Tooth and Claw (TV story)
- You may be looking for the comic strip of the same name.
Tooth and Claw was the second episode of the second series of BBC Wales Doctor Who. Written exceedingly quickly by Russell T Davies, (PCOM: Tooth and Claw) it nonetheless had a significant impact upon the mythology of the Doctor Who universe. It established the narrative origins of the Torchwood Institute, and thus was significant to the overall Torchwood story arc in Doctor Who and to the Torchwood spin-off, as well.
However, as an early Tenth Doctor episode, it also set down some important character beats for that still-young incarnation. In particular, it showed David Tennant's Doctor to be an aficionado of 20th century pop culture. It also confirmed that this incarnation was going to occasionally use his tongue to identify the chemical composition of non-foodstuffs, just as he had earlier done in The Christmas Invasion.
Behind the scenes, the episode was unusual in that it had a "guest visual effects artist". Because the wolf was to have close-ups, and animal hair was at the time exceedingly difficult to portray convincingly, The Mill were compelled to import a "CGI hair specialist" for this one adventure. (DCOM: Tooth and Claw)
Synopsis
The Doctor and Rose have to protect Queen Victoria, but can anything stop the Empire of the Wolf?
Plot
A group of hooded monks travels across the Scottish moors, entering the Torchwood Estate belonging to Sir Robert MacLeish. There, the monk leader Father Angelo demands possession of the house and when the Steward refuses, beats him into submission with a quarterstaff. The monks remove their cassocks, revealing red robes, and exhibiting incredible martial skill they make short work of the rest of the men. They take over the house, chaining everyone they find in the cellar, including Lady Isobel MacLeish. The monks then carry a covered cage into the cellar. When Father Angelo unveils it Lady Isobel sees its contents and screams...
In the TARDIS, the Doctor offers to take Rose to Sheffield in 1979 to see Ian Dury in concert. However, they exit the police box to find themselves surrounded by armed soldiers on horseback. From their accents and attire, the Doctor realises that they have arrived in 1879 Scotland instead. Using psychic paper and a Scottish accent, he convinces Captain Reynolds that he is a Scottish doctor named James McCrimmon. An authoritative voice issues from the carriage the soldiers are escorting, asking the Doctor and Rose to approach. When they see who is within, the Doctor introduces Rose to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, who is on her way to Balmoral Castle. When Victoria sees the psychic paper, she notes that it says that the Lord Provost has appointed the Doctor as her protector. The royal carriage is travelling by road because a fallen tree has blocked the train line to Aberdeen. The two travellers accompany the carriage on to the Torchwood Estate, where the Queen plans to spend the night. On the way Rose bets the Doctor she can get the Queen to say "We are not amused" for a fiver. He initially refuses but takes her up on the bet when she raises it to a tenner. Throughout the rest of the episode, Rose keeps trying to make the Queen say her trademark statement.
Sir Robert watches from the window, with Father Angelo (disguised as a servant) behind him. Sir Robert goes to receive Victoria, but despite hinting that all is not right, the Queen insists on staying, as the estate was a favourite place of her late consort, Prince Albert, who used to visit Sir Robert's father. They go into the manor, with Reynolds deploying his men to guard the estate. He also carries a small leather box inside, which he locks in a safe. In the cellar, the captive in the cage, which appears to be a hooded man, indicates to the other prisoners to be silent.
Sir Robert shows the Queen, Doctor and Rose the Observatory, which contains a telescope his father designed. Examining the telescope, the Doctor notices that it has too many prisms, causing too much magnification for simple stargazing. Sir Robert says that he knows little of his father's rather eccentric work. Victoria mentions that Sir Robert's father was a polymath, equally versed in science and folklore, and that Albert was fascinated by local stories of a wolf. Before Sir Robert can tell the tale, however, Father Angelo interrupts, offering to take the guests to their rooms to prepare for dinner.
While Rose searches through the wardrobes for more appropriate attire, the disguised monks serve the soldiers drugged drinks, which knock them unconscious. Rose discovers a frightened servant girl, Flora, hidden in one of the cupboards, and Flora tells Rose what has happened. However, when they leave the room to find the Doctor, discovering an unconscious soldier, they are captured, taken to the cellar and chained with the others.
At the dinner table, Sir Robert tells them the story of how, for the past 300 years, livestock would be found ripped apart every full moon. Once a generation, a boy would also vanish, and there would be sightings of a werewolf. In the cellar, Rose notices the caged man's alien-looking eyes, and asks him what planet he is from. Amused that he has actually encountered intelligence, he tells Rose that the human body he possesses was born ten miles away, a boy stolen by the Brethren, but he comes from a much longer distance. Rose offers to take the alien intelligence back home, but he does not wish to leave, instead intending to bite Queen Victoria, migrate into her body and begin the Empire of the Wolf. He notes that Rose has "something of the wolf" about her, but while she burned like the sun, all he requires is the Moon.
