Partners in Crime (TV story)

"The fat just walks away"

Partners in Crime is the first episode of the Fourth Series of Doctor Who. It was originally broadcast on April 5th, 2008.

Synopsis
Donna Noble is determined to find the Doctor again – even if it means braving the villainous Miss Foster. But when the alien threat escalates out of control, can Donna find her Time Lord before the march of the Adipose begins at last?

Plot
Donna Noble is walking down a street on the way to Adipose Industries, as she is investigating them on their weight-loss drug. The Doctor is doing the same but they fail to see each other as they do different things at the same time. They are in an a conference room posing as Health and Safety when a reporter starts asking Miss Foster what this drug does she fails to tell her and the meeting ends. The Doctor and Donna ask different employees for customer addresses.

Donna goes to a woman named Stacey Campbell's house while the Doctor goes and interviews a man called Roger Davey about his use of the drug. Roger tells the Doctor that his burglar alarm keeps going of at 1:10 AM. While Donna is talking to Stacey, Stacey tells Donna that she has lost a lot of weight and can't wait to dump her boyfriend. So Stacey goes to the bathroom only to find that her stomach starts moving and a tubby piece of fat comes out her body. Donna while down stairs is fiddling with a capsule like necklace with the end shaped like a pill. As she turns it another fat thing comes out of Stacey's body. As Donna plays with the necklace more of Stacey's body explodes into more pieces of fat and dies. Donna breaks into her bathroom and as an Adipose waves to her it jumps out the window. Miss Foster senses it via her computer and she scans the CCTV with her henchmen only to find a reporter from earlier called Penny Carter. The Doctor senses what has happened to Stacey and runs up to her house only to find nothing there. He then runs off to the TARDIS. Donna cancels Stacey's cab and goes home only to find her mother nagging at her so she goes off to see her grandfather Wilfred Mott who is gazing at the stars at the allotments. He says to Donna to find the right man as she talks to him about missing the trip with the Doctor. The Doctor is in the TARDIS and talks to himself about the Adipose (He is thinking he has got Martha with him only he realises that he does not).

The next day Donna takes the car to Adipose industries only to be criticized by her mother because she needs the car for going out. Donna hides in the toilets and the Doctor hides to investigate. All day Miss Foster is looking for Penny Carter who is hiding in the same toilets too. Donna thinks that she has been caught but it turns out to be Penny, who is then tied up. Donna follows only to find that the Doctor is also watching Miss Foster. He Spots Donna watching through the door and mouths to her and she mouths back. They are both unaware that they are being watched by Miss Foster and everybody in her office. Miss Foster asks her two henchmen to get them and they chase after Donna. But she runs up to the roof. Handily for the Doctor he was on a pully for the window cleaner he pulls him self up to rescue Donna as they get in he locks the roping device with the sonic screwdriver so that he can get down. But to his surprise Miss Foster has a sonic pen which she sends them down flying as she cuts the rope with it Donna almost falls but the Doctor climbs up a rope and squeezes into a window. Goes down a floor to Miss Foster's office. Only to find that Penny is locked in there. He then opens her window with his screw driver and saves Donna.

Miss Foster then uses a device (possibly another sonic pen) which opens a sliding door to reveal an Inducer which along with her capsule helps her to begin the birthing process of one million Adipose from her customers bodies. Meanwhile the Doctor breaks into a secondary Inducer ,hidden inside a cupboard, with his Sonic screwdriver. There he manages to temporarily disable the process by unscrewing his capsule and attaching it to a wire connected to the Inducer. While he is doing this Donna asks the Doctor that he looks older. She also asks if he's still on his own; he replies that he had this friend called Martha but he ruined her life but she's fine, he also says that Rose is still missing. Miss Foster notices he has tried to hack into the system and increases the power to double strength on her Inducer. The Doctor realises he can't save them and is really upset, that is until Donna pulls out her capsule from her jacket pocket and the peoples lives are saved. Miss Foster plans have failed but she says that one million Adipose will have to do and calls upon the Nursery Ship to take them home. The Doctor listens to an incoming signal from the Adiposian family that identify Matron Cofelia as a criminal for breeding on a Level 5 planet. The Doctor runs onto the rooftop to try and save her and Donna suggests blowing them up though the Doctor replies that they're just children and can't help from where they came from. Donna says that Martha must have done him good and he's says, with arrogance that she fancied him. He offers Matron a hand but she refuses just as the tractor beam switches off and she falls to her death, the Adipose leave the planet and zoom off into space.

