Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 2 Episode 2 - Tooth and Claw
Scotland. The 19th Century. A bunch of strange fighting monks demand a man's house and kick all the residents' asses when he refuses, using serious ass kicking and kick ass fighting skills. Locking all of them in the basement, the monks leave something that he must beg God's forgiveness for in there with them. Based on the growl and their screams, it can't be anything good...
Cue title sequence.
Aiming for Sheffield in 1979 to see Ian Drury and The Blockheads live, Rose and The Doctor accidentally end up in Scotland, 1879, stepping out into the middle of the royal guard who are escorting Queen Victoria. It gives The Doctor the chance to show off his Scottish accent, although Rose not so much. Passing themselves off as a doctor and his assistant from Balamory, they receive an audience with the Queen herself, who reads from the psychic paper that they have been appointed her royal protectors. Well, The Doctor has. Rose is just his wingman I suppose. The Queen is travelling an unusual route due to a tree on the train line, most likely an assassination attempt in the air. She is making her way to the house of the unfortunate bloke from the pre-credit sequence, tales of wolves in the area abound.
When they reach the house, there's a scared looking Sir Robert at the window who is being threatened by the head monk fella. Although he tries to dissuade the Queen from staying due to the lack of staff (all currently locked up in the basement), she ignores him, looking forward to her stay on the 'Torchwood Estate'. We just have time to learn of a mysterious box being brought into the house after her, before we glimpse the mysterious beast in the cage in the basement, which appears to be a man with bad teeth hidden in a dressing gown, who is fond of telling everyone to shush.
In the house, Queen Victoria is shown Sir Robert's father's enormous telescope (nope, it's a real telescope, stop that right now). The Doctor is a tad rude with his description of its faults, still getting to grips with his new personality and all, but the Queen doesn't seem to mind, being fascinated with astronomy and the opportunity that the telescope could offer. When the story of the local wolf crops up though, the strange monk man quickly interrupts to dismiss it. Not that the Queen wants to let it drop, demanding more talk of it once Rose has got some more clothes on and they've eaten.
As Rose tries some clothes on and finds a maid hiding in her cupboard, the guards are given drinks by the monks which immediately sedate them. The maid explains to Rose what happened with the monks, who promises that The Doctor will help, although when they find the guards unconscious on the floor, several monks sneak up on them and kidnap them both. Meanwhile, The Doctor, Queen Victoria, Sir Robert and the arse-licking chief guard share dinner, where The Queen demands that wolf story. Sir Robert looks increasingly uncomfortable under the watchful gaze of the monk man as Queen Victoria continues to pester him. He mentions how a boy goes missing once in a generation, and that the creature is a werewolf. Mr monk man starts to get twitchy as Sir Robert reveals that his father thought the legend was true and that the monks of a local monastery must have turned from God to worshipping the wolf. The Doctor notices the monk man chanting and starts putting two and two together.
Rose and the maid,
meanwhile, are now locked in with the other prisoners in the basement. Rose Rose
tries to talk to the creature, who seems to have taken over the body of one of
the aforementioned boys who was kidnapped. The creature itself isn’t from this
planet, and Rose offers to help, but he’s pretty happy being a strange creature
and wants to transfer to Queen Victoria and turn Earth into the Planet of the
Wolf. Well at least he has ambition. A lot of young people nowadays are just
lazy. As the monk is making his move above, the door to the basement opens and moonlight floods in, starting to change the creature into a werewolf. The Doctor arrives in the nick of time to see the werewolf escape, loving ever minute of it, being admonished by Rose for taking his time, before they all escape. Upstairs, the monk man informs the Queen that they want the throne, so she shoots him.
As the newly escaped residents of the castle prepare to fight the monster, The Doctor discovers him down a corridor. They fend him off with plenty of gunshots initially, but then he steals a cocky person by hiding in the ceiling, and everything goes a bit downhill, though the innocent maids are left alone for now.
The Doctor, Rose and Sir Robert find the Queen, and they begin to search for a way out, but the monks outside shoot at them to force them to stay inside with the werewolf. They run around for a bit, fleeing the creature, and letting the captain of the guard sacrifice himself as they barricade themselves in a large room. It stalks around the outside for a bit, looking for a way in, causing The Doctor to question why it can't enter. Sir Robert admits his guilty conscience that it's all his fault, and then Queen Victoria lets off some steam about the whole saga, especially the fact that The Doctor isn't talking in a Scottish accent any more. The maids in the kitchen and The Doctor realise at the same time that the mistletoe is what stops the wolf coming in, the maids because the monks outside are wearing it and there's mistletoe in the kitchen, and The Doctor because there are carvings of it on the doors. The maids brew up a mistletoe...brew, and The Doctor and friends use the library (yep, the room they are in is a library, which is my sort of room) to try and look up anything useful that might have been left by Sir Robert's father. They find an etching that tells of how a meteor arrived to
Earth 300 years ago. Perhaps regrowing itself from a single cell over all that
time, it used human hosts to heal. ‘The Empire of the Wolf’ would accelerate
Victorian England into the space age, and because steam punk never actually
happened, they need to stop it. Queen Victoria reveals she has the most
precious diamond in the world, which surely won’t come back as a plot device in
the next few minutes. Remembering that the diamond was always ‘unfinished’, as
Prince Albert was never happy with it and needed it continually recut, The
Doctor starts to hop around as if he’s just sniffed a line when he realises
that perhaps the house contains a trap for the wolf. Hang on, wasn’t the
telescope also unfinished?