Upstairs, Sir Robert relates that his father believed the story as fact, and even claimed to have communicated with the beast and learned its purpose. However, the Brethren of the monastery in the Glen of St Catherine opposed his investigations. Sir Robert goes as far as to ask, what if the monks had turned from God and started worshipping the wolf? The Doctor sees Father Angelo face the full moon through the window, chanting in Latin, "lupus magnus est, lupus fortis est, lupus deus est" – "The wolf is great, the wolf is strong, the wolf is God" – and realises that the enemy is here.
The monks throw open the cellar doors, and moonlight streams into the Host's cage, triggering a horrifying transformation. Rose rallies the other prisoners, telling them not to look, but to pull on the chains. Sir Robert apologises to the Queen for his betrayal, explaining that they were holding his wife. The Doctor demands to know where Rose is, but Father Angelo ignores him, continuing his chanting. The Doctor and Sir Robert rush down to the cellar, leaving the Queen with Reynolds, who trains his pistol on Father Angelo, asking him what his goals are. Father Angelo replies, "the throne", and swiftly disarms Reynolds.
The Doctor and Sir Robert reach the cellar just as Rose and the other prisoners manage to break their chains, but the Host has finished his transformation, and is breaking out of the cage. The others run out of the cellar, with the Doctor transfixed at the "Beautiful!" sight of the werewolf until the last second. He seals the door with his sonic screwdriver as the werewolf howls at the moon. Above, Victoria surmises correctly that the monks had sabotaged the train tracks to bring her here. However, she is not unprepared, and threatens Father Angelo with her own revolver. He sneers at her sceptically, calling her "woman". The Queen retorts, "The correct form of address is 'Your Majesty'!" and fires.
The women go to leave the house through the kitchen, while the Steward organises his men. The werewolf has broken through the sealed door, but is driven back momentarily by rifle fire. The women find the kitchen door locked, and the courtyard beyond guarded by monks with rifles. The Doctor tells the men they should retreat upstairs. The Steward says that nothing could have lived through the rifle barrage – and is promptly grabbed and killed by the werewolf. Sir Robert, Rose and the Doctor run.
The werewolf slaughters the remaining men, and makes its way to the kitchen, where Lady Isobel and the other women are huddling in fear. However, instead of killing them, it sniffs the air and leaves. Meanwhile, Victoria retrieves the mysterious box from the safe, and meets up with Sir Robert, Rose and the Doctor. However, as they try to escape through the windows, the monks outside open fire. The four run upstairs, pursued by the werewolf. They meet Reynolds, who after confirming that Victoria has the contents of the box, says he will buy them time until they can get away. He fires at the werewolf, but is quickly torn apart as the others enter the Library and barricade the doors.
However, the werewolf does not try to break through. The Doctor wonders what it is about the room that is preventing its entry. Victoria demands to know what the creature is, and why the Doctor has lost his Scottish accent. The Doctor tries to explain, but she will have none of it, declaring angrily that this is not her world.
In the kitchen, Lady Isobel notices that the monks are wearing mistletoe around their necks, a charm against werewolves. She then notices sprigs of mistletoe scattered on the kitchen floor, and orders the other women to gather the scraps up. In the Library, the Doctor notices wooden decorations on the doors carved into the shape of mistletoe. He then realises that the walls are varnished with viscum album – oil of mistletoe. The werewolf is allergic to it, or the monks had trained it to be to control it, and Sir Robert's father knew this. Sir Robert laments that they do not have an actual weapon against it, but the Doctor points out they have the greatest arsenal available: the Library itself.
Lady Isobel and the women cook up the mistletoe into a broth. Upstairs, the others discover an account of something falling to Earth in 1540, near the monastery. The Doctor theorises that perhaps only a single cell survived, passing itself from host to host while it grew stronger with each generation. Now it wants to establish an empire, advancing technology and building starships and missiles fueled by coal and driven by steam, laying waste to history. Victoria breaks in at this point, telling Sir Robert that she would rather die than let herself be infected, and asking him to find a place of safekeeping for something more precious. She reveals what was in the box: the Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Queen had been transporting it to the royal jewelers at Hazlehead for it to be re-cut. The Doctor remembers that Prince Albert kept insisting on having the diamond cut down and was never satisfied with the shape or size.
Suddenly, the Doctor has a brainstorm. The diamond, the telescope, Prince Albert and Sir Robert's father are all connected. The Doctor asks, what if the two men were not just exchanging stories, but treated it all as real, and laid a trap for the wolf? Just then, the werewolf crashes through the skylight, forcing the others to flee the Library. The werewolf nearly catches up with Rose, but Lady Isobel appears, throwing the mistletoe broth in the werewolf's face and forcing it away. Sir Robert kisses his wife and tells her to take the women back downstairs, while he and the others climb the stairs to the Observatory.
