Doctor Who Recap -- 09/27

In tonight's episode "The Caretaker," Clara is alternating between going on adventures with the Doctor and dates with Danny Pink. One day, though, the Doctor announces, "No trip today." Instead, he's going undercover somewhere. With more free time, Clara decides to focus on building her relationship with Danny. However, she goes to work and finds none other than the Doctor posing as the new caretaker at her school. She confronts him about this, but he won't tell her what's going on. She surmises there's an alien on the grounds and asks if the children are safe. He says no, but they will be.

Meanwhile, a police officer investigating an abandoned building gets killed by a robotic assailant. Aware of the danger, the Doctor goes around planting strange devices across school grounds and doing something weird with the Tardis. He also meets Danny, whom he takes a disliking to because the latter was a soldier, and the Doctor doesn't like soldiers. Clara asks him about his agenda on campus, and he explains he's scanning for alien technology and has found a cybernetic organism called a Skovox Blitzer which has enough firepower to destroy the entire planet, and so he must find it before anything bad happens. He's planted what he calls time mines to trap the alien.

The Doctor dons an invisibility watch and proceeds to bait the Skovox Blitzer into following him back to his trap. However, Danny finds the devices and starts deactivating them. He comes in to find the Doctor and Clara battling the Blitzer which gets sucked into a temporal rift. The Doctor is incensed that Danny sabotaged his trap, resulting in the Blitzer not being fully banished. It will return in about three days. Clara declares her love for Danny who realizes she has been lying to him about the Doctor, and wants her to tell him the truth. Danny also resents the Doctor's superior attitude and describes him as an officer giving orders.

Later, at the school's parent/teacher conference, the Blitzer reappears early, and the Doctor has Clara act as a decoy to lure it away from innocent bystanders. It follows her into a room where the Doctor is waiting with a jury-rigged contraption which allows him to fool the Blitzer into thinking he's its superior officer. He orders it to shut down, but it initiates its self-destruct sequence. The Doctor needs a moment to override the command, and Danny runs in and does an impressive flip over the Blitzer, distracting it and giving the Doctor the time he needs. The Blizter shuts down and the world is saved once again. The Doctor gives Danny credit for the assist, and the later sees that the Time Lord wants him to be good enough for Clara, and the two spend a happy evening alone together.

Finally, the police officer killed earlier finds himself in a strange room, apparently the afterlife, or Promised Land. The enigmatic Missy makes an appearance, and the mystery deepens. 

This was another quality Doctor Who episode. I especially like the growing relationship between Clara and Danny. She's not just the Doctor's companion; she has a life and desires of her own apart from his. Also, the growing mystery of Missy and the Promised Land continues to intrigue me.