Class: Episodes 1 & 2 – What The Papers Are Saying…
Class: this young adult Doctor Who spin-off doesn’t shy away from gore and nudity
Contains spoilers of episodes one and two
Way back in 1963, when the first episode of Doctor Who aired, the Time Lord’s granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford) was a pupil at Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London. She and two of her teachers, Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian (William Russell) became the Doctor’s first companions and travelled back to the Stone Age.
A lot has changed in the world of Doctor Who since then – just as much as Shoreditch itself has changed from a very working class area to a gentrified post-hipster land of tech companies and coffee bars. Similarly, once a beleaguered secondary modern, Coal Hill has now become an academy, complete with a sparkling renovation.
Here, departed companion Clara (Jenna Coleman) was employed as a teacher, and so it was a regular feature of the last three series. Now, Coal Hill gets a whole spin-off series of its own, the first two episodes of which have arrived on BBC Three online (to be followed by a new episode each Saturday at 10am).
The lead characters are the usual group of misfits that you get in a teenage sci-fi series. There’s the highly intelligent one with a controlling mother, the cool sporty jock, the sweet shy girl and the new kid, now forced to work together to save the world (the fabric of time and space in the school has worn rather thin from overuse, resulting in a tear that can allow in nasty monsters). But here, mercifully, more nuanced, detailed characterisation means that you soon forget about the stereotyping.
The new boy Charlie (Greg Austin), who unconvincingly tells people he is from Sheffield, is actually an alien prince, hiding on Earth with physics teacher Miss Quill (Katherine Kelly) after their entire civilisation is wiped out by the Shadow Kin, an evil alien race that resemble a Balrog from Lord of the Rings.
The first episode suffers from clumsy writing, with the intended humour often falling flat. And, though this is a common criticism laid at Doctor Who’s door, there are moments that simply don’t ring true. For one, writer Patrick Ness shows his age when Miss Quill scrawls a formula on a blackboard. You can place a fair bet that not a single young actor in that scene will have ever been in a classroom that contains one, given that blackboards have been left behind in the 20th century.
Then there’s the character of April (Sophie Hopkins), whose major character traits seem to be that she’s nice (or kind, as her mother puts it), and that she’s a bit dippy. When she runs into a full-swing prom yelling at people to leave because there’s a fire monster in the hall, she gets frustrated that no one is listening to her, leading to a tantrum on stage. But what on Earth was she expecting, aside from the utter confusion of her classmates? And who spends time ranting about Instagram when death is on the other side of the door? Just pull the fire alarm!
The big moment, of course, comes when the Doctor himself (Peter Capaldi) makes an appearance to both save the day and inform our new alien-fighters of their new roles – because he certainly has better things to do than spend all his time at Coal Hill.
However, things pick up in the second episode, as the script becomes more sophisticated and the true, more adult nature of the series is revealed. We’re certainly in rather more graphic and grown-up territory than the family friendly and fairly unviolent Doctor Who (although slightly less adult than that other spin-off Torchwood). Here, the murder of teenagers happens about as often as it did in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which the mortality rate of Sunnydale High School is a running joke. There’s also a spot of gratuitous male nudity from the episode bad guy, Coach Dawson (Ben Peel).
The events of the first two episodes certainly left their mark on the characters, with April suddenly sharing her heart with the king of the Shadow Kin and Ram (Fady Elsayed) now missing half a leg, which was replaced with an alien prosthetic by the Doctor. And that’s not to mention the PTSD that poor Ram could now suffer after witnessing two brutal and bloody killings.
In fact, it’s a refreshing change to see the psychological consequences of such events actually play out on screen, rather than being ignored in favour of a more action-packed script that’s not bogged down by trauma. In these early days, Ram is the stand-out character, fluctuating from mean tough guy, to struggling mess while keeping a glint in his eye.
But in the end, despite the added violence, both episodes effectively revert back to the Doctor Who way of beating the villain – by talking to it. In the latter, that duty falls to Ram, who lets out his inner demons as well as convincing the dragon monster to kill their coach instead of them. In both Who and Class, this technique can often feel like a cop out – when all the problems are somehow extinguished after an uplifting or emotional speech. But, when you’ve only 45 minutes of screen-time and you don’t want to turn your teenage heroes into murderers themselves, it’s sometimes necessary.
Class, the Doctor Who spin-off
Why?
Do you like time travel with your teachers and black holes with your blackboards? Coal Hill Academy has been part of the Doctor Who universe since the beginning, and now it’s the setting for Class, a smart, scary eight-part drama that premieres today on the digital-only BBC Three before transferring to BBC One.
Don’t mistake Coal Hill for a Whovian Hogwarts; it’s a bog-standard comprehensive in east London where the pupils do maths and geography, bully and lust after each other and chat about Idris Elba and Instagram. Which isn’t to say there’s not scope for extra-curricular aliens, astral…
We’ve seen the first episodes of Doctor Who spin-off Class at last – but is it any good?
