Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: James StrongCast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Sarah Lancashire (Miss Foster), Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Verona Joseph (Penny Carter), Jessica Gunning (Stacey Harris), Martin Ball (Roger Davey), Rachid Sabitri (Craig Staniland), Chandra Ruegg (Clare Pope), Sue Kelvin (Suzette Chambers) & Jonathan Stratt (Taxi Driver)
The Doctor is reacquainted with Donna, who helps him stop the manufacture of a deadly weight-loss pill...Forgetting the bland Voyage Of The Damned at Christmas, the last time we saw The Doctor he'd just bid farewell to Martha Jones, who decided to take a sabbatical from her adventures with the Time Lord. The premiere of season 4, Partners In Crime, opens near-identically to Martha's third season debut, with one-time companion Donna (Catherine Tate) also striding purposefully down a busy London street – but unaware The Doctor (David Tennant) is on the same street, for the exact same reason...
Donna, posing as a health and safety officer, infiltrates the offices of Adipose Industries, a business offering a miracle drug to help the country's overweight population. In extended comic sequences, it transpires that The Doctor is investigating the same company, although they both humorously avoid bumping into each other.
Donna eventually goes to meet slimmer Stacey Harris (Jessica Gunning), while The Doctor visits Martin (Roger Davey), who is happy with the Adipose pill's fat-losing effects, but confused about why his burglar alarm has started going off at 1.10 am every morning...
That riddle is answered by Donna, as Stacey goes upstairs to the bathroom, leaving her to fiddle with a gold pendant Adipose Industries hand out as freebies to their customers. After absent-mindedly twisting the pill-shaped pendant, it triggers a reaction in Stacey upstairs – who watches in horror as her stomach begins to pulsate, and eventually her whole body turns into tiny, chubby, white alien babies.
Concerned, Donna bursts into the bathroom to find a puddle of Stacey's clothes on the floor and a marshmallow-like alien perched on the bathroom window! According to Adipose Industries' executive Miss Foster (a frosty Sarah Lancashire), the pendant triggered premature "parthenogenesis" in Stacey Harris, and she dispatches some of her employees to clean up the scene...
From there, we get a better understanding of Donna's current situation after her adventure with The Doctor in The Runaway Bride Christmas Special. She's living with her irritating mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King), but prefers to spend time with her "Gramps" Wilfred (Bernard Cribbins), who spends his days "up the hill" on his allotment, staring at the stars through a telescope. Donna hasn't told her family about her dalliance with aliens, or the real circumstances behind her wedding day fiasco, but makes it clear to her Gramps that she's waiting for "the right man" to come along – in similar fashion to how Torchwood's Captain Jack spent season 1 waiting for "the right kind of doctor".
There's a great scene for The Doctor inside the TARDIS, as he realizes he's talking to himself about the investigation (signifying his unease at being a lone adventurer), but he's soon back at Adipose to single-handedly thwart Miss Foster's plans. He snoops on Miss Foster by using an outside window-cleaning rig to position himself outside her office, where he eavesdrops on Miss Foster berating one of her employees, Penny Carter (Verona Joseph), who appears to have cottoned-on to her masterplan...
Donna also arrives, and there's a brilliant scene where The Doctor and Donna finally clasp eyes on each other -- albeit from behind a sound-proof window and door, on opposite ends of Miss Foster's office. Possibly intended as a dig at Catherine Tate's brash nature during Runaway Bride, I thought it was particularly amusing of writer Russell T. Davies to have Donna shout and "overact" from behind solid glass, effectively silencing her with mime. It was a nice touch, and the scene has a funny pay-off when Miss Foster calmly interjects on The Doctor and Donna's silent "conversation."
The Doctor and Donna are finally reunited, with Miss Foster in hot pursuit (armed with a sonic pen), which she uses to trap them both on the window cleaning-rig – with Donna dangling from the broken rig, and The Doctor seconds away from a freefall to death. However, after managing to knock Miss Foster's sonic pen away with a ricochet effect from his sonic screwdriver, he manages to get them both to safety inside the Adipose office block.
In typical villainous fashion, Miss Foster and two armed goons eventually locate The Doctor and Donna, and she monologues her nefarious plot: to use Earth as an alternative "breeding planet" for the Adiposian First Family. Behind the wall of the office block is a large system called The Inducer, which can make the 1 million users of her slimming pill go into parthenogenesis and transform into millions of tiny alien Adipose children immediately. The Doctor slips away from Miss Foster with Donna, by creating a sonic wave blast from his screwdriver and her pen, before finding a cupboard with access to The Inducer.
