First broadcast: Saturday 22nd April 2006 Again, it's not that Tooth and Claw is a bad story per se, it just doesn't manage to stand its ground against the rest of what the Tenth Doctor's debut series had to offer (apart from two other stories that are coming up later on this list - and no, they're probably not the ones you'll be expecting!). It's basically the story of an old Scottish folklore with the random inclusion of Queen Victoria (as, it has to be said, brilliant portrayed by Pauline Collins, who at this point was the first Oscar nominated actress to guest star in the series, did you know?). All of that still wasn't enough to make it interesting, though, so Russell T Davies decided to throw in an unnecessary subplot involving Rose betting the Doctor that she could p*ss off the Widow of Windsor for no apparent reason. Why not, though? Because it's not like they had enough on their plates already, what with the escalating threat of death by werewolf. What's more, Russell wrote the script in a matter of days which is either impressive or painfully obvious. He tried to make up for it by shoving in references to Bad Wolf and utilising it as the episode that basically created Torchwood, but, as the end credits rolled, Queen Victoria wasn't the only one who was so not amused. The Tenth Doctor was banished from Britain and Tooth and Claw was banished from our memories. And let us never speak of it again.
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
