From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The Lodger"

"Hey, wanna buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

Now it's time for a concept that I'm kind of iffy about - the companion-lite episode. The reverse of Doctor-lite episodes like Love & Monsters, Blink, and Turn Left, we saw this experimented with in the very, very excellent Midnight, where Russell T. Davies cleverly (no, really, it was) explored the tropes of Doctor Who and turned them on their head. In Series 5, Moffat decided to continue the tradition and thus Gareth Roberts penned The Lodger, which we'll be looking at today.

Like the Doctor-lite episodes, companion-lites can do well in exploring facets about the Doctor and the Doctor's world that we normally don't get to see in the normal traveling around we see on the show. They can also be... very boring and god awful.

So, where does The Lodger fall? Let's have a peek...

We begin with the TARDIS landing on Earth and something throwing him off of it. The TARDIS begins to dematerialize, taking Amy along with it - communications lasting long enough to let Amy know that they have in fact landed on Earth.

A day later, a person going by a house is spoken to through a speaker. There's been an accident and they need help. Seeing someone at the top of the stairs under a flickering lightbulb, the person goes upstairs... and the door closes behind them.

We are introduced to Craig and Sophie, two close friends who clearly want to be more... although Craig has issues with spitting out the fact that he loves her. Also, he's having some issues with some sinister looking dry rot on the ceiling. Also also... the Doctor has shown up with a bag full of three thousand pounds, applying to be the man's new Lodger.

As you do.

Also, of note, there's a Vincent Van Gogh postcard on Craig's fridge. Clever.

"Hello! Do you have a moment to talk about your lord and savior... me?"

The Doctor clearly has more interest in what's going on upstairs than anything else, but he manages to fast talk and obfuscate enough (with the psychic paper at one point) to get on Craig's good side, topping it off by cooking him an astounding meal from just whatever Craig has in the fridge that he later says is fantastic. Despite some oddities, it seems the Doctor is here to stay. As Craig converses with Sophie on how odd that the Doctor is, the Doctor manages to make contact with Amy and to all outside ears their conversation seems to be complete and utter gibberish. The TARDIS is stuck in a "dematerialization loop" caused by whatever is on the top floor of Craig's flat.

A woman gets lured in by the voice on the speaker, one clearly broken and distraught, taken in by another person asking for help...

Also, Amy attempts to get the Doctor to get rid of the bow tie to appear more human. He does not go with it.

There's something going on upstairs, and we cut to a brief shot of the woman screaming, that is keeping the TARDIS from materializing. The Doctor goes out for supplies, bringing back a cart late at night.

The Doctor and Craig have some roommate issues (I can relate) and Craig ends up knocking on the door at the top of the stairs after hearing a big bang and speaking to the man within... who tells Craig that he doesn't need his help. Sophie pops in and the Doctor gets tapped to go play football as well as witnessing some relationship awkwardness between Craig and Sophie.

The Doctor gets introduced to Craig's team and proves to be a smash hit on the football field. This ties in a bit to Matt Smith's original desire to become a footballer rather than an actor until a stress fracture forced him into the latter career. However, in all of this, we see Craig start to get more than a little resentment over the Time Lord's flash and flair.

"This is the weirdest remake of Rudy that I've ever seen..."

An older woman gets lured into the house by the voice from the speaker, this time a little girl's voice. The decimation of this woman causes another time loop that has effects on everyone but the Doctor. Amy notes the change of numbers on the TARDIS monitor and the Doctor is very clearly lying about how bad the situation is, although he does reiterate that anything that can keep the TARDIS from materializing is bad news.

Craig and Sophie attempt to have a date night that the Doctor - being Eleven - misses the cues about needing to clear out and ends up staying around much to Craig's annoyance. As the Doctor works on a bunch of electrical wiring, does some reverse psychology to encourage Sophie to pursue her goals, and shows off that he doesn't like wine... which will come back a few times as a joke for Eleven, stay tuned.

