Closing Time (TV story): Difference between revisions

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=== Ratings ===
=== Ratings ===
* UK Overnight: 5.3 Million
* UK Overnight: 5.3 Million
* Final: 6.93 million


=== Myths ===
=== Myths ===

Revision as of 11:03, 7 November 2011

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Closing Time was the twelfth episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

In the last few days of his life, the Doctor pays a farewell visit to his old friend Craig Owens, and encounters a mystery. People are going missing, a silver rat scuttles in the shadows of a department store, and somewhere close by, the Cybermen wait.[1]

Plot

In a department store, a worker checks the changing rooms for customers before they close. She hears something in one of the changing rooms. It is a Cyberman. She screams.

About this time, Sophie leaves her house after making sure Craig can cope with their son, Alfie. There is a knock on the door. It is the Doctor standing on his doorstep, who says hello and then turns to leave, until he sees the power flickering on Craig's road.

The next day, Craig finds the Doctor working in a shop, searching for the cause of the electrical problems. People are vanishing, and the Doctor is sure there's a connection to the flickering power. The Doctor tries to get Craig and Alfie out of the shop in a lift, but they arrive in the Cyber-Ship, where a Cyberman stomps towards them. The Doctor reverses the teleportation before they are captured, disabling the teleporter in the process. He tries to get Craig to leave him so he can investigate, but Craig believes the safest place for his son is by the Doctor's side. He refuses to leave.

The Doctor gossips with his co-worker, Val. She wrongly believes Craig to be his romantic partner and Alfie their child. Uninterested in Val's comments, the Doctor turns to leave until Val mentions a "silver rat" has been seen in the store. This catches the Doctor's attention and has him pondering what it could be. While Craig investigates, the Doctor catches sight of his old companions, Amy Pond andRory Williams, who are shopping in the shop. A large sign on the wall, reading "Petrichor" has a large picture of Amy on it, along with the slogan "The girl who's tired of waiting"; knowing the words are about him, the Doctor smiles as Amy, now rather famous, signs a piece of paper handed to her by a young girl.

The Doctor seeing Amy's perfume ad.

Happy, the Doctor slips away to find Craig. That night, Craig and Doctor hide in the store and capture a Cybermat. It has been causing the power fluctuations by siphoning power to the Cyberman ship, but the Doctor is surprised at how little power it is drawing. He survives an attack by a Cyberman; it was made from malfunctioning spare parts. He is at a loss to explain how it could have returned to the store so soon.

The Doctor returns with Craig to his home to work on the Cybermat. When Craig leaves to get milk, the Doctor tends to Alfie's cries, telling the baby he will die the next day. The Cybermat activates and attacks the Doctor and Craig, but they comically subdue it. The next morning, the Doctor returns to the store with the reprogrammed Cybermat.

Craig follows after the Doctor with Alfie. The Doctor discovers the Cyberman ship is not in space; rather, it crashed on Earth centuries earlier and is now buried beneath the store, accessible by a secret door in a changing room. The power lines installed for the store power to the ship. The crew of six plan to convert the entire human race when there is enough power. They capture the Doctor.

Craig leaves Alfie with Val and follows the Doctor into the tunnel. He too is captured and put into a conversion machine. The Doctor urges Craig to fight, but the conversion appears to be complete--until Alfie's cries over the closed-circuit television echo in the ship. Craig fights the conversion, sending the Cybermen into overload as they feel the emotions they have repressed. The Doctor and Craig teleport away as the ship explodes. The Doctor slips away unseen, but Craig returns home to find he has used time travel to clean the mess from the previous night. The Doctor tells Craig that Alfie withs a much higher opinion of him, is willing to call him dad, and leaves just before Sophie returns, taking some TARDIS blue envelopes from Sophie's stationery drawer and a Stetson hat from Craig as parting gifts. Craig assures Sophie that nothing out of the ordinary has happened while she was gone, but just then the baby utters his first word: "Doctor".

Nearby, the Doctor tells the TARDIS this is their last trip and offers some parting words to a small group of children. In the far future, River Song, a new Doctor of Archaeology, reviews eyewitness accounts by those children, and also notes the date and location of the Doctor's death. She is interrupted by Madame Kovarian and agents of the Silence; Kovarian tells River that they are "her owners" and River is still theirs, and she will be the one to kill the Doctor. They place her in an astronaut's suit and submerge her in Lake Silencio to await the Doctor.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

The Doctor

  • The Doctor mentions that a robot dog is "not as much fun as I remember" referring to K9.
  • The Doctor can make people quiet by simply saying "shh!" Craig suggests this is hypnosis.
  • The Doctor tells Craig that he has forgotten his identity before.
  • The Doctor says "Oh you've redecorated, I dont like it." That was previously said by the 2nd Doctor in DW: The Three Doctors.

