Episode #195 - Partners in Crime

"Oi, you two! You're just mad, do you hear me? Mad! And I'm going to report you for... madness!!"

Episode #195:         Partners in Crime.
Companions:           10th Doctor and Donna Noble.
Air Date:                 5th April 2008.

Donna Noble is determined to find the Doctor again - even if it means braving the villainous Miss Foster. But when the alien threat escalates out of control, can Donna find her Time Lord before the march of the Adipose begins.

The fourth season of the new Doctor Who begins with a nice little story reuniting the Doctor with Donna Noble. Both are investigating strange things happening with Adipose Industries' new weight loss program. This reunites them and reveals that obese people's fat is being transformed into baby Adipose by the evil head of the company.

The story is a nice but it is one where once again very little happens other than reuniting the Doctor with Donna. The events concerning the Adipose are interesting but the episode suffers from typical continuity issues. Thousands of tiny fat Adipose bursting from people, wandering the streets and then being hoovered up by a giant flying saucer but the events are forgotten almost immediately. Modern Who has a lot of strange events that are witnessed by the public (let's not even mention Torchwood) but everything goes back to normal after each episode.

In this story we are introduced again to Donna's family and we learn that Wilfred Mott (who appeared in Voyage of the Damned) is her grandfather. Immediately I dislike her mother and really like Wilfred. Part of that I'm sure is Bernard Cribbins coming through as his character.

There is also an intriguing cameo at the end of the episode featuring Rose Tyler. This is a set up for the end of the season.

Unfortunately the story doesn't have a lot going for it. The reunion scenes are nice but the story itself is lacking something to make it really interesting. The Adipose are just too cute and silly to be appropriate to the show in my opinion.