The least of the Doctor's worries ... David Tennant as the Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble
To paraphrase the Doctor when he cast doubt on Harriet Jones's capabilities in The Christmas Invasion, "Don't you think he looks tired?" As the fourth series of Doctor Who kicked off on Saturday with a thoroughly inconsequential episode, you can't help but wonder if Russell T Davies has exhausted himself by writing more episodes of Doctor Who than any other writer ever. Sad to say but Partners in Crime really felt like a case of going through the motions. All in, a bit lacklustre, despite the soundtrack, which was insistently upbeat to the point of irritating.
Reuniting the Doctor and Donna, Davies already risked the wrath of viewers/hardcore Whovians who had recoiled at Catherine Tate's one-note shrillness in The Runaway Bride, but hats off to him for persevering. It's great to have a companion not in awe of the Doctor - and indeed one that the show seems committed to - unlike poor Martha who, as Daniel Martin pointed out, was neglected from the outset by the writers on the rebound from Rose.
But Tate was the least of the worries in this ordinary escapade that, for a story concerned with obesity, was a lightweight caper indeed, the latest in a line from Davies.
Not that there's anything wrong with lightweight capers; there were moments of delightful screwball comedy that Tate and Tennant played with glee. But it was all japes and no jeopardy. The threat to a million lives simply didn't feel real: all Sarah Lancashire's sinister Miss Foster did was stride around her office removing and/or replacing her glasses like some weird hybrid of Supernanny and CSI: Miami's Horatio Caine. The Adipose, meanwhile, weren't so much a genuine enemy as a merchandising opportunity.
Now, it's all very well for us adults to complain that Doctor Who isn't dark enough - and by all accounts, next week's The Fires of Pompeii is a murkier tale - for as Davies and others have said, Doctor Who is a family show. As the midpoint between The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood, it certainly should be. But there was little in Partners in Crime for the grown-ups. In fact, had Rose not made a surprise appearance (and indeed disappearance) towards the end of the episode, would it have had an substance at all?
I've met and interviewed Davies a number of times and he's an incredibly talented, inspired writer - one of the most visionary and intelligent working today, and entirely deserving of the plaudits he's received for revitalising Doctor Who. But if Partners in Crime is anything to go by, he is in real danger of damaging his dazzling legacy.