The Doctor bins the sonic pen and Donna drags him off to the TARDIS. Once there she unpacks her belongings from her car (which is just a few feet from the TARDIS) the Doctor warns that it is a hard life but accepts her saying that he just wants a mate, she takes this literally and says that he is just an alien streek of nothing. Donna then takes her car keys and puts them in a bin on Brook street, 30 yards from the corner. She then tells a strange girl with blonde hair to tell her mother: 'that bin there', it turns out the girl is Rose Tyler and she has just missed the Doctor hoping to catch him at the event. She walks off down the street and dissapears. Donna tells the Doctor to materialise two and a half miles that way to say goodbye to her Grandad, he cheers her on.

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Miss Foster - Sarah Lancashire
 * Sylvia Noble- Jacqueline King
 * Wilfred Mott- Bernard Cribbins
 * Penny Carter - Verona Joseph
 * Stacey Campbell - Jessica Gunning
 * Roger Davey - Martin Ball
 * Craig Staniland - Rachid Sabitri
 * Claire Pope - Chandra Ruegg
 * Suzette Chambers - Sue Kelvin
 * Taxi driver - Jonathon Stratt

Production crew

 * 1st Assistant Director - James Blackwell
 * 2nd Assistant Director - Jennie Fava
 * 3rd Assistant Director - Sarah Davies
 * Location Manager - Gareth Skelding
 * Unit Manager - Rhys Griffiths
 * Production Co-ordinator - Jess van Niekerk
 * Production Secretary - Kevin Myers
 * Production Runner - Nicola Brown
 * Floor Runners - Andy Newbery, Heddi Joy Taylor
 * Drivers - Wayne Humphreys, Darren Lean
 * Contracts Assistant - Kath Blackman
 * Continuity - Sheila Johnston
 * Script Editor - Lindsey Alford
 * Camera Operators - Rory Taylor, Julian Barber
 * Focus Puller - Steve Rees
 * Camera Assistants - Tom Hartley, Jon Vidgen
 * Grip - John Robinson
 * Boom Operators - Jeff Welch, Bryn Thomas
 * Gaffer - Mark Hutchings
 * Best Boy - Peter Chester
 * Electricians - Steve Slocombe, Clive Johnson, Ben Griffiths
 * Stunt Co-ordinator - Tom Lucy
 * Stunt Performers - Gorden Seed, Jo McLaren
 * Wireman - Bob Schofield
 * Chief Supervising Art Director - Stephen Nicholas
 * Art Department Production Manager - Jonathan Marquand Allison
 * Supervising Art Director - Arwel Wyn Jones
 * Associate Designer - James North
 * Art Department Coordinator - Amy Pope
 * Set Decorator - Malin Lindholm
 * Props Buyer - Catherine Samuel
 * Standby Art Director - Ciaran Thompson
 * Design Assistants - Al Roberts, Peter McKinstry, Sarah Payne
 * Storyboard Artist - Richard Shaun Williams
 * Standby Props - Phill Shellard, Nick Murray
 * Standby Carpenter - Will Pope
 * Standby Painter - Ellen Woods
 * Standby Rigger - Keith Freeman
 * Property Masters - Paul Aitken, Phil Lyons
 * Dressing Chargehand - Matthew Wild
 * Forward Dresser - Stuart MacKay
 * Senior Props Maker - Barry Jones
 * Props Maker - Nick Robatto, Penny Howarth, Jon Grundon
 * Practical Electrician - Albert James
 * Construction Manager - Matthew Hywel-Davies
 * Scenic Artists - John Pinkerton, John Whalley
 * Construction Chargehands - Scott Fisher, Allen Jones
 * Construction Workshop Manager - Mark Hill
 * Graphics - BBC Wales Graphics
 * Costume Supervisor - Lindsay Bonaccorsi
 * Assistant Costume Designer - Rose Goodhart
 * Costume Assistants - Barbara Harrington, Louise Martin
 * Make-Up Artists - Pam Mullins, Steve Smith, John Munro
 * Casting Associates - Andy Brierley, Amy Rogers
 * VFX Editor - Ceres Doyle
 * Assistant Editor - Carmen Roberts
 * Post Production Supervisors - Chris Blatchford, Samantha Hall
 * Post Production Co-ordinator - Marie Brown
 * SFX Co-ordinator - Ben Ashmore
 * SFX Supervisor - Danny Hargreaves
 * Prosthetics Designer - Neill Gorton
 * Prosthetics Supervisor - Rob Mayor
 * On Line Editors - Matthew Clarke, Mark Bright
 * Colourist - Mick Vincent
 * 3D Artists - Stephen Regulus, Dave Levy, Serena Cacciato, Matt McKinney
 * 2D Artists - Bryan Bartlett, Simon C Holden, Greg Spencer, Sara Bennett, Tim Barter, James Moxon, Murray Barber, Loraine Cooper
 * VFX Co-ordinators - Jenna Powell, Rebecca Johnson
 * VFX Production Assistant - Marianne Paton
 * On Set VFX Supervisor - Tim Barter
 * Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts
 * Supervising Sound Editor - Paul McFadden
 * Sound FX Editor - Paul Jefferies
 * Foley Editor - Kelly-Marie Angell
 * Finance Manager - Chris Rogers
 * Original Theme Music - Ron Grainer
 * Casting Director - Andy Pryor Cdg
 * Production Executive - Julie Scott
 * Production Accountant - Oliver Ager
 * Sound Recordist - Julian Howarth
 * Costume Designer - Louise Page
 * Make Up Designer - Barbara Southcott
 * Music - Murray Gold
 * Visual Effects - The Mill
 * Visual Fx Producers - Will Cohen, Marie Jones
 * Visual Fx Supervisor - Dave Houghton
 * Special Effects - Any Effects
 * Prosthetics - Millenium Fx
 * Editor - Mike Jones
 * Production Designer - Edward Thomas
 * Director Of Photography - Ernie Vincze Bsc
 * Production Manager - Tracie Simpson
 * Executive Producers - Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner

