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Partners in Crime Format Reviewed: TV Review Partners in Crime kicks off season four of the newtelevision adventures of Doctor Who. Replacing the departing regular companion of Martha is the returning Donna Noble, played by Cathering Tate. When she appeared before in The Runaway Bride it caused some very vitriolic reactions from some parts of the Doctor Who fan community, and when it was announced she would be returning as a regular companion, the vitriol turned to bile. Quite how someone can be condemned before they have actually done anything is beyond me. Donna Noble is trying to find The Doctor, and so investigates strange circumstances hoping that The Doctor will also be there. She is looking into Adipose Industries who are promising remarkable rsults from their diet pills, and so is The Doctor. They both infiltrate the company and get costomer lists, then visit people on the list. Donna finds Stacy, who goes to the bathroom and divides into 'sugar bag' like creatures under the direction of Miss Foster, head of Adipose Industries. The Doctor and Donna then go back to the companies HQ, and are reunited with each other. They force Miss Foster to advance her plan, and create as many Adipose as possible from those who are taking the diet pills. Thousands are created before The Doctor stops her, but then the mothership is called down and the Adipose are taken up. The Doctor then tries to save Miss Foster who he has found out will be disposed of by the Adipose mother and father as they want to cover their tracks from breaking the law in creating Adipose on Earth. He fails, and Miss Foster is killed. Donna then convinces The Doctor to have her along as a companion, and Donna talks to a blonde girl in a crowd briefly, who turns round and disappears. The girl is Rose Tyler. During the gap between series three and four, there was a new spin off show, The Sarah Jane Adventures. This was a kids TV show produced by the Doctor Who team so it has the Who look and feel. Therefore, when we come to a story like this, a Doctor Who story, that has an alien race that just seems to have been one that would have suited the kids spin off more than Who itself. Given that we essentially now have three Who shows, Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures and of course Who itself there is bound to be stories that suit one more than another, and I think the main story here was misplaced. The regular cast here are David Tennant as The Doctor, and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. Tennant gives a somewhat subdued performance here, not quite his normal exuberant self. It seems a more mature performance and not a bad one by any means. Tate is very strong. You can see the basis in comic sketch acting coming out, but she certainly has her merits as I think she is a very different character to both previous companions. The guest cast principally is Sarah Lancashire as Miss Foster, Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott, Donna's grandfather, and Jacquline King as Sylvia Noble, Donna's mother. Lancashire does excellently, and gives the right amount of sinister, with a warm edge needed as her role of 'nanny'. Cribbins is a delight, and a wonderful actor and King does fine as Donna's mother. Having been critical of the story earlier, it should be noted that the story has the magic ingredient of any Who story, fun. There are some very good elements to it, and many parts that will undoubtedly be more important as the season goes on, a lack of bees for example, and the brief cameo by Billie Piper. In a way, the Piper cameo rather stole the thunder of Catherine Tate's return as a regular companion, and could perhaps have been done later in the series? Maybe not, after all, we don't know what is yet to come and when. Overall, Partners in Crime is a decent season opener that is clearly setting up the themes and stories for later in the season. We establish the regular crew, have a cameo from Billie Piper, and a new alien race. The story itself would perhaps have been better suited to a Sarah Jane Adventure, but it certainly has its own merits. Rating:  |