Why I like Courtney Woods
Courtney Wood is a student at Coal Hill School, which puts her in the distinguished company of the Renegade Dalek Battle Computer and Susan Foreman. Unlike them, she is not an alien menace shrouded in mystery and plain old creepy kid vibes. Courtney is a fairly ordinary teenager, which is to say, deeply unhappy.
Courtney is, by her own description and that of her elders, a Disruptive Influence. A Bad Kid (tm). Except that most of what we see her do is on the balance positive. She's extremely observant and seems to be the primary Danny/Clara Shipper On Deck (Ozzie loves the squaddie, after all). In "the Caretaker" her biggest scene is when she goes to get towels to clean up a spill, showing a resourcefulness and sense of responsibility for her own actions that belies her characterization as a delinquent, and she is unfazed by either the sentiment or the telling word choice of the Doctor's GO AWAY HUMANS sign. On the moon, she represents the Idealistic side of the power trio, contrasting Lundvig as the Cynical side (with Clara of course being the balancing force and mediator between the two). She also manages to kill a Moon Spider with quick thinking and good preparation.
Courtney actually manages to precede herself into the story. We first meet her in "the Caretaker," but Clara actually brings her up twice before that: in her disastrous date with Danny in "Into the Dalek," where Courtney is the student who told her that she couldn't concentrate on account of her face being "too wide," and in Clara's flashback in "Deep Breath." Courtney is "just do it then" kid, preying on Clara's weakness as as teacher, and hers is the strength Clara draws on when she thinks the Doctor has abandoned her, which is super interesting to me. Courtney is this ganglion of contradictions and extremes that define teenage existence. Where Clara is all about control - and really struggles when she can't establish and maintain control, as in the classroom - Courtney is an agent of chaos. When pushed, she pushes back, and seems to make a point of challenging Clara because she can. But she also tries to go to Clara for help when necessary, and, as I mentioned, is a huuuuge Clara/Danny shipper. Clara seems to have won her grudging respect at some point along the line, as Courtney manages to win the Doctor's almost immediately. Because she's a Disruptive Influence - she shakes things up. The Doctor at his best is precisely that as well, which is probably why he agrees to take her into space. Also she straight-up asks him to, but in a matter-of-fact and not at all starry-eyed sort of way. You get the impression he likes her a lot, even after she throws up on the TARDIS. And, honestly, with good reason.
Now you might expect going into space to magically fix all of Courtney's problems in an afterschool special sort of way. One of the things I like best about Courtney and her story is that this does not happen - if anything, it makes her worse. And that's because most of Courtney's problems come from the fact that she's a teenager, and being a teenager is Hard. And sometimes that's nobody's fault. Take the meeting with her parents. I love the meeting with her parents. Courtney spends most of the episode in despair over the upcoming parental meeting, saying "it's the end of the world for me either way" and other dramatically teenage things like that, so that you start to get the impression that her bravado and unruliness stem from an ugly home situation. But when we finally actually meet her parents (which the teachers are dreading as much as she is) - they're honestly pretty great. I love the exchange here:
Danny: I'm afraid Courtney is a disruptive influence
Mr. Woods: But last year you said she was a VERY disruptive influence
Mrs. Woods: So I suppose that counts as an improvement
This says a lot of things to me. Firstly - they're supportive! That was unexpected. They're trying to frame this in the best way possible. Secondly, they're not those awful parents who think their child is perfect and try to make it all the teacher's fault. They don't try to deny or Danny's assessment - or defend Courtney's behavior. They honestly seem pretty stand-up, even while being played for laughs. And thirdly - last year? Danny was brand new in "Into the Dalek" - at least a year has passed in Coal Hill time between these two episodes, which accounts for Clara improving enough as a teacher to change her relationship with Courtney from purely adversarial to grudgingly respectful. I like the sense of time and context this brief exchange imparts. But the important thing is that Courtney's misgivings seem unfounded. Courtney's issues don't come from her parents, they come from Being A Teenager, and they're not going to go away overnight.
Courtney is cheerful and adventurous. Courtney is deeply depressed and despondent. Courtney is brave and quick-thinking. Courtney is fearful and just wants to go home. Courtney is anti-authoritarian for its own sake. Courtney is invested in the love-lives of her teachers. Courtney is in awe of space travel (one enormous thing for a thingy thing). Courtney is made physically ill by contemplating the vastness of infinity. She goes back to the TARDIS because she is overwhelmed and frightened - but comes back to help again a little later. Courtney is in all ways a perfectly ordinary teenager. And Courtney is something special.
