![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
DW Rewatch - 4x01, Partners in Crime
I'm a few days behind with my rewatch posts, but I'll try to catch up a bit over the weekend!
So we're into Season 4, proper. It’s my favourite season of Who so far, and I think it’s probably also the strongest in terms of the stories and characters and acting as well. (Not that the acting’s ever been bad, it’s just that the stories this season really gave the cast – the two principals especially – a chance to really show off their acting chops.)
I also believe that the addition of Catherine Tate to the cast was a big factor in that. She was cast before S3 had begun to air, and according to RTD, it was because she’d had such a great time on The Runaway Bride that she was really keen to come back. He never thought it would happen, given the fact that she’s an established TV star and very busy – but she wanted to do it. The knives came out as soon as her casting was announced though – typically of the British press – they build someone up and then take great delight in having a go at them, so RTD says he was mindful of the need to make sure that she had good material and storylines so that they could smack the naysayers right between the eyes.
Boy, did he get that right.
This is the companion I’ve thought the Tenth Doctor needed all along, except she turned out to be even better than I’d been able to imagine. He needed someone to rein in his excesses and to give him a good kick up the arse from time to time. Neither Rose nor Martha did that, or at least not in such a direct way. Donna wasn’t in awe of him. She saw him at his best and his worst on the day she met him, and although he scared her, she knew enough about him to regret her decision to turn down his offer and start trying to find him. To coin a phrase often used about my preferred pairing in “my other” fandom – Donna ‘gets’ the Doctor in a way that I don’t think anyone else ever has. She sees his faults, but he ‘dazzles’ her nonetheless. She doesn’t fancy him, but she comes to love him deeply.
In The Writer’s Tale, RTD describes the first read throughs with Catherine and David:
Anyone who’s heard or seen them together in other stuff and interviews will know what that’s like. They have some of the best on (and off) screen chemistry I’ve ever seen – who would have thought?
But bloody hell, she really got put through her paces, didn’t she? And she rose to the challenge and was amazing every time.
I'm reminded of a famous quote that was once made about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
She gave him sex [appeal] and he gave her class
Not that David needs any of the former (definitely not!) or Catherine needs any of the latter - it's just that they gave each other the chance to shine in ways that perhaps we, the audience hadn't seen before.
Anyway...
The plot of this episode is downright stupid. Not that there’s not precedent for that in DW! If it had been any other season opener, it would probably not have worked. But we weren’t tuning in for the plot, were we? I certainly wasn’t. I wanted more of what we’d seen in TRB, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The continual not-meeting in the first part of the episode was a masterstroke. They’re both doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way.
She goes in the front door...
... he goes in the back.
She's downstairs...
... he's upstairs
She's at one end of the office... Donna Noble, Health and Safety. Don't mind me.
... he's at the other. John Smith, Health and Safety. Don't mind me.
Funny and brilliantly played by both of them.
Um. Pretty.
Underscoring most of this is a fabulous new version of Donna’s Theme, first heard in TRB. Murray Gold has re-worked it into A Noble Girl About Town, which retains the humour of the original, but with its new rhythm, added brass punctuations and whooping horns, it sounds like it should be in a James Bond movie!
Great minds...
The fat just walks away... I wish mine would!
He had a timey-wimey detector. Now he’s got a fat detector!
What he really needs of course, is a Donna detector.
The scenes which point up both Donna’s yearning for more, and the way she feels she doesn’t ‘fit’ any longer - and the Doctor’s loneliness are balance each other beatutifully. And – WILF!! That funny old bloke selling newspapers at Christmas was Donna’s granddad! What a coincidence…
(Well, not really - we know the circumstances under which it happened in that Wilf replaced Donna’s dad, but still, RTD made the most of it).
We’re re-introduced to Donna’s mum, Sylvia who, to be honest, comes across as a very unpleasant woman at first. In Runaway Bride, she accused Donna of disappearing from her own wedding as little more than attention seeking, and other than a weary “where have you been?” didn’t seem concerned about her daughter at all. So it’s easy to see why Donna might want to get away from home! But I think as the series progresses and we see more of Sylvia, that there’s more to her than meets the eye. She seems to me to be someone who’s had more than her share of disappointments. She’s recently (presumably) lost her husband and is trying to cope with that and with the fact that her daughter is - in her eyes - rather a failure. She’s still living at home, she’s jobless and now seems to have her head in the clouds most of the time. Not that that’s an excuse for the way Sylvia treats her, but I’m trying to work out the dynamic, because obviously, her mother’s treatment and view of Donna has had a huge impact on the way Donna sees herself.
Fortunately for Donna though, there’s not just her mum at home. There’s her grandfather, Wilf.
There’s such a great warmth here, a huge contrast with the scene between Donna and her mum.
