Surfing SF: Doctor Who – “The Lodger”
“Listen, Mike and I had an arrangement where if you ever need me out of your hair, just give me a shout, okay?”
“Why would I want that?”
“Well in case you want to bring someone round, a girlfriend or a… boyfriend…”
“Oh I will. I’ll shout… If that happens. Something like… I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!!!”
Doctor Who spoilers materializing now…
Doctor Who tends to do one story per year that breaks out of the show’s usual formula and tries something different. We’ve had “Love & Monsters”, “Blink”, “Turn Left”, and now “The Lodger”. I think that of the four “The Lodger” is probably my least favorite, though it’s not really a bad episode. The central guest character of Craig (James Corden) is really the weak link… he is no Carey Mulligan in “Blink”, and episode’s story, where he just gets more and more jealous of the too-perfect Doctor, really doesn’t do him any favors.
The story is about the Doctor losing the TARDIS (with Amy still inside), and having to rent a room from Craig while he investigates the energy source upstairs that he thinks caused the problem. He essentially has to “go undercover” as a regular guy, which gets milked for all the comedy the writers can generate. Meanwhile, people get lured upstairs by a voice repeating the same phrase over and over, in classic Who fashion, and never return.
Trying to think of how you would have done an episode differently is probably not a great road to go down for a TV critic, but I think had I been writing this episode I would have made the Doctor have a little more trouble blending in. Instead, he’s pretty much awesome at everything, including soccer. The writing and execution is actually pretty strong for all this, so it doesn’t become quite as bad a mis-step as you’d think.
Overall, this has been a spectacular season of Who, and the extraneous things are so great even here that any problems with the main links of the episode are easily overlooked. Matt Smith’s performance is once again wonderful, and he makes the Doctor blowing up into righteous anger over soccer rhetoric as believable as the Doctor blowing up into righteous anger at Dalek atrocities. If you’re a Who fan, I’ll be you had a good time. I know I did.
Bits:
-How many jokes are they going to make about that gosh darn bow tie?
-Another recurring element this year is perception filters. Craig’s apartment has no second story. This seems like something that might come into play eventually.
-This episode suffers from not including very much of Karen Gillan as Amy. Things perk up whenever she’s on screen, and she feels more essential to the current show than any of the previous Companions.
-This episode was based on a story from the tie-in comics. The new series had previously featured the “Human Nature” two-parter, based on a novel. Apparently the soccer bits are a holdover. I’ve never heard of any other big franchise doing anything like this. Do you think more franchises should?
What did you think of “The Lodger”. Keep the comments clear of later episodes you may have seen, please for the benefit of those who’re following on BBC America.
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