Am I Bovvered?

I suppose in many ways we shouldn’t be too surprised by Partners in Crime, it follows a pattern of season openers over the past few years.  We’ve had Cat nurses, Intern companions, and now an alien midwife; we’ve had relatively non-threatening (misunderstood?) female villains, with this year’s silent security heavies mirroring last year’s silent biker types; we’ve got the usual family business, with the obligatory harridan mother; vertical shenanigans with tall buildings/lifts/stairwells/cleaners’ hoists etc.  It’s always window dressing for the main event, new Doctor, new companion, new look, new direction, new meme.  Sarah Lancashire did an adequate job channelling Supernanny, but really all eyes were resting, nervously, on Catherine Tate.

‘Ginga’ companions have had a bit of a chequered history (despite some staunch support): Mel, BBC Books’ “Ginger Whinger” Compassion, and now Donna.  Apart from hair colour and fan dissatisfaction, they have a few things in common, they tend to be forthright, opinionated, straight talking, and occasionally shrill.  Even before her return there was quite a bit of fan angst after her hijinx last Christmas.  She was too much a caricature, too silly, too unbelievable, too thick, too unlikeable, too unlikely, and just too much!  And she still is!  But perhaps in a good way.  There is thankfully no Doctor-love angst, and Donna’s simple and direct style may be just the thing to crack the more dark and moody aspects of the Doctor’s nature, while she isn’t the companion to win the Doctor’s heart, she may be the one with a chance of understanding what makes him tick, and this will counterpoint the dark and moody road ahead… Because Donna’s story is going to end in tears.  Not essentially in terms of fan reaction, but because that’s how Rusty works.  Tragedy, tears of a clown, the dramatic impact of killing of the comedy relief.  Given his past form her “100 years” comment could only be foreshadowing something.

Similarly the business end of this episode is the bookending that seems to have been missed by many.  While the Doctor and Donna continually missing each other got a bit tiresome relatively quickly, there was a brilliant payoff (even if it was only in mime), but it was also reflected by the surprise cameo at the end.  Looking for the Doctor, and just missing him, and probably continuing to do so for the rest of the season to come.

DR