Partners in Crime

Written by Russell T. Davies

Directed by James Strong

Starring David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Sarah Lancashire, Bernard Cribbins, Jacqueline King and Verona Joseph

Adipose offers the ultimate diet solution, a simple pill that burns the fat for you whilst you sleep. The only problem is, the company slogan, ‘the fat just walks away’ may be literal…

There’s change in the air in Doctor Who and it’s not just the traditional new season, new story arc, new companion change. This is an extremely finely balanced piece of writing that runs the gamut from farce and high comedy to a couple of moments of extreme darkness and something you just don’t see coming. The end result is, oddly, the strongest season opener since ‘Rose’.

First and foremost, Catherine Tate is a real asset to the show, straight out of the gate. The broad comedy that she’s been consistently criticised for is almost completely absent and here, Donna is played as a woman who is smart, capable and has both feet firmly on the ground. She’s a great, and instant, foil for Tennant with already the makings of a great comedy double act. One particular stand out moment has the pair of them bouncing off one another as those they’d been working together for years, the effortless banter helping the scene along no end.

But there’s more to her than that and in a single, beautifully played and directed scene we see exactly how much trouble she’s in. Donna’s trapped at home with her mum (King, who should be applauded for playing a straight bat, creating a character who is antagonistic without being pantomime), in a dead end life and regretting her decision. Her causal competence and desperation to find the Doctor again give her a drive and crucially, a motivation that’s all her own. Rose and Martha were innocents abroad, Donna knows exactly what she’s getting herself into.

But that’s the biggest change of all. Tennant’s Doctor is both lighter here than he’s been in almost a full season and much, much more cautious. There’s a moment when Donna is all set to, effectively, move in where he very quietly tells her that this is a funny life, funny clearly standing in for ‘fascinating, unique and horrific in roughly equal proportion.’ Likewise, the passing reference to Martha and how he ruined half her life marks this out as a far more self aware Time Lord. The man who careened across the universe to escape from his past has realised, or seems to have realised, that that past must be accepted, must be learnt from. Whether or not he does, is a different matter.

Then there’s that past itself, which is embodied here by two actors, Tate and Bernard Cribbins. Bernard Cribbins is a replacement for Howard Attfield, set to play Donna’s father who died shortly after the episode was completed (It is, in fact, dedicated to him). Cribbins himself is effortlessly good, and the casual, affectionate, naturalistic conversation between Donna and her grandfather is beautifully played. Likewise, the moment where he sees, with absolute certainty, that Donna has got her happy ending is beautifully played, an absurd, glorious image that brings a smile to your face and places Wilf, Donna’s grandfather in a fascinating position. This is a man who believes it all, who will accept the Doctor (He has after all seen him disappear once already) at face value and it’ll be fascinating to see that play out.

The actual plot itself is lighter fare than we’ve had in a while but benefits from that. Sarah Lancashire’s Miss Foster is a nicely played, if slightly too arch villain and her plans are unusual in so far as, up to a point, they’re not technically harmful. Plus, the Adipose are huge fun, well realised and oddly benevolent and the way they’re dealt with could, conceivably lead to some very interesting questions being asked, once again, by the citizens of London. It’s nicely directed too, with Donna and the Doctor nearly meeting countless times before they finally do and a glorious, long overdue parody of the silent ‘I’ll save you’ moment from 42. It’s one of those jokes that goes on so long it stops being funny, then goes on some more, and some more and some more until the sheer absurdity makes it funny. The very fact it’s in there is interesting too, showing that the darkness of the past is, if not being moved past, then certainly acknowledged.

But the thing about time travel is the future’s as important as the past and there are interesting hints here about what’s to come. The Shadow Proclamation, mentioned for the first time in ‘Rose’ is referenced again, there’s a passing reference to something odd involving bees and the actions of at least one character are open to some potentially very interesting interpretations. There’s something big going on here, something no one, not even the Doctor, has seen coming and the message this episode seems to send is clear;

everything is going to change.

Buckle up everybody, like the man says, it’s a funny old life in the TARDIS. But we wouldn’t have it any other way