Partners in Crime (Doctor Who)

193 – "Partners in Crime"
Doctor Who episode
The Adipose, CGI aliens created by Massive FX, march through Central London towards Adipose Industries.
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Catherine Tate (Donna Noble)
Others Sarah Lancashire – Miss Foster Bernard Cribbins – Wilfred Mott Jacqueline King – Sylvia Noble Verona Joseph – Penny Carter Jessica Gunning – Stacy Campbell Martin Ball – Roger Davey Rachid Sabitri – Craig Staniland Chandra Ruegg – Claire Pope Sue Kelvin – Suzette Chambers Billie Piper - Rose Tyler
Production
Directed by	James Strong
Written by	Russell T. Davies
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	4.1
Series	Series 4
Running time	48 mins
First broadcast	5 April 2008
Chronology
← Preceded by "Voyage of the Damned" Followed by → "The Fires of Pompeii"

"Partners in Crime" is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 5 April, 2008 at 6.20pm. Catherine Tate, reprising her role as Donna Noble from "The Runaway Bride," joins as The Doctor's new companion. The episode features an "enigmatic businesswoman" called Miss Foster, secretly an alien, portrayed by Sarah Lancashire, and a new antagonist known as the Adipose. Billie Piper also reprises her role as Rose Tyler in a small cameo at the end of the episode.

Despite a new version of the Doctor Who theme tune premiering in the previous episode, this episode also introduced a new version of the theme. It is similar to the previous tune, but slightly less jazzed up, and with less drums.

The episode was dedicated to Howard Attfield, shown in the ending credits.

Plot

Synopsis

The episode primarily focuses upon Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), who previously appeared in "The Runaway Bride". Since her last encounter with the Doctor (David Tennant), she has had a major change in personality. She became disenchanted with normal life, and began searching for the Doctor, regretting declining his invitation to travel in the TARDIS. She also starts believing conspiracy theories—apart from one about "the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day". She confides her regrets in her grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), an amateur astronomer who met the Doctor shortly before the episode's events.

The episode's events concern Adipose Industries, who are marketing a diet pill to London's population with the slogan "the fat just walks away". Believing the treatment to be otherworldly, the Doctor and Donna investigate separately, and find that the slogan is literal—the pills use latent body fat to create the Adipose, small white aliens. In an emergency, multiple Adipose can spawn by using all of the host's organic tissue. When the Doctor and Donna meet, they are confronted by Miss Foster (Sarah Lancashire), an alien who is exploiting Britain's overweight population to create the Adipose.

Foster, feeling threatened by the Doctor, accelerates her plans knowing that, in the process, it would kill people all over London. Throughout London, the Adipose begins to spawn, soon numbering several thousand, and make their way to Adipose Industries. Foster calls her employers, the Adiposian First Family, to collect the Adipose, and their spaceship arrives over London, but kills Miss Foster to hide any evidence that the Adipose had illegally used Earth.

At the end of the episode, Donna accepts an offer to travel in the TARDIS. She makes a detour to leave her car keys for her mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King), and asks a blonde woman to help Sylvia find the keys. The woman turns towards the camera, revealing she is Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), and fades while she walks away from the area.

Outside references

Russell T Davies noted in the accompanying Doctor Who Confidential episode, "A Noble Return", that Miss Foster's costume was based on that worn by "Supernanny" Jo Frost. In "Partners in Crime" itself, Donna refers to "Supernanny" from Supernanny.

Production

This episode featured the first ever use of crowd-generating Massive FX technology on television, the technology created for army scenes in The Lord of the Rings films. The technology was used to animate the Adipose (pictured above) as they are born and move around London.

Cast notes

Howard Attfield, who played Donna's father in "The Runaway Bride", died after filming that episode so his character was replaced with Donna's grandfather, Wilfred Mott, played by Bernand Cribbins. Cribbins' character first appeared in "Voyage of the Damned", though in that episode his relationship to Donna was not mentioned. The closing titles of the episode dedicate it to Attfield.

Broadcast

Executive producer Russell T. Davies has criticised the timeslot the episode was placed in, the earliest since the show began, citing lower ratings for episodes that aired outside of Doctor Who's normal 7pm slot.