Rate and Discuss: The Lodger

[Alex]

As there's not a thread up so far, I better do one again. Apologies in advance for the poor poll options, it deleted my original ones.

[SiHart]

Oops! Sorry, forgot to start the thread today. thanks Alex.

Well that was... OK. Fun, but nothing very special. Lots of little moments I liked but overall it left me with a so what kind of feeling.

Si xx

[Alex]

Hmmm. An odd one this. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't good either. I expected to be annoyed by James Corden but he wasn't too bad at all, and managed to turn in a quite sympathetic performance.

The big problem was that it was so slow and boring (imo) with not much going on for long periods of time. And then the big threat turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, with humans and love once again saving the day when the Doctor failed to.

I wanted to like it, I did, and Matt was once again excellent in it, but I can only give it a series low of 5/10, as halfway through I was pretty bored and that didn't change even during the denouement.

I have to say I'm having a bit of an odd reaction to Who this year - I'm loving Matt, really liking Amy most of the time (she's certainly my favourite companion since Rose) but too many of the stories are a bit nothingy, there's only been 4 that I've really loved. I'm just hoping the two part finale redeems it, and Moffat's a bit more adventurous next year.

[duncan]

I have been disappointed with the whole series so far with the exception of Amy's Choice...and this one. Low budget, but I liked the sense of fun, the lack of Amy Pond and the Doctor's weirdness as well as wanting to find out what was going on in the upstairs flat.

It was fun and James Cordon played his role quite well I thought.

[Paul Clement]

Best one of the season so far for me. More on why later.

[Jonno]

I dunno, I put Doctor Who on to avoid all the football on TV at the moment, and the Doctor's only playing football!!

I really enjoyed this - a bit of light fun before what looks to be a dramatic, epic finale. Matt Smith really pulled off the "trying to be a human" for me - subtly different from Human Nature because there the Doctor really was human!

I rather liked the idea of the ship working its way through the whole population of Earth. Oh, and what a great way for the Doctor to share thoughts with a human - never mind the snogging, just headbut them!

And wasn't Smith's hair wonderful when he'd come out of the shower!

[SiHart]

And wasn't Smith's hair wonderful when he'd come out of the shower!

It was! But what did you think of his chest?

Si xx

[Jonno]

It was! But what did you think of his chest?

Si xx

I will confess to a bit of a man-crush!

[Philipnet]

The Amy/Karen-lite episode.

The Doctor made Craig drink water (through the spout of the tea pot).
Check it out!
The least the special effects people could do was to colour the water


Or were they making a point !

[Wayne]

5/10

Not brilliant, but it wasn't as bad as i feared.
Some good ideas but once again thrown away by a poor standard of writing. I really think the writing has let down several episodes of this season. (Especially after the usually good Mark Gatiss' massively disappointing episode.) I wish we could have more from people like Robert Shearman and Paul Cornell, rather than the likes of Chibnall and Roberts.
Matt Smith made the episode though. I thought he was really great in this one, (as he has been in all of them) and that in itself made the episode more far watchable than last week, where i was completely bored.
Oh and Corden was rubbish.

[Rob McCow]

Liked the neo-TARDIS, liked the jokes, loved Matt Smith, the celebrity guest actor was OK in their romantic role but James Corden wasn't as good as her (hahah.)

A very enjoyable episode, but I liked it better when it was only the Doctor, Amy and the people who had been lured into the flat who were under threat.

If Mark Gattis had written this it would have been astounding. Perhaps he should have swapped the Dalek episode with GRoberts?

[Andrew Curnow]

A good bit of fun, I really enjoyed it. Agree with all the comments about Smith, there's something just so watchable about him - he played it just right, not making the Doctor appear intentionally stupid, but making the naivete quite convincing (love the air kiss 'gag' in particular).

The fanboy in me was delighted to see the Doctor a whizz in the kitchen a la Vampire Science, and stone me when they opened the upstairs door and we saw that lovely control room I thought for a minute that Paul McGann was about to pop up!!

I'm not a big Corden fan, but he was very good in this, I very quickly forgot he was a bit of 'guest star casting' and just enjoyed the character.

Very neatly scheduled as a bit of lightness just before the (presumably) epic two-part finale - the trailer for which was very intriguing, despite being largely clips we'd already seen.

[duncan]

stone me when they opened the upstairs door and we saw that lovely control room I thought for a minute that Paul McGann was about to pop up!!

I thought that too especially as we have been treated to so many glimpses of the Doctor's past incarnations.

[Andrew Curnow]

Perhaps he's inside the Pandorica?

[Larry]

we seem to get one of these light hearted episodes in every series and this was another enjoyable and fun episodes and the Doctor's bric a brack invention was a nice little nod to the Pertwee eara.

[duncan]

yes and the way he sat there with all the wires around his neck really reminded me of Tom Baker

[SiHart]

I was reminded of Peter Davison when he flashed up on the screen. Honestly you wait years for a flashback to the past Doctors and this year they're coming thick and fast!

