The Caretaker (TV story)

The Caretaker was the sixth episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It had the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald deal with an alien threat to Coal Hill School, leading to both Danny Pink and Courtney meeting the Doctor and subsequently discovering his true nature.

It also contributed to the "Promised Land" arc by introducing an underling of, and giving her location a new name, the Nethersphere.

Building on the experience of writing The Lodger and Closing Time, Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat tried to match the former for threat, feeling there was an excessive amount in Closing Time, which had included back-story for the antagonists at the expense of other themes. For this reason, it was decided that the first draft had the right amount of threat and that it would be unnecessary to add more later. (DWM 478)

Synopsis
The Doctor's decision to use Clara's school at the centre of a trap for a wild Skovox Blitzer results in revelations in her personal life. Meanwhile, the Doctor's mechanical quarry, which has enough firepower to decimate entire planets, is running amok in the halls of Coal Hill.

Plot
The episode begins with a montage of Clara balancing adventures in the TARDIS and her relationship with Danny. After an adventure on a desert planet, Danny notices she’s developed a tan since he last saw her, while an encounter with fish people leaves seaweed in her hair during a date. These two lives collide one morning when Mr Armitage introduces Coal Hill School's new caretaker, John Smith — in reality, the Twelfth Doctor, who is clad in the kind of brown overall coat that a caretaker would wear, and carrying a rather worn-looking broom.

Meanwhile, CSO Matthew investigates a mysterious noise coming from a rundown building, caused by the Skovox Blitzer, which disintegrates him on sight.

When working on a substation, Danny and the Doctor conflict over what Danny teaches. Danny claims to have been a soldier who now teaches maths, while the Doctor instead thinks he teaches PE, as this would make more sense due to him being a soldier. But the Doctor doesn’t realise Danny is Clara’s boyfriend, instead thinking this is Adrian, who resembles his previous incarnation. The students are aware of their relationship, evidenced by graffiti mocking it.

Later, the Doctor is working in the caretaker’s room, when student Courtney Woods finds him and the TARDIS. She too conflicts with the Doctor, and on her way out makes a remark to Clara about Danny. Here, the Doctor shows Clara a hologram of the Skovox Blitzer. Knowing it will eventually attack to destroy Earth, he aims to send it away from the planet.

The tools he’ll use to do this are an invisibility watch to prevent the Blitzer scanning him and as non-threatening alien technology to lead it to him, and chronodyne generators to send it billions of years into the future through a vortex. After Clara leaves the TARDIS, she and Danny make plans for after parents’ evening in a few days, while the Doctor follows the Blitzer’s signal. He and it meet in the hall, where the generators have been turned from green to red because of Danny’s interference. While the Blitzer is sent through a vortex into the future, Danny’s intervention means it will return in only three days. After the chaos, Danny realises Clara’s lived a lie to him. She tells him the truth: she’s human, but the Doctor’s an alien. They travel through time and space in a TARDIS, which is disguised as a police box, but is bigger on the inside. The Doctor shows Danny the inside of the TARDIS, and Clara takes him home to deal with the shock.

Danny recaps what Clara’s told him: the Doctor used to resemble Adrian, but changed into a Scottish caretaker. He travels with Clara in-between her time with Danny. He asks her why she travels with him, which she attributes mostly to the wonders that she experiences. Danny struggles to accept whether or not Clara loves the Doctor romantically, which she denies. 

Parents’ evening arrives, and Clara gives Danny the invisibility watch. He turns invisible, and she takes him with her into the TARDIS so he can watch her interactions with the Doctor. He has nearly finished building a device to fight the Blitzer. As Danny remains invisible, the Doctor suddenly suggests that he and Clara go off somewhere. She reacts worriedly, and Danny realises that the Doctor somehow knows that he is there. He turns off the watch, becoming visible. The Doctor reveals that the invisibility shield does not work on Time Lords. Seeing the Doctor's title as a Time Lord to be pompous, he mockingly responds to the Doctor’s demand to leave the TARDIS like a soldier taking an order. This brings out the militant side of the Doctor, and the two men trade insults in a heated confrontation. Courtney sees Clara and Danny leave the TARDIS. She asks the Doctor what’s really in the police box, which he shows her.

As the parents arrive, the Blitzer unexpectedly returns from the vortex one day early. The Doctor's device detects it. He summons Clara through the door, prompting her and Danny both to leave. Courtney’s parents, who were talking to Danny, express that their daughter was right about the two teachers' relationship. Meanwhile, the Doctor discusses his plan: Clara attracts the Blitzer with the sonic screwdriver, and it chases her to the caretaker’s room, where the Doctor speaks to it through the device he’s built. It is a communication device that makes the Blitzer think the Doctor is its superior. He tells Danny to do one very important thing: keep out of their way. The plan seems to work, and the Doctor tells the Blitzer to deactivate. It obeys, pending a final authorisation code. The Doctor needs time to prepare the code. Instead of deactivating, the Blitzer has begun a self-destruct count down. He tells Clara to distract it while he hurriedly tries to prepare the code, but she is unsure what to do. Just then, Danny yells out to the Blitzer. He runs and jumps over it as it fires its lasers at him. This distracts it long enough for the Doctor to give the final code, deactivating the Blitzer. Danny reveals to Clara he was following her with the watch and vows to protect her. He tells her that he only needs to do one thing, which the Doctor confirms: to prove he’s worthy of Clara. 

