The Lodger (TV story)


 * You may be looking for the comic strip story upon which this episode was based

The Lodger was the eleventh episode of the fifth series of the revived series of Doctor Who. Based on a comic strip, it was the third instance, after Human Nature and Dalek, of a story from another medium being directly adapted for television. It is also a companion-lite story.

Synopsis
A mysterious force blocks the TARDIS - with Amy inside it - from landing, keeping it stuck in a materialisation loop. It's up to the Doctor to work out what that force is, lest Amy be lost forever. As he investigates, he learns of a house on Aickman Road, with a staircase which people walk up but never come back down. To solve this mystery, the Doctor must pass himself off as a normal human and share a flat with Craig Owens.

Plot
The TARDIS materialises in a park in Colchester. The Doctor exits to see they are not at their chosen destination, but before he can get back in, the TARDIS dematerialises with Amy still inside. A day later, a young man enters a house to help an elderly gentleman and enters the top floor.

In the flat below, Craig and his friend, Sophie, discuss their plans for pizza and TV this night. Sophie has to leave as her friend is upset over a recent break up, but not before discussing a growing rot on the ceiling. Craig tells himself to confess his love for Sophie when the doorbell rings. Thinking it Sophie, who has forgotten her keys again, he opens the door to say "I love you" to the Doctor.

The Doctor explains he fits the qualification on Craig's available lodger opening. He hands Craig a paper bag containing thousands of pounds and explores the house, wondering who lives in the second story flat. Craig shows the Doctor to his room.

To take Craig's mind off the matter, the Doctor says he's hungry. He grabs random ingredients from the fridge and begins cooking. The Doctor notices a picture of Sophie on Craig's fridge and asks who she is. Craig explains Sophie's his friend and that they work together at a call centre, while complaining he has an idea on how to make the job more efficient, but he thinks his bosses won't listen to him because he just a phone drone. He then stops himself and wonders why he's telling the Doctor about his life. The Doctor then jokes that he's got a face people can't resist blurting out their plans to. Craig wonders where the Doctor's luggage is and the Doctor tells him it will "materialise" if all goes according to plan.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS has attempted landing again, but fails with Amy screaming inside it from the chaos of backfiring equipment in the console room. At the same time, and Craig have finished eating omelettes he cooked and Craig wonders where the Doctor learned to cook, to which the Doctor replies Paris in the 18th century. The Doctor eventually corrects his mistake after saying the 17th century and finally the 20th, claiming he is not used to doing them in the right order. He is given his keys.

That night, the Doctor contacts Amy using an earpiece. Amy lets the Doctor know what the TARDIS engines sound like through he TARDIS phone. Amy wonders why the Doctor hasn't done anything yet and he tells her that what ever is keeping the TARDIS from materialising properly is big--SCARY big. He goes on explain that he can't use higher technology like his sonic screwdriver and the only reason he's able to communicate is because his earpiece on scramble, making anyone else hearing him to talk mishear his words as complete gibberish. In the meantime, a young man calls from the second floor speaker to a woman passing the flat and asks her for help as an accident had occurred. Meanwhile, in Craig's room, he's taking to Sophie over the phone about the Doctor, who she thinks might be a dealer since he happened to have 3 grand in a paper bag. At the same time, everything except the Doctor, who is immune since he is a time traveler, gets stuck in a time loop for a brief moment as the Doctor tells Amy to pull the "zig-zag plotter" to keep the TARDIS safe from the loop's aftershocks. The Doctor tells Amy to keep doing so when the turbulance occurs as he has to get parts for a scanner. He leaves briefly, but soon returns with a cart full of junk.

The next day, the Doctor is showering with Craig impatient for his turn to shower. Hearing a loud bang, Craig goes upstairs to check on the other lodger. The Doctor panics and fears Craig is in danger, so mistakenly grabs Craig's toothbrush instead of his sonic screwdriver. The elderly man answers Craig, telling him he can't help, sending him back downstairs as the Doctor, wearing a towel, rushes to find Craig safe. While he tries to investigate the upstairs lodger, the Doctor unexpectedly meets Sophie, who had come just come in; he also gives her a Euro kiss. The Doctor begins heading back to his room to get dressed when Craig, in the middle of a phone call, says his pub football league and his team lack a player. The Doctor volunteers, but the asks if it's the "one with the sticks" (presumably Cricket).

