Partners in Crime (TV story)

Partners in Crime was the first episode of the fourth series of Doctor Who. It marked the reappearance of Catherine Tate as new regular companion Donna Noble. It also saw Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott return as Donna's family and Rose Tyler make a cameo appearance.

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 seen walking down a street on the way to ADIPOSE Industries, as she is investigating them on their weight-loss drug. What she doesn't know is that the Tenth Doctor is doing the same thing, but they fail to see each other as they ask for the same things at the same time. They are in 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 off 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. Stacey goes to the bathroom and it is at this point where Donna begins to examine the capsule-like pendant. This results in a singular tubby piece of fat coming out of Stacey's body. Donna, oblivious to what is occurring then begins to investigate what is happening up stairs. Miss Foster is alerted that there has been an "unscheduled parthenogenesis" and sends out a squad team to retrieve the new Adipose child. The Doctor is also alerted of the 'birth' via a Y-shaped hand-held device. Miss Foster then incurs "full parthenogenesis" upon Stacey as the Adipose child had been witnessed by her, resulting in her entire body being converted into numerous Adipose, killing her instantly. Donna, who is now up stairs due to the unnerving shrieks emitted by Stacey in her last moments, 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 tells 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 until the end of the business day and the Doctor hides in a closet, to investigate. All day Miss Foster is looking for Penny Carter who is hiding in the same toilets as Donna. 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 window cleaner's pulley; he pulls himself 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 with 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. He then goes down a floor to Miss Foster's office, only to find that Penny is locked in there. He 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 tells 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 without a second capsule and is really upset, until Donna pulls out the capsule she took from Stacey Campbell's house from her jacket pocket. The Doctor uses this to save the people's lives. Miss Foster's 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 First Family that identifies Matron Cofelia (Miss Foster's real name) as a criminal for breeding on a Level 5 planet. The Doctor and Donna run onto the rooftop to try and save Matron Cofelia. Donna suggests blowing up the Adipose, but the Doctor replies that they're just children and can't help where they came from. Donna says that Martha must have done him good and he 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 (including a hat box, to the Doctor's surprise and confusion) 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 misunderstands this to mean that he wants "to mate", and says that he is just an alien streak of nothing. The misunderstanding mostly resolved, Donna then takes her car keys and puts them in a bin on Brook street, 30 yards from the corner. She then tells a girl with blonde hair to tell her mother: 'that bin there'; it turns out the girl is Rose Tyler. Donna then returns to the TARDIS, while Rose walks off down the street and disappears. Donna tells the Doctor to materialise two and a half miles "that way" to say goodbye to her Granddad; he cheers her on when they appear just above the hill from which he stargazes.

Cast

 * The Tenth 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
 * Clare Pope - Chandra Ruegg
 * Suzette Chambers - Sue Kelvin
 * Taxi Driver - Jonathan Stratt
 * Miss Foster's Guard - Claudio Laurini

Individuals

 * The Doctor mentions Martha Jones and Donna makes remarks about her. Rose Tyler is also described by the Doctor as "still lost."
 * This is the first time that Donna and the Doctor were mistaken to be married (other times after include The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood).

Races and species

 * Donna told the Doctor about bees disappearing; this seems inspired by colony collapse disorder.
 * The Doctor references the Sisters of Plenitude he met on New Earth when the adipose customer he visits mentions he is not a "cat person." (DW: New Earth)

Organisations

 * The Shadow Proclamation is mentioned. They were previously mentioned in Rose, The Christmas Invasion and Fear Her.

Devices

 * An ATMOS sticker appears on the taxi. ATMOS are devices that appear in The Sontaran Stratagem.

Events

 * Donna refers to the Starship Titanic (from DW: Voyage of the Damned), saying it must have been a hoax.
 * Donna and the Doctor refer to many instances the last time they encountered each other, including the scene where the Doctor drowned the Racnoss children. (DW: The Runaway Bride)

Story notes

 * Some reports stated this episode was called Partners in Time.
 * This episode is dedicated to Howard Attfield, who passed away shortly after filming scenes for this episode reprising the role of Donna's father, Geoff Noble. As Geoff was to have been a recurring character in the season, the producers chose to remove Attfield's scenes and bring back Bernard Cribbins to play Wilfred Mott, the character he played in Voyage of the Damned; the character was retconned to become Donna's grandfather. Attfield's scenes were preserved and included on the subsequent Series 4 DVD release.
 * According to his memoir The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies originally planned to introduce a new companion named Penny Carter in this episode, who he describes as 30-something, recently jilted by a boyfriend, and strong-willed in the vein of Donna Noble. When Catherine Tate became interested in reprising her role as Donna this idea was dropped, although a minor character in the episode (the journalist) was given the name Penny Carter.
 * 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. They used the software called Massive, which was created and used by Weta Digital, who created all CGI for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
 * 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 the functioning ends of a sonic screwdriver and a sonic pen at one another (or, as the Doctor put it, "two identical sonic devices") 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, like the Adipose Breeding Planet, has also gone missing. In both cases, the mystery was solved in The Stolen Earth
 * The scene with Rose was actually shot along with her scenes in Turn Left. It was removed from the episode when it was shown to the media. According to an interview in Doctor Who Magazine #396, the positive reaction to Piper's surprise cameo (which was successfully telecast without any pre-broadcast revelation in the media thanks to the earlier slight-of-hand) led Davies to add a third surprise appearance by Rose to The Poison Sky, in addition to one already planned and filmed for Midnight (the Midnight footage was reused). Rose's return wasn't a complete surprise, however; besides media coverage of her return, a clip of Rose from Turn Left had also been included in the official Series 4 theatrical trailer several weeks earlier.
 * Miss Foster mentions The Doctor warning the Shadow Proclamation, suggesting that they are an organization rather than just a treaty (confirmed in The Stolen Earth)
 * The window cleaner cradle scene was intended for use in Smith and Jones but was cut and used here instead. In the first draft, the initial confrontation between the Doctor, Donna and Miss Foster was to have happened in the cradle, but budgetary and logistics problems meant the scene was moved to the sales cubicles area (and the "sonic screwdriver plus sonic pen equals massive sonic feedback" diversion added).
 * The original idea for this story was to have alien genetics hidden in Botox doses, resulting in the people injected being overwhelmed by the genetic code, and transforming into aliens. A similar plot was later used in The Vampires of Venice.