People have made much about the Doctor telling Courtney she's not special. What's important to me is that we don't actually see it. All we have is Courtney's reaction after words - which is to completely freak out. And that is really just a perfectly ordinary bout of teenage narcissism. Every kid wants to be Special, and learning that you're not, or not in the way that you want or expect to be, is devastating. And an important part of growing up. But it really showcases the difference in approach between the Doctor and Clara. Clara just wants to appease her so that the disciplinary problems will stop - she up and orders the Doctor to tell her she's "special." Which he won't do, because he's still in his Honesty phase and she's not (and it's not either of their jobs to feed this kind of teenage narcissism). This is not to downplay Courtney's existential crisis, which is both real and important. The Doctor affects peoples lives in unexpected and unintended ways - he does owe her something. But it's not just telling her what she wants to hear. What he does instead is give her the opportunity to become special. It's ultimately her own actions that give her validation, not somebody else's words, which would have been insincere anyway. The inherent difficulties of being a teenager are something she needs to work through herself, not something someone else can magically makes better. And she does! And grows up to be President of the United States, if the Doctor is to be believed.
So. As an American I feel the need to point out that this is ridiculous. In order to be eligible for the presidency, you need to be not only an American citizen but a native-born American citizen. Which it seems staggeringly unlikely that Courtney is. THAT SAID, the Doctor also says she "meets a man named Blinovitch." The Blinovitch Limitation Effect is a constraint on Time Travel, and has to do with the shorting out the time differential when you cross your own time stream. So it seems clear to me that Courtney's future involves not only time travel but time travel shenanigans, probably related to crossing her own time stream. That such shenanigans could result in Courtney becoming eligible for the presidency is not outside the realm of possibility. Whatever the case, she seems destined for a life of adventure and greatness. Who better to showcase for Black History Month than Courtney Woods: President, Explorer, Savior of the World (with help), and Disruptive Influence.
I like Courtney. I like Courtney a lot. I like what she reveals about Clara, and about the Doctor, and their different approaches to children (that we already saw some of with young Rupert Pink). She's very endearing and entertaining - she has an entirely different set and sort of problems from the adults around her and is kind of a relief from that drama. I find her incredibly realistic. She captures the difficulties and contradictions of the teenage life perfectly. And while our three leads are all being fairly horrible to one another (in "the Caretaker" in particular) she's just wandering through, getting stuff done, being very honest and straightforward. She's got incredible strength but it's coupled with the inherent fragility of, well, being a child. And she's a disruptive influence, which in Doctor Who is the highest compliment and most powerful idea in the universe.
Courtney is, by her own description and that of her elders, a Disruptive Influence. A Bad Kid (tm). Except that most of what we see her do is on the balance positive. She's extremely observant and seems to be the primary Danny/Clara Shipper On Deck (Ozzie loves the squaddie, after all). In "the Caretaker" her biggest scene is when she goes to get towels to clean up a spill, showing a resourcefulness and sense of responsibility for her own actions that belies her characterization as a delinquent, and she is unfazed by either the sentiment or the telling word choice of the Doctor's GO AWAY HUMANS sign. On the moon, she represents the Idealistic side of the power trio, contrasting Lundvig as the Cynical side (with Clara of course being the balancing force and mediator between the two). She also manages to kill a Moon Spider with quick thinking and good preparation.
Courtney actually manages to precede herself into the story. We first meet her in "the Caretaker," but Clara actually brings her up twice before that: in her disastrous date with Danny in "Into the Dalek," where Courtney is the student who told her that she couldn't concentrate on account of her face being "too wide," and in Clara's flashback in "Deep Breath." Courtney is "just do it then" kid, preying on Clara's weakness as as teacher, and hers is the strength Clara draws on when she thinks the Doctor has abandoned her, which is super interesting to me. Courtney is this ganglion of contradictions and extremes that define teenage existence. Where Clara is all about control - and really struggles when she can't establish and maintain control, as in the classroom - Courtney is an agent of chaos. When pushed, she pushes back, and seems to make a point of challenging Clara because she can. But she also tries to go to Clara for help when necessary, and, as I mentioned, is a huuuuge Clara/Danny shipper. Clara seems to have won her grudging respect at some point along the line, as Courtney manages to win the Doctor's almost immediately. Because she's a Disruptive Influence - she shakes things up. The Doctor at his best is precisely that as well, which is probably why he agrees to take her into space. Also she straight-up asks him to, but in a matter-of-fact and not at all starry-eyed sort of way. You get the impression he likes her a lot, even after she throws up on the TARDIS. And, honestly, with good reason.
