Well, it’s worth pondering why the story was made in the first place. For starters, it was very likely a chance to save some money. Aside from the episode’s climax, most of this tale is just people involved in seemingly everyday situations. But I think maybe there was more to it than just saving cash. Aside from “Boom Town,” the aforementioned stories were all designed to give the lead actors breaks. Given that this was the inaugural season of a new era for the show, it probably would have been a risky move to write the Doctor and Amy out for the bulk of a story, so instead what “The Lodger” does is remove Karen Gillan for most of the episode, while allowing Matt Smith the chance to chill out and just banter with James Corden (“Gavin & Stacey”) for an hour. Oh, and he also gets to play football, but since Smith has a history with the game, that probably wasn’t too taxing for him – the guy looks like he had a blast in that scene. Yes, for those of you who don’t know, Matt Smith once upon a time had dreams of being footballer, but a back injury led to him taking up acting instead.

Unlike Davies however, Moffat handed the oddball story over to Gareth Roberts, who has a long and winding history with “Doctor Who.” He’s one of “those” writers who’s been tied to it in one form or another for seemingly forever. I’m not familiar with the prose work he’s done over the years, so I can only really judge him on the scripts he’s written for the series, most of which haven’t been any great shakes. I quite liked “The Shakespeare Code” back when it was broadcast, but time hasn’t been too kind to my opinion of it. The following year he did “The Unicorn and The Wasp,” which I hated then, and hate only slightly less now. A recent viewing of it on BBC America led me to take it less seriously than I did a couple years ago, and hence, I was able to laugh at it a little more. The ending and the idea behind it is still pants though.

Then Roberts co-wrote “Planet of the Dead” with Davies, and we all know – the visuals aside – how underwhelming that one was. On the other hand, and to play fair, Roberts has also written a number of stories for “The Sarah Jane Adventures,” and typically the best episodes of that show have been his – although that isn’t saying much when you consider the generally dire quality of the stories produced for that series. Then again, I’m not really the show’s target audience. I originally believed it was made for fans of Lis Sladen & Sarah Jane Smith, but it’s not. It’s for kids obsessed with the new series that can’t wait a whole year for the next season, so “Sarah Jane” comes along in the autumn to tide them over. In any case, I’ve seen numerous interviews with the man, and he seems like a really good, intelligent, thoughtful guy, and I’m sure we’d get along great provided he didn’t ask me what I thought of his “Doctor Who” stories.

Ahem, clearly I have digressed. My apologies. Back to “The Lodger,” which is about a half a good episode, and half not so much. The domestic stuff between the Doctor, Craig (Corden) and Sophie (Daisy Haggard) is wonderful – really, really fun material that’s the best thing Roberts has yet to contribute to the series. The sci-fi stuff with the alien timeship upstairs is – you guessed it – pants. From the start, the Doctor moving in and renting a room from Craig is ripe with possibility. Craig and Sophie have this mutual unrequited love, and the Doctor steps smack in the middle of it. He’s supposed to be concentrating on what’s upstairs, and yet he’s hesitant to confront whatever it is head on – going so far as to not use the sonic screwdriver, as he doesn’t want to alert the presence upstairs. This strikes me as very hollow.

He’s separated from his TARDIS and clearly somebody’s screwing with time, so why doesn’t he just confront whatever’s upstairs? People are dying, right under his very nose (although admittedly he seems unaware of this fact). It’s very out of character for the Doctor to not just take the situation in hand. Or is it his chance to, even for a few days, live a normal life that keeps him distracted? It’s never explicitly stated in the episode, but he seems far more interested in what’s going on with Craig and Sophie than he does in getting to the bottom of his problem. In order for this episode to work, you almost have to give yourself over to the notion that the chance to just be a guy for a few days is far more interesting to him than the nightmare above. He’s mentioned this in the past numerous times – how people get to live lives that he isn’t able to. Here, for a few days, he lives one of those lives, and he really basks in it, so perhaps that’s the only way to read the episode.