Craig really does not like the Doctor's encouragement of Sophie going off into the world, particularly his use of asking Sophie "what's keeping you here?". 

The Doctor has developed a strange device out of all the trash hodgepodge and can't find anything out of the normal. Amy insists he just go and look, but the Doctor is adamant that he can't until he knows what he's dealing with. He gets Amy to start looking up the floor plans for the building and says he's going to enlist a spy...

Downstairs, a despondent Craig touches the dry rot... and it pains him. The next morning, the Doctor finds him in bed with a black vein up the arm and in a near-catatonic state. Whipping up a cure of Needing To Get the Plot Going Tea, he manages to save the day and Craig's life. Unfortunately, because of this, Craig is late for his job at the call centre... and finds the Doctor working his job. This, coupled with Sophie apparently game to go off to work for a charity far away, has Craig out of sorts.

As the Doctor has apparently enlisted a cat as a spy, Craig uses a spare key to break into the Doctor's room and finds his makeshift machine as well as spying on him watching the cat. Craig wants the Doctor to leave, finding everything too weird and being envious of how the Doctor has basically wrecked his entire life. The Doctor then gives a psychic headbutt and stock footage to explain everything about what's going on... which, hey, it saves on exposition, so plus there.

We also see how the Doctor found Craig's ad without the address - a card, written by Amy in the future, directing him to it.

When Sophie pops by Craig's again, the little girl appears at the top of the stairs and lures her in.

The silhouette in the attic doorway is used to great effect, I will say. 

Another loop begins that Craig is able to break free from, he and the Doctor rushing upstairs to Sophie's rescue. Amy reveals the twist in the episode as the Doctor and Craig are about to head in - there is no upstairs in the floor plans. Inside, what they find is a "time engine", as the Doctor calls it. A primitive attempt to build a TARDIS. The two manage to pull Sophie free from the machine as it tries to pull her in, finding a desiccated corpse and the hologram that is apparently trying to bring the ship a new pilot.

...and it decides that the Doctor is perfect, and thus begins to draw him in. The Doctor realizes that Craig is the exact opposite of what the ship needs and that only he can shut it off, being that he has no desire to go anywhere or has any aspirations of leaving. The Doctor tells him to focus on every reason he wants to stay there, Craig saying that it's Sophie. He loves Sophie. She replies much the same. They both touch the glowing orb that has killed multiple people as they kiss, overloading the bootleg TARDIS and causing the three to have to run for their lives to get out. Outside, they watch as the top floor turns into a silver cylindrical ship with legs that winks out of existence. Going back in, they find the dry rot is gone as well.

Craig and Sophie are happily together now and the Doctor attempts to sneak off without being noticed. Craig gives him the keys to the flat as a memento, telling him that he knows he won't be coming back any time soon given what he's seen in his head.

Also, behind Craig's fridge... there is a crack in the wall that begins to glow...

Reunited with Amy, the Doctor is preparing to fulfill the paradox that got them there in the first place. Telling Amy to get a red pen, she digs in his coat pocket... and finds Rory's engagement ring still in the box. The crack on Craig's wall begins to expand as Amy holds it... a sinister Murray Gold score playing over as we end the episode.

The Lodger isn't bad. Issues with James Cordon in real life aside, he does fine here as Craig. Sort of an Everyman anti-Doctor who just wants to do regular things like go to the pub, play football, and profess his undying love for Sophie.

It's an okay one and done, but kind of ruined for me by the fact that we really don't find out much of anything about the primitive TARDIS. Now, this sort of connects to things we see in Series 6... sort of, a bit. I won't go there now due to spoiler territory, but I will say that this... doesn't connect to that for a few reasons, namely the question of what killed the original pilot.

That, however, is for later. Next time, we'll be getting into something much more interesting and much more fleshed out. The Doctor and Amy find the very first message ever written and must travel to Stonehenge in the distant past to save... the universe.

No, really.

Next time, The Pandorica Opens.

Be. There!