Doctor Who is running out of
time. He has only two more episodes to save the season. Can he do
it with the help of Craig in “Closing Time”?
Spoilers
I am expecting a mess next week in
Doctor Who and so I was hoping this story would be the series'
last gasp of excellence before we are thrown back into the world of
River Song and eye patches and convoluted story telling. “Closing
Time” certainly has a good pace and simplistic story that focuses
on the issue of the Doctor not only ready to accept his upcoming
death but still believing that his interaction with people and
companions eventually endangers them and makes their lives horrible.
Craig and his baby son make some good points but alas, the Doctor is
still in the dumps and ready to accept his fate.
There is also a story in this one. A
crashed Cyberman ship is draining power from the neighborhood and the
Doctor gets a job as a clerk at a store in order to investigate. He
discovers Cybermen, who are planning to restore power to their ship
and build an army to take over the planet. It is Craig's love for
his child that wards off a cyber-conversion and causes all the
Cybermen to explode, yet again proving to the Universe that the
Cybermen are pretty easy to kill.
The idea is pretty good, a Cyber-ship
lying dormant for centuries and finally having enough power to be a
threat and detected by the Doctor. The whole “human emotion”
defense in stopping the Cybermen is interesting and yet one has to
wonder after all this time that Craig's emotion was the only human to
ever break the Cyber-conversion in the history.
This brings up the fact that I have
generally disliked the way conflict with the enemy is resolved in
Doctor Who. Usually there is a quick fix or an easy out. If
you are going to write such a tough story for the Doctor to resolve,
your answer has to be just as logical and satisfying. These cop-outs
are ignored by many viewers for the most part because the Doctor does
manage to resolve it with a smile and wink. The producers ramp up
the editing speed and throw in tons of characters and plot lines and
the viewer will often not see or care about the resolution because
the Daleks were in it or Sarah Jane re-appeared or we learned that
Captain Jack was the Face of Boe, etc. I expect the same for next
week unfortunately.
Anyhow, my other complaint about this
story is the music. Murray Gold does great action and suspense
music. I dislike with a passion his “funny” music which is very
juvenile and silly. When the Doctor meets up with Craig is an
example of this loud kooky music that is present in many episodes.
There was a lot of it in this episode. I have trouble taking the
episodes seriously which I know many fans don't care to.
With all that said, I know that when
the dust settles for this season, this may be my fourth favorite
story. I did like the relationship between the Doctor and Craig.
The concept of love beating out the emotionless Cybermen is a worthy
concept even if it is a bit of a cop out. The return and new design
of the Cybermat was well done. I am dreading next week's episode
even more after seeing the lead in to this story and next week
teaser. Its Kitchen sink time!!!
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