Inspirations: The Caretaker

Writer Gareth Roberts tended to be a two-trick pony when it came to his stories for Doctor Who. His first contributions revolved around a famous literary figure and peppered the dialogue with references to their work. 

His other gimmick was to have the Doctor placed into what was for him an unfamiliar domestic setting to see how he would cope. First he used an old DWM comic strip idea and had the Doctor forced to share a flat with someone in The Lodger. In this the Doctor also temporarily held down a job - covering for Craig Owens when he fell ill. Then he gave us a sequel to that story - Closing Time - but concentrated more on the Doctor-gets-a-job angle by having him gain a position at a department store.

Here, he gives us another Doctor-gets-a-job scenario, but this time it's complicated by being at the same place where his companion works - Coal Hill School - and she's started a romance with a colleague there.

The Doctor has gone undercover in a school once before, in order to investigate alien activity, in 2006's School Reunion.

Coal Hill School was the second location seen in the series back on 23rd November 1963, in An Unearthly Child. It was where the Doctor's granddaughter Susan was a pupil, who aroused the curiosity of teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

(An earlier idea for the very first story would have been set entirely within the school, with the Doctor and companions shrunk to an inch in height).

Coal Hill School later became a base of operations for the Imperial faction of Daleks as they sought the Hand of Omega, in Remembrance of the Daleks. (The Doctor was mistaken for a potential caretaker in that story).

Missing two years of work did not seen to harm Ian's job prospects as by 2013 he was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the school, as we see in The Day of the Doctor. This was also when we learned that Clara Oswald was now working there as a teacher.

Following Series 9, the school would actually form the principal location for an entire spin-off series - Class. The Twelfth Doctor made an appearance in the opening episode, and it was explained that all that time travel activity back in 1963 had created a weak point in space and time, a bit like the Cardiff Rift, that allowed alien menaces to slip through. By this time the Board of Governors were actually villains, so presumably Ian had by now retired. 

The events of Attack of the Cybermen in the district had added to this phenomenon.

Series 8 features a few visits to the school, but only this episode really concentrates on it. Danny Pink was first introduced in Into The Dalek, and developed as a semi-regular character designed to highlight the conflicting pressures on Clara - a stable home life with a partner, as opposed to the excitement and danger of travelling in the TARDIS with the Doctor.

She attempted to keep these two lives separate - especially when she learned that the Doctor hated soldiers (Danny being ex-army). The Caretaker sees the Doctor and he finding out the truth about each other.

A whole year has passed since the Dalek episode, as Danny was new to the school then, but a parent talks of him here as having been in post since the previous year.

Another significant character in this episode is Courtney Woods, a disruptive schoolgirl first introduced in a flashback sequence in Deep Breath, where she was seen to be the bane of Clara's professional life.

She is there mainly for some comic relief scenes with the Doctor.

When the Doctor discovers from her that that Clara has a boyfriend amongst the teachers, he automatically assumes it is Adrian, the one who wears a bow tie - as his previous incarnation was wont to do.

We also get another appearance by the strange woman seemingly welcoming the recently deceased into some sort of Afterlife - in this instance a policeman who has been killed by the Skovox Blitzer.

The design of this robot was based on Babyface, from Toy Story (1995). This had the head of a doll on a spider-like mechanical body.

The Doctor is heard to whistle part of the Pink Floyd song Another Brick in the Wall (1979), its lyrics tying in with the school setting -  "We don't need no education... / Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone..." etc.

The Doctor and Clara argue over the dating of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. They are both right as she wrote it over the course of 1796 - 1797. (Coincidentally, Jenna Coleman would be seen on TV a few days after this was broadcast in an adaptation of Death Comes To Pemberley - a sequel to Austin's book).

The Head of the school was going to be female - a Miss Coburn, named after Anthony Coburn who wrote the episode which introduced the location. It was then decided to reuse the character already seen in Into The Dalek, Mr Armitage.

At one point the Doctor offers to take Clara to see some Fish People - potentially the Atlanteans ones from The Underwater Menace.

He also offers to take her to the 1814 Frost Fair on the Thames. We'll see him get there in Thin Ice, but River Song had also mentioned being taken to it by the Eleventh Doctor, where she got to see Stevie Wonder perform.

The Doctor had previously assumed the job - and title - of Caretaker in The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

Next time: David Niven named his 1971 memoir The Moon's A Balloon. He was wrong. It's an egg...