Rate & Discuss: The Lodger
There’s a house on Aickman road, and a staircase that people go up, but never down. To solve the mystery of the man upstairs, the Doctor faces his greatest challenge yet - he must pass himself off as a perfectly normal human being, and share a flat with Craig Owens.
It’s common knowledge that the Doctor has more than just a passing interest in the weird and wonderful rituals acquired by the human race, but it’s not very often he gets to experience them for himself. In tonight’s adventure, he was given the opportunity to witness first hand the joys of life as an Earthling, only this time he didn’t have to endure the painful procedure of rewriting his Time Lord biological structure. Ouch…
When ordinary Craig Owens sent out an ordinary advert for a new ordinary lodger, he had no reason to suspect that by answering his ordinary frontdoor, he’d be greeted by anything other than… well, ordinary! How wrong he was, and from the moment the Doctor bounded over the threshold, it was pretty clear that things were never going to be quite the same again.
The Doctor, as the Doctor often is, was a Time Lord on a mission, and, when he wasn’t playing football or showing off omlette-making skills that would put even the likes of Jamie Oliver to shame, he was working hard behind the scenes to piece together the mystery of the noisy neighbour, and the staircase that people went up, but never down…
What did you make of The Lodger? Let us know by airing your views in a comment on this very post, and don’t forget that you can also give the episode a rating out of 5.
It was a very funny and good episode, it almost felt as if it was a crossover between Gavin & Stacey and Doctor Who. James Corden was brilliant as ever and we saw a brand new side to the Doctor. I take it this was a companion-lite episode?
Loved it! That’s two great episodes in a row, good stuff! Very funny episode, too. Corden was really good I thought.
This is a really great Episode! James Corden was funny and entertaining. And also the ending was a great lead up to the final. And also the Episode didn’t mostly result around Amy so much. It was about The Doctor. So that means that next week is Amy’s turn.
i thought it was very good but was wondering if anyone else noticed the shadowy figure behind amy when she found the ring in the doctors pocket and if anyone has any ideas what it ment
FANTASTIC episode, this series really is a cracker – get it??? LOL, the cracks….nevermind!!!
I noticed that too Sarah :O, I’m so excited for next week, I’m screaming inside at what is gonna be the best EPISODE EVER!!!!!!!
Brilliant, my fav series ever
A fantastic episode! basic, simple and exciting. I really am starting to get into this new season
Quick spoilerish question for anyone who’s already seen this (I live in the USA so haven’t watched it yet):
I read a review that mentioned Matt’s shower scene having “…full nudity (yes, actual nakedness… and it’s not brief)”, which made me a bit concerned. But surely they couldn’t have gotten frontal nudity past the BBC content board…? Am I correct in assuming that it was just a rear shot?
I wasn’t even a rear shot Anon! You just saw the top half and the bottom half and no middle half where u would find…u know what I mean!!! But it was very funny!!!
I’m surprised anyone watched the episode given all eyes were on itv tonight. More ludicrous scheduling from the BBC. Someone there must not like the series.
I’ve got to be honest, in the face of adversity, lol, I’m not sure about this episode.
I’ll start off by saying it wasn’t bad, I enjoyed it for what it was, but I’m back to wondering what the point was again. I know people won’t agree, that’s ok, but where Vincent and The Doctor had a rich and full story for it’s time, The Lodger didn’t really, it was just a load of events.
That’s the bad. The good is that parts of this episode were cool. I liked the reference to Vincent and The Doctor with the postcard of his self-portrait stuck on the fridge, I liked the different luring tactics of the hologram aboard the alien ship, using different vunerable personas to attract people. A shame that it didn’t tell us how it got there, when it got there and what happened to it’s original pilot.
I liked how the ship was able to disrupt the Tardis and keep it from landing, audibly hearing the Tardis fighting to materialise with repeated thumps. I also found it interesting that when Amy found the ring, the crack responded and seemed to grow or intensify.
In response to Anonymous, I didn’t see any kind of proper nudity unless I missed something, all I think it was was him wrapped in a towel after going in the shower, but as I said, I could have looked away and missed it or something.
Overall though, this episode was a decent episode for what it was, but personally I’ve seen a lot stronger episodes this season.
@Anonymous
All you saw was his top half, waist up, no back or front naughty bits.
This episode really did charm me; Moffat episodes aside, it’s up with the best of the rest this year for me.
This weeks episode was very funny can’t wait for next weeks
@OliLord @JC @TWWL Thanks everyone, that’s a relief!
@Tom Versey
‘Fraid not. This year was different: the Amy-based episode was Amy’s Choice, whilst The Lodger was the Doctor-based episode, with both obviously not being Doctor/Companion-lite stories.
To be honest, tonight’s episode was fantastic and is definitely a high-ranking episode but had a tough job trying to compete with last week’s stunner. Next week’s episode, however, looks absolutely fantastic, especially the CGI when the — (;))wraps itself around Amy’s arm.
Great episode…8/10
This episode for me showed the real differences between david tennants doctor and matt smiths
CGI was good and i loved the doctor playing soccer, espeicly with the word cup on atm
Next weeks looks intense
also loving the trailers for this series! not like prevois ones that just showed clips with the theme song in the backround,
So good so good ahhhh I think this was the best yet of this series!! And next week’s trailer looked AMAZING!!! My family is giving me weird looks because I’m so excited!!!
Ok, deep breaths…
@Steve
Yeah I thought the football bit was great, both because of the World Cup and because if I remember correctly Matt Smith was going to be a footballer instead of an actor, until he was injured.
haha yeh and he’s pretty good too
unless they just used the a stunt double to do it
it was a good episode, and i t did seam james was playing smithy with a different name, but you want that from james cordon. deffinitly onr of the best in the series