Flapper or Slapper?

Doctor Who has tried out and out comedy a few times in it's 45 year history. The first story being the classic Hartnell serial The Romans by Donald Cotton, which I absolutely adore as a story, a lot of fun and very different from the stories both preceding and following it. Then of course we had bona-fide classic City of Death, perhaps one of the best Who stories of all time. And now this generation has The Unicorn and the Wasp. Only, the comedy of the episode is based more in irritating, self referencing gags involving Agatha Christie titles, and Donna giving Christie the ideas for Miss Marple and Murder on the Orient Express, ha-bloody-ha. Still, after 3 years of practically the same formula (Doctor and companion meet famous historical figure and fight aliens.) it was nice to see them try something a little different with the Celebrity-Historical episode.

The Doctor, Donna and David Tennant's dad have tea on the lawn

Traditionally speaking, (Traditionally! Check me! It's only been running for 3 bloody years.) such an episode is reserved for the early stages of the series, and with this episode one of the first to be filmed, it certainly felt like an episode that should have been earlier in the run. As a character Donna didn't feel quite as strong a character as she has been in the stories preceding it. Though I suppose after 5 really strong episodes dealing with some fairly serious issues (slavery, altering the course of history, kick-ass sexy as hell illegitimate daughters...) there is a need to give us something a bit lighter.

Anyway, what the hell was it all about eh? As I say it's nice to see the team tackle something a little bit different, casting the Doctor and Donna in a murder mystery at a country house complete with lead piping, libraries, family secrets and Agatha Christie. Obviously this came as much delight to Donna and the Doctor before being scolded for taking delight in tragedy...a recurring theme? All in all it was a typical "abandoned child seeks revenge" murder mystery with a sci-fi twist; said abandoned child is actually shapeshifting wasp.

Fenella Woolgar was excellent as Agatha Christie and her scenes with the Doctor and Donna were an absolute delight, though I'm not entirely sure why the alien jewel suddenly linked itself to her, the explanation for its murderous rampage was that it absorbed one of her books not her whole imagination and back-catalogue. This seemed like a rather tacked on piece of nonsense so that we can have an explanation for Agatha Christies famous disappearance and memory loss. Good supporting cast also helped to support a rather paper thin premise with Who veteran Christopher Benjamin in a brilliant role as the wheelchair bound old General with his own reasons for staying in the chair. Felicity Kendall was brilliant as always as she recounted her time in India where she fell pregnant with alien wasp. A nice little scene at the end for the Doctor discussing how we'll be remembered after we're gone, is this going anywhere, could the Song for Ten be coming to an end?

Mad, fast-paced, and a bit too smart-arse, but Gareth Roberts' Unicorn and the wasp sadly failed to live up to his superior mad, fast-paced, bit too smart-arse Shakespeare Code of last season. No new episode this Saturday, on account of Eurovision, which I suppose will be covered in this blog. There will be a trailer encompassing the remaining episodes airing just before Wogan cracks open his first bottle of Wine, a glimpse of Davros perhaps? Guess we'll find out!

Terry's also excited about what we might see in the trailer....dirty boy

The Geeky:- Christopher Benjamin has starred in 2 earlier Doctor Who stories: Inferno and The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Chief Inspector John Smith of Scotland Yard has been used by the Doctor before in Ghost Light and I'm pretty sure The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Glimpse of a Cyberman chestplate, just to remind us all in the run-up to Christmas. Also references to previous historicals The Unquiet Dead and The Shakespeare Code.