History Recap / DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger

* AdaptationExpansion: As mentioned above, it's based on a comic strip that originally starred Ten and Mickey. It was a nine-page comic; this is a 45-minute episode. In an odd coincidence, the football game was already in the original comic. Since Creator/MattSmith used to play the game, this plot element was kept unchanged for the episode.

* AmbiguousEnding: It's not certain if the crack in the wall wrote Craig and Sophie out of history or not. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E12ClosingTime We later find out that they were fine.]]

-->'''The Doctor:''' Annihilate? No. No violence, not when I'm around; not now, not ever. I'm the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, and you basically meant beat them in a football match didn't you.\\

** The first one includes Doctors Nine, Ten, Eight and Four-through-One, as well as brief glimpses of Rose, the Cybermen, the Ood and a Weeping Angel.

* CannotSpitItOut: Craig and Sophie, even though EveryoneCanSeeIt, say nothing.

** The Doctor refers to his [[TheNthDoctor eleven lives]].

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Even the ''Eleventh Doctor'', awkward-at-romance and occasional [[FailedASpotCheck misser of the obvious]], notices Craig and Sophie fancy each other.

** For a brief moment when inside the makeshift TARDIS, we see the corpse of... something with four fingers. Considering that the Silence have four fingers, and that the makeshift TARDIS may be the same one the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon encounter in 1969]], it may be a corpse belonging to one of the Silence River shot. And notice how it seems the Doctor forgets about the corpse after looking at it; another trademark of the Silence.

* MarySue: [[invoked]]Deconstructed. The Doctor has a lot of the traits you'd expect from a Mary Sue for this episode, but he drives Craig nuts and after three days he can't stand him. Basically, it shows how a normal person would find the Doctor if they didn't know he was a centuries old super-smart alien — they'd think he was just an overly-clever, annoying person.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: The Doctor's been established to have psychic touch abilities, but this is the first appearance of the psychic ''headbutt''. Note the writers covering their butts on future fans saying "Why doesn't the Doctor do this thing again" in unwritten episodes by having the Doctor clearly say how much he regrets doing it and how painful it is.
* NoSell: Due to his Time Lord physiology, the Doctor is unaffected by the localized time loops affecting Colchester, and goes about his business as if they aren't even there.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: And a ShoutOut to two Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series — "Hello, I'm [[{{Series/Stingray 1964}} Captain Troy Handsome]] of [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} International Rescue]]."

** While talking to the hologram, the Doctor delivers a deadpan [[Series/StarTrekVoyager "Please state the nature of the emergency"]]. Bonus points for quoting the only other fictional "doctor" most people would know of and [[UpToEleven extra bonus points]] for quoting ''another'' "Emergency Hologram".

* SickeninglySweet: Amy's reaction to Craig and Sophie's mutual love confession.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: {{Invoked|Trope}}: Amy's reaction to Craig and Sophie's mutual love confession.

[[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent This is]] ''Series/TheLateLateShow with Creator/JamesCorden'', and tonight, we've got Carpool Karaoke with Creator/MattSmith!

** The Doctor making Craig an omelette may be a reference to ''Series/GavinAndStacy'', which Creator/JamesCorden starred in and co-wrote, in which the only food Stacy's mum ever seemed to cook was omelettes.

Understandably, Craig's a bit pissed off with the Doctor by this point. So much so that he decides to disregard the Doctor's earlier warning and touches the patch of rot, which seems to be growing. By the next morning, he's near-death, his system poisoned by the lethal residue of whatever is happening upstairs. Happening upon him in the nick of time, the Doctor whips up a miracle cure that seems to be composed [[SpotOfTea mainly of tea]] (including a used bag from the bin) and feeds it to him. Craig survives, but is significantly weakened. By the time he wakes up, it's a quarter to three and he's ''very'' late for work.

* SpotOfTea: The amazing curative properties of tea are displayed again. This time the miracle cure for the "whatever" leaking through the ceiling is a pot of really strong tea made with all the teabags in the flat (including one rescued from the bin). While collecting teabags, the Doctor is saying "Right, reverse the enzyme decay, excite the tannin molecules."

