The Unicorn and the Wasp is an underrated story from the fourth series of the new series, boasting some brilliant performances, layered characters and an idyllic setting. It tells a traditional murder mystery story with the twist (or should I say a sting).
I really like the setting and how the 1920s have been portrayed here and that all the guest cast have important dramatic functions, serving as vehicles which motivate the clues to unlocking the truth. The Doctor and Agatha Christie work very well together here but this is itself the problem of the story. Donna. Donna serves very little dramatic function in this story and generally becomes quite annoying in a number of scenes. Agatha Christie acts more like a companion than Donna does and therefore Donna is pushed to the sidelines where she is either moaning about running towards a wasp, killing the tension built up in the revelation scene or just being frankly annoying. This is by far one of the characters worse stories. This story would have worked much better as a companion-lite story with Agatha Christie filling in the role of the companion.
Apart from that a silly eating scene and over-excessive comedy, this is a good story. Murder mystery stories have generally been a great success for Doctor Who in the past (Robots of Death) but due to a few problems here, this story is limited to just another good story, despite the excellent production values.
6/10