The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008)

Never has a title in Doctor Who history been so unusual in my opinion. It was obvious that there was going to be a wasp in it because it featured in the trailer at the end of Voyage of the Damned but I wanted to know where the Unicorn was going to feature in it. With the recent release of Black Orchid which was a purely historical it was nice to see a Modern Doctor Who story that is as close to that story as has ever been attempted. I know there are people saying well what about Tooth and Claw, Shakespeare Code or even The Unquiet Dead? Well I wouldn’t consider them a proper historical because they always had a tendency to lean towards alien elements and sci-fi elements whereas TUATW didn’t. There were some memorable scenes, the first was when the Doctor had been poisoned and the Doctor was trying to tell Agatha and Donna what he wanted. Very well done.

The first thing that struck me about this episode was how beautiful it looked, one thing that the BBC can claim is that it makes historical programmes better than anyone on the planet. The costumes, the settings and also the cars all added to the magic of this episode. When I was watching this episode with my parents we were wondering who had dunit as that was really what the episode was about aside from what the giant wasp was doing and where it had come from. My money was on the vicar cause it seemed the most unlikely yet it was the most obvious. The actors in this all worked their socks off especially Fenella Woolgar who played Agatha Christie. She played the character well and it was nice to that she was played as someone who wasn’t a smartarse and knew it all but had to be prompted to come up with the answer. The star really of the episode was Felicity Kendall who everyone in the UK knows starred in the 1970’s BBC Comedy ‘The Good Life’. She was very good in this story and her story about becoming pregnant and not being able to keep the baby added a lot of plot to a story that up until that point was severely lacking. My favourite piece of casting however has to go to Christopher Benjamin who played Colonel Hugh. It took me a while (a long while) to figure out where I had seen him before, well he appeared in the 1970 story ‘Inferno’ as Sir Keith Gold and in the 1976 story ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ as Henry Gordon Jago. He also appears in the latest Paul McGann adventure ‘Grand Theft Cosmos’. His character was well played and I though his character bought great entertainment to the episode.

I do have a few problems with it. For one, why oh why oh why does Russell T Davies insist on having a gay person or couple in every couple of episodes. If there not snogging each others faces off it Torchwood then theres the slighting hint in Doctor Who. I am waiting for one of those kids in the Sarah Jane Adventures to come out of the closet. Its ok in Torchwood but not in Doctor Who, I’m sorry. Another problem I have with the story is the Unicorn bit. Now I may be stupid but I was kinda hoping for something a bit better that someone called themselves The Unicorn. What sort of thief calls them self after a made up animal?. I was hoping for a proper Unicorn and the fact I didn’t get one added to the disappointment. Another negative point is the revelation scene where Agatha and The Doctor go through every single bloody character in a stupid exaggerated manner and then Donna saying ‘So he killed him’.

This story was a very strange story with some good points, lovely scenery and some well acted and directed scenes. I think that Graeme Harper is one of the best directors in the new who series. Gareth Thomas wrote a really entertaining script with The Shakespeare Code but unfortunately falls ever so slightly short with this story. The main problem is that the Vespiform are a stupid creation. They serve no purpose and it might as well have been a giant slug for all the impact it had. They might as well have called it ‘The Cockey Thief and the Giant Slug’. That was harsh for which I apologise but the more I think about it the more I get annoyed with what a waste this episode was.

This story was the weakest so far.

The Doctor's Daughter (2008)

Well it wasn’t quite the episode I thought it would be but then again if every episode was how I imagined it would be then life would be boring. The second story to come from Stephen Greenhorn (he also wrote 2007’s The Lazarus Experiment) was another good episode.

The main question I had before this episode started was how were they going to explain the fact that the Doctor has a daughter but he says he is the last of the Timelord’s? The answer was quite simple really and everything in the story worked out quite well (except for one bit but more of that later), the idea that the two armies can be created by sticking your arm in a machine and that the two armies were created in seven days was well thought out and added to the sadness and scale of the situation. The General played the evil general very well and was a good for someone for the Doctor to vent his frusttation and anger at. The Hath were very well thought out but I would have liked for them to have some form of proper vocal cords.

Of all the cast, it was Georgia Moffat who stole the show. I was a bit unsure of her because I thought that they had only really cast her because her dad is Peter Davison. But pretty soon those fears went away and you could see that even at the beginning there was a bond forming between her and the Doctor. Catherine Tate was the best that I have seen her in this series, she actually helped solve the situation and came up with some funny jokes at the Doctors expense. Freema Agyeman was put in a really difficult position where she had to interact with an alien that couldn’t talk but she was able to work with it.

The story was very good and the moment when Jennie got shot was a truly sad moment and it was surprising to see the Doctor with a gun in his hand and not knowing whether he would shoot or not. The fact that Jennie came back to life and went off in her spaceship shows that there is a good chance she will be making a return to the show in future episodes. Well acted and well directed this is another fine episode from this series.