Doctor Who: Review supplemental on The Lodger

Here's our second take on one of Doctor Who's most domestic adventures...

Three people not watching Doctor Who on a Saturday

I looked in the mirror this morning and faced a far scarier sight than my own ugly mug. Staring back at me was James Corden, leering and sneering at my unshaven face and messy mop of hair. Screaming in panic, I only then realised that it was a nightmare and woke up mumbling sheepish excuses to my uncomprehending wife.

But you know what? That nightmare might as well be reality, since it seems like there’s no getting away from James Corden. He’s on TV every night of the World Cup. He’s arguing with Jean-Luc Picard at some awards do. He’s even at number one of the singles chart with a Simon Cowell-helmed remake of Tears For Fears’ 1984 classic Shout. It’s all like a terrifying remake of The End Of Time, except that Corden’s taken the place of The Master.

To rub salt in the wounds for all non-Corden fans, he also turned up in Doctor Who on Saturday in an episode called The Lodger. Interestingly, a quick glance at the ratings shows that the viewing figures weren’t exactly top of the pops. Languishing below the five million mark, The Lodger could have been a casualty of the good weather. Or coverage of the underwhelming Eng-Uh-Lund game against America, which went out at the same time. I wonder though, how many were turned off by the prospect of seeing Corden for the millionth time on TV.

In fact, I must confess that Corden was one of the reasons that I initially didn’t greet The Lodger with open arms. Pathetic I know, to blame it on one actor, but then there were three other key reasons that I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about this one.

For one thing, the 11th episode of Doctor Who-post 2005 has been a mixed bag. For every triumph such as Turn Left, there’s been a boring domestic chinwag like Boom Town. For every jaw-dropper like Utopia, there’s been a jaw-droppingly crap schmaltz-fest like Fear Her. On paper, The Lodger looked to be similarly lightweight – Doctor tries to accustom to everyday Earth life by posing as a lodger while hunting an alien menace.

For another, the episode was written by Gareth Roberts, who in my book, hasn’t exactly set the world alight with his on-screen contributions. At best, he’s written passable fluff (The Unicorn And The Wasp). At worst, he’s written a boring runaround filled with unconvincing panto witches, a monotone Shakespeare and a repetitive gag that wasn’t even funny the first time, let alone the 129th. And I’m not even going to mention the Masque Of Mandragora DVD extra which is about as funny as putting your hand in a kitchen blender.

And for another, I haven’t had a great week, but that’s by the by.

In the end though, The Lodger wasn’t really that bad. To address two of my jittery grumbles – well, Corden wasn’t that bad as Craig, while Roberts’ script was reasonably entertaining. Craig was actually quite a likeable character – your average Joe with an average job, an average life and an average crush on his best friend which he doesn’t do anything about because he fears she won’t feel the same way about him. Corden’s performance was quite understated, considering, and although it’s not the best I’ve seen, it still did the job perfectly well.

Ditto for Roberts’ script – nothing earth-shatteringly brilliant but a diverting bit of teatime viewing. The script was based on an old story of Roberts’ which had seen the Tenth Doctor temporarily move in with Mickey. If anything though, the best part of The Lodger is seeing Matt Smith’s eccentric Doctor try and fit in with a life that he’s not accustomed to. In my mind, the Tenth Doctor would have fitted in much better with domestic lodging life, and so the end result wouldn’t have been half as funny.

"In a funny way, I kind of wish that Matt Smith would give a sub-par performance, since there’s only so many ways you can heap plaudit after plaudit at the main man’s amazing acting"

But the Eleventh Doctor typically galumphs about like an overgrown giraffe at a chimpanzees’ tea party. He greets people with bizarre OTT air kisses. He clearly has no idea of rent – there’s probably enough in that crummy paper bag to keep Craig in goodies for the next seven months at least. He also has a habit of making people like him more than they do Craig. He proves to be a whiz at football, unlike Craig who’s left standing open mouthed at his new lodger’s audacity. He also proves to be a hit where Craig works, and more to the point, Craig even thinks that Sophie likes The Doctor more than she does him. The Doctor is oblivious to all this of course, as he constructs a ramshackle machine to detect what’s going on in the mysterious room above. He’s too busy concentrating on the bigger picture to concentrate on passing himself off as the everyday man. Especially with that bow tie – but, as he says himself for about the hundredth time this series – “Bow ties are cool.”

In a funny way, I kind of wish that Matt Smith would give a sub-par performance, since there’s only so many ways you can heap plaudit after plaudit at the main man’s amazing acting. But no. Once again, Smith scores hugely in what’s one of his funniest performances to date. The Eleventh Doctor’s awkward attempts at fitting in are hilariously played by Smith, who shows a great sense of comic timing. Whether it’s angrily chiding a football player about annihilating the opposition, producing gourmet-class food while casually name-dropping, or head-butting/mind-melding Craig with all the efficiency of a Spock-loving thug, Smith continues to be an inspired choice to play the role. Less Amy action this week, as she was relegated to bouncing up and sown in the TARDIS while bellowing at the Doctor through his earpiece – although the last shot of her discovering Rory’s ring sets things up nicely for the two-part finale.

"The penultimate story of the season always tends to be a lightweight affair – enjoyable enough, but more of a light snack rather than the full-on banquet of the finale. The Lodger was no exception"

Which in a sense is always a problem with the curse of Story Eleven. The penultimate story of the season always tends to be a lightweight affair – enjoyable enough, but more of a light snack rather than the full-on banquet of the finale. The Lodger was no exception. In the end, it turned out to be another run-of-the-mill threat, to the point where explanations were kept extremely vague. The identity of the mysterious being and his TARDIS-type contraption was very much kept in the shadows. In a way it’s refreshing to have an ambiguous alien, since it’s left up to the viewer to decide what’s going on rather than have it spelled out for them. On the other hand, in dramatic terms, not a great deal happened, and for me, the scenes of the luckless extras walking towards their doom lacked the fear factor – especially with the badly acted close up shots of screaming faces.

Whether or not this mysterious alien has any bearing on the two-part finale remains to be seen. Has Scaroth of the Jagaroth found a way back from beyond the grave? Especially with the City Of Death-esque time jumps. Or more worryingly, does the TARDIS-like device mean that The Doctor’s implicated in this whole Crack mess? The perception filter was definitely a hark back to The Eleventh Hour with the room that wasn’t there, and the Crack itself made yet another appearance. Let’s hope that the season finale wraps things up in style and answers all these 1001 questions that have been scattered throughout the last 11 episodes.

Taken on its own though, The Lodger is basically just a bit of fun. It’s the Black Orchid of the 21st century, with the Eleventh Doctor’s newfound passion for football equating with the Fifth’s love for cricket. Both stories can be seen as inconsequential and insubstantial, but they’re still enjoyable little morsels of Who. Catherine Moorshead’s direction is again competent, with some moody staircase shots for the interior of the flat and a good grasp of the more comedic elements of the story. The small guest cast are generally good – Corden aside, Daisy Haggard’s performance as Sophie was quite sweet, and her friendship with Craig was rather touching - although the ending was inevitable. As Todd Rundgren and Utopia would say – Lurve Is The Answer.

Overall then, not as bad as I thought it would be – The Lodger may not be among the all-time Doctor Who greats, but sometimes all you want is a light-hearted way to spend 45 minutes. And in that respect, The Lodger succeeds. Let’s just hope that the ratings for the last two episodes improve.

Season move to the Autumn, anyone?