Paranormal 'Who': 'Tooth and Claw'

The Queen knights the Doctor, courtesy BBC

Editor's note: The Doctor is in and everyone seems to love the continuum-tripping Time Lord more now than ever. Even Americans have caught picked up an addiction that only the Doctor can cure. However, while most people consider the iconic show as part of science fiction, the good Doctor has landed his TARDIS in some supernatural and paranormal situations. Sure, he often uncovers ghosts, vampires or cryptids as monsters terrorizing Earth, but when it comes to the unexplained, Who goes there. To whet our whistles for his impending return in a new season, Who super fan and blogger and Ghost Hunters International investigator Paul Bradford is going to begin weighing in on the best of Paranormal Who... 

TOOTH AND CLAW

Original air date: April 22 2006 (UK), October 6 2006 (US)
Doctor who?: Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Paranormal phenomena: Werewolf


Synopsis:
The Doctor and companion Rose (Billie Piper) land in the Scottish moors in 1879 and encounter Queen Victoria. They join the traveling queen to her overnight stop, The Torchwood Estate, where they discover a brotherhood of evil monks who worship the Wolf. The monks wish to infect the queen with the curse of the werewolf to bring about the Empire of the Wolf and unleash their werewolf in the estate. As the Doctor and queen attempt to thwart it, they learn the wolf is actually an alien symbiote that takes over werewolf victims. Even though the Doctor and Rose save the Queen (and are knighted for it), she banishes them from the British Empire and creates the Torchwood Institute to investigate paranormal events.

Know your Doctor: This is actually the third time the Doctor has encountered Queen Victoria. In the television story "The Curse of Peladon," the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) mentioned having been in attendance at Queen Victoria's coronation, and in the novel "Empire of Death" the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) met Queen Victoria and was even appointed her Scientific Advisor.

For more Doctor Who, visit My Untempered Schism, the all-things Who blog by Paul Bradford