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheOneWith The one where]] ''Series/DoctorWho'' suddenly became a {{Sitcom}} and a RomCom without missing a beat.]]

** The Doctor tells the ship's autopilot that he's from [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} International Rescue]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: So, what would ruining your friendship ''completely'' entail that makes you look so happy?

* AmbiguousEnding: It's not certain if the crack in the wall wrote Craig and Sophie out of history or not. [[spoiler:[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E12ClosingTime We later find out that they were fine.]]]]

* AmbiguousEnding: It's not certain if the crack in the wall wrote Craig and Sophie out of history or not.

Craig Owens, the man who lives in the flat below the aforementioned one with the ominous glowy door, needs a lodger for the extra room in his flat. It's rather nice aside from what appears to be some very nasty dry rot in the corner of the ceiling. Craig's best friend Sophie (really, they're JustFriends!) spends almost every night at his house already, but he's too {{Adorkable}} to let her know just how welcome she'd be to move in. His previous flatmate has just moved out, having very conveniently received a windfall in the will of an elderly relative he didn't even know he had. This just ''happens'' to be amazingly convenient for the Doctor, who both needs a place to stay and a base of operations to investigate what's going on upstairs and get the TARDIS back. He's managed to trace the source of the strange things happening to this house.

* {{Technobabble}}: The Doctor's scanner, made out of things like an oar, a rake, a lamp, etc., is described as "non-technological technology from Lamistine".

-->'''Doctor:''' Had some time to kill, I was curious. Never worked in an office — never worked in anywhere!\\

** There also seem to be a couple of connections between this story and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]": both have glitches in time, and the spaceship at the end looks a lot like a Jagaroth spaceship, which wanted to use a Time Lord to build a time machine.

[[{{Troll}} Psyche!]] [[ActorAllusion But we can't be the only ones thinking it.]]

Craig's a little taken aback by the suddenness of the Doctor's arrival, not least because he only put the ad in the newsagent's window that morning. The Doctor has a big paper bag full of money for rent (Is it a lot? He can't tell.), a reference from the Archbishop of Canterbury (thanks to the psychic paper) and he likes the place. He takes note of the mystical rot, warns Craig not to touch it and promises to fix it soon. So begins the Doctor's greatest challenge: he must pass himself off as a perfectly normal human being, and share a flat with Craig Owens.

The Doctor's plan means that he cannot use any of his usual technological gadgets in order to help him solve the problem, as it would enable the creature to detect him. It also requires him to blend in as an ordinary human -- quite difficult, considering he's a time-travelling alien who wears a bowtie. Amy's helpful suggestion that he ditch the bowtie is soundly rejected, and her other suggestions about "ordinary bloke" activities (drinking, watching telly and playing football) are not the kind of things he's usually known for. Before she can give further advice, the TARDIS is once again buffeted by a powerful time distortion, and a localised time loop plays merry hell with the clocks inside the building as, on the upstairs floor, something very nasty happens to the poor clubber.

Craig receives a call from his mates, informing him that his side in the pub league is one man short, so Craig politely asks the Doctor if he wants to make up the numbers. It's not drinking, as the Doctor first suspects, but football -- and although he's not sure whether it's "the one with the sticks" or not, he's willing to give it a go.

It's a powerful one, this time. The TARDIS' zigzag plotter, previously kept to the "safe" level of four, is now showing nines. The Doctor manages to talk Amy through piloting the console, stabilising the buffeting -- before the time distortion would force the TARDIS back into the vortex, casting her adrift forever. It's getting more powerful, and the Doctor is running out of time.

When Craig gets to his call centre he discovers that that he has a new stand-in -- the Doctor, kindly covering his shift for him and having quite a blast, but managing to drive away his customers with his blunt phone manner. He was a great success in the planning meeting as well, acting as Craig's representative, so Craig's boss absolutely loves him. Sophie's applied to act as a volunteer for a wildlife charity abroad, nervously asking him if it's okay. Might be a good time to speak up, Craig, hint-hint... except Craig's completely discombobulated at this point and just staggers off home.

