If Clara takes care of the Doctor, who takes care of Clara?
You notice it in the way the Doctor suddenly sees Courtney Wood as real when she proudly touts that she’s a “Disruptive Influence.” You know it in the way Clara and the Doctor now casually joke about how she’s his conscience. And once Danny Pink meets the Doctor and discovers the other half of Clara’s life, you see it in the choice he has to make. This is who Clara is, Danny, and if your life with her is to go forward then you don’t have to be a soldier, but you do have to be a caretaker.
I am a huge sucker for Gareth Roberts’ work on Doctor Who. The man has an uncanny knack for blending domestic drama with madcap otherworldliness while skewering the expectations of both approaches. Both “The Lodger” and “Closing Time” are highlights of the Eleventh Doctor’s run, and I consider “The Unicorn and the Wasp” to be one of my favorite episodes of Who ever. “The Shakespeare Code” is…well, not so great, but at least contains the golden line: “57 academics just punched the air.” When you’re throwing out lines like that every few seconds you can let your plot run away from you a little.
That’s what ends up happening in “The Caretaker” to some extent. When your episode is thin on actual events then it’s difficult to really pull together a satisfying ending. All of Roberts’ episodes share this aspect, from the car-chase-with-bee in “Unicorn and the Wasp” to the wrote-myself-into-a-corner-father’s-love-beats-cyber-conversion of “Closing Time.” Danny ends up flipping over a killer spider-bot while the Doctor talks to it to sleep and that’s supposed to signal the end of “The Caretaker”s action. It’s a little weird, especially when we were ready to stop thinking about This Week’s Threat the first time it gets disposed of, earlier in the episode.
But that’s the one cloud to what is mostly silver lining in “The Caretaker,” because even though the climactic action is weak it’s so much fun just getting there. Before the opening credits even start rolling, Capaldi is pretending to be a school caretaker, fending off Clara with a broom and promising a group of teachers that he is definitely human and totally boring, committing fiercely to comedic aspects of his Doctor, a guy who is unblinkingly unaware that no one shares his perspective on anything.
And yet, Peter Capaldi’s Twelve is tremendously aware of how much he doesn’t fit in with the humans, and this seems to encourage him to be actively antagonistic towards his similarities with the day-to-day of humanity. He chides us for our limited lifespans, counts the days until he can stop pretending to be one of us, and insists we fit into easy boxes that aren’t possibly bigger on the inside.
Danny Pink fits squarely into these crosshairs and all it takes for him to earn the Doctor’s disapproval is to offer his help while Clara hangs about nearby. The Doctor is fiddling with the electrics, which Danny can help with because the army taught him how to. The army? Bad move, Danny. This Doctor is borderline-enraged by soldiers and institutions of combat. Now you fit into a box, into a tidy equation ironically absent of variables. Danny = soldier = phys ed teacher = worthless. As if this Doctor needs another reason to devalue those around him.
Because oh yeah, the Doctor’s fiddling with electrics (and everything) because he’s seeding the entire school with mines. In order to draw in a war machine that has enough power to obliterate the planet. And even after saying this out loud the Doctor doesn’t realize how insane it is to use a school as bait. Sure, these are people, but the monster will come at night probably the Doctor has it all under control, don’t worry. Or maybe he doesn’t. Whatever. The point is that he doesn’t really want to debate this. His perspective is fixed. In his mind obviously he values everyone because why else would he be working to save them?
Clara tries to get him to see that his decisions don’t have to be a fixed line from point A to point B, that there’s a wild topography of choice and consequence in play here. There are variables here, not just in the school and the students but in Danny. But the Doctor won’t let her help. He thinks he knows how this all works, right down to Clara’s preferences in men. Look at her new boyfriend, he smiles (so so creepily). Why, he looks just like I did!
And the Doctor isn’t wrong about Clara’s preferences in men so much as he’s blind to variation in those preferences. Thus, he’s blind to the qualities in Danny that make him so much more than just a soldier and it’s probably no coincidence that Danny’s qualities satisfy needs for Clara that the Doctor cannot. Right after the big reveal, Danny asks Clara a very important question, a question we’ve been waiting for ever since Clara showed up lo so many half-seasons ago: Why does she stay with the Doctor?
