Reactions: Tooth and Claw
Did I say just a few days ago that I love New Earth? I do, but for sheer cinematographic beauty, it’s difficult to even equal Tooth and Claw. Is it the (erstwhile) Scottish landscapes? The burrs? The nearly pornographic focus on David Tennant’s hair? No matter. TaC is three-quarters of an hour of pure pretty. And Billie Piper looks mighty cute too.
Pie Jesu Domine
Dona Eis Requiem
Am I the only one who was hearing The Frantics’ Tae Kwon Leap sketch as this was happening? And what was up with the random kung fu, other than that it amused RTD? Did the wolf’s comet make a pit stop in medieval China before landing in the moors of Scotland?
I have yet to figure out what the hell was frightening these people so much. I mean, was it the blacked-out eyes? The bad dentistry? You’re not going to persuade me that he was in any way transformed… maybe the monks had him in there ripping apart something with his hands and teeth for lunch? No idea.
GUH.
What is up with that haircut? Is it possible they’ve found a way to tip him away from goofy and towards the PHWOAR end of the spectrum? Why yes, they have. And Rose clearly agrees with me. She does not need to be taken to any lager-drenched, smoke-filled club to be impressed with the Doctor.
He and Rose are just so delightfully playful here, Rose skipping around the console after Ten, Ten busily pointing out all the awesome places he could take her. Rose must be used to having a fair number of bruises by now. And this is a lovely parallel to her similar moment with Nine.
For people who didn’t want David Tennant using his native accent, TPTB did manage to come up with an excuse awfully fast to put him in a situation where he needs it. Did they just want to go ahead and get it out of the way? So they’re complaining because she’s ‘naked,’ but no-one cares that she’s got a crown on her shirt? I bet she was trying to calculate whether this t-shirt or that Union Jack during the Blitz was a worse idea.
I love it when Ten does the Hawkeye salute. If we had the Series 2 shooting scripts, we’d know whether this was a DT invention (he loves TWW, why not M*A*S*H*?), or the writer’s/director's notion. We of course see it again in LotTL.
Okay, now Rose is impressed. Or scared gormless. It’s a bit difficult to say.
If it weren’t for her flipout later, I’d have thought Queen Victoria knew the paper was blank and was making crap up to keep the Doctor off-balance. She obviously thought he was cute and harmless.
Can you blame her, at least on the former?
And now the Royal Ten-Miler for People With No Sense of Personal Space. Also people who apparently think none of the very nearby soldiers are listening to a word they’re saying.
I know the logistical reasons why they didn’t do it, but Ten really should’ve offered Rose his jacket if not his coat.
The ‘we are not amused’ gag was already not amusing me by this point, but it’s one of my few peeves with this episode.
And another fondly lingering shot of DT and his freckles.
Interesting that there’s a random right-sized safesque thing to stick the KiN into.
Is it just me, or did it seem like Ten and Rose had worked out a couple’s code for when he was being irretrievably impolite? Too bad for them both that he couldn’t serve as the same sort of filter for Rose, or maybe QV wouldn’t have ended up so pissed off at them. Note the arm rub and pat, in addition to the extremely close stance. An excuse to feel the Doctor up, or a reward for coming up with a covering remark on the fly?
What, me worry?
I love how Ten will use any handy excuse to have a gander down Rose’s top here, seeing what he can see, if’n you get my drift. And those faces… their ‘little stinkers’ faces, like misbehaving children. [insert obligatory Firefly reference here]
Does anyone know what he’s mouthing to her during this sequence? I've never been able to figure it out.
She does love this frock… as I’ve noted elsewhere, though, I’m willing to be the reason we never see her in it is that the costume department just tried to find a pretty period frock in the Beeb vaults without bothering to size it.
And then she’s modern action girl again, with Flora standing in for Gwyneth this time-although Rose has clearly learned to dial down the condescension a bit, since she doesn’t get guff for it this time. I’m not sure what Rose thought they were going to accomplish while sneaking around, exactly… they’d have to run into the ‘butlers’ at some point, even if it’s just the head guy in the dining room. Flora’s presence would certainly have meant the jig was up.
Anyway… I did like that Queen Victoria called Captain Reynolds on his needless arse-kissing.
Now this is Gallifrey angst. Please make a note of it.
You can tell that Rose hasn’t got much time for people being chicken. Being weirded out is one thing, but cowering in the corner over it is just unacceptable.
