Holistic Review: It's a lot like Black Orchid, but with extra wasp action.
Ever since I learned the details of this episode, my instinct has been that Gareth Roberts + Agatha Christie = unquestionable success. And, indeed, The Unicorn and the Wasp is hugely entertaining from start to finish. What's funny is that, back when The Shakespeare Code aired, I was a little disappointed to find that it wasn't a rip-roaring comedy in true Roberts fashion. And this time around, when The Unicorn and the Wasp was billed as an out-and-out comedy, I was actually a little disappointed! I think it's because an Agatha Christie murder mystery has such enormous potential to be a spooky thriller, and turning it into a comedy might totally defuse that tension. However, in the end, while The Unicorn and the Wasp is indeed funny, it's not hilarity to the point of sacrificing the story. In fact, I didn't think it was dramatically funnier than many other Who stories from the revival (City of Death, too, is certainly in the same league), despite the use of several metatextual winks to the audience that I don't think we've seen before (or at least, not much of) in Doctor Who. Overall, it came across as a clever, funny little slice of 1920s whimsy with some spooky murder-mystery atmosphere ladled on top.
The only area where I think the story falls down somewhat is in the inclusion of the wasp. Now, I'm no expert on Agatha Christie — I've only read maybe three of her books, although I've watched a lot of the Poirot TV adaptations (ah, good old David Suchet) — so maybe there's a very good reason why the monster in this story is a murderous giant shapeshifting sentient wasp. For me, it jarred tonally, and the technobabble explanation for why everything was happening left me a little unsatisfied. The main questions that came to me were: What role does the Firestone play in the mental awakening of a vespiform? And why does it also pass along whatever information happens to be in the mind of the person who happens to be holding it at the time? (Unless it only happens in this case because the person holding it is the vespiform's mother?) Why does it transfer the entire works of Agatha Christie into his brain, when Lady Eddison had only been reading one of them, and was only thinking about broad plot details of the others? Anyway, even if we accept all that as fact, why on earth does the downloaded information link the vespiform to the author's thought processes? If Lady Eddison had been reading an engineering textbook, would the vespiform have been linked to its author's mind too? That seems like a big stretch to me. So I found that the dénoument required a fair amount of disbelief-suspension.
However: that's basically the only criticism that I have of this story. This story's nearest analogue is most definitely Black Orchid, which was also a whimsical 1920s murder-mystery set in an aristocratic country house during a party. But where Black Orchid was monsterless and focused more on the party atmosphere, The Unicorn and the Wasp gives us a sci-fi angle and stirs Agatha Christie into the mix, so instead of the implied whodunit of Black Orchid, here we have the Doctor and Christie interrogating the partygoers, trying to establish alibis, and investigating for clues. I love the fact that, despite having sung Agatha Christie's praises in Last of the Time Lords, the TARDIS landing in her vicinity was purely accidental and not something the Doctor had planned, which leads to a nice surprise for him as well as the audience. (One could also use this as evidence to argue that the TARDIS often seems to take him to places he likes during its apparently-random voyages, so it seems to be listening to him and filing things away for future reference!) Her inclusion in the storyline is a brilliant move; while Dickens and Shakespeare are both wonderful authors to have featured (and isn't it interesting that three of the five celebrity historicals thus far have been authors?), Christie is the first genre author to be the subject of a celebrity historical, and because she's not a science-fiction author (which might have blended a little too seamlessly, cf. H G Wells in Timelash), her murder-mystery background provides a very appropriate storytelling style for this episode. I mean, Dickens did some ghosts, and Shakespeare did some witches, but Christie is synonymous with murder mysteries. And — cf. The Robots of Death, Black Orchid and Terror of the Vervoids — it just happens to be one of my favorite-ever sub-genres of Doctor Who. (In fact, the works of Agatha Christie herself are nearly always referenced in conjunction with those particular stories.)