Her answer highlights the positives. He’s amazing. When she’s with the Doctor she sees wonders. Danny can’t provide that, but he’s been around men like the Doctor before. Officers, generals really, that push people to be more than they think they are. The Doctor hates soldiers and Danny realizes immediately that it’s because leading soldiers comes so naturally to the Doctor. He really puts the “lord” in Time Lord and we see a snippet of why Twelve hates soldiers so much. Because they see right through him. And that’s what borderline-enrages the Doctor, that he’s been running from the expectations of others for millennia (or however old he really is) and yet he’s still somehow right where he started.
Which, somewhat relatedly, means that this is not a man eager to seek out Gallifrey.
Danny sees who the Doctor is and even though Clara has carefully selected the positives of being around this man (Fish People being/not being one of them) Danny knows that achieving those positives is a process that wears you down. In a sense it can be an addiction; the more that this wonderful unobtainable adventure offers up negative aspects, the harder you try to chase the positive ones. So even though Clara thinks the entire episode is a bad idea, she still helps the Doctor pull off his plan. Because she trusts him, because he requested it. Even though it means putting herself directly into harm’s way.
Danny is ultimately pushed to do this himself, although not for the Doctor but for Clara. Once the adventure is over they have a talk. Danny is not going with her in the TARDIS, even after having earned the Doctor’s begrudging respect. Someone needs to be there for Clara. Because, as Danny points out, Clara might see wonders with the Doctor, but she keeps those wonders a secret. And the more she does that, the more it separates her from others.
Episode writers Moffat and Roberts are at their best here, using the events of the episode to continually throw the characters at each other, and it culminates in an understated but important closing scene. The relationship between Danny and Clara, so weak and awkward only two episodes ago, is now deep and strong. Clara needs someone who’s willing to take care of her, to take her secrets seriously, to be truthful towards, once the Doctor is gone. And now Danny has chosen, really he insists, on being that person.
And that’s the kind of loyalty you just can’t get from a man in a blue box.
Thoughts:
- Nice touch on making the Caretaker’s shed doors like the TARDIS’, but red.
- Speaking of subtle set design, the interior of the TARDIS gets messier and messier in each episode. Small touches to show that Twelve is settling in.
- Heh, “Space Dad.”
- Samuel Anderson, the actor playing Danny, doesn’t seem to be listed in the cast of any forthcoming episodes so I thought he was going to get sucked into the time vortex along with the killer robot. I actually kind of wanted that, but thankfully the episode had a better ending in mind for Danny!
- I thought it was a nice touch to include the Doctor actually following up on his conversation with little Courtney Wood. It’s not overt, but after seeing her parents in the episode you realize that every supportive system she has in her life, namely her parents and school, is completely conditional, and that her disruptive bratty nature probably stems from trying to please both to no avail. Nice of the Doctor to give her a moment of wonder disconnected from all of that.
- You don’t expect it, but considering this episode and “Listen,” Twelve seems to want to be just as nice to children as Eleven was, even if he doesn’t quite get it right.
- Is this the first time the Doctor has actually been inside Coal Hill School? Even though his granddaughter attended it? One wonders if Ian Chesterton would have recognized the new “caretaker” had he been there.
- It’s possible that Roberts and Moffat are cheekily pointing this out with the cast-off line about there being a lot of “artron energy” in the area and that being why the killer robot was lured there. I love the idea that Doctor, being the one who delivers so many time travelers to the school, is just making sure to sweep up his own mess. He’s got a broom and everything!
- It’s been a while, so we get a near-post-credits scene with the policeman who gets killed by the robot. He’s in the afterlife, wonh wonh, and Missy looks at him for a second as her subordinate refers to her as God and the afterlife as the “Nethersphere.” I think my theory still stands. She comes to check the policeman out but then sees that he would have been killed whether or not the Doctor was around, so she realizes he’s not responsible for his death and keeps on going. Sorry, mack, you’re not good enough to get into Doctor Judgment Heaven.
- Sorry about the delay on this, folks. We were all at a wedding of one of our own (I climbed a tree!) and weren’t around things with screens. Hopefully next week should be more on schedule, although the weekend after that is New York Comic Con and things might get dicey again. Fingers crossed!