At the football match, the Doctor seems unfamiliar with the game but immediately shows he has skill and talent, scoring many goals. While celebrating their win, another of Craig's friends says that with the Doctor's help they can annihilate another team. The Doctor misinterprets this, taking the phase literally, says he will not allow this, and calls himself "the Oncoming Storm". He then corrects his mistake after realising they just want to beat the team in another game. Back at the flat, a woman is lured into the upstairs flat by the image of a little girl. Craig and his friends then become stuck in a time loop while opening a beer can at the football game, and the TARDIS simultaneously shakes violently. The shaking soon subsides, but the Doctor tells Amy he's worried she could be lost in the TARDIS forever in the Time Vortex if the turbulance continues as it has been.

Later at the flat, Craig asks the Doctor to keep out of his way while he is with Sophie so he can profess his love for her. The Doctor tells Craig he'd hardly know he's there while a bang is heard from the upstairs. The Doctor shuts his door and returns to building his scanner, proclaiming it to be "a beauty", confusing Craig outside the room, but he dismisses the thought since he finds the Doctor funny. While Craig and Sophie talk about what they should do for the night, she notices the rot on the ceiling has gotten even bigger since the previous day. Craig ignores this and begins to try telling Sophie his feelings. However, right before Craig can get to the point of his rambling, the Doctor pops up behind the couch, asking where the button on a regular screwdriver is. Craig tries to get rid of the Doctor by telling Sophie that he's on his way out, but the Doctor tells him a lie about fixing the electrics in the flat to stay and continue working on his scanner. Sophie, Craig and the Doctor drink some wine (which the Doctor is not fond of as he spits it back out) as Sophie talks about her dream to take care of animals. The Doctor uses reverse psychology to get Sophie to admit she doesn't want to keep working in a call centre and encouraged her to work with Orangutangs as she dreams. After Sophie leaves, the Doctor returns to his room, where he has finished his scanning device in an attempt to discover the nature of the threat on the second floor, but finds it normal. Disturbed by this, the Doctor tells Amy to look up the building schematics of the flat to see if he can find any clues from it while he decides to "recruit a spy". Later that night, Craig, dismissing the Doctor's previous warning about the rot on his ceiling, touches the rot only to pull his hand back in burning pain. In the morning, the Doctor has prepared breakfast for Craig since it's something "normal". But he finds him nearly dead. The Doctor hits Craig to get him to breathe and then makes a remedy out of teabags to reverse the decay of Craig's enzymes for him to drink. Craig claims there is a business meeting he needs to go to, but is told to rest by the Doctor as he is too weak to move. In the afternoon, Craig wakes up to see how late his is and rushes to work to find the Doctor at his desk insulting a rude client of his. His manager then says the Doctor was Craig's representive at the meeting and has come up with a more efficient business plan, upsetting Craig. Sophie gives the Doctor some coffee and biscuits and asks Craig what he thinks of her being able to start working with animals as a volunteer. Craig, too angry with the Doctor to notice what she's saying, tells her he's okay with it. Craig is now extremely jealous of the Doctor for being better than he is at he job and Soccer. Now, he's worried he could lose the woman he loves.

Later, at the flat, Craig asks the Doctor to leave after discovering the Doctor's scanner when he returned home to see what he'd been up to and sees him talking to a cat about people never coming down from upstairs. The Doctor tries his best to try getting Craig to understand he can't leave, ultimately headbutting him to reveal his history telepathically and then repeats it with what he is doing in the flat as well as showing a note from future Amy telling him to go to the flat. Sophie walks in to say hello to Craig, but a little girl calls for help upstairs. A time loop soon begins, but Craig is now aware of it as he and the Doctor race up the stairs to save the person being killed. Amy then reveals, using the building plans, that it is in fact a single storey building and there is no top floor. Opening the door, they find a space ship.

Sophie is seen being pulled towards a console but is suddenly stopped. A man appears and is revealed to be a hologram functioning as an auto-pilot. It states the ship has crashed. As the pilots are dead, the program began testing humans to find a suitable replacement. However, the humans aren't able to handle it and have all burnt up. The Doctor calls the hologram stupid for continuously trying to use humans to launch the ship as the program begins forcing the Doctor to touch a console. Over the earpiece, Amy says that would be a good thing since the Doctor isn't human, but the Doctor tells her that if he's tried as a pilot, it will blow up the solar system. He realises Craig was not wanted by the ship, as he wanted to stay at the flat to be with Sophie because he loves her. The auto-pilot wanted people who sought to leave. Sophie says she loves Craig too, and they kiss while touching the console. This causes the ship to shut down. As they wanted to stay here, the ship complies but begins to implode. Fleeing, they see the ship vanish along with the entire top floor. No one else notices due to the perception filter it used to trick their memories.

