Who Review: Tooth and Claw


The second episode of Doctor Who was a much more satisfying adventure than last week’s “New Earth”. It had all the great Who elements: a scary monster which isn’t just a monster but an alien force; an instantly-recognisable historical figure (Queen Victoria played with great panache by Pauline Collins); lots of running; lots of screaming; and, of course, warrior monks! The story was also well-paced, not rushed or overstuffed like the first episode. Everything blended together (even the CGI werewolf was good) to produce what could be one of the best episodes so far - including series one.
Tennant and Piper sparked off each other well, and I loved how we saw their mischievous humour regarding time-travel was turned on its head at the end when Queen Victoria gave them a right royal telling-off - no, she was definitely NOT amused.
One thing that left me wondering was the resurgence of the “Bad Wolf” enigma. I’m sorry, I thought that was all answered at the end of the first series? Wasn’t Bad Wolf simply a message scattered through time by the Time Vortex, or whatever it was, to enable Rose to save the Doctor? Or did I completely misconstrue that? Probably. Anyway, there are enough seeds of mystery being sown in this series already, what with The Face of Boe’s promise to impart some great “Truth” when he and the Doctor meet again, and Billie Piper’s even more enigmatic declaration that we will have to wait and see what happens to her character in the final episode to truly know if Rose is going to continue as the Doctor’s assistant.
I canna wait…

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