Partners in Crime (Doctor Who)
189 – "Partners in Crime" | |||
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CGI aliens depicted using MASSIVE, waddle through Central London towards Adipose Industries. | |||
Cast | |||
Others
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Production | |||
Directed by | Series 4 | ||
Running time | 50 minutes | ||
First broadcast | 5 April 2008 | ||
Chronology | |||
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"Partners in Crime" is the first episode of the
"Partners in Crime" features the return of three recurring characters:
The episode received many positive reviews. Most critics liked the visual effects used to create the Adipose. Critics also praised Tate's subdued acting in comparison to "The Runaway Bride"; Donna was changed from a "shouting fishwife"[2] to a more emotional person when she became a full-time companion. Critics' opinions were split over the episode's plot: opinion on executive producer Russell T Davies' writing ranged from "pure pleasure"[3] to "the back of a fag packet".[4]
Plot
Miss Foster accelerates her plans, knowing that the Doctor will attempt to stop her. Throughout London, the Adipose begin to spawn and soon number several thousand. The Doctor and Donna prevent total emergency parthenogenesis from occurring, which would have killed those who had taken the pill, and the remainder of the young Adipose make their way to Adipose Industries. The Adiposian First Family arrive in a spaceship and begin collecting their young. The Doctor tries to warn Miss Foster about her safety, but she disregards him and is killed when the Adipose drops her from their transport beam to her death, to cover their unsanctioned seeding efforts.
Donna accepts the Doctor's original offer to travel in the TARDIS. Donna makes a detour to leave her car keys in a litter bin, telling her mother Sylvia to collect them later. While there, she meets a blonde woman and asks her to help Sylvia find the keys. The woman turns out to be Rose Tyler, who fades from view as she walks away from the area. Donna asks the Doctor to fly the TARDIS past Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott, who is watching the night sky through a telescope. Donna waves Wilfred off inside the TARDIS.
Production
Casting
"Partners in Crime" features several actors returning to the series. Catherine Tate was offered the opportunity to return as Donna Noble during lunch with executive producer
Writing
I see her as a slightly warped Mary Poppins. She's quite austere. She's a strong woman. When I first read the script, I thought, oh, well, of course she's a baddie... but the more I read it, I thought, 'No, she's doing what she's doing for legitimate reasons.'
Davies took a different approach while writing the episode. David Tennant and Sarah Lancashire noted the character of Miss Foster had good intentions but was morally ambiguous.[8][9] The premise of the Adipose pill was equally ambiguous with rare side-effects, but was a "win-win situation" for anyone involved.[9] Davies based the character of Miss Foster on Supernanny star Jo Frost and Argentine philanthropist and politician Eva Perón, and Lancashire compared her character to Mary Poppins.[9] The Adipose are a different style to regular Doctor Who villains; antagonists such as Lazarus in "The Lazarus Experiment" or the werewolf in "Tooth and Claw" were singular monsters designed to scare the audience; the Adipose were written as "cute" to provide a "bizarre [and] surreal" experience.[9]
Davies made some changes to Donna's character. The character was "rounded ... out from being a shouting fishwife to someone who's quite vulnerable and emotional".[2] Donna was written to provide a "caustic" and "grown-up" attitude towards the Doctor, in opposition to Rose and Martha, who fell in love with him. Tate considered Donna to be more equal to the Doctor because her character did not romanticise him, allowing her to question his morality more easily.[9]
Filming
The episode was in the fourth production block in the season, and was filmed in October 2007. The out-of-sequence filming allowed producers to use props to "seed" later episodes; ATMOS, a plot device in the episodes "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky", is referred to by a sticker on a taxi's windscreen.[5][10] As the episode mostly takes place at night, many scenes were filmed in the early morning.[9]
The scene where Donna and the Doctor investigate Adipose was difficult to film. The scene took thirty shots to complete, and Tennant and Tate experienced problems avoiding each other on-screen. The scene was filmed in Picture Finance's call centre on the outskirts of Newport on an early Sunday morning, with the company's telephonists serving as extras.[5]
Exterior shots of Adipose Industries were filmed at the British Gas building (Helmont House) in Cardiff's city centre. For health and safety reasons, Tennant was prohibited from performing his own stunts in the window cleaning platform. His only shot that required stunts was when he catches Miss Foster's sonic pen, a shot that took several takes to perfect.[9]
Adipose
The Adipose were inspired by a stuffed toy Davies owned.
