What aunt_zelda Thinks: The Lodger
Jan. 1st, 2011 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aunt_zelda The Lodger:
The TARDIS vworps into a normal-looking park. Eleven gets out and is confuzzled, seeing as they should be on the fifth moon of Sida Callista.
The TARDIS vworps away without him, with a confuzzled Amy inside, who’s reading the scanner that says they’re in Essex. Why doesn’t the Doctor ever visit America? Or Canada? Or Spain or India or Australia or China or Argentina or Madagascar or Egypt? Why is it ALWAYS the U.K.?! I mean I know why it’s always the U.K., because that’s where they film, but American shows are overwhelmingly filmed in L.A. and not all of those take place in L.A. Look at Heroes! In Season 1 they were a global show, going to great lengths to portray other places in the country and other countries. Doctor Who has the budget, the time, and the fanbase to do something like that, but they don’t. I am getting SICK of the U.K., and I’m an Anglophile!
Anyhoodle, Amy and Eleven are separated. Rut-row!
One day later, Something Creepy Happens. (Wow, Moffat, premature Nightmare Fuel ejaculation much?) A kid is lured in off the street by a buzzer on the door pleading for help. Kid goes in, sees a shadowy figure of a man at the top of the stairs under a flickering light, and follows him into his room. The door creaks shut. Of course it does.
Downstairs a perky blonde visits with her chubby guy-friend. She inquires about the Mysterious Stain on the ceiling that’s coming from upstairs. The Stain spreads when they’re not looking. Some suspicious (and creepy!) noises follow as Perky Blonde asks “What is he doing up there?”
They chat about Chubby Guy putting out an ad for a lodger. She says “That’s your mission in life, Craig: find me a man!” He jokes in a way that portrays he really wants it to be so “Yeah, otherwise you’ll have to settle for me.” She half-jokes “You’ll have to settle for me first!” in a way that suggests she likes him but doesn’t know that he likes her like that. Blonde gets a call from a friend and gets called away, she and Craig do the awkward ‘do you mind if I leave / no that’s ok’ dance and Sophie leaves. After she closes the door she makes a Regretful Face! Aha, so the feelings are mutual!
Alone, Craig stares at the picture of him and Sophie on his fridge (next to an add for the van Gogh exhibit, nice! … *sniffles* MY SOUL!!!!!!) and says to himself that he should tell her he loves her. He practices it and bangs his head against the fridge. Auuuuuuw, poor Craig! He hears his buzzer and, seeing that Sophie left her keys, thinks it’s her. He rushes, out, repeating “I love you!” to himself, finally blurting it out when he opens the door. It’s not Sophie, it’s Eleven. HEE! Eleven looks a little bemused but says “Well, that’s good, because I’m your new lodger!” he takes the keys from a stunned Craig. “This is going to be easier than I expected!” Eleven chirps, grinning.
Credits! They are growing on me after all …
After the credits Eleven babbles and confuzzles and possibly flirts a little with poor Craig ,who snatches the keys back and receives a bag full of money. “Have some rent!” Eleven chirps, asking “That's probably quite a lot, isn't it? Looks like a lot. Is it a lot? I can never tell.” Then he shoves his way into the hallway. Eleven seems to be going a bit … crazy? No, he just babbles A LOT and seems very out of touch with reality at the moment. He’s also wearing what looks like a steampunky earpiece. He air-kisses Craig and asks “That’s how we greet each other nowadays, isn’t it?” Hee? Then Eleven introduces himself thus: “I’m the Doctor. Well, they call me the Doctor, I don't know why. I call me the Doctor too. Still don't know why.” He inquires about the upstairs guy, and there’s another Creepy Crashing Noise. Eleven inspects the stain on the ceiling. He keeps babbling and sits on the table. Craig finally gets a word in and shows him to his room. Eleven flashes the psychic paper as “references” which Craig apparently sees as “Is that a reference from the Archbishop of Canterbury?!” Then Eleven makes an omlette, messily, while inquiring about Sophie. “Girlfriend?” he asks. “Friend … who’s a girl,” Craig blushes “There’s nothing going on.” Eleven, probably thinking of his Companions, says “Ah, that's completely normal. Works for me!” Or maybe he’s thinking of Craig saying “I love you!” earlier, who knows? Craig gets to babble a bit before asking “Why am I telling you this? I don't even know you!” And Eleven responds “I've got one of those faces. People never stop blurting out their plans while I'm around.” *sporfles* Indeed! Craig asks where his stuff is, and Eleven says “Don't worry, it'll materialise, if all goes to plan …” Craig looks perplexed but doesn’t comment.
Amy runs around the console of the panicking TARDIS, asking why she won’t land.
