Tooth and Claw В… Or, The One In Which Russell T Davis Proves He CAN Write Decent Incidental Characters And DialogueВ… But Screws Up the Regulars Big-Time!

So, as ever, a real mixed bag from Russell T. Firstly, the honour of the Smiths compels me to say that this was a very good piece of television, nicely paced, and dripping with atmosphere В– Euros LynВ’s direction really came up trumps this week, which was a very welcome result, after В‘New EarthВ’, from which the thitherto excellent James Hawes strangely seemed all but absent.

For me the most surprising part of the whole thing was RTDВ’s depiction of the Victorian era (often seen as the ideal home for Dr Who). You might have been forgiven for expecting wickedly snappy anti-British Empire barbs to be dropping from the DoctorВ’s lips every other sentence, but if fact Russell excels himself with an excellent evocation of the enlightened, devout and pioneering spirit of the age, not only its greater focus on militarism. All the references, by various characters, to God, and RussellВ’s apparent knowledge of Queen Victoria, add tremendous character and colour to the script. I sincerely doubted beforehand that Prince Albert, one of our greatest В“kingsВ” (so to speak!) would even get a mention. Instead, he has a huge role in the story, and comes out of it very well indeed В– despite not even appearing!

Woe, woe, woe to the Doctor and Rose in this, however. RussellВ’s treatment of Rose I guess I can live with В– if he wants to make his very own, and admittedly exceptional, character look like a moron (which she does throughout, with the possible exception of the first scene with the caged wolf), thatВ’s his prerogative. The Doctor, however, takes a distinct turn for the worse in this episode.

Given that every Doctor, with the exceptions of Patrick Troughton and the hippy-ish Sylvester McCoy, has been rude, I donВ’t really know exactly why TennantВ’s lines in this grate so much. But from a completely gratuitous insult to Mrs Thatcher (two episodes after the Christmas Invasion В– I donВ’t know whether he seriously thinks she was a worse Premier than the Labour PMs preceding her, or come to that whether the Sycorax-busting Harriet Jones was worse than Tony Blair, I canВ’t presume to guess the mind of someone so strange, but it really seems as if Russell has issues. Maybe the 80s traumatised him.) В–from there to the observatoryВ’s В‘rubbishВ’ telescope and the DoctorВ’s venomously-delivered reproach to the heroic Lord Roberts, in В“Tooth and ClawВ” we see more than ever the unpleasant streak underwriting this incarnation. WhatВ’s more, it seems quite likely that the DoctorВ’s stinging reproach in the library contributed to Lord RobertsВ’ eventual decision to sacrifice himself and thus gain В‘redemptionВ’ in the eyes of the Queen and his beloved wife В– nice one, Doctor. Proud of yourself?

If Tennant had the same genius in the role В– the combination of otherworldliness, intense gravitas, magic and a core of tempered steel В– that Tom Baker had, then the Tenth Doctor would get away with it with aplomb equal to the Fourth. But heВ’s no Tom Baker, not yet В– he hasnВ’t settled in enough. I still insist that DT has the potential to become a great incarnation: but this vein of unpleasantness should be something the production team rein in for Series 3.

This episode must set new records for the number of people RTD lashes out at: the end of the episode, with Rose and the DoctorВ’s closing remarks on the monarchy. Apparently theyВ’re all werewolves: of course! That explains why they enjoy hunting, of all things! (she signed the goddamn Bill, didnВ’t she? What more do you want, youВ… [obscene rant nipped in the bud]) Royal blood really gets a slamming from Russell, doesnВ’t it? Not only does it render you helpless before blood control, but it also makes you indulge in those sinful blood sports (seemingly a terrible thing in RTDВ’s book В– after all, the Slitheen liked it too В– and they were certainly terrible!).

But I digress. Maybe IВ’m suffering from a sincere sense-of-humour deficiency, but I have never found RussellВ’s writing that funny, and the ridiculous offensiveness of this scene is breathtaking, particularly on the day after the QueenВ’s 80th birthday, and marks a new low in the series revival В– RussellВ’s aggressive, almost missionary promotion of puerility, which taints his episodes what is supposedly his favourite TV show, is fast becoming wearingВ…

В… oh, who am I kidding? ItВ’s been wearing since episode 1, March 26 2005!

