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.

The Sontaran Stratagem (2008)

Well their back and for the first time in nearly 25 years. Doctor Who has had a tendancy in the past of putting all their eggs into one basket and by that I mean putting all the action into the first part and hoping that carries into the second part, they seemed to be learning their lesson in the last series. The Sonataran Stratagem features the return of Martha after her stint in Torchwood. The new and improved Martha seems a lot more confident and the scene where The Doctor sees Martha for the first time since 29.13 – Last of the Timelords was well written and well acted by the trio. I liked the comedy that Tennant added to the scene thinking that Donna and Martha were going to swabble over him like Rose and Sarah Jane did in 28.3 – School Reunion. It was well done though I didn’t quite like the ‘You hug him and you get a paper cut!’, it then lead well into the main action. The return of the most useless military organisation was also a welcome addition. It started so well showing them that they could be a force that was well organised and had soldiers that could actually take control of a situation but boy did that disappear quickly.

The Sontaran’s were really good in this story and it was quite interesting to see that Sontarans have goatees. The idea that Sonatrans are actually cloning people is something that has never been explored in Doctor Who before which is kind of weird when you think about it. The look of the Sontaran is quite nice as it is quite colourful compared to previous adventures the idea that they have some sort of lackey seemed quite unlike Sontaran behaviour but worked quite well in setting up the story. The cliffhanger was the most dramatic that has ever happened in Doctor Who (well probably the second after 29.11 - Utopia). Sontarans chanting made them seem more
menacing and made them fell more dominant.

David Tennant was on good form as the Doctor as usual, his scene with Donna when he thought she was leaving him and then he realised what was going on was amusing and added a bit of light relief. Catherine Tate was continuing to improve as Donna and her first meeting with Martha showed how far she has come since The Runaway Bride. Freema Agyeman’s return to the show was a welcome addition to the story and the Martha we see in this story is not only different from her time in Series 29 but even different from her Torchwood run. Its nice to see that the infatuations with the Doctor have all but gone. Bernard Cribbins who I think is one of the best casting decisions done by the BBC Wales team was brilliant as usual as Donna’s granddad, when he realised that the man that Donna had gone away with was the same man he saw at Christmas it seemed as if RTD had been planning this from the beginning (if we didn’t know what we learnt from the first DWC of the new series).

Whilst it isn’t the best episode of the series so far it is still a damn fine episode and makes me confident that The Poison Sky will make a fine second parter in what has been a strong start to the 30th season of Doctor Who.

Planet of the Ood (2008)

The third episode is another visually stunning story that mixes well with a very interesting plot. Keith Temple's debut script for the series battles between bringing back a familiar character and deals with a moral issue.

The Ood who first appeared in the 2006 two-parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is the first creature from the new series to return (apart from The Daleks). The Ood were used in an emotional yet tense way. We had learned in The Impossible Planet that the Ood are servants and presumed that they are born this way. We learn in this episode that they are born free but are converted into being slaves. This is a real sad revelation but highlight (and this might be the writers intention) the horrors of slavery. When the Ood's eyes turn red you wondered what was causing this cause in The Satan Pit it was the Devil but he 'secondary' stage was truly shocking. The most shocking scene though in this episode if not in Doctor Who history was when Klineman Halpan ripped of his skin to reveal he had been turned into an Ood.

Catherine Tate is progressing well, she was only annoying in the TARDIS but after that she showed the same positive points that she displayed in The Fires of Pompeii. One of my favourite scenes was when she asked the Doctor to give her the chance to hear the Ood singing. It was truly a sad moment and throughout the episode she tried to convince the Ood to be free, it wasnt over bearing but was subtly done. David Tennant was very good in this story but seemed to me be in the background of things because The Ood and Tim McInnery stole the show.

Tim McInnery is perhaps best know for starring in the Blackadder series and was superb in this episode. He was like a slave master and whenever he was on the screen he just seemed to be enjoying himself and find it quite easy. The Ood were well received and well liked back in the 2006 two-parters but in this they were propelled to one of the best non-Dalek/Cybermen monsters in Who history.

Great plot, great special effects and great scenes. This story continued the good start to the season and with the Sontaran two-parter yet to come the series can only get better

The Fires of Pompeii (2008)

Episode 2 saw a nice improvement on the opener. Not in terms of enjoyment but more in terms of quality of script. Fires of Pompeii has to be one of the most ambitious stories that has ever been attempted for new-who and it pays off. With visually stunning settings and special effects Fires of Pompeii is the best historical story just ahead of Tooth and Claw and The Shakespeares Code. When they made the Shakespeare Code they managed to make it look realistic by filming in The Globe Theatre and in streets around Warwick. This helped create the atmosphere for the story which is why it went down well its this attention to detail that helped Fires of Pompeii. They filmed on the sets that were used for the HBO/BBC drama 'Rome'. Being a fan of that series they looked really familir but the sets and location only tell half the story.

