Closing Time (TV story)

Closing Time was the twelfth episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
In the last few days of his life, the Doctor pays a farewell visit to his old friend Craig Owens, and encounters a mystery. People are going missing, a silver rat scuttles in the shadows of a department store, and somewhere close by, the Cybermen wait.

Plot
In a department store, a worker checks the changing rooms for customers before they close. She hears something in one of the changing rooms and assumes that its a lingering customer. She tells the unknown person that they'll have two mintues to finish. However, the lights begin flickering out and a strange shadow comes rfom behind the curtain she head noises from. Concerned, she asks if the person is alright and pulls back the curtain. Instead of person behind the curtain, it is a Cyberman. Frightened, the worker screams in fear.

Elsehwere, Sophie is telling Craig multiple things to help remind him of where things are and who to call if he has trouble. Craig defiantly tells her that he can handle one weekened without her and that she needs some time to herself to relax. Sophie, having somewhat gained more faith in Craig kisses him goodbye and leaves. Craig begins calling all the contacts that Sophie left numbers for and tells them that he can handle the weekened himself. Craig repeatedly tells himself he can handle it as someone knocks on the door. Thinking it's Sophie, Craig repeats himself as he answers the door. Ironicaly, it's not Sophie, but the Doctor (again). The Doctor greets Craig, but then comments on his dislike of how he "redecorted" his home until Craig tells him that he moved. The Doctor tells Craig that he's making a social call and prepares to leave.

However, the light s on Craig's street flicker; this causes the Doctor to become concerned that Craig may have gotten house with a hostile alien presence hiding in it again. He begins scanning for other lifeforms with his sonic screwdriver. Upon getting a signal, the Doctor begins rushing upstairs. Craig begins to try calming the Doctor down and also trying to get him to be quiet. All the while, the Doctor fails to not packages of diapers on the stairs. Locating the room the life sign is coming room, the Doctor throws open the door demanding the life from get off Earth only to find Craig's baby son, whom he awoke.

After Craig begins quieting his son down, the Doctor wonders what he's named. Craig tells the Doctor that they didn't name their son after him; they named him Alfie. The Doctor says Alfie is a good name, but Alife prefers to be called "Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All". Craig wonders how the Doctor knows that and the Doctor explains that he can speak baby. As Craig rambles on about how poor he does as a father, the Doctor silences Alife with a "shh" so they can talk in peace. Craig wonders if the Doctor can teach him that trick, but the Doctor tells him its highly unlikely and only works once on undeveloped brains. The Doctor bids Craig farewell and leaves. However, as he prepares to leave in the TARDIS for his next stop, the Doctor once agian notices the electricity going out in the street. After arguing with himself, the Doctor decides to stay and investigate.

The next day, Craig takes Alfie to the department store, only to find the Doctor demonstrating a helicopter toy to children in the toy section. The Doctor explains that he works in a department store now and is amused they actual let him have a nametag saying "the Doctor", which he points out will help him remember who he is as he has forgetten before. Craig changes the subject and tells the Doctor that he knows that he's undercover to investiate the source of the electrical problems. The Doctor takes Craig and Alfie from the toy section and explains people have been vanishing from the department store; the Doctor believes that the disappearances are connected with the flickering power. They arrive at an out of order lift and the Doctor tells Craig to use it after reactivating it with his sonic screwdriver. To make sure Craig does so, the Doctor boards the lift with them. However, it actualy teleports them to an alien ship, which the Doctor tries to hide from Craig by faking attraction to him, but Craig soon notices they're not in the store anymore and that a Cyberman is marching towards them. After panicing, the Doctor manages to refuse the teleportation and fuse the controls so the Cybermen can't come back. While Craig goes on about how much teleporter findeed him of science-fiction, the Doctor tells Craig to leave for Alfie's safety so he can investigate the Cybermen's plan. However, Craig is convinced that the safest place for Alfie is by the Doctor's side. He refuses to leave.

