Ghost Light features a plot to achieve world domination by getting close to and then killing Queen Victoria and it must be a good scheme because here it is again courtesy of a Scottish werewolf in this 10th Doctor episode. Tooth and Claw was one of the first adventures for David Tennant's cooler and more enthusiastic version of the character and showcased his growing chemistry with Billie Piper's Rose, much of it revolving around trying to get Her Majesty to pronounce herself not amused. Pauline Collins had first featured in Doctor Who in 1967 when she turned down a permanent companion role after appearing in the 2nd Doctor story The Faceless Ones. The Doctor's Scottish alias here, James McCrimmon, is a reference to that story's companion and gives Tennant a rare chance to use his own accent briefly (and make yet another Sherlock Holmes reference in claiming to have studied at Edinburgh under Dr. Bell, Holmes' real life inspiration). In Tooth and Claw, Collins plays a formidable Queen Victoria, humanised by her grief over Albert, with a pragmatic sense and sharp tongue, but equally stern and judgmental in the face of the Doctor's flighty attitude to danger. In the end she both knights him and banishes him, creating a significant piece of modern Who mythology in establishing the institute named after this episode's setting: Torchwood House. The actual monster, the space werewolf, is underdeveloped and the effects are not up to making it feel real, but writer and showrunner Russell T. Davies was always better at character dynamics than big monsters and this episode offers plenty of Gothic atmosphere in the build up, in particular the discussion of ghost stories at dinner.