Miss Foster starts the Inducer system, and overweight pill-takers across London begin to contort in pain as their body fat coalesces into chubby aliens. The Doctor uses one of Adipose Industries' pendants to dampen the effects of The Inducers, but is at a loss once Miss Foster increases the power. Fortunately, Donna has another pendant to hand, and the two combined manage to override the system. Still, Miss Foster is content that 10,000 Adipose have been created, and the thousands of chubby aliens march together down London streets, as their nursery ship (looking extremely similar to the Mothership in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind) descends to collect them.
On the roof, The Doctor and Donna watch the Adipose babies float upwards to the nursery ship through the night sky, along with Miss Foster. The Doctor warns her to escape the ship's tractor beam, but she's convinced she'll be handsomely rewarded by the Adiposian First Family for her duties as nanny. But, of course, as The Doctor warned, the Adiposians have to need for a "foster mother" now that their children have been born, and she plummets to her death.
With disaster averted (or at least limited) by The Doctor, Donna invites herself along for more adventures. The Doctor only seems to half-remember asking Donna to be his companion, before she turned him down, but now she's convinced it's the right thing to do. In fact, she's already fully packed with suitcases filling the boot of her car! The Doctor, despite admitting he's lonely, makes it clear that things got complicated with Martha, but seems relieved when Donna makes it abundantly clear she doesn’t fancy him.
Donna leaves her car parked in an alley next to the TARDIS, drops the keys in a nearby bin, and phones her mum to say goodbye. Just before she leaves, Donna asks a blonde girl to keep an eye out for her mum, then rushes off to be with The Doctor. The blonde girl turns around and reveals herself as Rose! Looking strangely sad, Rose walks away... fading like a ghost, until she disappears...
The episode closes with Gramps in his allotment looking through his telescope at the twinkling stars, as the TARDIS spins into view, with The Doctor and Donna clearly visible through its open front door. As Gramps yelps with joy, the TARDIS ascends to the heavens, taking his granddaughter on the ride of her life...
Russell T. Davies manages to deliver an effective premiere, which entertainingly reintroduces Donna Noble and tweaks her character away from the shrill caricature that caused upset in The Runaway Bride special. There are moments when Donna's feisty nature comes through, but it's tempered by a more whimsical air and infectious enthusiasm. Above all, it's just nice to have a companion who categorically has no intention of smooching with The Doctor (the crippling of the otherwise great Martha last year), as it consequently results in a fresher Doctor/companion relationship.
The episode's story is better suited to The Sarah Jane Adventures, but the sense of fun and some genuinely funny moments help make it palatable for teens and adults. But I'm sure kids will love the adorable Adipose babies, as you can already see them on toy shelves for Christmas. The sequences with the hundreds of Adipodes were apparently created using "Massive FX" computer software created for Lord Of The Rings, and it's certainly an improvement over the swarms of Daleks we've seen on the show before.
Partners In Crime certainly kept me entertained, and I was struck by the chemistry between The Doctor and Donna, with Catherine Tate giving an even performance. David Tennant now firmly embodies the wandering Time Lord with an authority not seen since Peter Davison's 80s tenure. He just lacks the iconic presence of Tom Baker, really; but he's still marvellous to watch bounce through scenes.
And what about that surprise appearance from Rose? I didn't see that one coming, although I did realize it was Rose from her hairstyle, before her face was shown. I know, it's sad. It looks likely she's season 4's "arc" element (to be sprinkled throughout the 13 episodes), but why is she back? Her ghost-like disappearance hints that she's found a way to cross dimensions from her own parallel universe into ours, but for what purpose?
Overall, Partners In Crime was a competent, efficient and entertaining start to the new season. There were the usual gripes with Doctor Who in evidence (the gross overuse of the sonic screwdriver, primarily), and I'm confused about Gramps musing on the mysteries of the universe – as he debuted in Voyage Of The Damned as someone expecting first contact because the previous two Christmases had aliens openly attacking London – but never mind. Doctor Who and Torchwood have always operated around populations with dumb reactions to alien first contact, and very bad memories...
All said, I found this to be a good episode with more to recommend than to pick fault with. Catherine Tate might not be as physically attractive as Billie Piper and Freema Agyeman, but she brings a welcome change of dynamic, and her character has definitely improved from Runaway Bride on this episode's evidence. I'm more excited about the possibilities of season 4 than I was yesterday...
5 April 2008
BBC1, 6.20 pm