Broadcast and reception
Broadcast and ratings
The episode was broadcast on 5 April 2008 at 18:20, the earliest timeslot since the show's revival in 2005. Davies criticised the BBC's scheduling department and claimed the show could lose 1.5 million viewers.[15] The show retained a similar time of broadcast for a further four episodes, before returning to around 19:00. from "The Doctor's Daughter" onwards.[16][17]
The preview version of the episode supplied to the press and aired at the press launch omitted the scene that features Rose; before broadcast, only the production team, Tate, and Tennant had seen the scene.[5] The scene contains Rose's departure theme, "Doomsday". Tennant commented "on the night of transmission ... the Radio Times won't have told you it's coming, it'll come as a genuine [...] prickle up the spine".[5]
Overnight figures estimated the show was watched by 8.4 million viewers, with a peak of 8.7 million, 39.4% of the television audience.[18] The consolidated rating was 9.1 million viewers. Doctor Who was therefore the most watched show on 5 April, although the Grand National had a higher peak with 10.1 million viewers.[19][20][21] The episode's Appreciation Index was 88 (considered "Excellent"), the highest for any television show aired on 5 April.[22]
Critical reception
The episode received many positive reviews. John Preston, writing for
Jon Wise of
The episode received several negative reviews. Andrew Billen, writing for
Reviewing in 2022, Mark Braxton for
Notes
- ^ As depicted in the 2006 episode "The Runaway Bride"
References
- ^ "30 reasons to be excited about Series 30!". Doctor Who Magazine (393): 9–10. 6 March 2008.
- ^ a b "A Noble Calling". Radio Times (5–11 April 2008). BBC: 23. April 2008.
- ^ a b c d Preston, John (6 April 2008). "Doctor Who is as close to pure pleasure as you'll get on television". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 6 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ a b Hyland, Ian (6 April 2008). "Tate's on board, I ain't bothered". News of the World. Archived from the original on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tennant, David; Tate, Catherine; Collinson, Phil (5 April 2008). Partners in Crime (Podcast; MP3). BBC.
- ^ Cooper, Lorna. "Catherine Tate – Are You Bovvered?". MSN UK Entertainment. United Kingdom: MSN. Archived from the original on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- BBC 7.
- ^ Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 30–31.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "A Noble Return". Doctor Who Confidential. Season 4. Episode 1. 5 April 2008. BBC. BBC Three.
- ^ "The Sontaran Strategem: Fact File". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
- ^ a b c "Little Monsters?". Radio Times (5–11 April 2008). BBC: 25. April 2008.
- ^ a b McKinney, Matt (5 April 2008). Making the Adipose (FLV). BBC. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
- ^ "Partners in Crime: Fact File". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. 5 April 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
- ^ Brook, Stephen (3 April 2008). "Doctor Who: a special effects sneak peek". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
- The Doctor Who News Page. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- The Doctor Who News Page. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ Broadcast times – "The Poison Sky" and "The Doctor's Daughter"
- ^ "8.4m viewers see Doctor Who return". The Telegraph. United Kingdom. 6 April 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- The Doctor Who News Page. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- The Doctor Who News Page. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ "Doctor Who attracts 8.4m viewers". BBC. 6 April 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
- The Doctor Who News Page. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ Matthewman, Scott (6 April 2008). "Doctor Who 4.1: Partners in Crime". The Stage. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ Wollaston, Sam (7 April 2008). "The weekend's TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- Metro, MetroLife. p. 28. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- The People. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ Rawson-Jones, Ben (April 2008). "S04E01: 'Partners in Crime'". Cult: Doctor Who. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ Billen, Andrew (7 April 2008). "Doctor Who; Louis Theroux's African Hunting Holiday". The Times. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- SyFy Portal. Archived from the originalon 9 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ O'Sullivan, Kevin (6 April 2008). "Not bovvered by the Doctor". Sunday Mirror. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ Braxton, Mark (October 2022). "Partners in Crime". Radio Times. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
- Tor.com. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
External links
- "Partners in Crime" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
- "Partners in Crime" at IMDb
- Shooting Script for "Partners in Crime"