Bring Back Craig Owens
Guest contributor James Barnett thinks James Corden’s character is due a comeback.
With the recent launch of Craig Owens’ or should I say James Corden’s new US chat show, I’d like to weigh the good with the bad during Corden’s time on Doctor Who and have a look at whether we’ve really seen enough of this likeable character. I don’t believe that I am alone in viewing this character as a great companion since in a poll conducted by DWTV on the Top 10 One-off Companions in 2012, he came out second overall, second only to Wilfred Mott.
The Good
While “The Lodger” may not be considered one of the truly great episodes (with a recent DWTV reader average score of 7.69), I believe that it is one of the most enjoyable of Series 5 with the introduction of the entertaining Craig Owens portrayed by the talented James Corden.
The importance of this episode in my view is that it provides a certain level of comic relief in a series where there is an otherwise overlying tone of danger and confusion rooted in the story arc that would go on to span the era of Matt Smith’s Doctor.
Here we can see the character of Craig Owens really shine as a one-off companion to Smith’s Doctor. In this simple, average man we saw a contrast to the development of Amy Pond who was beginning to become accustomed to the strange antics of the ‘Raggedy Man’ as her travels with the Doctor progress. Despite his bewilderment at the Doctor’s unusual habits, Craig grew through his first episode to become a friend to the Doctor and even began to exhibit some signs that he could make an interesting, comical companion.
Craig Owens: “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a bit weird?”
The Doctor: “They never really stop.”
The Bad
As with anything, there’s a bad side. Unfortunately for Craig, his bad side comes in the less than appealing form of “Closing Time”.
At first I was excited for this episode combining a classic villain, the Cybermen, with one of my favourite characters from the Eleventh Doctor’s first series. Then the episode started…
Perhaps I’m being unfair, the episode had some great dialogue such as “The Cybermen they blew up! I blew them up with love!” along with the introduction of the hugely popular ‘Stormaggedon, Dark Lord of All’. I speak of course in jest; the fact of the matter is this episode not only pushed down the fear-factor of the Cybermen but also took everything I loved about the character of Craig Owens and destroyed it.
It can be argued that some of the likeable ‘average Joe’ traits we saw exhibited by Craig Owens in “The Lodger” were transferred in this episode, however in response to this I would assert the view that had a lack of credible character development we required in this episode to build upon the companion-like qualities that were founded within Corden’s first episode.
Craig Owens: “The Cybermen they blew up! I blew them up with love!”
The Doctor: “No, that’s impossible. And also grossly sentimental and oversimplistic. You destroyed them because of the deeply ingrained hereditary human trait to protect one’s own genes. Which in turn triggered a… a… Um. Yeah. Love. You blew them up with love.”
Conclusion
It is undeniable that the character suffered from a poorer follow-up episode (6.58 average in the recent recent poll). However if I were to remove the context of “Closing Time” from the equation then I would most certainly conclude that the character should return at some point in the future. It would be most interesting to see the Doctor/Craig dynamic change between Capaldi’s fiercer Doctor and Corden’s simple but affable Craig Owens who would most likely add a different type of humour that was absent from Series 8.
