Day 719 - Tooth & Claw

I'd like to say that my lack of blog entires over the last couple of days was to give people a break from the constant Facebook posts but the truth is I've just been too lazy and/or busy to keep up with it. As such I'm falling further behind but I still think there is a good chance that I can catch up with myself I'm only 6 days behind. Those helpful two part stories let me catch up.

Season 2 of the new Doctor Who (or season 28 as it should be technically called!) has another celebrity historical for us. This would seem to be the pattern over the next few years. Having met Charles Dickens in the prior season story The Unquiet Dead, it's now time to meet Queen Victoria in this episode. And a frightening adventure with a werewolf!

Having the story set in Scotland gives David Tennant a nice excuse to use his native Scottish accent for the first part of the episode and he attempts to convince the Queen's guards that he is Doctor Jamie McCrimmon. The first time I watched this I just assumed that this was a random fake name but knowing the series like I do now I can pick up on these cool extra bits that are put in, Jamie McCrimmon being a former companion to the Doctor (who was Scottish obviously, the companion I mean not the Doctor) during the era of the second Doctor.

Queen Victoria is played fantastically be Pauline Collins. The Queen has recently been widowed and the impact that this has had on her life is very much at the centre of the story. At times she seems playful, longing to hear the stories of the fabled werewolf but beneath this is a real sadness. She wanted to belief in such supernatural events in order that she can also belief one day she will have contact with her beloved Albert once again. 

However after her encounter with Rose and The Doctor (the former trying to get the Queen to say "we are not amused" throughout the duration of the episode) she realised that the supernatural creatures (or more correctly, aliens) that exist can threaten the Earth. She therefore banishes the Doctor from her empire and resolves to set up an institute to investigate such occurrences and to fight back. She names the institute after the estate from which the story was set, Torchwood!!