Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Greg]

A nice standalone episode (well, probably standalone...) with the Doctor yet again encountering a famous writer (mysteriously, he didn't meet a famous writer in series 2...)

So, its a mystery - and I therefore haven't got much to say! (Hey, watch the episode, and see if you can piece together the clues!)

However, some notes...

1. I didn't find Donna as annoying as usual in this story.

2. Gareth Roberts managed to make his references to Christie's work either very plain or a little more subtle (for example, Christie wrote a novel called Taken at the Flood, which is also used as a reasonably natural part of the dialogue at one point in the story.

3. You'll have noted the reference to Cluedo (a murder mystery board game, for those who didn't know), however the character in that game is called Professor Plum rather than Peach (although the stone-fruit remains a constant).

4. This isn't the first time the Doctor has met giant wasps... Back in TV Comics, the second Doctor met a group of giant wasps who were being controlled by the Quarks. (Issues 877-880, in a story called The Killer Wasps.)

5. Christopher Benjamin gets his third role in the show, with Colonel Hugh joining Sir Keith Gold (Inferno) and Henry Gordon Jago (The Talons of Weng-Chiang) as characters he has played.

[Sulp Niar]

A laugh. That is all.

[meglos]

Very funny. A nice episode before what is set to become a much darker series from hereon.

[Hiruma]

A Different Episode, that the rest of the episodes this season.

Whoever they got to play Agatha Christie was quite good, her eyes were very noticeable (at least they were to me)

Next weeks episode looks interesting, set in a library (well thats different!)

[Amano07]

fun little story but...

****ing Eurovision!!!!!

[Tegan]

I have to say first up that I've never liked Agatha Christie novels. To twee, and they always introduce a critical clue in the final page. I was more than prepared to give this a chance though.

Sadly, I found this to be simply the most annoying, tedious episode in the new series of Doctor Who. The first I have ever rated as a one.

It started reasonably well with The Doctor guessing the era from the smell of the air and Donna pointing out the car in the drive, aside from which The Doctor should have a reasonable idea of the time from the TARDIS console.

There were a few good jokes. Enough to keep one interested. There were one or two good setups. But the timing was all wrong. Just when you thought a story line was going somewhere it petered out or was abruptly cut short. Pretty much like a Christie novel in fact.

The closed room? Obvious from the moment it was brought into the story. The old bloke in the wheel-chair? Knew he didn't need it as soon as I saw it. The Unicorn? It was like some second thought thrown in to pad out a very thin story.

There simply weren't any half decent red herrings at all. At least Christie managed to introduce these in her stories.

Most of the supporting cast seemed to be sleepwalking through the script. On the other hand the actor playing Agatha Christie made a lot more of the role than one would reasonably expect. She was, in short excellent. I'm going to have to chase up more of her work. She was a real standout.

My biggest gripe I simply can't get over, is that despite all evidence to the contrary, RTD (and I can see his heavy hand in this) simply couldn't resist the chance to have Donna snog The Doctor. What was a really nice, funny scene up until then just went pfffft as soon as it happened. I actually blurted out NOOOOO! at the time.

And I'm a bit over Super Donna saving the day at the last moment. The Doctor was a little underwhelming about the drowning as well. Ah well, just another dead bug.

I realise that the melodrama and cliches were deliberate, but hhis is one episode I won't be hurrying back to.

[FredDag]

I found this story very light. Yeah it had good direction, great music, the wasp looked great but the story was sooooo light, there was nothing in it, the story seemed like it was written on one page and then streatched right out. I was really dissapointed at the end of this episode. Though my partner who's not a fan loved the story, so I could be wrong.

[Theta Sigma]

Fenella Woolgar is absolutely perfect as Agatha Christie.
Very funny when Donna mentioned Charles Dickens and ghosts since it did happen in The Unquiet Dead. Wonder if the Doctor told her about it afterwards.
A very delightful mystery and a very good attempt in explaining Agatha Christie's real life disappearance in 1926 - all because of the wasp of the title.

[Theta Sigma]

Conrad Walters in the SMH Guide gave it a thumbs up. He mentions details about the episode. As revealed in the trailer at the end of The Doctor's Daughter, this episode features Agatha Christie. Walters' review includes a quote from Christie's grandson Matthew Pritchard, "As far as I know, my grandmother....never saw Doctor Who but I am sure she would have been intrigued, excited and above all, flattered."

[DrJones]

I liked this one and it was an improvement on the melodramatic Doctor's Daughter.

It was, as mentioned, a nice stand alone episode. It was funny and that was quite good. I don't mind a good lighter funny one every so often, although Doctor Who has had a fair bit of humour added lately, but I like that.

I actually guessed it was the Vicar straight away. I don't know how I guessed that, but it just seemed to be him.