I can't imagine a more perfect actress to play Christie than Fenella Woolgar, who is nothing less than superb. She effortlessly portrays Agatha Christie as inquisitive, observant, demure and full of self-doubt. It's lovely that they touch on topics like the emotional pain of her husband's affair, and her belief that as a writer, she's nothing more than "a purveyor of nonsense". Even though she writes brilliant detective fiction, she doesn't think she's talented enough to solve an actual crime. But she's clearly a formidable woman, and I must say that her cleverness with deductions is worked into the plot much better than Shakespeare's talent with words was. The moment when she points out that the Doctor and Donna aren't wearing wedding rings is great, as is her discovery of the Unicorn's toolkit, and her methodical way of investigating for clues and unravelling the truth about the suspects. It's cool to watch the moment when we see her respect for the Doctor increase tenfold, at which point the three of them become... well, a pretty effective Scooby Gang. What's especially great is that they didn't just feature Christie in the episode, they built it around her unexplained disappearance, which I had been hoping would be part of the plot (I brushed up on her bio in Wikipedia at some point after this story was announced, and it seemed like a ripe area for exploration). Christie's response to "Is Mr Christie not joining us?" is a fantastically pointed, and independent-minded, "Is he needed?". I love Woolgar's delivery of "We must look for a motive. Use... ze little gray cells.", her little jump when the Doctor yells "MAIDEN!", "I think I understood some of those words.", "If my imagination made you kill, then my imagination will find a way to stop you!", and possibly my favorite: "Bitter almonds. It's cyanide! Sparkling cyanide!" (I really must read that book now.) Woolgar even seems to be a bit of a ventriloquist: watch her lips not move on the "indeed" part of "Indeed not."
My other favorite element of this story is how very well Donna is used. Her delight at going to a 1920s party is terribly relatable — I love her smile as they turn to go back to the TARDIS. It's so great that they're continuing to have fun with Donna's look; here she gets dressed to the nines in a black-and-gold 1920s frock, with a little purse and her hair done up beautifully, presumably not by the Doctor. (Although it's a pity we are again denied a shot of the wardrobe room, and why the Doctor stands outside the TARDIS to wait — as if she's changing in the console room! — is beyond me.) I also love the fuschia blouse she starts out in, but it's super-cool that she's getting into the whole period-clothing thing. Once the action gets going, she remains as quick-thinking and practical as ever, wondering why they can't just phone the police, going off to investigate the bedrooms, keeping her cool when the butler surprises her, attacking the bee with magnified sunlight, thinking to ask about the necklace's history in the aftermath of Roger's stabbing, realizing that she knows how to kill the vespiform, and taking action to throw the Firestone into the lake. And I like that while Donna comes up with the walnuts to help cure the Doctor, it's Agatha who finds the anchovies... nice division of success between them. The annoyed way she snatches the magnifying glass out of the Doctor's hand is quite amusing. And she shows her heart yet again, first as she offers to find and release the bee that she thinks is trapped in the bedroom, rather than just swatting at it, and again during her nice heart-to-heart with Agatha, consoling her over her husband's affair and building up her self-confidence in her ability to solve crimes and write excellent fiction. As usual, Donna gets a lot of the funniest lines, including her continual jumping to conclusions that they have identified the murderer. Among her other great lines (and there are a very large number of them): "The murderer's an alien?", "Oh, blimey, I've done it again.", "I was lucky, I found the Doctor.", and "So she killed him!"
It's a great story for David Tennant, too, who gets to play Poirot but with aliens and much less Belgian accent. How funny is it that the Doctor briefly gets all excited thinking that there's a real unicorn on the loose at the party? I love that he actually references what he said to Martha about Agatha ("Agatha Christie! I was just talking about you the other day, I said, 'I bet she's brilliant!'"). His intake of breath after being scolded by Agatha is inexplicably hilarious, and I love his delivery of "Really?" as he tries to get Redmond to admit her true identity. It's a delight watching the Doctor and Agatha Christie play off one another, teaming up to solve the case and unmask the murderer. Roberts has even managed to write a story in which the Doctor doesn't pull out the sonic screwdriver once! Appropriately for a murder-mystery, he instead relies on his knowledge and intuition to solve the crimes.
