Story #182 - Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks (2007)

Harry -
It has been 11 years since this Doctor Who two-parter was first broadcast. Having just rewatched it, I’m sitting here asking myself — just as I did back then — what on Earth was that supposed to be? The nicest way I can think of putting it is that it felt like being on some kind of “Doctor Who” themed adventure ride at an amusement park. It’s Doctor Who all right, says so on the signage, but they got it all wrong.


Sarah -
It’s terrible. It’s just so, so terrible. Can we just go straight to our final thoughts and spend the rest of the day watching "Timelash" and "Time-Flight" on an endless loop? The stories will look brilliant by comparison and at least we’ll get to watch Captain Stapley.

There are a lot of mediocre episodes of Doctor Who that still manage to be watchable, but this isn’t one of them. Oh wait, I should say these two, because for some reason it’s a bloody two-parter. Why, oh why?


Harry -
Agreed, let's not kill our wills to live by going through the whole story. It's awful in so many ways that I don't think we can even pretend to be Rob and Toby and only see the good things here.


Sarah -
The only good thing I can think of in this story is Martha’s general awesomeness. I was always just waiting for her next scene. That’s all I’ve got. And, speaking of Martha, shouldn’t she have some new clothes by now? It’s like Tegan’s uniform all over again. Why has she not been allowed to raid the TARDIS wardrobe?


Harry -
The burgundy jacket and blue jeans is Martha's signature look, but she's due a change by this point.

Overall, what the story seemed to be attempting was to harken back to classic era favourites that gave us a slow reveal of Daleks hatching nasty plots in the shadows.  A nice buildup until the Doctor came along to expose their schemes and wreck everything. Here we have four Daleks -- the Cult of Skaro -- who escaped the battle of Canary Wharf by initiating emergency temporal shift. Landing in 1930s Manhattan, they embark on a new nasty plot to fuse Daleks and humans together into a new lifeform. Okay, kind of intriguing, but the rest of the story is a mess.


Sarah -
It’s like a plot borrowed from the Ainley Master. All that’s missing is a wacky disguise.


Harry -
For some reason, the Daleks create human-pig hybrid slaves. Did we not just have a pig spaceman in "Aliens of London"? Too soon for more of this porcine activity.


Sarah -
Seriously, what is with RTD and pigs?


Harry -
It would have been cooler if they brought back the Robomen from "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".

Key to the plot is the harvesting and preparation of human bodies, who are then zombified in preparation to become human Daleks. Presumably they will all suffer the same fate as Mr. Diagoras, foreman of the Empire State Building construction site. He was forcibly hybridized with Dalek Sec to become the first "human Dalek." I guess this reveal was supposed to be great shock and horror. But it fell horribly flat. Actor Eric Loren failed to sell it at all, maybe because his head was smothered by a prosthetic Dalek thing with a bulbous brain and phallic tentacles that would not stop wiggling. It was just ridiculous.


Sarah -
I’m pretty sure he failed to sell it well before the prosthetic showed up. There were no successful guest actor performance in this story. I guess the whole Dalek identity crisis could have been interesting, but we’ve seen Dalek internecine strife over genetic purity done much better in the 80s.


Harry -
Our friends over at Big Finish have also done much better with this in the War Doctor audios.  Anyway, the rest of the story involves the Doctor standing in front of the Daleks for ludicrously long periods of time without a single one of them shooting him. This aggravated to no end, especially after they happily dispatched Solomon in Central Park after his "can't we all just get along?" oration. He failed to sell that too, so maybe he had it coming.


Sarah -
I couldn’t even feel sad about his extermination. It was all one big meh.


Harry -
The characters were having a miserable time, but it looked like the actors were too.  There were a couple of moments when David Tennant appeared to be forcing out the dialogue just to get a scene in the can. 

I don't know. I tried to accept the cornucopia of American accents, because people come to New York City from everywhere to chase their dreams, right? But what was Tallulah's accent supposed to be? "Roaring 20s Dame?" "Talking Pictures Starlet?" "Peorian?" I just don't know.


Sarah -
My brain still hurts from all the accents. Tallulah -- with 3 ls and an h -- was straight out of central casting at some Poverty Row studio.


Harry -
As for New York City, this was the least-looking-like-New-York-City thing I can remember. "The Chase" offered a more believable Empire State Building.


Sarah -
Where are you when we need you, Morton Dill?


