Tooth and Claw

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.

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.

Tennant is very likeable at the start, just a great Doctor. Everything worked out on this episode, bravo!

This episode reminds me in a very good way of the greatest era of the show in the early seasons of Tom Baker's era as the 4th Doctor in that it has gothic horror themes and is properly creepy, atmospheric, exciting and scary as well as having some great witty humour.

The story has the TARDIS taking the 10th Doctor and Rose to Victorian era Scotland where they actually meet Queen Victoria. Meanwhile a werewolf type creature appears and the Doctor has to try to save the day whilst dealing with the Queen and her entourage at the same time.

The humour is great, the scares are great and Tennant well and truly shines in the role of the Doctor . Pauline Collins (who appeared in a 2nd Doctor story in the 1960s called The Faceless Ones) is marvelous as Queen Victoria and the acting and production all round are impressive.

It is not, for me, an absolute all time great 10/10 but is very close so I rate it 9.5/10.

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.