The relationship between the Doctor and Craig is lovely, due to two great performances from the leads. We already know Smith is great, but having never seen an episode of “Gavin & Stacey,” I didn’t know what to expect from Corden. I had a vibe that he’d be playing a more boisterous character, not someone as withdrawn as Craig is. His friendship with the Doctor is like two little boys learning how to play together. I really felt for the guy and his failure to tell Sophie how he feels. In particular, the shot of him standing alone on the grass once the Doctor has stolen all the thunder in the football game is sad and pathetic and it works. I feel like I’ve seen that happen before. In fact, I was probably that guy.

Later on, when the Doctor takes Craig’s place at work (after saving his life), he really starts to lose it, and when he thinks the Doctor’s moving in on Sophie, it’s just too much for him to take. Funny thing is, the Doctor is oblivious to all of this. One thing that’s been played up with the Eleventh Doctor is how out of touch he is with humans and their feelings, and how he simply doesn’t see the smallest things. Case in point: when he first moves in, and Craig is trying to explain to him that should he want to bring someone around, arrangements can be made so that he can have privacy…and the Doctor just doesn’t get it (much as he didn’t get Amy hitting on him at the end of “Flesh and Stone”). It’s hilarious to watch stuff like this, and it’s one of only many reasons I’m so taken with Smith’s alien portrayal.

There’s a bunch of other great, little stuff littered throughout the episode, too: The Doctor wearing a #11 jersey for the football game; the head butting scene in which the Doctor imparts the entirety of who he is on Craig; the van Gogh exhibit postcard on the refrigerator; the contraption the Doctor builds in his room (he built a much smaller version of this thing in “The Time Monster”); the implication that at some point after the story the Doctor and Amy both travel to points and fix things so the events we see here can work out properly; the rot on the ceiling, which is not unlike the Pandoricrack in concept; the Doctor spitting his wine back into his glass; Amy finding the ring in the final moments; and no doubt many viewers enjoyed watching Smith prance around in only a towel for one scene, as well as him mistakenly think an electric toothbrush was the sonic screwdriver.

But unfortunately most everything that happens when the story comes to a head is very boring, or at least not as good as all that came before it. We never find out exactly who was behind the ship, which leaves the episode feeling incomplete, and don’t get me started on the perception filter. Some people may be tired of the sonic screwdriver, but I’m sick and tired of perception filters. And in this case – and please correct me if I’m wrong – this perception filter somehow has the ability to build a flight of stairs that doesn’t actually exist, and yet characters and cats are able to run up and down them? I don’t get it. It’s just this gigantic hole in the story that makes everything on that top floor (which is actually the roof of the building) seem really phony. And frankly, as novel as the head butting scene is, I can’t help but think Craig’s head would have exploded having been saddled with all that information, but maybe I’m over thinking it all. “The Lodger” is good, but not great, and certainly not as groundbreaking as the episodes I mentioned at the top of the recap. But perhaps it’s unfair to make that comparison, since we’re in a whole new era, and there’s a much different approach being taken with this season than the Davies seasons that came before it.

Lastly, “The Lodger” was based on a comic strip that was also written by Gareth Roberts for the Tenth Doctor and Rose, while Mickey stood in for Craig. I’ve not read the comic, but would certainly be interested in giving it a look, and apparently you can find it in Doctor Who Magazine #368, or in the graphic novel collection “The Betrothal of Sontar” (what a title!).

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NEXT TIME: All hell is going to break loose when “The Pandorica Opens,” in the first half of the two-part season finale. You don’t want to miss this one, folks.

Classic “Who” DVD Recommendation of the Week: Since I mentioned it in the review, I might as well go ahead and recommend the just released “The Time Monster,” starring Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning and Roger Delgado. Or if this isn’t up your alley, maybe you should check out “Black Orchid,” where you see Peter Davison playing cricket with as much fervor as Smith plays football.

(Thanks as always to Sonic Biro for the screencaps.)

THE plays like one part spooky horror story and one part scientific fiasco. It’s a clear homage not so much to the classic series Silurians tales, but other stories from the Jon Pertwee era like “Inferno” and “The Daemons.” Heck, even the earth swallowing people up takes me back to Peter Davison’s “Frontios.” One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed about this season is the conscious decision to go for more rural settings, as opposed to the urban backdrops which so dominated the Davies era. It’s given the season a much different texture, and one that’s a welcome change, and you can’t get much more rural than the countryside, an old church and graveyard, and a tiny cast. In so many ways both THE and CB are perhaps the closest to classic “Doctor Who” the new series has yet produced, which I’m not entirely sure is a good thing, because trying to hammer an old formula into a new box is an often dicey proposition, and I quite honestly am not sure if it works all that well here. The best episodes of the new series have been the ones that did something with “Doctor Who” that we’ve never seen before, and if the new series has proven anything, it’s that it’s best to keep moving forward.

