DW Rewatch - 4x07, The Unicorn and the Wasp

[caz963]

God, I love The Unicorn and the Wasp. What a fun episode. It’s this season’s “Doctor meets famous historical figure” episode and this time, it’s Agatha Christie, which is a nice bit of continuity from his suggestion to Martha at the end of S3 that they go back in time to visit her.



I confess, I’m not a fan of her books. I’ve only read two or three, but from what I remember, they were simplistic and the writing itself bored me. I’m not a great mystery reader anyway, so I’m probably not the best judge, but … there we go.



What we’ve got then is the Doctor and Donna attending a house party in the 1920s at which the special guest is Agatha Christie… and of course, it turns into a murder-mystery with a twist. The twist of course being that, as Donna puts it, the murderer’s an alien.

It falls slap bang in the middle of the season, and it’s the last chance for the Doctor and Donna to have a bit of fun before the more sombre events of the last half of the season begin to unfold. And you know, much as I love the library episodes, and Midnight and Turn Left, I really wish we’d had a few more like this. The way David and Catherine play off each other is such a joy to watch and while we did get glimpses of that elsewhere, watching this again, I can’t help but feel just a little bit cheated. I said in my last rewatch post that there seemed to be this desire on the part of TPTB to torture the Doctor in the last half of S4; and while I can see that it was a way to push David technically and dramatically, and that given the way things were going to end, the Doctor needed to become a bit unstable at some point, I just wish the poor sod hadn’t been hammered week after week for the last six episodes of the series!

So. A fairly straightforward plot with lots of jokes, in-jokes, flirting and … drop-dead gorgeousness



And



Guh

There are also several titles of Christie’s books planted in there along the way. Apart from the obvious ones like Murder on the Orient Express that are actually included as book titles, there’s The Body in the Library, Sparking Cyanide, Murder at the Vicarage (or Vicar’s Rage as the Doctor puns very badly) Dead Man’s Folly, They Do It With Mirrors and loads more which are no doubt listed in an episode guide somewhere.

Let's meet the dramatis personae



The professor



The vicar



The butler



The lady of the manor



The scion of the house (who is unlikely to… er… generate any more scions)



The old duffer of a husband



The deb



The faithful servant – keeper of the family secrets



Heh. You have to love the way Donna cuts through his bullshit... although given there was a car coming up the drive, he almost certainly set himself up for that one :-)



Oh no! How can we go to the ball without an invitation?



Prince Charming can get in anywhere



Flapper... or slapper?



Flapper. You look lovely. Awwww...

He gives her a lovely smile as he says that, but none of the caps I found do it justice. Oh well...





Meeting the hostess, Donna tries out "posh"



No. No, don't do that. (Heh - nice bit of continuity with the earlier "famous people" episodes, where Rose tries a Scottish accent and Martha has a go at Elizabethan English.)





Look at the Doctor's face. That's either "Donna, you're barking up the wrong tree", or "Oi, Lord Fauntleroy - back off."



All the decent men are on the other bus.



Or Time Lords. Heh. He might not want any "complications", but he has to be top-dog with his women doesn't he? *g*



The guest of honour



The Doctor is such a fanboy!



You fool me every time. Well…almost every time. Well…once or twice. Well…once. But it was a good once.

I love Ten's little monologues of diminishing returns. Next time you watch it, watch Donna's face while he babbles on.



I think that’s the last time we get the ‘not married’ gag.





Look how bloody happy they are! *sniff*





Tongue



Surely there's not a woman alive who wouldn't respond to that?



It's the date Agatha Christie disappeared. Which is true - in 1926 she disappeared for about ten days and then reappeared at a hotel with amnesia. I remember a film from the 1970s with Vanessa Redgrave which attempted to explain what happened. What I can't remember is what they came up with, but I'm sure it wasn't anywhere near as good as this version!





That mouth will be the death of me



But before long the peace is shattered and there's a mystery to solve



Guh.



The Doctor announces he’s “Smith of the Yard” and that Donna’s his plucky helper. You just know he’s risking life and limb saying that



There's something about the specs and the floppy fringe that's ... er... where was I? - oh yes. Distracting.



Not very 1926. There’s a murder, a mystery and Agatha Christie.



So? Happens to me all the time.



Of course he's going to lick it



No, but isn’t that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn’t walk around surrounded by murders. Not really. That’s like meeting Charles Dickens and he’s surrounded by ghosts. At Christmas... It’s not like we could drive across country and find Enid Blyton having tea with Noddy. Could we? Noddy’s not real, is he? Tell me there’s no Noddy.