I basically adore the entire cast of this story. Outside of the regulars and Christie, the next most prominent character is Lady Eddison, played by Felicity Kendal, who for some reason reminds me a lot of Zoe Wanamaker. It's nice that she's obviously an innocent in the murderous proceedings, yet she's hiding some deep secrets of her own (as aristocracy in these sorts of stories ought to be). The tale of her doomed love with an alien visitor is quite sweet — I love the fact that she cared for him so deeply, and trusted him so much, that she loved him despite the fact that he was really an enormous alien wasp. The shot of her voiceovering "I was sitting in the blue room, taking my afternoon tea..." as she gulps from a flask is hilarious.
I've been looking forward to seeing Reverend Golightly ever since his appearance in the series 4 trailer ("This has certainly been a most entertaining evening!"), and he doesn't disappoint; Tom Goodman-Hill is a very likeable actor, but he portrays Golightly's angry vespiform side very convincingly, particularly the moments when he's struggling not to transform. I like the concept that he appeared totally human and was unaware of his vespiform nature until an uncharacteristic burst of anger unlocked his genetic code (even though I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of sense!). It's a shame that he turned out to be an unredeemed (if not unredeemable) villain... I was hoping for a happy reunion between himself and Lady Eddison after the Doctor repaired his mental template.
Among the more minor characters, it's a delight to welcome Christopher Benjamin back to Doctor Who as Colonel Hugh, a few decades later than his previous Doctor Who appearance in both real-time and in the chronology of the two stories. He's quite fun as the Colonel, particularly the scene in which he claims to be reading military history and reminiscing about Mafeking, but is actually "reading" a pin-up girl and reminiscing about a can-can troupe. The revelation that he can walk is sweet (he wanted to keep his wife by his side), funny (since Agatha never actually had a bit of evidence against him), and hilariously clichéd yet totally irrelevant to the plot. Great way to poke fun at genre conventions! Adam Rayner is enjoyable as the rather-posh Roger Curbishley, with his deep dark secret that his father has apparently guessed. I enjoyed all of the sly references to Roger and Davenport's secret relationship; it's played very subtly at the start, but there's no way to mistake the innuendo going on between those two, and I wasn't surprised that Donna picked up on it so quickly! Very funny moment when Daniel King's Davenport pokes his head out of Roger's room. I felt quite sorry for Davenport when he discovered that Roger had been knifed at the dinner table, and sadly called Roger's name. Awww. As Robina Redmond, alias the Unicorn, Felicity Jones was a lot of fun. She's the very model of a 1920s socialite, but the moment when she finally drops the façade is great. Jones does a great job going between high-society maiden and crass working-class jewel thief. Love her delivery of "That's your problem, not mine.", "Ever so nice to meet you, I don't think.", and her habit of saying "super fun!". Leena Dhingra, as loyal maid and housekeeper Miss Chandrakala, is also great, particulary when she runs out of the house screaming "Murder! Murder!". And then we have the hilariously-named Professor Peach, played by Ian Barritt, who exists mainly to fit in a superb Clue(do) joke. ("I mean, Professor Peach in the library with the lead piping?") Too awesome. The wide variety of characters involved, each representing a different aspect of 1920s society (or at least, current nostalgic perception of it), really helps to build the atmosphere.
