Tooth and Claw

Well they managed to cram a lot into 45 minutes, it's nice to get a Scottish theme, Terror of the Zygons seems a long time ago.

It races into the action within a minute, and the opening scenes are beautifully done, the fight scenes are tremendous, but it's not all style over substance. The story is a very clever one, very imaginative.

The Doctor and Rose land in 1879 and encounter a Werewolf in Scotland. A group of fighter monks overrun the household of Sir Robert and imprison the staff in an outhouse with 'someone.' Whilst the Doctor, Rose, Victoria and guards turn up to stay at the house. The someone turns out to be a werewolf wanting to transform mankind by overtaking the throne by biting Queen Victoria.

The Special effects are possibly the series best so far, the hosts transformation into a werewolf is amazingly done. The CGI effects work far better then those used say with the Slitheen.

Pauline Collins returns to Doctor Who to play Queen Victoria 39 years after playing Samantha Briggs in Patrick Troughton's The Faceless ones. She does a super job in the role, with enough charisma to hold the story up. Tom Smith in the short time that he plays the host is utterly brilliant, he plays it with such bleakness.

All in all a very good episode, which has tremendous pace, great effects, some real scares and again it feels unique. The solution is a particularly satisfying one.

Having started in a not entirely satisfactory fashion with premiere episode New Earth, the second season of Doctor Who ups its game considerably with this second offering, another Russell T. Davies-penned adventure that ditches other planets in favor of a (sort of) historical adventure that deftly mixes the show's trademark humor with some genuine horror.

Having left New Earth, the Doctor's plan was to take Rose back to 1979, a year he likes for many reasons (one of them being the Muppet movie). However, due to a TARDIS mishap, they find themselves in 1879, more specifically in Scotland, where they run into a vacationing Queen Victoria (Pauline Collins). The Doctor poses as a Scottish physician to gain access to her entourage, and soon discovers something dangerous is in the working: a conspiracy involving deranged monks and an alien entity in the shape of a werewolf...

While there is a bit of mythology in the script (the name Torchwood is mentioned once again), Tooth and Claw works perfectly as a self-contained story with hints of John Landis, most explicitly in a wonderful scene where the Doctor and Rose, while hiding from the wolf, giddily express their excitement about the situation. The wolf itself is a credible threat, although a couple of shots are slightly let down by the visual effects. As for Collins, who continues the tradition of portraying real people in the series (following Simon Callow's class act as Dickens in The Unquiet Dead), her rendition of Victoria is suitably cold and amusing. Plus, the in-joke of the Doctor faking a Scottish accent (Tennant's own, in fact), followed Rose trying to do the same with appalling results, is one of the funniest moments in the series so far.

As my specific recollections about the episode start to get a little less clear, I'm feel like I'm finding them anew in some cases, and in the case of this one, it was a pleasant surprise just how good it was.

Despite aiming for the Top Rank in Sheffield, 1979, to see Ian Dury and the Blockheads, the Doctor (David Tennant) and Rose (Billie Piper) land in 1879 Scotland and into the company of none other than Queen Victoria (Pauline Collins) as she makes an annual pilgrimage. However, her arrival has been anticipated and a trap awaits her at Torchwood House, in the form of shaolin monks and a werewolf they have in their possession.

Let's start with the opposite remark to something I've said in a number of my reviews so far, the CGI effect for the Werewolf is really good. There is a classic transition, which is passible without being too scary for the children who might be watching, but then the creature itself is a pretty solid effect, maintains scale throughout and interacts with various characters and objects without giving itself away.

The rest of the episode is decent. The warrior monk aspect was a little corny, especially with the fight scene at the start, but once that was over with they played their part OK. The story was well thought out and foreshadows the ending well enough that you can follow the Doctors' reasoning. Piper and Tennant remain an engaging pair together, there's more comedy again, with Rose trying to get Queen Victoria to say that she's "not amused". I really liked the turn at the end, we're so used to characters saying thank you and goodbye to the Doctor after he saves them, that seeing Queen Victoria turn on him and banish him from the Empire, as well as trying to exhort her own control of the world she's now aware of, seems like a logical way to go - as well as seeding much of the arc of this season, and laying the foundations for the "Torchwood" spin off.

Good episode.

The Doctor intends to take Rose to 1979, but the TARDIS due to its typical erratic nature takes them to 1879, where the pair of them meet Queen Victoria in Scotland. The Doctor poses as the Queen's protector under the pseudonym of Dr. James McCrimmon, and the Time Lord and his companion travel along with her Majesty and her entourage to the home of Sir Robert MacLeish. Unknown to them, Sir Robert's wife and his servants have been kidnapped, and imprisoned in his own home by a group of monks who have fallen from grace, and want to bring about the rise of "The Empire of the Wolf." A new order ruled over by an alien creature, resembling a Werewolf, whose bite or scratch can essentially transform the recipient of said bite, into a wolfish creature. The intention is that it will kill Queen Victoria, and bring about its existence.

The Second episode of Series 2, of NuWho, "Tooth and Claw" is one of the better episodes of Russell T. Davies's run not only as Showrunner but as a writer. It's a simple concept, but one delivered with some considerable verve. David Tennant is on solid form as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, as is Billie Piper, who continues to impress as his companion Rose, who proves that acting was always going to be her true calling, rather than her brief stint as a teen princess pop-singer. Many balked at her casting and were too quick to make assumptions about her abilities as an actress. But she proved the naysayers wrong, winning two British television Awards for her work on the series.

Guest appearing is veteran actress, Pauline Collins of Shirley Valentine and Upstairs Downstairs fame, who provides reliable and solid support as Queen Victoria, and brings the required amount of sovereignty and dignity to the role. The rest of the supporting cast for the most part equals her considerable talents. That said Michelle Duncan who plays Sir. Roberts's Wife, Lady Isobell proves to be a weak link, who proves to be lifeless as a corpse, although given the relative smallness of her role proves to be a minor flaw that doesn't impact too much on the overall quality of this outing.

What makes the story all that bit enjoyable, and brings an ounce of nostalgic Whoish, fan-boy joy to it, is the Doctor using the alias of James McCrimmon, an obvious reference to his former Jacobite rebel companion, Jamie (as once played by veteran actor Frazer Hines) from the late 1960s run of the series.

The story is fanciful enough, although its final code foreshadows the introduction of the Torchwood Institute that would be introduced at the end of the series, as it would the spin-off show. A TV series that had an all-too-short run, and would give, former traveling companion, the dashing Captain Jack Harkness (as played by the charismatic and handsome John Barrowman) his own TV series. It does however feel a bit too phoned in its delivery. Not to mention that the martial-artistic abilities of the Monks, although it does make for an entertaining hook, are somewhat anachronistic, it's something I can forgive because, what can I say, it still looks goddamn cool. Hell, this is Doctor Who after all. Tooth and Claw is immense fun, with minor flaws that I am willing to look over, because of its steady breakneck pace, embracing characters, and the discernibly palpable chemistry between David Tennant and Billie Piper. In short, don't give this one a miss.

It is 1879, although the TARDIS rhythm stick is stuck and it should be 1979, either way the Doctor and Rose find themselves in deepest, darkest Scotland. They hitch a lift with Queen Victoria (as you do) and her rerouted entourage, before stopping at the Torchwood Estate not long after sabotage, where they're about to encounter a beast who is not in camouflage - no sheep's clothing here. There's a bit of cat and mouse, round the besieged highland house, but no need to give up hope with Prince Albert's telescope, it's not long before they're back to shooting grouse (not a lot else to do in that part of the world in all fairness).