Tooth and Claw

Let me begin by saying all the Russell T Davies detractors are missing the point. I am 41 years old I can vividly recall the Pertwee and Baker eras. I even remember Patrick Troughton episodes as a child. If I was a 10 year old now I would be wetting my pants in anticipation of Saturday. This is the Dr who I have been waiting all my life for the BBC to make. Having said that though the first two episodes of the "new season" have been a little disappointing.

My gripe with "Tooth and Claw" is it just didn't make sense. If you viewed the Tardisode for this story you would know a comet crashed on a Scottish moor 100 years ago although this is mentioned in the story it would have made a good pre credits sequence rather than the one we were presented with. Although monks doing martial arts in slow motion looks good in the context of this story it was somewhat silly. A little exposition would have been useful. Where did these monks come from?. Why were they in thrall to a werewolf?. This was just not explained. So the household staff are rounded up and placed in a room with a mysterious cage which it is revealed contains a man. In the middle of the day he would have just been a scrawny looking man in a cage not a werewolf so why did the staff scream? Man in a cage not scary, especially if locked up.

So the Doctor and Rose arrive in 1879. Loved the adoption of a Scottish accent. Would it really be so wrong if the doctor had a permanent Scottish accent?. He had a Manc accent and that was acceptable so why not Scottish?. Pauline Collins fantastic as Queen Victoria as well. Hope the doctor and Rose didn't have a long walk to the house. The Queen could have let him ride in the carriage rather then make him walk.

My second gripe with this episode concerns the Werewolf plot line. So the Werewolf is supposed to be alien rather then a traditional werewolf. Is Russell doing a Joss Whedon here and playing fast and loose with Werewolf mythology to suit his story. An explanation of this would have been useful. So are all werewolves alien or just this one?. The Doctor has encountered them before but he didn't explain where or why. It may have explained their aversion to mistletoe and the power of moonlight.

Loved the Werewolf transformation and the werewolf itself. In fact will go as far as to state that was the best werewolf I have ever seen. The designers got it right there. They obviously took notes from "Dog soldiers" and came up with a truly scary werewolf. The producers of "Buffy the vampire slayer" could take notes a guy in a monkey suit is not a scary werewolf. That one most definitely was. A huge man-like wolf fulfils the criteria.

The chase around the house ending with them holed up in one room with the big bad wolf outside was fantastic. If I had been my 10 year old self I would have been hiding behind the cliched sofa. It ticked all the boxes on that score.

So why did I feel a sense of disappointment at the end?. Mostly because I Felt this was a story that deserved a whole hour. 45 minutes was not enough for Russell to flesh out the story so left massive unexplained holes. The same thing could be said of episode 1 as well. Make Dr Who an hour and a half long and have done with STRICTLY COME DANCING FEVER. It deserves it. Can't wait for next week.