TV-Reviewed

Stepping out of the TARDIS, the Doctor and Donna arrive in 1920s England. And it isn’t long before we find out that they’ve dropped right smack dab into the middle of a classic Agatha Christie murder mystery–including the “Queen of Crime” herself. A Lady Edison has invited the famous writer–known at that time for her Hercule Poirot detective series–to a dinner party at her country estate. Of course, our two party crashers, the Doctor and Donna fit right in without any questions thanks to the Doctor’s infamous psychic paper.

While walking the grounds, the Doctor and Donna, along with the other partygoers, are soon interrupted from their getting-to-know-each-other routine when a maid comes running out of the house screaming, literally, “murder.” Once she calms down, the maid says that it’s the professor who’s been offed.

The Doctor, of course, switches into sleuth-mode to help with the murder investigation. He even includes Donna as his “plucky” assistant. While the Doctor and Agatha look for clues in–where else?–the library, Donna goes on her own to find clues elsewhere, which leads her to a locked room and a confrontation with the butler. On Lady Edison’s strict orders, the (locked) room is never to be opened by either staff or visitor; forty years before, after a six-month battle with malaria that she had contracted while on vacation in India, she had had the bedroom in which she had recovered closed off. A suspicious clue, Donna figures, if ever there was one. So, ignoring the butler’s protests, she orders him to unlock and open the door.

Immediately upon entering the room, there’s a buzzing sound and it isn’t long before Donna is attacked by a giant…uh…wasp. Of course, when The Doctor arrives to save the day he recognizes that they aren’t dealing with a Human killer, but possibly an alien one instead. Perhaps. The giant wasp he knows is alien, sure, but is it the true murderer? There’s also the jewel thief, the Unicorn, to consider, though, why would he murder the professor?

There are many clues laid out for us to try and sort through throughout this entire episode. By the time the remaining suspects are gathered in the parlor, four people have lost their lives, and the Doctor has a pretty good idea who the culprit is–but there’s a lot of finger pointing. With Agatha Christie’s help, the murderer is slowly revealed. Is it Lady Edison? Is it the Unicorn (the woman jewel thief) who has been after Lady Edison’s expensive necklace all night? The one that contains the famous Fire Stone. Or, perhaps, the colonel did it? Well, in a shocking twist, we learn it’s none other than the town’s reverend. The reverend that is Lady Edison’s son and part alien. Apparently, Lady Edison had had a romance with an alien masquerading as a Human.

Things turn ugly, though, as the Doctor reveals the reverend’s killings. Agatha Christie blames herself, too, for the recent murderous happenings at the estate, and so does the reverend. The reverend changes into his actual wasp-like persona, and the chase is on. In a dramatic scene, Agatha Christie jumps into one of the cars out front and drives off towards the lake with the wasp-reverend in hot pursuit. Putting the clues together, she takes the Fire Stone, which contains the consciousness of the reverend’s actual-self, and tosses it into the lake. “How do you kill a wasp?” the Doctor asks. Yep, you drown it.

Then, here’s where fiction meets fact, the savvy team of writers behind Doctor Who weave a historic fact into the story’s plot: In 1926, the real Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days; her car was found at chalk pit and she was later found to be alive, staying at the Harrogate Hydro hotel claiming that she had no recollection of the previous eleven days. So, how did this happen? Well, there was some feedback from the Fire Stone, you see, when the reverend died, which caused her to lose her memories.

The Doctor and Donna leave, case closed, but, it seems, Donna was inspirational to Agatha Christie, giving her the idea of Miss Marple–well, sort of.

Rating: 9.0