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Partners in Crime (Doctor Who)

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193 – "Partners in Crime"
Doctor Who episode
The Adipose, CGI aliens created using Massive, march through Central London towards Adipose Industries.
Cast
Guest
Production
Directed byJames Strong
Written byRussell T. Davies
Produced byPhil Collinson
Executive producer(s)Russell T Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code4.1[1]
SeriesSeries 4
Running time48 mins
First broadcast5 April 2008
Chronology
← Preceded by
"Voyage of the Damned" 		Followed by →
"The Fires of Pompeii"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"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 6:20 p.m. The episode reintroduced comedienne Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, who previously appeared in "The Runaway Bride". Donna and the Doctor (David Tennant) meet while separately investigating Adipose Industries, a company that has created a revolutionary diet pill. Together, they attempt to stop the death of thousands of people in London after the head of the company, the alien Miss Foster (Sarah Lancashire), creates the Adipose, short white aliens made from human body fat.

The episode's alien creatures, the Adipose, were created using the software Massive, commonly used for crowd sequences in fantasy and science fiction films. The episode is stylistically different from other Doctor Who episodes; "Partners in Crime" has no clear antagonist, and the creatures are in a different style to Doctor Who's regular "big [and] scary"[2] monsters.

"Partners in Crime" features the return of three other characters. Jacqueline King reprises her role as Sylvia Noble from "The Runaway Bride". Bernard Cribbins reprises his role as Wilfred Mott from "Voyage of the Damned". Cribbins was recalled to replace the character of Geoff Noble after actor Howard Attfield died. Billie Piper briefly reprises her role as Rose Tyler for the first time since the second series' finale "Doomsday", in a scene that was not included in preview showings.

The episode received many positive reviews. Most critics liked the special 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"[3] 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",[4] to "the back of a fag packet".[5]

Plot

The episode primarily focuses on Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), a previous companion who appeared in "The Runaway Bride". After her encounter with the Doctor (David Tennant), she became disenchanted with normal life and regretted declining his invitation to travel in the TARDIS. She started investigating conspiracy theories in the hope she would find him. She confides her regrets to her grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), an amateur astronomer who met the Doctor shortly before the episode's events.

The episode concerns Adipose Industries, which is 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 the company separately, and find that the slogan is literal—the pills use latent body fat to parthenogenetically create the Adipose, small white aliens which spawn every night, removing a little of the host's body fat each time. In an emergency, multiple Adipose can spawn by using all of the body's organic tissue, killing the host. 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 for the Adiposian First Family. Miss Foster mentions that the Adipose species "lost" their breeding planet, which is questioned by the doctor.

Foster accelerates her plans, feeling threatened by the Doctor's invocation of galactic law and fearing he may inform the "Shadow Proclamation", an interplanetary code and council.[6][7] Throughout London, the Adipose begin to spawn, soon numbering several thousand. The Doctor and Donna prevent total emergency parthenogenesis occurring, while the remainder make their way to Adipose Industries. The Adiposian First Family use their spaceship to collect the Adipose, but kill Foster to hide any evidence they used Earth illegally. The Doctor defers from killing the Adipose because they are children; Donna notes that his previous companion Martha Jones made him more human, citing his infanticide of the Racnoss in their previous encounter.[8]

At the end of the episode, Donna accepts an offer to travel in the TARDIS. She makes a detour to leave her car keys in a safe location for her mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King), and asks a blonde woman to help Sylvia find the keys. The woman turns towards the camera, revealing her to be Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). She fades as she walks away from the area. In the final scene, Donna asks the Doctor to fly by her grandfather; Wilfred sees her and celebrates on his allotment.

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 Julie Gardner. Tate, who expected Gardner would ask about appearing in a biopic, later admitted it was "the furthest thing from [her] mind".[9] Tate's return was controversial amongst Doctor Who fans; the criticism she received was compared to Daniel Craig after he was cast as James Bond.[10] Howard Attfield, who appeared as Donna's father Geoff in "The Runaway Bride", filmed several scenes for this episode, but died before his scenes for the remainder of the season were completed. The producers retired his character out of respect, and dedicated him in the closing credits for the episode.[9] Producer Phil Collinson suggested transferring his traits to the originally unrelated character Wilfred Mott and rewriting his role as Donna's grandfather. Executive producers Russell T Davies and Gardner liked the idea and recalled Bernard Cribbins to the role to re-film Attfield's scenes.[9]

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.'

