Have Your Say

Television and Film

Talk about Christie TV and Film here

The Unicorn and the Wasp

susandiane 27 Jan 09 at 6:49 p.m. GMT

Dr. Who and Donna travel to 1926 and get meet our friend Agatha Christie at a weekend house party. The plot is a bit silly, but for Christiephiles, it's great fun to dig out all the "Easter eggs" When the Dr. meets our friend Agatha, he geeks out ALMOST as bad as when he met Dickens in the 1st season.

Login or register to add posts and reply

9 replies

Reverse order

RobinHerne 30 Jan 09 at 5:50 p.m. GMT

I am a lifelong fan of Dr Who, and really did enjoy their Christie episode (one very wet weekend I wrote a Dr Who-meets-Conan Doyle script, but didn't manage to cram in as many oblique references as the Christie script did). I did wonder if it was deliberate that their guilty party was the one character who would never have been guilty in a real Christie book (trying hard not to give any spoilers here). Robin

go_leafs_nation 02 Feb 09 at 10:04 a.m. GMT

I got to see "The Unicorn and the Wasp". I thought that all the references to Christie's books were really clever, but the plot was quite superficial beyond that point. It was pretty predictable, cheesy, cliche. But it was a lot of fun to watch, despite the inacuraccies surrounding the disappearance.

hobbit 02 Feb 09 at 4:12 p.m. GMT

By 'inaccuracies' do you mean the inclusion of a giant alien wasp, or something more basic and fundamental than that?

go_leafs_nation 02 Feb 09 at 6:29 p.m. GMT

No, not at all! Inaccuracies such as: a giant wasp apparently now figures in "Death in the Clouds", I believe she wasn't wearing the clothes she was seen wearing last before her disappearance. (I do understand the difference between fiction and inaccuracies.)

hobbit 02 Feb 09 at 6:50 p.m. GMT

Yes, I assumed you meant something more (sorry if it sounded like I was being sarcastic, as for once I was not). I'm not sure that it was ever implied that the plot of Death in the Clouds featured a giant wasp (however that was, I believe, the original cover) but I appreciate that the clothes thing is a silly slip.

susandiane 08 Feb 09 at 1:15 p.m. GMT

RobinHerne, i don't really know what dame agatha thought of conan-doyle but there is one line in a ngaio marsh inspector alleyn novel where he (alleyn) calls someone out for insulting holmes.

RobinHerne 09 Feb 09 at 7:17 p.m. GMT

I seem to recall Poirot ribbing Hastings about finding clues in cigarette ash and suchlike. There are, of course, marked similarities between Conan Doyle and Christie's work... both getting fed up with their detective etc. There are echoes between Poirot writing to Hastings in 'Curtain' and Holmes' letter to Watson at the Reichenbach Falls.

popbubble 29 Jul 11 at 7:01 a.m. GMT

It was very good that they managed to include about 14 titles! I think they sliped an extra title in when prof peach says:

"Why didn´t they ask-Heavens!"

instead of why didn´t they ask Evans? But I don´t think there were any giant alien wasps in the book!

ErkutSoyer 29 Jul 11 at 9:19 a.m. GMT

My lovest TV series and my lovest writer together...

Some scenes have AC book's name.Examples:

1-Agatha says ''Sparkling Cyanide'' when The Doctor contaminated.

2-Agatha don't believe the wasp she says ''They do it with mirors''

And I enjoyed while Donna was flubbing about Murder on the Orient Express and Miss Marple