Doctor Who Season 6: 5 Questions About “Closing Time”

Sunday, September 25th, 2011 at 9:30am

by Graeme McMillan
Feature, Television

142 Comments

Doctor Who Season 6: 5 Questions About “Closing Time”

After dropping off Amy and Rory last week, it’s no surprise that the Doctor would seek out another old friend in this week’s “Closing Time.” But as we edge ever closer to the Doctor’s demise, it’s no surprise that we’ve got five questions about last night’s episode…

What’s With All The Children?
There’s been a very obvious uptick in the number of stories over the last couple of seasons centering around children, hasn’t there? Not just episodes like this one, “Night Terrors,” “A Christmas Carol” or “The Beast Below,” but the entire Amy/Rory/Melody arc. At first I presumed it was then-new showrunner Steven Moffat getting back in touch with the show’s roots as a kids’ show, but at this point, I can’t help wondering if it’s something else. As the series has gotten noticably darker, I’m beginning to suspect that we’re supposed to be paying more attention to the way children view the Doctor, and view the world. Think about the future reports we overheard as the Doctor said goodbye… Is there something about the simplicity of a child’s view? Given Craig’s idea that the Doctor always saves the day, and that beside him is the best place to be… Is that actually what this season is all about (Remember, Amy has that childlike belief in him too, even after last week’s episode)? An admittedly long-winded way of proving that simple belief to be true?

What Kind Of War Was The Silence Waging?
We’ve seen armies prepare to wage war – and lose – and we’ve seen the Silence inspire an intergalactic pact between all of the Doctor’s enemies to try and save reality, but what if both of those were just diversions from what they were really up to? What if the Silence’s true objective was to manipulate the Doctor into the frame of mind that he’s in now, that he is dangerous, and deadly to those around him, and that he should not only be alone, but allow himself to be killed? What if the only way the Doctor can be killed is by being convinced that there’s no reason to think of a way out of it?

I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: There’s a marked difference in this Doctor’s attitude towards potential death than there was the previous incarnation’s, at the end of “The End of Time.” Maybe the only way to kill the Doctor is to make him think that he deserves to die.

What if the Silence’s true war was always a psychological one, and the Doctor was too arrogant to ever see it coming?

When Did This Episode Take Place?
The Doctor has been on a “farewell tour” since leaving Amy and Rory last week, and given that he’s become convinced that he’s going to die “tomorrow,” then that tour must have taken up the thousands of years he’d apparently aged by the time he died in “The Impossible Astronaut.” But why does he die “tomorrow” – Does this episode take place on July 21st 2011, and he’s being literal? Did the Doctor know what his exact age was when he died, and it’s going on his own internal chronometer? What does “tomorrow” actually mean, here? And also…

Amy Is A Famous Model? What?
The revelation that Amy was apparently a famous model seemed to come out of nowhere, and the tagline for her perfume ad (“For The Girl Who’s Tired of Waiting”) seemed weirdly coincidental, considering the rest of her history. This all feels like it’s very important, but I have no idea what any of it means. And, getting back to my last question: If this episode takes place the literal day before the Doctor was murdered, does that mean Amy’s been a famous model during this entire season? Even considering this being a time travel show, unless the Doctor returned her to the day after she got in the Tardis in “The Impossible Astronaut,” wouldn’t someone have missed her by now, if she was a celebrity?

Where Is The Twist?
The closing of this episode set up “The Impossible Astronaut” too well: We saw where the Doctor got the hat and the envelopes – but not, importantly, why he invited everyone to meet up with him… unless it’s part of his “farewell tour,” or simply to complete a timeloop – and also saw River revealed, finally, as the Impossible Astronaut. But… something else is going on, and it’s in plain sight, but I can’t work out what it is. It’s connected to the Doctor’s “final trip” in the Tardis, I get that, and more importantly, related to the Doctor getting his mojo back from his experience in Craig, which reaffirmed not only his love for humanity, and his belief in the power of love – Sentimental, like he said, but important, especially in this show – but, far, far most important of all, his belief in himself. I don’t believe that the Doctor at the end of this episode was resigned to his death in the same way that he was at the start. And I think that will end up making all the difference in the end.

I just can’t work out how.

Next week: All will be revealed, including how the Doctor can avoid death. Theories? Ideas? It’s your last chance to guess how everything will end in the comments below!

