Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week on Doctor Who we got the grand tour of Coal
Hill School and a lot of teasers for the big Danny Pink and Missy arcs.
There was also a nice shout out to River Song and Gallifreyan Clara but I’ll talk more
cool references after my Top 5.
Quick Reminder, this week’s giveaway is open now, all you have to do to enter is be
a subscriber and leave a comment on this video.
Careful for spoilers from the episode if you haven’t seen it.
But starting with Top 5 moments.
Give you just a sec…
and Number 5 - The Doctor is the new Caretaker
Capaldi said he thought the Doctor quite liked being a caretaker just because it put his
endless knowledge to practical good use.
Yes his main mission was preparing a trap for the Skovox Blitzer, but while he was doing
that he was also puttering around cleaning spills and fixing electric boxes and such.
Plus it gave him the opportunity to show off.
One of the funniest scenes was when he poked his head in Clara’s window and corrected
Jane Austen on the blackboard.
I haven’t listened to it but their is an audio drama where the first doctor and jane
austen go on an adventure in 1814.
It’s called Frostfire.
It’s just the latest in the long list of mundane jobs The Doctor really enjoys doing,
like being a Curator of a museum or a Physics Teacher.
In the Doctor Who Extra for this episode they stuck in a bunch of clips from episodes where
the Doctor worked at schools and other odd jobs all the way back to the First Doctor.
I’ll list them all off during references.
Number 4 - Courtney Woods
This was Ellis George.
She was in Episode 1, even though she came back and got to go on the TARDIS I don’t
know that this was a teaser for future companion.
I think it was just a small field trip like when David Tennant took Peter Capaldi’s
character from Fires of Pompeii on the TARDIS.
I love that the Doctor has such a predisposition for precocious young women.
Let that be a lesson to any ladies out there wanting to be the next companion.Qualifications
include being really stubborn, casually dismissive of danger and morbidly curious.
She also got River’s Famous “Spoilers” Line which reminded me of her “Mel” regeneration
from Let’s Kill Hitler.
No I don’t think that was Mel, I just think it was another wink at the audience.
Just like the story about the Doctor living with Otters because of the fight with River.
I know there have been a lot of rumors about Jenna Coleman leaving.
I actively tried to not consider that when thinking about Courtney.
You could potentially see her scenes as the series ‘test driving’ new companions.
I don’t think that’s what’s going on, but you can’t help but think about it.
Number 3 - Clara Explains The Doctor To Danny
This was really cool because you find out what Clara really thinks about her adventures
deep down inside.
The series tells a lot of parables and the doctor and his companions get moments of reflection
all the time.
But most of the time it’s done under the guise of humor.
Like when people get real with companions about The Doctor they deflect a lot of tension.
So you don’t linger inside their brains for too long.
It’s like Clara is trying to explain what candy tastes like to someone who has no taste
buds.
Traveling with The Doctor is like the ultimate fulfilment of your childhood delight.
Doctor Who can be a very cerebral show in moments like this, which is why I’m digging
Capaldi’s Doctor so much.
He just spends equal amounts of time inside his own head and being present in whatever
moment he’s in.
Whenever Jenna Coleman really decides to leave, whether it be this year or next year.
I think we’ll get more of these big introspective scenes, like she’s laying the groundwork
for her memoirs.
Like her version of There and Back Again, with the role of Bilbo Baggins being played
by Clara Oswald.
Number 2 - Clara and The Doctor put on a Play for Danny Pink
The big reveal was appropriately epic and I love that they turned it into a school drama
production.
“Boyfriend Error” definitely one of the best one liners from the episode.
They sweep the big curtain back and bam, the TARDIS is there.
Like they’re a couple of magicians.
Which sounds even more funny after The Doctor’s magician joke from last week’s episode.
I’ve never seen Doctor Who done as a stage play before and I wasn’t a drama club geek
when I was in school, but this felt very visceral.
It also answered a lot of quesitons about Danny Pink’s role.
Samuel Anderson called himself a companion to the companion, so yes I think now that
the curtain has been pulled back.
He’ll spend more time on the TARDIS with Clara.
What’s more interesting is his relationship with The Doctor.
It seems like they’re both watching each other.
The title of the episode was The Caretaker and it felt like we’re supposed to think
Danny Pink and the Doctor feel like they’re Clara’s Care taker.
In that they both feel like her care giver.
When Danny talked about The Doctor pushing Clara too far it felt like foreshadowing for
something big.
It really turned me around on the episode, the whole thing seemed like it was told from
The Doctor and Clara’s perspective, so when Danny Pink learns about the doctor, you’re
thinking about it from The Doctor’s perspective.
But that last scene with him makes it feel like the whole thing was being told from Danny’s
perspective.
Like the Doctor, not Danny will do something really crazy and Danny will have to fix it.