Very rudely, the wolf interrupts them by dropping through
the sky light, nearly catching Rose, but luckily the maids get there just in
time to throw the mistletoe soup over it and sending it running temporarily.
The Doctor, Rose, Queen Vic and Sir Robert run to a room and – oh look! The
telescope room! Sir Robert leaves the room to sacrifice himself valiantly,
while The Doctor and Rose move the telescope into position. Actually, The
Doctor tells Rose it’s more of a ‘light chamber’. So a big ray gun then. It
charges up using the power of the moon just as the wolf breaks in and tries to
get to the Queen, but luckily The Doctor throws the diamond at the ray beam on
the floor and it reflects into the wolf, revealing the victim beneath who begs
to be ‘let go’, which The Doctor does by turning up the beam.
There’s a bit of ambiguity as the Queen looks very dodgy
when insisting she hasn’t been bitten, just attacked by a splinter from the
door breaking, before naming The Doctor ‘Sir Doctor of TARDIS’, and Rose ‘Dame
Rose of the Powell Estate’. There’s a tiny bit of vomit we have to choke back
as The Doctor tells the Queen that her husband is watching out for her from
beyond the grave, before she banishes the pair of them from the British Empire
for being strange alien people who think all this terrible life to be good fun.
Making their way back to the TARDIS, The Doctor speculates
that maybe it was a werewolf bite the Queen got after all, and that explains
the ‘Royal Disease’ she was known to have, as were her children, which would
make the whole Royal family werewolves, of course. Well, in a hundred years’
time perhaps.
The Queen and Sir Robert’s widow discuss the events, and the
Queen declares that she shall found a special institute, The ‘Torchwood
Institute’ (after the house this has all taken part in), to combat alien
threats. Torchwood will be waiting, Doctor…
I have mixed feelings about this episode. On the one hand,
David Tennant has slipped seamlessly into the roll a couple of episodes in, and
Billie Piper is perfect once again. It’s got funny moments, such as Rose’s
Scottish accent (which has to be a highlight of the entire series) and the
continual ‘We are not amused’ bet, and in terms of tension it’s well done as we
know any of the people in the house (barring The Doctor, Rose and Queen
Victoria of course) can die. However, it’s just not got anything to make it
stand out particularly.
I’ve never been the biggest of werewolf fans, although
this is a very good example with a different explanation than the norm, and
this doesn’t do anything to make me want to watch it again at any point, so it
would have to go onto the ‘skip’ pile sadly.
It does have a very important role in bringing the idea of
the Torchwood Institute to light, even giving the idea of it being something to
protect the British Empire from The Doctor if need be. It’s always nice to see
these little ideas again when you watch something back knowing what will happen
in future episodes and series. There’s a great harkback to the Bad Wolf as well, as the creature tells Rose that she has ‘something of the wolf about you’.
The Doctor is obviously still getting to grips with his new personality a bit, hence his rudeness when describing the telescopes faults, and I like the fact that it obviously takes him a little while to settle into who he is - he knows how one should courteously act, so it's not surprising that he needs to take a little time to work through his personality changes after a regeneration. The Ninth Doctor loved everything weird and wonderful, but we see the Tenth call the werewolf 'beautiful' with a smile, which to me is one of his trademarks. He always seems to find beauty in the terror that everyone else is feeling!
'You wanted weapons? We're in a library. Best weapons in the world!' As I work in a library, I have to say this is one of my favourite quotes ever.
The initial reveal of the wolf in human form is good, as the
sharp teeth etc. make it seem very sinister. The idea that Prince Albert continued
to have the diamond cut to make it correct for saving the Queen is a bit ropey
though, depending on how far into it you look – if the Queen has continued to
cut it since his death, it must be bloody good luck for it to be exactly right
this particularly year, as surely they couldn’t know these events would take
place this exact year. Also, if the wolf had stepped 2 paces to the right, it
would have avoided the light beam entirely. Still, usually best not to look
into these things too deeply. Doctor Who fans are known for their lack of
probing into hidden meanings within every aspect of the Whoniverse, after all.
Torchwood Mentions
Queen Victoria proposes to found the ‘Torchwood Institute’
to protect the British Empire against alien threats. The house in the episode
is ‘Torchwood House’, and it has all taken place on the ‘Torchwood Estate’.
Overall
Some very funny moments a decent amount of tension, but
there’s nothing to elevate it beyond a ‘monster of the week’ feel. If you had
to avoid watching an episode this season, this would be a
strong candidate.
6/10