Chris Lough is the production manager of Tor.com and is the person who made that mess in geography for which Ms. Wood needed napkins. He’s sorry. He’ll never drink whiskey in class again. If you like, he writes about other things on the site and you can see them by clicking on his name there.
Yes, I liked “you’re a space woman and he’s your space dad!” Especially since the Doctor was space granddad at the same school earlier.
I’m enjoying this season much more than the last one. Capaldi is creating a wonderful figure who seems reminiscent of the first, third and fourth doctors. Great fun.
Actually Seven was inside Coal Hill during “Remembrance of the Daleks.” He gave his unlimited rice pudding speech to Davros from the basement and Ace destroyed two Daleks there (baseball bat and rocket launcher).
Thanks, tarbis! I read about Seven’s return but couldn’t tell definitively whether that happened in the episode or just in its prose retelling/add-on or what.
Ian at the school would be to much like when Sarah Jane was re-introduced. I pictured it more along the lines of the Doctor phoning up Ian and saying”I need to work at Coal Hill School for a few days can you arrange it?” Ian,” Do I want to know why?” “No.” Doctor said. “Right I just send the caretaker on vacation for a week and you can take his place.” says Ian sarcasticlly. “That will do.” he replies and show up at school.
I think Missy ignored the policeman because he was fully human and not artificial in anyway and the Doctor was not directly responsible for his death. Missy likes artificial cyborg type beings. It could be that it has some to do with spaceships too. I think Missy could be a damaged Tardis avatar or something similar. The lack of plot was a bit frustrating because it was just an excuse for Danny and the Doctor to meet. Did the Doctor ever notice Danny’s last name is Pink?
I love that Danny just gets the Doctor within minutes of meeting him. He’d actually make a far better companion than Clara, for that matter. Nowhere near as friendly, but he’d force the Doctor to take a good hard look at himself.
And really, he could help the Doctor finally deal with his own PTSD, which is finally coming to the surface after being buried for three regenerations –Danny is evidence that it’s possible to come back from being a soldier (like the Doctor-when-he-wasn’t).
Of course, I assume a companion spot is being reserved for Courtney as soon as she conquers that spacesickness.
I liked the episode. I’m glad this season in general has had a lot more exploring of Clara, and it’s been interesting to see the dynamic change as she (and we) have been settling into a new Doctor, and the new Doctor settles into himself.
I noticed that Courtney’s parents referred to Danny as having taught Courtney the previous year. In Danny’s first episode, I’d somehow gotten the impression that he was relatively new to the school. Does this mean that a year has passed for the characters so far this season? Or am I misremembering his introduction? I guess it could have been that Clara was the one who was new to the school.
-Andy
As pointed out above, the 7th Doctor got up to some shenanigans inside Coal Hill School in “Remembrance of the Daleks”, where he was asked by the Dalek-controlled Headmaster if he wished to apply for the position of caretaker, despite being overqualified as a Doctor, hence this episode’s origin. That’s one of the many things I love about Doctor Who-throwaway lines such as that can inspire/inform episodes such as these much farther down the line.
The reference to River Song caught my attention. The Tweltfh Doctor really has some aspects of being an old widower.
I like that Danny picked up on the whole Time Lord thing. I pointed it out a few years ago that the Doctor was dripping with Patriarchy, but folks here shot me down because he’s a “rebel” time lord. He may be, but he still considers himself pretty far above us pudding-brained apes…
The Doctor makes a Pink Floyd reference and no one mentions that?
I think it’ll be a while before an episode completely floors me like “Listen” did earlier in the season, but I liked this one a lot, and I like Gareth Roberts in general. Stuff I liked:
* The Doctor’s “GO AWAY HUMANS” sign and Danny saying he “used to look like Adrian.” (Adrian being the Matt Smith lookalike.)
* That Danny is basically right when he says the Doctor is Clara’s space dad, since he’s very much playing the role of the overprotective father here, vetting his adoptive daughter’s new boyfriend to make sure he’s “good enough.”
* Courtney. I kind of imagine a young Ace having her attitude, and I like how she and the Doctor bond over being antisocial.
