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The Unicorn and the Wasp Format Reviewed: TV Review Doctor Who often visits the lives of famous historical figures, and picks out important or mysterious times in their lives to 'add a bit of Who'. Here we visit celebrated author Agatha Christie, who most people in the Western world will be familiar with either through her books, or film and television adaptations. This story centers upon an as yet unexplained period of ten days in which the author disappeared mysteriously, and was hunted nationally led by a press campaign. The Doctor and Donna gatecrash a 1920's garden party, where Agatha Christie appears. The Doctor then realises the date is the one on which Christie disappeared for ten days. Professor Peach is then discovered dead in the library, and other murders occur with The Doctor and Agatha Christie investigating as one of Christie's characters would. Miss Chandrakala is killed by a falling statue, an atempt is made to kill The Doctor by poisoning, but fails, and Roger Curbishley is killed by a knife in the back. In the mean time, Donna has discovered a giant wasp flying about, and shows The Doctor and Agatha Christie. Eventually, The Doctor and Agatha Christie gather all the surviving people together and go through a deduction type scene, where secrets of everyone are revealed, and one of them is that Lady Eddison had a son, conceived in India, by a Vespiform, an alien giant wasp in Human form, and that son has been doing the killings. It is revealed to be the Reverend Golightly, who is killed when the jewel that held his race personality is thrown into a lake by Donna and the Vespiform follows it and drowns. Agatha Christie then suffers amnesia, and is dropped off in Harrogate ten days later by The Doctor and Donna. This story was clearly designed to be a classic whodunnit with all the cliches thrown in, but with a sci-fi twist. In stories such as this, I feel the production team should actually consider making these stories entirely Human based, and not including any alien menace. This could still have been played out admirably without a giant alien wasp, and the disappearance of Agatha Christie could easily have been worked into a terrestial plot, so in many ways it is a shame that the production team felt the need to include the alien threat in it. All of the new series stories have included an alien threat of some kind, whether the story is based on Earth or not, so it would make a nice change to actually have a story without the aliens. Catherine Tate as Donna doesn't give her best performance here, but this is largely due to her having little to do. It is also very obvious she does not run well, especially in heels, and some of the running scenes did not come off at all. David Tennant as The Doctor is starting to become slightly tiresome with the slapstick scenes, such as here when he is overcoming the poison put in his drink. This scene we have seen many times, and it does wear a little. In the guest cast, Felicity Kendal is a joy as Lady Eddison, but the show is stolen by Fenella Woolgar as Agatha Christie. She is excellent in the role, and really does such an important historical figure justice. Of the rest, Tom Goodman-Hill as the Reverend Golightly and Christopher Benjamin as Colonel Hugh add to the story well, Felicity Jones is okay as Robina Redmond, as is Adam Reyner as Roger Curbishley. My overriding impression of this story was that it didn't quite live up to the mark. The story seemed to try too hard to be a classic Christie detective tale, but should just have let it happen naturally rather than forcing it along. Amongst other things, everyone has a secret, why? There is also very little actual explanation of how and why the events have come to pass as they did, and this leaves the story seeming to be a very superficial dalliance into murder mystery for the production team. Sure, the show passes relatively pleasantly, but with only thirteen episodes in a series, and several always devoted to a linking plot, the others need to be very strong efforts in their own rights. Unfortunately, this one isn't strong enough. Overall, The Unicorn and the Wasp is a relatively fun story, that passes quite pleasantly. It misses the mark though on the whodunnit genre, and this makes the show seem rushed and superficial. Also, quite why an alien menace needed to be present is beyond me, and it seemed slightly badly explained and out of place. Pleasant enough viewing, but far from a classic. Rating:  |