I watched this one late last night when I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t bring my laptop, so I didn’t write notes.
So the obvious thing to do is to compare “Closing Time” with “The Lodger.” What’s the Lodger? It was the other episode with James Corden.
Both episodes had a mediocre story. Both episodes are Amy/Rory-light episodes. Both episodes are silly. The problem though is that while “The Lodger” has a rough idea of a story, it doesn’t focus on it, the episode is really about the relationship between Craig (James Corden) and the Doctor (Matt Smith, do I need to write that?). “Closing Time” is very plot focused, plus it adds a screaming baby.
Screaming babies should be banned from television (and the world).
While there are some really cute moments in the story–Alfie calling himself Stormageddon, the Doctor’s love of his name tag, companion vs partner–so much time is spent focusing on the Cybermen, and we never really care. I’m more interested in why Amy is a model now. Also the fact that it’s been about 200 years since we last saw the Doctor in the previous episode, and why? What is gained by that 200 year jump. His circumstances have no changed and it’s only because a they established those 200 years in “The Impossible Astronaut.”
Overall, it was a sequel that didn’t need to exist.