Doctor Who - Episode 5.11 - The Lodger - Review

Hello, I’m Josh aka PenguinJosh on the STV forums. Follow me at www.twitter.com/JoshuaAJBower

Join the discussion of this episode on the forum here.

This is my (slightly late) review of the eleventh episode of the fifth season of Doctor Who entitled The Lodger.

“Doctor, it says we’re on Earth”

People who read my last review will be aware that I complained last time that we had spent too much time of Earth and would like to see some alien planets. Once again, I was disappointed to see that we were, again, located on Earth. However, that’s not to say that it was not a good episode. I for one greatly enjoyed this Doctor Who offering. The episode had great doses of comedy, with a sinister twist with the ‘man upstairs’ and even some TARDIS trouble. The Vincent Van Gogh picture on Craig’s fridge was a nice flashback to last week’s episode, also.

Click below to read the entire review.

[Holding up a screwdriver] “Where’s the On switch for this?”

As exemplified by the title of this post, this episode gave us huge scooping of humour with lines from both Craig and the Doctor. Despite some complaints about not much happening (along with a relatively anti-climatic ending – see later) in this episode I’ve read from some people, one cannot deny this episode was entertaining. Seeing the Doctor try to live a normal life was highly amusing; from owning a room, to playing football in the pub league, to working in an office (which also brought us the hilarious line “Can you hold, I have to eat a biscuit”. The Doctor’s attempts to fit in and not be noticed by the person above, however, in retrospect may seem a bit pointless as it was only a hologram machine above, yet one could argue that by not ‘sonicing’ the system did not recognise the Doctor as a potential pilot until the end of the episode.

“I’m going to regret this”

We learn this episode that specific knowledge transference can occur by head-butting somebody. Yet again we saw images of the prior Doctor’s, most likely influenced by Moffat’s love of the original series. What’s more, we also see how everyday objects (such as a scooter and oar) can act as counterparts for the Doctor’s wacky contraptions. What can’t the Doctor do?

“Anything that can stop the TARDIS from landing is big, scary big”

Despite being a show about time travel (though obviously not it’s only aspect), this season we have not seen much in the way of ‘time meddling’ besides going into the past and future. However, this was touched on with the note Amy had not yet written for the Doctor highlighting which advert was Craig’s. This episode also treated us to ‘localised time loops’ and ‘time distortions’ in the form of twisting clock hands and looping conversations. The reason for the TARDIS being unable to land was explained by the goings-on in the non-existent top floor of the house. The line “someone is trying to build a TARDIS” was seemingly casually thrown out by the Doctor, without much of a follow up. We do not see how was building this new TARDIS, or what happened to it after it disappeared. Considering how big an issue this should be, the Doctor did not mention it again which seems very strange. I can only hope that this will be reissued in the next two episodes, or if not then next season. A plausible theory could be the Daleks, as the pad on the faux-TARDIS deck seemed suitable for a Dalek ‘sucker’... however this would not explain why the ship would use humans for a hologram.

Did you hear that?

A few weeks back, I noticed a specific noise was used and had been throughout the season. In ‘Vampires of Venice’ it was heard as the Doctor popped out of the cake at Rory’s stag party and the music stopped. Again it was heard in ‘Amy’s Choice’ when they overlook the ice star. In this episode, the noise was heard a little after 24 minutes when the 3 are chatting and the Doctor is fiddling with the electrics. What is the relevance of this noise? I personally have no idea, but I expect it may become apparent in the finale. Share your ideas about the noise in the thread on the STV forums here. I look forward to hearing your theories.

“There’s a crack in my wall”

Once again we see the crack in the wall behind the fridge where two moments in time should not meet. Some have theorised that these are due to the presence of the Doctor... some have argued that it is due to the presence of Amy Pond. However, the latter does not seem valid as Amy was in the TARDIS during this episode and did not step into Craig’s flat. However, when Amy gazed upon the ring in the TARDIS it appeared to widen, though this could have been for effect. I think it’s fair to say that Amy will probably remember and we may see Rory again by the end of the second part of the finale. How will it all go down? I can’t wait to find out. It’s set to be an incredible two-part finale.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE END-OF-EPISODE PROMO FOR NEXT WEEK’S EPISODE (5x12).

I WILL BE THEORISING ABOUT EVENTS SEEN IN THE PROMO SO DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE SPOILED.

What a great promo... let’s hope it can live up to expectations. The last time a promo really got me excited for an episode like this was ‘Amy’s Choice’ which I could instantly tell would be amazing (and it did not disappoint!). As the next two episodes are the finale, however, I think we should be able to expect great things. In the promo we got flashes of Stonehenge, a field of tents, a cave entrance and a giant stone box. This box is a ‘Pandorica’ (which presumably lies beneath Stonehenge) which we hear is ‘more than a fairytale’. This appears to open at the end of the promo as the light seems to come from within. So what is this Pandorica? From the fact that River Song was listing off all of the enemies of the Doctor and we see many, many different spaceships all heading to Earth (including the Cybermen, who’s face and coils we see wrapping around Amy’s arms) it makes me think that it could possibly be a source of ‘evil’, or the darker side of the Doctor (as seen in ‘Amy’s Choice’), his darker subconscious contained within this box. That’s just my theory anyway. Come share your ideas on what you think about next week’s episode and all things Doctor Who related on the forums here.

All in all, I thought this week’s episode ‘The Lodger’ was great fun and a rather good episode in general. Thank you for reading, and please share your thoughts and ideas about this episode in the comments section.

~ Joshua