Apparently Eleven is a great cook. He says he learned to cook in the … 18th Century? 17th? He’s confuzzled. Craig asks “Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit weird?” Eleven says “They never really stop.” They talk about Paris and travel and Craig says he’s not much for travel, and Eleven says he can tell from Craig’s sofa. “My sofa?” “You’re starting to look like it.” Craig snorts “Thanks, mate!” *sporfles* He says he’d miss … “Those keys?” Eleven asks. Craig gets flustered at being accused of “fondling” the keys and jumps up to give Eleven his roommate keys. Eleven is excited “I can stay?!” Craig says “Yeah, you're weird and you can cook, it's good enough for me.” Awwww! He then tells him that if Eleven wants to bring someone around “a girlfriend or … a boyfriend?” all Eleven has to do is “shout” and Craig’ll be “out of his hair.” Hee! Eleven getting confuzzled over this is so cute. Eleven weirds poor Craig out some more, cautions him against touching the stain on the ceiling, and goes off to his room. There he uses the earpiece to contact Amy via the TARDIS. Sweet! The TARDIS is wigging out, apparently “She's locked in a materialisation loop, trying to land again, but she can’t.” This is because whatever’s on the second floor is stopping the TARDIS from landing. Amy tells him to go sort it out, right now please! During this Craig is on the phone with Sophie, who becomes convinced that Eleven is a drug-dealer, what with all the cash and the “doctor” nickname. Also, the Creepy Thing Upstairs lures in a … woman who’s been date raped?! (Ok, ok, maybe I’m overreacting here, but it’s an attractive woman who’s staggering at night and has smudged makeup and her clothing is disheveled and I think she was crying.) Eleven doesn’t know what’s upstairs yet, but to stop the TARDIS from landing it “must be big. Scary big.” Amy asks if he’s scared. He skirts around that and Craig listens into a conversation that’s complete gibberish to him. Eleven says he’s gonna have to pass as human for a few days and Amy snarks. The bowtie comes up again. Then the clocks start spinning. Eleven says it’s a “localized time loop” (OH GOD, NO! EVERY SCI-FI FANS’ WORST NIGHTMARE! BESIDES THE MADE-FOR-TV DOCTOR WHO MOVIE THAT IS!) Upstairs the woman screams, the clocks spin, and the TARDIS goes crazier for a while. Then it all stops (well, the TARDIS is still sounding sickly, but besides that everything’s calmed down somewhat.) He gets her to shift the TARDIS into third-gear or something by taking two steps to the right. (LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!!!!) He says “Now, I must not use the sonic. I've got work to do, need to pick up a few items!” he goes off and picks up a shopping card full of stuff and shushes a cat. Hee. The next day Eleven is in the shower, singing loudly while Craig antsily waits for the bathroom. HEE! (I could have typed anything after ‘The next day Eleven is in the show’ couldn’t I? Secrets of the universe, my PIN number … anything. You wouldn’t have noticed.) Another loud crash from upstairs is heard, and Craig goes up to see if the guy is hurt. Eleven figures out what’s up too late, and falls out of the shower (he was wearing his earpiece in the shower … that can’t be safe) and scrambles for his sonic screwdriver (which he’s put next to the toothbrushes, tee hee!) and runs out to save Craig, barely keeping a towel around his waist, to the delight of many a fangirl and fanboy. Craig gets to talk to the Man Upstairs (or at least s tiny sliver of him, the door is pretty shut) who tells him that he doesn’t need help and shuts the door. Craig comes downstairs in time for Eleven, hair like a wild raccoon and clutching an electric toothbrush, storm into the hallway to save him. Craig sort of snorts and says the guy upstairs looked “more normal” than Eleven does now, but thanks him and says if Craig’s ever really in trouble “you can come and save me with my toothbrush.” HEE!
Sophie shows up and is instantly attracted to the Doctor, as all Earth girls (except for Donna! Awesome Donna!) are. Awkward and hilarious banter between the three commences. Eleven promises to play football with Craig’s team today because that’s what blokes do, right? Craig bumbles in the conversation and Eleven notes that Sophie has two sets of keys to someone else’s house, and that “You must like it here too!” Craig and Sophie make awkward faces at each other. Auuuuuuw!
Amy confirms to the Doctor that yes, football is normal. “Football’s the one with the sticks, right?” Eleven asks. HEE! HEE HEE!
The three walk to the football game. Craig tries to beg a name from Eleven that isn’t “the Doctor.” Why he doesn’t give “John Smith” or any other regular name I really don’t know. He continues the ‘greeting people by air-kissing’ thing, even though he just saw Craig greet his friend with the man-hand-grasp. Eleven continues to come off as Anya from the fourth season of Buffy towards everyone. “Are you any good?” one of Craig’s teammates asks. “I dunno, let’s find out!” Eleven says, running onto the field.
Eleven is quite good at soccer. (I’m such an American, when they said “football” the first two times in this episode I thought they meant “Americna football,” with the pads and the touchdowns and Charlie Brown and stuff. I much prefer English football, it’s so much FUN!) He even scores! Cool! Not so cool for poor Craig, who catches Sophie cheering on Eleven. Worse, Eleven steals a goal-kick from Craig and promptly gets gleefully tackled by the team in triumph. Cheesily, the crowd starts chanting “Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!” Poor Craig.
Then Something Creepy Happens. Now the shape is a little girl, complete with pigtails and a doll. It lures in a not-really-old-but-older-than-middle-aged woman upstairs.