My beloved Gareth Roberts returns to his writing post, filling the Mark-Gatiss-shaped void in my heart yet again, and it should be said that if he ever goes on hiatus for a season, there will be a Gareth-Roberts-shaped hole there, too. I expected greatness from him, and I don't think I got anything less. He's written a script that's clever and literary, lighthearted but with scary moments, full of tiny clues laid out for us that turn out to be of vital importance (in appropriate Christie style), and he mimicks all the best features of Agatha Christie mysteries while still giving us a very Doctor Who style tale. The setup of a bunch of people arriving separately at a country home just in time for one of them to be murdered is absolutely fantastic. The crowning touch is that partway through the story, we get a thunderstorm with lots of lightning, which, as one might expect, adds hugely to the atmosphere of a murder-mystery story, as faces are periodically illuminated with flashes of bright light while thunder rumbles in the distance. Perfect. And he's clearly done his homework on Agatha Christie, with lots of interesting details about her life and personality which, yet again, I think will make children want to rush out and pick up her books. The Unicorn and the Wasp is, I suspect, particularly successful in this regard — after all, what kid (especially one who already loves Doctor Who) wouldn't love reading a good murder mystery? (The idea that Agatha will subconsciously remember these events and incorporate them into her later novels is a cool one, if a bit reminiscent of Dickens' desire to put aliens in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.) It's impressive that he's written dialogue in which the line reading isn't always immediately obvious, so a lot of its success depends on the actors' interpretation of the lines. Much of this dialogue, in particular, goes to Tennant and Tate, and they pull it all off beautifully, which I think is a testament to their skill and to Roberts' trust in their abilities. I'm sure they enjoyed having lines that gave them some leeway in how they wanted to perform them. I was also impressed with his handling of the characters — with the Doctor, Donna and Agatha Christie all investigating the mystery, he skilfully juggles the plot and the things-to-be-accomplished between all three of them, making sure that they all get time to shine and nobody gets shortchanged. One particularly good example of this is the final confrontation (the "the murderer is in this room!" scene), in which Agatha hands over narration to the Doctor at exactly the right moment — when she does it, I always think "oh yeah, he still hasn't said anything yet" and I then realize that if it had gone on much longer, it would've felt like "The Agatha Christie Show", so his timing is perfect. The huge number of lines that I find I have quoted below will also bear testament to Gareth's wonderful writing talent.
Graeme Harper does a nice job directing. I love love love the shots of the lightning washing out the Doctor's face, and later there's a great shot of Agatha looking haunted as the thunder and lighting punctuate the Doctor's line "If anyone can solve this... it's you." There's also great lighting in the dining-room scene as the wasp attacks. They picked a gorgeous home (or homes?) for the interior and exterior shots, which look beautiful and are visually very interesting.
Murray Gold surprises me by turning in a score that I'm almost totally happy with! The very best bits may not be entirely his, but I love the super 1920s music as the vintage car pulls into the driveway; as the Doctor goes to investigate the first murder, the music turns into the score from a Poirot adaptation; and for some reason, I really like the music when the Doctor discovers he's been poisoned.
In the area of effects, that CGI wasp is frankly amazing, particularly the moment when it scratches the paintwork with its sting, and the splash as it dives into the lake. Nice effect of it being magnified in Donna's magnifying glass, too. If all CGI monsters looked this good, I'd never complain about the technology. (Well, maybe almost never.) The close-up of its sting embedded in the door, done as a physical effect, also looks stunningly good. I'm not entirely sure that I love the spinning newspapers, which don't look all that real, although I suppose they are period-appropriate... and isn't it a bit odd that the first two newspapers have printed the same photograph of Christie, just differently cropped? And when Donna steps in front of the broken bedroom window, it looks an awful lot like a CGI background. The flashback fade-outs, though, are a really funny visual touch... so knowingly kitschy and self-aware, especially when the Colonel has a flashback-in-a-flashback and has to be snapped out of both of them, when Lady Eddison essentially dubs over the Doctor and Donna's lines in one of her own flashbacks, and the Doctor's totally unrelated flashback to Belgium (with Charlemagne, an insane computer?!, and apparently the same quiver he was using in Blink). Also, whoever designed the Firestone did a wonderful job — it's a gorgeous gemstone and the setting is beautiful.
This week I had the opportunity to watch Doctor Who with Gray and Katherine again, as I'm visiting them in Hong Kong for a while. I don't think that's actually going to be relevant to this review, because we were all relatively enthralled and silent throughout (well, except when we were explaining certain concepts to Katherine, although at the moment I can't recall what any of those were!), but it was nice that the timing was right for us to get to watch it together again. Just like old times!