* The sheer intensity of Danny’s confrontation with the Doctor was electrifying. The Doctor has always disliked soldiers, and I don’t think it’s because they see right through him, or not entirely. He recognized that the Brigadier and Yates and Benton were good men, but in the end, the Brig still destroyed the (hibernating) Silurian colony, and in “Battlefield” he guns down an unarmed prisoner; he’s a loyal friend and a quintessential gentleman, but he meets the unknown and the alien with violence. That’s why the Doctor doesn’t like soldiers, and for an entire lifetime, he had to be one, renouncing his own name out of shame. I think the comment @6 made is on the money — he’s only now confronting his PTSD head on after denying it for his last two regenerations, and I wonder if he’ll end up trusting Danny enough to talk about that with him.
@11 Yes! I also caught that reference! Maybe it was a little bit too subtle for these young whipper-snappers, but I know me some Floyd when I hear it.
Of course, now I’m wondering if they’ll include any more Pink Floyd references in the story.
Pink Floyd reference as in “We don’t need no education” or punning on Danny’s last name?
Need. Closed. Captioning! Even dvr-ing the episode and re-listening to the lines I couldn’t understand the first time isn’t helping much :p
Jane Austen reference, lol :).
Never mind danny being a companion, it should be that seb character at the end who does the admin for the pseudo afterlife: ollie and malcolm together again. Or maybe his series nemesis considering he sold him out.
@5: The first thing Clara mentioned to the Doctor after he’d met Danny was that he had the same surname as Orson Pink and bore a strong resemblance to him. The Doctor didn’t care, but yes, he was made aware of Danny’s surname.
@6: At this point, I suspect the Doctor has more PTSD from Trenzalore than he does left over from the Time War. After all, he didn’t develop his animosity toward soldiers until this new incarnation. Sure, he’s always disapproved of their methods, but it was never this intense before.
@8: Wow, I didn’t realize the whole “Caretaker” thing was a “Remembrance” callback. That’s neat. He finally gets the job, just 51 years late.
I liked this episode better than any episode so far this year. The new characterization of the Doctor is starting to gel, and we are getting to see not only his new, more prickly exterior, but also his warm and funny side. In these first few episodes of the season, I have not been enjoying the show as much as in the past, but am starting to get comfortable with it again.
I have always been a fan of episodes where the Doctor tries (and generally fails) to blend in with humans. And Gareth Roberts has written some of the best of these. Doctor Who works best when the spooky and scary moments are balanced with humor. Lots of snappy lines in this episode, and also some lines that had some real weight to them, very revealing of where all the characters are coming from.
It is pretty obvious to me where the Doctor is at at this point. He had his repressed memories of his role in the Time War brought back, and despite the fact that Gallifrey was saved, he obviously had some years of rough service in that Doctor 8.5 incarnation. And most recently, before his regeneration, he spent centuries in combat on Trenzilore. Psychologists say that humans tend to unravel after more than six months of combat experience, and the Doctor has had centuries of it. He had been a soldier himself for far too long. And why does he hate soldiers? Because he hates himself at this point. (Remember last episode, as he ranted, “I hate the Architect!” Knowing full well that he himself was the Architect.) The Doctor needs some healing here–in fact, he is crying out for it. And perhaps interacting with Danny, who has his own scars, will end up being part of that healing.
The Doctor is not at his best here. He is not thinking his plan through as well as he should, not being nearly as smooth as he thinks he is in dealing with humans, and just in general being sub-par. I think the arc of this season will be the Doctor coming to terms with himself and resolving his issues. And somehow, I think the “paradise” where the dead are going will be a bump on that road to healing.
I liked the Doctor’s “Go Away Humans” sign, general ineptness in presenting himself as normal, his (somewhat clumsy) kindness to the “disruptive” young lady, and his defensiveness regarding Clara. I liked Clara having to come clean with Danny, and glad the writers didn’t make that easy on her. And I like Danny more and more each time he is presented–and most of all the way he called the Doctor out on his arrogance. Danny is, by all appearances, one of the most competent, dependable and decent characters to come in contact with the Doctor during the entire new era of Who.
Next week, the Doctor and Clara pull out those old orange spacesuits that 10 used to wear, and go to the Moon. Looks like a new riff on the reliable old “base under attack” episode structure. Can’t wait!