Wilf senses all isn’t right with Donna, but he doesn’t push her. She’s not told them what happened ‘that Christmas’, and at first, Wilf tries to joke about her waiting for the right man. Of course, we know who she’s talking about and that it’s not a romantic attachment she’s looking for.
There's such a sense of longing and loss here. She knows she’s not doing the right thing with her life and she knows what she wants, but she thinks her chance has gone.
He's real. I've seen him. I've met him, just once. And then... I let him fly away.
He's still out there, somewhere. And I'll find him Gramps, even if I have to wait a hundred years. I'll find him.
And then we cut to the Doctor, getting all excited about his latest discovery – but there’s no-one to share it with. *wibble*.
For some reason, the next day, Donna spends all day hiding in the loos, but it's worth it in the end, because...
The faces he makes when he’s concentrating on what she’s “saying” crack me up :-)
I've not said much about the other characters in this story - but special mention goes to Sarah Lancashire who makes a splendid intergalactic Supernanny.
You have to love the heroic pose ;-)
Reunited at last - YAY!
But even then... don't you ever change? Hah! One of the things I love about Donna is that she asks the questions and does the stuff that we usually only think. Like why the Doctor always (well, almost, in Ten's case) wears the same clothes!
First mention of the Bees disappearing
Dimples!
Looks like he's about to burst into song
In that thing?
Donna thinks she should have stayed at home! And here's another of those moments - how often have we watched a character dangling from the edge, while someone else calls out "hang on!"? What do we all think? Yep - exactly what Donna says - "I am!".
To the rescue! Usually so graceful, here Ten just falls through the window and lands in a heap with an audible thump.
How he manages to get her in when he could only reach her knees is beyond me.
It’s always like this with you, innit?
She’s absoltely LOVING it.
Oops!
God, he's hot when he's being all threatening and take-charge.
It's Donna (again) who stops him, this time, so they can leg it!
This is a great scene between them. The Doctor is fiddling with wires and doing... stuff... while Donna admits that her attempt to change her life hadn't worked.
It's nothing like being with you
Come with me?
Oh, yes please!
I know the premise of this whole episode is daft, but this is one thing that never feels right to me. The Doctor being a bit dismissive is in character for him - but his state of panic never quite rings true. I know it's so that Donna can save the day and show that she deserves her seat on the TARDIS, but ...
Disaster averted, they're back up on the roof
DONNA
What you gonna do then? Blow them up?
DOCTOR
They're just children. They can't help where they come from.
DONNA
Oh, that makes a change from last time. That Martha must've done you good.
DOCTOR
Ah, she did, yeah. Yeah, she did. She fancied me.
DONNA (smiling)
Mad Martha, that one. Blind Martha. Charity Martha.
Heh. Except that's the sort of thing you say when you fancy someone and don't want them to find out!
People just don't listen...
Especially the baddies
Any excuse for a cuddle... (not that I blame her!)
So, then. TARDIS. Come on!
He’s totally shellshocked – one of the few times someone’s gobsmacked him enough to shut him up. But then – and I think I’m right in saying this – all the Doctor’s companions have ended up with him by accident, apart from Donna. Well, mostly, because the first time was obviously an accident, but this time, she’s actively sought him out with the intention of travelling with him. So I can understand why he’d be a bit taken aback.
ETA - from a 'conversation' in comments, it appears she's not the first to have actually sought him out; that honour goes to Tegan. I remember her as a moany pain in the arse for much of the time though...
Planet of the hats!
He doesn’t want any complications this time.
I just want a mate
You’re not mating wi’ me, sunshine!
Now he knows she's not going to jump him - he'd love her to come!
Yay – time for a hug!
*What happened to my hug?*
Did she stop because she remembered the car keys, or because she remembered they'd said 'mates'?
Yes. I've missed out THAT cap. Because this is still about Donna – and she’s happy and off on her adventures with her long streak of alien nothing. And the Doctor’s only too pleased to have her with him.
The ‘bigger on the inside’ speech
But she knows how to burst his bubble
Where to?
Of all the family members we’ve been introduced to, Wilf is the only one to be truly happy about his relative travelling with the Doctor. Jackie sort of came around to the idea eventually I suppose, although I don’t think she was ever what I’d call ‘happy’ about Rose being with the Doctor, and Francine was positively hostile from the get go. Sylvia doesn’t know about him yet – but Wilf…
… he knows that Donna needs this – not just to get away, but to be all that she can be, and he’s the first one in nu-Who not just to be pleased that she’s with the Doctor, but to actively encourage her to follow her dreams. If this had been the only episode he’d been in, that would surely have been enough to confirm the awesomeness of Wilfred Mott. And you have to love the little victory dance he does at the end!
Screencaps from Sonic Biro, The Medusa Cascade and Demon-cry.net.
