The Caretaker
At times, ‘The Caretaker’ seems to be explicitly trying to be 'the funny episode’, with that sort of 'funny’ music they play on TV when everyone’s sneaking around acting slightly out of character. I didn’t like these bits that much.
Capaldi’s Doctor does an awful lot of shouting in this episode, too, which I wasn’t particularly sold on; it reminded me of early days Tennant. And while he’s shouting, his insistence that soldiers can only become PE teachers was repeated a few times more than was needed to make the point, I thought. There’s 'make the Doctor a little bigoted’, and then there’s 'make the Doctor a totally un-self-aware idiot’. I’m almost certain they were aiming for the first one.
I’ve opened in strong complaining mode, but I didn’t hate this story. The Clara and Danny bits were, as ever, fun and engaging. The “officer” line from Danny was a spin on the Doctor that I hadn’t really thought about before. And the Doctor’s certainty that Clara had fallen for bow-tie man was the best joke in the story. And I love that Coal Hill School’s motto is “A great spirit of adventure”.
Finally, and perhaps most impressive of all after last season, they had a child character and she was actually well-written and acted. I could actually stand to see more of Courtney, which is good, because I do.
Is this the first time there’s been vom in the TARDIS?
