S6E12: Closing Time

laughed my @$$ off the entire episode.

The Cybermat was great fun (bitey!) and Stormy provided lots of good comedic moments. The Cybermen were totally wasted and are approaching Silver Nemesis levels of impotence. While it was nice to actually work the story arc of the Doctor aware of his impending death into the tale, this ended up reducing the ending into the silly "love destroyed the Cybermen". I would have liked this episode much better had there been another 5 minutes to work out a proper way for Craig to save the day.

Otherwise a brilliant episode that was sorely ruined for me by the resolution of the plot. End result is an average episode that I'll await to rewatch this November, but will hold my nose for the last few minutes.

Interesting stuff they tacked on the last couple of minutes revealing EyePatch Lady and getting the newly dubbed Prof River Song into her space suit. The producers managed to fit in all the other explanatory stuff they needed so hopefully next week's episode makes sense.

ogron wrote:

Did we need the Cybermen in the episode - I don't think so, it would have been good enough with just the cybermats... maybe a cybermat fell to earth and was trying to call for help - something along those lines.... again I'm left with the feeling of a rushed weak ending... the "love for his son" killing the Cybermen.... boring but oh well it is newwho were talking about.

Agreed. Another wasted moment for the Cybermen. So much more could have been done with them but I suppose that wasn't the story the produces wanted to tell.

But over the years, haven't many of the Cybermen's appearances been wasted? They so rarely get "only the Cybermen could have conceived of this" type stories and are mostly relegated to monster of the week tales where we wonder "why on earth would the Cybermen even think this is logical?".

Perhaps River Song that eyepatch Lady put in the suit is a ganger, after all, the Doctor does know all about it all, after all he is the great deceiver, and he has done this sort of thing before.



I only say this because of all the ganger goo and stuff being slogged with the figures, plus when I looked at my River Song with her mask on I just thought that might be the reason why.

"The Cybermen learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature... and because of it, the greatest in the universe. They learned too late for themselves that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. And when men seek such perfection... they find only death... fire... loss... disillusionment... the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought an end to the toil and misery, but it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from Man himself."

Rule 1: The Doctor Lies

River said it in the big bang

And the Doctor said it to Melody Pond in the hospital

Praise Him Praise him.....Uh oh Praise him

This is how Ten should have gone to his death. Tennant's Doctor whined and screamed, Smith's Doctor goes facing certain death with his shoulders square and his head held high...and he even uses up what little time he had left to clean the house of a friend.

Except for, Ten actually died. I'm waiting to see how 11 weasel's his way out of this one.

bret_owen99 wrote:

Except for, Ten actually died.

This.

I don't usually agree with Bret, Infact i only agree with half of his post, but Ten actually died, had his personality ripped out of him. While, from trailers that 11 isn't going down without a fight!

Eleven would totally have left Wilf in that chamber.

Wes Crayon wrote:

Eleven would totally have left Wilf in that chamber.

I don't think any incarnation of the Doctor would've done that.

I was a bit put off by the Doctor having to get to his place of death on time.
He's a freaking time traveler. Why does he have to obey this deadline counting down in the TARDIS? As long as he gets to the right place at the right time it doesn't matter where he stops or how long he stays there.

Calixar wrote:

I was a bit put off by the Doctor having to get to his place of death on time.
He's a freaking time traveler. Why does he have to obey this deadline counting down in the TARDIS? As long as he gets to the right place at the right time it doesn't matter where he stops or how long he stays there.

I think thats why he said he couldn't put it off anymore.

Rocco wrote:

I think thats why he said he couldn't put it off anymore.

That's what I thought the purpose of the episode was. Here you had the Doc getting run down, tired of companions, having to save the world... now he is has the mindset of 'Ok, this is all finally gotten to me. If I am going to die, might as well get it over with... and sets the coords to meet his fate.

Isn't our Doctor now 200 years older? They've created quite a bit of space for future books and Big Finish adventures where 11 has been on his own. I suppose knocking around for that long a person would get to the point of wanting to finally meet his fate head on.

Unless the Doctor has been lying again. Although visiting Craig didn't end so well and the Doctor seemed more annoyed by having to hire a glazier to fix the door on a Sunday.

The trailer to 13 doesn't show him going to see Amy, Rory and River. It shows him confronting the Order. Seeking an answer to their war on him.

I think the Doctor rewritten enough of Melody/River time stream to change his death from a fixed point in space and time to a story, urban legend, as state by River at the end. "Let's Kill Hitler", remark about how somebody screwed up was a plot device. Eyepatch Lady didn't say the Doctor's appointment at the lake was a fixed point in space and time. All she said was this is were it begins. The STORY BEGINS HERE.