I am well aware of how much worse it could have been, given the Victorian-era material: I just wish Russell wouldnВ’t keep using the Doctor as a vehicle for his stupid prejudices, thatВ’s all В– it really spoils my enjoyment. Nevertheless, this is an episode which I expect to see performing well in end-of-series polls.

One of the many criticisms levelled against new Doctor Who is its pacing. The 45 minute episodes being seen to force the expulsion of great swathes of development and backstory- paring the series down into little nuggets of edited В‘who-liteВ’. Pish and tosh, I say. Yes, this new series is a different beast- but this new, short form, Doctor Who is as capable of being as dynamic, affecting, smart and magnificent as any work of shorter fiction. More is not always better. And nowhere, to my mind, has this been demonstrated with greater effect than in В‘Tooth and ClawВ’.

If this had been an old four-parter, we would presumably have had a prologue detailing the monsterВ’s crash to Earth, the Evil Monks would have taken up at least half the first episode with veiled allusions to what was to come. Maybe they would have taken control of the house at the end of part one (trapping the servants in the basement, wheeling in the shrouded cage, crash-zoom on lead baldy В“This will be the Empire Of The Wolf!В” cue titles). Certainly the werewolf transformation would only have come at the end of part two and part three would have been a run-around chase scene ending with them trapped in the library.

More importantly, and disastrously, we would probably have had to endure unnecessary elaboration- all serving to diminish the impact of the story. RoseВ’s conversation with the Host would have involved layers of back-story in which we learned the name of its home planet, its race (maybe, if produced under JN-T, itВ’d be a Rutan- for no discernable reason) and probably a way to eventually kill it.

Good horror sees no need to abide by rules and needs no explanations- despite what the lazy nonsense of Kevin Williamson and the post-modern, post 'Scream' bandwagoners may have you believe. It positively revels in throwing up nonsensical ideas and then making you believe in their possibility. The best horror feeds off that wonderful paranoia we all feel- the abnormal brain-function that causes us to fear that, even though we know weВ’ve locked all the doors and windows- and our multi-million pound alarm system is switched on, that sounded like someone breaking in and scraping a knife along the paintwork!

Old Doctor Who would have had the million pound security, let the murderer in- but then revealed they teleported in from Venus and actually it was all an alien plot to steal your pyjamas and actually, the aliens arenВ’t that scary after all. Ho hum.

What new Doctor Who does- in this wonderful new short form- is bung all that out the window. Yes, we get a reference to the monster being an alien- but itВ’s over in a few seconds and the real meat of that particular thread is left to some ill-advised internet/phone downloadable doodah that only fans/nerds desperate for that kind of security blanket will see. For everyone else watching, the monster is a werewolf. A big, nasty, powerful, man-eating werewolf that rips people apart and does not, ever, despite earlier talk of a stellar empire, pull out a laser gun or wear a pair of silver trousers and a funny hat.

It is vital you consider that for a moment. ItВ’s important. It means, I think, that Doctor Who has grown up. Maybe this is as a result of cgi allowing things on the screen that previously could only be alluded to in the most basic of visual terms. Maybe Doctor Who no longer needs to convince us of a monsterВ’s veracity by swaddling it in post-war, space-race, terminology. Maybe, because we can now see it with our own eyes more or less as intended, we no longer need that extra spoonful of sugar. Maybe the aliens no longer need to be quite so cosily alien and instead can come from somewhere else- and after all, isnВ’t that what the supernatural is all about?

В‘Tooth and ClawВ’ was a fast-paced, dramatic episode that probably scared the nationВ’s children into therapy. Some bits still felt like padding- the Tardis sequence especially seemed to serve no purpose and just delayed us getting on with the plot. That terrible, mocking dialogue with the Doctor and Rose discussing the possible lycanthropy of the Royals just seemed so crass after the sensitive treatment of Queen Victoria throughout the episode. But I have never, never seen an ending like that! VictoriaВ’s vow to the creation of Torchwood, tellingly almost-overdubbed with the cliffhanger sting, sent a shiver down my spine. There was a real sense of Doctor Who evolving, changing and becoming something entirely new and different. Something, ever-so possibly scary.