I love the way ‘werewolf’ rolls off his tongue here. And as the lighting director noted on the commentary, they did take great care in lighting DT’s hair in these scenes. This is honestly something I wouldn’t have thought to take note of before they made that point-and now it’s something I’ve noticed and appreciated in later episodes like TSoD. Thanks guys!
Why does the wolf creature think it would immediately be able to take over Victoria, if the Doctor later says it would take a century? What’s the point of all this then? I love how Rose bitches at the household here, especially Isobel. It’s too bad they didn’t start a bit earlier, ‘cos if the wolf had had less moonlight exposure, it mightn’t have been such a near miss.
Okay, that is a wolfish face. Do not mess with Rose, or the Doctor will f*** your sh*t up, assuming Queen Victoria doesn’t pop a cap in your arse first.
Sir Robert and the Doctor have no thought other than for their women. Neither of them gave much of a rootie patootie about the Queen. I’m sure that probably contributed to her pique later on.
Take a picture, Doctor, it’ll last longer. Y’know, I have to concur with the cracky wolf!fic/art that some folks did right after this episode came out-if the Doctor could be assured of a continuance of personality, he’d think it was KEWL to be wolfy.
Rose gets to share in the pretty, right before the men waste a whole lot of ammo. I’m sure if they’d had something like a minigun their luck might have improved, but with little black powder rifles and shotguns?
No.
I’ve always pondered why Queen Victoria lied about how Father Angelo was killed. Is it because she fundamentally still didn’t trust her erstwhile protectors and didn’t want them to know she had a gun at her disposal? Neither of them seemed to particularly have their act together, so I’m not sure why she was so panicked.
Completely gratuitous pretty.
Rose, being her compassionate self as always, wanted to make sure someone was acknowledging Captain Reynolds’ sacrifice… but seeing him get ripped to shreds must’ve given her nightmares like whoa. Have I missed the fics that address that particular bit of trauma?
Glistening Doctor, hair just so… no wonder Rose was looking for a an excuse to glomp him.
Man, I do wish they didn’t just chuck their attempts at being appropriate out the window. This is exactly the sort of behavior that led to people’s (in some ways correct) claims that Rose and the Doctor brought the events of AoG/Doom on themselves.
I know everyone loves seeing Ten’s tongue here, but I loved Rose’s reaction. Would you want to snog someone who’d just sucked up a mouthful of extra-poisonous wood varnish? Good thing for him it wasn’t poison ivy!
I don’t know why RTD thought people would understand his intent that the wolf bypassed the women in the kitchen for the reason that they weren’t its priority, versus the strong implication that they were scaring it off with the mistletoe?
If this had been a two-parter, I imagine we might’ve seen them do something similar to that old Six novel where the baddy changed the laws of the universe and the world changed completely until they eventually resolved the situation (yes, I’m being vague in case you ever want to read it). Ten is so steampunk to begin with… maybe they’ll do something cool like that for the specials.
Gratuitous manly, hairy hand shot.
The KiN barely pulls Rose’s attention away from the Doctor. How awesome is that?
The hair-mussing is so endearing. Even if it drives DT’s hair and continuity people right round the bend.
Thank you, Lady Isobel!
And now, a rather perfectly gorgeous shot of Ten in profile.
The Doctor is getting really sick of the body count here. Compared to how long Captain Reynolds was able to hold off the wolf, Sir Robert did quite an impressive job when it was his turn to throw his life away defend his Queen and country.
Look, it's the Simmer Dim picture! *gives props to
joely_jofor that now-permanent association*
Ten felt so much better about this when he thought the wolf had long since obliterated the man inside. *sigh*
Delectable, even in his concern/panic. I don’t know that I buy the joke at the end of the episode about the Royal Family becoming werewolves, but maybe he realizes already that her refusal to show him the wound means she no longer trusts him and things are about to hit the fan.
He’s just so proud of Rose. Even after they manage to get themselves banished… although that has to be about the least effective banishment I’ve ever seen, given that the Doctor comes and goes as he pleases up until AoG/Doom.
The one note in this episode that rang sour for me was the fact that Ten and Rose seemed to take so little away from the incident-they see people killed horribly, they make jokes, they get banished, they make jokes… it almost felt like the unremitting irreverence was PASTEDE on about as thick as Martha’s crush simply for the sake of absolutely hammering home that Torchwood was all their fault. Which, unless they plan to pull something out of their arse during S4 or the 2009 specials, it can't be... otherwise, how did Torchwood come into being in a universe that has neither a Doctor nor a Rose?