And yet there were numerous great moments in THE. One of them was the scene where Amy woke up encased in a Silurian briefcase. That gave me the cold shivers, which is something that “Doctor Who” often aims to do, but (at least for me) rarely succeeds at. The second was the scene where the Doctor “lost” Elliot (Samuel Davies), and the fallout from him doing so. The Doctor looked so beaten in that moment, as if he’d really failed. Speaking of Elliot, here’s another kid, which you may recall me bitching about earlier this season. Thing is, I really, really liked Elliot in THE, but by the time we got to CB, he could’ve been any character of any age, and his only function seemed to be that the young are the most open-minded people on the planet, which is a nice, and perhaps truthful sentiment, but not one I needed or cared to see hammered home. The final reveal of the underground Silurian city is another great moment, but it’s also one whose promise isn’t really met in CB. It looks as though we’re going to be getting something monumental in CB that we ultimately never really get. I’d never go so far as to call these two episodes “bad” or to say I didn’t like them, but when compared to the previous “second two-parters of the season” (think, “The Empty Child,” “The Impossible Planet,” and “Human Nature”), this seems to be lacking in ambition and scope. I had really high expectations for this 90-minute block – expectations that ultimately weren’t met.

The Silurians (or whatever we are or aren’t calling them at this point) were one of the great concepts in classic “Doctor Who.” Instead of the two old sci-fi standards of “they come to us” or “we go to them,” the idea was that “they” were here long before “us.” Humans became the invaders on their own soil. Writer Malcolm Hulke did a solid job filling out and exploring these ideas in Jon Pertwee’s second serial, “Doctor Who and the Silurians,” and then he came back a few years later with “The Sea Devils,” in which the Doctor met the aquatic relatives of the Silurians, and then 10 or so years later Peter Davison encountered both races in the year 2084 in the lackluster tale “Warriors of the Deep” (which wasn’t written by Hulke). All three tales are available on DVD in the “Beneath the Surface” boxset, and each of these stories amounted to a moral dilemma for the Doctor, as he tried desperately to broker peace between the two species, and they always ended badly, with no clear winners. This new two-parter (or at least CB) tells the same story, once again, which isn’t a problem for anyone who hasn’t seen all the old serials, but for those of us who have, when all is said and done, there’s bound to be a “That’s it?” as the final credits roll.

Well, maybe not, as CB finished off with a one-two punch that has little to do with the story, and more to do with seasonal Pandorica arc (there seems to be a lot of that this season). The ending of CB is such a narrative shock that it leaves one forgetting how rote much of what came before really was – again, at least for old school fans, and since I am one, I can’t write from any other perspective. The only major difference between this tale and the serials of old is that it ends on a considerably happier note, and instead of some mass slaughter, the Silurians go into hibernation for another thousand years. Really what the story feels like is, ironically enough, a setup for the return of Silurians, presumably next season, which I welcome, because there surely must be a great deal of untapped potential in this concept provided someone actually takes us there. So much of the dialogue and so many of the situations in this story seem inspired by or ripped directly from all the previous homo reptilia tales, that I’m surprised Malcolm Hulke didn’t get a co-writing credit next to Chris Chibnall. But I’m loath to hold any of this against the story, because the concept needed to be re-established for modern audiences unfamiliar with the originals, and Hulke did such a bang-up job back in the ‘70s, that maybe there was almost no other way to accomplish this than by going back to the concept’s roots, given how original it is as sci-fi concepts go. The Silurians are a fascinating enough race that they deserve to get the same kind of returning screentime that the Daleks and the Cybermen do. This could go on for a long time on this series, with all kinds of twists and turns along the way.

Probably the most frustrating aspect of CB in particular is the Doctor’s ongoing insistence at brokering peace between the two species. On three occasions he’s learned that this doesn’t work, so why would he possibly think it would be a success this time? Why is he so optimistic? The human race seems worse than ever before, so why is he being so fucking blind to the truth? Once again, for anyone who’s seen the classic serials, this just makes no sense. I’m very interested to hear opinions from fans that’ve never seen the classic serials, so by all means, fill up the comments section below with your thoughts on this story.