Harry -
No kidding.  I don't know where else they blew the budget on this one, since all the live action was shot in the UK. Could they not have come up with some better looking art deco? They should have drowned us with art deco. What a terrible waste, especially since they started shooting Doctor Who all over the world -- including New York City! -- in the seasons to come.


Sarah -
In a desperate attempt to say something nice, I’ll share that Mr. Smith had favorable things to say about how the illusion of movement was handled in the elevator scenes. The Dalek eyestalk design on the elevator door was a nice touch, too.

I do feel badly for Helen Raynor, the writer of this mess. She famously went online after the stories aired to discover that the stories weren’t well-received. And, this being the internet, the negative reviews included vile personal attacks. People are the worst.


Harry -
The story was a mess to begin with, let down by poor production and acting, and then to have to deal with toxic fanhood, yuck.


Sarah -
I’m sure there’s a way to blame this all on Eric Saward, but I haven’t quite sorted that out yet.


Harry -
Let us never watch this one again.


Sarah -
It's a deal!

Best Line:
SEC: You have betrayed me.
DALEK 1: You told us to imagine.
DALEK 3: And we imagined your irrelevance.

That pretty much sums up this story...

Favorite Moment:
Martha mooning over the doctor and Tallulah assuming he doesn’t reciprocate because he’s “into musical theater.” That made me laugh out loud.

Lasting Image: I’d prefer to have every image erased from my memory, but I guess I’ll go with Tallulah in her showgirl finery.

1/10


Harry -
Best Line:
MARTHA: I wonder what year it is, because look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet.
DOCTOR: Work in progress. Still got a couple floors to go, and if I know my history, that makes the date somewhere around
(Martha picks up a copy of the New York Record which is lying on a bench.)
MARTHA: November first 1930.
DOCTOR: You're getting good at this.

Favourite Moment: two of the Daleks down in the sewer tunnels, gossiping behind Dalek Sec's back.

Lasting Image: the Doctor and Martha with the Statue of Liberty.  It was all downhill from there.

1/10

Our marathon continues with Story #183: The Lazarus Experiment...

Story #181 - Gridlock (2007)

Harry -
After the new seasons of Doctor Who began to roll in, I looked forward to scooping up each DVD box set when it was released. Still do!

I can't say there's a definite reason for this, but "Gridlock" is the one story in all of new Who that I have watched more than any other. It's always been a go-to. It's one of those ones that I would put on a list of episodes to show new viewers. It's got a little bit of everything: fascinating aliens, a far-out but relatable setting, progressive characterizations, danger and suspense, classic monsters, a celebrity guest and the drop of a big clue in the season story arc. But the question is, does it all come together?


Sarah -
I can't recall the last time I watched "Gridlock", but, after this viewing, I would answer that question with a resounding YES! "Gridlock" is a proper science fiction story and an excellent episode to show to new viewers.


Harry -
We also see the continued development of the relationship (or lack of) between the Doctor and Martha. Having promised her one trip in the TARDIS, he suddenly offers another. Once to the past, and now once into the future. That's the new deal.

She leaps at the opportunity and asks to see the Doctor's home planet. He loses himself in a momentary reverie of Gallifrey before waving the suggestion off.


Sarah -
With all we’ve learned since this episode aired, I still found the Doctor’s description of Gallifrey quite touching, “The sky's a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow…. Nah. Where's the fun for me? I don't want to go home.”


Harry -
Instead, he decides they should go and see New New York on New Earth. It sounds fabulous and Martha gets excited... until he lets slip that he'd been there before with Rose.


Sarah -
I love that Martha calls him out on being on the rebound.


Harry -
Paint Martha distinctly unimpressed, especially when they land in a grimy alleyway during a rainstorm.


Sarah -
Martha’s “You’ve brought me to the slums,” comment pretty much sums it up. She definitely hasn’t woken up in the city that never sleeps.


Harry -
Surrounding this have been a couple of short scenes to give us some background. First we saw a couple inside a vehicle being attacked by an unseen monster. (I've always wondered if that couple wasn't inspired by the "Ma and Pa" characters in Grant Wood's "American Gothic.") In another part of the city, the Face of Boe urges a cat nurse to seek out and find the Doctor. Gun in hand, she sets off.