The Doctor tries to sneak away while Craig and Sophie make out, but is caught. The Doctor says he'll come back, but Craig, having had some of the Doctor's memories put in his head, knows he's lying, but gives the keys to the flat to the Doctor as a gift. Unbeknowst to Craig and Sophie, right after the Doctor leaves, a crack appears by his fridge behind the garbage can.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Amy they have to get that note up in the paper shop window while he changes the will from which the flat's owner had inherited money. Amy asks if the Doctor has a pen, and tells her to find a red pen in his coat. Amy searches his pockets, and finds the box containing her engagement ring. Stunned, Amy opens it and examines the ring. In the meantime, the time field begins coming out of the crack in Craig's parlour as it expands.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Craig Owens - James Corden
 * Sophie - Daisy Haggard
 * Auto Pilot - Darrell Heath
 * Steven - Owen Donovan
 * Sean - Babatunde Aleshe
 * Michael - Jem Wall
 * Sandra - Karen Seacombe
 * Clubber - Kamara Bacchus

The Doctor

 * The Doctor uses a regular screwdriver and asks where the on switch is.
 * When the Doctor rushes out of the shower in fear of Craig's safety, he grabs Craig's electric toothbrush rather than his sonic screwdriver.
 * The Doctor knows how to play football.
 * After the Doctor 'shares' his knowledge with Craig, he sees brief flashes of: the Doctor's first, second, third, fourth, eighth, ninth and tenth incarnations; Cybermen, Rose Tyler, an Ood, a Racnoss, and a Weeping Angel. He also describes himself as "Eleventh" to explain himself to Craig.
 * The Doctor shares a psychic connection with a cat.
 * The Doctor introduces himself to the alien timeship as "Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue. Please state the nature of your emergency", referencing Stingray (Captain Troy Tempest, the main hero of the show), Thunderbirds (International Rescue is the name of their organisation) and Star Trek: Voyager ("Please state the nature of the medical emergency" is a line often repeated by a character also called The Doctor).
 * The Doctor sings La donna è mobile in the shower, a tune he sang previously in DW: Inferno.

Events

 * On Craig Owen's fridge is a postcard advertising the Vincent van Gogh exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor)
 * Twice whilst in the TARDIS, Amy calls out to someone off screen then seems to forget them (DW: The Impossible Astronaut).

Foods and beverages

 * The Doctor makes himself and Craig an omelette with cheese, ham, mayonnaise and other ingredients.
 * The Doctor does not appear to enjoy wine, as after drinking some, he spits it back into the glass.
 * The Doctor uses tea to cure Craig after he is poisoned by the rot on his wall, stating that it would 'reverse the enzyme decay'.

Locations

 * Craig was offered a job in London, which he turned down. This may be a reference to the fact Moffat is keeping the fifth series away from the sterotypical setting in London.

Technology

 * After gaining the Doctor's knowledge, Craig realises that his scanning device is based on the "non-technological" technology of the Lammasteen.