I hope this is true. It will be anticlimactic, "I saw this coming" if there is a flesh cope-out.

I will also accept a punt to next season to resolve this particular crises in the Doctor's life.

I really hope they don't "Punt" this to next series.

Answers I want in the next episode:

1. Who was the voice in the big bang, saying "silence will fall" (we know it's not the silents or madame kavorian)

2. How is the Doctor 200 years older in the impossible astronaut, if leaving Craig's flat he is the same doctor who just dropped off amy?

3. How did River song ever meet doctor 10? (at least that's they way they made it seem in "silence in the library" calling him pretty boy and all)

4. Who is Madame Kavorian? (this one really bugs me, I could care less who the silents are)

5. Who are the Order, and what is this "War" that they have been waging against the Doctor for so long? (as stated by Madame Kavorian in a Good Man goes to War)

I know I'm critical, but if all of these questions are answered well, I will be happy. However, if some or all of these are "Rushed" or "Punted" into next series, I'm not going to be a happy camper. I'm just sayin....

bret_owen99 wrote:

2. How is the Doctor 200 years older in the impossible astronaut, if leaving Craig's flat he is the same doctor who just dropped off amy?

3. How did River song ever meet doctor 10? (at least that's they way they made it seem in "silence in the library" calling him pretty boy and all)

2. The Doctor is already 200 years older at the start of Closing Time. I heard about this before the episode aired, and then the episode reinforced it by him saying he dies tomorrow (his tomorrow, not the actual date-wise tomorrow). This bugs me....because we don't know anything about these past 200 years of his life during the episode. Barely any background information. We're just supposed to accept that he's spent the last 200 years doing...well, we have no idea what.

3. I didn't think this was really a question that needs answering, unless if I've misread it. River never met Doc 10 before that episode, but she knew it was him (since she says something along the lines of 'I have pictures of all your faces'). That was the one and only time she met him, I'm pretty sure.

I assumed she met Ten before, but I didn't really have any basis for it. But by that point in the timeline she's pretty aware of the order of things (and, I assume, the order of the Doctor's regenerations?) -- so unless she'd met Ten previously, she shouldn't have been surprised that he didn't recognize her. Of course he wouldn't recognize her.

On the other hand, from everything she said previously, I got the impression that the bulk of her adventures occurred with a future Doctor -- Twelve or Thirteen, perhaps. That could theoretically still be the case, but the way they fast-forwarded through her backstory and upbringing this series (particularly with Mels), I don't think it works out as neatly. That's the problem with writing characters like River...

And while I do think that the Doctor is supposed to be 200 years older at the start of this episode, it does seem like -- emotionally -- he's the same Doctor we saw last week. He was talking about fate and then thought it was notable that he crossed Amy and Rory's path, but if he'd been away from them for 200 years that wouldn't have seemed nearly as poignant from an emotional standpoint. When you just go through a difficult goodbye, you hide from the person if you see him a week later -- after 200 years you just march right up and say hello. Water under the bridge that's since collapsed and been rebuilt at least seven times.

Wes Crayon wrote:

I assumed she met Ten before, but I didn't really have any basis for it. But by that point in the timeline she's pretty aware of the order of things (and, I assume, the order of the Doctor's regenerations?) -- so unless she'd met Ten previously, she shouldn't have been surprised that he didn't recognize her. Of course he wouldn't recognize her.

On the other hand, from everything she said previously, I got the impression that the bulk of her adventures occurred with a future Doctor -- Twelve or Thirteen, perhaps. That could theoretically still be the case, but the way they fast-forwarded through her backstory and upbringing this series (particularly with Mels), I don't think it works out as neatly. That's the problem with writing characters like River...

And while I do think that the Doctor is supposed to be 200 years older at the start of this episode, it does seem like -- emotionally -- he's the same Doctor we saw last week. He was talking about fate and then thought it was notable that he crossed Amy and Rory's path, but if he'd been away from them for 200 years that wouldn't have seemed nearly as poignant from an emotional standpoint. When you just go through a difficult goodbye, you hide from the person if you see him a week later -- after 200 years you just march right up and say hello. Water under the bridge that's since collapsed and been rebuilt at least seven times.

I think for a brief moment, the Doctor was about to go up to them, then he seamed to back off and go hide. That is the way I saw his actions.

Closing Time, the episode where nothing terrible happens to Rory and he doesn't even come close to dying. And Amy doens't save the day either.

So Amy now has her own fragrance? Seriously? You've got to be kidding me. What's next? A knighthood?

What made the tardis explode?

timewarrior wrote:

What made the tardis explode?

Precisely!

timewarrior wrote:

What made the tardis explode?

Don't mean the cybership?