The Unicorn and the Wasp (TV story)

"The thrill is in the chase, never in the capture"

- Agatha Christie

Synopsis
In 1926, Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared, only to be found ten days later, with no memory of what had happened. Was it a nervous breakdown? A cry for help? Or perhaps a giant alien wasp..?

Plot
The Doctor and Donna Noble arrive in time for an afternoon party at the Eddison estate. The event is hosted by Lady Eddison and her husband, Colonel Hugh Curbishley. One of the guests is famed British mystery writer, Agatha Christie. Still a young writer, she has recently published her sixth novel. Looking at a newspaper, the Doctor finds that it is 8th December 1926, the day of Agatha Christie's disappearance. Just as this revelation is made, Eddison's friend and companion Miss Chandrakala finds another guest, Professor Peach, dead in the library. He was murdered with a lead pipe.

At the scene, Donna comments on the similarity to the board game Cluedo. The Doctor finds "morphic residue" on the floor while examining the scene--morphic residue, a by-product of shapeshifting, implies that one of the guests isn't really human. Agatha discreetly removes a fragment of paper from the grate on the fireplace.



Aided by Agatha, the Doctor interviews the guests while Donna goes looking for clues. During the interviews, while the guests recount their stories, flashbacks reveal that each is hiding something, except Rev. Golightly.

Lady Eddison claims to having been taking tea, though she was in fact surreptitiously consuming liquor. Robina Redmond, a socialite, claims to have been using the toilet, but is shown loading a tiny pistol there. Roger Curbishley, Lady Eddison's son, claims to have been walking, alone, failing to disclose he was attending a tryst with his lover, Davenport, who is one of the servants. Colonel Hugh Curbishley claims he was reading military memoirs in the study, though he was actually viewing erotica while fantasizing about can-can dancers.

After the interview, Agatha Christie produces the paper she removed earlier which contains the letters "a-i-d-e-n", preceded by one illegible letter. Agatha points out that it obviously spells the word "Maiden", although neither she nor the Doctor is able to divine the significance of this.



When Donna investigates a locked room in which Lady Eddison had sequestered herself, for six months, while allegedly recovering from malaria, she is alarmed by a giant wasp outside the window. Donna uses a magnifying glass to focus the sun's rays on it, injuring it and allowing her to flee. The insect chases her, impaling its stinger on a door.

Davenport is in the kitchen, speculating about why someone would want to kill Professor Peach. Miss Chandrakala is also there, and dismisses this as "dead man's folly" until she suddenly realises exactly what Professor Peach was doing. Rushing off to warn Lady Eddison, she is killed when an unseen figure hurls a gargoyle from a ledge--and hits her head.

Hearing her scream, the Doctor, Agatha, and Donna rush outside; Miss Chandrakala dies on the scene, cryptically offering "The poor little child..." as her last words. Seeing the Vespiform hovering above the building, the Doctor gives chase, but loses the creature in a hall. When the Doctor shouts "show yourself," all of the doors open and every suspect appears.

After the guests pile pressure on Agatha to solve the murder, she retreats to the garden. Donna goes out with her to comfort her, comparing her similar trouble with men, references the events of "The Runaway Bride." Even though Agatha refuses to believe in her own brilliance, she discovers a box filled with the tools of a thief.

While the three mull over the evidence they've gathered thus far, and Donna accidentally gives Agatha the idea for Jane Marple, the Doctor is poisoned with cyanide. While cyanide is always fatal to humans, Time Lords can neutralize the poison and expel it--if they ingest an odd combination of ingredients (ginger beer, walnuts, salt (in anchovies, as pure salt is "too salty")) followed by a shock (a kiss from Donna).

Recovered, the Doctor "poisons" the guests' dinner with pepper; naturally, this is not harmful to humans, but is poisonous to wasps. A buzzing sound can be heard moments later, at which Lady Eddison exclaims, "It can't be!" The lights are blown out by a sudden wind and they again fail to ascertain the identity of the alien. Roger, Lady Eddison's son, is murdered in the confusion, and Lady Eddison's necklace, 'The Firestone', is stolen.

In the sitting room, the Doctor and Agatha reveal several secrets about the guests and hosts. Robina Redmond, one of the guests, is a thief, the titular 'Unicorn', who coveted the Firestone and stole it in the confusion; however, she is not the killer. The truth of Lady Eddison's bout of malaria is also revealed; she was actually pregnant, and not by another human being. The alien was a Vespiform, and gave her the Firestone necklace. The necklace is psychically linked to their son, whom she had given up for adoption and never seen again: Reverend Golightly.

It was Golightly who killed Professor Peach, when he learned that the Professor had discovered his adoption paperwork. He then attempted to burn the paperwork: the word "Maiden" on the paper Agatha plucked from the grate had in fact said "Maiden Name".

Because Lady Eddison had been reading The Murder of Roger Ackryod when her son's alien biology was first awakened in a moment of anger, Golightly accidentally received the works of Agatha Christie as his template for how the world should work: hence the style of the murders.