Tags: Closing Time, Doctor Who Season 6, Doctor Whom 5 Questions About

Lufio

If the Silence are waging a mental war on the Doctor, it’s possible that they’ve been with him and his companions on the TARDIS, gathering intel and planting suggestions. If so, that slogan for Amy’s perfume, “For the Girl Who’s Tired of Waiting”, is a direct assault on the Doctor’s idealistic perception of her as “The Girl Who Waited”, the one with the unshakable faith in him; thus, making him doubt his worth.

The Silence are obviously still around despite their orders to be terminated on sight. There is a possibility that these orders are just an illusion to make the Doctor think that he had won so that he would let his guard down so that they could stow away aboard the TARDIS, gathering intel and implanting suggestions. There was also a 3 month period in 1969 where the Doctor and his companions were all on the run from the Silence where they had ample opportunity to plant more suggestions.

Two questions:

Is there anything preventing one of the Silence to reverse an order? Is there a connection between the Doctor’s new ability to shush people and the Silence? I say yes on both counts.
+40 Teenage Werewolf

At the end of season five, after all the running around with
Amy & Amelia, the exploding Tardis is earth’s lone star sun, the stone
Daleck, the last Centurion, and the Doctor wearing a fez , there is a quite
moment just before The Doctor reboots the universe when he tells Amy that he
will return her parents. There was only a mention in the first episode that
little Amelia had no parents. But the Doctor had figured out that that had been
the real problem all along. Maybe this time he will return Amy and Rory’s baby daughter
and Melody can grown up with a real
childhood and a proper family?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

That doesn’t make any sense. The Doctor began regenerating before he died. That robot can’t do that.
Lew Stringer

I think the 100 or 200 year gap is between this episode and the next.

As for something else going on in plain sight, during last week’s episode in one of the shots from the hotel cam, the voice of eyepatch woman could be heard saying “pupils are dilated”. This would suggest that either The Doctor, Amy or Rory is a ganger.
Dpcoltx

Ok, what if…
The real dr did that time watch thingie like the master did. The dr dies, revealing it to be a ganger. Rory then awakens to something and voila! He was the dr all along. Source: the girl who waited; rory: you’re trying to turn me into you.

But then if the dr marries river, and as rory married Amy…..
Douglasbrowning2

didnt anyone relize those three kids were rose donna and roses bf from the ninth dr series
Bill Reed

Makes no sense with Amy’s famous status, however.
Bill Reed

They aren’t going in exact opposite order, otherwise why would they compare notes, and how would they both have done Jim the Fish?
Bob52158

could not the dr come back like capt jack did in tourchwood when he was burned up the fire he was in was not enough to complectly comsume his body
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

That makes no sense. This episode was in 2011.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

The Doctor is not immortal. If he dies before he can finish regenerating, he dies for good. Which he did in “The Impossible Astronaut.”
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

Lol even though I still get a daily paper.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

Sure it does. We have no idea how Rory and Amy were making money while the Doctor was gone between series five and six. They’ve not commented on it once (personally, I’m convinced the Doctor steals everything he gets, like Rory’s car; so the issue of finance would never come up).
Jcupach

One BIG clue in this episode, I thought, was the screwdriver. Did it ever shoot a beam like that before?

Also, I don’t understand how he knows when he is going to die exactly. He knows the date but if you’re a time traveller that’s kind of meaningless. Amy and company knows how old the Doctor is when he dies, but I don’t think her ever told him that information. And even then wouldn’t he have to know his age in terms of years and days?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

Or he could just decide he’s ready to face it. Like you said, he’s a time traveler. He could go running forever. And he did, for a while. But now he’s ready.
Michael Novick

this may be nothing, but ive been thinking about it since it happened.

What ever happened to the Doctors daughter, from Episode 6 of Season 4. Is she part of this time line, can/will she Intervene!?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

She regenerated (partially) and went off to have her own adventures.

Yes (why wouldn’t she be?).

