Doctor Who S5e11 "The Lodger" [Spoilers]

[Crazedwraith]

Comments thread!

edit: Pretty good episode. The main plot was pretty silly but I enjoyed The Doctor trying to fit in a lot more than the main plot. "Sorry can I put you on hold? I have to eat a biscuit"

Though little discontinuous, if he absolutely needs a name, The Doctor usually gives John Smith and Tennant at least was able to use telepathy with a lot more subtly than a head butt.

The Next time: Spoiler

Well that looks... weird. The description of whats in the pandorical sounds like The Doctor himself to me. Just calling that idea now.

[Sharp-kun]

Thought it was good overall, ending was anti-climatic.

[NecronLord]

A pleasing return to form, for my money.

[Atlan]

Couple of nice jokes when the Doctor introduces himself. The psychic paper: "Is that... A reference from the Archbishop of Canterbury?"

And a bit later on, "I just have one of those faces. People are allways telling me their plans."

At least one of the writers has caught on to how daft that is...
Overall an enjoyable episode, but we're FINALLY getting to the real meat of this season.

[Bounty]

Really good episode all-round. The ending makes a lot more sense than I was fearing it would, even if I still don't quite get what the hell the emergency autopilot gizmo was trying to achieve.

Next week looks... not very promising, but that's probably because from the trailer it looks like they're sliding towards an RTD finale. I suppose there's hope yet. The setting at least looks nice.

[Lord Woodlouse]

Lovely episode.

Anyone get a screenshot of the fleet from the next time trailer?

[Captain Seafort]

Eh. Not bad once it got into the meat of the episode, but distinctly average before then. The whole premise of the Doctor trying and failing to fit in, especially asking for coaching from Amy felt distinctly false, given that he's previously exhibited no such issues with human society. In particular, as CW points out, his continued insistence on using "the Doctor" as his name, when he's previously slipped into John Smith with no fuss if people push him, was extremely odd.

Odd a somewhat better note, did anyone else get very strong McGann-Tardis vibes from the console room of the alien Tardis?

[NecronLord]

Really good episode all-round. The ending makes a lot more sense than I was fearing it would, even if I still don't quite get what the hell the emergency autopilot gizmo was trying to achieve.

The ship appeared to be psionically powered or controlled; it needed someone to activate the engines, but humans weren't 'strong' enough and were burnt out by it.

I wonder who made it. A nice little mystery there, especially given how TARDIS-like it seemed.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I was getting strong TARDIS vibes. I thought the whole "just call me the Doctor" was a bit odd

I was very pleased to see even the Doctor saying he couldn't use the sonic screwdriver. Particularly amusing is the running out of shower to save Craig with...a toothbrush.

Bit odd that he's suddenly great at football despite apparently not knowing what it is first

Overall, good episode. Some funny moments, but mostly it rattled along easily enough. At least the Doctor didn't go off on some lecture about how sad it was that 17/18 people died. Oh well, a refreshing change if notthing else

Next week, hmmm. "Daleks, cyberships, sontarans etc" Perhaps Moffat is going for a DAvis-antithesis. All the enemies instead of all the companions.

[Bedlam]

Eh. Not bad once it got into the meat of the episode, but distinctly average before then. The whole premise of the Doctor trying and failing to fit in, especially asking for coaching from Amy felt distinctly false, given that he's previously exhibited no such issues with human society. In particular, as CW points out, his continued insistence on using "the Doctor" as his name, when he's previously slipped into John Smith with no fuss if people push him, was extremely odd.

I'm taking this as just one of the indeosincracies of this particular Doctor really, yes his previous incarnations could blend in well (third, fifth and ninth probably best) but this particular version just has difficulty turning down the weirdness to blend into daily life.

[DaveJB]

For some reason I kept getting the feeling that this episode would have been more suited for Tennant's Doctor. Still pretty decent, overall, and it proves that unlike a certain other writer - *cough*Chibnall*cough* - Gareth Roberts learnt from his mistakes and improved on the steaming pile of horse manure that he previously churned out for the show.

[Captain Seafort]

I'm taking this as just one of the indeosincracies of this particular Doctor really, yes his previous incarnations could blend in well (third, fifth and ninth probably best) but this particular version just has difficulty turning down the weirdness to blend into daily life.

Possibly, although I've always got pretty strong Troughton vibes from Smith, and he always was pretty good at blending in (or rather, taking charge of a problem without anyone really realising that he'd done so).

[NecronLord]

God help us. The Pandora's box thing could be the goddamn Master from the intro. He actually is soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies, given the events of Logopolis.

Also, in the preview, River mentions Chelonians turning up.

Reference to the old Virgin New Adventures books.

[Starglider]

Good build-up, poor ending. I didn't mind the Doctor suddenly being unable to pass for human, he's probably just out of practice having not done it seriously for a few centuries. The basic problem with the episode was that the villain was weak-to-nonexistent and the ending revolved around two completely uninteresting characters and their boring relationship. I actually preferred 'Love and Monsters', which at least had amusingly disfunctional characters. Funny bits of dialog and the Doctor actually doing something raise it above last week's episode, but still, pretty mediocre.

The Pandora's box thing could be the goddamn Master from the intro. He actually is soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies, given the events of Logopolis.

I hope not. If it's an old character making a return, a re-imagined Omega has much more potential to be interesting.