Now you might expect going into space to magically fix all of Courtney's problems in an afterschool special sort of way. One of the things I like best about Courtney and her story is that this does not happen - if anything, it makes her worse. And that's because most of Courtney's problems come from the fact that she's a teenager, and being a teenager is Hard. And sometimes that's nobody's fault. Take the meeting with her parents. I love the meeting with her parents. Courtney spends most of the episode in despair over the upcoming parental meeting, saying "it's the end of the world for me either way" and other dramatically teenage things like that, so that you start to get the impression that her bravado and unruliness stem from an ugly home situation. But when we finally actually meet her parents (which the teachers are dreading as much as she is) - they're honestly pretty great. I love the exchange here:
Danny: I'm afraid Courtney is a disruptive influence
Mr. Woods: But last year you said she was a VERY disruptive influence
Mrs. Woods: So I suppose that counts as an improvement
This says a lot of things to me. Firstly - they're supportive! That was unexpected. They're trying to frame this in the best way possible. Secondly, they're not those awful parents who think their child is perfect and try to make it all the teacher's fault. They don't try to deny or Danny's assessment - or defend Courtney's behavior. They honestly seem pretty stand-up, even while being played for laughs. And thirdly - last year? Danny was brand new in "Into the Dalek" - at least a year has passed in Coal Hill time between these two episodes, which accounts for Clara improving enough as a teacher to change her relationship with Courtney from purely adversarial to grudgingly respectful. I like the sense of time and context this brief exchange imparts. But the important thing is that Courtney's misgivings seem unfounded. Courtney's issues don't come from her parents, they come from Being A Teenager, and they're not going to go away overnight.
Courtney is cheerful and adventurous. Courtney is deeply depressed and despondent. Courtney is brave and quick-thinking. Courtney is fearful and just wants to go home. Courtney is anti-authoritarian for its own sake. Courtney is invested in the love-lives of her teachers. Courtney is in awe of space travel (one enormous thing for a thingy thing). Courtney is made physically ill by contemplating the vastness of infinity. She goes back to the TARDIS because she is overwhelmed and frightened - but comes back to help again a little later. Courtney is in all ways a perfectly ordinary teenager. And Courtney is something special.
People have made much about the Doctor telling Courtney she's not special. What's important to me is that we don't actually see it. All we have is Courtney's reaction after words - which is to completely freak out. And that is really just a perfectly ordinary bout of teenage narcissism. Every kid wants to be Special, and learning that you're not, or not in the way that you want or expect to be, is devastating. And an important part of growing up. But it really showcases the difference in approach between the Doctor and Clara. Clara just wants to appease her so that the disciplinary problems will stop - she up and orders the Doctor to tell her she's "special." Which he won't do, because he's still in his Honesty phase and she's not (and it's not either of their jobs to feed this kind of teenage narcissism). This is not to downplay Courtney's existential crisis, which is both real and important. The Doctor affects peoples lives in unexpected and unintended ways - he does owe her something. But it's not just telling her what she wants to hear. What he does instead is give her the opportunity to become special. It's ultimately her own actions that give her validation, not somebody else's words, which would have been insincere anyway. The inherent difficulties of being a teenager are something she needs to work through herself, not something someone else can magically makes better. And she does! And grows up to be President of the United States, if the Doctor is to be believed.
So. As an American I feel the need to point out that this is ridiculous. In order to be eligible for the presidency, you need to be not only an American citizen but a native-born American citizen. Which it seems staggeringly unlikely that Courtney is. THAT SAID, the Doctor also says she "meets a man named Blinovitch." The Blinovitch Limitation Effect is a constraint on Time Travel, and has to do with the shorting out the time differential when you cross your own time stream. So it seems clear to me that Courtney's future involves not only time travel but time travel shenanigans, probably related to crossing her own time stream. That such shenanigans could result in Courtney becoming eligible for the presidency is not outside the realm of possibility. Whatever the case, she seems destined for a life of adventure and greatness. Who better to showcase for Black History Month than Courtney Woods: President, Explorer, Savior of the World (with help), and Disruptive Influence.
I like Courtney. I like Courtney a lot. I like what she reveals about Clara, and about the Doctor, and their different approaches to children (that we already saw some of with young Rupert Pink). She's very endearing and entertaining - she has an entirely different set and sort of problems from the adults around her and is kind of a relief from that drama. I find her incredibly realistic. She captures the difficulties and contradictions of the teenage life perfectly. And while our three leads are all being fairly horrible to one another (in "the Caretaker" in particular) she's just wandering through, getting stuff done, being very honest and straightforward. She's got incredible strength but it's coupled with the inherent fragility of, well, being a child. And she's a disruptive influence, which in Doctor Who is the highest compliment and most powerful idea in the universe.