After what seems to be a very long time, the debut of Doctor Who spin-off Class is upon us.
We’ve seen the first two tantalisingly epic episodes of Patrick Ness’ young adult show set in the universe of The Doctor, at Coal Hill Academy.
First impressions?
Straight from the pre-credits scene, you get the feeling that nothing is what it seems.
Thankfully it isn’t too long before the main cast rock up, brilliantly brought to life by Greg Austin (Clarlie), Fady Elsayed (Ram), Sophie Hopkins (Alice) and Vivian Oparah (Tanya) alongside the rather fantastic Katherine Kelly (Miss Quill).
One thing that becomes apparent pretty early on, is the alienation each of the main characters feel.
This is exactly how I would imagine growing up in this day and age to be like. Ness, incidentally, deals with the whole idea of time and space really well.
Will kids want to see the Doctor? Even though the makers have made it abundantly clear that this show is not suitable for children, they will nonetheless want to see The Doctor back on their screens.
However this show is totally inappropriate for such a young audience.
I can understand the need to establish that this is set in the same universe as Doctor Who. But the gore-level of the content? While it’s not exactly as gruesome as Torchwood was back in the day (sex gas aliens, cannibals from the valleys, anyone?), the amount of blood shown on screen makes it more like a video nasty, rather than Sarah Jane Adventures for older kids.
Yes, it is very much like a British Buffy, but is that really a bad thing, when it is this good?
Cardiff looks brilliant, too
Like the parent show, Class was filmed in and around Cardiff, and it shows off the location to be mesmerisingly stunning.
The introduction of the Doctor, along with some wonderful nods to the main show, is what makes this already good opening episode, wonderful.
From the universe of Doctor Who and BBC Three comes Class
Coal Hill School has been a part of the Doctor Who Universe since the very beginning, but that has come at a price. All the time-travelling over the years has caused the very walls of space and time to become thin. There’s something pressing in on the other side, something waiting for its chance to kill everyone and everything, to bring us all into Shadow.
The Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi, will join the cast of exciting new talent in the opening episode of the series, For Tonight We Might Die. Coal Hill School holds some very dark and deadly secrets in its shadows… but who will survive? Commenting on his involvement with the new Doctor Who spin-off series, Peter Capaldi, says: “The Doctor Who family is growing, and it’s fantastic to be able to welcome the young new cast of Class in to the Whoniverse.”
Episode One – For Tonight We Might Die
It’s a new term at Coal Hill Academy, and students are preparing for their Autumn Prom. But when the school comes under attack from the monstrous Shadow Kin, four alienated students must form an unlikely alliance to defeat them. Charlie, April, Ram and Tanya, assisted by their physics teacher Miss Quill, are now charged with a great responsibility by the mysterious alien known as ‘The Doctor’: to guard against the creatures of nightmare, who want nothing more than to find a way through to Earth and take it for their own.
Episode Two – The Coach With The Dragon Tattoo
Following the tragic events at the Prom, a devastated Ram isolates himself from the other three as he struggles with his new reality. Desperate to hold himself together on the football pitch, when he thinks he witnesses someone getting skinned alive he’s convinced he’s cracking up.
But when Tanya, Charlie and April are all confronted with the same thing: a horrific, monstrous, skin-peeling dragon, they know that they’re under attack. The gang must pull together to fight against the monster, and try to keep Coal Hill safe. Class will be available on BBC Three on Saturday. You can watch it online or through BBC iPlayer.
No, the “cracks” in Class aren’t the same as the ones in Doctor Who
Science-y holes that let aliens into our own world are a staple of science-fiction TV, creating a reason for “monsters of the week” to appear semi-regularly and giving our heroes a cause to stay and fight together in one place.
Examples from the past include the Hellmouth from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the “anomalies” in Primeval and the rift in Torchwood – and now BBC3’s new Doctor Who spin-off Class joins the tradition by introducing “tears” in time and space that let creatures from around the universe enter the environs of Coal Hill School.
However, while the creators of the new sci-fi are happy to pay tribute to the trope – the first episode sees characters acknowledge their situation is similar to series like Buffy and Once Upon a Time – they do want to make one crucial distinction clear.
Despite what we ourselves have theorized, these “tears” are NOT the same thing as the “cracks” previously seen in parent series Doctor Who, which looked similar and also allowed creatures and energy to enter our world (as well as, you know, eating at existence).
The tear (top) and the crack (above)
“No, it’s a different thing,” Class and Who producer Derek Ritchie told RadioTimes.com on the set of the new series.
“These are ‘tears’ in time and space, and that was the crack. They’re gonna look different, gonna feel very different. It’s not the same thing at all.”
He added: “That crack was a very specific storyline, and represented a very specific thing. Whereas this is a much more general idea.”
Well, that’s us told. Then again, considering episode two sees characters refer to the phenomenon as “the bunghole of time”, you’d think calling it a “crack” wasn’t TOO far of a leap…
New episodes of Class are released on BBC3 online every Saturday at 10.00am