Sarah -
They’re definitely the father and daughter from American Gothic. I’ve always felt sorry for the daughter, being mistaken for her father’s wife. If you haven’t already, you can see it at the Art Institute of Chicago on your next visit.


Harry -
I had no idea it was a father and daughter. You learn something new every day here on the sofa! The one time I was at the Art Institute, the painting had been taken down. Can't remember if it was for restoration or for a loan.


Sarah -
But, back to Doctor Who, the cat nurses always unnerve me, even when they’re not being evil.


Harry -
A testament to the amazing work by the makeup team.

Back in the alley, the Doctor and Martha encounter a row of street vendors who sell synthetic moods such as "happy happy" and "forgetfulness". A simple patch applied to the neck, and the user immediately feels the effects. In a split second, the Doctor turns his back and two young people kidnap Martha at gunpoint. They drag her behind a heavy door which immediately locks behind them.

Stupid Doctor! He'd been all flippant and even arrogant to this point, and look what happened. Now the Doctor full on rages -- more at himself for being so casual in an unfamiliar place. His story-long search for Martha ensues.


Sarah -
This is the moment when the Doctor starts to think of Martha as a companion and not someone being rewarded with a trip in the TARDIS for her good work. Meanwhile, Martha realizes that the Doctor could easily abandon her and leave her to spend the rest of her life trapped in a traffic jam. It’s really quite terrifying. 

One of my favorite things about Gridlock is that there really isn’t a baddie in the story. The people who kidnap Martha aren’t trying to hurt anyone, they just need a third person so they can access the fast lane and get to Brooklyn in six years -- just in time for their child to start school.


Harry -
Each new bit of information reveals how badly New New York has declined since the last time the Doctor was there. 

Cheen and Milo "speed off" with Martha. The Doctor clambers up to a deck overlooking the motorway. It is clogged with endless lanes and levels of flying cars, and poisonous exhaust. As a coughing fit seizes him, a passing car opens up and invites him in. The Doctor leaps inside and is welcomed by... more cats! Thomas Kincade Brannigan is a human-feline hybrid. Valerie is his human partner, and in the back of the car they have kittens. Totes aborbs! The Doctor says his hellos, then explains his pursuit of Martha.


Sarah -
They’re such an adorable family. I love that they leap into action to help the Doctor.


Harry -
Brannigan enlists the aid of Alice and May, a couple whose hobby is car-spotting.


Sarah -
I think of them as the Lovely Lesbian Carspotters.


Harry -
They help locate the car that Martha is in, and the Doctor takes off. Leaping from car to car and barging through, he encounters many more people who sit wasting their lives away in the gridlock.


Sarah -
I love this entire sequence. It’s an impressively inexpensive reuse of one set, which is SO Doctor Who!


Harry - 
Meanwhile, Novice Hame the cat nurse is in hot pursuit.


Sarah -
As we’ve learned, you don’t mess with a cat nurse!


Harry -
After witnessing a terrifying attack on a nearby vehicle, Cheen and Milo veer off and stop their car. Strange noises persist outside. They tell Martha the legends of monstrous things that live at the bottom of the motorway. That leaves all three of them shaken and scared.

The Doctor reaches the bottom and barges into another vehicle. Getting a closer look underneath, he confirms that the monsters are real, and he's encountered them before: the Macra!


Sarah -
A vintage take from 1967! Who can ever forget "The Macra Terror"? Well, just about everyone, as all four episodes are currently missing from the archives. Honestly, that makes me love RTD more for bringing them back. I mean, who could forget this moment? 

Harry -
Some of the best horror faces in all of Doctor Who.

I was blown away that of all the monsters to pull out of the mists of time, RTD chose the Macra. And he found a plausible reason for them to end up where they did.


Sarah -
How many years do you think he was working it out in his head?


Harry -
It's impressive that a story about a city-wide traffic jam bounced along as quickly as it did. As soon as Novice Hame locates the Doctor, she zaps him up to the Senate chamber with a mini-teleport. The chamber and all civic institutions surrounding them are dead. Everyone perished from a virus that was contained in one of the new drugs that was introduced to the city. The only survivors are the people stuck in the traffic down below, doomed to circle around forever.


Sarah -
It really puts any traffic jam we’ve experienced in perspective.


Harry -
The Face of Boe has been there with the nurse, keeping the power going. After a quick reunion with his old friend, the Doctor rigs up a power surge that brings the city back to life. The sun comes out, traffic clears, and Martha finds her way up to the Senate chamber.