The old man appears, demanding that the Doctor -- or "[[{{Series/Stingray 1964}} Captain Troy Handsome]] of [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} International Rescue]]", as he announces himself -- help him. The ship crashed, the crew are dead, and the old man (and its various other forms) is the ship's emergency hologram, trying to find a replacement pilot. It's burnt seventeen humans to a crisp doing so already, and is quite happy to work through the other six billion four hundred thousand and twenty-six in the process. It won't have to now, however, because the Doctor, an alien, has arrived, and is more than suited to piloting it away safely.

Wrong. The Doctor's a worse choice: the machine is too much for humans to handle, but the Doctor is too much for the ''machine'' to handle. If he touches it, the resulting energy burst will blow up the solar system. As he's dragged closer to the machine, he realises there's one person here the machine has shown no interest in: Craig. Craig lacked the necessary ''desire'' to pilot the ship, and Sophie was all right too, until the Doctor awakened her latent desire to move on -- but Craig has nowhere else he wants to be. Why is that? Craig is persuaded to touch the machine, and the Doctor demands that he reveal why he's always been so happy to stay exactly where he is.

It's Sophie, of course. The two hastily admit their feelings for each other, and Craig is persuaded to leave the whole monkey discussion for another time by the Doctor, who points out the malfunctioning machine they have to deal with. [[ThePowerOfLove One good kiss is sufficient to switch it off]]. Then they have to leg it downstairs before the ship self-destructs with them on-board. They watch from the street as the ship disappears, leaving the flat as the one-story house that it was always meant to be.

... and there's a crack in the wall behind Craig's fridge.

* AdaptationExpansion: As mentioned above, it's based on a comic strip that originally starred Ten and Mickey. It was a nine-page comic; this is a 45-minute episode.
** In an odd coincidence, the football game was already in the original comic. Since Creator/MattSmith used to play the game, this plot element was kept unchanged for the episode.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: And a ShoutOut to two Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series -- "Hello, I'm [[{{Series/Stingray 1964}} Captain Troy Handsome]] of [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} International Rescue]]."

* CallBack: The Doctor gives Craig (and Sophie, and Sean (from Craig's football team)) "air-kisses" on both cheeks because "that's how people greet each other nowadays, right?" He saw Vincent greet Dr. Black in the last episode that way.

** The Van Gogh postcard on Craig's fridge.

* FailedAttemptAtDrama: The Doctor initially fails to realize that Shawn was talking about football and that "annihilate" was ''figurative''.
* {{Fanservice}}: Eleven's ShirtlessScene. There were many ways they could have done this scene. They opted for the sexiest option. It is somewhat relevant to the plot however, as he proceeds to [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} obliviously hang around half-naked]] in front of the chubby, slovenly Craig and a gleefully leering Sophie. As Craig saw the Doctor as TheAce who was ruining his life and his chances with Sophie, this was yet another strike in the Doctor's "annoying as hell" column.

** There's an example so subtle it's very easy to miss. When we see Amy inside the TARDIS, there are a few times when she appears to be startled by something she sees off-screen, but she then ignores it and doesn't say anything about it to the Doctor; the most obvious example of this can be seen when the Doctor contacts her after his football match. Amy's reactions won't make any sense (and most first-time viewers won't probably even notice them) before we get to the next season, where we learn what the Silence is and how their power works.
** For a brief moment when inside the makeshift TARDIS, we see the corpse of... something with four fingers. Considering that the Silence have four fingers, and that the makeshift TARDIS may be the same one the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon encounter in 1969]], it may be a corpse belonging to one of the Silence River shot. And notice how it seems the Doctor forgets about the corpse after looking at it; another trademark of these Silence.

* IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship: Craig and Sophie for most of the episode; they eventually [[RelationshipUpgrade decide to "ruin their friendship]] ''completely''".
* ImprobableAntidote: The Doctor cures Craig after he has been infected by the 'rot' spreading from the ceiling by feeding him 'agitated tannin molecules'. He does this by stuffing every teabag he can find, including those in the bin, into the teapot and pouring the resultant brew down Craig's throat.

* MarySue: [[invoked]]Deconstructed. The Doctor has a lot of the traits you'd expect from a Mary Sue for this episode, but he drives Craig nuts and after three days he can't stand him. Basically, it shows how a normal person would find the Doctor if they didn't know he was a centuries old super-smart alien -- they'd think he was just an overly-clever, annoying person.

* MoodWhiplash: The episode itself is very funny and optimistic, but it ends fairly abruptly on Amy looking upset and confused at her and Rory's engagement ring, which the Doctor had kept. More minor, but right before Amy describes the Doctor as quite the matchmaker as they wrap the episode up as a definite win, the world safe, the couple happy, etc., Amy then asks "Why can't you find me a man?" Your smile should be gone now. In the end: There. Is. A. Crack. In. The. House. and it was ''growing'', remember what they do? All three of these things happen in quick succession, throwing any warm and fuzzy feeling out the window.

* NakedFirstImpression: The Doctor '''got''' a towel -- a slippery one-- when Sophie steps in to meet him.

* NoSell: Due to his Time Lord physiology, the Doctor is unaffected by the localized time loops affecting Craig's building, and goes about his business as if they weren't even there.
* OmnicidalManiac: Not the usual kind by any means, but the emergency hologram was willing to use up every human on the planet one by one to find a pilot.
* PerceptionFilter: Keeping up a Series 5 tradition, the TARDIS knockoff used one to both disguise itself as the upstairs flat, and make people think there had always been an upstairs flat.

* SchmuckBait: The Doctor tells Craig not to touch the mildew stain. So what does he do?

* ShipperOnDeck: The Doctor pretty quickly cues onto the fact that Craig and Sophie are {{UST}}ing for each other but CantSpitItOut. He tries to help them get together, but he mostly only makes it worse for Craig.
* ShirtlessScene: Eleven gets [[{{Fanservice}} another shirtless scene]] [[http://i49.tinypic.com/50i2h0.jpg and he's wielding unusual weaponry...]] (Slightly NSFW)

** There also seem to be a couple of connections between this story and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]": both have glitches in time, and the spaceship at the end looks a lot like a Jagaroth spaceship, that wanted to use a Time Lord to build a time machine.

* SpotOfTea: The amazing curative properties of tea are displayed again. This time the miracle cure for the "whatever" leaking through the ceiling is a pot of really strong tea made with all the teabags in the flat (including one rescued from the bin). While collecting tea bags, the Doctor is saying "Right, reverse the enzyme decay, excite the tannin molecules."

-->'''Doctor:''' Had some time to kill, I was curious. Never worked in an office - never worked in anywhere!\\
'''Craig:''' You're ''insane.''

Wait... Why does it feel like we're forgetting things..? Doctor..? "Doctor" who...?

It feels like something's missing. Several somethings. Where did they go? They just... disappeared, like something swallowed them up...

Huh? What is TV Tropes...? Where or what is this place...? Oh... that's a pretty light over there... maybe someone will know what's going on there.

When the Doctor and Craig realise this they charge upstairs to the rescue, only to be stopped by Amy, who has discovered a fundamental flaw in their plan. Which is that ''there is no upstairs''. According to the blueprints she's discovered of Craig's place, it's a one-storey building. Intrigued by this development, the Doctor and Craig charge through the door, and discover a makeshift TARDIS copy on the other side. It's dragging Sophie to the console via bolts of lightning. Craig and the Doctor work desperately to free her, only to be surprised when it suddenly lets her go as soon as she looks into Craig's eyes.

[[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent This is]] ''Series/TheLateLateShow with James Corden'', and tonight, we've got Carpool Karaoke with Creator/MattSmith!