ABSTRACT
Doctor Who explores literary history in a number of episodes and in similar vein to The Shakespeare Code. The Doctor engages in some of the rivalry also witnessed in The Shakespeare Code. He hedges his initial gushing praise for Christie by indicating he usually sees through her mystery plots. Agatha Christie is widely known for her books, alongside well-known theatre productions, including The Mousetrap. Lady Eddison’s guest of honour turns out to be Christie. Donna is bowled over and the Doctor quickly congratulates the novelist for her great mysteries. With the cliche murder mystery scripting the episode’s events, Christie herself is framed to become the real enigma in the story. The emotions of mother and child are framed and enacted in the symbolic space afforded by Christie’s novels, a space infused with the very conjunctions built into Eddison’s relationship with her child; disavowed grief, hatred, love, loss, and pain for sure, but also repression and surface civility.