[Bedlam]

Good build-up, poor ending. I didn't mind the Doctor suddenly being unable to pass for human, he's probably just out of practice having not done it seriously for a few centuries. The basic problem with the episode was that the villain was weak-to-nonexistent and the ending revolved around two completely uninteresting characters and their boring relationship. I actually preferred 'Love and Monsters', which at least had amusingly disfunctional characters. Funny bits of dialog and the Doctor actually doing something raise it above last week's episode, but still, pretty mediocre.

The Pandora's box thing could be the goddamn Master from the intro. He actually is soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies, given the events of Logopolis.

I hope not. If it's an old character making a return, a re-imagined Omega has much more potential to be interesting.

I'm guessing an AU Doctor for the thing in the Box. Probably with an AU TARDIS which will explode at the end leading to the part found a few stories ago.

[Crazedwraith]

Odd a somewhat better note, did anyone else get very strong McGann-Tardis vibes from the console room of the alien Tardis?

Alien TARDIS? Yay tautology

[Captain Seafort]

Alien TARDIS? Yay tautology

That depends on your point of view.

[Parallax]

Note: Haven't seen the episode yet so may be well off target.

According to the novels (Cats Cradle: Times Crucible), the Time Lords first time ships were psionically powered.

[DarkSilver]

Lovely episode.

Anyone get a screenshot of the fleet from the next time trailer?

you mean like this?

[Crossroads Inc.]

So yeah.. What an "interesting" episode. Apparently the Doctor is going senile this series, which is the most I can figure out. I mean seriously: "Amy how do Humans act?" and "What is football?" and of course "Annihilate? NO! Violence BAD! no violence! I am the doctor the bringer of storms!" So the writers are evidently getting more and more psychotic in their writing of the Doctor.

Also the alien TARDIS really wields me out. In all of DrWho there has been "time machines" but no race not even the Daleks I think have made "TARDIS"s at least not in the series. In books and other stuff perhaps... Also the ship at the end, did anyone else think it looked remarkably like a "Jagaroth" space ship form City of Death? Curious...

As for the space fleet, well given that Dalek Saucers and Sontarian Battleships are both clearly visible, I have to roll my eyes and think that, yes, indeed it looks like we get a "All of the Doctors villains" instead of "all the Doctors companions"

Also is anyone else getting sick of the writers turning the Doctor into an over achieving Cockbite? Did we REALLY need 5min of the Doctor showing up Craig in football?

Still, the episode is “better” then the others but that’s not saying much, and given it’s the last one before the season end, it feels like much of this seasons has just been wasted.

[Gramzamber]

Well maybe the ship is a DARDIS.
I mean, it's interface consoles look Dalek-friendly and everything.

Also I'm sure you could make a drinking game out of every time the Doctor has said "perception filter" this season.

[Revy]

Also I'm sure you could make a drinking game out of every time the Doctor has said "perception filter" this season.

It's the new 'Because of ... quantum.'

Also, I call BS on the holographic villain. It utterly failed to behave like an automated simulation when Craig (y'now, I can't even remember his name, that's how boring he was, I had to look at a previous post) knocked on the door and it answered as an old white haired man. It intended to try every single human on the planet, but when one actually comes knocking without having to be tricked into coming, it tells him to bugger off.

... can you say plot hole?

The Doctor was funny, but I couldn't care less about two random never to be seen again and very dull people hooking up. I want SciFi, not soap. Amy pretty much called this episode in, didn't she?

I'd go with everyone else and say that the thing in the Pandorica is the Doctor in some shape or form (perhaps the Tennant AU hand clone? Surprise guest appearance maybe), and that River will have to kill him, hence the exchange in the Angels episode. My second guess would be the Beast from the Impossible Planet, which returns and possesses the Doctor, turning him evil and forcing River to kill him - though only to destroy the Beast, as the Doctor (or River) will have some brilliant handwavium plan that will result in the Doctor getting back up, alive and well, without having to regenerate or anything.

[Gramzamber]

Also, I call BS on the holographic villain. It utterly failed to behave like an automated simulation when Craig (y'now, I can't even remember his name, that's how boring he was, I had to look at a previous post) knocked on the door and it answered as an old white haired man. It intended to try every single human on the planet, but when one actually comes knocking without having to be tricked into coming, it tells him to bugger off.

... can you say plot hole?

Well no because when Craig actually did touch the interface he made the ship implode because... because... uh... because of couch potato power, obviously.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Also, I call BS on the holographic villain. It utterly failed to behave like an automated simulation when Craig (y'now, I can't even remember his name, that's how boring he was, I had to look at a previous post) knocked on the door and it answered as an old white haired man. It intended to try every single human on the planet, but when one actually comes knocking without having to be tricked into coming, it tells him to bugger off.

... can you say plot hole?

Well no because when Craig actually did touch the interface he made the ship implode because... because... uh... because of couch potato power, obviously.

The "explanation" such as it was, was that Craig "didn't want to leave" and the ship needed someone who wanted to leav. When, the other chick, suddenly got motivated and "wanted to leave" it then picked her up stairs. Thats about it, and, somehow when they both fell in love and "Didn't" want to leave again, the ship imploded...

... Because of Quantum.

[mr friendly guy]

Science explanation makes little sense, however overall a good episode, albeit one which is less plot based on more character base. It gave me twilight zone vibes, however this time Craig is the "good guy", while the Doctor was this weird room mate.

And yes it was cool the Doctor showing Craig up in soccer, er I mean football.

Generally the plot holes were overlooked because this was meant as an over the top episode, albeit a filler one.