There's no Noddy. Bwah! That section is fabulous - the Cluedo reference, Dickens and ghosts harks back to The Unquiet Dead, and to cap it all, there's Noddy!



Go on. You're everso plucky! You just know he'd get a slap for that if they were on their own



What a thoroughly mischievous dimple. And more proof, if any were needed, that his pockets really are bigger on the inside!



Solving a murder mystery with Agatha Christie. Brilliant!

The Doctor’s like a kid on a sugar high – but much as Her Maj Queen Vic slapped him down for enjoying himself too much amid death and destruction in Tooth and Claw, Agatha does the same here.



Time for the interrogations. One of the things I really like about the episode is the way it gets in all the clichés you’d expect to find in an episode of Poirot! Here’s one – all the suspects being asked where they were that afternoon - and none of them telling the truth!

That chair must have some kind of truth-serum like properties, because even the Doctor is affected



Although of course, his story matches his ‘pictoral’ memory, even if Agatha thinks he’s totally bonkers



Looks like he’s still looking for the four things and the lizard



That bit there? I nearly fell off my chair. Clearly, he likes killing fangirls



Donna, meanwhile is exerting her amazing powers of detection upstairs



You’d have to be a pretty crap detective to miss that!





When I say giant … I mean flippin’ enormous!



Another one bites the dust



For once, the monster’s not chasing them!







Oi! Flyboy! See? Plucky!



A bit of girl talk – although Agatha doesn’t seem that appreciative. Poor Donna – she’s just trying to help!



Pausing briefly to remind ourselves that David Tennant has lovely hands



Uh-oh. He looks like he’s trying to lay an egg, there

There's a bit in the full-length Confidential - not the Cut-Downs on the DVDs - where Graeme Harper (who directed this episode) talks about how David wasn't best pleased at having to spend most of the day eating walnuts and how he ended up trashing both his suits, despite their attempts to prevent it!

An instant classic of nu-Who. On a par with the miming scene in Partners in Crime.



Also, in the podcast commentary, Harper says that he’d not been looking forward to that days’ filming, because scenes like that are notoriously hard to get right – but that it had turned out to be one of the easiest things he’s ever shot!



Gareth Roberts then says, “that’s because you’re dealing with those two, probably.”

I love that despite the fact that the Doctor’s been poisoned, they still find time to snark each other



Oh, that’s too salty! (That's pure Nan!)



Hopefully, those weren’t actually anchovies!



That’s a scary face! One of the things I adore about him is the fact that he’s not afraid to look like a complete prat if he has to. I’m sure there are a lot of good-looking actors out there who wouldn’t be caught dead doing stuff like this for fear it would damage their heart-throb status. Meh, what a bunch of wussies. Real men don’t worry about stuff like that!



Mammy!



Big shock, coming up



The by now compulsory non-snog with the companion.

David, from the Confidential:

I think Russell sees it as essential that every companion and the Doctor have a bit of a kiss of some description. It’s become a law of modern Doctor Who, ‘cause people love a bit of that, don’t they? They love to speculate on what it is… And of course, as usual, it’s not really a kiss, it’s something else. But you know it’s good, isn’t it – it’s fun… shove these things in, sprinkle ‘em in, keep you guessing.

Actually, it’s not so much the not-kiss as their reactions that are open to interpretation, which I imagine is what he's talking about



I must do that more often

Depending on your point of view her reaction is either –

Oh, no you don’t mate!
OR
Yes please, but oh crap, we said ‘mates’ and if he finds that out, I’ll be out on my ear



I mean the… the detox

And that’s either –

I do mean the detox
OR
I don’t mean the detox but she’ll kill me if she ever finds that out!

See?



It’s now a dark and stormy night



Is he twelve? (So cute!)



Pretty by candlelight



But amid the chaos and confusion... Poor Roger.



Trying to work things out..,



Time for the pep-talk as Agatha has a crisis of confidence



The warm-up act introduces the main event



I love how he then scurries off to sit down and watch the show!



