Doctor Who Watch a Thon Season 2 Episode 3 "Tooth and Claw"

As an effort to justify our somewhat obsessive T.V watching Meghan (Of Coffee and Wizards and @MegTao on Twitter) and myself have decided to undertake a Doctor Who Watch-a-long. We'll be starting with the beginning of the 2005 relaunch and will be posting about one episode every Wednesday and Friday, on our respective blogs. We hope you'll join in – whether as a re-watch or to discover the Doctor for the first time!

*just a heads up each post may contain spoilers for that episode and then ones before it*

Episode Summary

Written by: Russel T Davies

Directed by: Euros Lyn

The Doctor attempts to take Rose to Sheffield in 1979 to see Ian Dury in concert, but ends up in the Scottish moors in 1879. They encounter a carriage carrying Queen Victoria, who has been forced to travel by roads to Balmoral Castle as a fallen tree has blocked the train line to Aberdeen, feared to be a potential assassination attempt. The Doctor poses as Dr. James McCrimmon using his psychic paper, and the Queen invites him and Rose to join her as she travels to the Torchwood Estate, a favourite of her late consort Prince Albert, to spend the night. The royal party is unaware that the Torchwood Estate has been captured by a group of monks from a monastery in St. Catherine's Glen led by Father Angelo, forcing its owner, Sir Robert MacLeish, to play into their ruse as they take the place of the house's servants and guards. The monks, having arranged for the fallen tree to force the Queen to the estate, have brought a man infected with a form of lycanthropy, hoping to pass its nature to the Queen and create a new "Empire of the Wolf".

Thoughts on the Episode
The beginning of this episode - when the monks invade Torchwood is like Merlin meets The Last Airbender. I love it! I was instantly paying attention. Although come to think of it those monks were freaky. Between this episode and Fringe I'm developing an irrational fear of bald men.

Queen Victoria is a significant character in this episode. There are a lot of references to her late husband, and other royal matters - which made me realize how little I know about British history. You think I would be better informed since we have a whole holiday dedicated to Queen Victoria but turns out I'm more than a little clueless. That being said when Queen Victoria pulled that gun out of her purse she became my favourite royal

Much of the episode seemed way over the top to me and I just couldn't get into like I do other Doctor Who episodes.  It was still fun and entertaining but there were a lot of quickly given explanations that I didn't quite catch and I think I need to rewatch it a couple times to really understand everything that was going on.

 However, despite the drawbacks "Tooth and Claw" is still amazing because of one moment in the library. The owner of Torchwood protests the Doctor's new plan by stating that they have no weapons. Then the Doctor whips out this line: "You want weapons? We're in a library! Books!" and then he puts on the glasses and they read. Amazing! This is truly the man for me.

SWOON!

Favourite Moment
At the beginning when The Doctor and Rose first emerge from the Tardis they are stopped by the Queen's men as she's traveling through Scotland. Upon hearing that they're no longer in England the Doctor quickly adapts his accent.

I love that this is David Tennant's real voice. I'm not usually one for Scottish accents but on him  <3

I also love when Rose finally gets the Queen to say "I am not amused"