Doctor Who S32E12 "Closing Time"

[Crossroads Inc.]

Ok this has been bugging me a while, but..

is anyone else annoyed with how the Cybermen simply "Blow up" whenever they are 'contaminated' with emotions again? Sure using the excuse "people simply can't cope with such a horrfic thing!" was used in the intial Cyberman episodes, but do they have to have their heads just Blow Up???

And also, isn't the Doctor always going on about how amazing humans are, how they never give up, and always adapt and fight to survive? Well, wouldn't it be nice to just ONCE have a "contaiminated" cyberman not blow up but suddenly "wake up" ?

I mean, shoot they used that as the climax for the one Christmas special, where a Victorian Women had such a strong will she corrupted the Cybermans entire network.

Maybe it's a bit soft of me to think... But was there anyone else thinking that when "The Power of Love" was used, the other Cyberman, who were all from the shop.. Would wake up with a "what happend to us" deal.. The Doctor could give one of his "I'm so sorry" speaches, followed by a "Thats Human Spirit for you! Always fighting!"

Sure, they are Cyberman, but they have a ship, the Doctor could have given some speach about moving forward, and Humans always pressing onwards, and they could have just lifted off, in search of new advantagers as the "Free" Cyberman!

Anything other then just...exploding heads...

[Molyneux]

Ok this has been bugging me a while, but..

is anyone else annoyed with how the Cybermen simply "Blow up" whenever they are 'contaminated' with emotions again? Sure using the excuse "people simply can't cope with such a horrfic thing!" was used in the intial Cyberman episodes, but do they have to have their heads just Blow Up???

And also, isn't the Doctor always going on about how amazing humans are, how they never give up, and always adapt and fight to survive? Well, wouldn't it be nice to just ONCE have a "contaiminated" cyberman not blow up but suddenly "wake up" ?

I mean, shoot they used that as the climax for the one Christmas special, where a Victorian Women had such a strong will she corrupted the Cybermans entire network.

Maybe it's a bit soft of me to think... But was there anyone else thinking that when "The Power of Love" was used, the other Cyberman, who were all from the shop.. Would wake up with a "what happend to us" deal.. The Doctor could give one of his "I'm so sorry" speaches, followed by a "Thats Human Spirit for you! Always fighting!"

Sure, they are Cyberman, but they have a ship, the Doctor could have given some speach about moving forward, and Humans always pressing onwards, and they could have just lifted off, in search of new advantagers as the "Free" Cyberman!

Anything other then just...exploding heads...

I think it's something like an allergic reaction, really. It's supposed to help the body deal with an invading substance - but it can quite easily become much more of a problem than the invader is, doing things like cutting off breathing. With the Cybermen, I figure their systems are trying to cope with the "allergy" to emotion, but the cure winds up being worse than the actual problem - hence, head-explody rather than violent insanity due to repressed emotions coming back.


I thought this episode wasn't bad, but it still only gets a 3 from me. I liked George.
Also - I still say the previous episode would have ended much better if they had just suggested that Rory stab the damn Minotaur!

[Aleria]

4/5 - It went where it need to go in an entertaining way. The Doctor realising he endangers his companions for selfish reasons, primarily. The Doctor deciding to go to his 'death'.

The last bit is in quotes because I suspect BBC wouldn't allow them to really kill the Doctor.

[Broomstick]

I think it's something like an allergic reaction, really. It's supposed to help the body deal with an invading substance - but it can quite easily become much more of a problem than the invader is, doing things like cutting off breathing. With the Cybermen, I figure their systems are trying to cope with the "allergy" to emotion, but the cure winds up being worse than the actual problem - hence, head-explody rather than violent insanity due to repressed emotions coming back.

Or else it's a deliberately designed mechanism, that when a cyberman's emotional inhibitor malfunctions the cyberman self-destructs, possibly to prevent some sort of software problem from contaminating other cybermen. Sort of like how malfunctioning cells in a human body are supposed to self-destruct (when they don't, you can wind up with stuff link cancer).

[Molyneux]

I think it's something like an allergic reaction, really. It's supposed to help the body deal with an invading substance - but it can quite easily become much more of a problem than the invader is, doing things like cutting off breathing. With the Cybermen, I figure their systems are trying to cope with the "allergy" to emotion, but the cure winds up being worse than the actual problem - hence, head-explody rather than violent insanity due to repressed emotions coming back.

Or else it's a deliberately designed mechanism, that when a cyberman's emotional inhibitor malfunctions the cyberman self-destructs, possibly to prevent some sort of software problem from contaminating other cybermen. Sort of like how malfunctioning cells in a human body are supposed to self-destruct (when they don't, you can wind up with stuff link cancer).

...or in this case, emotional Cybermen, with intimate knowledge of Cyberman locations and plans, and no reason whatsoever to sympathize with their erstwhile comrades. Interesting idea.

[Iroscato]

4/5 - It went where it need to go in an entertaining way. The Doctor realising he endangers his companions for selfish reasons, primarily. The Doctor deciding to go to his 'death'.

The last bit is in quotes because I suspect BBC wouldn't allow them to really kill the Doctor.

You suspect, do you? You mean, you still aren't sure whether he'll die or not?

The episode itself was very enjoyable, though the solution was rather bollocksy. I mean, defeated by love...now there's some sure signs of villian decay in my opinion.
The funniest part by far was Stormageddon mumbling 'Doctor...' to the stunned reaction of his parents...classic.
I bestow 'pon it a 4.

[Hillary]

Can we please stop with this "Cybermen defeated by the power of love" motif. The Doctor made it clear that it was actually evolutionary instincts "protecting your genes" that caused the malfunction of the conversion unit (which was probably not in the best of shapes anyway).