Sarah -
The reaction of the traffic-bound to finally seeing the sun is so lovely. It warmed my skeptical little heart, even after all these years.


Harry -
She arrives in time to witness the Face of Boe's final moments. The power surge drained the last of his energy. His casing shattered and he is fading. Before he goes, he has a final message for the Doctor: "You are not alone."


Sarah -
I’ll never forget my reaction the first I saw this scene. After two seasons of the Doctor being the last of the Time Lords, we found out that he wasn’t the only survivor. I had high hopes for who it might be, but that’s a story for another day...


Harry -
Martha asks what that means, but the Doctor shrugs it off. He decides it's time to be off and trudges away towards the TARDIS.

Martha has had enough. She sits herself down and refuses to take another step until the Doctor finally talks to her like a normal person. It finally dawns on the Doctor what an arse he's been, and how shabbily he has treated his new friend. He opens up and tells Martha about the Time War, of Gallifrey, and how he is the last of the Time Lords. Boe's message still hangs there like a shadow. There's still something that the Doctor doesn't want to talk about.


Sarah -
It’s about damn time!


Harry -
This remains a story that I would show to a new viewer. It has the list of qualities that I mentioned at the start of our discussion, and I can add that it's visually interesting, and that ending would make anyone want to race to the next story to learn more. Well done by RTD, director Richard Clark, and the incredible costume and makeup teams.


Sarah -
It’s an excellent story that completely holds up. Well done!


Harry -
Best Line: 
DOCTOR: What, you've been driving for two months? 
BRANNIGAN: Do I look like a teenager? We've been driving for twelve years now. 
DOCTOR: I'm sorry? 
BRANNIGAN: Yeah! Started out as newlyweds. Feels like yesterday. 
VALERIE: Feels like twelve years to me. 

Favourite Moment: the Doctor's wild race through all the vehicles.

Lasting Image: the Doctor and Martha with the Face of Boe and Nurse Hame.

8/10


Sarah -
Best Line: 
BRANNIGAN: Still your hearts, my handsome girls. It's Brannigan here.
ALICE: Get off the line, Brannigan. You're a pest and a menace.
BRANNIGAN: Oh, come on, now, sisters. Is that any way to talk to an old friend? 
ALICE You know full well we're not sisters. We're married.
BRANNIGAN: Ooo, stop that modern talk. I'm an old-fashioned cat. 

Favorite Moment: The Doctor bounding from car to car.

Lasting Image: Brannigan and Valerie in their car 

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #182: Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks...

Story #180 - The Shakespeare Code (2007)

Harry -
It’s hard not to begin this discussion without a rousing “Hey Nonny!”, so there we are.


Sarah -
Done.


Harry -
The Doctor promised his new friend Martha one trip — just one trip — and they’ve gone back to the year 1599. After a few moments of shock, Martha takes the Doctor’s advice and together they “walk about like you own the place.”


Sarah -
Martha has been been offered one trip only to thank her for her excellent work in the Judoon incident. After that the Doctor will, presumably, go back to nursing his broken heart over Rose’s departure.


Harry -
Sigh.


Sarah - 
In the meantime, Martha continues to be brilliant by asking entirely appropriate questions. She worries about stepping on a butterfly and changing the future of the human race or that she will be carried off as a slave. 

After his advice about walking around like you own the place, he assures her that Elizabethan England isn’t so different from her time and counts the many ways, while the camera show us two black women walking down the street. On that topic, I listened to an enlightening interview last year on the History Extra Podcast with the author of Black Tudors: The Untold Story. It’s definitely worth a listen. 

To her great delight, the Doctor takes Martha to the Globe Theatre to see Love’s Labour’s Lost, where she seems to start the tradition of shouting “Author! Author!” at the curtain call.


Harry -
I know it was all CGI, but I loved the view outside the Globe. And of course, the Bard is present when they arrive.


Sarah -
The man himself turns up on stage and both the Doctor and Martha are struck by his presence, the Doctor describing him as “The most human human there's ever been.” He eagerly awaits hearing Shakespeare’s “beautiful, brilliant words” and is rewarded with “Ah, shut your big fat mouths!” As Martha suggests, it’s probably best if you don’t meet your heroes.


Harry -
The Doctor should have known better.


