Doctor Who 806: The Caretaker

A good, enjoyable episode with a few minor quibbles that you're probably as tired of as I am. You'll want to watch this one!

SPOILERS AHEAD

World-Building: Great
Characterization: Great
Plot: Great

This episode of Doctor Who had many references to An Unearthly Child with the Doctor following Clara into Coal Hill School to do some "deep cover" work and track down some dangerous alien nearby. The plot of the episode, while framed around this alien threat, wasn't really very concerned with the threat itself - instead, it focused on the character reactions to that threat and to each other. This is what made the episode awesome.

We had wonderful performances from Clara, the Doctor, Danny Pink, and even one of the students at the school! All the characters were well-characterized within the context of this episode and they worked well together, their motivations and actions flowing seamlessly with the plot and action. It was great. The only thing is, if you take a step back and look at anything other than this episode the central relationship between Clara and Danny - the relationship that this story hinges on - was actually quite badly written.

As always Moffat doesn't seem to know what to do with relationships so he has them occur off-screen. Clara and Danny apparently grew close enough that she can loudly declare that she loves him, but as a viewer we've barely caught on to the fact that they're anything more than awkward in each other's presence. We weren't allowed to see their relationship actually develop on screen. If you were willing to overlook this, however, and just accept the fact that somehow, sometime off screen, Clara and Danny grew to love each other and demand answers and truth from each other then you'll be able to really enjoy this episode.

I mentioned the Unearthly Child references already, but I want to bring them up again to say they were awesome. We see kids playing near a junky alley and a police officer investigating there and the police officer literally walks through the same junkyard place where we first saw the TARDIS in the first ever episode of Doctor Who. It's wonderful.

I also really enjoyed the presence of Courtney Woods and her attitude and the Doctor taking her on the TARDIS to "go in space" and see him dispose of the alien.

Another bright point I'd like to mention (to make up for the negativity of the past few reviews! lol) is the conversation right after Danny's encounter with the alien creature. He's understandably shocked and confused and worried, literally still getting up off the ground and looking around him, and the Doctor just goes off into this huge rant. That scene was just wonderfully acted and filmed.

The episode was great from the start, but unfortunately not until the finish. I'm tired of saying this, but Moffat really doesn't know how to do season arcs. See RTD's first season with Christopher Eccleston and the Bad Wolf storyline. Hints were dropped throughout the season - hints that it would have been impossible to pick up on the first time around because they were embedded in the episode plots or just in background shots as characters were walking, but which came together in the end to create an amazingly well-woven overarching tale. Instead of this, Moffat decides to give us the same scene, over and over, of someone dying around the Doctor and ending up in some kind of place only to be told that they're in heaven, or the promised land, or - apparently- the nethersphere - or something. It's literally different variations of the exact same scene and it's not at all subtle. It doesn't flow with the rest of the episode, but instead is slapped on at the end like a big sign that's supposed to tell us to keep watching because this promised land stuff will turn out to be important. Guess what, Moffat? I don't care. Learn how to do season arcs. Stop punching us in the face with a Missy scene every other episode! Boo!

So yes, a wonderful episode overall, with yet another pointless 'Missy' scene at the end. You should watch this one, but maybe you'll wish you had skipped that Missy section.