Allowing Craig to stay, the Doctor decides to investigate the women's section fo the store while telling Craig he may have a good chance of getting information because he has a baby with him as people find babies adorable. The Doctor then jokes that's why he usual has a human by his side and sends Craig off to gather intel. For his part gathering intel, the Doctor decides to talk to his co-wokrer Val. However, she thinks the Doctor and Craig are romantic partners. The Doctor misunderstands this as a term for "companion", which leads Val to once again misunderstand. Changing the subject to get back on track, the Doctor asks Val if there is anything strange going on in the store. However, she only tells him idel gossip. Seeing that he is getting nowhere, the Doctor leaves, but Val then calls after him, saying that there is a silver rat people are seeing in the store. This catches the Doctor's interest and they head back to they toy section, where Val explains that she saw "a silver rat with red, glowing eyes". She believes it's a toy and wished to purchase one for her grandson, but the stockroom says there is no such toy. The Doctor jokes that they are right and decides to head back and find Craig.

While on his way back to find Craig, the Doctor catches sight of his old companions, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, who are shopping in the shop. The Doctor looks on as a litle girl walks up to Amy and asks for an autograph, which Amy happily does. Missing his companions, the Doctor tries to get their attention, but stops himself. Not noticing the Doctor a few meters away, Amy and Rory resume shopping as the mother of the little girl finds her daughter. The girl points in the Doctor;s direction and the Doctor, at first, thinks she's poiting at him. However, he turns around to find a large sign on the wall, reading "Petrichor" has a large picture of Amy's head on it, along with the slogan "The girl who's tired of waiting"; knowing that the words are about him, the Doctor smiles as Amy is now rather famous.

Happy, the Doctor slips away to find Craig in trouble with the store security after bumbling with his part of the investigation. After getting Craig out of trouble by showing security his nametag to prove he works at the store, the Doctor takes Craig away and explains that the will stay behind after closing to catch the "silver rat". After evading the eyesight of the security gaurd, the Doctor and Craig begin scanning the floor to find their target and are success in catching the "silver rat", which turns out to be a Cybermat. The Cybermat tries biting them, but the Doctor manages to deactivate it. Afterwhich, they hear the scream of the secruity gaurd and rush to the basment to find him dead. The Doctor is briefly knocked unconious by a Cyberman, but soon recovers to find it gone, but Craig and Alfie sill safe. The Doctor commits that the Cyberman was made from malfunctioning spare parts, but was futher at a loss for words as hwo the Cybermen could have returned to the store so soon.

The Doctor returns with Craig to his home to work on the Cybermat. The Doctor explains to Craig that the Cybermat has been causing the power fluctuations by siphoning power to the Cyberman ship, but the Doctor is surprised by how little power it is drawing. When Craig leaves to get milk, the Doctor tends to Alfie's cries, telling the baby he will die the next day. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, the Cybermat reactivates and attacks the Doctor and Alfie. The Doctor quickly takes Alife outside and puts him in a swing before calling Craig, who has just returned, not to enter the house. However, the Doctor soon sees Craig on the kitchen floor, struggling with the Cybermat and crashes through the glass door to rescue him. Craig quickly pins the Cybermat under a pan as the Doctor sets his sonic screwdriver to destory it. Once ready, Craig lifts the pan and the Doctor fries the Cybermat's circuitry. The Doctor then begins to work on reversing the Cybermat's function to help take back the power the Cyber-ship had been receiving. He begins to tell Craig about his life so far, but when he reaches the part about his death, he finds that Craig and Alfie have fallen asleep.

The next morning, the Doctor leaves a note on Craig's fridge about his plan and leaves with his reprogramed Cybermat. A bit later, Craig awakens and wonders where the Doctor has gone until he finds the note. Yelling that the Doctor is an idiot, Craig takes Alfie with him and heads to the department store. At the same time, the Doctor has arrived before the crowds and partialy tells Val his plan before heading off to find the secondary entranec the Cybermen have been using. Right as the Doctor is out of Val's sight, Craig arrives with Alfie and and asks where the Doctor has gone. After Val informs him which direction he went, Craig asks Val to take care of Alfie and heads off to find the Doctor, yelling that the Doctor needs help. Val once again misunderstands this as them needing "alone time".

