The Caretaker

Of the re-occurring Doctor Who writers, Gareth Roberts is one that is a horse for a particular course. His first two attempts where quasi-historical adventures, The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the Wasp, which both struck me as rather so-so episodes and his next, Planet of the Dead written with Russell T Davies, was basically pants. His next two episodes, The Lodger and Closing Time, were delightful in which Matt Smith is landed in a domestic environment with the long suffering James Cordon. So after writing for Tennant’s mockney cheeky chappie and Smith’s slightly dyspraxic and socially awkward adventurer, what would Gareth Roberts make of the rudest man in the universe?

The Caretaker brings us back to the very beginning: Cole Hill school where the Doctor’s grand-daughter was attending back in the very first episode, 1963’s An Unearthly Child. This time he is undercover as the temporary school caretaker (which seems to have confused many American fans who know the role as “janitor”). In this respect it has a great deal in common with The Lodger and it is also very much a character piece, exploring the lives of Clara and Danny and exposing more of the quirks of the twelfth Doctor. In fact the monster of the week, the Skovox Blitzer, is very much a McGuffin to get the characters in the same place at the same time. Aside from being a plot device it appears to resemble the Terminator on a mobility scooter.

Almost the whole of the episode is played purely for comedic effect. The twelfth Doctor may feel that he can fit into a normal environment but he clearly can’t and much of the humour relates to his bull in a china shop effect on all that surrounds him. However, there were a few nice touches, not least in his relationship with Clara which is clearly closer to the father-daughter relationship of the third Doctor and Jo Grant than any of the pseudo-romances that we have seen in recent series. I’m also wondering if the appeal of schoolgirl Courtney is harking back to the 60s series and the Doctor’s need for a substitute grand-daughter? By co-incidence, I saw this photo on Twitter of Katy Manning visiting the Doctor Who set. It’s nice to see that Capaldi is the same fan-boy he was back in the early 70s: something that also came across on his appearance on the Graham Norton show.

Ultimately, this episode was required to push the series along and fill in work missed by the earlier episodes both in terms of characterisation and the whole series plotting. It does a very effective job in this: it comes slap bang in the middle of the series and aside from filling out further the main characters it also puts us back in touch with the series story arc – Missy and the mysterious Netherworld. As an oddity, someone pointed out this week that there was a character called “Missy” in the 2013 episode Nightmare in Silver. Could this be related? I can’t recall that character or why they would have been significant so it is always possible that this is pure coincidence.

So I would say it was a success for Gareth Roberts – not quite as good as his scripts for Matt Smith but certainly maintaining the high standards of this series, the rest of which is looking intriguing. Aside from Steven Moffat we are looking at writers that are all new to Who and whilst The Caretaker had little to justify its later timeslot next week’s episode does look more like 12-certificate territory. I think I’ll have to preview it before letting the younger kids watch it in case the sofa isn’t big enough.