So we're into Season 4, proper. It’s my favourite season of Who so far, and I think it’s probably also the strongest in terms of the stories and characters and acting as well. (Not that the acting’s ever been bad, it’s just that the stories this season really gave the cast – the two principals especially – a chance to really show off their acting chops.)
I also believe that the addition of Catherine Tate to the cast was a big factor in that. She was cast before S3 had begun to air, and according to RTD, it was because she’d had such a great time on The Runaway Bride that she was really keen to come back. He never thought it would happen, given the fact that she’s an established TV star and very busy – but she wanted to do it. The knives came out as soon as her casting was announced though – typically of the British press – they build someone up and then take great delight in having a go at them, so RTD says he was mindful of the need to make sure that she had good material and storylines so that they could smack the naysayers right between the eyes.
Boy, did he get that right.
This is the companion I’ve thought the Tenth Doctor needed all along, except she turned out to be even better than I’d been able to imagine. He needed someone to rein in his excesses and to give him a good kick up the arse from time to time. Neither Rose nor Martha did that, or at least not in such a direct way. Donna wasn’t in awe of him. She saw him at his best and his worst on the day she met him, and although he scared her, she knew enough about him to regret her decision to turn down his offer and start trying to find him. To coin a phrase often used about my preferred pairing in “my other” fandom – Donna ‘gets’ the Doctor in a way that I don’t think anyone else ever has. She sees his faults, but he ‘dazzles’ her nonetheless. She doesn’t fancy him, but she comes to love him deeply.
In The Writer’s Tale, RTD describes the first read throughs with Catherine and David:
She takes a funny line, makes it five times funnier and aims it like a dart - which makes David raise his game. He throws back a javelin!
Anyone who’s heard or seen them together in other stuff and interviews will know what that’s like. They have some of the best on (and off) screen chemistry I’ve ever seen – who would have thought?
But bloody hell, she really got put through her paces, didn’t she? And she rose to the challenge and was amazing every time.
I'm reminded of a famous quote that was once made about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
She gave him sex [appeal] and he gave her class
Not that David needs any of the former (definitely not!) or Catherine needs any of the latter - it's just that they gave each other the chance to shine in ways that perhaps we, the audience hadn't seen before.
Anyway...
The plot of this episode is downright stupid. Not that there’s not precedent for that in DW! If it had been any other season opener, it would probably not have worked. But we weren’t tuning in for the plot, were we? I certainly wasn’t. I wanted more of what we’d seen in TRB, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The continual not-meeting in the first part of the episode was a masterstroke. They’re both doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way.
She goes in the front door...
... he goes in the back.
She's downstairs...
... he's upstairs
She's at one end of the office... Donna Noble, Health and Safety. Don't mind me.
... he's at the other. John Smith, Health and Safety. Don't mind me.
Funny and brilliantly played by both of them.
Um. Pretty.
Underscoring most of this is a fabulous new version of Donna’s Theme, first heard in TRB. Murray Gold has re-worked it into A Noble Girl About Town, which retains the humour of the original, but with its new rhythm, added brass punctuations and whooping horns, it sounds like it should be in a James Bond movie!
Great minds...
The fat just walks away... I wish mine would!
He had a timey-wimey detector. Now he’s got a fat detector!
What he really needs of course, is a Donna detector.
The scenes which point up both Donna’s yearning for more, and the way she feels she doesn’t ‘fit’ any longer - and the Doctor’s loneliness are balance each other beatutifully. And – WILF!! That funny old bloke selling newspapers at Christmas was Donna’s granddad! What a coincidence…
(Well, not really - we know the circumstances under which it happened in that Wilf replaced Donna’s dad, but still, RTD made the most of it).
We’re re-introduced to Donna’s mum, Sylvia who, to be honest, comes across as a very unpleasant woman at first. In Runaway Bride, she accused Donna of disappearing from her own wedding as little more than attention seeking, and other than a weary “where have you been?” didn’t seem concerned about her daughter at all. So it’s easy to see why Donna might want to get away from home! But I think as the series progresses and we see more of Sylvia, that there’s more to her than meets the eye. She seems to me to be someone who’s had more than her share of disappointments. She’s recently (presumably) lost her husband and is trying to cope with that and with the fact that her daughter is - in her eyes - rather a failure. She’s still living at home, she’s jobless and now seems to have her head in the clouds most of the time. Not that that’s an excuse for the way Sylvia treats her, but I’m trying to work out the dynamic, because obviously, her mother’s treatment and view of Donna has had a huge impact on the way Donna sees herself.
Fortunately for Donna though, there’s not just her mum at home. There’s her grandfather, Wilf.
There’s such a great warmth here, a huge contrast with the scene between Donna and her mum.