At the park, the team congratulates Eleven and says that he’s totally on the team. The Captain says that with him the’ll “annihilate” the others and Eleven babbles quickly “No violence, not while I'm around, not today, not ever. I'm the Doctor, the oncoming storm... and you meant beat them in a football match, didn't you?” Captain says “… yeah.” HEE! HEE HEE! Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Time Loop! It coincides with the flickering light upstairs. Older-Than-Middle-Aged Woman screams. Eleven contacts Amy: the scanner is all 9s. He gets her to shift gears again and now it’s all 5s. He makes the mistake of saying “I thought the TARDIS had been flung off into the vortex with you inside it, lost forever.” Amy yelps “You mean that could actually happen!? You have to get me out of here!” He says “Still, it means the effect's almost unbelievably powerful and dangerous, but don't worry, hang on, ok?” and blips out. I’m guessing she didn’t hear him singing, otherwise he’d never hear the end of it.
Craig tells Eleven that Sophie’s coming over tonight and asks for some “space.” Eleven promises. Sophie comes over and Craig tries to work up the nerve to tell her how he feels, but then Eleven pops his head over the couch. He’s reconnecting the wires. Craig tries to get him to leave but Sophie says she doesn’t mind and Craig is forced to admit that he doesn’t mind either.
Sophie chats with the Doctor while he fiddles with wires. He gets her to admit her dream, and gets her mad enough to admit that she really wants it, she doesn’t have to stay in a call center all her life. Awwwww! Poor Craig doesn’t get the exchange that just happened. Eleven says “It's a big old world, Sophie. Work out what's really keeping you here, eh?” Sophie says she doesn’t know. OUCH. *huggles poor Craig*
In the hallway, Craig and Sophie bid goodbye, huggle, and Sophie leaves wit the Regretful Look on her face.
In his room, Eleven has constructed … something that must be seen to be believe. It’s mostly umbrella with some Christmas lights and brooms sticking out of it and it SPINS.
Craig touches the rot. It burns him.
Next day Eleven brings him breakfast in bed (awwwwwww! Can I have one, please?!) and finds that Craig is sick and probably dying. His veins are weird. He punches Craig’s chest and mixes something horrid in the teapot to reverse enzymes or something. Craig’s got an important meeting, but Eleven shushes him and tells him to rest. Craig wakes up at … 14:45 (whaaaaa? What kinda weird clock is that?) and freaks out, rushing out of bed and putting on his suit and fleeing, passing a cat in the hallway.
Eleven is in the office, charming everyone, like the boss and Sophie. Poor Craig. He’s so confuzzled and upset that he tells Sophie “yeah … go for it …” when she tells him that she “went on the web, applied for a wildlife charity thing. They said I could always start as a volunteer straight away. Should I do it?” She looks wounded at his disinterest.
Craig breaks into Eleven’s room and gapes at the contraption.
Eleven talks to the cat. It’s the most normal thing he does all episode.
Craig confronts Eleven. He’s very upset. “Everybody loves you, you're better at football than me, and my job, and now Sophie's all "Oh, monkeys, monkeys!" and then... *points at the contraption* there's that!” Eleven is bewildered at the anger. He tries to pass off the contraption as “It's art! A statement on modern society, ‘Ooh, ain't modern society awful?’” HEE! HEE HEE HEE! They fight, Craig getting more and more frustrated, until finally Eleven headbutts information into him. I’m serious. He headbutts Craig and Craig sees a montage of all his incarnations. He babbles “You’re a …! From …! You’re got a TARDIS!” Eleven shushes him and headbutts him again, this time with “specific detail.” You know, I’d have preferred this method of information-transport a long, long, LONG time before now. Eleven found the card with the ad in a window, with a note from Amy on it. Aha! Craig yelps “That's a scanner! You used non-technological technology of Lammasteen!” Eleven claps a hand over Craig’s mouth and tells him to shut up. Prime Companion material, this one!
Sophie arrives and gets lured upstairs by the Girl Shape.
Eleven groans and holds his face and says he’s never doing THAT again. Awwww, but it was so awesome! He contacts Amy, who hasn’t found the plans yet. Craig is still trying to process this, with mild success. We know what’s going on now: “I know he's got a time engine in the flat upstairs. He's using innocent people to try and launch it. Whenever he does, they get burnt up, hence the stain!” Eeeeeeew …
Another time loop happens. Yipes! The TARDIS freaks out some more.
