| PARTNERS IN CRIME by Russell T Davies |
| Story 34 Synopsis: Adipose Industries, apparently led by Miss Foster, launch a revolutionary new fat-loss pill in London. The Doctor investigates, little realising that Donna Noble is also checking the company out, to try and find him. Miss Foster turns out to be Matron Cofelia, who is using the human race to seed new Adipose, small fatty creatures from the pill takers. By forcing the Matron's hand, the Doctor causes her to bring forward the creation of the Adipose, but only 10,000. Her actions are illegal under intergalactic law, and the Doctor tries to get her to stop. When the Adipose mothership comes, he finds out that they've come to collect their new offspring and then clear off, having learned of the law-breaking. Miss Foster believes that, her work partly complete, the Adipose will take her with them. But instead, they kill her. Donna asks the Doctor if she can come travelling with him, and he eventually agrees. |
| Review:- And so it begins, again. After her brief experience in The Runaway Bride, it seems that Donna has wised up a bit, but become regretful that she didn't join the Doctor when she had the chance. Expecting him to turn up again, she's become an undercover investigator, and Adipose is where she strikes lucky. The opening 20 minutes, with their twin investigations running along similar lines is a nice way to get into the story, and whilst their narrow missing each other seems slightly corny, it does mean their eventual meeting is all the more powerful. That it should happen from across a crowded room, mouthing and miming for a couple of minutes, is one of the most enjoyable scenes in quite a while. It's almost a shame that they get interrupted. Adipose, run by the mysterious Miss Foster, is of course up to no good, but who would realise their slogan 'the fat just walks away' is meant in a literal sense? Vaguely explained, the Adipose plan involves consumers taking pills that every day turn 1kg of body fat into a small Adipose creature. So far, so what? It seems, in extreme circumstances, maximum dispersal can turn a whole human into many Adipose(s). Gruesome, but again, so what? The best the Doctor can come up with is that seeding a planet like Earth is illegal, which doesn't perturb Foster, or Matron Cofelia apparently, one bit. She just triggers an extra wave of creation. For no particularly apparent reason. And then the Adipose mothership comes to collect its new offspring, and put Cofelia out of work. So, in many ways, this is a 'so what?' story. The Doctor finds out someone's up to no good, warns them to stop, fails to stop them, and then the problem just goes away. Really pretty uninvolving. But of course, the Adipose are not the whole point (possibly RTD might think they weren't even the main point). Because the return of Donna Noble is what matters. In a new improved form, albeit covering her failing life with a superficial quest of distraction, she strikes lucky in not only finding the Doctor, but finding him single. She talks herself back on board, but is presumably heading for an almighty comedown in the end... It's no surprise she might want to escape her dreary mother (why are all mothers in this series so awful?), but her 'gramps', played with brilliance as usual by British small-screen legend Bernard Cribbins, last seen in Voyage Of The Damned, would be welcome to show his face again. And that's pretty much it. The Adipose were yet another half-baked attempt at 'tackling issues', in this case, diet pill cons, whilst Cofelia is a parody of Channel 4's 'Supernanny' programme. Just a gentle easing back into things for viewers. It's all a far cry from the ambitions of the old series. A pleasant enough way to pass time on a Saturday night, but utterly disposable. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |