Dr. Who Series 4 - The unicorn and the wasp
Added 2022-08-13 14:00:05 +0000 UTCThat was an unexpected episode :) I haven´t thought about Agatha Christie for so many years :)
Comments
Wow those books must be so precious to you. :) And with all the interesting stories that she wrote, I belive they had the opportunity to write a really good story with her involved. Like a travel story through different stories that she wrote. I would have loved to see that. The disappearance has been solved and the doctor is not involved? That can´t be true :D :D I didn´t know that Agatha was surfing. That´s so interesting. She was truely a fascinating woman. :)
Nicologik
2022-08-15 12:39:36 +0000 UTCThat´s true. It was funny :) The writer seems to read a lot of books in his free time :) Yes the doctors flashbacks were really entertaining :) Haha that was the best scene, the one in the kitchen, trying to save tzhe doctor. I couldn´t enjoy it full though, because I was too afraid he´s really gonna die :D :D Talking about that car scene I do remember another chase scene in an older movie called "Night of the living dead". That one was so funny, because the car was super slow in order to film the scene, and in the end she crashes into the only tree that´s standing there on the left side of the street. With what seems like 5 km/h max :D :D I love how the whole family is involved in the Dr. Who universe :D
Nicologik
2022-08-15 12:28:28 +0000 UTCYou asked for a fun episode and I think they gave us a nice one. I agree with Stephen that the Agatha Christie themed story was more interesting that the Vespiform plot. One was lots of fun, the other wazzzzzzn't azzzzzzz engaging. But it's nice that they justified that reason we have a murder mystery was because of Lady Eddison was reading an Agatha Christie book. The callback to the Charles Dickens episode was great. This story is by the same writer who wrote the Shakespeare story so I wonder if they chose to make a Dickens reference rather than a Shakespeare one - to avoid referring to his own story. I thought the Doctor's flashback to some unseen adventure - presented in the same style as the suspect's reminiscences was really nice. And the Doctor miming the antidote ingredients after he was poisoned with Donna constantly guessing the wrong things was wonderfully fun. Slow car chase - well spotted. In the Confidential they made a point of how hard it was to film a car chase with the period cars moving so slowly. In terms of actors we have the wonderful Felicity Kendal (Lady Eddison) who had been in many British TV shows - the show she is best known for is "The Good Life" sitcom from the 1970s. We also have Christopher Benjamin (Colonel Hugh - with the wheelchair) who has now appeared in both in Classic Who and New Who stories. BTW Georgia Moffett was auditioned for role of "The Unicorn" woman - but ended up played a part in another story instead :). And also, to keep it in the family, David Tennant's father plays one of the footmen in the background because he was visiting the set.
Andrew Vignaux
2022-08-14 23:38:12 +0000 UTCAs a huge Christie fan (I've spent more money collecting rare editions of her books than I dare to think about!) I was expecting much more from this episode. There's a genuinely fascinating story to tell about the events in her life in the 1920's (and Dr Who can do those sorts of things really well); but this is a 'comedy Filler' episode - no more nor less (and the comedy becomes too irksome for me after a while). An excellent cast,though! BTW, it seems that, since this story was filmed, the Christie disappearance appears to have been solved. A letter from Agatha was found in the possession of a late descendant of Christie's sister; which was written immediately before she disappeared. In it, she confided to her sister all the information regarding he relationship with her then husband; together with her intention to hide herself for some time in Harrogate, in order to make him worry. Presumably neither she nor her sister had any idea that the Police would be called in; or that the whole thing would publicly blow up to such a huge nd embarrassing extent! (For more information: "The Eleven Missing Days" by Jared Cade.) Another piece of trivia: Agatha Christie was one of the first British women to take up surfing as a passionate hobby. So much so that,in her twenties, she actually surfed the big waves at Honolulu in Hawaii! It's thought that she was the first ever British woman to surf standing up (up until the 1920's, women had always surfed lying prone on their boards)
Ian Smith
2022-08-14 13:54:22 +0000 UTCI´m right there with you, on the rating of that episode. Funny little episode, but nothing special. And I also enjoyed the Agatha Christie part :) I think Orient express was another title that I picked up on. :)
Nicologik
2022-08-14 11:48:07 +0000 UTCIt's a fun but silly episode and not as jaw dropping or disturbing as some of the other stories. I enjoyed the pastiche of the Agatha Christie stories and films more than the alien monster part to be honest. The wasp was very well done even though the idea was pretty daft. But Doctor Who does specialise in taking things from everyday life and making them scarier. Murder In The Library, They Do It With Mirrors, Sparkling Cyanide, Murder At The Vicarage and loads of other Agatha Christie titles were dropped into the dialogue. Even watching it again I'm sure I missed quite a few.
Stephen Males
2022-08-13 15:55:34 +0000 UTC