Story notes

 * This episode is broadcast much earlier at a 6.20 timeslot. It is also fifty minutes long rather than forty five, as the TV listings state it is from 6.20 to 7.10.
 * A certain shot shows an army of Adipose in the streets of London, this was extremely complex and took the CGI team (The Mill) more time than most shots used for the series to complete.
 * A scene was shown the day before airing on GMTV, showing The Doctor and Donna Noble on a suspended window washing platform breaking in while Miss Foster cuts the cable with her Sonic pen.
 * Pointing a sonic screwdriver and a sonic pen at one another creates a sonic feedback in the surrounding area.
 * The Doctor says he's met 'cat people' before, he may be referring to the cat people he met in New Earth and Gridlock, or during Survival.
 * In The Fires of Pompeii the planet Pyrovillia also has gone missing silimar to the Adipose Breeding Planet.

Ratings

 * Unofficial overnight ratings - 8.4 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Rumours

 * It was rumoured that Miss Foster was The Rani. (This turned out to be false)
 * Rose's fading away at the end of the episode indicates that there may be an unstable linkway between Earth and Pete's World. The way Rose fades away echoes that of the guerillas and the Ogrons in Day of the Daleks where those who came from the 22nd century faded away and returned to their own century a short time after arriving in the 20th century.
 * Due to their appearance, the Adipose are said to be the cloning incubation of the Sontarans.
 * In The Fires of Pompeii the planet Pyrovillia also has gone missing silimar to the Adipose Breeding Planet. This is believed to be an arc for Series 4.

Filming Locations
to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * When Miss Foster cuts the first cable, she is clearly cutting the one on the Doctor's side of the cradle. However, it is the cable on Donna's side that snaps.
 * The building Miss Foster stands in front of when she is giving the speech is the same building Jack got pushed off by John in the Torchwood episode Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Partners in Crime plays in London, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in Cardiff. (Obviously a filming error)
 * The character Stacey Cambell is credited as Stacey Harris.
 * The credit, VFX Supervisor - Barney Curnow, should read: On Set VFX Supervisor - Tim Barter.

Continuity

 * Donna declined the Doctor's offer to travel with him in The Runaway Bride.
 * Wilfred Mott is Donna's Grandfather who appeared in Voyage of the Damned as the Newspaper dealer.
 * This is the first episode since Doomsday that Rose Tyler has appeared as a present character.
 * The effect of pointing the sonic pen and sonic screwdriver at one another is remarkably similar to an effect of a sonic device in TW: Fragments.
 * First reference to disappearing bees. Although intended as a storyline reference, this is actually a real-life concern in the early 21st Century.

DVD and other releases

 * It will be released on the Series 4 boxset DVD in November 2008.
 * It will be released on vanilla DVD Series 4 Volume 1 along with The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood on June 2nd 2008