Sarah Lancashire[11]

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.[2][11] The premise of the Adipose pill was equally ambiguous with rare side-effects, but was a "win-win situation" for anyone involved.[2] Davies based the character of Miss Foster on the "Supernanny" Jo Frost and Argentinean philanthropist and politician Eva Perón, and Lancashire compared her character to Mary Poppins.[2] 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.[2]

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".[3] 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.[2]

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.[9] As the episode mostly takes place at night, many scenes were filmed in the early morning.[2]

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 a loan company's call centre in Cardiff's outskirts on an early Sunday morning, with the company's telephonists serving as extras.[9]

Exterior shots of Adipose Industries were filmed at the Welsh Gas Board building 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.[2]

Adipose

The Adipose were inspired by a stuffed toy Davies owned.[2] The name comes from the scientific name for body fat, adipose tissue.[12] Davies' brief outlined a "cute" child-friendly creature shaped like a block of lard, similar to the Pillsbury Doughboy.[13][14] Further consultation with post-production team The Mill resulted in the ears and the singular fang each Adipose has.[13] Stephen Regelous, who won an Academy Award for his software Massive, flew to London to supervise the creation of the crowd special effects.[12] Regelous, a Doctor Who fan, was enthusiastic about helping The Mill with special effects, stating that "When I first found out that the Mill was working on Doctor Who, I was quietly hoping that Massive might be used to create hordes of Daleks or Cybermen and with series 4, I jumped at the opportunity to be involved."[15] The Mill created two types of Adipose: extras with artificial intelligence and independent movement, and "hero" Adipose, which were hand-animated.[12]

Broadcast and reception

Billie Piper's return was described by Tennant as a "genuine prickle up the spine".

Broadcast and ratings

The episode was broadcast on 5 April 2008 at 6:20 p.m., 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.[16] Davies negotiated with the BBC for the schedule to be changed to gain higher ratings. He was partially successful: the BBC scheduled the second half of the series to air at 7:00 p.m..[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.[9] 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".[9]

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. 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.[18][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 The Daily Telegraph, called the episode an "undiluted triumph". Opening his review, he said "last night's episode struck me as being as close to 50 minutes of pure pleasure as you're likely to get on television". He noted the episode's "clever" tackling of the topical theme of obesity, and its mixture of emotion and special effects. In closing, he said "the dejected critic, denied even the smallest nit to pick, walks glumly away".[4] Scott Matthewman of The Stage lamented that the Adipose were not threatening enough. He liked the Adipose's execution of Miss Foster, a "momentary pause in mid-air, gravity only kicking in when the character looks down", comparing it to Wile E. Coyote and Chuck Jones, which "[was] a nice little touch in an episode ... full of them". He also appreciated Tate, saying that "David Tennant finally has a partner who is approaching an equal".[23] Sam Wollaston of The Guardian wrote that Tate was "not right for this role" and "too hysterical, too comedy, not cool enough", and felt her inclusion was an attempt to trade on the popularity of her own series and "broaden the appeal of [Dr Who] still further". He also found the music "a bit oppressive" but concluded that, despite these criticisms, the show was "still awfully nice television".[24] Keith Watson of Metro gave the episode 4 stars out of 5. He admitted that despite his dislike of Tate, "she isn't that bad". His review of the Adipose was positive, citing them as a reason of the quality of the show. Closing, he said "it split [his] sides".[25]

Alisdair Stuart of Firefox News called the episode "the strongest season opener since 'Rose'". He called the miming scene between the Doctor and Donna when they first meet a "glorious, long overdue parody of the silent 'I'll save you' moment from 42", and applauded the scene's ability to be overdrawn but still funny.[26] Jon Wise of The People said "Doctor Who is a super-galactic way of spending a Saturday night indoors", and appreciated that Donna was not romantically interested in the Doctor, unlike Martha or Rose.[27] Ben Rawson-Jones gave the episode a wholly positive review, summarising it as containing "pure fantastic family fun, delivering a winning blend of action, comedy, poignancy and one unexpected shock cameo".[28]