Cybermen

Cultural references from the real world

  • When the Doctor tries to deactivate the Cybermat and discovers it has shielding, he says to Craig "Don't worry. I have an app for that", parodying the slogan used by Apple to advertise the iPhone's versatility.
  • When the Doctor is flying the toy helicopter, he says "It goes up-diddley-up, it goes down-diddley-down." This is a line from the theme song of the movie "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines".

Fashion and clothing

  • Craig gives the Doctor a Stetson as a parting gift. The Doctor is later shown wearing this in DW: The Impossible Astronaut when he brings everyone together in America before his death.

Individuals

  • It seems Amy has become quite famous as she is seen giving an autograph to a little girl.
  • Sean and Melinda are mentioned.
  • Kovarian does not appear to be affected by the Silence's ability to make people forget their existence. This will be later shown to be because of her eye drive. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
  • River Song does not remember Kovarian or the Silence from her childhood.

History

Television series

  • Craig asks if the Cybermen's teleport is like "beam me up" from Star Trek. This is the second consecutive episode to feature a reference to Star Trek.

Theories and concepts

  • Posters seen by the Doctor in the department store indicate that Amy has taking up a modelling career. She is seen advertising a fragrance named "Petrichor".

Story notes

  • Given that in The Impossible Astronaut the different versions of the Doctor give their ages as 909, and 1103, the Doctor has lived for approximately two hundred years between these two episodes. Writer Gareth Roberts confirmed in an interview that this is indeed two hundred years after The God Complex for the Doctor, and that he spent these years "waving" at Amy and Rory through history books. (The Impossible Astronaut)
  • Part of the nursery rhyme that was heard DW: Night Terrors is sung by Madame Kovarian, with some new lines added.
  • Closing Time is the first episode produced by Denise Paul, who has been Associate Producer for several Eleventh Doctor stories.
  • This is the first time since the series revival in 2005 that episode 12 has not been part of a multi-part story written by the head writer, although the end of this episode does set up the series finale.
  • This is the first television story to feature a Cybermat since the Fourth Doctor story DW: Revenge of the Cybermen. They had been redesigned though, with human-like teeth.
  • This is the first single-parter episode in which River Song appears, and her first appearance in an episode not written by Steven Moffat. Her appearance, however, does link directly into the next episode.
  • This is also the first regular-season episode since the series revival in which the Doctor does not have an ongoing companion with him at some point.
    • Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were, however, credited in the opener as they had been during the rest of the season. This marks the first time in the series that any actor's name has appeared in the opening credits for less than one minute of on-screen appearance.
    • The BBC America and Space broadcasts also retained the opening sequence narrated by Amy Pond.
    • Arthur Darvill (Rory) doesn't have any lines in this episode.
  • Based on interpretations of dialogue in the episode, a case can be made for Craig to be considered a companion, as the Doctor indirectly refers to him as one.
  • The "app" for disabling the Cybermat used one of the "bonus sounds" found on the toy version of the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver, unheard on the show until now.
  • During one of the scenes, BBC Radio 1's Greg James was visible behind Craig. Greg James named his character "Carlos".
    File:GREGJAMES.png
    To the left of Craig, BBC Radio 1's Greg James
  • This is the first television story since the series revival in which the Cybermen are not armed with any type of weaponary. The Cybermen who are seen have visible gaps in their forearm armour where they would normally have blasters and they are not seen electrocuting anyone.
  • This is the second time where Craig's affection for someone has saved the day. In DW: The Lodger , Craig's love for Sophie motivates his desire to stay where he is, enabling him to destroy the alien Time Machine. In this case, his love for his son enables him to defeat the Cybermen.
  • When the Doctor asks if the Cyberman would take the humans out with six Cybermen, they claim they could take them out with one Cyberman.
  • The date on Craig's newspaper is 19 April 2011, three days before the events of DW: The Impossible Astronaut. This has caused confusion regarding Amy and Rory's appearance in the episode. The name of Amy's perfume, Petrichor, and her celebrity status imply that the events take place after DW: The God Complex. If the paper is correct, then for Amy and Rory this would be three days before they are supposed to meet the Doctor in Utah. Given the time needed to cross the Atlantic and find Lake Silencio, it seems unlikely that this is the case.

Ratings

  • UK Overnight: 5.3 Million
  • Final: 6.93 million

Myths

  • Craig Owens may travel in the TARDIS.[2]This proved false.
  • Craig Owens has had a baby.[3]This proved true.
  • The events in the department store, etc. take place on or about 21st April 2011. A blow-up of the newspaper seen in the episode has the date of April 19, 2011.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Continuity

Timeline

For the Doctor

For River Song

For Amy and Rory

Home video releases

Series6.2DVD.jpg

The episode will be released on DVD and Blu-ray shortly after the airing of episode 13.[4]

External links

to be added

Footnotes