Dr Who and the Great Dame

Oh dear, could there ever have been a better fit for me in a Dr Who episode? I fell in love with genre fiction aged 12/13 when I first encountered Agatha Christie. I used to read her voraciously, and thought I'd read everything she's written (but I've just gone on to wikipedia and I clearly have missed a fair few). So to match the Great Dame with Dr Who was just like sending me to heaven really.

I know know the plot was utterly preposterous:

Alien from another world, who just happens to take the form of a giant wasp - why??? - impregnates posh lady who gives birth in secret, and baby/wasp is given up for adoption unaware of his parentage, till a fit of fury makes him discover it, so from being a mild ginger haired vicar he turns into a buzzing hornet who goes round murdering people who piss them off. He does this in the manner of an Agatha Christie novel, as by chance his mother has been reading one and fingering the telepathic necklace her waspy lover gave her which has a mental connection to our stripy friend, who then goes around thinking that he has to reenact Agatha Christie type murders...

It was gloriously stupid, in a way that only Dr Who can be, and I enjoyed every minute. I especially enjoyed spotting Christie references (By the Pricking of my Thumbs/The Mirror Crack'd/Murder on the Orient Express... and I'm sure dozens I missed), the fact that Donna gave her Miss Marple, and the way the Doctor admitted he'd worked out the mystery in nearly every one. The thing about Agatha Christie is, it's not really the crimes you read her for - the bit they got spot on was that she was a wonderful observer of people and I think it was that as much as anything else that drew me into her world. And I also have belatedly realised, that she also was a huge influence on my latent romance writing tendencies. There are always star cross'd lovers in Agatha Christie, and I enjoyed that too. And in this Dr Who episode, that aspect of the great Dame was gloriously subverted into a doomed homosexual love affair.

I think they could have gone for another Agatha Christie book for inspiration though (Appointment with Death? Death on the Nile? They Came to Baghdad anyone?) - because Death in the Clouds is probably the silliest of her novels (murderer goes round popping people with a blowpipe and a wasp sting... I kid you not) So this probably made for the most silly Dr Who episode ever,which may have been the point. And I enjoyed it enormously, so what the hell...

I don't get round to reviewing the good Doctor every week as I don't always have time, and I know from others who do there has been a mixed reaction to this series. But I have to say I think I'm enjoying it more then last time, and Catherine Tate is really growing on me.

And we haven't had Stephen Moffat's episodes yet...