Wilf senses all isn’t right with Donna, but he doesn’t push her. She’s not told them what happened ‘that Christmas’, and at first, Wilf tries to joke about her waiting for the right man. Of course, we know who she’s talking about and that it’s not a romantic attachment she’s looking for.
There's such a sense of longing and loss here. She knows she’s not doing the right thing with her life and she knows what she wants, but she thinks her chance has gone.
He's real. I've seen him. I've met him, just once. And then... I let him fly away.
He's still out there, somewhere. And I'll find him Gramps, even if I have to wait a hundred years. I'll find him.
And then we cut to the Doctor, getting all excited about his latest discovery – but there’s no-one to share it with. *wibble*.
For some reason, the next day, Donna spends all day hiding in the loos, but it's worth it in the end, because...
The faces he makes when he’s concentrating on what she’s “saying” crack me up :-)
I've not said much about the other characters in this story - but special mention goes to Sarah Lancashire who makes a splendid intergalactic Supernanny.
You have to love the heroic pose ;-)
Reunited at last - YAY!
But even then... don't you ever change? Hah! One of the things I love about Donna is that she asks the questions and does the stuff that we usually only think. Like why the Doctor always (well, almost, in Ten's case) wears the same clothes!
First mention of the Bees disappearing
Dimples!
Looks like he's about to burst into song
In that thing?
Donna thinks she should have stayed at home! And here's another of those moments - how often have we watched a character dangling from the edge, while someone else calls out "hang on!"? What do we all think? Yep - exactly what Donna says - "I am!".
To the rescue! Usually so graceful, here Ten just falls through the window and lands in a heap with an audible thump.
How he manages to get her in when he could only reach her knees is beyond me.
It’s always like this with you, innit?
She’s absoltely LOVING it.
Oops!
God, he's hot when he's being all threatening and take-charge.
It's Donna (again) who stops him, this time, so they can leg it!
This is a great scene between them. The Doctor is fiddling with wires and doing... stuff... while Donna admits that her attempt to change her life hadn't worked.
It's nothing like being with you
Come with me?
Oh, yes please!
I know the premise of this whole episode is daft, but this is one thing that never feels right to me. The Doctor being a bit dismissive is in character for him - but his state of panic never quite rings true. I know it's so that Donna can save the day and show that she deserves her seat on the TARDIS, but ...
Disaster averted, they're back up on the roof
DONNA
What you gonna do then? Blow them up?
DOCTOR
They're just children. They can't help where they come from.
DONNA
Oh, that makes a change from last time. That Martha must've done you good.
DOCTOR
Ah, she did, yeah. Yeah, she did. She fancied me.
DONNA (smiling)
Mad Martha, that one. Blind Martha. Charity Martha.
Heh. Except that's the sort of thing you say when you fancy someone and don't want them to find out!
People just don't listen...
Especially the baddies
Any excuse for a cuddle... (not that I blame her!)
So, then. TARDIS. Come on!
He’s totally shellshocked – one of the few times someone’s gobsmacked him enough to shut him up. But then – and I think I’m right in saying this – all the Doctor’s companions have ended up with him by accident, apart from Donna. Well, mostly, because the first time was obviously an accident, but this time, she’s actively sought him out with the intention of travelling with him. So I can understand why he’d be a bit taken aback.
ETA - from a 'conversation' in comments, it appears she's not the first to have actually sought him out; that honour goes to Tegan. I remember her as a moany pain in the arse for much of the time though...
Planet of the hats!
He doesn’t want any complications this time.
I just want a mate
You’re not mating wi’ me, sunshine!
Now he knows she's not going to jump him - he'd love her to come!
Yay – time for a hug!
*What happened to my hug?*
Did she stop because she remembered the car keys, or because she remembered they'd said 'mates'?
Yes. I've missed out THAT cap. Because this is still about Donna – and she’s happy and off on her adventures with her long streak of alien nothing. And the Doctor’s only too pleased to have her with him.
The ‘bigger on the inside’ speech
But she knows how to burst his bubble
Where to?
Of all the family members we’ve been introduced to, Wilf is the only one to be truly happy about his relative travelling with the Doctor. Jackie sort of came around to the idea eventually I suppose, although I don’t think she was ever what I’d call ‘happy’ about Rose being with the Doctor, and Francine was positively hostile from the get go. Sylvia doesn’t know about him yet – but Wilf…
… he knows that Donna needs this – not just to get away, but to be all that she can be, and he’s the first one in nu-Who not just to be pleased that she’s with the Doctor, but to actively encourage her to follow her dreams. If this had been the only episode he’d been in, that would surely have been enough to confirm the awesomeness of Wilfred Mott. And you have to love the little victory dance he does at the end!
Screencaps from Sonic Biro, The Medusa Cascade and Demon-cry.net.