They run upstairs and realize, seeing the keys, that it’s Sophie upstairs. Amy tells them that they can’t be upstairs “I've got the plans, you cannot be upstairs, it's a one-storey building!” Yipes! They enter the apartment. It’s a large bunch of CGI, apparently “someone’s attempt to build a TARDIS.” They save Sophie from this electric magnet thingie. The Shape appears. Eleven says “Hello, I'm Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue. Please state the nature of your emergency.” Shape says “The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required.” Creeeepy. Eleven figures out “You're the emergency crash program. A hologram. You've been luring people up here so you can try them out.” *shudders* Human brains aren’t strong enough. “17 people have been tried. 6,000,400,026 remain.” Hologram says. Sophie is having trouble processing all of this. The Hologram says “The correct pilot has now been found,” and Eleven starts getting dragged towards the glowing panel of DOOOOOM. Amy asks if he can safely fly the ship and Eleven says no, “I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does.” YIPES! Eleven asks why the Hologram didn’t want Craig, and didn’t want Sophie until today, then he figures out it’s because he “gave her the idea of leaving! It's a machine that needs to leave, it wants people who want to escape! And you don't want to leave, Craig, you're Mr. Sofa Man!” (Worst. Superhero name. EVER. “SOFA MAN! He will make you comfortable!”) He tells him that he can shut down the engine by putting his hand on the panel and concentrating on why he wants to stay here. Sophie’s grasped enough to yelp “No!” Craig asks if it’s safe and if it’ll work and if the Doctor’s lying, to which the Doctor replies “yes” and Craig says “It's good enough for me. Geronimo!” and punches the panel. It works. Eleven asks him why he wants to stay and finally Craig admits “Sophie! I love Sophie!” Sophie yelps “I love you, too, Craig, you idiot!!” and slams her hand onto the panel. They make romantic talk and Amy makes a ‘ugh!’ face and noise and I giggle. Eleven yells “For God's sake, kiss the girl!” Amy echoes this. They do. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! (I just know that Diamanda Hagan’s gonna have something to say about a spaceship DE-POWERED with the Power of Love.)
The TARDIS console stablilizes. Then the Upstairs Ship implodes. The three escape onto the street, the upstairs flickers, shows a large spaceship thingy, and then even that vanishes.
Then we get a cute scene between Craig and Sophie:
Craig: So have we spoiled our friendship, then?
Sophie: Totally ruined it.
Craig:And what about the monkeys? We could save them together, you know. Do whatever we want. I could see the point of Paris if you were there with me.
Sophie: First let's destroy our friendship completely!
Auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuw! There’s lots of making out too. It’s adorable. Reminds me a bit of me and my boyperson.
Eleven tries to sneak off, but Craig and Sophie don’t let him without saying goodbye. Craig tells him to keep the keys, not because he thinks the Doctor will come back, just because. Awwwww!
We see the letters on the fridge read “the Doctor rocks” and there’s a picture of him on the soccer team. Then we pan behind the trashcan and see THE CRACK IN SPACE/TIME!!!
On the TARDIS Eleven sets to work keeping the time loop stable by having Amy write the note. She comments about Craig/Sophie “Right little matchmaker, aren't you? Can't you find me a fella?” *cringes* He runs off and tells her to find a red pen. She rifles in his jacket … and finds Rory’s engagement ring for her. Creepy plinky music (you know the kind … like from an eeeeeevil music box) plays as her eyes go wide and she sees the Space/Time crack grow and flash white light. RUT-ROW!!!
Next episode!
Part 1 of the Two-Part Season Finale! The crack in space/time! A bit of the TARDIS came through it! “The Pandorica will open and silence will fall.” Ulp. Um … Roman Empire Britain? Yay, River Song! “There was a goblin … or a trickster … or a warrior … soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies … the most feared being in the cosmos.” All of his enemies’ ships mass in the sky because the box thingy is opening up under Stonehenge!
The TARDIS vworps into a normal-looking park. Eleven gets out and is confuzzled, seeing as they should be on the fifth moon of Sida Callista.
The TARDIS vworps away without him, with a confuzzled Amy inside, who’s reading the scanner that says they’re in Essex. Why doesn’t the Doctor ever visit America? Or Canada? Or Spain or India or Australia or China or Argentina or Madagascar or Egypt? Why is it ALWAYS the U.K.?! I mean I know why it’s always the U.K., because that’s where they film, but American shows are overwhelmingly filmed in L.A. and not all of those take place in L.A. Look at Heroes! In Season 1 they were a global show, going to great lengths to portray other places in the country and other countries. Doctor Who has the budget, the time, and the fanbase to do something like that, but they don’t. I am getting SICK of the U.K., and I’m an Anglophile!
Anyhoodle, Amy and Eleven are separated. Rut-row!
One day later, Something Creepy Happens. (Wow, Moffat, premature Nightmare Fuel ejaculation much?) A kid is lured in off the street by a buzzer on the door pleading for help. Kid goes in, sees a shadowy figure of a man at the top of the stairs under a flickering light, and follows him into his room. The door creaks shut. Of course it does.
Downstairs a perky blonde visits with her chubby guy-friend. She inquires about the Mysterious Stain on the ceiling that’s coming from upstairs. The Stain spreads when they’re not looking. Some suspicious (and creepy!) noises follow as Perky Blonde asks “What is he doing up there?”
They chat about Chubby Guy putting out an ad for a lodger. She says “That’s your mission in life, Craig: find me a man!” He jokes in a way that portrays he really wants it to be so “Yeah, otherwise you’ll have to settle for me.” She half-jokes “You’ll have to settle for me first!” in a way that suggests she likes him but doesn’t know that he likes her like that. Blonde gets a call from a friend and gets called away, she and Craig do the awkward ‘do you mind if I leave / no that’s ok’ dance and Sophie leaves. After she closes the door she makes a Regretful Face! Aha, so the feelings are mutual!
