a little while. Cue Craig Owens (not the Chiodos singer), a guy looking for a flat mate who, despite the Doctor’s odd quirks, allows him into his home as his new friend. Of course, this means that the Doctor is going to have to take on one of his greatest challenges yet – being human.
Click behind the cut as we take a look at the episode.
I think the first question that I have in regards to this episode is, “You know, if this show has been on for 70+ years, and the Doctor has been around for 1,000+ years, then why doesn’t he know how to be human already?” Part of me feels like this might be a small gripe, but when I look at the basic purpose of the episode, I believe my complaint becomes more relevant. Does the episode work and sustain a proper level throughout? Yes. But is the purpose of the entire level, the main plot point that drives the action of the main character, a good deal of BS? Most definitely.
Throwing that complaint aside, the episode still manages to be good. I have loved Smith as the Doctor so far, but I think this episode alone gave him a good deal to outperform himself and bring a brand new level of character to the Doctor. As he tries to figure out what it truly means to be human, and how to interact with his surroundings, the goofy and lovable Smith manages to play the role with great aplomb. All of his “human” lines in this episode are hilarious and delivered with great timing, such as when another football player tells him they are going to destroy the other time and the Doctor gets very defensive about human life. He also has some great moments to his character as he pops up behind a sofa with an actual screwdriver. Smith has done a great job at building his character this season, but this episode really helps to solidify the character’s innate quirky-ness.
The rest of the episode flows well enough. The creepy element of the upstairs apartment remains ominous throughout, and the interactions between the Doctor, Craig, and the surrounding world are rather entertaining. I did find the end of the episode to be a tad trite though, with the reason for the disturbance not really all that interesting. When it was mentioned that someone had landed some kind of spaceship on the upstairs of the house, I began to get really intrigued. Traditionally, the episode that comes right before the two-part finale is the one that introduces the great threat to the audience in one way or another, and I expected something rather large. When the spaceship turned out to be nothing much, I felt a bit let down. Granted, this is part of Moffat’s grand scheme of things, and we’ve been seeing the crack in the wall since day one, but my old bones sometimes ache for a sense of familiarity in my television programs.
The final final moment falls into that as well. I understand that the impact of that last moment is supposed to be considerably large, but for whatever reason I felt nothing at that moment. While it is an obvious tie towards all that we had seen, the discovery to me didn’t seem that interesting, or at the very least all that threatening. We’ll see what comes with the next episode, which I have a lot of faith in, and I’m sure upon retrospect this moment will be more entertaining. However, I suppose that since I never developed an attachment to Rory except for when he died, bringing back his ring like this wouldn’t really get to me. I can imagine for others it could have had quite the implications though, and again, I’ll be interested to see what happens because of this.
All in all, this was a pretty good episode. In a lot of ways, it was the calm before the storm and it was a lot of fun. I thought that the interactions presented were entertaining, and this episode really gave Matt Smith a chance to shine (not that he hasn’t for the entire season regardless). Definitely the funniest of the season so far, elements of it did ultimately feel like filler for the upcoming finale. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, but it definitely isn’t one of the seasons higher moments, like last weeks (and, for those with careful eyes, you’ll notice a nice little Easter Egg to last week’s episode in this episode).
Only two more episodes, and one week until we find out what is causing the crack in the universe. Are you ready?
