Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was a famous human writer, best known for her murder mysteries. Her prolific body of work was in print billions of years after her death, establishing her as the best-selling author of all time. She was also known for having disappeared in 1926, being found in a hotel under an assumed name and claiming no memory of the eleven days that she had been missing.

Meeting the Doctor
In 1926, Agatha learnt her husband had begun an extramarital affair. She nevertheless attended Lady Eddison's party as guest of honour, carrying on with her life. There, she met the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble, whom she quickly grew to trust when another guest, Professor Peach, was found murdered in the library. Agatha found a piece of paper in the library fireplace while the Doctor investigated the Professor's body for clues; he had died at 3:45 PM.

After the Doctor established himself as a police officer, Agatha assisted him by having the five suspects wait in the sitting room until he finished investigating an unnoticed morphic residue. Afterwards, she joined him in questioning the suspects while Donna investigated upstairs. This got them nowhere until the Doctor noted he had seen her taking the little piece of paper; it said "Maiden". They were left with no clues unless Donna managed to find anything of interest in the rooms above.

Along with the Doctor, Agatha later went to Donna, who was screaming in terror at a giant wasp; Agatha misinterpreted the "giant wasp" to be a simple bee. However, the stinger the wasp had left embedded in the door changed her mind. The Doctor explained, in big words, that there are plenty of alien insects, but none live in Earth's galactic vector. Thinking the Doctor had lost his mind, Agatha told him there was no thing as giant wasps; he agreed, but pointed out the question was why it was there.

She later went outside with them to find Ms. Chandrakala had been crushed by a gargoyle and had said "the poor little child" before passing; the giant wasp had pushed the statue on her from above. Spotting the wasp, Agatha now believed something was afoot, but still didn't think the wasp was real until she came face to face with it. It fled into a corridor and resumed human form amongst the other guests.

After the wasp had claimed Lady Eddison's heir as its latest victim at dinner, Agatha was encouraged by the Doctor to crack the case. With everyone gathered, Agatha (with the Doctor's assistance in extraterrestrial matters) revealed the Unicorn was pretending to be one of the guests and that Lady Eddison had had a child before Roger with an alien known as a Vespiform in India forty years earlier. That child was the very Reverend in that room, Arnold Golightly; his mind was overloaded with the contents of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when the Firestone linked his mind to Lady Eddison, who was reading that book.

Enraged by being discovered, the Reverend chased after Agatha, who had taken the Firestone to lead him away lest he murder again. She led him to the lake, where she planned to drown herself and it. Luckily, Donna and the Doctor arrived, tossing the jewel into the lake, causing Golightly to go after it and drown. However, Agatha's mind was linked to him and she began to die with him until he decided to let her go for unknown reasons

The stress from the link made her lose her memories; the Doctor took her forward eleven days and left her outside a hotel in Harrogate, where she revived with no conscious memory of the events. Fragments of memory later emerged in her storytelling, including Donna's suggestions of her later books, as well as the Vespiform's wasp-like appearance, which inspired the cover of a book, Death in the Clouds. (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp)

Works
Apart from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Christie had written five other novels by 1926, but had not yet written Murder on the Orient Express. A subconscious memory of the Vespiform remained with Christie; a wasp played a role in one of her later novels, Death in the Clouds (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp). Centuries after its publication, a copy of Murder on the Orient Express found its way into the possession of Professor Lasky. (DW: Terror of the Vervoids)

Christie's works were still in print as late as the year 5,000,000,000, including Death in the Clouds.

Many of Agatha's works - along with her two best-known detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple - were mentioned during the Doctor's time with her. The works were The Man in the Brown Suit, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Death Comes as the End, N or M?, Nemesis, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, They Do It with Mirrors, Murder on the Orient Express, Cards on the Table, Appointment With Death, Death in the Clouds, The Body in the Library, Cat Among the Pigeons, Dead Man's Folly, Sparkling Cyanide, Murder at the Vicarage and The Moving Finger. (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp)

Inspiration
The Doctor's adventures offered subconscious inspiration for Agatha Christie. Donna Noble accidentally inspired her novel Murder on the Orient Express and the character Miss Marple. The Vespiform and the Doctor would also inspire Death Comes As The End, Murder at the Vicarage and Death In The Clouds. (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp)

Other information

 * The Eighth Doctor had a signed first edition printing of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd which was missing the last page, leaving him to believe he would never find out who did it. (BFA: Storm Warning)
 * He also once claimed Christie had travelled with him. (BFA: Terror Firma)
 * Despite this, the Tenth Doctor later declared to Martha Jones he wanted to meet her. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)
 * Trying to remember the name of the St Agnes Abbey, Clyde Langer could only remember that he thought it was some lady writer's name or her old lady detective. He didn't remember the name until Sarah Jane Smith guessed Agatha Christie. (SJA: Eye of the Gorgon)

Influence
The murder mysteries of Agatha Christie had possibly already inspired the Doctor Who television story The Robots of Death, the Big Finish Productions audio play The Chimes of Midnight and, arguably, another television story, Horror of Fang Rock.

Appearance
With the exception of Elizabeth II, who has only appeared in cameos, the appearance of Agatha Christie as a character in The Unicorn and the Wasp marks the first time (but not the last time) a "historical figure" of a person alive during the original 1963-89 run of Doctor Who has appeared in the series. Her appearance as a character happened with the permission of her estate.

Historical accuracy
The Unicorn and the Wasp does not appear to be set in early December - in reality, the time of year in which Christie disappeared.

Deleted scene
In a scene included in the Series 4 DVD, late in her life, soon before her death, Christie begins to experience dreams and flashbacks of her adventure with the Doctor. Ultimately, the Doctor and Donna visit her, at which point her memories of the adventure began to return; the Doctor reminds her of what happened. This scene does not present a continuity issue, as Donna is seen to be basically parroting the words the Doctor said to her regarding Agatha being the best-selling writer of all time in the original ending, allowing both to exist. The fact the Doctor has chosen to inform Agatha about the future edition of her books as well as reminding her about what happened suggest the meeting takes place soon before her death, which would place the scene in 1976.