One of the most exciting things about the prospect of a spin-off to a popular show is the juggling of how it will be the same as the original and how it will be different. From the beginning, it sounded like Class, writer Patrick Ness‘ new YA-centric offshoot of Doctor Who, would have a great mixture of alien monster threats and teenage high school angst, in a way we haven’t seen since Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But the first teaser trailer to the show hides even that, and instead focuses on a warning from its timey wimey first guest star.
Yes, we’ve already told you that the Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi, would be guest starring in the first episode of Class, and he really takes center stage in the short teaser, in which he explains there will be threats he won’t be around to handle and that he’ll need people on Earth (in this case, the students of Coal Hill School) to pick up the baton when he’s off chasing Daleks or whatever. We get glimpses of our main characters, but the teaser certainly wants to hammer home the fact that it’s a Doctor Who universe show, and largely it makes that point rather well.
Despite being aired on BBC Three in the UK and aimed at a teen crowd, the teaser — and especially the parental warning before it — make us think Class will be a lot scarier, perhaps a lot more adult, than Doctor Who, and that’s perfectly fine with us. It’s a show that will be much more tense, simply because the Doctor won’t be there every week to save us. And that’s a great thing for drama.
While I’d have loved a bit more of the new characters (say, even a line of dialogue or two) it’s a pretty distinctive way to usher in a new series. Torchwood never had the Doctor on it, and The Sarah Jane Adventures had a whole season before the Doctor was there. Already starting strong, Class. Well done.
Let us know your thoughts on the Class teaser in the comments below!
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Image: BBC America
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor and the resident Whovian for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!