The Doctor uses the Cybermat to find a secret door in the women's changing room that leads to a hidden tunnel and goes down the tunnel to find a Cyber-ship crash-landed. He enters the conversion chamber to find a nametag from the employee that found the Cyberman in the changing room. He is then surrounded by six Cybermen, who explain they have crashed and have been without power until the power lines installed for the store supply were placed near the ship and have been accidently powering it. The crew plan to convert the entire human race when there is enough power. They capture the Doctor.

Craig also finds the tunnel and enters the Cybership, brandishing his cellphone as a weapon and telling the Cybermen to get off his planet. After the Cybermen disarm Craig, he begins to tell them all that he knows about them, which is everything the Doctor said. The Cybermen see Craig as "surperior" to other humans due to his understanding of them and decided to make him Cyber-controller. They force Craig into the conversion machine as Cyberman suit peices are placed on his body while his head is shocked to remove emoitons. The Doctor pleads with Craig to hang onto his humanity, revealing that he will die soon. At the same time, this causes another power surge in the store, causing Alfie to cry while Val tries to quiet him. However, Alfie's cries can be heard in the Cybermen's ship thanks to a closed-circuit television. Hearing his son's cries, Craig breaks free of the Cyberman suit, which causes the Cybermen to overload as they begin to feel the emoitons that they repressed. The Doctor fixes the teleport and they flee to safety as the ship explodes.

They arrive in the out of order lift, confusing Val as to how they got there. She gives Alfie back as Craig muses on how he defeated the Cybermen with love. The Doctor tries to correct Craig, but gives up and lets him think it was love. Val, still thinking that Craig and the Doctor are partners, tells them its good that they've made up for Alfie. Craig catches this and tries to correct Val with the Doctor's help, but finds that he has disappeared again.

Craig returns home to find his house is clean. The Doctor walks in to say that he traveled back to when Craig left to help him so Craig wouldn't have to face Sophie's wrath at finding the house a mess. Craig thanks the Doctor, but then wonders about hwo muhc time he has left as there were so many places he wanted to see. The Doctor tells him that this was more important and that Alfie now has a much higher opinion of him, willing to call him dad; Alfie also has stopped calling himself "Stromageddon". The Doctor then holds up four TARDIS blue envelopes and says he toke them from Sophie's stationary. Craig tells the Doctor to wait and minute and returns with a Stetson hat as a parting gift. The Doctor thanks him and leaves through the back as Sophie comes in.

Sophie is at first shocked that Craig is having such an easy time taking care of Alfie, but finds it an improvement over their previous relationship. She then walks in the den to find everything clean, being further shocked. Craig tries to lie that nothing out of the ordinary happened while she was away. However as Sophie greets her son, he says his first word "Doctor". Sophie now know realizes that the Doctor had paid a visit.

Nearby, the Doctor tells the TARDIS this is their last trip and offers some parting words to a small group of children. Each of them saw the Doctor was putting on a brave face, but inside he was sad.

In the far future, River Song, a new Doctor of Archaeology, reviews eyewitness accounts by those children, and also notes the date and location of the Doctor's death. She is interrupted by Madame Kovarian and agents of the Silence. Kovarian tells River not to bother trying to remember them as they have been "too thourogh with her little head". River looks at the Silents and ask who they are; Kovarian tells River that the Silence are "her owners". She then examines River's diary to see the date of the Doctor's death and asks River to verify it. River says it's story, but Kovarian tells her "this is were it begins" as soliders from the church enter with an upgraded astronuat's suti. As a shocked River looks on, Kovarian taunts her that she never really escaped them, calling her "Melody Pond" top verify they are the ones who kidnapped and raised her. River begins to fight them, but a solider injects her with a sedative. As River loses conciousness, Kovarian taunts her with a nursery rhyme about killing "her love". River then awakens in the astronuat suit, submerged below Lake Silencio to await the Doctor.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Craig Owens - James Corden
 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Sophie - Daisy Haggard
 * Madame Kovarian - Frances Barber
 * Shona - Seroca Davis
 * Kelly - Holli Dempsey
 * George - Christopher Obi
 * Val - Lynda Baron
 * Cybermen - Paul Kasey
 * Voice of the Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
 * The Silence - Marnix Van Den Broeke

