Tooth and Claw (TV story)

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Tooth and Claw was the second episode of series 2 of Doctor Who.

Tardisode 2 serves as its prologue. Written very quickly by 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.

As an early Tenth Doctor episode, it set down some important character beats for that still-young incarnation. In particular, the story saw the Tenth Doctor's first remembrance of his lost race, with Queen Victoria's talk of loss and death. In addition, it showed David Tennant's Doctor to be an aficionado of 20th century pop culture. It also confirmed that this incarnation would 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 particularly difficult to portray convincingly, The Mill were compelled to import a "CGI hair specialist" for this one adventure. (DCOM: Tooth and Claw)

Synopsis

Landing in the 1870s by accident, the Tenth Doctor and Rose get caught up in trying to protect Queen Victoria. However, it seems something more sinister is afoot than a simple assassination plot; can the time travellers stop the coming of the Empire of the Wolf?

Plot

Hooded monks travel across the Scottish moors. They enter the Torchwood Estate belonging to Sir Robert MacLeish. Their leader, Father Angelo, demands possession of the house. When the steward refuses, asking if wrath of God would make them comply, Angelo responds "No. The fist of man" as he and the rest of the monks remove their cassocks, revealing orange robes. Exhibiting 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. They carry a covered cage into the cellar. When asked what is contained in it, Father Angelo uncovers the cage. Lady Isobel screams.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS is travelling back through time. Inside, the Tenth Doctor is trying his hardest to steer to Sheffield in 1979, so he can take Rose to see Ian Dury in concert. In the Doctor's words 1979 was a hell of year; China invades Vietnam, The Muppet Movie, Margaret Thatcher. Grabbing his jacket, the Doctor also remembers 1979 is when Skylab fell to earth with help from him, the ordeal nearly losing him his thumb.

He ushers Rose out into the 1970s; however, they are met by armed soldiers on horseback. They demand explanations for the Doctor's presence and Rose's "nakedness". The Doctor realises that they have arrived in 1879 Scotland; "close enough" the Doctor shrugs. Using psychic paper and a Scottish accent, he convinces Captain Reynolds he is a Scottish doctor named James McCrimmon from the township of Balamory. Rose also attempts to speak with a Scottish accent, only to be shushed by the Doctor; unlike him, she would slip up and speak in her natural accent. The Doctor claims to be disorientated due to chasing Rose for some time; when he was buying in London, "it was either her or the Elephant Man." Reynolds isn't amused by the joke.

An authoritative voice from the carriage the soldiers are escorting asks the Doctor and Rose to approach. 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 it says the Lord Provost has appointed the Doctor as her protector; looks like the time travellers are stuck in this time period for a while. 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 ten quid that she can get the Queen to say, "I am not amused".

Sir Robert watches from the window, with Father Angelo, disguised as a servant, behind him. Sir Robert goes to receive Victoria. Despite his hinting that all is not right, the Queen insists on staying; the estate was a favourite of her late consort, Prince Albert, who used to visit Sir Robert's father. They enter 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, who 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. The Doctor notices it has many prisms more than a typical telescope, causing too much magnification for simple stargazing; he then asks Rose if he was being rude again, which she confirms. Sir Robert says he knows little of his father's 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 wardrobes. Flora tells Rose what has happened; Rose decides to tell the Doctor. When they leave the room to find the Doctor, they find an unconscious soldier. They are captured, taken to the cellar and chained with the others.

At the dinner table, Sir Robert tells the Queen, the Doctor and Reynolds a story. For the past three hundred years, livestock has been found ripped apart every full moon. Once a generation, a boy vanishes, and there are sightings of a werewolf. In the cellar, Rose notices the caged man's alien-looking eyes. She asks him what planet he is from. Amused, he tells Rose 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. He shall bite Queen Victoria, migrate into her body and begin the Empire of the Wolf. He says 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 to be 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 asks 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" — or "The wolf is great, the wolf is strong, the wolf is God". The Doctor questions what if the monks were with them now?

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. As Father Angelo is transfixed with chanting at the moon, Sir Robert apologises to the Queen for his betrayal; 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 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 breaks out of the cage. The others run out of the cellar, the Doctor transfixed at the "beautiful" 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, after six attempts on her life, and pulls a small revolver from her bag, aiming at Angelo. He sneers at her sceptically, calling her "woman". The Queen retorts, "The correct form of address is 'Your Majesty'!" and shoots him dead.