He explained this and then realised it was kinder to allow Craig to believe "the power of love" stuff. Fine - you didn't like the solution but at least give proper reasons rather than descend to "Obama death panels" style of debating.

And also, isn't the Doctor always going on about how amazing humans are, how they never give up, and always adapt and fight to survive? Well, wouldn't it be nice to just ONCE have a "contaiminated" cyberman not blow up but suddenly "wake up" ?

Actually, the head of Torchwood in Doomsday sort of did that - she turned on the Cybermen "I did my duty for Queen and country". I guess to some extent I guess that slavish devotion to ones Queen and country is not much different to a slavish devotion to a Cyberleader

[DaveJB]

In addition, only one of the Cybermen actually exploded after the emotional inhibitors got shut off in "The Age of Steel" - the first one to lose its inhibitor temporarily regained its original personality until the Doctor euthanized it, most of the other ones just started screaming and eventually keeled over and died (probably from shock), and Lumic/the Cyber Leader didn't actually seem to be affected at all by regaining his emotions.

[Parallax]

I always found the inclusion of the Seal of Rassilon in that story to be interesting.
Was that ever explained?

[Big Orange]

And the theme carrying on since the 10th Doctor is how the Doctor could be seen as some kind of intergalatic god of death and war, but is also described by an ignorant Earth companion how wonderful he is in saving the day.

I know I keep harping on about this, but just lately we saw the Silence blow up the universe and the Doctor save the universe at the apparent cost of his own life. How people can twist that into 'Silence = Good Guys fighting evil Doctor Monster" is beyond me. Granted the Doctor is no saint, but I don't have enough fingers on my hands to tick off the number of times he has categorically saved Earth, the universe and the day in general.

I actually agree with you on that - while Craig Owens and Wilf seem naive in praising the marvellousness of the Doctor when they're never around when he's at his darkest, the Doctor is not occasionally brutal for nothing when without his drastic actions humanity would've gotten enslaved/mind-raped/eaten/blown up a hundred times over in the last half decade alone (also the Daleks, the Gelth, the Saturnyne, Lord President Rassilon, Satan and the Racnoss pretty much brought it upon themselves anyway). The Doctor sometimes coming across as almost schizophrenic I largely attribute to MTV and the 45 minute episode formula.

I gave this episode a 4, but as with "Let's Kill Hitler" on second thoughts I'd give a 3. I hoped that was the last we've seen of James Cordon and his character could've gone out in the same that the leader of Torchwood One did; a more bittersweet ending. I don't think the Cyberman vessel was from millions of years ago with Adric's fossilised remains somewhere onboard, but likely crashed into the ground sometime in the Roman or Medieval eras when the shopping district was relatively remote fields and the locals thought the alien ship crash landing was a strange meteorite: strains credibility a lot less than the Cyber King stomping 1800s London.

At least the River Song story arc makes more sense now, after audibly creaking in "Let's Kill Hitler", but while I'm not on the anti-River Song bandwagon I've got the opinion the male companions in recent years (Mickey, Rory, Jack, and Wilf) have been on average better and more relatable than the female companions.

[Revy]

Has anyone seen the preview clips on the bbc website? Pretty interesting.
Spoiler

First one has the Doctor dragged before Winston Churchill (after being held in the tower of London) who demands the Doctor explain why all the clocks everywhere no longer work. The second clip shows the Doctor asking the head of that blue merchant guy from Demon's Run about the question. It turns out that the Silence actually want to kill the Doctor to prevent him from asking the question at a certain place, a place where any question posed must be answered. Or something.

[Crazedwraith]

Finally saw this episode. Very good. At least the initial bits with Craig and the Doctor. the end was slightly cheap and River's end scene tying into the next episode was just blah. But overall very fun and enjoyable.

[Iroscato]

Has anyone seen the preview clips on the bbc website? Pretty interesting.
Spoiler

First one has the Doctor dragged before Winston Churchill (after being held in the tower of London) who demands the Doctor explain why all the clocks everywhere no longer work. The second clip shows the Doctor asking the head of that blue merchant guy from Demon's Run about the question. It turns out that the Silence actually want to kill the Doctor to prevent him from asking the question at a certain place, a place where any question posed must be answered. Or something.

Now that sounds interesting... and I'm glad that in some form, Spoiler

Dorium (the blue guy) survived, I liked him.

[Scottish Ninja]

Can we please stop with this "Cybermen defeated by the power of love" motif. The Doctor made it clear that it was actually evolutionary instincts "protecting your genes" that caused the malfunction of the conversion unit (which was probably not in the best of shapes anyway).

He explained this and then realised it was kinder to allow Craig to believe "the power of love" stuff. Fine - you didn't like the solution but at least give proper reasons rather than descend to "Obama death panels" style of debating.

No, he said that it was "evolutionary instincts 'protecting your genes'" and then realized that that's exactly what love is.

[Molyneux]

Has anyone seen the preview clips on the bbc website? Pretty interesting.
Spoiler

First one has the Doctor dragged before Winston Churchill (after being held in the tower of London) who demands the Doctor explain why all the clocks everywhere no longer work. The second clip shows the Doctor asking the head of that blue merchant guy from Demon's Run about the question. It turns out that the Silence actually want to kill the Doctor to prevent him from asking the question at a certain place, a place where any question posed must be answered. Or something.

Now that sounds interesting... and I'm glad that in some form, Spoiler

Dorium (the blue guy) survived, I liked him.

...for a given value of the term, anyway. But yes, I quite like him too.