Alone, Craig stares at the picture of him and Sophie on his fridge (next to an add for the van Gogh exhibit, nice! … *sniffles* MY SOUL!!!!!!) and says to himself that he should tell her he loves her. He practices it and bangs his head against the fridge. Auuuuuuw, poor Craig! He hears his buzzer and, seeing that Sophie left her keys, thinks it’s her. He rushes, out, repeating “I love you!” to himself, finally blurting it out when he opens the door. It’s not Sophie, it’s Eleven. HEE! Eleven looks a little bemused but says “Well, that’s good, because I’m your new lodger!” he takes the keys from a stunned Craig. “This is going to be easier than I expected!” Eleven chirps, grinning.
Credits! They are growing on me after all …
After the credits Eleven babbles and confuzzles and possibly flirts a little with poor Craig ,who snatches the keys back and receives a bag full of money. “Have some rent!” Eleven chirps, asking “That's probably quite a lot, isn't it? Looks like a lot. Is it a lot? I can never tell.” Then he shoves his way into the hallway. Eleven seems to be going a bit … crazy? No, he just babbles A LOT and seems very out of touch with reality at the moment. He’s also wearing what looks like a steampunky earpiece. He air-kisses Craig and asks “That’s how we greet each other nowadays, isn’t it?” Hee? Then Eleven introduces himself thus: “I’m the Doctor. Well, they call me the Doctor, I don't know why. I call me the Doctor too. Still don't know why.” He inquires about the upstairs guy, and there’s another Creepy Crashing Noise. Eleven inspects the stain on the ceiling. He keeps babbling and sits on the table. Craig finally gets a word in and shows him to his room. Eleven flashes the psychic paper as “references” which Craig apparently sees as “Is that a reference from the Archbishop of Canterbury?!” Then Eleven makes an omlette, messily, while inquiring about Sophie. “Girlfriend?” he asks. “Friend … who’s a girl,” Craig blushes “There’s nothing going on.” Eleven, probably thinking of his Companions, says “Ah, that's completely normal. Works for me!” Or maybe he’s thinking of Craig saying “I love you!” earlier, who knows? Craig gets to babble a bit before asking “Why am I telling you this? I don't even know you!” And Eleven responds “I've got one of those faces. People never stop blurting out their plans while I'm around.” *sporfles* Indeed! Craig asks where his stuff is, and Eleven says “Don't worry, it'll materialise, if all goes to plan …” Craig looks perplexed but doesn’t comment.
Amy runs around the console of the panicking TARDIS, asking why she won’t land.
Apparently Eleven is a great cook. He says he learned to cook in the … 18th Century? 17th? He’s confuzzled. Craig asks “Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit weird?” Eleven says “They never really stop.” They talk about Paris and travel and Craig says he’s not much for travel, and Eleven says he can tell from Craig’s sofa. “My sofa?” “You’re starting to look like it.” Craig snorts “Thanks, mate!” *sporfles* He says he’d miss … “Those keys?” Eleven asks. Craig gets flustered at being accused of “fondling” the keys and jumps up to give Eleven his roommate keys. Eleven is excited “I can stay?!” Craig says “Yeah, you're weird and you can cook, it's good enough for me.” Awwww! He then tells him that if Eleven wants to bring someone around “a girlfriend or … a boyfriend?” all Eleven has to do is “shout” and Craig’ll be “out of his hair.” Hee! Eleven getting confuzzled over this is so cute. Eleven weirds poor Craig out some more, cautions him against touching the stain on the ceiling, and goes off to his room. There he uses the earpiece to contact Amy via the TARDIS. Sweet! The TARDIS is wigging out, apparently “She's locked in a materialisation loop, trying to land again, but she can’t.” This is because whatever’s on the second floor is stopping the TARDIS from landing. Amy tells him to go sort it out, right now please! During this Craig is on the phone with Sophie, who becomes convinced that Eleven is a drug-dealer, what with all the cash and the “doctor” nickname. Also, the Creepy Thing Upstairs lures in a … woman who’s been date raped?! (Ok, ok, maybe I’m overreacting here, but it’s an attractive woman who’s staggering at night and has smudged makeup and her clothing is disheveled and I think she was crying.) Eleven doesn’t know what’s upstairs yet, but to stop the TARDIS from landing it “must be big. Scary big.” Amy asks if he’s scared. He skirts around that and Craig listens into a conversation that’s complete gibberish to him. Eleven says he’s gonna have to pass as human for a few days and Amy snarks. The bowtie comes up again. Then the clocks start spinning. Eleven says it’s a “localized time loop” (OH GOD, NO! EVERY SCI-FI FANS’ WORST NIGHTMARE! BESIDES THE MADE-FOR-TV DOCTOR WHO MOVIE THAT IS!) Upstairs the woman screams, the clocks spin, and the TARDIS goes crazier for a while. Then it all stops (well, the TARDIS is still sounding sickly, but besides that everything’s calmed down somewhat.) He gets her to shift the TARDIS into third-gear or something by taking two steps to the right. (LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!!!!) He says “Now, I must not use the sonic. I've got work to do, need to pick up a few items!” he goes off and picks up a shopping card full of stuff and shushes a cat. Hee. The next day Eleven is in the shower, singing loudly while Craig antsily waits for the bathroom. HEE! (I could have typed anything after ‘The next day Eleven is in the show’ couldn’t I? Secrets of the universe, my PIN number … anything. You wouldn’t have noticed.) Another loud crash from upstairs is heard, and Craig goes up to see if the guy is hurt. Eleven figures out what’s up too late, and falls out of the shower (he was wearing his earpiece in the shower … that can’t be safe) and scrambles for his sonic screwdriver (which he’s put next to the toothbrushes, tee hee!) and runs out to save Craig, barely keeping a towel around his waist, to the delight of many a fangirl and fanboy. Craig gets to talk to the Man Upstairs (or at least s tiny sliver of him, the door is pretty shut) who tells him that he doesn’t need help and shuts the door. Craig comes downstairs in time for Eleven, hair like a wild raccoon and clutching an electric toothbrush, storm into the hallway to save him. Craig sort of snorts and says the guy upstairs looked “more normal” than Eleven does now, but thanks him and says if Craig’s ever really in trouble “you can come and save me with my toothbrush.” HEE!
