Tooth and Claw

Much better. Much much better.

Well, that said, episode one was good. The ingredients of a sound story were all there but for me personally just let down a bit by being told too fast and time wasted on the silly camp bits- too much bodyswapping made basically unconvincing by being too fast and silly. This one contained no such letdowns.

We knew from the trailers that the werewolf at least was going to look good.So, as I sat desperately hoping that the football wouldn't overrun too much, I was looking forward to this. Euros Lyn showed his mettle on THE UNQUIET DEAD, the first classic episode of series one. In my view he did even better here. Given another great gothic script, we got another great gothic delivery.....

Starting at the start- fast and furious opening that set things up nicely. Enter the Doctor- some may moan about use of psychic paper to ingratiate him at every turn but it's a decent device for a story that has 45 minutes and it doesn't avoid all trouble. And it is a nice change from all those -doctor-arrives-and promptly-gets-suspected-of-whatever's-just-happened openings that became so predictable in the old series.

The period tone was nicely set with dismay at Rose's attire-shades of Tom Baker's attire. Rose, as a born again history groupie, was clearly desperate to hear her Majesty say "we are not amused" though the joke did wear thin after a while. I hope also she isn't going to get captured every week. Though the way she led the others was effective.....

Cue the build up of the mystery and then the revelation of the wolf. Bog standard horror stuff really, but superbly executed. The Doctor's admiration of the wolf's beauty was classic. And, unlike last year's dismal slitheen chases, as the creature hunted the tension never let up. The stoicism of the various characters was good, and the queen gets to shoot a monk!

And so eventually we get to the end. The handy device was there to resolve things, but unlike some previous ones in ROSE or END OF THE WORLD it was effective because in context with the overall mystery, having been set up in the past by Albert.

I would have liked a little more about the past reasearch, the coming of the alien to the monks, their subsequent relationship over the years, and where the heck all those other monks guarding the house vanished to! They were wearing misletoe, so it can't have killed them all! Where did they go? But enough was given by inference for it all to make sense so it didn't end up like one of those McCoy stories where you had to know what was cut in order to understand the plot.

All in all another of DR WHO's classic horror pastiches. Nice to have a TV werewolf tale after getting them in spin off media. LOUPS GAROUX is in my view one of big finishes' best so nice to see werewolves in the show itself. TOOTH AND CLAW was a prime example of the updated format working well. IN 1985 ROBIN OF SHERWOOD delivered episodes like this that were cracking wilst season 22 presented worthy stories that often dragged due to ill-structured 45 minute episodes. Here the 45 minutes slot works, though I still like the longer stories when they appear.

And so, though not a massive K9 fan, SCHOOL REUNION looks good. Onwards.....