Two comments:
1. It was nice to get a River Song reference in passing. I know a lot of people hate her, and there were a few fairly major problems with the way she was written, but I liked her.
2. I’m starting to think “Missy” isn’t real but is just a fracture of The Doctor’s personality (similar to The Dream Lord), indicating that something went VERY wrong with this regeneration. She has that love/hate thing going on while at the same time providing a nice ending for the people The Doctor failed to save. I’m willing to be convinced otherwise, but we’ve yet to see her interact with someone in reality, not someone dead.
Wow,
Really?
Clara/Rose/Amy has found her Danny/Mickey/Rory?
No Way!!!!
And the Doctor is Jealous/Happy for her
Oh MY GOD!!!
Perhaps there will be something that allows Danny/Mickey/Rory to act all manly and shit and save her like the Doctor couldn’t!!!
Yay! There it is!
He can jump over a malfunctioning robot that couldn’t hit anything with its lasers.
Yet another brick in the wall of “Stephen Moffet has mother/lover/child issues.”
In the history of doctor who how many companions have had boyfriends that conflicted with the Doctor?
So, it looks like the Doctor may wind up flying the Tardis away from Coal Hill School with two teachers who are romantically involved, and a young girl who has been a disruptive influence in class…
…now why does that sound vaguely familiar?
@19: Umm, Mickey was a Russell T. Davies character, not a Moffat character.
@20: Interesting thought. In the words of the Fifth Doctor, “Why not? After all, that’s how it all started.”
Lots of snappy one-liners in this one. I also like how Capaldi can sell a line: even before the repartee that followed, his delivery of the line “So you recognize me then!” made me burst out laughing.
Even though the Doctor has his share of the blame, I found Danny’s character pretty horrible to Clara in this episode.
First he accuses her of lying because she was hiding her adventures (Like her would have believed her, without seeing it first hand. Also, it’s not just her secret to give away.), then he insults her friend that he barely knows after sneaking unseen into his house, and then he extorts a promise by guilt-tripping her, and basically setting her up to fail. That’s really abusive boyfriend material.
On the other hand, I’m confident it’s not an indication of Danny being a bad guy or harboring some terrible secret, but just the Who team’s usual suckyness at writing human relationships that are not dripping in stereotypical gender roles.
@23 – I agree with your assessment of Danny – he comes across as overbearing, possessive, and somewhat petty. On a related note, I know everyone says that Clara has come into her own in this season, but I haven’t felt that way about her character as of yet – the only development she’s seen is a sudden penchant for stern didactic lectures, which in my opinion is beginning to wear thin. Once again, the Doctor’s character was called into question in this episode, and I don’t see any end to that nagging trend.
I’d like to posit a theory on the inspiration for the story arc – Missy may be a Gallifreyan surrogate for Freyja/Disir/the Norns from Norse mythology. In stories, Freyja, known as “the chooser of the slain,” collects the half of the dead who aren’t destined for Valhalla, in her own hall/field/meadow called Folkvangr – modern scholars are uncertain as to why there were two afterlife halls for warriors, though they do know there was some initiation separating the warriors from each other – this story arc may be the result of Moffat’s musing on the nature of that lost information. Additionally, Freyja’s mythology is linked with The Norns, or The Wyrd (“fates”) – a female triple deity (3W?) not unlike the Moirai, who weave the destinies of gods and men from birth to death (Missy seems able to pull the strings of the tapestry). If this is the case, her ivory brooch likely features a Valkyrie (Freyja). The inclusion of wolves and what is likely a world tree (ygddrasil) in the third to last episode doesn’t hurt this Norse analogue theory.
What could this mean for the series? Possibly not much as far as the plot is concerned, as it may just be the inspiration. The Netherspere may be a Valhalla/Folkvangr of sorts located on the sealed planet Gallifrey (or it could just be another dimension on Earth, which would explain why everyone looking for it is already on Earth), and a battle for control over it (similar to Ragnarok) may be approaching. Its entrance may be the origin of the artron energy signature in London which the cyborgs/robots seem to be picking up on.
