Revisiting the Twelfth Doctor: The Caretaker

The Caretaker

After a - literally - breathtaking start, this episode settles down into a much-needed taking of stock for the characters. Here's what I remembered from my first viewing:

Strong feelings about this one. This episode contains a lot of interpersonal stuff about how the Doctor treats people - And whether he uses them to die for him. Danny confronts the Doctor in amazing style, with all his experience from being a soldier. The robot was a bit cheap-looking and kiddy (it would have looked great in a Sarah-Jane Adventures story) and the main plot was a bit of a non-starter, but the character drama took centre stage.

I pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one, which I think says a lot about how strong a drama sits at the centre of this story. Yes, the monster of the week is a bit of a sideline, but actually it's the point where The Doctor invades Clara's life that she has to address what their relationship means.

We all understand the concept that we are different around different people. It's the whole What happens in Vegas syndrome. In a certain environment, we can drastically change our personality and our behaviour, freed from the expectation that our usual relationships put on us. For Clara, the Tardis is a place she can free the expectations of her earth-bound life and become someone impulsive, reckless, even quite dangerous. In her school, she is in a position of authority, respect and some control is required on her part. This is expanded in the opening, where Clara is variously tired, soaked and strained by jumping from space adventures to dates and back again. She maintains it all because when she closes the door to the Tardis, she closes a door on that part of her personality.

But the Doctor can see it all taking a strain, so he gives her a day off. Then shows up as the new Caretaker at her school. Only someone who discovers on the bus that their fiancée is coming along for the stag do can feel this kind of soul-plummeting moment. Not only does the Doctor risk sharing their private relationship with other people, he risks revealing Clara for who she is and endangering the lives of the children in the school.

Danny, upon discovering Clara's life with the Doctor, recognises it for what it is. Her relationship with the Timelord provokes her to be dangerous, different. There's a nice examination here of trust within relationships. She hasn't been honest with Danny about her travels, or with The Doctor about her dating. Clara decides to prove to Danny that she is the same person by smuggling him into the Tardis to witness a "private" conversation with the Doctor. The Doctor, of course, sees through the deception and discovers for himself how much Clara keeps from him and keeps him out of her life.

I'm not going to go into it any more. The point is, this episode provokes a great debate about people's behaviour and the relationships of the main characters in this series. This kind of character study would be impossible in a piece of distraction like Time Heist. Actually with only 40-odd minutes to run, modern Doctor Who really struggles to combine interesting adventures with great character drama. It's one of the reasons I'd like to see Who go entirely to two-part stories, giving the scripts a wonderful 85 minutes to breathe (and halving the costume/model budget). But that's a thought for another time.

The monster plot suffers, as you would expect from so much time given to character development. Basically there's a space robot that wants to kill everybody and the Doctor has to figure out how to get rid of okay. Sure, if you say so.

It does look a bit cheap, but I think it's fallen for a classic Doctor Who mistake: over-lighting. 70's and 80's Doctor Who had plenty of great sets and models ruined by showing them too closely in too great a light. Heck, even the suit from the original Alien movie looks terrible if you see it under office lighting. This whole story takes place mostly in the day and in a school, so there really isn't any opportunity to light the monster sympathetically. Shame, because looking at it, it isn't a bad model.