The Doctor Meets Agatha Christie
In their final episode of season three of the popular British science-fiction program, Doctor Who, The Doctor frantically spoke to Martha Jones, his current companion at the time, about visiting Agatha Christie, however she had been through a painful year that never existed due to the madness and the destruction caused by The Doctor’s rival Time Lord, The Master. She decided to stay home with her family, however in season four, The Doctor and his newest companion, Donna Noble (played by Catherine Tate) do get to visit Agatha Christie in 1926. The episode, written by Gareth Roberts and directed by Graeme Harper was yet another fun romp filled with typical Doctor Who stories, humor, and lots of running.
They arrive in December 1926 at the estate of Lady Clemency Eddison (Felicity Kendal) and her husband, Colonel Hugh Curbishley ( Christopher Benjamin). Other guest arriving from Professor Peach (Ian Barritt), an obvious take-off on the Clue Board Game character of Professor Plum, however the Professor is not long for this world and is the first victim. The episode is entitled “The Unicorn and The Wasp” and who, or what, either is would be anyone’s guess. Also arriving are Robina Redmond (Felicity Jones) and Reverend Golightly (Tom Goodman Hill). In attendence are also Lady Eddison and The Colonel’s son, Roger Curbishley (Adam Rayner), even though his character seems to be carrying a homosexual crush on one of the waiters, Davenport (Daniel King). When Miss Chandrakala (Leena Dhingra) is mysteriously killed and the butler, Greeves (David Quilter) show Donna, Agatha Christie (played magnificently by Fenella Woolgar), and The Doctor a mysterious room that had been sealed off for forty years, since Lady Eddison returned with malaria, the mystery deepens.
The episode turns into a great whodunit and Agatha Christie and The Doctor interview each of the people at the estate. Some of those scenes are the funniest. The Colonel claiming he was thinking of the Battle of Maefking during the Boer War, when in fact he was reading girlie magazines and remembering the showgirls in Africa and other military outposts. The people all turn out to have air tight alibis, however The Doctor is poisoned by cyanide and another wonderful scene as The Doctor detoxifies himself. He runs to the kitchens and with ginger beer, walnuts, anchovies (for salt) and a shock (in which Donna Noble becomes the fourth companion in the new series to kiss The Doctor) the Doctor to rid his body of the poison. So, not to be out done, The Doctor invites everyone to dinner and poisons each one of them with pepper. Now, I know what you are thinking, pepper isn’t a poison, however it is like an insecticide to wasps.
Earlier, Donna had seen a huge, gigantic wasp outside the forbidden locked room. The buzzing sound can be heard in the room when the lights go out, however when they come back on, The Honorable Roger Curbishley is dead and the necklace of Lady Eddison, called “The Firestone” has been stolen. Joining all the guests together, they determine that Robina Redmond is the American thief known as The Unicorn and that she did steal it during the confusion when Roger was killed, however she swears she did not kill him. The Colonel gives away his biggest secret also, when faced against Agatha Christie, that he can walk and that the only reason he stays in a wheelchair is so that his younger, more beautiful wife will never leave him, Ms. Christie was not going to reveal that secret, which made for another hysterically funny moment.
At long last, though, the truth about Lady Eddison’s malaria is given. She was not battling malaria, however she was pregnant. While in India, she met a man and they fell in love. Even when she found out it was not a real man, but an alien known as a Vespiform, she did not care. The Vespiform had given her the Firestone necklace, which linked her and her child. When the child was born, Eddison gave the boy up for adoption. The necklace kept her and her child linked, and so since Lady Eddison loved Agatha Christie’s books, everything was playing out like one of her stories. Her real son, the Reverend Golightly, was unaware of his alien parentage and during an angry confrontation with vandals and thieves at his church, he changed into his true form, that of a gigantic Wasp. Since Lady Eddison was reading a Christie novel at the time, it linked his mind with Agatha’s mind also.
The Reverend was the killer. Agatha Christie takes “The Firestone” and fleas, with the alien Wasp, The Good Reverened, in pursuit. Ms. Christie leads the Wasp to the lake and Donna, thinking fast, throws the necklace into the lake. This kills the Vespiform and severs the link between her and Agatha Christie. The Doctor had explained to Donna upon arriving, that historically speaking they were arriving the same day Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared for ten days. This is no joke, she really did. The story explains that after the bond was broken between Reverend Wasp and Agatha, her mind simply forgot most of the time. The Doctor does take Donna into the TARDIS and shows her an Agatha Christie novel with a publication date in the year 5 Billion, making her the most popular writer of all time.