Perhaps the Doctor’s sudden hate for soldiers is nothing more than a clumsy foreshadowing of his eventual dealings with this army of the slain – his dislike for soldiers ultimately stems from their inability to avoid a destructive “fate,” which he himself continually strives to avoid through creative solutions, but armies ulimately force the Doctor to destroy them. Missy could just be turning the dead into cybermen, which would be boring. God, I hope she isn’t Miss Hartigan, having built an artron fuelled base inside the time vortex. I’ll bet the Doctor has to commandeer this army of the dead.
I may not be in love with the current series, but at least it sparks the imagination.
The Shakespeare Code is a great episode. Great dialongue, great setting. Shakespeare is one of the greatest guest characters. Martha has something interesting to do and the bit with Queen Elizabeth at the end. It’s one of my favorite Ten stories.
I think that what motivated the nature of the Doctor’s plan was the desire to see Clara in her ordinary life.
It’s a huge mystery to the Doctor, an even bigger one than how she could be a Dalek and a Victorian governess. What is so special about Clara’s ordinary life that she insists on constantly returning to it, and in fact made the ability to return to her ordinary life a condition in agreeing to travel in the TARDIS with him?
So right at the beginning, we see the Doctor telling Clara to go live her ordinary life, as he goes undercover. And he constantly returns to that theme, telling her to get on with her life for the week. He doesn’t want her to help with the monster, he wants to watch her being normal.
So that is probably a big part of why the Doctor’s plan to stop the monster was so strange. He wasn’t paying close attention to it. And he was using it as an excuse to observe Clara at school.
Little details, like keeping the kids safe as he carries out his plan, come a distant third.
@20: Well, although Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright certainly were the parent figures in the nuclear family that was the original show, they weren’t romantically involved at any point onscreen. (There’s been a reference or two afterwards.)
@19: I can think of three companions who left the TARDIS to be with lovers/fiancés, right off the top of my head.
Atrus (@23): While I enjoyed the added development of Danny as a character, I agree with you that his attitude towards Clara’s relationship with the Doctor came off as bit puzzling. After all, if on Date #1 you say, “I don’t do *weird*”, it is a little hard to justify getting so worked up that your girlfriend is not sharing her stories of time-traveling alien adventures with you, isn’t it?
What I would like to see the show explore is Danny, as a combat veteran, understanding EXACTLY why Clara loves the adrenaline rush of adventures in time and space, and then reminding her of just how deadly (to self and others) such adventures turn out to be. He could add a lot of moral gravitas to the show, instead of just being a downer controlling boyfriend.
@28: But on Date #1, he also said that he couldn’t tolerate being lied to.
And Danny doesn’t strike me as the kind of combat veteran who gets off on the “adrenaline rush.” What he prides himself on are the wells he dug and the aid he provided and the relationships he formed. He seems to have only negative memories of the more dangerous and violent parts of his service. If anything, I think that’s more realistic. The people who glorify combat are the people who’ve never been in it.
ChristopherLBennett (@29): Danny wanting it both ways (“Don’t tell me” and “Tell me”) does not bolster his case, alas. He was pretty strong on the “No weird” request, and that is what he got. Careful what you wish for, I say.
And regarding his combat experience, I agree completely that his emphasis on the more constructive aspects of military service shows his detachment from (possibly his disenchantment with) the “rush” of battle. Which makes him a very good candidate to diagnosis it in Clara (assuming that is her underlying reason for hanging out with the Doctor) and to offer an alternative view. Better than having Danny turn into a “him or me” case of jealousy.
@30: But it’s not wanting to have it both ways, unless the person he’s seeing is weird. What he wants is someone who is both 1) not weird and 2) honest with him. And he got neither in Clara.
Clara’s case is really particular, as she’s the sci-fi equivalent of being secret service or under a very strict and cautelatory NDA. But in general, it weirds me out that “I’m keeping a secret” is considered equivalent to “I’m lying / not being honest”.
If that were the case, Danny would be equally dishonest for saying he must cancel the date for “family business” when he really wants to check on the caretaker.
Atrus (@32): A good point about Clara being under an obligation to keep a secret, and how we often conflate “Don’t lie” with “Tell me everything”. We really put her in a no-win situation, don’t we?
