Season Six of Doctor Who is officially over. The finale “The Wedding of River Song” aired Saturday night and a decent chunk of our questions have been answered. But, we’re not going to be talking about that today. We’re going to backtrack to the penultimate episode “Closing Time.”
Craig (James Corden) from Season Five’s “The Lodger” returns, now the proud father of Alfie or, as he prefers to be called (according to the Doctor’s ability to speak baby), “Stormageddon: Dark Lord of All.” The episode revolves around the Doctor and Craig stopping a mysterious force killing employees of a high end department store. It turns out the Cybermen (a freaky species homicidal robot saved from the old seasons that try to upgrade humans into equally scary sociopathic machines) are behind the disappearances.
Since the episode revolves around Craig feeling like an inferior caregiver (Alfie referring to him as “not mum”) the episode talks a lot about the father-son relationship. The best scene is when Craig is actually turned into a Cyberman only to emerge from his robotic body unharmed because hearing his young son crying brought him back. To the Doctor calling out “Daddy’s coming home!”
Not that these heart-warming endings aren’t nice in a science fiction show. They are! In the strange body of a show about a time traveling alien, some humanity is necessary. I think Moffat brings the humanity out of his characters in the best way most of the time. Unfortunately, he’s also created a bit of a soap opera out of the show and I’m not amused by it.