The students at Coal Hill School in the Doctor Who spin-off Class will probably encounter a seven-foot-tall magma monster during their autumn prom, but the Doctor might have a solution.
New stills from the first two episodes of Doctor Who spin-off series Class have us reassured. Patrick Ness, the show’s creator and writer, has said before that Class will mostly feature new monsters. We won’t get recycled creatures and critters from the past of Doctor Who. That means no Vashta Nerada, no Adipose, no Weeping Angels, no Raxacoricofallapatorians, and certainly no Daleks.
This new thing, this charred-up magma version of Marvel’s Groot, bears a striking resemblance to the Pyroviles in “The Fires of Pompeii” from Doctor Who’s fourth season. That’s when we met the 12th Doctor’s “face” for the first time in the form of the Roman, Lucius Caecilius. If the students at Coal Hill School are being introduced to the Doctor in the first episode, then it’s somewhat fitting that we get a similar monster, minus the apocalyptic volcanic explosion.
In the photos, the Doctor seems perfectly fine standing so close to monster, which is called “Corikinus.” While it seems to be a rather large, imposing figure wreathed in black ash and made of stone. Maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Recall the Silurians in Doctor Who’s Season 5 two-parter, “The Hungry Earth” and “Cold Blood.” When the Silurians see human drilling as a threat, it’s the Doctor who helps the humans and the Silurians come to terms and work out an agreement. And Strax the Sontaran nurse broke every stereotype for Sontarans. No matter how stuck he was in his violent ways, he still became accustomed to helping the Doctor whenever the Doctor needed him. Some kind of similar reversal of expectations could be happening with this monster, too.
Further evidence this creature might be good: Above is a photo of Class student April (Sophie Hopkins) brandishing what appears to be Corikinus’s sword. Maybe Corikinus will turn out to be another ally for the students and teachers at Coal Hill School to rely on once the Doctor has left them after the first episode.
Class premieres on October 22 on BBC3 online and in the Spring of 2017 on BBC America.
