Doctor Who 2x2 “Tooth & Claw” FULL REACTION

I really like this episode. An action packed adventure, which is what Doctor Who does best. I think this episode does a good job of developing the dynamic between Rose and the new Doctor. We barely got any time with 10 and Rose together in "The Christmas Invasion" and "New Earth". In the first episode the Doctor's knocked out for most of it because he's newly regenerated and in the second, Rose is possessed by Cassandra for 90% of it. So, it fell upon "Tooth and Claw" to establish the dynamic between 10 and Rose. They're shown to have a great spirit of adventure and enjoy having fun, making jokes and generally have a good time in each others company. However, as Queen Victoria observes, they're also quite smug, reckless and self indulgent. They didn't seem to show the proper amount of fear and concern considering the situation they found themselves in. Instead, they seemed to get a thrill out of the danger of it all and how cool it was to be chased around by a werewolf. In fact, Queen Victoria sets up the Torchwood institute because she was so appalled by the Doctor and Rose's behaviour and everything else she witnessed. I think Victoria talking about what the supernatural and ghost stories mean to her is quite poignant tied in with Victoria's loss of Albert. She wants some consolation, some kind of contact from the dead. You see how much this effects the Doctor too, who can certainly relate to Victoria's sense of loss. However, she rejects those same ideas when they become more than just stories. Clearly she wants to keep those stories as "fanciful tales intended to scare the children, but good for the blood" and nothing more. Rose and the Doctor represent that "other world" and she wants to keep them and all of that out. It disgusts her that they seem to take great pleasure in dealing with these things, despite there being death and destruction all around them. I think there was an intended hypocrisy on the part of Victoria, but that only served to make her more human. She definitely made some good points though. All she wanted was to protect her people from the great danger Rose and the Doctor seem to bring along with them, but in doing so, she created Torchwood. Of course, we know what Torchwood did to the Sycorax during "The Christmas Invasion", but they wouldn't have existed without the Doctor and Rose's influence in the first place. It'll be interesting to see what kind of impact the events of this story will have on the rest of this series....

Azmat Mahmood