s8e6: The Caretaker

Morrus · Sep 28, 2014

Apparently the last of the romps before it starts getting dark.

Nice to see Chris Addison and Capaldi reunited from The Thick of It, even if not on screen together.

The Doctor is pretty rude to Danny. Keeps calling him a PE teacher when he knows otherwise. The alien was a sideplot to the character piece this episode was. I thought he knew all along and recognised him, but his thinking the Matt Smith lookalike was the boyfriend kinda throws that out of the window.

Weird he took that kid for a trip in the TARDIS. I guess nobody will believe her.

The Apple Watch has some cool features! Seems like a trick that could come in useful often.

Umbran · Sep 28, 2014

Morrus said:
The Doctor is pretty rude to Danny. Keeps calling him a PE teacher when he knows otherwise.

Well, admittedly, he's rude to most people.

And once he knows, he keeps it up because he thinks the guy needs a stress test or two.

I thought he knew all along and recognised him, but his thinking the Matt Smith lookalike was the boyfriend kinda throws that out of the window.

It has been pretty well established that this Doctor occasionally/frequently misses details that don't seem important to him. It is a bit like... "you all look alike to me". Human appearances don't seem to mean much to him.

Weird he took that kid for a trip in the TARDIS. I guess nobody will believe her.

Well, she is a disruptive influence. That's sure to get his attention.

MarkB · Sep 28, 2014

This one throws off much of our earlier speculation about Missy and 'heaven'. I was fully expecting her to feature from the moment I saw that this week's monster was a cybernetic creature, but I was thinking that, in keeping with previous episodes, the creature would turn out to have been seeking the Promised Land, and would probably wind up being collected by Missy.

The fact that it was the policeman, who gets killed at the start and never even sees or comes near the Doctor, throws out all theories of it being people who sacrificed themselves at the Doctor's instigation, or even of it being people who got killed due to his involvement.

Bagpuss · Sep 28, 2014

Morrus said:
Apparently the last of the romps before it starts getting dark.

The charred remains of the Policeman is pretty dark, most deaths in Doctor Who are either off screen or the visuals means there are no remains or a pile of ash. That seemed more graphic than usual.

Also illustrates that the people going to "heaven" aren't rescued moments before death, they actually die. Which together with the fact the copper had no direct connection with the Doctor, raises a lot of questions.

The Doctor is pretty rude to Danny. Keeps calling him a PE teacher when he knows otherwise.

It's more he doesn't accept that his limited view and prejudice view of soldiers won't allow them to be bright enough to be a Maths teacher. Clearly that's something of a theme this series, Danny's counter to the Doctor that he was a officer class is really telling too. Again I think the Doctor would have picked up on the Danny and Clara, if it wasn't for that prejudice, surely she can't see anything in him.

Weird he took that kid for a trip in the TARDIS. I guess nobody will believe her.

I think we will be seeing more of that "disruptive influence", saying that she's been in four episodes so far. I believe the trip in the TARDIS has a dramatic effect on her.

Spoiler for next week, although it was in the trailer.

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The Apple Watch has some cool features! Seems like a trick that could come in useful often.

I hope and suspect we won't see it again.

I liked the happy coincidence that the doors to the caretakers office looked so similar to the doors to the TARDIS. Probably because both are from a similar period.

Morrus · Sep 28, 2014

MarkB said:
This one throws off much of our earlier speculation about Missy and 'heaven'. I was fully expecting her to feature from the moment I saw that this week's monster was a cybernetic creature, but I was thinking that, in keeping with previous episodes, the creature would turn out to have been seeking the Promised Land, and would probably wind up being collected by Missy.

The fact that it was the policeman, who gets killed at the start and never even sees or comes near the Doctor, throws out all theories of it being people who sacrificed themselves at the Doctor's instigation, or even of it being people who got killed due to his involvement.

Yup, everything I thought is wrong. The mystery deepens!

Umbran · Sep 28, 2014

MarkB said:
This one throws off much of our earlier speculation about Missy and 'heaven'.

Yeah, it does, which is kind of cool, and probably quite intentional and planned. They are having some fun leading the witness, and then yanking the rug out from under us.

elawai · Sep 29, 2014

Didn't the Doctor say early on in the episode that he intentionally drew the Skovox Blitzer to the school? If this is correct, perhaps one could claim that the police officer died as a result of the Doctor's action. If the Doctor hadn't lured the Skovox Blitzer to this cop's beat, then he would still be alive.

Richards · Sep 30, 2014

Actually, I think they said it had been attracted to the area because of the "artron energy" - technobabble, but pre-established technobabble in that previous episodes have mentioned how the TARDIS gives off artron energy. Because the TARDIS spent a good chunk of time in the vicinity of Coal Hill School (dating back to the First Doctor, but also when the Tenth Doctor rediscovered Sarah Jane Smith and K9), it makes sense that four-legged goofy-robot would be poking around that area. And I imagine the Doctor was already fairly familiar with the Coal Hill School environment (his granddaughter having attended there way back when), and so chose it as a good place to lure the four-legged goofy-robot into his trap.

This was my least favorite Capaldi episode to date.

And Clara's "I love him!" about Danny Pink seemed a bit premature to me.

Johnathan

elawai · Sep 30, 2014

Richards said:
Actually, I think they said it had been attracted to the area because of the "artron energy" - technobabble, but pre-established technobabble in that previous episodes have mentioned how the TARDIS gives off artron energy. Because the TARDIS spent a good chunk of time in the vicinity of Coal Hill School (dating back to the First Doctor, but also when the Tenth Doctor rediscovered Sarah Jane Smith and K9), it makes sense that four-legged goofy-robot would be poking around that area. And I imagine the Doctor was already fairly familiar with the Coal Hill School environment (his granddaughter having attended there way back when), and so chose it as a good place to lure the four-legged goofy-robot into his trap.

Thanks for the clarification. This might be enough establish that the Doctor is bears some small responsibility for the cop's death. Perhaps since his death wasn't as directly attributable to the Doctor as the previous deaths. his case was shuffled off to an assistant.

Also, it sounded like Heaven/The Promised Land is expecting a lot of new arrivals soon. That can't be good.

delericho · Sep 30, 2014

Richards said:
Because the TARDIS spent a good chunk of time in the vicinity of Coal Hill School (dating back to the First Doctor, but also when the Tenth Doctor rediscovered Sarah Jane Smith and K9)

Nitpick: "School Reunion" took place at Deffry Vale school, not Coal Hill.

However, as I understand it the Seventh Doctor story "Remembrance of the Daleks" was largely set in and around Coal Hill.