The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 2 Episode 5 - Grand Theft Cosmos

After last month’s disappointing effort we are almost back on track in this Eighth Doctor Adventures series.

The Doctor and Lucie are in 19th century Sweden where they ‘bump into’ The Headhunter and Karen, last heard in last year’s finale ‘Human Resources’. Unfortunately, The Headhunter and Karen are there to steal a rare diamond but so are The Doctor and Lucie, but why?

Top marks to the sound department for setting the scenes perfectly. I could just image The Doctor running up and down the corridors of a palace and Lucie in a fluffy dress (hmmmm)! Sheridan Smith is getting better and better with each story and Lucie is becoming one of my favourite companions. I think using The Headhunter and Karen as recurring ‘rouges’ is a great idea and hopefully we will get to see more of them.

I didn’t really buy the plotline around the diamond, it seemed too much thought had been put into it and it didn’t really work for me. Although I did enjoy Christopher Benjamin (‘The Talons of Wen-Chiang’ and ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’) performance as ‘Tardelli’. Colin Spaull (‘Revelation of the Daleks’ and ‘Rise of the Cybermen’/’Age of Steel’) also guest starred.

Overall it’s a decent listen packed with a few good one-liners, certainly lighter than last month’s ‘Skull of Sobek’!

3.5/5

Next Time: The Doctor and Lucie bump into the Zygons in ‘The Zygon Who Fell To Earth’. Let’s hope that crap Loch Ness Monster doesn’t turn up, thus wrecking a decent story!

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 7 - The Unicorn and the Wasp

A giant wasp, a vicar and a brassy thief known as ‘The Unicorn’, all of whom are playing out a game. No it isn’t a seedy club, it’s the latest Doctor Who episode!

‘The Unicorn and The Wasp’ is set in 1926 as The Doctor and Donna gatecrash a garden party - they run into Agatha Christie (Fenella Woolgar). Its worth mentioning that Felicity Kendal (The Good Life and other various crap comedies, which Americans seem to find funny), Tom Goodman-Hill (The druggy copper in ‘Ideal’ and the bumbling government bloke in ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentleman’) guest star alongside Christopher Benjamin, who previously appeared in the classic Doctor Who episodes, ‘Inferno’ (as Sir Keith Gold) and ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ (as Jago).

The episode itself is almost a parody of the ‘murder mystery’ genre, keeping with the Agatha Christie theme. It’s definitely the most comedic 45 minutes of the new series and this episode benefits from that refreshing change.

The story, thanks to its ‘Cludeo’ plot, centres around the murders of a number of characters. When it seems that one of the guests can turn into a ‘Vespiform’ to kill, none of the guests have a decent alibi.

Enter Agatha Christie. Fenella Woolgar plays her magnificently and at times upstages The Doctor, which is very rarely done. Apparently, Fenella had met the Grandson of the novelist, to get a feel for the character. Credit must go to the writer of the episode, Gareth Roberts, for doing a great job with this as well.

Top moments include, everything with Agatha in, The Doctor getting poisoned and Donna trying to help him. The Flashbacks of Colonel Hugh being a dirty old man and The Doctor in a Belgian forest!

However, the monster’s transformation has been criticised by the fans. Although I have no problem with it to be honest. It is an alien wasp after all!

We eventually learn that it was the Vicar ‘Whodunit’ and that he is the son of a Vespiform who had his wicked way with Lady Eddison (Felicity Kendal) 40 years ago in India, the mucky cow! So after more or less solving the mystery, Agatha gives chase to the Vespiform, after learning that it was her books that gave the wasp the information to kill. But its Donna, who continues her murdering streak (after killing that poor fat woman in the opening episode) by throwing the necklace, which our Thief – The Unicorn (Felicity Jones) was after, into a lake. The link (which had materialised between Agatha and the Vespiform) was severed but Agatha was to lose her memory and go missing for 10 days. Which is what happened in real life, apart from the alien wasps of course!

As an episode, it’s a lot of fun, not to be taken too seriously. It’s certainly better than its series 3 counterpart, 42, anyway!

8.5/10

Next Time: The Doctor and Donna visit the largest library in the Universe, which seems to be deserted. I wonder if they mean the centre of London? You’ll be met with the same level of friendliness anyway.

As mentioned, it was more of a comedy this week, which is precisely what's on next week, as its Eurovision! Which means no Doctor Who for 2 weeks. Cheers BBC, what do we pay our TV licences for again?

'Silence In The Library' Trailer