The Doctor takes the Blitzer into space and ejects it from the TARDIS, taking Courtney on her first trip. Unfortunately, Courtney is unable to cope with the immensity of the universe and finds herself feeling rather ill — whereupon she rushes back inside and is sick. Back on Earth, Clara and Danny watch television. Danny tells her that the Doctor reminds him of previous commanders he has known, who push their soldiers to get them to do more than they realised they were capable of. Clara obeyed the Doctor without being scared. Danny worries that the Doctor might push her too far. He insists that Clara promises to tell him if that happens.

Elsewhere, CSO Matthew is in a long white office corridor with many doors on either side of the hallway. He doesn't realise that he has been killed, and is talking to a person named Seb at an information desk. Seb tries to break the news gently, having encountered many new patrons to the afterlife because of the Skovox Blitzers. He tells Matthew that the place has many names, including the Promised Land. Seb personally prefers to call it the "Nethersphere". They notice appear from one of the doors. She gives a stone-faced glance. Seb tells Matthew that Missy is quite busy at the moment, before asking him if he has any questions about his new existence in the Nethersphere.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Danny - Samuel Anderson
 * Courtney Woods - Ellis George
 * Mr Armitage - Nigel Betts
 * Adrian - Edward Harrison
 * CSO Matthew - Andy Gillies
 * Noah - Nanya Campbell
 * Yashe - Joshua Warner-Campbell
 * Kelvin - Oliver Barry-Brook
 * Tobias - Ramone Morgan
 * Mr Woods - Winston Ellis
 * Mrs Woods - Gracy Goldman
 * Mrs Christopholou - Diana Katis
 * Skovox Blitzer - Jimmy Vee
 * Seb - Chris Addison

Uncredited

 * - Michelle Gomez

Individuals

 * The Doctor spent a month living among otters after he and River Song had a fight that caused him to sulk.
 * He likes the school subject maths, but doesn't respect PE.
 * Clara wonders if the Doctor's previous companions allowed him to do whatever he wanted.
 * After correcting Clara on when Pride and Prejudice was written, she assumes the Doctor is going to "name drop" about meeting Jane Austen. The Doctor says he knows the year because he read her bio at the back of a copy of the book.
 * The Doctor tries to show Courtney the Olveron Cluster.

Cultural references from the real world

 * The Doctor whistles the introduction to "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" by Pink Floyd.
 * Clara is doing a lesson about Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She and the Doctor argue over whether it was written in 1796 or 1797. In the real world, Austen started writing it in 1796 and finished in 1797.
 * Adrian refers to The Tempest not being finished. It was written by William Shakespeare, who appeared in TV: The Shakespeare Code, also written by Roberts.
 * After receiving the invisibility watch from Clara, Danny complains that "it's not even a ring", a reference to the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings, which could turn its wearer invisible.

Technology

 * The Doctor asks Clara for his vibro-cutters.
 * The Doctor (and later Danny) uses an invisibility watch.
 * The Doctor uses chronodyne generators to project the Skovox Blitzer into the future.

Story notes

 * reappears after a three-episode absence. Her episodes of absence were previously Robot of Sherwood, Listen, and Time Heist.
 * A banner hangs on the wall saying "A Spirit of Adventure". This is a nod back to the First Doctor story The Sensorites, in which the Doctor tells then-companions Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton that their travels in the TARDIS with him and Susan Foreman turned out to be "a great spirit of adventure".
 * Oddly, the "Next Time" trailer for this episode also features footage from TV: Listen, specifically the moment where the Doctor asks Clara who she's having dinner with. No such scene plays out in The Caretaker, flashback or otherwise.
 * A few days after the broadcast of TV: The Time of the Doctor, Jenna Coleman had co-starred in the miniseries Death Comes to Pemberley, based upon a mystery-novel sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Coleman played Lydia Wickham; in this episode, Clara's students are heard reading a passage related to Lydia.

Ratings
6.82 million (DWM 480)

Filming locations

 * Stryd Bute, Cardiff
 * Lloyd George Ave., Cardiff
 * The Maltings, E Tyndall St.
 * St Illtyd's Catholic High School, Newport Rd.
 * Holton Primary School, Barry

Production errors

 * When The Doctor meets Courtney Woods in the Caretaker's shed, he hands the package of paper towels to her, but they reappear in his hand, and she walks off empty-handed.
 * When Courtney looks into the TARDIS, the Doctor's work bench, which he was sitting at just a few minutes ago, is no longer in the room. It returns later on.
 * When Clara leads Danny down the stairs and away from the TARDIS she is standing behind him and to his right in the closeup shot, but in the wide shot she is behind him to his left.
 * When the Skovox Blitzer deactivates, its eyes fade out from red until they are no longer shining. When the Doctor sends it floating into space, still deactivated and spewing sparks, its eyes are glowing blue.

