2x02 Tooth and Claw

I like how the story mixes real-life history with a classic werewolf legend and Rose's attempts to make the Queen say "We are not amused". The characterization also works pretty well, particularly the Queen's, who feels like a real person.
Of course, the background and solution to this story make sense and the fallout of the adventure is surprising and leads to the establishment of Torchwood.

Pauline Collins is one of my favourite actors to portray a historical character in Doctor Who. She brings the character to life and plays very well opposite Tennant and Piper. Ian Hanmore is creepy as hell, while Derek Riddell captures the mysterious Sir Robert well.

The Doctor is a lovely fanboy again, trying desperately to make a good impression on the Queen.

Rose is a bit funnier here, whenever she's not busy being a typical Who companion.

Werewolves aren't a new concept in any way, but it's always interesting to see Doctor Who tackle classic beasts. The Big Finish audio drama Loups-Garoux (2001) previously featured werewolves, as did The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988). The werewolf here is a pretty typical one, but also quite terrifying.

Euros Lyn is quickly becoming the Douglas Camfield of the revived series; a visual and visionary director. The opening sequence to this episode is arguably the coolest fight sequence in Doctor Who, both in terms of choreography and direction and editing. The location footage is beautiful even if the cinematography feels somewhat cheap.
The CGI, unfortunately, fails a bit in this episode, which makes the werewolf less realistic.

This is an adventure that turns fast-paced pretty quickly. It then stays both terrifying and mysterious until the end, feeling like an action-thriller all the way.

The lovely period atmosphere coupled with a bit of a hunted house storyline and a cult formed around werewolves makes this an exciting and intense episode to watch. It relies on some basic jumpscares, giving it that light horror vibe.

The Tenth Doctor's love for history was established here, as was the special connection he seems to have with British queens. It also showed how the show can deal with classic horror concepts in a way suitable for families.

A scary little adventure with good use of a historical celebrity, this is one well worth a rewatch some tome.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

The Doctor assumes the alias James McCrimmon, referring to his previous companion (from The Highlanders, 1967 to The War Games, 1969). He also pretends to be trying to speak with a Scottish accent (badly), which of course is funny, considering that Tennant is Scottish.

Queen Victoria is played by Pauline Collins, who previously appeared on the show alongside Patrick Troughton in the 1967 story The Faceless Ones. She played Samantha Briggs, who at one point was going to become a new companion.

Score: 75/120

Tooth and Claw is a pretty successful historical for me in general. Compared to Charles Dickens Queen Victoria was an engaging figure to throw into this werewolf mystery plot. It does help that her presence in central to the story rather than an incidental happenstance. Plus Pauline Collins pulls through a really engaging performance. I will say this episode and a lot of the historicals have a blindly positive view of the figure their story centalizes which can get suspect for me personally. I don't expect much from British people from 2006 but given that I don't particularly like the British monarchy and especially Queen Victoria, as the face of the British Empire's expansion in the late 19th century, silly larks about her hunting werewolves don't hit me like their supposed to.

The plot of this episode was solid the space werewolf had a great menace to it built up. I especially loved it's speech to Rose before its transformation. The Ninja monks wearing bright orange were a bit goofy though. I liked the side characters well enough Lady Isobel and Sir Robert were sweet and I believed them enough as a couple that Sir Robert's death was impactful.

Ten had some really fun moments here. I truly forgot how bouncy and excitable his character was so it was fun to see him shoot across rooms throwing books and violently dragging his fingers through his hair as he hunted for a solution.

Ten and Rose are slowly growing on me. Yeah their banter is different now but it is fun in its own way. They give off the vibe of the couple who are super obsessed with each other and always walk with their hands in each other's pockets and do butterfly kisses before one of them leave the room ect. This can grate but it is occasionally kinda sweet. Plus stuff like them making silly bets on their adventures adds to the feeling that they've been travelling together forever. Like when the Doctor tells Rose stop her mangled attempt at a Scottish accent, or when they both play along about him chasing her across the highlands. That's a familiarity in the dynamic that's fun to watch.