The Doctor needs time, however, as the doors to the Observatory are not barred against the werewolf – Sir Robert's father intended the wolf to come in. Sir Robert offers to place himself between them and the werewolf, willing to die with honour to make up for his betrayal. He holds the werewolf off with a sword, and as his screams are heard through the door, the Doctor and Rose maneuver the telescope so that it is aligned with the full moon. The telescope is not just a telescope: it is a light chamber, magnifying the Moon's rays. The werewolf may thrive on moonlight, but it can still drown in it.
The werewolf crashes through the door and prepares to slash at Victoria, but the Doctor tosses the diamond on the floor and it catches the light beam, which intercepts the werewolf and suspends it in mid-air. The werewolf reverts to human form and asks the Doctor to make it brighter and let it go. The Doctor obliges, and the werewolf form reasserts itself, howls and fades away in the moonbeam. The Doctor notices Victoria's wrist is bleeding, and wonders if the werewolf managed to bite her after all, but the Queen defensively dismisses his concern, saying it was just a splinter from the door.
In the morning, Victoria dubs the two travelers Sir Doctor of TARDIS and Dame Rose of the Powell Estate. Having rewarded them, however, she banishes them from the Empire. The Queen does not know who or what they are, but observes that their world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and yet they consider it fun. She will not allow this in her world, and warns them to consider how long they might survive such a dangerous lifestyle. During this she says "I am not amused" causing Rose to cheer, she won the bet. The two make their way back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor reflects that it was always a mystery from where Victoria (and from her, her children) contracted haemophilia, and perhaps that was just a Victorian euphemism for lycanthropy.
Back at the Torchwood Estate, Victoria tells Lady Isobel that her husband's sacrifice and the ingenuity of his father will live on. The Queen has seen that Britain has enemies beyond imagination, and proposes to establish an institute to research and fight these enemies: the Torchwood Institute. And if the Doctor returns, Torchwood will be waiting...
Cast
- The Doctor – David Tennant
- Rose Tyler – Billie Piper
- Queen Victoria – Pauline Collins
- Sir Robert MacLeish – Derek Riddell
- Lady Isobel MacLeish – Michelle Duncan
- Steward – Ron Donachie
- Captain Reynolds – Jamie Sives
- Father Angelo – Ian Hanmore
- The Host – Tom Smith
- Flora – Ruth Milne
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
References
- The Doctor uses his Psychic paper to establish his and Rose's credentials to Queen Victoria and her associates.
- Script editor Simon Winstone has said that mistletoe is not indigenous to Scotland, and therefore its heavy presence in this story is supposed to further alert knowledgeable viewers that Sir Robert's father had deliberately imported it as a defense against the wolf. (PCOM: Tooth and Claw)
Individuals
- The Doctor mentions Caesar crossing the Rubicon.
- Queen Victoria's full title is; Her Majesty, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India and Defender of Faith.
- The Doctor is seen singing along to "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, whose concert he had hoped to take Rose to in 1979.
Locations
- The majority of this story occurs in Torchwood House.
- The Doctor mentions he had a hand in Skylab and almost losing a thumb.
Races and species
- The young man that is the werewolf is known as The Host; it is also known as Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform cell inhabiting Human body.
Timeline
- The Doctor Doctor enthusiastically describes 1979 as "a hell of a year", citing, among other events, the invasion of Vietnam by China.
Story notes
- Pauline Collins appeared previously in the series as Samantha Briggs in the Second Doctor serial DW: The Faceless Ones (1967). She was invited to turn Samantha into a regular companion in 1967, but declined.
- Rose tries to get Queen Victoria to say "We are not amused"; however she ends up saying "I am not amused".
- When Sir Robert offers to precede the Queen out of the window, she calls him "my Sir Walter Raleigh". Actor Derek Riddell had played Raleigh in the BBC drama The Virgin Queen, screened earlier in the year. The script originally had Victoria refer to Sir Francis Drake, until Riddell pointed out that this would have been incorrect for the reference the Queen was making.
- According to the internet commentary, actor Tom Smith, who played the Host, studied at drama school with David Tennant.
- The BBC Website gives this story a Fear Factor of 5 (Terrifying)
- Tooth and Claw was also the name of a story in the Doctor Who comic strip published in Doctor Who Magazine. The story ran from DWM #257 to #260, was written by Alan Barnes and drawn by Martin Geraghty and Robin Smith
- David Tennant uses his natural Scottish accent at points in this episode.
