I have this on DVD, yet encountered it by chance as a TV rerun and could not resist indulging. Despite pandemic world 2020, I was laughing at it and with it, and loving it, within SECONDS...
This Gareth Roberts-written episode is one of many from this period of Doctor Who that allowed the big-arc story to keep its place overall, while not in any sense getting in the way of - or pompously overshadowing - a simple, fun, reasonably plausible stranded-spaceship scenario that does not try too hard, does not become too lofty or portentous ... and does not in any way need to, to make its mark ... WHICH IT DOES SO VERY EFFECTIVELY!!
This is how DW should be done, is not done (or at least not done so well) now, but was done for so many series we were blessed to experience...
By adopting the above strategy, you leave room for effortless, laugh-out-loud-witty (often truly inspired) banter between Matt Smith's Doctor as the new lodger and James Corden's Colchester-resident Craig (as well as with the effortlessly witty and effortlessly gorgeous (if here rather back-seat) Amy Pond played by Karen Gillan).
You could watch it a second time, and still get gags you missed out on first time round!
Yes, someone here (indeed a whole team of people) take(s) pride and joy in attending to layer after layer of tiny details of the plot and dialogue, in a manner that later episodes with later incarnations of the Doctor simply cannot manage, and apparently do not seek to manage. Now fair's fair, that means an element of anarchy and eccentricity that DW's later drive to achieve meaningfully politically correct content or educational value would tend to erase. It also means adeptness at making the best of all the Britishness present (and, let's be clear, our island has ALWAYS been an amazing mix of the mind-blowing and world-changing and ghost-, legend-, great literature-, great music- and history-filled on the one hand, and the apparently prosaic, predictable and dull on the other - hence the magic that can be mined so effectively in episodes like this).
The fun content here is high - all the way through to the Doctor's use of incredibly strong tea (augmented with something unknown from the kitchen bin), served in a Charles and Di teapot (!), to bring Craig back to health and consciousness after he makes forbidden contact with the mould-like alien life form present on the flat ceiling.
And why did he touch it?
In defiance of the Doctor's suggestion?
Because he is angry with the Doctor for filling an empty place on Craig's football team that gives the former a chance to shine on the pitch (real-life Matt Smith was a real-life footballer), and seems to be a little bit too interesting to Craig's love interest and would-be girlfriend Sophie (played by Daisy Haggard who is here lovely in every sense of the word).
It's silly in a way, but simultaneously also a plausible-enough scenario known to countless millions of us.
Clever stuff indeed.
Likewise, when the Doctor takes the off-sick Craig's place at work, we cleverly and economically (but also tellingly) get an impressionistic version of what must have happened, without actually having to be shown the incident.
Leave them wanting more, eh?
(And we indeed do, hence a return to these characters in a later, much-further-fun episode).
Likewise, when the Doctor realises he has no choice but to let Craig in on some of his secrets and makes the necessary transfer by "nutting" him hard; and Craig immediately "sees the light", we get an exquisite piece of semi-comedic, semi-serious acting from a hugely-gifted Corden.
The fact that Craig gets his girl, and we get to that by the highly worthwhile exploration of a(nother) genuine dilemma for so many of us about sticking with the familiar or branching out into more adventurous territory is just great. The Doctor cleverly mediates that (often telling it like it is bluntly but innocently) without becoming mean, or a third wheel or gooseberry; and again this would all have looked different in other hands. And because Craig and Sophie have each other, the dilemma evaporates, as they realise that they might equally well go on that adventure (looking after orang utans at a sanctuary - nice conservation message, BTW), or stay with the familiar.
It's clever, witty, worthwhile, scary enough, and FUN - everything we thought we could expect from the rebooted Doctor. And it's so, so British in the high-quality sci fi (rather than trashy sitcom) sense of that word.
WONDERFUL.