Continuity

 * The Doctor previously went undercover in a school while in his tenth incarnation. (TV: School Reunion)
 * The Doctor once more says "It's a roller-coaster with you", during a conversation with someone that goes up and down. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * Clara mentions Danny's future descendant, Orson Pink, to the Doctor, pointing out their similar appearance. She does not mention, however, that Danny is the same individual as the child Rupert Pink that the Doctor encountered in the 1990s. (TV: Listen)
 * The Twelfth Doctor continues to be uncomfortable with the military and soldiers (TV: Into the Dalek), as he has been in prior incarnations as well. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Poison Sky, etc)
 * The Doctor invites Clara to meet fish people. He previously met fish people in his second incarnation. (TV: The Underwater Menace)
 * After being killed by the Skovox Blitzer, CSO Matthew arrives in the Promised Land. (TV: Deep Breath, Into the Dalek, Robot of Sherwood)
 * Clara mentions the Doctor having gained a new watch, and it was quite disappointing, referring to the golden watch he traded for an old coat with a tramp. (TV: Deep Breath)
 * The Doctor says many times that a soldier can't be a maths teacher. The Brigadier became a maths teacher after retiring from the military, much to the Fifth Doctor's surprise. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)
 * The Doctor tells Clara that he had a teacher like her once, possibly referring to another Coal Hill School teacher such as Barbara Wright (TV: An Unearthly Child, etc.), or possibly to one of his teachers at the Academy, such as Borusa. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, etc.)
 * The Seventh Doctor was previously asked if he was applying for the position of Coal Hill School's caretaker, in 1963. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor asks, "Have I impressed you yet, Courtney?" The Eleventh Doctor previously asked the same thing to Amy Pond. (TV: The Time of Angels)
 * The Doctor and Clara open and close the TARDIS doors by snapping their fingers. (TV: Forest of the Dead, The Eleventh Hour, Day of the Moon, The Day of the Doctor)
 * Upon entering the junkyard, The Doctor says "Home, Sweet Home." His first incarnation parked the TARDIS in a junkyard near Coal Hill while Susan attended the school. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
 * The Doctor mentions Clara eating two meals. She recently ate Chinese with Psi and Saibra before a dinner date with Danny. (TV: Time Heist)
 * The Doctor offers to take Clara to a frost fair on the Thames. The First Doctor previously visited the frost fair in 1814 with companions Vicki and Steven. (AUDIO: Frostfire) At some point, the Doctor took River Song to the frost fair for her birthday. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * It has apparently been at least a year in "real" time since the Doctor's regeneration, as Courtney's mother mentions that she talked to Danny last year about her daughter. Danny had started working at Coal Hill School shortly after the Doctor regenerated, from Clara's perspective. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * The Doctor pretends to be a caretaker. The Eleventh Doctor previously pretended to be a caretaker to make Madge Arwell and her children's Christmas special, and in fact had Madge and her children called him "the Caretaker" instead of "the Doctor". (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
 * Artron emissions appear to have attracted the Skovox Blitzer to the area nearby to Coal Hill School, the Doctor commenting that there have been a lot of them over the years. (TV: An Unearthly Child, Attack of the Cybermen, Remembrance of the Daleks, Death of the Doctor, et al.)
 * The "Break the Silence" poster about school bullying that appeared outside the headmaster's office in Leadworth (TV: Let's Kill Hitler) and the Coal Hill supply closet (TV: Into the Dalek) also appears in the teachers' room.
 * The Doctor and Clara note the physical similarity between Adrian and the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Time of the Doctor) Clara says that Adrian "isn't her type" despite having previously indicated her attraction to the Eleventh Doctor (The Time of the Doctor, TV: She Said, He Said)
 * The Doctor purposely calls Danny "PE" in derogatory fashion due to an acquired dislike towards him. The Ninth Doctor previously called Mickey Smith "Mickey the Idiot" and "Ricky" to annoy him, also the then-boyfriend of his female companion at the time, Rose Tyler. (TV: Aliens of London)
 * Danny compares the Doctor to the officers who light the flames he carries out. The War Doctor considered himself a lesser man to those forged in the fire he was creating. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * According to Clara, part of the Skovox Blitzer's attack takes place "on a miserable wet Monday morning." (COMIC: Terrorformer)
 * The Doctor tells Clara to shut Danny "Up or down - I don't care", much as he said during his second incarnation about the Daleks. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)
 * Clara is now familiar with how to use some functions on the sonic screwdriver.

DVD releases

 * Doctor Who: Series 8 Boxset

Blu-ray releases

 * Doctor Who: Series 8 Blu-ray Boxset

Digital releases

 * The episode was released on Google Play, iTunes and Amazon Instant Video in HD or SD, also available as part of the Series 8 digital boxset. The digital boxset contains various features: trailer, interviews, The Ultimate Companion, The Ultimate Time Lord, Inside the World Tour and Doctor Who Extra episodes for each episode.
 * In the US, the series was released through digital streaming services Hulu and Netflix with a subscription.