Secrets are unearthed... while I am mesmerised by the mean and moody

"The Unicorn" is discovered to be none other than -



It amuses me endlessly to hear David describe her as a "scrubber from the East End" in the DWC :-)

This scene is very well done. A terrific parody of the "get everyone together and unmask the killer" scene which happens in so many of Christie's books and others of that ilk. There's a wonderful thread of comedy running through it as well, with Donna's reaction to each of the Doctor's declarations and his exapserated reactions to her. But she's us - we don't know what the hell he's going on about either, because the scene doesn't work in quite the way we'd expect it to given the way it's been set up. Normally, all the suspects would sit around and be exonerated one by one until we came to the killer - but not here. Clever.



There is much pointing of fingers



Who did I kill?



No, but you said it all along, the vital clue—that this whole thing is being acted out like a murder mystery.

More proof - were it needed - that Donna is awesome



The truth at last. Lady Eddie had an affair with a giant wasp in India, came back with a bun in the oven and had a waspy baby.



Eh, that's just here because it's pretty



And that



Car chase at 20 mph! First time we've seen this Doctor drive a car.

In The Writer's Tale, RTD says that the ending had to be re-written. Originally, the Doctor was to have rammed the wasp with the car, causing it to fall into the lake, but David was concerned that that would be tantamount to the Doctor committing murder - and he wouldn't do that. Rusty agreed - David Tennant - clever, sexy and good on scripts; why don't I hate him? - and the change was made.



So it's down to Donna to deliver the fatal blow. For one thing, she was the only one who could do it, given that the Doctor wouldn't and Agatha couldn't, and her reaction is a very human one. I've yet to meet anyone who actually likes wasps - and I'd probably have done the same! Also, the Doctor says earlier that the Vespiform is capable of wiping them out easily and so it's the only course of action open.



DONNA
How do you kill a wasp? Drown it. Just like its father.

THE DOCTOR
Donna, that thing couldn’t help itself.

DONNA
Neither could I.





But it's not over yet



Until ... it lets her go, and we get the DW version of the mystery behind Agatha Christie's disappearance in 1926.









Is it really any surprise that the Doctor's a) a hoarder and b) files all his crap alphabetically?



The ending is lovely - the book is a nice touch





As is this -

Well, no one knows how they’re gonna be remembered.



We can only hope for the best. Maybe that’s what kept her writing. The same thing that keeps me travelling. Onwards?



Onwards.

*sigh*

Onwards and to the big pile o' crap that's going to get dumped on both of them by the end of the season

Screencaps from Sonic Biro, The Medusa Cascade and Demon-cry.net. Some are from the BBC DW website.

Comments

[luinel-anduril.livejournal.com]

What, i'm first? This is flippin' brilliant! i love how the Donna sees through the Doctor's fib about how he determined when it is (much like in Runaway Bride when he's the only one who knows she's fake crying). And i do agree that throughout the detox scene (as well as leading up to the regeneration in EoT2) that the Doctor looks like he's in labor (ha!). i never noticed the napkin bib, and i cannot believe RTD wrote that car ramming scene. i really need to start watching with the commentaries. Poor Donna, kneeling on the grating at the end: that looks painful.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

RTD didn't write this episode - it was Gareth Roberts, who also wrote The Shakespeare Code, but I think Rusty did the rewrite. i got the info from his book :-)

And Donna's sitting on the edge of the compartment under the floor - if you look at the scene, she takes a couple of steps down into it.

There's such a lot to love about this episode - like I said, I really wish we'd had a couple more like it because David and Catherine are so fantasic together.

[luinel-anduril.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains it. i was kind of wondering if that was the case in the back of my mind. i think it's funny cuz i just read an old interview with David and he said that he never suggests any improvements to the writers because he trusts them and who is he to judge. He obviously got over that (you can see that in the Confidential for EoT). But of course he's the biggest Whovian and quite a good writer himself, so i just think he's too humble about such things.

i didn't remember Donna stepping down, but i often read fics where people are padding about the Tardis barefoot or getting thrown to the ground during a crash landing and thinking: ouch.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I was listening to something earlier this week, where David was asked a similar question and gave a similar answer, but it was a few years ago, now. As you say, he's the biggest Who fanboy going (next to RTD and Moff!) so I imagine as time went on, he'd have felt more confident about suggesting things. It was because David wanted it changed that the character's name got changed on the closing credits - throughout S1, he was named as "Doctor Who", which as we all know is wrong! David asked them to change it to "The Doctor" from S2, which is what it's (correctly) been ever since. You can tell from reading Rusty's book and listening to some of the commentaries that David's not on that they all have an enormous respect for him - his abilities, enthuisiasm and energy and the fact that everyone around him was influenced because of that. After the bit I mentioned here about the scene in the kitchen, Harper and Roberts go on to say some very complimentary things about the way he (David) approaches everything with such zest, keeping it new and fresh, etc, etc. In a business where there's a lot of back-biting and ego-maintaining, it's good to hear other professionals saying such genuinely felt things.