Sarah -
Meanwhile, Lilith, the witch we met in the cold open where she devoured a young man with her “mothers,” is in the theater with an effigy of Shakespeare, which she begins using to control his behavior. What was meant to be a quick trip changes to a longer stay when the Doctor realizes something mysterious is going on.


Harry -
It began when Shakespeare announced that his new play -- Love's Labour's Won -- would be performed the very next night. Martha's never heard of that one, and the Doctor confirms that it's a mythical lost play. No one knows for sure if it was real, or what happened to it. So much of Shakespeare and his works is wrapped in myths and legends, it has provided endless material for writers right up to the present day.

The Doctor finds the mystery irresistible, so he and Martha make their way to a nearby pub where Shakespeare has retired for rest and refreshment. As Martha said, it's never a good idea to meet your heroes, and her encounter with Shakespeare gets awkward.

SHAKESPEARE: Sweet lady. Such unusual clothes. So fitted. 
MARTHA: Er, verily, forsooth, egads. 
DOCTOR: No, no, don't do that. Don't.


Sarah -
That did make me laugh. Also, the Doctor introducing Martha as being from Fredonia, Land of the Brave and Free.

Will is annoyed to have yet another fanboy turn up on his doorstep, but is intrigued by the stunning Ms. Jones. He sees through the psychic paper, to the Doctor’s delight.


Harry -
As the trio get more acquainted, Lynley, the Master of the Revels barges in, and says for the convenience of a modern audience: "As Master of the Revels, every new script must be registered at my office and examined by me before it can be performed." That was a nice bit of exposition. 

He demands to see Shakespeare's new script. When Will tells him he'll provide it in the morning, Lynley tells him that with no script available, the performance is cancelled. He storms off and runs into Lilith, who surreptitiously clips a lock of his hair. She dashes back to her mothers with the news. They are intent that Love's Labour's Won be performed the next night, so they commence an incantation. Lynley goes into a coughing fit, spewing out water before he keels over, dead. What a horrific death.


Sarah -
Horrific, but memorable! The Doctor declares that Lynley died of a sudden imbalance of the humors to avoid panic over witchcraft and sets out to solve the mystery, while Will prepares to write Love’s Labour’s Won. 

Awkwardness abounds when the Doctor and Martha are shown to their room for the night. He’s oblivious to Martha’s flirting, lost in his own thoughts: “No, there's something I'm missing, Martha. Something really close, staring me right in the face and I can't see it. Rose'd know. A friend of mine, Rose. Right now, she'd say exactly the right thing. Still, can't be helped. You're a novice, never mind. I'll take you back home tomorrow.”

Good Grief! It’s like the damn mob -- just when we think the Rose era is over, RTD pulls us back in!


Harry -
"Great," says Martha, echoing some of us viewers as the Doctor goes off on his Rose reminiscences. These are the least appealing moments of this season.


Sarah -
And there are far too many of them!


Harry -
Meanwhile, Shakespeare is writing up a storm, all under the witches' influence. By morning, he's got Love's Labour's Won drafted and ready for the stage.

It seemed to take a while for the Doctor to put all the pieces together in this story. Without a proper confrontation with the witches early on, he was left to figure it out on his own. I didn't mind the way this played out, it harkened back to the Doctor's younger days when he didn't flaunt knowing everything in the universe. Finally, he hits on it and declares "I name you Carrionite!" 

The Carrionites use words as power. Ancient creatures, they seek a new empire, powered from the Earth in their specially-designed engine which happens to the the specially-shaped Globe Theatre. They had been preparing this for a while before the Doctor and Martha showed up. Shakespeare is dispatched to the Globe to stop the play while our heroes set out to stop the Carrionites in their lair.


Sarah -
I like the concept of the Carrionites and I don’t mind the camp.


Harry -
Using familiar witchy powers, the Carrionites put Martha to sleep and torture the Doctor with a voodoo doll. Thinking they've stopped his heart, they fly to the Globe. For the second time in as many episodes, we are made aware that the Doctor has two hearts, which in this case saved him from certain death.


Sarah -
Once again that second heart comes in handy! “Only one heart working. How do you people cope?”


