Review of Black Orchid by 15thDoctor
26 April 2024
This review contains spoilers
They got me. I’m a sucker for a murder mystery. I have an awful lot of time for it. The guest actors in this story are superb and inhabit the 1920s stately home world perfectly. As does The Doctor and his companions of course who’s acting suddenly feels a lot more naturalistic once they’ve stepped out of the TARDIS.
The hidden passages and lurking, disguised murderer makes for very enticing drama. The Doppelgänger trope has been done a million times in Doctor Who, but it fits very nicely here too
For the first time The Doctor’s cricket outfit makes sense. The pacing is good enough that I wasn’t bothered in the slightest bit by them taking a good 4 minutes out of the action to play a game of cricket - of course he’s a master!
I wish the mystery had been a little stronger and had been less contrived. I don’t see the need to have had a Native American wandering around the house, or a disturbed family member. I think it would have been more fun to have one of the guests in and around the party turn out to be the murderer.
All the same it was wonderful to have a strong genre story, proving once again that Doctor Who can go anywhere and do anything. It being a two parter also means it does not outstay its welcome! I am glad they have more of these going forward.