Enraged at being discovered, Golightly assumes his wasp form. Agatha snatches the Firestone, screaming that her mind--that which had taught the Vespiform to kill--will find a way to destroy him. Golightly pursues her, as her thought patterns are linked to him through the Firestone. She takes a car and drives away, hysterically repeating "It's all my fault." The Doctor and Donna follow her in another car, belonging to the deceased Professor Peach, with the Doctor ominously warning that "time is in flux" - that there is no guarantee that Agatha will survive, which could leave history severely damaged.

Agatha leads the creature to a lake. The Doctor tries to persuade Golightly that he was not meant to kill, but he does not listen. Donna seizes the opportunity to snatch the Firestone and hurl it nto the water. Golightly pursues it and drowns, like his father had, in the Indian monsoons forty years before.

Still linked to the necklace, Agatha nearly dies, but Golightly unaccountably chooses to release her as his last act. The psychic trauma causes retrograde amnesia, and the Doctor deposits her at the Harrogate Hotel ten days later, fulfilling the demands of history.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor produces one of Agatha's novels, and points to the copyright page in the front. The publication date is listed as the year five billion; Agatha Christie is quite literally the most popular writer of all time. The novel in question is Death in the Clouds a novel which features a wasp. Agatha Christie had somehow remembered her adventure with the Doctor and Donna.

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Agatha Christie - Fenella Woolgar
 * Lady Clemency Eddison - Felicity Kendal
 * Reverend Golightly - Tom Goodman Hill
 * Colonel Hugh Curbishley - Christopher Benjamin
 * Robina Redmond - Felicity Jones
 * The Hon. Roger Curbishley - Adam Rayner
 * Greeves - David Quilter
 * Davenport - Daniel King
 * Professor Peach - Ian Barritt
 * Miss Chandrakala - Leena Dhingra
 * Mrs Hart - Charlotte Eaton
 * Footman - Sandy McDonald

Production crew
To be added

Story Notes

 * In terms of principal photography, this is the second story shot in the fourth series.
 * Some of these characters resemble Cluedo characters.
 * Clemency Eddison resembles Mrs Peacock
 * Robina Redmond resembles Miss Scarlet
 * Colonel Hugh Curshiby resembles Colonel Mustard
 * Professor Peach resembles Professor Plum
 * Miss Chandrakala resembles Miss White
 * Reverend Arnold Golightly resembles Reverend Green
 * David Tennant's father makes a cameo as a footman.
 * Graeme Harper's penchant for including a distorted image of a main character is present in this story.  Though not included in  every single story he's directed for BBC Wales, it's seen often enough to be considered something of a directorial "signature".  Similar distortion is achieved through the use of other magnifying glasses in Army of Ghosts and Utopia,  a curved window in Journey's End, and with mirrors in Turn Left.   This time, it's Donna's face that gets "the Harper treatment".
 * There are quite many references to titles of the books of Agatha Christie, including The Body in the Library, Cards on the Table, Sparkling Cyanide, Dead Man's Folly, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, N or M?, The Secret Adversary, Murder at the Vicarage, Cat Among the Pigeons, Appointment with Death, Death Comes as the End, The Moving Finger, They Do It With Mirrors, Endless Night, Nemesis, Taken at the Flood, and Crooked House. (Those so inclined could make a rather good drinking game out of this.)
 * At the dinner where the Doctor spikes the soup with pepper, there is a vase of yellow iris as a table centerpiece. This is a reference to "Yellow Iris," a short story included in The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories. It was later expanded to novel length as Sparkling Cyanide, which in turn is also referenced in this episode.
 * Christopher Benjamin has appeared in Doctor Who before in DW: Inferno and in The Talons of Weng-Chiang,


 * The Doctor's description of his cyanide poisoning as involving "inhibited enzymes" approximates the actual mechanism of cyanide toxicity. Cyanide inhibits the enzyme aa3 by binding to the iron that it contains, reducing the ability of the cell use oxygen to create the compound ATP, used for cellular energy transfer. Since 95% percent of ATP production in the Human body (and presumably also Time Lords) is aerobic, mortality via energy starvation quickly follows. The Doctor's method of uninhibiting the enzymes is nonsense, however.

Ratings
to be added

Myths and rumours

 * Brief glimpses of the giant wasp in this episode were included in the first Series 4 trailer; leading to speculation (since the view is too short to definitively identify the species) that this was a reference to the ongoing theme of disappearing bees.
 * Similarly, the brief glimpse in the trailer of the actress who plays Clemency Eddison, who resembles the actress who played Lady Cassandra in Series 1 and 2, led to speculation that Cassandra would appear in this episode.

