Class (2016)

Class (2016)

Dirs: various | 1 Season (cancelled) | 8 episodes, approx 44 mins each.

A Doctor Who offshoot targeted at the Y/A demographic. Previously, we'd had a series for children and one for 'mature' viewers, which is The Sarah Jane Adventures (2008-12) and Torchwood (2006-11), respectively, so it probably made sense to then aim for that valuable middle gap.

I'm not of that age group, so may not be able to connect directly with contemporary concerns of folks that are, but it doesn't matter to me if a story is conceptually for children, teens, or adults - if the work is well-written and/or the characters are engaging, then I can watch and enjoy it.

Class tries hard, with both its relationships and its themes, but I don't feel it's strong enough to appeal to many people outside of the 16-18 y/o audience.

But maybe it was never meant to. Maybe its goals were modest, and it was simply meant to reflect the times in which it was made, without challenging expectations too much. I don't know.

Episode 01 features the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), but he isn't a regular. The main cast are sixth form students of Coal Hill Academy. In the order pictured on the box art, foreground L-R is Tanya (Vivian Oparah), Charlie (Greg Austin), April (Sophie Hopkins), and Ram (Fady Elsayed). The lady in the background is physics teacher Miss Andrea Quill (Katherine Kelly).

Alongside the personal, emotional, relationship, etc, choices that archetypal students of their age typically obsess over, the team have to deal with a race of aliens named the Shadow Kin, aptly named for both their traits and the darker tone that the series adopts. If you're wondering, the Shadow Kin don't play Magic: The Gathering, as far as I know.

It managed only 8 episodes before getting cancelled, but that in itself is an achievement because it's so badly written and directed much of the time that it didn't deserve to reach even half of that number. The generic, crap, contrived plotting and melodramatic acting gets tiresome long before the cliff-hanger finale; it's so bad that it feels as if it belongs on Netflix, not British TV. 

Miss Quill is the only character from Class that I'll still remember a week from now; she deserved to be part of a better series.