"Since when is Harvey Wallbanger one word?"
HAHA Donna wins. And she's so totally gonna die.
Ten and Donna find themselves smack in the middle of a snooty party in 1926, and the guest of honor is none other than Agatha Christie herself. Which makes Ten giddy and Donna floored. But then Professor Peach is murdered in the library with a lead pipe! OH NOES! Our plucky heroes team up with Agatha to solve the mystery, only to discover that the killer is not of terrestrial origin (this is Doctor Who, after all, it must have cheesy aliens).
Donna gets attacked by a giant wasp, and she, Ten, and Agatha go running around trying to catch the giant wasp while the party guests keep dropping like flies (bad insect joke is bad).
Then a mysterious person goes and puts cyanide in Ten's drink. Luckily he can work Time Lord magicks and make an antidote from walnuts, anchovies, and gingerbeer, but he must have a shock to his system. Donna could just tickle him, but instead she decides to give him a good snog. Ten is sufficiently shocked.
After dinner turns deadly (of course), they gather all the remaining party guests in the living room, where they unmask not only a killer, but a jewel thief as well ('cause why not). It was the Vicar, who is actually Lady Eddison's illegitimate child, who recently discovered that he's actually a giant space wasp (again, why not). Lady Eddison's necklace that the jewel thief tried to steal was really a telepathic something-or-other, which downloaded all the alien intel into the Vicar's head when he was activated, along with a nice fat dose of Agatha Christie, which Lady Eddison was reading at the time while wearing the necklace.
Here! Be distracted from the plot holes by some shiny purple light!
Agatha Christie drives her car down to the lake in hopes of drowning the creature, and she succeeds, although apparently they have a telepathic link so when the Vicar drowns, he chooses to let her live but she loses all her memories of the wasp incident.
Thus does Agatha Christie disappear, and reappears several days later (courtesy of TARDIS-travel) at a hotel very far away with no memory of what happened.
Ten takes Donna back to the TARDIS, where he shows her a print of one of Agatha Christie's books (the one where the guy is murdered on an airplane), published in the year 5 billion. She will be the best-selling author of all time. And you know what, I believe it, too.
NEXT WEEK: Stephen Moffat! Only I have to wait TWO WHOLE WEEKS for Stephen Moffat. This might kill me. Unless the SHADOWS do it first... >.>
THE WEEK AFTER THAT: MOAR STEPHEN MOFFAT! Three weeks for MOAR MOFFAT? Clearly the BBC hates me Judi Dench MADE me steal that cardboard cut-out of herself! I swear it wasn't my idea!
THE WEEK AFTER THE WEEK AFTER THAT: ROSE. Srsly. It r Rose, I luff hur.
THOUGHTS/SPECULATION
Why Donna will die:
- "None of us can know how we'll be remembered, Donna. We just have to hope for the best." I mean COME ON. Donna's gonna die and then Ten will remember her forever and ever but Eleven will forget her.
- Another scene of Donna becoming BBFs with a person she barely knows because she's too damn compassionate for her own good. All the companions are compassionate people, but Donna goes a bit above and beyond.
Donna's impending doom aside, this episode was chock full of plot holes, and cheesy effects (moreso than usual, anyway), but it was Ten and Donna and Agatha Christie solving a good ol' whodunit. That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Plus, this was just a farce, and sometimes you have to roll with farces and just stare into the shiny purple light until you forget the plot holes.
Of course, I'm very forgiving of plot holes. Bad characterization, slow pacing, clumsy dialogue, and above all CONTINUITY ERRORS are where I find grievous fault. All continuity errors will be taken into my closet, shot, and left their to die a slow and painful death. But luckily Donna was very much in character this week, the pacing was good (farce, after all), the dialogue was pretty good, and if there were continuity errors the shiny purple light distracted me from them. Plus, tiny callbacks made in passing to other episodes (like Ten taking out that glass ball and chucking it aside while you can still hear the witches screaming inside) will make me forgive most continuity errors. The plots holes were almost bad enough that even I found them unforgivable, but in the end, it's a farce and I just rolled with it. Plus, shiny purple light. Ooooooh....
Aaaand, the snogging. There is a written rule somewhere, I'm sure, that The Doctor must snog all companions. That's why Mickey had to leave in the middle of S2 - if he'd stayed on the TARDIS one more ep, Ten would've had to have made out with him.
Also, one more person who thought Ten and Donna were a couple. This goes far beyond people thinking Ten and Rose were a couple (even though they actually were). And very people, if any, thought Ten and Martha were a couple (poor Martha). I'm betting this will be of some significance in the finale, because this has happened too many times for it to just be a running joke.
A good running joke, however? Companions trying to talk in period-appropriate lingo and Ten saying "Don't do that. No really. Don't do that." Donna attempted uppercrust 1920's speech, and hilarity ensued. This happened with Rose when she tried to be Scottish (och, aye, oot and aboot!), and Martha trying to be Ye Olde English with her "Aye, fosooth!"
Great callbacks to past episodes, too. Like Donna's grumpy speech about how unrealistic it is to meet Agatha Christie at a party where people are being murdered, kinda like meeting Charles Dickes and he's surrounded by ghosts at Christmas. Aw, Ten misses Rose :(
Anyway, Donna's dead, Ten's awesome, and two weeks from now I will be hiding under my covers because Stephen Moffat made me cry.
