Monday, May 19, 2008

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...

6 comments:

Stuart Douglas said...

The glorious stupidity - especially Felicity Kendall having a torrid affair with a wasp - was about the only saving grace for me in this one.

Otherwise it was all to clumsy and frantic, with both the Unicorn sub-plot (to the extent you could call it a plot at all) and the Doctor's interminable poisoning feeling as thought hey were added to bolster a short running time.

Still, Moffat to come!

Anonymous said...

Missed all the ones you spotted but got N or M, Death Becomes Her, Sparkling Cyanide, Murder Most Foul, Murder at the Vicarage (he made the most awful pun on that on. There were some more, but I have forgotten them....

Also enjoyed Professor Peach in the library with lead piping.

Silly nonsense but fun anyway, and when Catherine Tate is Donna rather than Catherine Tate she gets better.

Preferred the Doctor's Daughter though! And looking forward to the library.

Mad Twin

Jane Henry said...

Hi Stuart. Ah well we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I don't care about stupid plots really, when the gags are coming thick and fast... Can't wait for Stephen Moffat, who has penned all my favourite Who episodes. Thanks for the heads up on your blog btw. Very kind of you!

MT - yes I got most of those too but forgot some.

I do think they could have gone for a better AC to draw inspiration from though!

Anonymous said...

Well it was also, "Ten Little Indians" (now "And then there were none") all the dead bodies dropping off round a dinner party...

Oh and there was Nemesis as well.

Anonymous said...

Well it was also, "Ten Little Indians" (now "And then there were none") all the dead bodies dropping off round a dinner party...

Oh and there was Nemesis as well.

MT

Nic said...

I loved this one precisely because it was so silly! That's what I love about this series, I can be groaning at dreadful puns and ludicrous plots one episode and weeping with genuine emotion the next. And Catherine Tate... well, apart from the odd moment when i can see one of her sketch characters (How dare you and Oh my God have both popped up every now and again) I am VERY impressed. But then, she was with the RSC before the sketch show, so maybe this has arrived in time to remind us that she was intially an actress...