[luinel-anduril.livejournal.com]

i do remember hearing about the change to "the Doctor" (it had been "wrong" ever since season one with Hartnell!). i love that David is so so humble and nice, though it can be frustrating in interviews. An eight year old once asked him which companion was his favorite and he wouldn't answer! He doesn't want to offend anyone! But i have noticed in interviews with RTD that Russel's naughty sense of humor seems to rub off and slightly color his remarks. i guess it's cuz he think Davies is smarter than him or because he's used to acting like that as a youngest child.

[kiss-me-cassie.livejournal.com]

This is actually one of my favorite eps from this season. Not for the plot (it's kinda crap) but for the interactions of Donna, Doctor and Agatha and all variations therein. :)

[caz963.livejournal.com]

The plot is a bit silly, yes, but then so are many DW plots! But the whole genre of that era's detective fiction is so expertly parodied that I can forgive that and just enjoy the send-up!

I think that Fenella Woolgar was perfect casting as Agatha - DT's idea; the interplay between them all was wonderful, but David and Catherine together just eat up the screen, don't they? I'm a bit sad we didn't get a bit more of that :(

[luinel-anduril.livejournal.com]

Fenella was the best part of Bright Young Things, hands down (*shudders* at the memory of David as Ginger) and she was also excellent in He Knew He Was Right. i really would like to watch her in more, but i haven't gotten around to trying to dig anything up yet.

[starshipawesome.livejournal.com]

And you know, much as I love the library episodes, and Midnight and Turn Left, I really wish we’d had a few more like this.

I wholeheartedly agree!

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I've sorta put off writing my recap for the library episodes, even though they were on earlier this week, because everything gets so sad :(

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

I love that David's dad got to be in the episode. :-) I wonder if that was planned, or if he just happened to be visiting his son on set and they made him an extra for the hell of it.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Rusty (I think it is) says in the DWC that it was an accident; David's dad was visiting the set and they put him to work!

I think he looks more like his late mum - he's definitely got her eyes, although I think the nose came from dad!

[chloris67.livejournal.com]

This was such a fun episode! My intense fannish love tends to be saved for the serious, angsty episodes, but I love the light, fun ones as well. They are the ones I'm most likely to through in the DVD player when I feel like watching a little Who.

And there's a lot to love here. The interrogation chair (and the smirk), chasing the giant wasp, the whole reveal scene at the end, the detox scene. I will note that I definitely come down on the Doctor covering - he said he wanted a mate but he couldn't help being attracted. You can see it in his eyes.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I tend to prefer the meatier episodes too, because they give me a lot to think about, but the pure fun - like here and SC are such a delight, and David and Catherine are just pure gold together,

I admit, I'm with you on the last bit. I'm finding that my fic-writing is starting to gravitate in the direction of D/D and being me and being over-analytical at the best of times, I need to find things I've actually SEEN on the screen to justify that! I know it makes no sense, because there are loads of people writing non-canon ships and stuff, but it's the way my mind works!

But yeah, the post-snog-reaction is one of 'em!

[saiyako.livejournal.com]

The scion of the house (who is unlikely to… er… generate any more scions)

Nah, he'd marry some poor girl for the sake of having kids, neglect her once she did, and keep shagging his footman on the side while his wife floundered in a loveless marriage. (So in a way, the wasp might have saved her, hm....)

Look how bloody happy they are! *sniff*

INORITE! If they were like this more often, I'd forgive her a lot more...

Actually, it’s not so much the not-kiss as their reactions that are open to interpretation, which I imagine is what he's talking about

Partly that (and in Martha's case as well, initially), but I'd say he's also talking about how the kisses tend to end up in trailers and promos, without context, so they look like, well - honest kisses. And then they're usually something else - detox, genetic transfer, whatever.

Normally, all the suspects would sit around and be exonerated one by one until we came to the killer - but not here.

Erm. I'm confused, is this not what's going on here?

Is it really any surprise that the Doctor's a) a hoarder and b) files all his crap alphabetically?

Of course he files all his crap alphabetically, he's got a thousand years of worth of crap, he'd never find anything otherwise!

And no, not really surprised he's a hoarder, but that's mostly because I often forget that there are people who aren't.