Dr. Who Series 8 Episode 6 - The Caretaker
Added 2023-11-26 15:00:04 +0000 UTCSurprise everyone, the next three weeks you will get not only 1 but two reactions each weekend. Eversince the anniversary extra stuff we fell behind a little and are only 2 weeks away from the Youtube releases. To make this right again you will have double the fun the next weeks :)
Comments
Thank you so much for your comment Andrew. Unfortunately due to my boyfriend beeing sick I don´t have much time right now to respond. I hope it´s ok if this is a shorter one. But thank you :)
Nicologik
2023-12-01 12:26:22 +0000 UTC"Why do I keep you around?", "Because the alternative would be developing a conscience of your own.", The Doctor and Clara, "The Caretaker" This writer had also written "The Lodger" and "Closing Time" - and this story has a similar comedy feel - a monster threat that is less important than the comedy and character relationships. But, on the other hand, the writer had written/co-written some other stories like "The Shakespeare Code" and "Planet of the Dead" that didn't have that mix. Are we meant to recall the Doctor going undercover at a school in "School Reunion"? Or the Matt Doctor being the "Caretaker" in "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe"? I don't think they're meant to be callbacks - I think it's just a story set at a school and making the Doctor a caretaker is just excuse for being able to wander anywhere around the school. As Jade pointed out, there seems to be a small issue in this script as to how long Danny has been working at the school. The line at issue is really just a joke, but Clara and Danny still seem to be early-ish in their relationship - and I don't see how there was enough time for the "last year" comment to work. So, probably just a joke in the script that wasn't thought through and shouldn't be taken too seriously. I like the Doctor getting the boyfriend wrong based on the bow-tie. And I also like the scene where the Doctor interrupts Clara's lesson by climbing up a ladder to the window. Overall, this Doctor being pretty bad at being an undercover human is fun but it probably doesn't make sense given his history. Do I like this story? It's ok. I think IMDB voters are worried that there wasn't much plot.
Andrew Vignaux
2023-12-01 11:05:51 +0000 UTCI wonder if your two are the same as my two. I'll track your rankings.
Andrew Vignaux
2023-12-01 11:04:54 +0000 UTCOk only just getting around to watching this episode or maybe I was putting it off. Yeah really don't like this one. It's 1/5 and I have it ranked as 135th/140. so there are only 5 stories I think are worse! (and two of them are coming up soon) The Doctor, not only comes across as unlikable here but also dumb, unable to interact with humans properly especially with his unable to grasp Danny being a math teacher. And we get more of his hate for soldiers here seemingly just to create tension between him and Danny. For examples. The Tennant Doctor went under cover as a teacher with no real problem. And the third Doctor was stuck on Earth for a number of years working for a military organisation with one of his oldest friends being the Brigadier who ended up retiring and becoming a maths teacher. (it's possible this whole maths/P.E thing with Danny is an in joke for that and in hindsight its more clear the Doctor is doing it on purpose to wind Danny up more than unable to grasp this simple premise. I'll also add I like the grumpy moments more with hindsight into this Doctor more) Clara starts to become unlikable as well here lying to Danny and the whole attempt at trying to pass the alien off as part of a play. Danny I can understand more but I'm wondering if when he was a soldier he took the same super serum as Captain America seeing as he is apparently able to summersault over the robot with ease. Sorry bit of a rant there but a lot of this episode really winds me up but at least I liked the Doctor in this a bit more this time round. On the bit about Clara saying she loves Danny and you thinking it's too soon, I would say there is an indication here that at least three or four month has passed in the last five stories. In the Dalek one Danny is introduced as a new teacher but here when he is taking to Courtney's parents about her being a disruptive influence to which they reply last year he told them she was a very disruptive influence. In the UK I think parent evenings happen twice, one in Autumn and one in Spring. As they say last year this is likely the Spring one. (although that itself would indicate at least 7 months between episode 1 and episode 2 of this series.) but either way they could have been dating for some time. (and now I have a headache lol) One final thing if you are going to try and get ahead with recordings. I'm sure Andrew will point it out at the time but when you get to the Christmas episode there is a mid credit scene in the end credits so you'll need to watch the credits until it comes up.
Jade Ellis
2023-11-29 01:34:44 +0000 UTCOh you´re right. I didn´t even think about that. This is actually pretty cool :)
Nicologik
2023-11-28 12:17:42 +0000 UTCWow this is so well explained. Those character profiles are spot on and I agree with everything that you said. This would have been great as a review :D Maybe you could do those for me when I´m out of town :D :D
Nicologik
2023-11-28 12:17:12 +0000 UTCI´m glad you are happy about more videos :) Yes the IMBD rating is a very interesting tool. Sometimes I would already be able to guess what it will be, and on other days I´m caught totally off guard. :) I agree, this episode was fun :)
Nicologik
2023-11-28 12:14:37 +0000 UTCI feel really sorry for putting your health in danger by uploading videos :D :D Happy you enjoy them :)
Nicologik
2023-11-28 12:12:32 +0000 UTCJust realised with your increase in episode count you’ll be able to release the Christmas special at the right time of year awesome.
Jenny Smyth
2023-11-27 14:41:10 +0000 UTCI think in this episode you can see where all three of the main characters are coming from while still wishing that they understood each other better. The Doctor is trying to save the planet from an unstable alien robot - or whatever it was. Which is excellent. But he genuinely thinks that it's ok not to tell Clara what he's doing and that everyone else should ignore any weird bits of alien tech that he has scattered around the place. And he deliberately antagonises the soldier/turned teacher by calling him a PE teacher and refusing to believe that he can teach maths. Clara is quite rightly worried about the school being put in danger and she is also desperate for the Doctor and Danny to get on and like each other. But getting Danny to use the invisibility watch thing was never going to work. Seeing how she and the Doctor interact in the Tardis only confirmed his worries and made the Doctor distrust him more. Danny has just had a whole new load of information dropped on him from a great height and he is understandably disturbed by it. And to be honest he is quite right about the Doctor being from a higher rank and inclined to push his companions into taking risks to please or impress him. But he ends up antagonising the Doctor just as much as the Doctor antagonised him. And with the best possible motives he pushes Clara into making a promise that could easily lead to more deception. Nobody is perfect and everybody thinks they are doing the right thing.
Stephen Males
2023-11-27 14:20:58 +0000 UTCI’m thrilled that we are getting a few more episodes. So thank you for that. I like the episode more each time I see it. When I first watched this series I was a bit disappointed how grumpy the doctor was, and I wanted him to be happy for Clara. Now I can see the development of Peter’s doctor and it makes more sense. I agree with you that the IMDB rating is a bit low, but like last weeks episode “listen” which was rated higher than you thought, it shows how the rating is very relative to each person. I like how the doctor grows with each episode. All the doctors seem to go through this period of adapting to their new personality. But this was a fun one. x
Jenny Smyth
2023-11-26 17:55:06 +0000 UTCYou're overdosing us on fun! It's probably bad for our health :D
Ian Smith
2023-11-26 15:20:03 +0000 UTC