No (I think it’s obvious she wants nothing to do with dear old Dad).
bmumble

He downloaded information from the Tessalector. Considering that the knowledge they had was from the future, it probably also had information regarding the Doctor, which let him work out when in his own timeline the events will happen. Add that to the fact that he’s been investigating his own death since Amy told him about it back in The Almost People… I’m sure it’s easy for him to work out when he’s going to die when he has all that fore-knowledge…
bmumble

but that will mess with River’s timeline… eg. she won’t be in the stormcages for killing ‘a good man’; she won’t try to kill the Doctor, then revive him and later become someone whom the Doctor trusts with his name…. and other such stuff…
conjecturaltechnologies

Well, no one says the Doctor has to survive Silencio Lake for the series to continue, even with Matt Smith. I mean, we’ve got 200 years to play with, in-between the Doctor’s age at the end of season five (and the beginning of six, when we see him for the second time, in the diner). There’s no rule saying the seasons of Doctor Who have to be consecutive. And as was stated earlier, the fixed point in time is that the Doctor dies at a specific time & place. The specifics of how, and what regeneration he’s on when he does can change, because those differences wouldn’t create any kind of paradox, so long as they don’t involve him interfering with his own time stream.

All that said, I sincerely doubt this is what Moffat is planning. Overall, this season at least *seems* to be a lot more straightforward than season 5. In all likelihood, the Doctor will simply be able to avoid death somehow. I’d suspect our Doctor has been a ganger since “The Rebel Flesh” onward, if it weren’t for that melting scene at the end of Pt. 2 of that storyline, if I remember correctly. But I’m not convinced the ganger Doctor isn’t involved.

And there are still essentially 3 mysteries that are unsolved (or at least not solved to my satisfaction) from season 5. It was stated that the Doctor caused the cracks in the universe. We still haven’t seen when or how. And remember how the TARDIS was drawn to a specific date and it seemed there had already been a TARDIS on Amelia’s lawn at the time?

Also, is the fact that the Silents seemed to be building a makeshift TARDIS enough of an answer to the mystery posed by “The Lodger” in season 5? Why was it abandoned? Because the Doctor defeats the Silents in 1969? It seems like kind of a big deal for The Silence (religious order, not the creature) to be developing TARDISes, and a plot point not to be glossed-over.

It’s also my understanding that our Doctor for this season is not the Doctor for last season, but this theory is really tentative, and I also doubt Moffat would use it. Remember that Amy’s memories “rebooted” the universe — remade it from a new big-bang. The Doctor on the other side of the cracks is still outside of time. Our Doctor from season 6 belongs to the “rebooted” universe, and there is another Doctor on the other side of the cracks in complete isolation.

And has anyone ever wondered what the TARDIS will do when the Doctor dies? “The Doctor’s Wife” has certainly cemented the idea that the TARDIS is a living entity with a strong connection and affection for the Doctor. Is it conceivable that the TARDIS could try to save the Doctor after he dies and thus cause the cracks in the universe in season 5?
Me

Yeah, Ganger Doctor is the obvious way out. They hammered home ‘HE IS THE DOCTOR’ just like Canton did as he burned the dead one.

Expect plotholes, mild disappointment, and some completely unpredictable 11th hour changes.
Companion

>11th hour
No pun intended, right?
Lorie Taylor 28

I was going to mention the daughter as well.

And as per Jacob’s thought on that, I didn’t get the impression she wanted nothing to do with him, more that there was more to see and do before she settled a little, she is after all, her fathers daughter, a wandering spirit and all that.
Ruckergsc

I love all the theories on this so far… In the states where I am I hardly get to discuss this with anyone. Now back onto the subject at hand. I think the poster of Amelia was important but for another reason all together. In the beginning of the season remember how the doctor communicated to Amelia? Through history books. He was leaving her messages (at least she thought so) for her to figure out. What if all this is for Amelia to rescue the Doctor? What if now it is her leaving HIM messages, like on the poster? Similar to how Rose left bad wolf for the Doctor? I think if we look at the season as a whole the gangers are a side track as are the Silence and the question. The time Lords in general are being hinted at strongly, with all the old,dead Tardis lying on the planet from “The Doctor’s Wife”. I know we have not seen any of them yet, but that means that alot of them have been buzzing around for quite a while. Why would none of them help the Doctor? What is it that makes the Doctor so special that they all leave him be? Why does it always have to be him? I can’t wait till Saturday!!
Lars

The TARDIS exploding caused the cracks in the universe. The Alliance assumed it was The Doctor’s fault because he “is the only one who can control the TARDIS”.