Given time and the opportunity to pursue these story ideas- either in the series itself or in one of itВ’s spin-offs- В‘Tooth and ClawВ’ could come to be seen as the launch of a whole new existence for this fantastic show that somehow, somehow, refuses to die. And just keeps on getting better. ItВ’s better now, as a tv show, than it ever was before. Forget your Tom Bakers and your Phillip Hinchcliffes. Verity? Sorry love, donВ’t need you anymore. ItВ’s in very, very safe hands.

I’m more than a little surprised at how critical some of the views have been again...one in particular. I’m just glad its back on.

After last weeks opening episode,which was very pretty on the eyes and thats about it, this was the episode I wanted to see...and being away I had to wait untill the repeat on Sunday night but it was worth it.

I haven't enjoyed an episode like this for ages...everything worked for me and the ratings meant it must have done the same for an awful lot of other people too.

I've read some comments about how silly Rose was with her 'not amused' baiting of the Queen. Am I the only person that assumed, the Queens blank stare back, and refusal to bite made Rose look a little silly, was deliberate. This Queen was not half as daft as she appears... she knew Rose was taking the piss.

Remove the Royal Protocols and the stilted body language, this woman was portrayed as being very shrewd and intelligent with a very open mind and her comments to the Doctor and Billie as she banished them... makes me think she could see right through them and see more than we assumed she could.

The Monks needed so much more time to explain their origins, to find what had turned them from God to the Wolf. How the Host had fallen into their hands and where it had come from...Id love to know. I was a bit annoyed that the footage used for the Tardisode , which was very creepy, couldn't have been slipped in somewhere. that would have been excellent at the start of the episode, setting the scene and scaring the kids to death before the show had even began.

The acting was excellent, from the Monks, the Servants, to the tight arsed Guards , I even found His Lordship seriously sexy and was more than a little upset when he ended up as Afters.

Like others, I too felt that 45 minutes was too short, it really needed another 15 minutes, to explain the monks...more explanation of where the beast came from...lots of background info that was sadly missing. I agree, the 45 minute episodes make it all fast and flash and very exciting, but there's no major depth there.

The scene between the Host and Billie was so un nerving to me as an adult and after the transformation, I could imagine kids wetting themselves at night for weeks....there was some seriously well scary stuff here and all so terribly well done. The CGI was first class...obviously there were times when it was clear we were watching CGI....but who cares?

I like this Doctor...Tennant has slipped into this role as though it had been made for him...and so quickly too, just three episodes on and I've almost forgotten 'whatshisname'. He does remind me of Troughton, not physically obviously, but there's such intelligence which he hides behind his manic comedy and wide eyed amazement.

At the end of the day I’m just damn glad the shows back on. The Production Team does a fantastic job within the limits that they work in, and though I agree that Davies' scripts aren’t always the best, he came good on this one -- despite the horrifying thought that this sixty year old queen hadn’t finished breeding at that age in order to pass on the Wolf gene to yet unborn children.

The Torchwood section at the end was good ....some have complained about that too...but it at least will give the project a base..so that when we're salivating over the Torchwood series at the end of the year, we'll know how and when it was founded and why...without having loads of explanation.

I thought the effects , especially of the Telescope were very impressive; it reminded me of that amazing machine used in Kate Bush's Cloudbustin’ video. I’d already clicked that the Diamond was the focusing Lens, but I hadn’t realised the machine worked backwards, focussing the moonlight backwards, and I’m assuming this machine is the prototype that gets used in the future, as seen in The Christmas Invasion.

All in all, I enjoyed this episode, and that’s basically all you can ask for.

Who says Russell can't write Doctor Who? Eat your words all who say such a thing, and enjoy. An erratic Tardis takes the Doctor and Rose to 1879 instead of 1979, and in so doing, they meet Her Majesty Queen Victoria herself. Pauline Collins excelled herself here, as she does in almost every part she ever plays.