The Doctor

 * The Doctor mentions that a robot dog is "not as much fun as I remember" referring to K9.
 * The Doctor can make people quiet by simply saying "shh!". Craig suggests this is hypnosis.
 * The Doctor tells Craig that he has forgotten his identity before.

Cybermen

 * The Cybermen attempt to convert Craig into a Cyber-Controller.
 * It appears that at least these Cybermen can't convert Time Lords, as the Doctor describes himself as "not exactly compatible", confirmed by some of the Cybermen not long after he said that. (also see the DW: Rise of the Cybermen)

Cultural references from the real world

 * When the Doctor tries to deactivate the Cybermat and discovers it has shielding, he says to Craig "Don't worry. I have an app for that", parodying the slogan used by Apple to advertise the iPhone's versatility.
 * When the Doctor is flying the toy helicopter, he says "It goes up-diddley-up, it goes down-diddley-down." This is a line from the theme song of the movie "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines".

Fashion and clothing

 * Craig gives the Doctor a Stetson as a parting gift. The Doctor is later shown wearing this in DW: The Impossible Astronaut when he brings everyone together in America before his death.

Individuals

 * It seems Amy has become quite famous as she is seen giving an autograph to a little girl.
 * Sean and Melinda are mentioned.
 * Kovarian does not appear to be affected by the Silence's ability to make people forget their existence.
 * River Song does not remember Kovarian or the Silence from her childhood.

History

 * Craig is unfamiliar with the Cybermen, suggesting that either the Battle of Canary Wharf was erased by the cracks and doesn't exist post-Big Bang Two or Craig simply didn't see the Cybermen like Donna Noble.

Television series

 * Craig asks if the Cybermen's teleport is like "beam me up" from Star Trek. This is the second consecutive episode to feature a reference to Star Trek.

Theories and concepts

 * Posters seen by the Doctor in the department store indicate that Amy has taking up a modelling career. She is seen advertising a fragrance named "Petrichor".

Story notes

 * Given that in The Impossible Astronaut the different versions of the Doctor give their ages as 909, and 1103, the Doctor has lived for approximately two hundred years between these two episodes. Writer Gareth Roberts confirmed in an interview that this is indeed two hundred years after The God Complex for the Doctor, and that he spent these years "waving" at Amy and Rory through history books. (The Impossible Astronaut)
 * Part of the nursery rhyme that was heard DW: Night Terrors is sung by Madame Kovarian, with some new lines added.
 * Closing Time is the first episode produced by Denise Paul, who has been Associate Producer for several Eleventh Doctor stories.
 * This is the first time since the series revival in 2005 that episode 12 has not been part of a multi-part story written by the head writer, although the end of this episode does set up the series finale.
 * This is the first television story to feature a Cybermat since the Fourth Doctor story DW: Revenge of the Cybermen. They had been redesigned though, with human-like teeth.
 * This is the first single-parter episode in which River Song appears, and her first appearance in an episode not written by Steven Moffat. Her appearance, however, does link directly into the next episode.
 * This is also the first regular-season episode since the series revival in which the Doctor does not have an ongoing companion with him at some point.
 * Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were, however, credited in the opener as they had been during the rest of the season. This marks the first time in the series that any actor's name has appeared in the opening credits for less than one minute of on-screen appearance.
 * The BBC America and Space broadcasts also retained the opening sequence narrated by Amy Pond.
 * Arthur Darvill (Rory) doesn't have any lines in this episode.
 * Based on interpretations of dialogue in the episode, a case can be made for Craig to be considered a companion, as the Doctor indirectly refers to him as one.
 * The "app" for disabling the Cybermat used one of the "bonus sounds" found on the toy version of the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver, unheard on the show until now.
 * During one of the scenes, BBC Radio 1's Greg James was visible behind Craig. Greg James named his character "Carlos".GREGJAMES.png
 * This is the first television story since the series revival in which the Cybermen are not armed with any type of weaponary. The Cybermen who are seen have visible gaps in their forearm armour where they would normally have blasters and they are not seen electrocuting anyone.
 * This is the second time where Craig's affection for someone has saved the day. In DW : The Lodger , Craig's love for Sophie motivates his desire to stay where he is, enabling him to destroy the alien Time Machine. In this case, his love for his son enables him to defeat the Cybermen.