Sophie shows up and is instantly attracted to the Doctor, as all Earth girls (except for Donna! Awesome Donna!) are. Awkward and hilarious banter between the three commences. Eleven promises to play football with Craig’s team today because that’s what blokes do, right? Craig bumbles in the conversation and Eleven notes that Sophie has two sets of keys to someone else’s house, and that “You must like it here too!” Craig and Sophie make awkward faces at each other. Auuuuuuw!
Amy confirms to the Doctor that yes, football is normal. “Football’s the one with the sticks, right?” Eleven asks. HEE! HEE HEE!
The three walk to the football game. Craig tries to beg a name from Eleven that isn’t “the Doctor.” Why he doesn’t give “John Smith” or any other regular name I really don’t know. He continues the ‘greeting people by air-kissing’ thing, even though he just saw Craig greet his friend with the man-hand-grasp. Eleven continues to come off as Anya from the fourth season of Buffy towards everyone. “Are you any good?” one of Craig’s teammates asks. “I dunno, let’s find out!” Eleven says, running onto the field.
Eleven is quite good at soccer. (I’m such an American, when they said “football” the first two times in this episode I thought they meant “Americna football,” with the pads and the touchdowns and Charlie Brown and stuff. I much prefer English football, it’s so much FUN!) He even scores! Cool! Not so cool for poor Craig, who catches Sophie cheering on Eleven. Worse, Eleven steals a goal-kick from Craig and promptly gets gleefully tackled by the team in triumph. Cheesily, the crowd starts chanting “Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!” Poor Craig.
Then Something Creepy Happens. Now the shape is a little girl, complete with pigtails and a doll. It lures in a not-really-old-but-older-than-middle-aged woman upstairs.
At the park, the team congratulates Eleven and says that he’s totally on the team. The Captain says that with him the’ll “annihilate” the others and Eleven babbles quickly “No violence, not while I'm around, not today, not ever. I'm the Doctor, the oncoming storm... and you meant beat them in a football match, didn't you?” Captain says “… yeah.” HEE! HEE HEE! Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Craig opens a soda and it sprays in his face. Everyone laughs. Time Loop! It coincides with the flickering light upstairs. Older-Than-Middle-Aged Woman screams. Eleven contacts Amy: the scanner is all 9s. He gets her to shift gears again and now it’s all 5s. He makes the mistake of saying “I thought the TARDIS had been flung off into the vortex with you inside it, lost forever.” Amy yelps “You mean that could actually happen!? You have to get me out of here!” He says “Still, it means the effect's almost unbelievably powerful and dangerous, but don't worry, hang on, ok?” and blips out. I’m guessing she didn’t hear him singing, otherwise he’d never hear the end of it.
Craig tells Eleven that Sophie’s coming over tonight and asks for some “space.” Eleven promises. Sophie comes over and Craig tries to work up the nerve to tell her how he feels, but then Eleven pops his head over the couch. He’s reconnecting the wires. Craig tries to get him to leave but Sophie says she doesn’t mind and Craig is forced to admit that he doesn’t mind either.
Sophie chats with the Doctor while he fiddles with wires. He gets her to admit her dream, and gets her mad enough to admit that she really wants it, she doesn’t have to stay in a call center all her life. Awwwww! Poor Craig doesn’t get the exchange that just happened. Eleven says “It's a big old world, Sophie. Work out what's really keeping you here, eh?” Sophie says she doesn’t know. OUCH. *huggles poor Craig*
In the hallway, Craig and Sophie bid goodbye, huggle, and Sophie leaves wit the Regretful Look on her face.
In his room, Eleven has constructed … something that must be seen to be believe. It’s mostly umbrella with some Christmas lights and brooms sticking out of it and it SPINS.
Craig touches the rot. It burns him.