The Torchwood estate promises something unusual anyway, but what actually happens with the werewolf and the telescope and the excitement and the fear, and, well, this was pure genius. This was an episode that I could not fault at all. The lighting was excellent, the plot unfolded scarily, and wonderfully. The acting, especially the fearful expressions, was absolutely first class.

The host provided an uneasy moment for Rose even before he transformed into the best werewolf I've ever seen, when he said that there was something about the wolf about her.

The bestowal of knighthood and damehood on the Doctor and Rose, and then their immediate banishment was a surprise. The only bit that puzzled me was at the beginning where Father Angelo told the Steward that he would take the house "by the fist of man", and then proceeded to hit him with a stick, but it doesn't really matter much. Yes every writer has some foibles, and Russell T. Davies has had criticism for his in abundance recently. But surely, this episode shows us that Doctor Who is in very safe hands indeed.

If perfection is possible, then this is as near as it can possibly get, even notwithstanding that next week, we will see the return of Sarah Jane Smith. Does lightning strike twice?

Way back in 1981, after his opening series as Producer had been aired, John Nathan-Turner gave the first of his annual Doctor Who magazine interviews. When asked at the end of the interview what heВ’d like to see in future stories, he said heВ’d like to see an adventure featuring a Werewolf. As IВ’d always found these creatures very creepy indeed, I kept my eye out for a story featuring them, and low and behold along came The Greatest Show in the Galaxy in 1988, and Doctor WhoВ’s first Werewolf, in the form of Jessica Martin as Mags. But although the transformation was quite effective and pretty scary in an old Hammer Horror type of way, the resultant beast failed to impress, being more or less a green skinned woman with hair stood on end and a mouth full of fangs, not to mention the sequence being over as soon as it had started.

So naturally, when I heard that this series of Doctor Who was to feature a Werewolf I was enthusiastic, but hesitant, after all, its last attempt hadnВ’t been wholly successful, and even big budget films had rarely got the beast right; American Werewolf in London had a brilliant transformation, but a pretty dismal Werewolf and the effort in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was pretty much the same, good transformation, but a beast that looked like a strategically shaved poodle!

So what of Tooth and Claw? Well, the TARDISODE alone put the fear of God into me, which served me right for watching it alone at half past twelve at night before I was about to go to bed. But the very best Doctor Who stories always tend to be the ones with what I call the В“WouldnВ’t Wanna Be In Their ShoesВ” factor, basically a situation you really would not want to be in yourself! Off the top of my head I can only think of the DoctorВ’s predicament in Alternative Earth in Inferno and being on the Games Station with that trigger happy Dalek army about to attack in The Parting of the Ways that made be think I really wouldnВ‘t want to be there. Now I can add this story to that shortlist, thereВ’s no way IВ’d have been within a hundred miles of Torchwood House given a chance!

The story itself, while using most of the mythology of Werewolf folklore and itВ’s setting of an old house in the middle of nowhere is straight out of every horror clichГ© there is, but itВ’s application in this story into the world of Doctor Who and the way the overall plot was woven was almost perfect, with the exception, as has been mentioned by others, that the Monks outside the house appeared to vanish without any explanation. A brief addition to the script stating that they had fled, once the werewolf was destroyed, would have helped towards making this a near perfect script. But as this was my only niggle towards the plot, there canВ’t have been that much wrong with it.

David Tennant and Billie Piper, as usual, gave their all, and yes, in parts they do behave like a couple of unruly children, but didnВ’t some of the best Doctor/Companion relationships? And the scene where the Doctor was frantically trying to work out AlbertВ’s plans to save his wife was played to perfection. The guest cast were also very strong, from Pauline CollinsВ’ superb portrayal of Victoria, who I was glad to see didnВ’t become a Doctor friendly goody goody in the story, as Charles Dickens had done in the Unquiet Dead - anything but, to the always dependable Derek Riddell (I especially liked the line where the Queen told his character, Sir Robert, that he was her Sir Walter Raleigh, a part Derek Riddell played in The Virgin Queen, which appealed to the pedantic side of my nature).

