Following its recent airing on BBC One, let’s take a look back at the first season of Class.
Buy Season 1 on DVD on Amazon here.
Buy Season 1 on Blu-ray on Amazon here.
Here are our 10 favourite moments from the Doctor Who spin-off’s first season…
10. Miss Quill and the Number 55 to Oxford Circus
This cracking climax from Episode 3, ‘Nightvisiting’, saw Katherine Kelly’s inimitable Miss Quill commandeer a vehicle (specifically, a double-decker London bus) and use it to drive straight through the vines of the creepy Lankin, severing its connection to Tanya and saving the day.
It’s a dynamic moment to top off an excellent episode.
9. “This Is A Song For The Lost”
Season finale ‘The Lost’ isn’t perfect, but opens in stunning style with April’s folk song, sung with real folk musician Jim Moray and perfectly establishing the melancholic tone of the series that follows.
Class makes no secret of the fact that it’s in large part about grief, and the way the song is played over the death of Ram’s father Varun – and later April herself – is particularly effective.
8. Killer Petals
One of the show’s neatest monster ideas, the Killer Petals in ‘Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart/Brave-ish Heart’ get perhaps short shrift when compared to the Shadow Kin’s share of the screen-time, but in a few sharp, tightly directed scenes from Philippa Langdale we witness the full grisly extent of their carnivorous appetites, bringing bodies down on the streets.
7. The Arn Operation
One of the most iconic and memorable moments of the season’s excellent penultimate episode, Ballon removing the Arn from Miss Quill’s eye is exciting and gruesome, icky and satisfying.
It’s the culmination of not just that episode’s quest but much of her character arc so far: finally, the shackles of slavery are coming off.
6. No-Space, No-Time
‘Detained’ is also likely to be remembered as one of the show’s high points, with an entire classroom relocated into no-space, no-time, as our gang have only a murderous Prisoner for company.
Out of many great moments from director Wayne Yip, our top pick would have to be the surreal imagery of Charlie sticking his arm into the void, and having his arm emerge right back at him from the other side.
5. Cameo of the Doctor
This moment from the first episode, ‘For Tonight We Might Die’, was sure to get every Whovian excited: the Doctor turns up, complete with a great new rendition of his theme from Blair Mowat, and promptly aims a volley of words and witticisms at the Shadow Kin.
Peter Capaldi’s appearance is short and sweet but he demonstrates an excellent rapport with both Katherine Kelly and the young cast.
4. Angels!
While we’re on the topic of Doctor Who connections, few are likely to forget the surprise ending to the season finale, in which Headmistress Dorothea Ames is dispatched at the order of Cyril Nri’s mysterious Chair of the Governors … and at the hands of a Weeping Angel!
The iconic villains have now attained a truly legendary status and as such their surprise reveal at the end of the show’s first season really had an impact.
3. Quill and Ballon’s Heart-to-Heart
One of the most poignant moments in ‘The Metaphysical Engine, Or What Quill Did’, this conversation between Quill and Ballon in the First Quill Nest saw two alien refugees, two outsiders, two former soldiers, bonding over the shared pain of their pasts.
‘I shout my toughness and my danger, but I’m shouting it to children’ is beautifully delivered by Katherine Kelly.
2. The Life and Death of Jasper Adeola
This standout moment from ‘Nightvisiting’ borrows a leaf from the ‘Lance episode’ of Russell T Davies’ Cucumber in using a limited time-frame and montage to portray the entirety of a human life.
The scenes knitted together with another haunting folk song from Jim Moray, we see Jasper from his marriage to the birth of his children through to the effect of his death, and eventually his eerie night-time resurrection: joyous, then mournful, then creepy, in that order.
1. The Metaphysical Engine and Arn Heaven
The season’s high point, though, has to be its seventh episode – ‘The Metaphysical Engine, Or What Quill Did’ – and specifically the way Ness advanced the series premise by showing us Quill, Ames and Ballon travelling to a multitude of different worlds in the Metaphysical Engine.
Better still was the revelation that these were worlds of pure thought, ideas of afterlives in different species’ minds. And on top of that all, the alien forest of ‘Arn Heaven’ is beautifully rendered by director Wayne Yip and the production team.
Buy Season 1 on DVD on Amazon here.
Buy Season 1 on Blu-ray on Amazon here.
What was your favourite moment in Season 1? Let us know below…