Doctor Who:
The Unicorn and The Wasp
By Gareth Roberts
“The thrill is in the chase,
never in the capture.”
Since the relaunch the new
producers have made it a point to have The Doctor meet some historical
figures. Series 4 selection is kind of
interesting. The Doctor and Donna travel
back to the 1920’s and meet up with Agatha Christie. What makes this interesting is that The
Unicorn and The Wasp takes place the day before she disappears for 10 days. It
is pretty clever of Gareth Roberts to have these events intertwine with this
episode and having a science fiction explanation for her disappearance is
pretty cool.
The main basis for The Unicorn
and The Wasp is a murder mystery. That
is pretty clever and one of the main things that drew me in when I saw the next
time trailer. Plus there were plenty of
old time murder mystery homages in this story if you keep your eyes open but
the obvious one was Professor Plum getting killed in the library with a lead
pipe. That was classic and very much like
the game Clue. Plus it had a giant wasp
doing the killing to add that bit of science fiction to it.
The Unicorn and The Wasp was a
very fast paced story that played it for laughs and that worked extremely well
and made that much more enjoyable. I
enjoyed this change of pace since most of the stories have had a serious tone
to them so far. It was strange to see that this story was directed Grahame
Harper as he is mostly known for action and are dark and on a more serious
tone. Well I guess he can do both and he
did a great job on The Unicorn and The Wasp.
I liked the fact that David
Tennant was channeling Tom Baker throughout this story. Well, the Tom Baker from seasons 16 and 17
when he was a bit out of control and manic.
It was good to see him silly in a story that was intended to be silly
and not over the top as he usally is from time to time. Plus it was good to see David Tennant not be
so serious for once also if that makes sense after the sentences above.
Catherine Tate was good in this
story and it was funny seeing Donna taking credit for some of Agatha Christies
future stories. It was also funny
watching Donna taking in the reveal as if she was sitting at home watching a
mystery movie with her friends. That was
just a classic Donna moment and one that is very memorable.
Gareth Thomas best stories so far
has been his historicals where The Doctor has meet authors from Earth’s
history. I hope he does this again for
Peter Capaldi’s Doctor as I really enjoyed these stories more than the ones he
wrote with Craig and The 11th Doctor. This
story was very enjoyable to watch right down to the whole mystery aspect and
the way Donna saves The Doctor from being poisoned. It is one of the more entertaining stories in
the David Tennant era and has a good blend of mystery and science fiction.
Grade B
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