Doctor Perseus Reviews: "The Caretaker" *SPOILERS* · 2:52am Sep 28th, 2014
In this week's episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor goes undercover at Coal Hill School as a substitute caretaker in order to investigate the arrival of one of the deadliest killing machines ever created: a Skovox Blitzer. As Clara's life as a teacher and her life as the Doctor's companion slowly begin to merge, she finds herself losing control of everything around her. All the while, an inevitable event is upon her: the Doctor and Danny Pink meeting...
This was an episode that I was really looking forward to. I've been dying to see more of Coal Hill School and Clara's teacher life as well as finally seeing Danny learn about the Doctor. In the end, I ended up really liking this episode!
Once again, we get to see Capaldi's Doctor take on a more humorous role. His alien quirks and actions acted as a funny comparison to the normal, contemporary setting he was in. I also really liked how the Doctor has started to take on a more fatherly role for Clara. I thought it was funny when he assumed Clara was dating her co-worker Adrian because he resembled the Eleventh Doctor a bit. Though I was a bit surprised at first, I also found it funny when he just up and revealed the TARDIS to Courtney just so he could get rid of her because she was bugging him. I also enjoyed the nice little nod to the past when the Doctor talked about him and River having a fight. It was another one of those nice little moments that show how the Doctor always remembers those who travel with him. The only thing that bugged me about the Doctor in this episode was that he was a bit needlessly mean to Danny at some points. I understand that it stems from his dislike of soldiers but I personally felt it was a bit overdone. On a more positive note, the invisibility watch was a nice addition to the Doctor's arsenal of odd contraptions.
Moving on to Clara, she was definitely the center of this episode. It was enjoyable to see Clara struggling to keep control of everything as the Doctor invaded her professional life. I really enjoyed the opening montage of seeing Clara going on many crazy adventures with the Doctor only to follow them up with an ordinary date with Danny. As always, her banter with the Doctor was incredibly fun to watch and the scene where she confronted him after the teacher meeting was definitely one of my favorite scenes in this episode. We also got to see Clara's relationship with Danny develop further as she was forced to reveal her Doctor life to him. I really liked their scenes together in this episode and I'm really liking where their relationship is headed.
Danny also got some time to shine in this episode. It was great to finally see him meet the Doctor and learn Clara's secret and he actually took it better than I thought he would. He shared some nice scenes with Clara and some good pieces of dialogue with the Doctor (though, as I said above, some of it was a bit needlessly mean). Also, that bit with him distracting the Skovox Blitzer by jumping over it was awesome. Looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for you, Mr. Pink! Meanwhile, we also got formally introduced to Courtney Woods, who will be joining the Doctor and Clara in next week's episode. My opinion of her now? She's alright. She didn't annoy me or anything like that. She just hasn't left that much of an impact on me yet. And, to be honest, her scenes with the Doctor kinda felt like they were added in after the fact and the episode wouldn't have been any different if they had been removed. But they were there to set up her appearance in next week's episode and I'm remaining cautiously optimistic. Hopefully, she'll leave more of an impact after she's gone on a harrowing adventure with the Doctor and Clara.
The supporting cast was fine but nothing to write home about. I liked how Adrian's resemblance to the Eleventh Doctor was addressed but that was really the most notable thing about that character. Courtney's parents reminded me a bit of how Jackie Tyler acted towards the very beginning of Series 1. The Skovox Blitzer, meanwhile, was a well-designed monster. Though it didn't do a whole lot aside from blast a few things, run around, and shout. But, personally, I don't mind that it didn't do all that much because this episode was obviously more focused on character development and humor. Although, the scene where it killed that police officer was pretty gruesome. And speaking of that officer, it was nice to get another glimpse of Missy and her enigmatic "Promised Land" as well as get introduced to her equally mysterious employee (who I guess interviews some of the people when they first end up in Heaven).
Overall, The Caretaker was a funny, entertaining, character-driven episode with a well-designed monster and lots of great scenes for the Doctor, Clara, and Danny. Next week's episode is Kill the Moon!
Really. I always thought he was more of an older brother kind of thing going on with Clara. Like the Doctor said "How could I be her father when we look practically the same age?"
That was awesome, but it may have veered very close to over the top. I mean Danny's a soldier, but I don't think he's a ninja.
Yeah, but I liked it too.