Sarah -
What a relief! After "New Earth", I was worried that my recollections of all of the series two stories would be wrong. I enjoyed "Tooth and Claw" just as much as I remembered.
Harry -
Hopefully we can write off "New Earth" as an isolated clunker. One thing I appreciate about our marathon re-viewing of every Doctor Who story ever is that we are now over a decade removed from the beginning of the David Tennant era. Back then, I'm sure we loved every story because there was nothing else to compare them to. We really, really wanted to love them and make sure everyone else in the world loved them so the show could go on. Today we have over a decade's worth of New Who canon that enables us to give these stories a more comparative review.
All that to say, I still really like "Tooth and Claw"!
How could I not? It's got the Doctor and Rose having fun, it's got Scottish Officers and Gentlemen, it's got a terrifying monster, and it's got one of my own personal squees, a Victorian setting and Queen Victoria herself. PERMISSION TO SQUEEEEE?!?!
Sarah -
Squee away! My happy thing was the fact that Victoria is played by the lovely Pauline Collins, "the companion who almost was" when she portrayed Samantha in "The Faceless Ones". Unfortunately for us, she turned down the offer of becoming a companion upon the departures of Polly and Ben. Outside of Doctor Who, Collins will always have a place in my heart for her portrayal of Sarah on Upstairs, Downstairs. She makes a smashing Victoria.
Harry -
She's also one of the first people to have appeared in both classic and new Who. She was beaten to that honour by only Nisha Nayar, who played the female programmer on Satellite 5 in "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways". Previous to that, Nayar was a Red Kang. Red Kangs are best!
Sarah -
Red Kangs are always the best! I love Victoria’s first meeting with the Doctor and Rose, especially when he introduces himself as Doctor James McCrimmon. My heart melts!
Harry -
Tennant got to use his natural accent for a couple of scenes.
Sarah -
I’m still sad that he was made to use an English accent for the series.
Harry -
Very glad the same decision was not made by (or for) Peter Capaldi.
Sarah -
The horror! I don't even want to contemplate that. I like that the story makes use of the false accent, giving us the moment when his accent slips back to English, which the Queen catches immediately. She never fully trusts the Doctor after that.
Harry -
The Doctor botched the TARDIS landing by a hundred years, but it was worth it to meet the Queen! They could always try for that Ian Dury concert some other time. I wonder if RTD had a personal connection to that particular concert in 1979. He would have been 16 years old at the time. Look at me being all Toby in this review!
Sarah -
Watch out, Toby!
Speaking of Dury, my daughter and I just heard "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" on the radio the other day. She was enchanted and wanted to know more about him. This story was perfect timing.
Harry -
The Queen is travelling via coach to Balmoral because the railway was blocked by a fallen tree. Her party is en route to the manor house of Sir Robert MacLeish to stay for the night. The Queen finds Rose and the Doctor a curious pair, and invites them along.
Now, in the cold opener of "Tooth and Claw", we saw strange happenings going on at the MacLeish estate. The place has been invaded by a group of monks who used martial arts to subdue the staff and lock them away with a wheeled cage. Inside the cage sits a strange figure who terrifies everyone.
Sarah -
What’s your take on the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" monks? I find it a bit silly and I’m not sure we’re ever given an explanation for their kung fu skills. We don’t even see much of them after the cold open.
Harry -
The kung fu monks -- who turned from God to worship the wolf -- felt very out of place in a setting like Scotland. The purpose of their martial arts proficiency seemed to be to give director Euros Lyn the opportunity to film a stylish action scene.
Sarah -
I guess there is that.
Harry -
Sir Robert attempts to dissuade the royal party from entering his home, but the Queen does not hesitate and leads the TARDIS team inside. I was initially amused by their "we are not amused" wager, but I thought RTD overplayed the gag, as he did with Harriet Jones in "The Christmas Invasion".
Sarah -
That got really old really fast. I often find the Doctor and Rose irritating, but in Tooth and Claw they're not as annoying as they can be. Fortunately, the story gives both of them the opportunity to rise above their childish behavior.
Harry -
The wager could have been wrapped up during the scene when they were looking at the large telescope built by Sir Robert's father, but no.
Sarah -
While the Doctor dines with Sir Robert and The Queen, Rose is abducted and chained up with Lady Isobel, Sir Robert’s wife, and the household staff in the cellar, facing down a monk in the wheeled cage. Rose is the only one brave enough to address the monk, asking why they should be afraid when he’s the one in a cage. The monk reveals that he is possessed by an alien presence and plans to infect Victoria, creating the Empire of the Wolf...and then he begins to transform into a wolf. Always quick on her feet, Rose comes up with a plan to get everyone out of the cellar.
Harry -
Rose rallies everyone to pull down the chain that everyone is shackled to, just as the Doctor arrives. As everyone flees, he pauses to admire the beauty of the creature before legging it himself.
Sarah -
I laughed at Rose’s “Where have you been?” when the Doctor finally showed up. It sounded so much like a Jackie line.
Harry -
This story has always stood out for me because of the monster. The werewolf is unlike so many of the slow-shambling, easily-outwitted monsters of the Whoniverse. This beast is purely savage and cannot be reasoned with. At no moment in the story does it show any mercy to its victims, or show any sign of reasoning. Neither the Doctor nor anybody else can talk sense to it. It wants to kill, simple as that, and that is truly terrifying.
Sarah -
It wants the queen and nothing else matters. The scenes of the wolf rampaging through the house are genuinely scary.
Harry -
Faithful to the wolf, the monks attempt to seize the queen. Having been the target of multiple assassination attempts over the course of her reign, she is prepared to defend herself. Cornered by the monks' leader, she calmly draws a pistol from her purse and shoots him. Good on ya, yer majesty!
Sarah -
No messing with this queen, Wolfie.
Harry -
Pauline Collins delivered a very steely portrayal of the monarch. Not once does she flinch or show distress as a chase around the manor ensues.
The wolf terrorizes everyone, picking off residents of the house and trapping the Queen in the library with the Doctor, Rose and Sir Robert. What a fortuitous place to get cornered. "You want weapons," the Doctor asks, "We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have."
Sarah -
The Doctor has never spoken a truer truth.
Harry -
Having discovered that the library was lined with oil of mistletoe, a natural repellant to wolves, the Doctor suspects that Sir Robert's father knew about the threat and prepared the house for this eventual assault. His mind begins to whir.
Sarah -
The Doctor licking the mistletoe-oiled walls was brilliant. Tennant is at his best when he’s in his all-out Doctor mode.
Harry -
Unlike his "throw everything together to produce a miracle cure" solution in "New Earth", here he does some genuine deduction to formulate a plan.
Sarah -
He even gets in a pointed dig at Sir Robert, “Your father got all the brains, didn’t he?” Poor doomed Sir Robert.
They escape from the room, only to encounter the wolf again. Fortunately, Lady Isobel is there to save the day. Having noticed that the monks are wearing mistletoe wreaths, she and her maid boil mistletoe in water, which they throw at the beast. She and Sir Robert have a touching moment before she and the maids head back to the kitchen and the rest of the crew head to the observatory. This will be the last time Lady Isobel and Sir Robert are together, as he sacrifices himself to buy time for the Queen to escape.
Earlier in the story, the Doctor had wondered about the telescope that wasn’t a proper telescope. This is where things get a little shaky, as it turns out Sir Robert’s father and Prince Albert designed the telescope as a trap for the wolf -- and the missing piece is the huge diamond the Queen is carrying in her bag. (Finally, we know what the queens are carrying in their purses!)
Harry -
Diamonds and pistols!
Sarah -
They're a queen's best friends! The diamond is fitted and the wolf, which has been terrorizing the area for 300 years is vanquished. It returns to human form and the poor boy who had been possessed asked to be released. The infection of the wolf has been eliminated without passing itself onto the Queen...or has it? The Doctor notices blood on Victoria’s wrist and is concerned she may have been bitten. She brushes it off as having been caused by a splinter from the door.
The next morning they are dubbed Sir Doctor of TARDIS and Dame Rose of the Powell Estate -- and then promptly banished from the Empire. Really, its surprising it hasn’t happened before now. Having gotten Victoria to say, “I am not amused,” the Doctor and Rose saunter back to the TARDIS, speculating on the royal family’s status as werewolves.
Harry -
Entirely plausible in the Whoniverse.
Sarah -
It really would explain a lot. Meanwhile, Victoria has her own plans. When Lady Isobel says she will no longer live at the Torchwood Estate, the Queen declares that she will charter the Torchwood Institute, which will research and fight enemies of the Empire, including the Doctor. Should he return, Torchwood will be waiting.
Harry -
I'm surprised there haven't been any series of written or audio stories about Torchwood in the Victorian era. I would buy!
Sarah -
Coming from Big Finish in 2019, no doubt. And we will continue to give them all our money.
Harry -
Well, overall this was a merrie historical romp and a true chiller. Pauline Collins was the star, and she will even return for a quiet cameo as the Queen in the Capaldi era.
Sarah -
And we will all cheer!
Harry -
The wolf was the best new monsters in a long while, probably helped by the fact that it remained a one off and hasn't been hauled back for increasingly-weaker return engagements.
Sarah, I literally want to stop typing right now so we can get to the next story!
Sarah -
I have been waiting for this moment since we started this project. Let's go see a dear old friend!
Best Line: The Doctor to Sir Robert on the presence of the monks in his house: “They were bald, athletic, your wife was away. I thought you were happy.”
Favorite Moment: The Doctor extolling the virtues of the library.
Lasting Image: The rampaging wolf.
7/10
Harry -
Best Line: the Doctor's ode to books.
Favourite Moment: the Queen calmly shoots her would-be captor.
Lasting Image: Pauline Collins as Queen Victoria of course!
8/10
Our marathon continues with Story #170: School Reunion...