Also: it is very true that there's something of a preoccupation with bees/wasps in Agatha Christie's books. Food for thought?
Ten and Donna find themselves smack in the middle of a snooty party in 1926, and the guest of honor is none other than Agatha Christie herself. Which makes Ten giddy and Donna floored. But then Professor Peach is murdered in the library with a lead pipe! OH NOES! Our plucky heroes team up with Agatha to solve the mystery, only to discover that the killer is not of terrestrial origin (this is Doctor Who, after all, it must have cheesy aliens).
Donna gets attacked by a giant wasp, and she, Ten, and Agatha go running around trying to catch the giant wasp while the party guests keep dropping like flies (bad insect joke is bad).
Then a mysterious person goes and puts cyanide in Ten's drink. Luckily he can work Time Lord magicks and make an antidote from walnuts, anchovies, and gingerbeer, but he must have a shock to his system. Donna could just tickle him, but instead she decides to give him a good snog. Ten is sufficiently shocked.
After dinner turns deadly (of course), they gather all the remaining party guests in the living room, where they unmask not only a killer, but a jewel thief as well ('cause why not). It was the Vicar, who is actually Lady Eddison's illegitimate child, who recently discovered that he's actually a giant space wasp (again, why not). Lady Eddison's necklace that the jewel thief tried to steal was really a telepathic something-or-other, which downloaded all the alien intel into the Vicar's head when he was activated, along with a nice fat dose of Agatha Christie, which Lady Eddison was reading at the time while wearing the necklace.
Here! Be distracted from the plot holes by some shiny purple light!
Agatha Christie drives her car down to the lake in hopes of drowning the creature, and she succeeds, although apparently they have a telepathic link so when the Vicar drowns, he chooses to let her live but she loses all her memories of the wasp incident.
Thus does Agatha Christie disappear, and reappears several days later (courtesy of TARDIS-travel) at a hotel very far away with no memory of what happened.
Ten takes Donna back to the TARDIS, where he shows her a print of one of Agatha Christie's books (the one where the guy is murdered on an airplane), published in the year 5 billion. She will be the best-selling author of all time. And you know what, I believe it, too.
NEXT WEEK: Stephen Moffat! Only I have to wait TWO WHOLE WEEKS for Stephen Moffat. This might kill me. Unless the SHADOWS do it first... >.>
THE WEEK AFTER THAT: MOAR STEPHEN MOFFAT! Three weeks for MOAR MOFFAT? Clearly the BBC hates me Judi Dench MADE me steal that cardboard cut-out of herself! I swear it wasn't my idea!
THE WEEK AFTER THE WEEK AFTER THAT: ROSE. Srsly. It r Rose, I luff hur.
THOUGHTS/SPECULATION
Why Donna will die:
- "None of us can know how we'll be remembered, Donna. We just have to hope for the best." I mean COME ON. Donna's gonna die and then Ten will remember her forever and ever but Eleven will forget her.
- Another scene of Donna becoming BBFs with a person she barely knows because she's too damn compassionate for her own good. All the companions are compassionate people, but Donna goes a bit above and beyond.
Donna's impending doom aside, this episode was chock full of plot holes, and cheesy effects (moreso than usual, anyway), but it was Ten and Donna and Agatha Christie solving a good ol' whodunit. That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Plus, this was just a farce, and sometimes you have to roll with farces and just stare into the shiny purple light until you forget the plot holes.
Of course, I'm very forgiving of plot holes. Bad characterization, slow pacing, clumsy dialogue, and above all CONTINUITY ERRORS are where I find grievous fault. All continuity errors will be taken into my closet, shot, and left their to die a slow and painful death. But luckily Donna was very much in character this week, the pacing was good (farce, after all), the dialogue was pretty good, and if there were continuity errors the shiny purple light distracted me from them. Plus, tiny callbacks made in passing to other episodes (like Ten taking out that glass ball and chucking it aside while you can still hear the witches screaming inside) will make me forgive most continuity errors. The plots holes were almost bad enough that even I found them unforgivable, but in the end, it's a farce and I just rolled with it. Plus, shiny purple light. Ooooooh....
Aaaand, the snogging. There is a written rule somewhere, I'm sure, that The Doctor must snog all companions. That's why Mickey had to leave in the middle of S2 - if he'd stayed on the TARDIS one more ep, Ten would've had to have made out with him.
Also, one more person who thought Ten and Donna were a couple. This goes far beyond people thinking Ten and Rose were a couple (even though they actually were). And very people, if any, thought Ten and Martha were a couple (poor Martha). I'm betting this will be of some significance in the finale, because this has happened too many times for it to just be a running joke.
A good running joke, however? Companions trying to talk in period-appropriate lingo and Ten saying "Don't do that. No really. Don't do that." Donna attempted uppercrust 1920's speech, and hilarity ensued. This happened with Rose when she tried to be Scottish (och, aye, oot and aboot!), and Martha trying to be Ye Olde English with her "Aye, fosooth!"
Great callbacks to past episodes, too. Like Donna's grumpy speech about how unrealistic it is to meet Agatha Christie at a party where people are being murdered, kinda like meeting Charles Dickes and he's surrounded by ghosts at Christmas. Aw, Ten misses Rose :(
Anyway, Donna's dead, Ten's awesome, and two weeks from now I will be hiding under my covers because Stephen Moffat made me cry.
Also: it is very true that there's something of a preoccupation with bees/wasps in Agatha Christie's books. Food for thought?