Finally, we must cover the one-two punch. The death of Rory – the real death of Rory, instead of the bogus one we got in “Amy’s Choice.” It’s a well played scene, with the Pandoricrack erasing him from time itself – and Amy’s memory – afterwards. Really, really great stuff from all parties involved, and a real punch to the gut, as is the wraparound bit where Amy is now standing solo in the distance. All that said, there’s no fucking way this guy is gone from the series. This was a massive fakeout if ever I’ve seen one, and I’m quite sure he’ll somehow come back to life in the two-part season finale. (Perhaps Rory will become the “Doctor Who” equivalent of “South Park’s” Kenny?) And then there’s that chunk of the TARDIS the Doctor pulled out of the Pandoricrack. What the hell is going on there? I get bored with speculating and much prefer to let this series wash over me, but I always love hearing what others think is around the corner, so let’s hear it, kids. Since Part One of the finale is playing in the U.K. this weekend, keep your comments relevant to what’s been shown in the U.S. No cheating or spoiling if you’re ahead of the game.

Oh yeah – one last thing. A couple of my “Doctor Who” peeps and I came up with a Facebook group recently. It’s called “A Clive Barker penned episode of ‘Doctor Who’ is a great idea!” and I think the name of the group is fairly self-explanatory in a Betty White/SNL kind of way. If you agree with the idea, please join this group, and suggest it to as many people as you can. Don’t worry, it’s a quiet group, and we won’t bombard your FB page with all sorts of nonsense. We just want to see the member count grow and grow, until Steven Moffat has no choice but to offer Mr. Barker a shot at writing an episode of “Doctor Who.”
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NEXT TIME: The Doctor meets Vincent Van Gogh, in the Richard Curtis penned episode “Vincent and the Doctor.” Having already seen this episode, I will boldly proclaim it unquestionably the best episode of the season, so by all means don’t miss out.

Classic “Who” DVD Recommendation of the Week: I honestly can’t recall if I’ve ever recommended the final story of the ‘60s, “The War Games,” before, but I’m recommending it now if for no other reason than because it’s an important story that everyone needs to see (well, the final episode of its 10-part girth is anyway).

(Thanks as always to Sonic Biro for the screencaps.)

I continue to want to compare this material to stuff from seasons’ past, and yet this nagging feeling keeps telling me that’s just an unfair thing to do. I wonder if Moffat’s even got some kind of grand master plan that extends beyond this block of 13 episodes? None of this means I’m not enjoying the season, just that it’s a much different kind of enjoyment than what I’ve become accustomed to during the Davies years, which began feeling predictable about three years in. Say what you will about this season, but, at least at this stage, it is most certainly not predictable. In some ways watching this season is as disorienting as the predicament in which our heroes find themselves in this week’s episode. As viewers, we’re experiencing a new reality of the series, while we keep thinking back on what we came to know prior to this season’s start. Which is the real “Doctor Who?” The Davies or the Moffat era? Both, or maybe neither? I’ll likely elaborate on all of this further during the final recap of the season.

Moving on to “Amy’s Choice,” which is a story that seems primarily designed to screw with your head. It seemingly takes place in two different realities – one is set five years in Amy and Rory’s future, and the other is set in the TARDIS of the present, assuming the word present can ever be used in relation to the TARDIS, anyway. In the future storyline, Amy and Rory have long since left the Doctor behind, and they’re living in Leadworth, married and expecting a child. A surprise visit from the Doctor leads to bad things, as is to be expected, and the trio discover that an alien race called the Eknodine are disguised as the elderly townsfolk, and these creatures have the ability to kill simply by breathing on people. In the other reality, the trio is stranded in a dead TARDIS, which is drifting toward a burning, frozen star.