Story notes

 * This episode was mistakenly entitled Reality Check and Don't Go Up The Stairs.
 * "The Lodger" is also a comic strip story by Gareth Roberts. Roberts has confirmed this story is an adaptation of the basic premise of the other. However he has stated that they differ quite a lot in that the comic was written for different characters (the Tenth Doctor and Mickey Smith) and focused on the "domestic set-up" while the TV story involves "something at the top of the stairs". This isn't the first adaption on the TV series, NA: Human Nature being an earlier example.
 * Several previous Doctors appeared in brief flashes when The Doctor knocked heads with Craig.
 * This is an Amy-lite episode, similar to the Donna-lite episode DW: Midnight and in the vein of the Doctor and Rose-lite episode DW: Love & Monsters and the Martha (and Doctor)-lite episode DW: Blink. However, Amy features throughout this story, while in Midnight, Donna was completely absent, apart from the beginning and the ending.
 * This is the first time in the new series that the Doctor has definitively stated how many incarnations he has had — he tells Craig he is the eleventh.
 * The Doctor wears a football kit, playing for Craig's pub team, the King's Arms. He wears a jersey with 11 on it when playing a football match, both referencing him being the Eleventh Doctor and this being the eleventh episode of Series 5.
 * The Doctor playing football in the episode is a coincidental reference to the fact that Matt Smith originally wanted to become a professional footballer before a back injury, caused him to focus on acting instead. However writer Gareth Roberts has stated that the football scene was always going to be carried over from the comic story and he began writing it prior to the casting of Smith.
 * The 2010 FIFA World Cup England vs USA match kicked off just as The Lodger finished, on a rival channel (ITV), the timing noted by writer Roberts as a "happy accident".
 * The Doctor making Craig an omelette may be a reference to Gavin and Stacy, the series which James Corden starred in and wrote, in which the only food Stacy's mum ever seemed to cook was omeletts.
 * The Doctor wears only a blue bath towel for one scene. Matt Smith appears similarly in the show Secret Diary of a Call Girl as one of Billie Piper's clients. An online stir was caused when many viewers claimed that Smith briefly 'flashed' the camera when his towel fell. However the BBC and Smith have denied he was completely naked for that scene.
 * Gareth Roberts, the writer of this episode, revealed in an interview in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 423 that he had planned to use the classic enemy Meglos in this story, but decided against it after the similar-looking aliens the Vinvocci made an appearence in DW: The End of Time. The magazine also showed an early draft of the script which showed the meeting of the Eleventh Doctor and Meglos in which Meglos remembered the Doctor but the Doctor didn't remember Meglos.
 * When the Doctor hands Craig the bag of money, he tells him "Don't spend it all on sweets." The Ninth Doctor said the same thing to Adam Mitchell when he gave him the credit stick in DW: The Long Game.
 * In interviews given in April 2011, writer Neil Gaiman revealed that his Doctor Who script ("The Doctor's Wife") was originally intended to be the 11th episode of this series. When this proved to be not possible (for technical and budgetary reasons) the Neil Gaiman story was pushed back to Series 6 Episode 4, and The Lodger was comissioned instead

Ratings
Offical viewing figures was 5.98 million viewers.

Rumours

 * Either the Timoreen, the Ha'rik, or the Skarkish will appear – primarily because these were all listed as "new aliens" to appear in Series 5. None of them appeared
 * This episode will be the one that features the Blue Peter Competition TARDIS console. The design itself did not appear, but another ship console design did.
 * As this episode is before the finale, it most likely will have a foreshadowing (like in DW: Fear Her and DW: The Waters of Mars) or link right into the finale (like DW: Utopia and DW: Turn Left). This was proved true.
 * It is likely that this episode will lead directly into the next as Claudio played by Marcus O'Donovan is listed to appear in both this episode and the following one, DW: The Pandorica Opens. The episode did not directly lead to the next, but it did have something very related to the next episode. (However Claudio did not appear in this episode).
 * Amy will remember, or begin to remember, Rory by the end of the episode. Although she never remembered him enough to say it, she did find her wedding ring in the Doctor's coat.

Filming locations

 * 79 Westville Road, Cardiff (Craig Owens' house)
 * Mill Gardens, Westville Road, Cardiff (where the TARDIS tries - and fails - to materialise)
 * Victoria Park, Canton, Cardiff (where the Doctor plays football)

Production errors

 * When giving Craig tea through the spout of the teapot, the angle from above the Doctor shows the liquid to be clear, much unlike tea, and unlike some of the liquid which dribbles from Craig's mouth.
 * After cooking the omelette for Craig and himself the Doctor is shown licking his thumb, but in the next shot his hand is positioned differently and he is wiping his mouth with a finger.
 * When the Doctor is about to eat his custard cream biscuit, the man gives it to him then in a nano second the Doctor is already munching away at it.
 * Near the end of the episode when the alien hologram says "The correct pilot has been found" and it cuts to Amy in the TARDIS she says "He means you, Doctor, doesn't he?" Her lips don't seem to quite match what she is saying.
 * A cameraman's reflection can be seen in the painting hanging on the hallway wall when it is shown during a conversation later in the episode.
 * When Sophie looks up the stairs towards the girl, the door behind her seems to open itself. The shot then changes to show Sophie looking up at the camera as if it was upstairs. When the shot changes back to behind Sophie, the door appears to open again.
 * The second time The Doctor Headbutts Craig when slowed down a little it is obvious that the Doctor's head goes nowhere near Craig's.
 * When the electric currents go on the Doctor's chest they move to his hand and in the next shot it's going from his chest to his hand again.