Ratings

 * UK Overnight: 5.3 Million

Myths

 * Craig Owens may travel in the TARDIS. This proved false.
 * Craig Owens has had a baby. This proved true.
 * The events in the department store, etc. take place on or about 21st April 2011. Nothing in the episode supports this. For the Doctor it's the day before his "death" but he's a time-traveller.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
When the Cyberman is first seen when his feet stomped, there was no noise at all. (However, the Cyberman have been mentioned to make no noise sometimes with their legs in DW: The Next Doctor.)

Continuity

 * Craig recalls his previous alien encounter with the Doctor. (DW: The Lodger)
 * The Doctor can speak baby. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Petrichor is part of the password given by Idris in DW: The Doctor's Wife.
 * The perfume "Petrichor" bears the slogan "For the girl who's tired of waiting", a reference to Amy and has been referenced across several stories. (DW: The Eleventh Hour, DW: The Girl Who Waited)
 * When the Doctor thinks that Craig has redecorated, he says that he doesn't like it, similar to the Second Doctor's comments to the Third Doctor about redecorating the TARDIS in DW: The Three Doctors and again when the Second Doctor saw UNIT HQ in DW: The Five Doctors. The Fifth Doctor similarly expressed dislike for a TARDIS redecoration on DW: Time Crash.
 * The Doctor takes some "TARDIS blue" envelopes from Craig's house, and Craig gives him a Stetson as a parting gift, which sets up events for DW: The Impossible Astronaut.
 * Aware of his impending death, the Doctor goes on another "farewell tour". (DW: The End of Time)
 * Craig successfully throws off the conversion process. Mercy Hartigan also did so shortly before her death in DW: The Next Doctor.
 * While talking about name tags, the Doctor suggests he sometimes forgets his identity. (DW: Doctor Who)
 * When Craig resists the conversion, a light cuts down the centre of the Cyber head and it opens up, much like the Cyberman head that confronted Amy in The Pandorica Opens.
 * Though not referenced on screen, this is the second time the Doctor has had to deal with an alien menace based in (or below) a department store (DW: Rose), although this time when he blows it up, the store isn't destroyed. Torchwood Three also dealt with aliens in a department store in TWA: Department X.
 * The Doctor preforms his odd greeting kiss. (DW: The Lodger)
 * The last time he encountered them, the Doctor also said "not a rat, a Cybermat!" (DW: Revenge of the Cybermen)
 * The way the Cybermen are destroyed is similar to the way they were destroyed in DW: The Age of Steel

For the Doctor

 * This story occurs after: DW: The God Complex and various misadventures noted in DW: The Impossible Astronaut
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Impossible Astronaut and The Wedding of River Song

For River Song

 * This story occurs after: DW: Let's Kill Hitler
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Impossible Astronaut and The Wedding of River Song

For Amy and Rory

 * This story occurs after: DW: The God Complex
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Wedding of River Song

Home video releases
The episode will be released on DVD and Blu-ray shortly after the airing of episode 13.