12 Years Ago, Doctor Who's Most Unhinged Episode Revealed the Doctor at His Worst
'Humans. I never learn.'
Doctor Who has never shied away from occasionally showing the Doctor at his worst. In “A Good Man Goes to War,” Eleven (Matt Smith) reckons with how his choices have made him nearly as monstrous as his enemies. There’s also “The Waters of Mars,” where Ten (David Tennant) is still reeling from the loss of his most recent companion, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), and determined to win for once. He uses his power over time to save people whose deaths are fixed points in history — consequences be damned — in a genuinely shocking, villainous moment for the Time Lord.
However, one episode doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves from Whovians for portraying the Doctor at his most unhinged and hypocritical.
“The Caretaker,” which aired in 2014, is far from a memorable monster-of-the-week episode. The episode follows Twelve (Peter Capaldi) as he goes undercover as a janitor at companion Clara Oswald's (Jenna Coleman) school, Coal Hill. The reason is simple: an alien robot called the Skovox Blitzer is on the loose.
Despite its ability to destroy Earth and its cool factor as a killer robot, the Skovox Blitzer is the episode's least interesting element. Instead, writer Gareth Roberts portrays ‘The Caretaker’ as a character drama that centers on the meeting between Twelve and Clara’s boyfriend, Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson).
We see The Doctor at his most ugly in “The Caretaker”
Throughout most of the season, Clara has juggled two very different lives: her “normie” life as an English teacher, where she’s dating fellow teacher Danny, and her epic, life-changing adventures with the Doctor across time and space. In “The Caretaker,” these two lives finally collide, and the result is uncomfortable for everyone involved.
The most agonizing aspect of the entire episode is the Doctor himself. From his introduction in season 8, this version of the Time Lord has come across as no-nonsense and critical. It’s a major shift from the more sentimental, silly alien Clara was used to with the Eleventh Doctor. This attitude peaks in “The Caretaker,” where he comes face-to-face with Danny, who is also a former soldier. The Doctor is incapable of seeing Danny as anything but a soldier, dismisses his intelligence, and refers to him as “a PE teacher” instead — presumably because he doesn’t believe Danny is clever enough to be a math teacher.
The Doctor’s opinion of Danny worsens when he realizes Danny is Clara’s boyfriend. Earlier in the episode, the Doctor thought Clara’s boyfriend was Adrian, a fellow English teacher. To the Doctor, Clara's romantic interest in Adrian makes sense. Adrian not only looks like the Doctor’s previous incarnation, Eleven, with his bow tie and fancy hair, but he also seems more emotionally stable because of his role as a teacher — even though Danny is also a teacher.
Roberts plays the misunderstanding between Adrian and Danny for laughs, and it’s funny to see an intelligent character like the Doctor trip up this way, but it’s also a fantastic window into the Doctor’s psyche, particularly how he views Clara’s feelings towards him. Whovians will recall that in the first episode of season 8, the Doctor accused Clara of not truly "seeing" him and only wanting Eleven back. Therefore, Clara's pursuit of a romantic relationship with someone resembling his past self is both a significant ego boost and confirmation that the Doctor was right about Clara’s love for his previous self.
However, when the Doctor learns that Clara is with Danny instead, it completely shakes up his perspective of Clara and their relationship. To the Doctor, whoever Clara dates reflects him. Danny becomes a dark mirror because, despite the Doctor repeatedly proclaiming that he abhors violence, it has shaped his entire existence to the point that he has an entire iteration known as the “War Doctor.” As Davros, the creator of the Daleks and the Doctor’s most hated enemy, tells the Time Lord in the season 4 finale: “The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun, but this is the truth, Doctor: You take ordinary people and fashion them into weapons... behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers.”
Clara, who knows Danny used to be a soldier and still loves him, serves as a perfect lampshade for the audience to see the similarities between the Doctor and Danny. Unintentionally, Clara becomes caught between the two most important men in her life, and much to their chagrin, they’re more alike than they seem. In this episode, Danny himself asks Clara whether she loves the Doctor. When she says she does but “not in that way,” he immediately challenges her to explain what that even means, a question she finds difficult to answer.
The Doctor and Danny are so similar that the Doctor’s treatment of Danny is hard to watch, especially when you remember that the Time Lord has made plenty of friends who are soldiers over the years, including plenty within active military organizations like UNIT. Even so, it serves as a poignant reminder that, for all the good the Doctor does, he can have an ugly — even monstrous — side.
The Doctor and Danny’s relationship isn’t fixed by the time “The Caretaker” ends, but they reach a grudging understanding, united by their mutual love for Clara and the terrible things they’ve both done—and regret.
Ultimately, Gareth shows that despite all the good the Doctor accomplishes, he is also jealous, petty, and often unwilling to face these sides of himself until he’s forced to. That’s what makes the Time Lord such a compelling protagonist in the first place— because really, who wants a perfect hero?
Doctor Who’s 2005 to 2025 seasons are available to buy via Amazon or Apple. They can also be streamed via AMC+. You can watch the two most recent seasons and some specials on Disney Plus.