In fact, the whole production was well executed; from the stylish direction of Euros Lyn, whose skills as a director seem to improve with every story he handles, through to the music, which didnВ’t initially seem to feature any themes weВ’ve heard before in the series. A superb opening cliff hangar, a truly chilling conversation between Rose and the Host (for me, the scariest part of the episode) leading up to the excellent transformation.

A well paced episode, punctuated with good В“breatherВ” scenes, such as the sequence in the Library. If the rest of the series continues in this trend then weВ’re in for a treat. I know everyoneВ’s opinions are different, and wouldnВ’t it be a boring world if we all thought the same way, but I have to say that it just boggles my brain reading some of the forum pages on this site, that there are STILL some В“fansВ” who slated this one. Perhaps for you few people, Doctor Who has had its day. May I suggest Heartbeat or The Royal as being more your cup of tea?

For me though, I have to give this a very rare 10/10!

If there's anything the latest Star Wars trilogy taught us, it's that just because you can render and realize an impressive looking digital character on screen, that doesn't necessarily make it a good idea to do so. (Jar Jar, anyone?)

To work well, a digital character have a solid story surrounding it, not just the latest in modern effects. (Gollum from Lord of the Rings, for example).

So while the good Doctor has met a variety of the classic monsters over the years--vampires, zombies, etc--he's never really done battle with a werewolf as the central antagonist of a story. I think a large part of that was the BBC wisely realizing that a werewolf, if not done right, would look even less credible than usual and really away the willing suspension of disbelief that is so vital to Doctor Who stories. (We can accept the sets wobble, but if the monsters are too shoddy, it ruins the illusion).

But with "Tooth and Claw" we get a story that features the Doctor facing a werewolf.

And yet as I come away from the story, I'm less impressed with the effects (though they are quite good) and instead I pull out the old mantra of Doctor Who--"It's the stories that make the show, not the effects."

I think we all thought deep down that Russell T. Davies had a really great script in him. And, so far, this is the closest we've got to a great script from Davies. I'll go out on a limb and say it's his best story since the first two episodes of series one. Certainly, it's the least complicated and the most straightforward. The Doctor and Rose arrive in a place, get caught up in a series of events and have to work to defeat some monster or evil by story's end. "Tooth and Claw" feels like it was a lost script from the Gothic era of Hinchcliffe and Holmes. It's a fun, entertaining little story that doesn't have an agenda beyond entertaining the audience for 45 minutes and being pretty edge-of-your-seat for much of that time.

That said, it's not perfect. I'm still not quite sure what the Monks' overall plan was and why they felt they wanted to infect Queen Victoria with the werewolf mutation. Sure it set up a nice joke at the end and maybe it's part of the overall plan for the season, but that part didn't make a lot of sense upon initial viewing. Also, I have to wonder why the Monks left the house after the werewolf is destroyed. I wonder if something was cut in the final edit and if a deleted scene on the DVDs will address this (not that you should rely on DVDs and deleted scenes to cover up plot holes...but we can hope).

And while the foreshadowing about Torchwood was about as subtle as two by four to the head, I like the way its been set up. To have it established as a reaction to the Doctor's involvement in the affairs of humanity was a nice touch. And the final scene while it was a bit like "Wow, did you know we've got a show coming soon called Torchwood?" wasn't quite as wince-inducing as I feared it could be. I do hope that as the season goes along, it's not some massive preview for Torchwood. I don't mind setting up the spin-off, but I do mind if the spin-off takes over the parent show.

Overall, the cast is quite solid. Tennant continues to impress though I still get this feeling he's waiting to be really unleashed. Of course, it did take until "Dalek" last year for Eccleston to knock one of the park. I get this feeling Tennant is on the cusp of greatness in the role, though each week he gets better and better.

I will also admit that it's kind of a relief to get past "Tooth and Claw." After five solid episodes by Davies, it will be nice to get some different writers in the mix next week. But I will give Davies credit--"Tooth and Claw" is a great script to mark as your last for a while. It's memorable, fun, scary and entertaining. It's a solid, if not perfect Doctor Who story.