I admit to often interpreting “Don’t lie” as both commission (do not tell me anything untrue) and omission (do not leave out anything true), which is likely what Danny is asking. What we probably need to do is to modify the “omission” branch to “Do not leave out anything true … that I need to know”, so secrets that must be kept can be kept without fear of being thought as betraying a relationship. Still room for error, of course, but, hey, we’re human. Gallifreyans, that’s another story.
@33: But Clara has been lying, through the lame excuses she concocts for her sudden disappearances or what she was doing while she was away. She didn’t just say “I can’t tell you because it’s a secret,” she consciously contrived false explanations.
@34: Some secrets you can’t even tell they’re secrets. And I don’t mean just on a moral level, I mean like NDAs where the non disclosure covers the NDA itself.
Sometimes I wish I had close caption turned on for my TV. Some of the lines get said so fast, or in such a manner that even after reviewing them, I miss key words.
Such as when Courtney’s parents are talking to Danny. Did they say “Last year YOU said she was a ‘very disruptive influence’, thus she’s improved” or did they say “Last year The Teacher said…”
Because since he was a brand new teacher to the school two episodes ago – if it was the first statement, How long has it been since they started dating? And therefore, how long has Clara been carrying on her double life with the Doctor, while dating Danny?
I have to admit, Danny took the discovery of her secret life really well overall. Since one of his early lines was “I don’t do weird” or something to that effect.
Braid_Tug (@36): I was a bit confused by Courtney’s parents, too (even as I was amused by their logic). I do not think that an entire year has passed (which I say with some trepidation about a series that routinely tosses centuries of time around), and so I suspect that they were speaking in the “You (plural) (i.e., The School) said” mode.
And Danny does seem to be adapting to “doing weird” nicely, like grabbing an invisibility bracelet and sneaking into a space-and-time-bending transportation device without so much as blinking. (Blinking bad!) I just wish he would not hold Clara “doing weird” too hard, especially since he seemed to want to avoid it, earlier.
@37: I can buy that logic re: her parents.
I was thinking this episode also set up the “Why Clara will leave the Doctor.” Big flashing sign.
He will push her too far by asking one leap of faith too many. She will see the moment and after the dust settles, walk away. Not really sure if I’m looking forward to that moment. I fear the shape it will take.
Things should actually be getting less weird for Clara and Danny, now that she’s no longer hiding her double life. A lot of stuff that made no sense to Danny (e.g., why she’s already exhausted at the time of their morning run) have fallen into place.
Danny initially complained about weirdness not when Clara’s jacket went missing, but rather when she was evasive about it. The weirdness he objects to isn’t an unusual travel habit. It’s the weirdness of living lies, and being lied to.
Having now re-watched this episode, I note that in the end scene the mysterious man does not call Missy “God”. The policeman says, “Oh, God” when he looks out the window; that is the only reference to a deity. The man says of Missy, “She’s a bit busy today,” and that’s all.
@40: But it does seem to me that “She’s a bit busy today” is in response to “Oh, God.” As in, “Sorry, God can’t answer your invocation because she’s busy.” It’s ambiguous, but it certainly can be taken to imply that the speaker perceives Missy as God. After all, she is the Keeper of the Nethersphere, and he is an inhabitant of it, so from his perspective, she would be God.
I liked the dialogue between Danny and the Doctor, but the way Danny treats Clara is down-right possesive, codependent and bordering on abusive. Not to say the Doctor treats her any better, but she’s tech not dating him.
Ugh, why all the gross relationships? Can’t there just be one that isn’t dripping in codependency.
Regarding the whole secrets/lying thing:
Yes, its not a morality issue when you are keeping a secret you are required to keep, even if you actually DO need to fudge the truth in order to keep. HOWEVER, to the other party (Danny), who is not privy to the fact that there IS a secret/non-disclousure agreement/etc… there’s not a whole lot of difference. Since they can’t know what they don’t know because you haven’t told them, its completely understandable that they equate “fibbing about where you are/what you are doing” with lying.
Danny is perfectly justified in his reaction, because they are in a relationship, the secrets directly affect him, because as is insinuated in this episode she has frequently canceled on him and given him reasons that don’t pass muster, and he has no way of knowing what is really up.