Next day Eleven brings him breakfast in bed (awwwwwww! Can I have one, please?!) and finds that Craig is sick and probably dying. His veins are weird. He punches Craig’s chest and mixes something horrid in the teapot to reverse enzymes or something. Craig’s got an important meeting, but Eleven shushes him and tells him to rest. Craig wakes up at … 14:45 (whaaaaa? What kinda weird clock is that?) and freaks out, rushing out of bed and putting on his suit and fleeing, passing a cat in the hallway.
Eleven is in the office, charming everyone, like the boss and Sophie. Poor Craig. He’s so confuzzled and upset that he tells Sophie “yeah … go for it …” when she tells him that she “went on the web, applied for a wildlife charity thing. They said I could always start as a volunteer straight away. Should I do it?” She looks wounded at his disinterest.
Craig breaks into Eleven’s room and gapes at the contraption.
Eleven talks to the cat. It’s the most normal thing he does all episode.
Craig confronts Eleven. He’s very upset. “Everybody loves you, you're better at football than me, and my job, and now Sophie's all "Oh, monkeys, monkeys!" and then... *points at the contraption* there's that!” Eleven is bewildered at the anger. He tries to pass off the contraption as “It's art! A statement on modern society, ‘Ooh, ain't modern society awful?’” HEE! HEE HEE HEE! They fight, Craig getting more and more frustrated, until finally Eleven headbutts information into him. I’m serious. He headbutts Craig and Craig sees a montage of all his incarnations. He babbles “You’re a …! From …! You’re got a TARDIS!” Eleven shushes him and headbutts him again, this time with “specific detail.” You know, I’d have preferred this method of information-transport a long, long, LONG time before now. Eleven found the card with the ad in a window, with a note from Amy on it. Aha! Craig yelps “That's a scanner! You used non-technological technology of Lammasteen!” Eleven claps a hand over Craig’s mouth and tells him to shut up. Prime Companion material, this one!
Sophie arrives and gets lured upstairs by the Girl Shape.
Eleven groans and holds his face and says he’s never doing THAT again. Awwww, but it was so awesome! He contacts Amy, who hasn’t found the plans yet. Craig is still trying to process this, with mild success. We know what’s going on now: “I know he's got a time engine in the flat upstairs. He's using innocent people to try and launch it. Whenever he does, they get burnt up, hence the stain!” Eeeeeeew …
Another time loop happens. Yipes! The TARDIS freaks out some more.
They run upstairs and realize, seeing the keys, that it’s Sophie upstairs. Amy tells them that they can’t be upstairs “I've got the plans, you cannot be upstairs, it's a one-storey building!” Yipes! They enter the apartment. It’s a large bunch of CGI, apparently “someone’s attempt to build a TARDIS.” They save Sophie from this electric magnet thingie. The Shape appears. Eleven says “Hello, I'm Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue. Please state the nature of your emergency.” Shape says “The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required.” Creeeepy. Eleven figures out “You're the emergency crash program. A hologram. You've been luring people up here so you can try them out.” *shudders* Human brains aren’t strong enough. “17 people have been tried. 6,000,400,026 remain.” Hologram says. Sophie is having trouble processing all of this. The Hologram says “The correct pilot has now been found,” and Eleven starts getting dragged towards the glowing panel of DOOOOOM. Amy asks if he can safely fly the ship and Eleven says no, “I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does.” YIPES! Eleven asks why the Hologram didn’t want Craig, and didn’t want Sophie until today, then he figures out it’s because he “gave her the idea of leaving! It's a machine that needs to leave, it wants people who want to escape! And you don't want to leave, Craig, you're Mr. Sofa Man!” (Worst. Superhero name. EVER. “SOFA MAN! He will make you comfortable!”) He tells him that he can shut down the engine by putting his hand on the panel and concentrating on why he wants to stay here. Sophie’s grasped enough to yelp “No!” Craig asks if it’s safe and if it’ll work and if the Doctor’s lying, to which the Doctor replies “yes” and Craig says “It's good enough for me. Geronimo!” and punches the panel. It works. Eleven asks him why he wants to stay and finally Craig admits “Sophie! I love Sophie!” Sophie yelps “I love you, too, Craig, you idiot!!” and slams her hand onto the panel. They make romantic talk and Amy makes a ‘ugh!’ face and noise and I giggle. Eleven yells “For God's sake, kiss the girl!” Amy echoes this. They do. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! (I just know that Diamanda Hagan’s gonna have something to say about a spaceship DE-POWERED with the Power of Love.)
The TARDIS console stablilizes. Then the Upstairs Ship implodes. The three escape onto the street, the upstairs flickers, shows a large spaceship thingy, and then even that vanishes.
Then we get a cute scene between Craig and Sophie:
Craig: So have we spoiled our friendship, then?
Sophie: Totally ruined it.
Craig:And what about the monkeys? We could save them together, you know. Do whatever we want. I could see the point of Paris if you were there with me.
Sophie: First let's destroy our friendship completely!
Auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuw! There’s lots of making out too. It’s adorable. Reminds me a bit of me and my boyperson.