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 seized 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 huddle in fear. However, instead of killing them, it sniffs the air and leaves. Meanwhile, Victoria retrieves the mysterious box from the safe and meets with Sir Robert, Rose and the Doctor. As they try to escape through the windows, the monks open fire. The four run upstairs, pursued by the werewolf. They meet Reynolds, who confirms Victoria has the contents of the box and says he will buy them time to get away. He fires at the werewolf but is quickly torn apart as the others enter the library and barricade the doors.

The Doctor listens to the Wolf sniffing the door.

However, the werewolf does not try to break through. The Doctor wonders what it is about the room that is protecting them from the wolf. 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 sternly that this is not her world. When asked about weapons, the Doctor points out that they have the greatest weapons of all in this very room: books full of knowledge, which can give them clues as to how to fight back.

In the kitchen, Lady Isobel notices the monks are wearing mistletoe about their necks, a charm against werewolves. She notices sprigs of mistletoe on the kitchen floor and orders the other women to gather the scraps. In the library, the Doctor notices wooden details on the doors carved into the shape of mistletoe. He realises the walls are varnished with viscum album — oil of mistletoe. The werewolf is allergic to it, or the monks have trained it to be to control it, and Sir Robert's father knew this. Lady Isobel and the women cook the mistletoe into a broth. In the library, the others find an account of something falling near the monastery in 1540. 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 she will die rather than be infected. She asks him to find a safe place for something more precious. She reveals the contents of the box: the Koh-i-Noor. The Queen had been taking it to the royal jewellers at Hazlehead 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. Yelling in shock, the Doctor has an epiphany: 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. 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 the werewolf and them, willing to die with honour to atone for his betrayal. He holds the werewolf off with a sword. As his screams penetrate the door, the Doctor and Rose manoeuvre the telescope to align it with the full moon. The telescope is not a telescope, but 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 moves to slash at Victoria, but the Doctor tosses the diamond on the floor. It catches the light, which intercepts the werewolf and suspends it in mid-air. The werewolf reverts to human form; the host asks the Doctor to make the light brighter, to end its life and the "Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform" as the Doctor calls it.

Honouring the request of the poor boy, the Doctor precedes to do so. 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 bit her after all, but the Queen dismisses his concern, saying it was just a splinter from the door.

In the morning, Victoria dubs the two travellers Sir Doctor of TARDIS and Dame Rose of the Powell Estate. Having rewarded them, she banishes them from the Empire (not a problem for Rose, as she lives in the 21st century; the Doctor isn't even native to Earth). The Queen admits that she does not know who or even what they are, but that their world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and yet they consider it fun. She makes it clear that she cannot allow this in her world, and warns them to consider how much longer they might survive such a dangerous life. During this she says, "I am not amused". Having won her bet with the Doctor, Rose cannot suppress a smirk, until Victoria adds that she is "not remotely amused".

The two make their way back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor reflects it was always a mystery how Victoria and then her children had contracted haemophilia. He muses that perhaps was just a Victorian euphemism for lycanthropy. Rose speculates humorously that perhaps even the royal family of her day are actually werewolves! As the TARDIS takes off, both of them laugh and howl at the idea.

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 Britain has enemies beyond imagination and will establish an institute to research and fight these enemies: the Torchwood Institute. If the Doctor returns, he should beware, because Torchwood will be waiting.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



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

Individuals

Locations

Species

Years

Spacecraft

  • The Doctor mentions he had a hand in Skylab being "brought back to Earth" and almost lost a thumb in doing so.

Story notes

  • Torchwood is founded in this story; thanks to Queen Victoria's dislike of the Time Lord, they mistakenly mark the Doctor as a threat, despite his helping humanity.
  • Rose tries to get Queen Victoria to say, "We are not amused"; however, she ends up saying, "I am not amused". The Doctor and Rose are still delighted, however.
  • The BBC Website gives this story a Fear Factor of 5 (Terrifying).
  • The comic story 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 various points in this episode, the only time in the series that he does so.
  • 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 at the time. 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!'"
  • 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 Queen Victoria would usually take up residence in a town called Balmoral. Jamie McCrimmon, of course, was a companion of the Second Doctor.
  • 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. Sir 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.
  • In Doctor Who Confidential (episode Fear Factor) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brotherhood of the Wolf were cited by director Euros Lyn as the inspiration for fighting style of 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 The Shakespeare Code and The Infinite Quest, while Donna Noble is on the receiving end in The Unicorn and the Wasp and Midnight, although the latter example is not humorous.
  • 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 defence against the wolf. (PCOM: Tooth and Claw)
  • The werewolf's defeat follows an old philosophy: "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger; however, what makes you stronger can also kill you."

Ratings

  • 9.24 million viewers (UK final)[1]

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
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