Doctor Who 4.7: The Unicorn and the Wasp

[selenay]

Now this was definitely not one of the best episodes, but it was terrific fun and there was still a lot to love about it:

- Agatha Christie was just superb.
- Oh, Donna, you are fabulous but sometimes need to think before speaking. Yet you are still fabulous.
- Spot the Christie title *g*
- Perfect Christie set-up, but with aliens, and I actually loved the vicar being the murderer.
- I must now re-read every Christie that I can get my hands on.
- The period look and feel was just gorgeous.
- Eee, giant wasp! Silly, yet fun. Heh :-)
- Again, I adored Agatha Christie.
- The car chase may well have had a top speed of 20 miles an hour, but it shot and cut in such a way that it was still thrilling. Very cool.
- The cyanide antidote sequence. Just priceless :-)

The episode set out to be little more than a parody of every murder mystery ever and on that level it succeeded. Yup, the alien wasn't quite as cool and convincing as it should have been but as a life-long lover of these kinds of mysteries I really enjoyed it.

While the main plot wasn't as strong as it should have been, I suspect that is as much because the Agatha Christie episode could never live up to my expectations as it is anything else. Even when the main plot isn't great, there is always a lot to love about DW and it's one of those shows where an average-ish episode is still much better than a lot of other stuff out there.

The real highlight of the show was Agatha Christie and they found a wonderful actress. She came across as shy, vulnerable yet brilliant, uncertain of the value of her work yet unable to stop writing and thinking up the stories. The show was set when she was at her lowest emotional point and it was a beautiful performance.

There was nothing overt that I picked up on for the season arc story, but I'm sure that plenty of other people will have picked up on everything that I missed due to complete exhaustion yesterday.

Overall, lots to enjoy about this episode but not one of the best DW episodes ever. The Steven Moffat episodes look like they'll be great but Eurovision is making me wait an extra week before we get to them. Wah!