- Michelle Duncan and Jamie Sives were unable to attend the readthrough for this story, and their parts were read by David Tennant's parents, who happened to be visiting the Doctor Who set. Tennant told reporters at the series' press launch, "Because it's set in Scotland they were delighted to be asked to read in. My Mum played Lady Isobel and my Dad played Captain Reynolds and they were in seventh heaven. And they were genuinely cheesed off when they didn't get asked to play the parts for real! I was like 'chill-out Mum and Dad, back in your box!'"
- During the story DW: The Curse of Peladon, the Third Doctor reveals that he was present at Queen Victoria's coronation in 1838, although she apparently does not remember this or did not meet him in person at that time – he also would have been a different incarnation (one of the first three) so she would not have realized it was the same man.
- The Doctor identifies himself as "Doctor James McCrimmon of the township of Balamory" – Balamory is the setting of a CBeebies television program which although designed for pre-school children has gained a cult following in the UK. This town, however, is not entirely fictional – the children's TV show is filmed in a village called Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. And oddly enough QV would usually take up residence in a town called Balmoral.
- In the same conversation, the Doctor holds up his psychic paper and states, "As you can see, a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Dr. Bell, himself." Dr. Joseph Bell (1837–1911) was a real-life lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Arthur Conan Doyle, who served as his clerk starting in 1877, is said to have loosely based his fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes on Dr. Bell.
- Four versions of this story were written each were set in different settings, all four scripts were specifically written for each of Russell T Davies' choices for the role of the Tenth Doctor and set in their home town. If Bill Nighy had played the Tenth Doctor it would have been set in the sewers of Caterham, Surrey, England. Had David Walliams played the role it would have still been set in the sewers of Surrey but a different part. Had the unknown (and unnamed by the BBC) actor who spoke in a cockney accent played the role it would have been set in the sewers of East London.
- In Doctor Who Confidential (episode Fear Factor) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was cited as the inspiration for the warrior monks.
- This episode introduces a recurring joke in which the Doctor, aghast at his companions awful attempts at adopting local accents, quietly hushes them with a "Don't do that." Martha Jones gets the same treatment in DW: The Shakespeare Code and DW: The Infinite Quest, while Donna Noble is on the receiving end in DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp and DW: Midnight, although the latter example is not humorous.
Ratings
- 8.9 million viewers (42.3%)
Myths
to be added
Filming locations
- Treowen House in Dingestow, Wales was a site of filming for this episode, representing a Torchwood House in the Scottish Highlands
Production errors
to be added
Continuity
- When Rose first encounters the wolf in its human form it says it can see the wolf in her and that she "burned like the Sun", a reference to her transformation in DW: The Parting of the Ways.
- It is revealed at the very end of this episode that Queen Victoria founded the Torchwood Institute, taking the name from the estate, with a remit to investigate paranormal events such as the werewolf in this episode, and (ironically) to guard against the Doctor should he return. The Torchwood Institute has previously been referenced in DW: Bad Wolf and was seen in action in The Christmas Invasion. The Institute is the basis of the spin off series entitled Torchwood.
- The Doctor once again seems surprised by what appears on his psychic paper. It may just be that he allowed his mind to wander as Captain Jack did in DW: The Empty Child or it may be that someone else is manipulating the paper as the Face of Boe was able to do in New Earth. The Doctor says that the psychic paper shows the viewer whatever they want to see. When he handed it to Queen Victoria it said, as he described, exactly what Queen Victoria wanted to see.
- The Doctor introduces himself as "Doctor James McCrimmon", a reference to his past Scottish companion Jamie McCrimmon. This is the first direct on-screen reference to a companion or any named character from the original 1963-89 series, predating the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 a week later.
- The Seventh Doctor also foiled the plans of an alien who wanted to assassinate Queen Victoria in the episode DW: Ghost Light.
- There have been several stories prior to this episode involving (or featuring) werewolves including: PDA: Wolfsbane and EDA: Kursaal, BFA: Loups-Garoux, DW: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
- The Doctor was previously knighted as "Sir Doctor" - albeit by an imposter of King John - in DW: The King's Demons.
Timeline
- This story occurs after DWA: Down the Rabbit Hole
- This story occurs before DWAM: Under the Volcano
Home video releases
- This episode was released as a "vanilla" DVD along with School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace.
- It was also released as part of the Series 2 boxed set
- This was also released with Issue 8 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.
See also
External links
- BBC Episode Guide - Tooth and Claw
- TARDISODE
- Doctor Who: 'Tooth and Claw' or 'The Origins of Torchwood'
- Tooth and Claw at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Tooth and Claw at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Tooth and Claw at The Whoniverse
- Tooth and Claw at The Locations Guide
- The Encycolpedia of Fantastic Film and Television - Tooth and Claw