Eleven tries to sneak off, but Craig and Sophie don’t let him without saying goodbye. Craig tells him to keep the keys, not because he thinks the Doctor will come back, just because. Awwwww!
We see the letters on the fridge read “the Doctor rocks” and there’s a picture of him on the soccer team. Then we pan behind the trashcan and see THE CRACK IN SPACE/TIME!!!
On the TARDIS Eleven sets to work keeping the time loop stable by having Amy write the note. She comments about Craig/Sophie “Right little matchmaker, aren't you? Can't you find me a fella?” *cringes* He runs off and tells her to find a red pen. She rifles in his jacket … and finds Rory’s engagement ring for her. Creepy plinky music (you know the kind … like from an eeeeeevil music box) plays as her eyes go wide and she sees the Space/Time crack grow and flash white light. RUT-ROW!!!
Next episode!
Part 1 of the Two-Part Season Finale! The crack in space/time! A bit of the TARDIS came through it! “The Pandorica will open and silence will fall.” Ulp. Um … Roman Empire Britain? Yay, River Song! “There was a goblin … or a trickster … or a warrior … soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies … the most feared being in the cosmos.” All of his enemies’ ships mass in the sky because the box thingy is opening up under Stonehenge!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 05:53 am (UTC)You've never seen a 24-hour clock?
no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 02:39 am (UTC)Huh?
but it's growing on me. <3
As it should, 'twas a great episode!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 03:10 am (UTC)Yeah, I hated that job. Like, a lot. Between my assistant disrespecting me at every turn, me being in a position of power for the first time and not knowing what to do, the fact that my boss essentially told me he'd fire me if I even mentioned I wasn't cis (who also made gay jokes), and the overall... bullying nature of the place, it was generally very unpleasant. Still, it's how I made the cash to get to Australia!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-23 08:47 pm (UTC)Oh god, that sounds ... dreadful. *hugs you some more* (I swear, at this rate when we meet in 'real life' I'm never gonna STOP hugging you, am I?) I honestly cannot understand the mindset of people like that. You're an awesome, nice, cool person; nothing else should matter, especially not to an employer, someone who should set a good example for their staff and not let personal bigotry leech into the workplace.
It doesn't help that the Cub Scouts administration is homophobic, what with the "no openly gay scout leaders" policy that is complete BULLCRAP and wicked offensive, because it implies that openly gay men aren't good role models or fit to be around kids, which is an idea that makes my blood boil. I'm not buying any of their fucking popcorn, I can tell ya that!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-23 09:48 pm (UTC)I still have my Cub Scout Class A shirt. I intend to cover it in gay pride patches. Possibly one of J-Dub's kitty girl army patches too, although since I'm not a kitty girl, dunno if that invalidates it.
Do you have AIM/YIM/anything of that nature? (not to sound stalkerish). You're an awesome person to talk to, and I would love to talk to you in a bit more real time-y fashion.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 06:07 am (UTC)Awesomesauce!
Possibly one of J-Dub's kitty girl army patches too, although since I'm not a kitty girl, dunno if that invalidates it.
Well, you can be a kitty-person.
J-Dub's army is sexist!Do you have AIM/YIM/anything of that nature? (not to sound stalkerish). You're an awesome person to talk to, and I would love to talk to you in a bit more real time-y fashion.
I'd love to talk in real-time fashion too, but I really don't have the time right now to figure out instant messaging. This past week my online life prevented me from doing my schoolwork, and that's not good. I have a HUGE project for the rest of the spring that decides whether I graduate or not and I won't have a lot of free time at all.
Raincheck on the IM-ing thing? I'd love to talk more often ... maybe this summer? *is going to try and figure out Skype this summer as well*
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 06:12 am (UTC)Good luck on your project, though!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 10:54 pm (UTC)Oh noes! Whatever will we do without you and your amazing fanfics?!
Good luck on your project, though!
Thanks ... *cringes* Damn this thing ...
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 10:58 pm (UTC)I hope you'll manage to sneak into the Treehouse now and again to check in with us, you're awesome company you know.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 11:00 pm (UTC)I'm hoping to get a job at a live in summer camp, which means I'll probably end up posting a "Still alive, gods save me from the buggers" on weekends. If I end up working at the place I did last year, I'll be around on Saturday nights (albeit dead tired).
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 11:03 pm (UTC)I'm hoping to get a job at a live in summer camp, which means I'll probably end up posting a "Still alive, gods save me from the buggers" on weekends. If I end up working at the place I did last year, I'll be around on Saturday nights (albeit dead tired).
Well at least you won't be vanishing for two months, that would be sad.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 11:06 pm (UTC)Guh. I need to get a rec from my old boss. Nooooo. Or work at Alpine again. Also noooooo.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-16 11:45 pm (UTC)I quite enjoyed this episode as well. Very, very good, and it was nice to have Eleven alone, as it were, so we could see his character take shape a little more.
unlike the robot love ending of victory of the daleks!
*rolls eyes* Even I had trouble with that. He's an android! He's got programs, not a soul! He's a WALKING BOMB! *headdesk* Ah, whatever, the season overall was fantastic, I'm willing to let a couple ridiculous things slip past.