I've never watched this before until , well just now. Can't see why I was avoiding it, but it just seemed horribly camp and kitsch so I always avoided it. Not too bad really, there have been worse and there have been better.

I love this story! I just love DW stories that are set in the post-Victorian era on Earth, around 1902-1930-ish.

Another story you will really like is Black Orchid. Here is the IMDB blurb about it:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0562832/

If you haven't got Black Orchid on DVD, I suggest you get it soon. You will not be dissapointed.

I also really like Human Nature/Family of Blood, which is set in England, in 1913.

Easily one of my favourite episodes of S4, indeed the whole of NuWho. It has wit and style and effortlessly weaves in a known real-life mystery into a hugely enjoyable scenario. A romp, to be sure. But one of the very best romps the show has done since it returned.

I absolutely love this story...love it to pieces. Gareth Roberts really did something great with this...a historical figure with a twist.

The episode had a real feel-good factor to it, was nice and quaint and didn't involve a massive 'end of the world' kind of story either. It was probably the last episode of the brilliant fourth series before events took a darker turn - a turn that would see us all the way through to the Moffat era.

I love the Ten and Donna relationship too. Utter friends through and through, and the sort of story that makes her eventual fate all the more tragic, as you see what it is they lost here.

Brilliantly written, acted, directed, produced and the sunny shots of the house are beautiful. I know this is an episode that divides opinion, but I just thought it was wonderful and quaint.

One of my favourite New Who episodes. The Doctor/Donna relationship is SUPERB in this episode, and it has a wonderful comic tone that carries right through to the end.

Donna also proves just how cool she really is when she quickly realises that Lady Eddison's son Roger is Gay - and is then the only person to console his (secret) partner Davenport when he is murdered.

Just wonderful!

Oh, I loved Season 4!!

One of my fav episodes ever of NuWho
I like a good murder mystery, camp but not too over the top and it show really cemented what a brilliant pairing Tate and Tennant are.

I have seen it several times and never gets old

Plus Felicity Kendall was fab as well.

Got to join in the love-in! Cracking, sunny, funny episode with Ten and Donna having a great time and Gareth Roberts clearly having fun playing around with the Who-dunnit Christie formula. (The flashback within a flashback for the Christopher Benjamin character is great.)

And poor Donna doesn't remember any of it.

I know some don't rate Roberts, but this is almost up there with The Lodger for feel-good, purely enjoyable Who in my book. Just terrific.

I just got upset all over again.
Series 4 is so painful.

Oh no! Just remembered this too

Don't you think she looks stunning as Agatha Christie?

http://static03.mediaite.com/themary...-doctorwho.jpg

I do! It's a great picture.

Sadly, there was supposed to be a scene near the end, in which we see an elderly Agatha Christie, played by ex-Corrie actress Daphne Oxenford. But, Russell and Julie, came to a joint conclusion, that the episode would be better without it. So, Daphne never got credited in the cast at the end.

On one more sad note, I believe that would have been Daphne's last TV role before she died in 2012. It makes me angry that the scene was left out. Poor Daphne!

Here is the deleted scene. Would it have been better with this left in or not. Did Russell and Julie decide right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...yIsi-cgU#t=710

Way to put a downer on an upbeat thread. I shall go and have a serious word with myself.

I think the scene with an elderly Agatha and 'the Man in the Brown Suit' is lovely. I'd have kept it in as a nice Coda, personally.

It is a really lovely, beautiful scene but I do think the episode was better off without it. Part of the charm of Series 4 was that outside of the contemporary Earth stories there was a strong vibe of The Doctor and Donna being visitors - touching the places they visited, but never quite belonging - it was never long before they were back in the blue box, unintentionally weaving themselves as legends throughout time. They were quick to leave Pompeii, they were quick to leave the Ood-Sphere, they were quick to leave the Library and they were quick to leave Messaline (the Hath planet)... all building up to the plot points of the finale, namely the DoctorDonna and the fact that the Doctor was "never looking back because he dare not out of shame" (quote, Davros).

More simply, I just think the episode was tidier without it. The 'onwards' conclusion we got was poignant enough

One of my favourite episodes of the series.......I love Agatha Christie stories anyway!
The brilliant gathering together of all the suspects at the end was a typical Poirot/Marple episode. I laughed when the man in the wheelchair stood up! And found he wasn't a suspect - "Oh...shall I sit down again?"
A nice jolly feel-good episode!!

Must admit I don't really enjoy Gareth Roberts's The Shakespeare Code that much
( not sure exactly why ) but I do really love the Unicorn and the Wasp. It's a lively script and you get the impression of an ensemble piece which everyone has a part to play.

Also maybe the big difference is David Tennant with Catherine Tate ! Together they have excellent comic timing and it just sparkles and moves along as they are in their element in the 1920's

Fantastic Love it!

It is a shame though that Daphne Oxenford went to all the trouble of filming this, and then it gets left out.

Not everyone is going to be happy some of the decisions people make in life, but, hey ho. You've just got to take them and move on.

One of my favourite bits of the episode, is when Catherine Tate is having a bit of trouble running away in high heels and the CGI wasp slows down to allow her to escape very slowly

"Ginger Beer!"

"The Towering Inferno!?"

"Mammy!"

Got to watch this again. Love Ten/Donna.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66R6yk-cMKI

"Oh that's too salty"

Thanks for the link. I saw this one earlier, when I uploaded the deleted scene of the elderly Agatha.

Donna's just one of those people that you'd just want to hug and never let go. She's so bubbly and energetic. She's the sort of person who would make friends with you in a flash. Just like that! <clicks fingers>

That's Catherine Tate all over, I s'pose!

Awesome vid, good find their tiggerpooh. You know, after seeing An Adventure in Space and Time, this scene (and this story) almost goes back to Sydney Newmans' original idea for the show - educational. I wonder how many "kids" would have watched this and not realised that Agatha Christie was a real person!


Love it!


I haven't watched this one either, again it looked a bit cheesy, so time to watch it I think. Its not a deliberate anti-Gareth Roberts plot, didn't realise he was common to both.


That scene with the wheelchair was pretty funny It had the feel of a Two Ronnies sketch

Exactly, she was the perfect companion. It didn't matter who you were, if you meant well then you were friends with Donna. She thought so little of herself as well... with Series 4 kicking off with Astrid getting killed off and then finishing with Donna having a fate arguably worse than death...it makes me wonder what was going on with RTD at the time. So much tragedy.

Catherine Tate did show she is quite the actress with her role in series 4. Her performances in Turn left and Journey's end were for me just simply terrific. It can be hard carrying an episode like Turn left on your own, especially without the main title character barely in it. But she did it amazingly well.