And the marks on the lawn were from a space ship from The Alliance looking for things to make the trap for The Doctor and Amy at Stonehenge.
Lorie Taylor

I was thinking something similar about the his death, a paradox, the tardis and the cracks. I’d forgotten there was a second trapped on the other side, and if Rose could get through from that sealed off world to help in that last epi she was in, why can’t the doctor shift?

I’ve also considered that the one who’d died might be a flesh, or perhaps he’s regrown a second half life, like the one of #10 built from his hand. He may not be able to fully regenerate, but, who’s to say there isn’t enough residual energy to simulate the process.
Pedro

THE TWIST: here’s a crazy notion, which I haven’t yet seen addressed. Remember when in “The Girl Who Waited” the Doctor went about trying to generate a paradox within the Tardis so that *both* Amy’s could coexist? There is a strange moment there when he flicks N buttons on the Tarids, large noise AND THEN sudden quiet, and the Doctor turns back, as if looking at something or someone.

What if it DID work, and the Doctor was able to “split time”, creating an alternate version of himself? THAT’s the Doctor who will eventually die in Lake Silencio, but who wnet on to take an extra 200 years of adventures, alone, before returning in this episode and heading towards his doom. The other Doctor, however, is quietly waiting for events to unfold, allowing the Silence to believe his death and then reappearing.

That would also “explain” what the Doctor saw inside Room 11 last week – himself, or more to the point, his Other Self, the one who’ll die in Utah.

As for the explosion of the Tardis last year, that one was also bugging me to no end, but since in this season we’ve seen that River has been programmed by the Silence (and Rory wonders if she still has bits of that programming left, even after saving the Doctor in “Let’s Kill Hitler”), here’s a possibility: the Silence wish to use the tardis to bring about the End of the Universe, after the “question has been asked”. To that end they programme River to cause a massive explosion within the Tardis. Notice how at the end of last season River is left completely alone inside the Tardis. Could it be she was “activated” then?

MAD THEORY TIME: I’ve been cracking my skull trying to figure who the identity of the one-eyed guy shown in the trailers is. He looks a bit like a Viking, but the eye-patch, shared by Madame Kovarian of the Silence, is telling. Suddenly, an idea: Odin of the Norse Gods was also blind in one eye – he gave one of his eyes for all the knowledge of the world. Odin had a strange relation with the End of the World, he knew it was coming but tried to avoid it at all costs. Plus, Norse Gods would make sense of the Viking motif! So, could it be that the eye patch Kovarian (and River, judging from next week’s trailer) uses is a symbol of allegiance to Odin?

Want some more evidence for Odin being that guy? Remember in “Silence in the Library”, when River asks the Doctor if they’ve already had their picnic at ASGARD…?

Overall: thanks for the five questions, and I’m loving this season. The Doctor’s never been as good as under Moffat, in my opinion. And the week will seem sloooooooow until saturday arrives,
kookoo

I too have thought this is a likely outcome
Xombygod

The doctor will die but it will be a “Flesh” doctor just as amy was fake the Doc will be fake, There is even a “flesh” River, I say they will have been flesh all along to double cross the silence.
Because the storms end facility where river stays and breaks out of, It must have been run by the silence all along.
off topic but just hit me.
But why do I think they will be flesh?
Be cause they are selling two action figs. one is a flesh doctor the other is a flesh river. And we never actually saw the flesh doctor die!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

Don’t expect any of that. The RTD era is over.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

It’s been a couple hundred years… She could’ve looked him up at any point in all of that.
Chojinotaku

Tweed coat = our Doctor, new long coat = fake “flesh” Doctor?
Shawn

I think the Doctor is more accepting with Death now because now he knows for a fact that his death is a fixed point in time. It says so on his TARDIS screen, and that definitely means it cant be changed. Many times the Doctor has prevented from changing fixed points in history, and this is again one of it. Before dying he tried to have as much fun as possible for 200 years. And now he’s done everything he’s needed to. The Doc said that knowing the future was what made u make the decisions in the present. And thus knowing his coming death is what makes him make all the choices he does until his death.
Ronnie

We never see a flesh River at all…..
Xombygod

Ohh MAN I GET IT! ‘The silence will fall when the question is asked’! The question the doctor asked Loki(?) ‘Why do I have to die?
So if this whole season has been a mindscrew by the silence to get the doctor to go peacefully, Then when he ask’s why, Then he will fight back and the silence will fall.
Like the person below says there are 11 episodes that have children or childlike characters, So the doctor sees himself as our protector and when amy loses faith so does he. Now craig restores it. but will the flesh Dr. and River save the day.
Cyberdalek

The dying Doctor is not going to turn out to be a Ganger.
I doubt anything about the TARDIS exploding last season is relevant to this.
I don’t believe Amy is trying to leave him messages with her adverts.
I do believe, however that The Doctor accepting his death was a hypnotic suggestion brought on by a Silent. I’m assuming the Silent that suggested this was what he saw in his personal hotel room.

