O is for... Owens, Craig

When the Doctor first met him, Craig Owens lived at 79A Aickman Road in Colchester, Essex. He shared with a friend named Mark, who one day received a mysterious inheritance from an uncle he never knew he had and moved out. Craig then placed an advert in the local newsagent for a flat-sharer, and the same day saw the Doctor turn up on his doorstep with a bag of cash as deposit and rent.

It transpired that the Doctor had detected a temporal anomaly centred on the house and - unbeknownst to Craig - passers-by had been lured into the first floor flat where they had been killed. This disturbance had caused the TARDIS to leave the Doctor behind in Colchester, with Amy Pond trapped on board. The Doctor needed to identify the anomaly and neutralise it so that the TARDIS could safely return.

Craig had been seeing a woman named Sophie for a couple of years, but their relationship was still at a friendship level. He wanted this to move to the next level - as did she, though neither felt confident to tell the other, or spot the signs.

The Doctor's presence in the house caused some alarm for Craig, as well as suspicion. He also began to feel jealous of the Doctor as he turned out to be a better footballer and easily hit it off with all his friends. Craig was intrigued by a dark stain on the ceiling of his flat and when he touched it one day he fell ill. The Doctor helped cure him, but when he went in to work he found that the Doctor had filled in for him and seemed to be doing a better job than he.

When Sophie was lured upstairs, the Doctor was forced to inform Craig of who he really was, via a violent telepathic link. Together they went upstairs and discovered that there was an alien space / time machine there - disguised as the upper floor. Amy had discovered from plans that the property did not have an upstairs flat. 

Its original crew dead, a holographic avatar was seeking a new pilot who was psychologically compatible - someone who wanted to travel. This was Sophie, as Craig was too settled with his life in the city. She was saved and the machine departed after the Doctor activated it. Craig and Sophie finally revealed their true feelings for each other, and the TARDIS was able to return to collect the Doctor.

He and Amy then had to go back in time to arrange for the Doctor to become Craig's lodger in the first place.

It later transpired that the space / time machine belonged to the race known as Silents.

Knowing that he was destined to die on the shores of Lake Silencio, Utah, in 2011, the Doctor went on a farewell tour of some of his old friends, and one of these was Craig, who had moved to a bigger house. He was now married to Sophie, and they had a baby son. She was away the weekend the Doctor visited. He only intended to stay for a brief time, but strange electrical disturbances and a number of missing people piqued his curiosity and he elected to spend the weekend with Craig. Once again, he found the Doctor to be more popular than he - this time with his son as the Doctor could communicate with babies. The strange occurrences emanated from a local department store and the Doctor got a job there in order to investigate.

The store had been built over a crashed Cyberman spaceship, and the dormant Cybermen had been reanimated. They were using Cybermats to siphon energy to their ship, and were capturing people for conversion. What they wanted most of all was a new Cyber Controller. The Doctor captured one of the Cybermats but it reactivated and ran amok in Craig's home.

Craig was later captured by the Cybermen who attempted to convert him into their new Controller. However, his love for his son overwhelmed the conversion process, which could not cope with heightened emotion, and he was able to free himself. The feedback destroyed the Cybermen and their ship.

On Sophie's return, Craig discovered that the Doctor had put his wrecked home to rights, so she would never know of their latest adventure together.

Played by: James Corden. Appearances: The Lodger (2010), Closing Time (2011)

• Cordon first came to notice as one of The History Boys, in Alan Bennett's acclaimed stage play, subsequently filmed in 2006.Other members of the cast with Doctor Who connections were Sacha Dhawan and Russell Tovey.
• He really came to prominence in the UK with Gavin & Stacey, which he co-wrote with Ruth Jones. In this he played Gavin's best friend Smithy.
• A successful West End stage run with One Man, Two Guvnors took him to Broadway, and he subsequently came to be offered a popular talk show, replacing Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show. He has also hosted TV panel games and a number of award shows, including the Brits, Tonys and Grammys.
• The Lodger is based on a DWM comic strip, in which the Tenth Doctor was forced to share a flat with Mickey Smith for a time.