There’s a moment in ‘Tooth and Claw’ when the Doctor is confronted by a terrifying werewolf, and can only stand awestruck and say “That’s beautiful.” For this simple, perfectly Doctor Who moment alone, I love this episode. The other forty-four minutes were just icing on the cake.

Russell T. Davies’ first historical script for Doctor Who feels at times very much a homage to the gothic sensibilities of Tom Baker’s early seasons. Trapping a bunch of people in an isolated place with a monster on the loose is textbook Who.¹ And what a monster. This week we get a werewolf, created by virtue of perhaps the best piece of CGI so far in this series — though the scariest is probably still the cliffhanger from ‘The Empty Child’. Impressively, Tom Smith’s performance pre-moonlight is similarly scary and unsettling. Lines like “And then it begins; the Empire of the Wolf!” could be completely murdered by a lesser actor.²

In an episode like this, a lot of the success is due to the supporting cast. If most of the drama is about trying to save them, then you’d better like them and want them to live. In this story, even the token ‘pigheaded man who doesn’t listen to the Doctor and gets horribly killed’ is quite likeable. Sir Robert the Coward is adorably useless — you often get people in hostage situations trying to tip the heroes off without raising their captors suspicions, but I’ve never seen them try to take credit for it before. I can see why; when you say out loud “Did you not notice I was winking at you a bit oddly,” it sounds rather pathetic. His inevitable noble sacrifice is impressive, as is his final kiss with his wife.³ The rest of the characters all manage to be reasonably proactive too. I wasn’t expecting her Ladyship to shake away her fear, work out that the wolf was allergic to mistletoe, and attack it. And after several doomed precedents, I wasn’t expecting the shaky maid, Flora, to escape with her life.

But of course, the big guest, and the key to the villain’s evil plan, is Queen Victoria. Perhaps even more successful than Charles Dickens last year, she becomes a strong character in her own right, and someone I’d love to see return. Whether she’s talking with the Doctor about the merits of supernatural fiction, or remonstrating him for treating his bloody circumstances as a game, she’s a formidable figure.

And then there’s our heroes. I mentioned the Doctor earlier. Basically, David Tennant is wonderful. There’s a lot of the old Tom Baker style in this Doctor, but with the temper and youthfulness of Davison.⁴ He loves what he does, doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and lets Sir Robert sacrifice himself for the greater good quite willingly. Rose, meanwhile, is clearly over-the-moon to be travelling again, and her cheekiness is only encouraging the Doctor. I loved their bet to get Victoria to say “We are not amused,” but Rose did take it one step too far. I can’t come down too hard on her though, as there’s always someone who takes the joke too far, and I’m quite sympathetic to her predicament.

Perhaps the best thing about ‘Tooth and Claw’ though, and what makes it tremendously watchable, is how stylish it is. Thanks to director Euros Lyn,⁵ at times it feels almost like a film, with magnificent editing and a beautiful, washed-out colour palette. The opening shots, the frame with the Doctor and the Wolf on either side of the Door, the Doctor’s moment of inspiration — it’s possibly the most beautiful episode of the series, too.

And, thankfully, it actually manages a very satisfying finale, too. No deus-ex-machina here: everything’s set up very neatly for the final showdown, and even the mistletoe element doesn’t feel contrived. Of course, there’s one, extra little tease after the Doctor leaves — Queen Victoria establishes the Torchwood Institute to deal with aggressive alien threats like the Wolf, and enigmatic meddlers like the Doctor. The idea that the human race might actually respond to the Doctor and decide that they don’t want his interference is a pretty cool one, and I look forward to seeing where this goes…⁶

1. Because it lends itself to claustrophobic scares… and because it saves a lot of money. ↩
2. I’m not sure that being able to deliver over-the-top rants about taking over the world convincing is a useful skill outside of Doctor Who in Britain. He should move to America and do the rounds of the genre shows. ↩
3. Sir Robert is clearly just as annoyed about prissy kisses in period drama as I am. ↩
4. I could play spot the Doctor-traits all day but it could get boring. ↩
5. Previously responsible for last season’s ‘The End of the World’ and ‘The Unquiet Dead’, and doing another three episodes this season. ↩
6. “Advert for the Torchwood spinoff,” some have said. “Tacked on.” Tacked on is a brilliant insult because it’s quite undeniable: the element you’re talking about was clearly not not in the episode. I’d rather buck expectation and have a scene after the Doctor and Rose leave than the other way around. And I’m pretty sure that whatever Torchwood stuff comes our way in Doctor Who will form a complete and satisfying story. ↩

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006. It concerns such pressing issues as Doctor Who, tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.