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It’s hard to find the right niche for Doctor Who, on one hand it has to appeal to younger viewers for its Saturday night run and also merchandise etc.. On the other the older Who fans need something to get their teeth into. Unlike the last episode, which fell a little flat in either area, this one manages to accommodate both, but ignores any sort of adult themes. Historical episodes of Who have never been particularly romp-y to be honest, but this one dovetail's nicely into the comedic content of this instalment. Indeed Tennant and Tate’s performance is probably one of the best of the series – each sending one another up nicely “Plucky young girl’ being one such moment, and the Doctors anti-Cyanide treatment – “I need a shock” queue Donna kissing him…. This episode plays dangerously close to send-up to be honest, almost like a game of cluedo – and for the most part it works. The antagonist however is really weak, a giant wasp? It really didn’t seem to have any relevance to the plot – in fact making the creature a little more bi-pedal may have worked better in the flashback to explain the motives of the wasp/villain. Fenalla Woolgar is perfect as Agatha Christie, in fact her face seem to have been ripped out of the 1920’s, her clear dissatisfaction with her life and some of the Doctors excitement, come over really well and you feel for her by the end. The only problem with this week’s episode is the plot again – rather far fetched (OK, its Doctor Who – I know) and the convoluted plot seemed to be ridiculous again – also why even bother mentioning the Unicorn in the title? Apart from making a catchy title name the character served no purpose other than that. It was almost like some sort of plot device to throw us off track – however the character barely even made a dent in the story and therefore seemed a waster of time? If they’d cleverly woven it into the story and then actually pulled the rug from under us, this would have made for a far more interesting plot. As it stands the episode, is a ‘fun romp’ unlikely to be remembered as a classic but still on form with a good all round series that is Series 4! |
