By Ross Ruediger
I’m sure I read an interview with Russell T. Davies some time ago where he referred to “The Unicorn and The Wasp” as “the first comedy we’ve done.” I put that in quotes because that’s what I recall him saying, but I’ll be damned if I can find the piece now. It probably doesn’t matter, but it does seem the aim of the episode is to be a comedy—well, a comedy and a murder mystery peppered with ample doses of sci-fantasy. The episode worked better on the second viewing, yet I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I’m beginning to tire of this brand of Doctor Who story. I’ve got plenty of respect for Agatha Christie’s body of work, but I’ve never read any of her books—pathetic, but true. I grew up reading Doctor Who novelizations written by Terrance Dicks—also pathetic, but true.
The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) arrive at a lovely estate in 1926 England. They immediately mesh with the residents, including Lady Eddison (Felicity Kendal), Colonel Hugh (Christopher Benjamin), Reverend Golightly (Tim Goodman-Hill), Robina Redmond (Felicity Jones), and Agatha Christie (Fenella Woolgar). The time travelers are stunned and delighted to meet Mrs. Christie, although the Doctor quickly confesses that only one of her stories stumped him. It’s an amusing moment, and one of several. If you’re going to jam Christie into the Whoniverse, it only makes sense that someone is killed, and everyone else must figure out Whodunnit. (In this one case, we’re reasonably sure that “Who” is the one person that didn’t do it.) Forgive me for not recounting the mystery in question play by play. It isn’t all that interesting and exists mostly as an excuse to serve up numerous gags and nods to the works of Agatha Christie. If the script can’t bother to do any hard work, why should I? A giant wasp is involved, as is a thief called the Unicorn. When the true identities of each are revealed we’re nonplussed; the former because it was so obvious, and the latter because we didn’t really care and it goes nowhere anyway.
I shouldn’t sell this episode too short. It has some wonderful dialogue and acting. One scene in which the Doctor has been poisoned, followed by a game of charades between he and Donna is classic—maybe even the funniest scene yet unleashed via the new series. But the third act devolves into a bunch of sci-fantasy hokum that has the feel of “been there, done that.” Around the time I was expected to believe Lady Eddison was in love with and gave birth to the spawn of a giant wasp, the entire thing went south: It either ceased being a comedy or turned into a bad comedy. Must Doctor Who work a creature/alien into every story? I’m sure a witty, cohesive tale could have been told here that didn’t involve an enormous insect. What if there was no murder? What if there was only the Unicorn and no Wasp? As I said before, I’m bored with these types of episodes. The Doctor meets an admirable historic figure. His world collides with their’s in a cleverish manner. Despite the mayhem, he influences their P.O.V., and something we always knew about the figure has a new meaning after the time they spent with the Doctor. No matter what, all is right by the end. Aside from some witticisms, you won’t get much more than that here which is all well and good if you enjoy this sort of thing. If the Doctor is going to continue meeting up with famous historial figures, the series needs to find a new spin on the formula.
It's unfortunate that after such a strong batch of initial episodes this season, the series has delivered two mediocre pieces in a row. Perhaps Steven Moffat will save the day?
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Ross Ruediger is a San Antonio-based writer. In addition to contributing to The House Next Door, he also publishes The Rued Morgue and writes for Bullz-Eye.
NEXT WEEK: Yes, indeedy—The Moff is back and this time there will be "Silence in the Library."
Classic Who DVD Recommendation of the Week: No Who to recommend this week. Instead, check out "The Grand," created and written by Russell T. Davies. It was recently released on R1 DVD and is a wonderful TV series.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Doctor Who: Season 4, Ep. 7, "The Unicorn and the Wasp"
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9 comments:
Agreed; I'd get more of a kick out of these episodes if they didn't adhere so closely to a formula. But they do tend to be a way to allow the audience to catch its breath as meatier shows appear on the horizon. I do like the way the spikier Donna has been integrated into the show; indeed, all of the Doctor's companions have been perfectly companionable.
My wife and I will, however, miss our one-two Sci-Fi Channel punch of DOCTOR WHO and BSG.
I always liked the Davison era episode "Black Orchid" precisely because it didn't see fit to shoehorn a creature into the story.
Als, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) had a fantastic bum.
Ross, if I may cross-comment from Sepinwall's post:
I liked a couple of things about it:
the sentimentality behind "Agatha Christie is the greatest mystery writer EVER"--I love when the hometeam really rallies around a favored daughter;
and one arc point: Christie says to the Doctor something like "I'm more than happy to work with you to solve this, but it's not here for your amusement" a theme that's been building about how the Doctor drops into tragic situations and finds mirth and an ego boost when he can fix something.
re: "Black Orchid"
Yes! I probably should've mentioned "Orchid" in this piece as the perfect example of how to do a story like this right (minus the famous figure anyway). That's coming out on R1 DVD in August by the way.
Peel -
Nice observation! Funny, I went and read Alan's piece after reading your comment and it was practically the exact same review as mine!
The thing of it is that you have a gifted formula comedian (Tate) available - why not use her?
Personally, I loved it despite the fractured Christie time line and thought the last third the better of the sections - in particular the bit about "So X killed him" bits by Tate as she was stuffing her face. Hysterical.
This is the second time they've done the charades type comedy in this season and it's worked every time.
To tell the truth, I was getting a little tired of the drama Dr. Who and would like to see a little more of the comedy Dr. Who as a breather.
In any case, I enjoyed the heck out of it and am firm in my belief that this Companion is the best of the "new" Dr. Who.
And I don't care what you think. :>)
Sheik -
I think I'd have appreciated it more if they'd gone even *further* with the comedy. If they're going to do a comedy, then just do a witty comedy. I've no problem with that.
But this one wants to be a comedy while at the same time delivering the usual DW bells and whistles, which frankly didn't feel as if they needed to be there.
I like Donna, too, but if I were you I wouldn't get too used to her being a major element of this show. Indeed, with DW it's best not to expect anyone to be around for very long...
Didn't care for this one for reasons cited and the fact it was based on an awful pun. A wasp among W.A.S.P.s. Ho ho. The whole Wasp lover bit was so absurd and the Clue allusions were also kind of trite. At some point I was almost expecting John Cleese to wander in wearing a major's uniform (as he would sometimes in Monty Python sketches) saying: "This story is silly. It's too silly. On my mark: CUT!"
I like comedy in Doctor Who, but not lameness like this stuff. I do agree that the production values and acting were all fine and I like the poison bit and some other touches.
Ah, but the next two part episode is full of great stuff and interesting foreshadowing about the future of the Doctor and Donna. We meet a new and important character in the Doctor's life
I fell asleep, finding it quite talky and not funny enough to keep me awake. The fact that I'd done about 7 hours of yard work on about 4 hours of sleep probably had something to do with my nodding off, but still -- I slept through the entire scene with Donna's eating and guessing, so I guess I'll have to watch it again.
Looking forward to Moffat's return.
A very good read comments on this adventure and I suddenly felt like dancing in the beach mayami
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