Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

So far this season of Doctor Who has been good, but without a blowaway brilliant episode. However a story set in the 1920s that features Agatha Christie had so much potential. The central conceit of the episode is that it is framed like an Agatha Christie murder mystery.

The Unicorn and The Wasp was written by Gareth Roberts who wrote a number of Doctor Who books while the show was off air and also contributed The Shakespeare Code from the last season of Doctor Who. An excellent pedigree.

In line with the season so far there’s plenty of humor laced throughout the episode and Roberts missed no opportunity to make use of the murder mystery staples. The result is highly entertaining. Of course I might be biased since I’ve always loved Agatha Christie stories.
Image via Wikipedia
The CGI for the giant wasp was pretty effective. I don’t particularly care for regular sized wasps and the giant sized ones were just a touch too convincing.

I do think they’re using the Doctor’s alien physiology as a crutch to get him out of jams just a little too much though. If they make him too indestructible, it’s going to make it harder to build tension in the future.

So again not a blow away brilliant episode, but fun from beginning to end and really you can’t complain too much about that can you?