Filming Locations
to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * Donna investigates a room in the manor house. The butler tells her Lady Eddison locked it forty years previously, after her bout with "malaria" ended.  As we find out later, it is actually the room in which she likely gave birth to the human/Vespiform child that would become Arnold Golightly.  In the room, there is a teddy bear.  If the room was truly locked for 40 years, it means the teddy bear dates to 1886.  This is a seeming anachronism, as  teddy bears were introduced (and became popular) at the turn of the 20th century.  It's possible the room wasn't locked for that entire period. It's equally possible that this is a homemade,  "pre-Theodore Roosevelt" stuffed bear, as European stuffed bears predate "Teddy (Roosevelt) bears" by some four years.  A more appropriate stuffed animal for 1886 would have been a Steiff stuffed elephant, as that was the year they were first mass produced.
 * The car by the lake abandoned by Agatha Christie does not look anything like the car she really owned. We don't know who the car belonged to at the end, she just got in and drove off. Also, the car was really found in a chalk pit. The Doctor could have engineered that later on, just has he engineered Agatha's transportation to the hotel.
 * The "thieves in the night" at the church seemed to be committing their crimes in broad daylight. Probably, Golightly was adapting 1 Thessalonians 5:2 - "for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night".
 * Agatha mentions her extensive study of poison, claiming that cyanide poisoning is invariably fatal, in reality it can be countered by several methods, including the administration of nitres, hydroxocobalamin or certain chelants. It is surprising that she sniffed the drink, hydrogen cyanide is one of many poisons that can readily be absorbed via inhalation. She didn't know it was cyanide until after smelling its almond scent.
 * The point is made at the beginning that the Doctor may be able to tell the year simply by smell, yet he fails to pick up on the bitter-almond scent of the poison in his drink. Not all people can smell cyanide. One explanation is that some or all Time Lords also lack this ability. However, David Tennant's performance of the scene suggests that the Doctor is genuinely thirsty.  A simple explanation is simply that the Doctor's thirst overrode any sense of caution he may have had over the remote possibility that he would be poisoned by cyanide in an aristocratic manor house in 1920s Britain.  Few people — Time Lord or otherwise — are given to smell water before drinking it. In addition, the Doctor had no reason to suspect that his drink would be poisoned and therefore had no reason to be cautious.
 * Agatha Christie's disappearance is a great mystery, however this episode establishes at several people would have been aware of at least some of the cicumstances surrounding her disappearance. Then again, who in 1926 would believe stories about men turning into wasps, and one of these witnesses was a thief. It's doubtful anyone would believe them, not even Christie herself, were they to contact her. The episode establishes that Christie was an invited guest, but not necessarily a close acquaintance to anyone at the party, so there may not have been any desire for her to contact them, or vice versa, after the incident. Additionally, as the Doctor mentioned, everyone except the Unicorn was far to "British" to admit to having seen something as outlandish as this.
 * How can the wasp use lead piping?

Continuity

 * The Doctor suggested to Martha Jones in DW: Last of the Time Lords, that they take a trip to see Agatha Christie, but was unable due to Martha leaving at the time.
 * During the final scene, the Doctor produces a replica Agatha Christie paperback book printed in the far future. Although not an obvious cliffhanger on the order of the ending to many First, Second and Fifth Doctor stories, it does nevertheless establish the fact that traditionally bound books are still produced long after electronic editions would presumably have made them obsolete.  In this sense, it may be seen as at least narratively linked to the next episode broadcast: Silence in the Library.


 * This is the third time a famous author has appeared in the revived series: Charles Dickens (DW: The Unquiet Dead), William Shakespeare (DW: The Shakespeare Code) and now Agatha Christie.


 * Donna inadvertently refers to the events of DW: The Unquiet Dead, stating that solving a mystery with Agatha Christie is like "...meeting Charles Dickens, and he’s surrounded by ghosts. At Christmas."


 * The Doctor and Donna are (again) mistaken for to be a couple, this has previously occurred in DW: The Fires of Pompeii, Planet of the Ood and The Doctor's Daughter. However, unlike the other occasions, Christie detects that they are not married, noting the lack of wedding rings.


 * This is the third time that the Doctor has told a companion not to imitate an a period dialect. The first was Rose doing a (poor) Scottish accent in DW: Tooth and Claw and the second was Martha imitating Elizabethan English in The Shakespeare Code.


 * In BFA: Terror Firma the Doctor claims that Agatha Christie traveled with him. When Christie appears at the hotel and looks back at the Doctor and Donna, they are standing just outside the Tardis, which may imply that they took Agatha to the hotel by traveling in the Tardis, especially since ten days passed between the time Agatha left the party and she was discovered at the hotel under a false name.


 * Agatha Christie is one of several people to demand to know who the Doctor is, only to receive no real reply. Charles Dickens, Solomon, Trish Webber, the passengers of the Crusader 50, and Metella Caecilius Iucundus are but a few of the others from the BBC Wales series who have fruitlessly questioned the Doctor's identity.

DVD and Other Releases

 * It will be released as part of the complete fourth series box set in November 2008.


 * It was released as part of Series 4 Volume 2 on 7th July, alongside The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky and The Doctor's Daughter.