Episode #200 : The Unicorn and the Wasp

Donna: It's a murder, a mystery and Agatha Christie!
The Doctor: So? Happens to me all the time.
Donna: I know but isn't that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn't walk around surrounded by murders, not really. That's like meeting Charles Dickens surrounded by ghosts at Christmas!

Episode #200:         The Unicorn and the Wasp.
Companions:           10th Doctor and Donna Noble.
Air Date:                 17th May 2008.

In 1926, Agatha Christie mysteriously disappears, only to be found ten days later at Harrogate Hotel with no memory of what happened to her. What could have been the cause? Was it a nervous breakdown? Was it a cry for help? Or did it involve a giant alien wasp and a mysterious stranger known only as the Doctor?

This is how you do a proper historical story in Doctor Who. Take an actual real world mystery, a famous celebrity (of their day) and add a nice but not over the top science fiction spin. Making it appear like a typical Agatha Christie style mystery is just the icing on the cake. This is exactly what we have here. The show has needed a proper investigative mystery for a long time and The Unicorn and the Wasp comes in almost perfectly. The only thing that lets it down is some of the typical silly elements common to the David Tennant era but it is so infrequent here that it is easy to let it slide.

The episode plays on all the typical references we expect from a 1920's murder mystery set in the English countryside. Twenty three of Agatha Christie's novels or short stories are referenced throughout the episode. I didn't spot all of them at the time and had to look them up afterwards. In that sense the episode is much like The Shakespeare Code which also has many references to the works of the titular character.

There is very little to let this episode down, and yes I know I am focusing on the negative here but it is difficult for me to do otherwise here. We have some silly elements such as a the Doctor performing charades to give clues to Donna after he has been poisoned and seeking a cure. I'm also not a fan of the effects used to generate the insectoid villain of the story. Having seen in Doctor Who and other programmes just how good the BBC has gotten at it's computer effects it could have looked and moved a lot better. Nit picking, I agree, but it does for me affect the rating that I have given it though not by much. The Unicorn and the Wasp is no where near being a 5* adventure. It is however, certainly one that I recommend.