The Dream Lord appears, played by Toby Jones, an actor who’s becoming a ubiquitous screen presence, which is odd to say the least, as he’s a very funny looking little man, whom one might assume would have trouble finding work based on his appearance alone. That doesn’t seem to be the case though, as he even managed to land a villainous role in the upcoming “Captain America” movie. The Dream Lord, who at first is dressed like the Doctor, appears to be operating on several levels. On the surface is the dilemma of the two realities which he’s presented to the crew, but beneath that resides something more sinister and complex. He seems hell bent on causing a rift amongst the TARDIS trio, by exposing the weaknesses of each character.

Once again, the idea that either the Doctor or Rory is an interloper in Amy’s life is a theme, although this is clearly the hardest the point has been hit home yet. It’s certainly an interesting proposition, because even though the Doctor is the main character of the series, and the one with whom our sympathies naturally lay, I think we want to believe he’s the “gooseberry,” since he’s the one who’s interrupted Amy’s life time and again since she was a child. And again, because we know the drama of this series in a way that Amy does not, we as viewers are well aware of how south events could possibly go for Amy should she continue on with the Doctor and his travels. But then again, hasn’t the Doctor been a more important part of her psyche for a longer period of time than Rory? Why isn’t Rory the interloper here? The conundrum is much like the episode itself. Surely the Leadworth storyline is the false reality, and the TARDIS scenario is the truth? Or is it? Both scenarios fit in equally well within the universe of “Who,” and both are presented as equally real. Eventually, the Dream Lord turns the situation into Amy’s choice, hence the title. Which reality would she rather live in? Soon enough, the decision is practically made for her when Rory is turned to dust in the Leadworth scenario, and she chooses the TARDIS reality in lieu of losing Rory forever, based on the idea that life isn’t worth living without him.

Back in the frozen TARDIS – which, by the way, is a lovely sight to behold – all three characters wake up. Clearly this was correct choice, right? Well, assuming you’ve seen the episode, and I can’t imagine you’d be reading this if you haven’t, you also know that there are two final twists in “Amy’s Choice.” The first is that both realities were the result of some psychic pollen that got stuck in the TARDIS console, and the second is that the Dream Lord was some sort of psychic projection of the Doctor himself, an idea which really takes the entire episode to a whole different, malevolent level: Some twisted, self-loathing part of the Doctor’s persona caused all of this.

This is an idea that was previously explored back during the Colin Baker era, in the “Trial of a Time Lord” season, with the character of the Valeyard, who was said to be an amalgam of the darkest sides of the Doctor’s persona, that came from somewhere in between his twelfth and final incarnations. Of course, the new series has yet to ever mention the previously established 12-regeneration limit, and since the term Valeyard was never used here we can’t be sure it’s the same creature, but the Dream Lord sure seemed comparable to the Valeyard, and even the way he flitted around by disappearing and reappearing was identical to how the Valeyard moved in the final episodes of the Baker serial. Further, the fact that the Doctor knew who the Dream Lord was all along would seem to lend the idea that they’re one and the same some credence. I’d like to see more of this being and hopefully this isn’t the last of him, as the idea seems ripe with possibility. Hopefully Toby Jones doesn’t become so immensely popular that he doesn’t have time to return to the part should the situation arise.

“Amy’s Choice” is a deceptively tight episode. How good it is doesn’t really come home until the final moments. It was written by Simon Nye, who’s best known in the U.K. as the creator of the classic sitcom “Men Behaving Badly.” Of course you wouldn’t know that this was written by a comedy writer any more than you’d know that “Blink” was written by the same man who wrote “Coupling,” such is the versatility of the people who work on this show. While “Amy’s Choice” does have some humor (all the stuff with the old folks was hilarious), it remains a fairly dark and disturbing, highly emotional episode, loaded with character. Granted, the birdsong that signaled the switching of realities as well as the crew falling asleep and waking up got a tad repetitive after a while, but such is the nature of a piece of TV like this. The overall idea behind the episode isn’t terribly original and in fact when it was all over and done with, I couldn’t help but think back on it and feel that the whole thing smacked of fanfic (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but ultimately the execution of it was done well enough to justify having made the episode in the first place.

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NEXT TIME: It’s the return of a classic “Who” race known as The Silurians, in “The Hungry Earth.”

Classic “Who” DVD Recommendation of the Week: Do I or do I not recommend “Doctor Who and The Silurians”? I think I do. It stars Jon Pertwee and it rocks, even at seven episodes.

(Thanks as always to Sonic Biro for the screencaps.)