"Doctor Who"
The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008)

Director:

Graeme Harper

Writer:

Gareth Roberts (written by)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (2005)

Original Air Date:

17 May 2008 (Season 4, Episode 7)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

With a 1920s dinner party turning into a murder mystery, The Doctor and Donna meet Agatha Christie on the eve of her publicized disappearance.

Plot Keywords:

Murder Mystery | Agatha Christie | Eccentricity | Man With No Name | Girl Heroine

Cast

David Tennant	...	The Doctor
Catherine Tate	...	Donna Noble
Fenella Woolgar	...	Agatha Christie
Felicity Kendal	...	Lady Eddison
Tom Goodman-Hill	...	Reverend Golightly
Christopher Benjamin	...	Colonel Hugh
Felicity Jones	...	Robina Redmond
Adam Rayner	...	Roger Curbishley
David Quilter	...	Greeves
Daniel King	...	Davenport
Ian Barritt	...	Professor Peach
Leena Dhingra	...	Miss Chandrakala
Charlotte Eaton	...	Mrs. Hart

Runtime:

45 min | 45 min (50 episodes)

Certification:

UK:PG (DVD rating)

Company:

BBC Wales

Trivia:

Donna mentions that meeting Agatha Christie during a murder mystery would be as preposterous as meeting "Charles Dickens surrounded by ghosts at Christmas", unknowingly referencing the events of _"Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead (#1.3)" (2005)_ .

Quotes:

Agatha Christie: [referring to the Doctor] Detective, you missed a very big clue.
The Doctor: What? That bit of paper you nicked out of the fire?
Agatha Christie: You were looking the other way!
The Doctor: Yeah, but I saw your reflection in the glass of the bookcase.
Agatha Christie: [smiling] You crafty man!

The Doctor meets a giant wasp and Agatha Christie

I remember a time when Gareth Roberts was well-regarded by Who fandom. His New Adventures novels were well-liked and his Missing Adventures efforts were seen by many as some of the best of the 90's Who novels (including myself). Granted Roberts didn't help his dwindling reputation (a result of silly revisionist thought when fans decided to be pretentious and ignore these fun romps in favor of the 'challenging drama' of some of the NA's) with last year's extremely disappointing "The Shakespeare Code", but he has matched some of his finest work such as "The Romance of Crime" and "The English Way of Death" with "The Unicorn and the Wasp", a fun and exciting little adventure reminiscent in several ways of Doctor Who's other television murder-mystery, "Black Orchid".

The only real flaw in this episode was essentially the plot and the way it was executed. This has always been a flaw in Gareth Roberts' writing but he more than makes up for it (again) by injecting ample wit and style into his dialogue, which the actors really do justice here. I did think Catherine Tate slipped into her comedy routine a bit here which does injustice I think to the fantastic way she's developed her character over the last few episodes, but that's a minor complaint.

This is possibly one of the best-directed Doctor Who stories, well... ever. Graeme Harper first directed Doctor Who in 1984, debuting with the truly legendary "The Caves of Androzani" and following that up with the excellent "Revelation of the Daleks". Returning for the revived series of Who with "Rise of the Cybermen", Harper has proved to be one of the best and most unjustly ignored television directors out there. "The Unicorn and the Wasp" succeeds largely thanks to his direction of the episode, as he creates fantastic atmosphere and chooses his shots very carefully and very well.

Fenella Woolgar is terrific here as Agatha Christie herself and the story is just excellent, fun, humorous entertainment all the way through. The CGI effects in series four thus far have been miles ahead of what we've seen previously and the very, very well-done wasp(s) are proof of this. What a memorable and fun tale.

8.5/10