Just rewatch the scene where Danny calls the Doctor on being a Lord, and the moment when
he brings out the Doctor’s Rage.
and my number 1 moment - Missy is Back
Where are we is the big question.
The person greeting the policeman said there was a range as if he could just take his pick
of what to call it.
All of the terms being references to where you go after death.
There was The Afterlife, The Promised Land, The Nethersphere.
It looked more like purgatory to me.
Like the policeman was in the waiting room for the nethersphere.
Missy’s character is called the gatekeeper of the nethersphere.
And when she did show up she looked very preoccupied.
As opposed to her previous appearances when she was greeting new people with smiles and
tea.
It definitely makes her seem much more sinister and now I’m wondering if she’s some sort
of cosmic entity.
That’s what we’re being led to believe, like she is somehow the ruler of purgatory.
Some non-coporeal being.
Usually it’s times like that when there’s a big twist and the character ends up being
an imposter.
It doesn’t seem like Missy is masquerading as anything right now so I’m really hoping
we get to see her explain herself to another character.
This policeman is one of the first characters to question WTF is going on?
So I don’t think it will be too long before we take the next step and someone asks Missy
Who Are You?
Let me know what your favorite moment was and what do you think Danny meant when he
said The Doctor might push Clara too far?
While you think about that, here’s some of the bigger references I spotted in the
episode.
Please add any you saw in the comments if I don’t list them.
First up is all the Doctor’s jobs, over the course of the 50 plus year history he’s
had just about every interesting job you can imagine.
The most interesting being the Tom Baker Curator reference from the 50th, all the deputized
law men he’s been and being an actual teacher, not just a figurative one in the context of
the show.
When people talk about Doctor Who’s origins it sounds a lot like the precursor of Mister
Rodgers In Space.
Like an educational show about History and Science that also tells narrative stories.
So the Doctor has always been a teacher in a meta context.
One of my favorite tennant teacher moments was The Doctor Loves Physics.
Then There’s John Smith, the name the Doctor used in Family of Blood
The River Song reference I already mentioned, but I felt like when The Doctor said I used
to have a teacher just like you, he was referring to Gallifreyan Clara.
I know everyone always wonders whether that version of Clara became a Time Lord and I
don’t think she did.
It seems like if she were a teacher at the Time Lord academy she’d have a better chance
of keeping an eye on him.
The Giant Chessboard felt a little ominous but Chess has showed up all over Doctor Who’s
history.
There was a giant chessboard in the Tomb of Rassilon that was designed to be a trap.
But you could view this as being foreshadowing for a conflict with Missy.
Or a visual reference of the giant chessboard from doctor who history.
The umbrage the Doctor takes when Danny Pink calls him out for being a Time Lord is a nice
reminder of his troubled relationship with them.
Those were some of the more fun nods, but if you spotted any good Coal Hill references
from specific episodes write them in the comments.
Overall I gave the episode a B plus, they nailed the montages but I felt like the pacing
between the first half of the episode and the second half was a little uneven.
The opening Clara montage was brilliant and I loved the music they set it to.
It reminds you of the many clara’s all doing everything.
Like she has a supernatural level of energy to match the doctor’s.
And the second big montage when Clara was trying to watch the doctor while he was puttering
around the school as the caretaker.
That moment when Danny Pink sees the curtain pulled back on the TARDIS is really when the
action stops short.
Like a record drop.
In the context of the story I understand why that was there, the change in the pace is
supposed to make us feel uncomfortable because the Doctor is no longer the alpha male in
the room and there’s still a lot we don’t know about Danny Pink.
The stunts were all great, did anyone else make the six million dollar man sound effects
when danny flipped over the skovox.
I don’t think they were making any special references, but they way they filmed it looked
a little funny.
I know a lot of you mentioned you heard clockwork sound effects during Danny and Clara’s dinner
date, like he might secretly be a clockwork droid.
I don’t think that’s the case, but I supposed it’s possible he has some special abilities.
He jumped about six feet in the air, so you’d have to be pretty badass to pull
that off.
I was relieved to see Missy again too.
If that’s going to be the big arc of the season I feel like not mentioning her for
weeks and weeks at a time and then just dumping her on us would be terrible.
They are making the episode less serialized this year, so I understand why they’re not
putting her in every episode.
It was a great episode, but I feel like based on what I’ve read about next week, Kill
The Moon, that episode will be one of the Fan Favorites from series 8.
I’m posting my bonus video next, so check back in about 6 hours for that.
I’ve got a bunch of extra videos coming this weekend, so I’m trying to get them
all out in a timely fashion without killing myself.
The Q&A will post on Sunday, so you have a ton of time to re-watch the episode and think
of some good Missy danny pink theories.
Right now click here for the bonus video and click here for the Q&A.
I’ll update the annotations as soon as I post them.
Thanks so much for watching, now let’s all high five and go write our own doctor who
stage play.