Tenth Doctor (as played by the now infamous David Tennant) episode Tooth and Claw complete with (have to be) campy kung fu monks flipping about the place, wth master staves in hand, not a chance you Scottish blokes! these guys are stop-timing their way through the air as they flip, and charge, and slide over bars in the most action set-hero extravaganza you've ever seen on Doctor Who,,,, could one argue that this was, oh so American?
Directed by Euro Lyn, which was a surprise for methinks Euro did alot of episodes, none of which in recent memory were shot like this, as if BBC staff higher-ups demanded a typical Hollywood action setpiece for this screenplay (oh its got Queen Victoria in it, it just seems right doesn't it?)
Werewolves as alien, which brings to mind, all fairy-tales and myths as of alien origin...but why stop there? perhaps all human life, all life for that matter...alien? Just gives rise to the belief that ancient peoples could not have done anything on their own, that in fact, technology is not a product of man's ingenuity and imagination, but a gift from the heavens above, by that do I mean the gods? (aliens of course...)
The name "Torchwood" gets its name and beginnings here in this one, an interesting survey and peek into the culture and politics, from a British perspective of course, of 1879 United Kingdom (the episode's setting), ie: Rose's "nakedness", the crown jewel, and the lycanthropy of the British royal family, all of it imaginative outreaches and binges of thought on the presumed and explanations for the unexplained(?)
Tennant seems wide-eyed in these his earliest episodes, definitely sparked by his relations with his companion Rose, who also is the giddy one...life in adventure, life in time, is all a wide-eyed surprise for them both, in tandem, experiencing the World, nay, the universe together...Tennant's version of the Doctor is unique and contrasts well with Eccleston's Ninth Doctor characterization, his PTSD version, Tennant acts younger and with more ebullience than the Ninth, more at a comparison later...
This also seems to be the second in a running theme of religion within the screenplay, as if Davies was dawned with a new ideal and direction with Tennant's version, the previous episode and this one in particular so far, hold very distinct religious symbol and metaphor, (the laying on of hands and the baptism of New Earth, and the sacrifice of certain characters for the Doctor (which happens a lot), in Tooth and Claw giving the impression that these characters are giving their lives as "martyrs for the cause", indeed, for God...and the obvious Christ pose of the werewolf/host boy at the end, as a sacrifice for what? He is sacrificed so that...what? He has been persecuted, the alien and the boy host? Just the boy, for the werewolf-alien had nothing but delusions of grandeur...I just wonder at what point did Davies realize and begin to incorporate, other than the obvious, these religious metaphors into the storyline? Perhaps what is most intriguing is: why? The Doctor is a figure of hope, faith, action, saving, probably the impetus is written in because it was already there, and Davies wanted to bring it out, as if he were a god...
But this gives way to a interesting focus, of god as being a traveler, of having no roots but ones that were now long dead, a traveler of sorts who shows only to save the day, to be the hero, shining knight, then to leave, lessons taught, or not, then disappears just as quick as his entrance...the TARDIS being his reality, his connection, how powerful is he, really? without it? Who is the Doctor without his TARDIS? (pun not intended, but wincing now)