Si xx

[Larry]

head butting some one is certainly an original way to get them to share your memories..

[chalkie]

I was reminded of Peter Davison when he flashed up on the screen. Honestly you wait years for a flashback to the past Doctors and this year they're coming thick and fast!

Si xx

particulary "the black orchid" ( i think that's what the OS ep was called) as in where a doctor shows genuine skills in an earth sport) getting brought in as a replacement for a missing player , outclassing every-other player on the pitch. i remember davidson being pleased with the camera capturing his bowling someone out
. slight retcon where it turns out the doctor can in fact cook...was corden BSing a bit when he said smith won junior masterchef?
so, a pilotless tardis? hmmmm, foreshadowing anyone, who could it have *belonged to* were tardii used by any other race? if not then who could have left it behind?...

[Rob McCow]

I'm going to try the headbutt-mind-transfer technique at work to explain things to my colleagues. I'll let you know how I get on.

[Stuart Wallis]

I'm going to try the headbutt-mind-transfer technique at work to explain things to my colleagues. I'll let you know how I get on.

Via your one allowed phonecall and your solicitor...

Another Gareth Roberts episode then? Probably why it felt so average, frothy and high on attempts at humour, low on humour that actually hit the mark. I did think "Corden + football = a %&*! episode", can't stand either. There wasn't that much football, and Corden wasn't his normally obnoxious self. Craig was decently enough acted, though I could see Sophie's charms were more obvious than his. The scene where the Doctor persuades her to follow her dream was charming, and Matt was spot on, misunderstanding the use of the air kissing. They were the best things in the episode though. It felt as though they were trying, but the constraints of the budget and a better writer...

5/10

[Perry Vale]

Just to add, I loved the Thunderbirds line!

[Si Hunt]

I felt a bit underwealmed, even though it wasn't awful. Good things - Matt Smith gave one of his best performances as the Doctor, particuarly in the first few scenes. For once you couldn't imagine Tennant saying his lines, and he truly made the part his own. There was good mileage in all the ideas here: the Doctor adjusting to normal life, being odd at the football match, the makeshift console, the reveal of the "other" TARDIS was spectacular and reminded me of the reveal of the Rani's TARDIS in "Mark of the Rani". The man at the top of the stairs was very sinister, and it reminded me of the 'photographs' episode of "Sapphire and Steel".

Bad things... it also reminded me of "Fear Her" in that it seemed like an episode at least partly designed to be scary, but which wasn't because it was all a bit too daylighty. Modern Doctor Who seems to have forgotton some of the basic tricks of using tension, shadows and, well, spookiness to make a good idea truly chilling. Maybe it's that nothing ever really stays still or quiet long enough to make you spooked? Without that fear factor it was largely a story about the Doctor living in a house with a fat bloke and, as others have remarked, that made it not the most exciting episode of the Show That Can Explore All Of Time and Space. James Cordon wasn't awful, he was just... not very special. He didn't really show he could act, not exhibit star quality and I'm afraid I found the relationship between him and the girl very unbelievable, as they shared no chemistry at all. As far as unrequited love stories go, this was almightily basic stuff. Finally, I didn't like the headbutting. There's something nasty and absolutely horrible about headbutting - when people do it in real life it can be really, really unpleasant, and I didn't really get why it was a clever method of the Doctor sharing information. How does that work?! Why did James Cordon know all about the TARDIS and space travel just because the Doctor headbutted him?! It was moronic. And, as someone where I watched it pointed out, surely there is a very real danger of kids copying it?!

So not a BAD bad episode, just a usual Episode 11 really; very cheap, some good comedy and not a bad plot, but a long, long way from the highs of Roberts' "Unicorn and the Wasp" or even some of his Sarah Jane output and, maybe in time, a bit of a Who clunker as well. I gave it 7/10.

Si.

[Awesome Wells]

Ironically, despite my dislike of Corden, I really rather enjoyed that. Even JC - hang on! - was fairly alright. He's not a brilliant actor, but he's far better acting than he is being himself. But hey, aren't we all like that, sometimes?

Matt Smith, when will you stop surpassing yourself? Lady who played Sophie, who are you? You were brilliant! It all felt a bit rushed, but only because I loved the idea of the Doctor living in a house and doing ordinary things, but in an extraordinary way. When he said "three days", it didn't feel like that long. Minor complaint, really.

Against all odds, a minor triumph. I was going to say it was worthy of a seven, but actually, I'm going to give it eight goals out of 6,000,000,000, 426.

[Awesome Wells]

But enough of the flashbacks, please. Just because William Hartnell is, alas, dead, and cannot demand a fee for the use of his likeness, is no reason to keep showing us him.

However, I DID like the Doctor humming the same piece of opera - don't ask me what it's called, I haven't a clue - as he did forty years ago, at the beginning of Inferno. And in the shower as well. We now just need a giant spider, a dinosaur, and something Pelandonic and we've had the whole Pertwee era referenced in just thirteen weeks.

Is that good or bad? You decide.