I also like the fact that Agatha did not rememebr what had happened to her. Actually, since they resurrected Doctor Who this past few years, people seem to remember the Doctor helping them or things happening to them (Titanic over Buckingham Palace etc) . Pre 2005 series, I am sure that they forgot that the Doctor was there to help them. Like he corrected the timeline or something. But I don't recall them as having a recollection of the Doctor having been there. He just fixed things and people went on their merry way. But if anyone remembers otherwise, correct me on that by all means.

[Christos]

Excellent. I loved this story even on the 2nd viewing, as did the whole family.

I must say, I think the Sunday night timeslot is sensational. There's usually too much on on Sat. evening & I often miss out whereas Sun evening is usually winding down time which makes for watching Dr. Who very pleasing.

[montypython]

From the SMH Guide write-up:

"The victim, I fear, is Professor Peach in the library with the lead pipe."

When I first read this, I thought it was a joke. I didn't think it would actually happen!

I enjoyed this episode. I like the light-hearted ones, and although it was silly at times, I like that as well. Although, the sub-plot of the Unicorn was a bit pointless. I guess it more served the purpose of the mystery as to the different secrets of the guests.

I didn't suspect that the Colonel could walk - however I do recall the disabled character being present in a number of Christie novels (well, film versions of the novels).

I thought the Doctor's miming scene was hilarious ... but the kiss was really unnecessary. The Old Donna would have just given the Doctor a slap.

My friend who watches Doctor Who doesn't know a thing about Agatha Christie, and hence didn't get the references to Poirot, or Miss Marple, or anything!

I thought the mention of all the wasps disappearing from a couple of episodes back would be solved in this story - evidently not.

Interestingly, the title of next week's episode is The Silence in the Library, which I think sounds more suited to an Agatha Christie story (especially since in this one, Professor Peach was murdered in the library).

[Theta Sigma]

Now for The Unicorn and The Wasp:
By accident I actually first got to see this episode a while ago before I saw the previous episode The Doctor's Daughter. Glad to finally see it in the right order.
Agatha Christie's remark early on of the thrill of the chase foreshadows the car chase later on.
Despite the name of the episode the Unicorn has very little to do with this story.
Nice to see Christopher Benjamin again.
Brief appearance of the Cybermen breastplate which the Doctor got from Age of Steel and the orb imprisoning the Carrionites. The latter referencing The Unicorn and The Wasp writer Gareth Roberts previous episode in the parent Doctor Who series, The Shakespeare Code.
The image of the Doctor with arrows and mentioning Belgium and Charlemagne refers to the online short story The Lonely Computer which was first mentioned in this forum by Greg here:
http://www.drwhoaustralia.org/board/viewtopic.php?t=2112

If anyone remembers the Doctor says that he wanted to meet Agatha Christie at the end of Last of the Time Lords. The decision to make the Agatha Christie episode was already made at that point and hence that reference.

Read in the preview in DWM 395 that how it came about is that Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson were trapped in a car driving to Manchester, Phil says he wanted to do a murder mystery with Agatha Christie and that became an instant commission.

Confidential Cutdown: Nemesis:
Doctor Whodunnit. Well said Tony.
Had no idea that the footman was Sandy McDonald, David Tennant's father.
Very good seeing the car chase sequence being played out.

[Greg]

[charlie]

This ep was very slow moving by today's standards and that blur to the past got really annoying. The animation was lame at best and although I enjoyed it I couldn't stand a second viewing. Seemed like a classic story from the 80's. I am sick to death of the Doctor solving all his problems by kissing the closest person. I can honestly say that as a tenager I have never heard of Agather Christi outside of this episode and I think that whole BEST SELLER OF ALL TIME comment was put in by some avid fan of Christy. As if shakespeare wouldn't beat her just on the school sales.

Poor episode.

[Fantastic!]

I thought it was a great idea - Agatha Christie, visiting a manor house where a murder actually happens! She's one of my favorite authors! However, it didn't really seem to work for me as a Dr Who story (a wasp who assumes human form, a human who doesn't know he's a wasp? at a garden party in the '20s?) I must really prefer the whole "change-the-course-of-history" "can't-change-a-fixed-moment-in-time" type of story.

It was really a love-hate relationship with all the references to Christie stories! And all the actors did a fantastic job, but I found it more on the enjoyment rather than the intrigue side of things, and by the end I didn't really care who did it, with what weapon, or in what room (I already guessed the vicar - he looked far too innocent!)

This is sounding all rather negative... I DID enjoy: DT and Catherine Tate's acting. The final 'reveal the murderer' enactment, the setting and costumes, the fact that it 'starred' Agatha Christie, and the interrogating scene, that I can think of.

From a die-hard DW fan, enjoyable entertainment; but
please don't waste our precious 13 episodes with weak stories!