IT was a very good eps do watch the Doctor Who Confidential tons of interesting things on this eps as they have Christie's Grandson helping out and he like the actress for this eps too
As for the son and butler .. most likely a RTD inside joke....i thought ti was no need as well but oh well.

BTW didn't the doctor run in to these type wasps before ? I think they were the same fro Space Ark maybe? not sure..

CC

The whole point about the relationship between the son and the butler was to reenforce how the British upper-class of the period were more inclined to keep up appearances of propriety than to be true to themselves even when they they were being called as witnesses in a criminal investigation. It was a nice satirical commentary on the mores of the time-- and it is important to note that when time-traveling, that different eras will have different attitudes than one's own. (This is why it was important for Martha to experience the different attitudes regarding race and gender when she traveled into the past, or Rose to witness different working class experiences in her first journeys.)

Anyway, I have very mixed feelings about this episode:

1.) The cast was good to excellent.

2.) The monster was rubbish. A wasp that size would not be able to breathe, let alone carry its weight on either its wings or skinny legs. The loss of its stinger would also be a major injury-- and would take a long time to regrow assuming that the loss of the stinger did not kill it.

3.) We were robbed of the horror element by having a nearly instant metamorphosis from the vicar to the wasp. The main ingredient of bio-horror is the slow metamorphosis from one form to the other-- where the subject is just as frightened as the witnesses.

4.) The monster story and the upper-class murder mystery just weren't a good fit. Maybe it could have been if it had been more skillfully done.

5.) So what's the point? Reading crime-fiction turns gentle vespiforms who would otherwise be inclined to fall in love with the inhabitants of our planet into rampaging killing machines? Imagine what it does to humans. Worse, imagine what television and the internets might do.

6.) The story worked when it stayed in the upper-class murder mystery genre-- see my point about the mores of the milleau.

7.) The bit about the Doctor's alien biology was nice-- the idea that he can fight off poisoning if he can only get his hands on the right ingredients in the nick of time made for a great scene.

8.) If pepper is an insecticide, how the hell did the vespiform survive in India? What the hell was he eating? Scones and tea?

I wish I could agree, loving the new series and all but this episode to me stands out as not only the worst episode of the new series but possibly in the entire history of the show. I think I would have to go to the incredible wretched Peter Cushing movie to get worst than this. What a terrible waste of the potential for blending the Who mythos with a character from recent history. I know I can't be alone. I've got some Brit workmates who grew up on Doctor Who (and watch it with their kids) who think this is one of the worst ever.

If this episode had half the suspense and drama of Midnight it would have been great. OMG when the vicar starts saying ""Bzzzz bzzzz". Insects make that noise from flapping their wings not from speech. What on earth were they thinking? How is it scripts like this get through. The actors did a fine job considering what they had to work with. But the script? Worst than Daleks in Manhattan.

Thank Rassilon the next 3 episodes make up for it and then some.