The plot was a really good one because in a way there were two strands. The first being of the sisterhood and the rock creature taking over the world and the second was the conflict between the Doctor and Donna on whether to change history by telling people about the impending doom or not. Its the latter that stood but to me the most after the episode had finished.

Its always been a big dilemma in Doctor Who 'Should the Doctor change history to help people survive'. Well you start to enter a grey area on this ground because if the Doctor can then why doesn’t he go back to Gallifrey and save the Timelords? The scene between Donna and the Doctor in the TARDIS was a well written and well acted moment. It was at that point that Donna became a proper companion to me. She stood up to the Doctor and made him stand up to his decisions. The fact that Donna doesn’t fancy the Doctor or admire him though that may change.

There was one part of this episode that I thought let it down. The first was the Donna was slightly annoying in the first part of this episode. She did bear a horrible resemblance to her character Lauren the Teenager and I did start to feel sorry for David Tennant for being lumbered with Tate. About halfway through the episode she just stopped being annoying and became really good and lets hope she continues with this. A very good episode that was let down by an annoying Donna in the first 25 minutes but great special effects and a great plot.

Fragments (2008)

The penultimate episode of the series is quite an unusual one to do but is the most revealing episode out of the two series. The simple plot was that the team were investigating an abandoned building but there are explosive devices and they go off trapping the team in various precarious positions. This meant that we got to see how all five members of Torchwood ended up working there. Jack’s was quite interesting and so was Gwen’s whilst Ianto’s was entertaining and the scene where Jack and Ianto are trying to capture the terradactyl was humorous. Tosh’s was predictably average whilst Owen’s was perhaps the most emotional, the fact that he actually was in love with someone was shocking at first and then the revelation that his fiancé had an alien growing in her head was also a nice twist.

The moment that I thought was really tense was where the window glass was about to fall and decapitate Owen. With this series being unpredictable it was perfectly believable that Owen was going to be half the man he use to be. The biggest question that had to be answered and was brilliantly hidden behind all the action was who planted those bombs and why, the answer was revealed to be Captain John and he had Jack’s brother which was totally shocking.

A brilliant episode and a fantastic climax making me look forward to the season finale.

Partners in Crime (2008)

Well 467 days after she last appeared in Doctor Who, Catherine Tate returns to Doctor Who except she is going to be a proper companion and go down in Doctor Who history. The main concern I had was that the producers were not going to change the character of Donna but after watching Partners in Crime I think they have done the right thing and toned he annoyance down. The whole episode had a comedy feel to it which is fine as long as it doesnt take control of the whole episode which it seemed to in New Earth but didnt in this case. The main baddie was Miss Foster who seemed very Supernanny and she was quite convincing as a baddie. The thing that annoys me in some Doctor Who stories is what is their reason for being there and the situation that they are in not being explained clearly enough but it this case the explanation was satisfactory.

David Tennant was as usual on good form in this episode and his reaction at seeing Donna did remind me on the Fifth Doctor’s reaction to Tegan coming back to the team in Arc of Infinity. The scene where he sees Donna again for the first time was a really funny moment and well played by Tennant. Catherine Tate was also good in this story, there were glimpses of the old Donna from the Runaway Bride but on the whole it was a different Donna that appeared. Her relationship with her mother was well played but it was with her grandad that was most hearwarming. Wilfred Mott had appeared in Voyage of the Damned and according to Doctor Who confidential wasnt supposed to appear but due to the sudden death of Howard Attfield as Donna’s Dad. Bernard Cribbins is a familiar face to Doctor Who fans as he appeared in the 1966 movie Dalek Invasion of Earth 2150AD was very good in his scenes with Donna and the moment at the end of the episode was well acted, it showed that he wasnt angry or jealous of Donna but happy for her and that was a nice thing in this episode.

The Adipose were curious creatures as they seemed not really to have a purpose other that waiting to go home yet when they were walking in the streets seemed quite menacing and that must have been the plan for Russell T Davies. The most shocking thing was the appearance of Rose, last seen in the 2006 season finale she appeared for a few moments before vanashing. Was she a ghost or is she able to jump between worlds which we were told was impossible. I have to say that I was to bemused to think about that at the moment and it was until afterwards that I wondering how this would pan out in future episodes. Whilst it wasnt as good as Smith and Jones it was far better than New Earth and I am far more confident about the series with Donna in it that before I watched this episode.