Friday, November 1, 2013

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Partners In Crime




Doctor Who: 
Partners In Crime  
By Russell T. Davies

“Planet of the Hats, I'm ready. I don't need injections, do I? You know, like when you go to Cambodia. Is there any of that? Because my friend Veena went to Bahrain, and she. You're not saying much.”

Here we go with the beginning of the Fourth Series of the New Doctor Who and the third and final one for David Tennant.  The stories that have been starting off the seasons of New Who have mostly been uneventful and light and non-taxing on your brain.  In a way is a good thing for Doctor Who to get things going by starting off light and then as time goes by hit you with some heavy stories. 



Partners in Crime carry on with this tradition but ends the story with a tease of what we might expect towards the end of the series.   Well we all know that surprise is as Rose makes her return in the Series 4 finale.  As with last season this season’s first episode introduces us to a new/old companion.  Catherine Tate reprises her character Donna Noble from The Runaway Bride for season four and David Tennant’s final story.   At first I had my reservations about her becoming a full time companion as I am not the biggest fan of her comedy.  Well I was sure wrong as Catherine Tate’s Donna is one of the best companions ever and they toned her down a bit from Runaway Bride and made her less over the top.  Donna becomes the perfect complement to David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and I was so wrong about her casting.



Partners in Crime on a whole was a very enjoyable story and entertained me all the way through.  It was a simple story that was mainly a run away from the bad guy story.  Not much to it. I really enjoyed the concept of using human fat to breed an alien race.  The Adipose are quite a unique style of alien and they are the funniest alien we’ve had in a long time.  Just look at them they look like giant marshmallows with feet and hands. Love it when they were walking around the city skipping around the traffic.


Once again David Tennant gives us his usual great performance as The Doctor.   Love the comedic scene where he is talking to Donna from the outside window.  A really funny scene made great by two good performances by the leads of the show. Their comedic timing is pretty good and you can tell they have good chemistry together.


Where this story really shines is the scene with Donna and her Grandfather up on the hill looking at the stars.  For all the dislike of RTD’s stories he doe on occasion gives us some wonderful scenes and moments.  He is very good at writing touching scenes with words that really tug at your heart strings.  That scene up on the hill is one of my favorite moments as it was truly touching and you can see how great of a supporting relationship Donna has with her Grandfather.


So in finishing up is Partners in Crime the worst story ever? Well no it isn’t and its not the best story either but it is very light hearted and entreating story that starts off Series 4 on the right note.
Grade B-



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