Continuity

 * A post card advertising a Vincent van Gogh art display is stuck to Craig's fridge, which the Doctor, Amy and van Gogh himself visited in the previous story. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor)
 * In the Doctor's room in Craig's flat there is a print on the wall which appears to be a variation of a van Gogh sketch of a wheat harvest from one of the artist's letters written in August 1884 (DW: Vincent and the Doctor).
 * This is not the first time the Doctor has showered himself on screen. (DW: Spearhead from Space)
 * The Doctor once again mentions that bow ties are cool. (DW: The Eleventh Hour, Amy's Choice, Vincent and the Doctor)
 * Craig says "Geronimo!" (DW: The End of Time, The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor refers to himself as "the Oncoming Storm" again. (DW: The Parting of the Ways, The Girl in the Fireplace, Journey's End, Amy's Choice and it was first mentioned in the New Adventure Love and War.
 * While searching the Doctor's pockets, Amy finds her engagement ring from Rory. (DW: Cold Blood)
 * The Doctor seems to have regained the fondness for cats embraced by his Sixth incarnation and later reverted into a dislike by his Tenth. (DW: Fear Her)
 * The scene in which the Doctor surprises everyone with his skill in football bears a striking resemblance to his surprising skill when he played a game of cricket in DW: Black Orchid.
 * The TARDIS protects objects and people inside it from time catching up with them. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Clips from DW: The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone, The Vampires of Venice, Cold Blood, were shown in the "next time" trailer.
 * According to the Doctor, the ship is an attempt by someone to build a TARDIS. However, it is too weak to link with a Time Lord but too strong for a human.
 * When seeing the Faux-TARDIS, Craig goes "What, What...What?", much like the Tenth Doctor.
 * The centre of the Faux-TARDIS resembles the actual TARDIS' control room seen in the 90s movie. However the centre console has large orbs for control devices, a characteristic usually seen in Dalek designs.
 * When in the shower, the Doctor sings Verdi's "La donna è mobile," which he previously sang at the beginning of DW: Inferno.
 * When Craig goes upstairs to see what the man upstairs is doing, he says "I heard a big bang." This is the title of the last episode of series 5, The Big Bang.
 * The Doctor used tea to aid his own revival after his ninth regeneration. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
 * The Doctor's bow tie is blue for this episode, despite the 2010 setting. The Doctor wears a red tie in episodes of Series 5 grounded in the present and future (DW: The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang), but he wears a blue tie in those set in the past (Victory of the Daleks, The Vampires of Venice, Vincent and the Doctor). The only other exception in Series 5 is the episode Amy's Choice, where the Doctor wears a blue tie in the Upper Leadworth dream but a red tie in both the cold TARDIS dream and the epilogue concluding the two dream narratives.
 * This episode may hold the first "appearances" of the Silence. First when the time loop happens at the football match when the The Doctor is talking to Amy and says the effect is "almost unbelievably powerful and dangerous" Amy looks off to her right with surprise and then calls out "Hey" to someone before looking away slightly confused as if she had forgotten something. The second time is when the Doctor is in the time ship, he notices the corpse of the supposed original pilot, seems concerned, then looks away and seemingly forgets. In Day of the Moon, the Doctor mentions the ship was "abandoned," despite the fact that he saw the pilot's body and even heard from the on-board emergency system that the ship had crashed and the pilot had died, further evidence of the details being erased from his memory. Also, the corpse's hands possessed four fingers, just as the Silence do.
 * In the Silence lair that River Song discovers underneath the warehouse to which she tracked her younger self, the centre console in the room resembles the interior of the ship featured here. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * The Doctor later finds a similar ship to the one featured here. He notes that it was "very Aickman Road." (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * All the Doctor's previous regenerations are shown. (DW: The Next Doctor, DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * The Doctor suggest that Craig and Sophie try and beat the record for the current population, they soon have a baby Alfie. (DW: Closing Time)

Timeline

 * This story occurs after: DYD: Judoon Monsoon
 * This story occurs before: DYD: Empire of the Wolf

Home video releases
BBC Video - Doctor Who Series Five - Volume Four features Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang. It was released on Monday 6th September 2010 (UK Only) on DVD and Blu-ray.