The wait, for many fans, had become almost unbearable and the anticipation was helped along by websites, newspapers and cinema trailers. So, was it worth the wait? Was it just what the Doctor ordered?
“Partners In Crime” the first episode of series four will probably have disappointed many hard core fans of the show. It was admittedly plot-lite as its main focus was the reintroduction of the Donna Noble character. What plot there was though was cheeky, irreverent and topical to say the least.
The Doctor and Donna independent of each other infiltrate, by not so cunning and near identical means, a company called Adipose. The company has successfully marketed a slimming pill to over a million Londoners and both suspect that there is more to it than meets the eye. Donna is investigating as she (rightly) believes that by seeking out unusual trouble she will attract the Doctor's attention. She has regretted not taking up his offer of a few lifts in the Tardis and aims to put this right if she can.
The two soon discover the truth: that the Adipose are a race of creatures that breed using the fat of other life forms. Each evening those people who have been taking the pill miraculously lose a kilo in their sleep What they do not realize is that baby Adipose are being created from their fat and are making their way back to their Nanny's HQ. The Nanny, made aware of the Doctor's extra-terrestrial origins, decides to speed up the birth process and it is up to the Doctor and Donna to save a million Londoners from becoming the means of producing the next generation of Adipose.
Of course, as you may assume, the Doctor and Donna save the day - but I don't want to give too much away here. Donna immediately muscles her way on to the Tardis - about fifteen pre-packed bags in hand - but not before exchanging a few words with someone from the Doctor's past who then mysteriously fades away.
There have been a lot of discussions on fan forums about Catherine Tate's suitability for the role of the new companion. It was a welcome relief that she played the Donna role as straight as she possibly could. The exchanges that she had with her relations introduced us properly to another “Who Family” that we will no doubt see again in the future. These comprised in this episode of her bossy, nagging mother and her understanding but slightly dim grandfather. However, there was room in the script for humor and the mime scene when the Doctor and Donna finally discover each other again was hilarious.
The Adipose themselves were hardly scary, but as “children” they weren't expected to be. In fact they were adorable and the BBC may well have the Christmas present for girls on their hands here if they can reproduce the look and sound of the originals. The fact that in one scene they had blithely popped out of a once fat but now (alas) non-existent girl added to the fun rather than giving a genuine fright. I was rather hoping that once the birthing process was fully underway that they would round on the general population and start munching on the fat but these aliens were destined to be of the cuddly variety. There is a scene where an army of the little mites are making their way to the place they will be taken by their own kind and there was one little guy skipping in a slightly camp manner that raised a chuckle. So, CGI can be adorable!
Not so their Nanny, played with panache and a wide-eyed gusto by television favorite Sarah Lancashire. It was a shame however that her character was given little time other than to march around giving orders and threaten people. The episode was not happy simply to satirise the diet culture of the UK but also to take a pop at the recent fad with super-nannies. This worked quite well but, with a running time of only fifty minutes there was woefully little scope for character development let alone anything other than the crudest pointers to the satirical content of the episode.
So were there enough of the usual thrills and spills to satisfy the audience? I felt that this episode served as a fine reintroduction of Donna's character but the alien threat was not threatening enough to take desperately seriously. Although there were some fine moments of terror - if you don't like heights than avoid the middle part of this episode - this wasn't quite frightening enough. When you think about the thousands of children who worried about statues coming to life after a certain episode of the last series it would have been nice to consider a nation of youngsters eyeing their podgy little bellies with some trepidation. I fear that this was not the case: perhaps those involved felt they couldn't overdo this one for fear of offending the parents and scaring the children witless. After all it is one thing to be wary when passing a statue, but one has to go to bed with one's premature love handles and bingo wings.
The next episode, “The Fires of Pompeii”, will be the great decider for this series. Whether or not the lighter tone will persist will decide the immediate future for the good Doctor.