Minor points:
Donna: "You can tell what year it is just by smelling?"
Doctor: "Oh yeah."
Donna: "Or, maybe that big vintage car coming up the drive gave it away."
Donna: "Never mind Planet Zog! A party in the 1920s, that's more like it!"
Donna: "Good afternoon, my lady. Topping day, what? Spiffing. Top ho!"
Doctor: "No no no, no no, no. Don't do that. Don't."
Lady Eddison: "He's just struck again. Snatched Lady Babbington's pearls right from under her nose!"
Donna: "Funny place to wear pearls."
Roger: (apropos of nothing) "My word, you are a super lady!"
Donna: (raising her glass to him) "Oh, I like the cut of your jib! Chin-chin!"
Doctor: "She just discovered her husband was having an affair."
Donna: "You'd never think, to look at her. Smiling away."
Doctor: "Well, she's British and moneyed. That's what they do. They carry on."
Doctor: "Chief Inspector Smith from Scotland Yard, known as the Doctor. Miss Noble is the plucky young girl who helps me out."
Donna: "Yeah, but think about it. There's a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie?"
Doctor: "So?" (sniffs morphic residue) "Happens to me all the time." (holds it out for Donna to sniff)
Donna: (sniffs obediently) No, but isn't that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn't walk around surrounded by murders, not really. I mean, that's like meeting Charles Dickens and he's surrounded by ghosts, at Christmas."
Agatha: "How like a man to have fun while there's disaster all around him."
Doctor: "Sorry, yep."
Agatha: "I'll work with you, gladly, but for the sake of justice, not your own amusement."
Doctor: "Alone?"
Roger: "Oh yes, all alone. Totally alone, absolutely alone. Completely. All of the time. I wandered lonely as the proverbial cloud. There was no-one else with me. Not at all. Not ever."
Donna: "How come it's locked?"
Greeves: "Lady Eddison commands it to be so."
Donna: "And I command it to be otherwise. Scotland Yard. Pip pip."
Donna: "Ooh, what a noise! All right, busy bee, I'll let you out. Hold on." (whips out magnifying glass) "I shall find you with my amazing powers of detection."
Donna: "There's a giant wasp!"
Doctor: "What do you mean, a giant wasp?"
Donna: "I mean a wasp, that's giant!"
Agatha: "It's only a silly little insect!"
Donna: "When I say giant, I don't mean big, I mean flippin' enormous!"
Donna: "Okay, this makes a change! There's a monster, and we're chasing it!"
Agatha: "I found my husband with another woman. A younger, prettier woman. Isn't it always the way?"
Donna: "Well, mine was with a giant spider, but, same difference."
Agatha: "Clever idea! Miss Marple... who writes those?"
Donna: "Um, copyright Donna Noble, add it to the list."
Doctor: "I need something salty!"
Donna: "What about this?"
Doctor: "What is it?"
Donna: "Salt!"
Doctor: "That's too salty!"
Doctor: "But it rather gave me an idea."
Rev Golightly: "And what would that be?"
Doctor: "Well, poison. Drink up!"
Donna: "That poor footman. Roger's dead, and he can't even mourn him. 1926, it's more like the Dark Ages."
Agatha: "Um... actually, I had no idea. I was just going to say you were completely innocent."
Colonel Hugh: "Oh. Hrm."
Agatha: "Sorry."
Doctor: "It was you, Donna Noble."
Donna: "What? Who did I kill?"
Doctor: "Time is in flux, Donna! For all we know, this is the night Agatha Christie loses her life, and history gets changed!"
Doctor: "Donna, that thing couldn't help itself."
Donna: "Neither could I!"
It's got a couple of little problems, but The Unicorn and the Wasp is such a fun ride that I have to highly recommend it, especially if you're a fan of murder mysteries in general, and Agatha Christie in particular. Another hit from the pen of Gareth Roberts!