The episode received several negative reviews. Andrew Billen, writing for The Times, lamented that Davies had "forgotten that Doctor Who's main task is to send children scuttling behind sofas while entertaining their fathers with the odd philosophical idea, the occasional classical reference, a joke or two they would probably not wish to explain and a wee bit of space totty". Billen also criticised the writing and acting, but commended Tate for a "toned down performance".[29] Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal summarised it as "a runaway Saturday morning cartoon in desperate need to a solid story". Blair found flaws with the comedy and the music in the episode, but was impressed with Tate's acting and Piper's cameo.[30] Kevin O'Sullivan of the Sunday Mirror criticised Tate and Tennant for overacting, and had concerns about the writing: "It didn't exactly ooze tension. All we got in the way of terrifying space enemies was Sarah Lancashire hamming it up as an intergalactic super nanny, a couple of security guards with guns and lots of cute little fat babies."[31] Ian Hyland of News of the World criticised the child-friendly storyline, comparing it to "the back of a fag packet". He also criticised Tennant for appearing "jaded" and Tate for "still shouting".[5]

References

  1. ^ "30 reasons to be excited about Series 30!". Doctor Who Magazine (393): pp. 9–10. 2008-03-06. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "A Noble Return". Doctor Who Confidential. Season 4. Episode 1. 2008-04-05. BBC. BBC Three. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b "A Noble Calling". Radio Times (5–11 April 2008). BBC: p. 23. 2008. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ a b Preston, John (2008-04-06). "Doctor Who is as close to pure pleasure as you'll get on television". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ a b Hyland, Ian (2008-04-06). "Tate's on board, I ain't bothered". News of the World. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director James Hawes, Producer Phil Collinson (2005-12-25). "The Christmas Invasion". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Keith Boak, Producer Phil Collinson (2005-03-26). "Rose". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson (2006-12-25). "The Runaway Bride". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Tennant, David; Tate, Catherine; Collinson, Phil. Partners In Crime (Podcast; MP3). BBC. Retrieved 2008-04-05. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  10. ^ Cooper, Lorna. "Catherine Tate - Are You Bovvered?". MSN UK Entertainment. United Kingdom: MSN. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
  11. ^ a b Cook, Benjamin (April 2008). "Power Madam!". Doctor Who Magazine. 394. Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 30–31. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ a b c "Little Monsters?". Radio Times (5–11 April 2008). BBC: p. 25. 2008. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  13. ^ a b McKinney, Matt (2008-04-05). Making the Adipose (FLV). BBC. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  14. ^ "Partners in Crime: Fact File". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. 2008-04-05. Retrieved 2008-04-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Brook, Stephen (2008-04-03). "Doctor Who: a special effects sneak peek". Organgrinder. The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ Davies, Russell T (2008-03-25, aggregated on 2008-03-28). "Davies criticizes Time Slot". Ariel, Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved 2008-03-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "Time Slot will change later in Series". Outpost Gallifrey. 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Partners in Crime - Final Ratings". Outpost Gallifrey. 2008-04-16. Retrieved 2008-04-16. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Marcus (2008-04-06). "Partners in Crime - Overnight Ratings". Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "8.4m viewers see Doctor Who return". United Kingdom: Press Association. 2008-04-06. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Doctor Who attracts 8.4m viewers". BBC. 2008-04-06. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ Marcus (2008-04-07). "Partners in Crime: AI figure and Ratings update". Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Matthewman, Scott (2008-04-06). "Doctor Who 4.1: Partners in Crime". TV Today. The Stage. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ Wollaston, Sam (2008-04-07). "The weekend's TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  25. ^ Watson, Keith (2008-04-07). "The Weekend's TV: A right Who ha". Metro, MetroLife. Associated Newspapers Ltd. p. 28. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Stuart, Alisdair (2008-04-05). "Doctor Who 4.01 'Partners in Crime'". Arizona: Firefox News. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ Wise, Jon (2008-04-06). "Tardis in a spot of bovver". The People. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  28. ^ Rawson-Jones, Ben (April 2008). "S04E01: 'Partners In Crime'". Cult: Doctor Who. Digital Spy. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
  29. ^ Billen, Andrew (2008-04-07). "Doctor Who; Louis Theroux's African Hunting Holiday". The Times. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ Blair, Alan Stanley (2008-04-05). "Review: 'Doctor Who' - Partners In Crime". SyFy Portal. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ O'Sullivan, Kevin (2008-04-06). "Not bovvered by the Doctor". Sunday Mirror. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

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