Tooth and Claw

One gets an overall sense of "how things are going" from the legions of comments on-line that can be read after each new episode. Last week, things were definitely not going well. To explain the comparative explosion of joy that "Tooth and Claw" evoked, it's perhaps helpful to ask why. What MAKES a popular episode? Interestingly, last weeks and this weeks were written by the same man, helmed by the same production crew, and featured the same cast (mind you, so were "The Ark In Space" and "Revenge of the Cybermen"). So what can have possibly gone so right with "Tooth and Claw"?

I think the answer comes with familiar trappings, and nothing deeper or more complex than that. And yes, I mean trappings as in a period setting, and possibly a type of storyline as well. Because for all their rantings about the diversity of the series (or is it only producers and papers that actually say that?) we always feel more at home when Doctor Who visits a respectable setting. Something historical always helps, because then we know it won't date and make us feel stupid watching it in the future - last week there was severe criticism over RTD's vision of "life in the year five billion" simply because the timescale was silly. Our society has taken two thousand years so far to develop and we haven't even worked out the best time to mount roadworks. In five billion years, we'll surely all be thought creatures living on Jupiter, or something. Then there's those familiar Doctor Who plot devices - a monster based on an animal for example. Even when it's ants, woodlice or maggots we cry "classic!" so Doctor Who finally having a go at a werewolf story was very welcome indeed (pause for a moment; compare this to "Loups Garoux" and tell me what conclusions you make about how to craft good Doctor Who). Chuck in lots of suspense, a dark old house, and a bit of terror for the kids and there you have it - Russell is redeemed! All this is in stark contrast to the thoughtful (Radio Times word, not mine) and starkly bright setting of the New Earth Hospital last week. We really weren't impressed were we?

As Guardians of the Show, we still raised a few eyebrows though. The most common complaint of "Tooth and Claw", curiously, was that the Doctor and Rose were becoming "too smug". I've no idea what this means - David's Doctor seems a little too self-assured for some fans, again who seem oddly unprepared to accept that the Doctor has changed again (this is Doctor Who remember - how silly is that!). And maybe Billie is enjoying herself just a bit too much. Lots seem hopeful of some kind of "downfall" in store for the Doctor and Rose - nice! But then, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. We don't want the audience getting too confident that things will work out fine each week.

In truth, there's really very little to say about "Tooth and Claw", except that in years to come, when us fans have decided New Doctor Who is not what it was, it will be hailed as the good old days, a simple story that pushed all the right buttons. It came, it scared us, hopefully it got eight million, and it went. I'm really glad this one came now, and not before either "New Earth" or "The Christmas Invasion" - now, at least Russell can enjoy some relief from the fans bizarrely calling for his downfall. Anyone with a half a brain will agree, it was just the sort of Doctor Who we needed.