Ratings

 * 9.1 million viewers

Myths and rumours

 * It was rumoured that Miss Foster was actually the Rani. This turned out to be false
 * It was rumoured that Rose would appear. This was true

Studio

 * Upper Boat Studios, Treforrest

Location

 * Waterloo Gardens, Cardiff
 * Glan Rhymni, Tremorfa
 * Grange Well Park, Cardiff Bay
 * Odeon Cinema, Cardiff Bay
 * British Gas Building, Cardiff
 * Dominions Arcade, Cardiff
 * Picture Finance, Newport
 * Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
 * Crockherbtown Lane, Cardiff
 * Bar Icon, Cardiff
 * Nant Fawr Road, Cardiff
 * Kings Way, Cardiff
 * Fat Cats Restaurant, Cardiff
 * Tiger Tiger, Cardiff
 * Scott Road, Cardiff
 * Grangemoor Park, Cardiff
 * Franklen Road, Cardiff

Production errors

 * In every scene Miss Foster's guards change position.
 * When the Doctor and Donna are in the cradle, Miss Foster is seen cutting the cable on the right (the Doctor's side). However, the cable on the left (Donna's side) is the one that snaps. This mistake is confirmed a few moments later; when Miss Foster says 'Now for the other one', she moves over to the cable on the left, which has clearly already snapped.
 * When the Doctor is erecting a sonic cage around the cradle controls, he puts the sonic screwdriver in his mouth, with the emitter facing to his left. When he turns to look at Donna briefly and takes it out of his mouth, the emitter is facing to his right.
 * At 17.21 the numberplate of the Noble family's car is YD55YHG. However, when Donna collects her bags from the car at 43.01 it has the numberplate LN54VKR.
 * In the scene with The Doctor and Donna outside the TARDIS, the rain in the alleyway stops and starts every time the angle changes.

Continuity

 * Donna declined the Doctor's offer to travel with him in DW: The Runaway Bride, but accepted this time.
 * The Doctor and Donna missing each other by a fraction resembles the First Doctor and Vicki Pallister constantly missing Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton while in Rome. (DW: The Romans)
 * Wilfred Mott, Donna's grandfather, appeared in DW: Voyage of the Damned as the newspaper dealer. In that episode he was called Stan (in the script, not onscreen), but was renamed when Bernard Cribbins was hastily cast to replace Howard Attfield's Geoff Noble.
 * This is the first episode since DW: Doomsday in which Rose Tyler appeared as a present character.
 * The effect of pointing the sonic pen and sonic screwdriver (or, as the Doctor put it, "two identical sonic devices") at one another is remarkably similar to an effect of a sonic device in TW: Fragments.
 * This is the first reference to disappearing bees (which is explained in DW: The Stolen Earth). Although intended as a storyline reference, this is actually a real-life concern.
 * On one of the taxis there is an ATMOS sticker on the windscreen. This will crop up again in DW: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky.
 * In the parallel timeline shown in DW: Turn Left, sixty million Americans are converted into fat. Adipose Industries had targeted the United States rather than London, as the city had been destroyed and the entire South of England flooded by radiation when the Titanic crashed.
 * Humanoid Catkind are mentioned.
 * A catflap is examined as a method of either entry or exit for a sneaky alien threat, just as it had been in DW: Rose; in this case, it's exit (of the newborn Adipose).

Timeline
For the Doctor
 * This story takes place after DWBIT: The Creative Spark
 * This story takes place before DW: The Fires of Pompeii

For Donna
 * This story takes place after DW: The Runaway Bride
 * This story takes place before DW: The Fires of Pompeii

For Wilf
 * This story takes place after DW: Voyage of the Damned
 * This story takes place before DW: The Sontaran Stratagem

For Rose
 * This story takes place after DW: Doomsday
 * This story takes place before DW: The Poison Sky

Home video releases

 * Released in the Series 4 DVD boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
 * Released as Series 4 Volume 1 in a vanilla edition alongside The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood

Partners in Crime