Also, there IS someone behind the shed in the background on Lake Silencio right before The Doctor died.
FrancieBrady

Actually, I think the Doctor said knowing your future is what allows you to change it, which was an implication, to me at least, that he was going to alter his own.
Lufio

Just had a thought: if the Doctor who dies at Lake Silencio is in fact the Flesh Doctor, how could we account for the regeneration process kicking in? Is 200 years the amount of time required for the TARDIS to alter someone’s genetic make-up? River was conceived on the TARDIS, so I’m willing to give her a pass.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QKN5MHOI6VUFOYCTV5REK7M7A4 Jacob

It was never denied that the Flesh Doctor could regenerate.
Imnutamunkey

dont care for matt smith hope he regenerates to an older guy or even to a previous form (david tennant) just lose the baby boy smith and ill be happy.
Lorie Taylor

Perhaps it’s a case that she’s just lost track of time, sort of thing, bound to happen when you have an infinite amount of it. There were also rumours that we haven’t seen the last of her, pretty pointless imho to give him a kid if we never see her again. Writers are always thinking that far ahead, where can this character potentially go…
Lorie Taylor

Agreed that’s a possibility, but he has also said time and again how strong the survival instinct is. Yes, he is willing to self sacrifice to save others, but not if he can find a way out, and how is this a case of self sacrifice, if it is, there really isn’t any foreshadowing, at least not obviously enough for there to be a path.
Anonymous

I just had a thought maybe we are all overthinking it.
We know what happens at lake silencio we saw it already. But maybe episode 13 will be a what if? episode.
The doctor goes to some alien and says what if I had died?
Then we get all the weird dinosaurs and stuff.
But I still say the flesh doctor will die.
Lorie Taylor

ah, but in the christmas 2005 epi with the sicaracks, (likely spelled wrong) he says that you can’t hypnotize anyone to death, the survival instinct is too strong. It would be one thing for him to self sacrifice for others, if, and only if, there is no alternative, another for him to just lay down and die, that’s not true to his character.

That said, I can see the silents playing psychological warfare on him, being a thinking man, it’d be their best weapon, something subtle, over a long period of time. However, the goal of the hotel rooms were to amplify their greatest fears. I don’t think he’s afraid of himself, not in such an obvious way. I think he saw rory and amy, dead, along with the others he’s cared for, it’s why he sent them home once they got out.
Lorie Taylor

The Tardis could give him that. It gave power to both Donna and Rose, as well as regrew #10 from his hand, why not for this purpose, especially if the flesh doesn’t feel pain, it wouldn’t get the agony that the real doctor would.
Ronnie

Would the flesh burn….or just explode though…..maybe the read Doctor did die but with the Flesh Doctor traveling around in the TARDIS….gives him more “real” Doctor like qualities…
Lorie Taylor

As much as I loved David Tennant as the doctor and I didn’t like Matt Smith originally, I think he’s adapted well to the role. He conveys the quirkiness and the ageless wonder as well as the usually hidden angst, not easy to do.
Cyberdalek

I had forgotten about the Christmas special, Maybe they didn’t command him to accept his death, but maybe instead they made him realize everything he told Amy, about how he wasn’t a hero and was just dangerous. I’m sure psychological warfare was involved though.

I believe it was himself in the Hotel room. He is afraid of himself, Afraid of what he can do, and what he has done.
Cyberdalek

I wonder who is behind the organization of The Silence, Its not Daleks, or Cybermen, or anyone from the Alliance of Series 5, because they knew nothing of what was going on. Whoever it is, they must have some serious history with The Doctor to go to such lengths to see him dead.
Cyberdalek

I would love to see an old Doctor again, but it would be terrible if he regenerated into Ten.

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