Harry -
Everyone converges on the Globe. The words of Love's Labour's Won are already having an effect, as a storm whipped up by Shakespeare's dialogue forms over the theatre. The Doctor and Martha arrive in time to convince him to reshape the play -- to use his words to opposite effect. Script writer Gareth Roberts must have loved putting dialogue into Shakespeare's mouth. A few crisp lines to "close up this din of hateful, dire decay, decomposition of your witches' plot," and the Carrionites are routed. They are sucked into a tornado and then imprisoned in a crystal ball. Done and done.


Sarah -
Who wouldn’t want to write for Shakespeare?


Harry -
As they say their goodbyes, Shakespeare reveals that he knows the Doctor and Martha are from the future. The Doctor is gobsmacked one more time. As Martha and Will say goodbye, one last character appears -- the Queen herself, Elizabeth the First.

Spotting the Doctor, she immediately calls for his head. Our friends beat a hasty retreat to the TARDIS. Martha asks what he's done to earn the ire of the monarch. Since they haven't met yet, the Doctor hasn't a clue but he can't wait to find out.


Sarah -
Leaving a perfect thread for Steven Moffat to pick up a few years hence.


Harry -
It took us a while to get through this, but I enjoyed it. The Carrionites were not the most memorable of villains -- a little too generic and panto -- but they carried out their roles with zest. I don't think there's a definitive "Shakespeare" portrayal out there, but this one served the story well.


Sarah -
It’s a solid story with many memorable moments. Also, Martha continues to be awesome.


Harry -
And now the play is over, let us depart the stage and head straight into Gridlock.


Best Line - "Fifty-seven academics just punched the air," is too obvious. I liked an earlier exchange between Martha and the Doctor:

MARTHA: And those are men dressed as women, yeah? 
DOCTOR: London never changes. 

Favourite Moment - Queen Elizabeth's uproarious arrival.

Lasting Image - the Globe Theatre.

8/10


Sarah -
Best Line -

SHAKESPEARE: And you, Sir Doctor. How can a man so young have eyes so old? 
DOCTOR: I do a lot of reading. 

Favorite Moment: The Doctor using Back to the Future to explain what’s going on. 

Lasting Image: Definitely the Globe. 

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #181: Gridlock...

Story #179 - Smith and Jones (2007)

Harry -
Funny what happens when you take Rose out of the show. RTD is able to produce fantastic adventures that capture what we love most about Doctor Who. Following "The Runaway Bride", "Smith and Jones" takes us on another thrill ride at breakneck speed.


Sarah -
I quite enjoyed the breezy adventure of "Smith and Jones". I’d forgotten the first thing we learn about Martha is that she has a very messy family situation. Her morning walk to work involves wrangling phone conversations with her mother, sister, brother and father as they coordinate her brother’s 21st birthday party that evening. The RTD era is the height of domesticity in Doctor Who, for better or worse. With the Jones family, it seems to be for worse.


Harry -
RTD loves a messy family.


Sarah -
Dear old dad, Clive, has left mum, Francine, for a much younger, whiter, blonder, and stupider woman -- and he wants to bring her to the party. What a foolish man. Honestly, being kidnapped to the moon could be easier than dealing with this lot.


Harry -
For the time being, Martha reports to her post as a med student at a London hospital. She and her group are doing some observational rounds with the hospital administrator, a nice set up to meet two characters who are about to figure prominently in Martha's day. First, they look in on a female patient whom the administrator diagnoses with a salt deficiency. Next comes a familiar face.

Earlier, a hyper cutie of a man had bounced in front of Martha on the street. He whipped off his necktie, then bounced away. She thought nothing of it until finding him in one of the hospital beds. She's confused to find him there, and he's equally confused that she recognizes him from before.


Sarah -
It’s timey-wimey before that was even a thing. Dr. Stoker instructs Martha to check the Doctor’s heart rate, which turns out to be much more than she expected. The Doctor gives her a wink and Martha smiles before everyone is distracted by the static electricity that seems to be plaguing the hospital. The Doctor, of course, goes on a rant about knowing Benjamin Franklin and Stoker suggests a psychiatric evaluation. A quick search led me to discover that the Ben Franklin meeting has been covered by Big Finish, of course.


Harry -
Big Finish, they love stories.


Sarah -
For which I am thankful every day!

A bit later, Martha is on the phone with her sister and mentions that it’s raining. Her sister is just a few blocks away, where it’s bright and sunny. She turns the corner to see the hotel engulfed in a storm of upward-bound rain. Moments later, the hospital is on the moon. 

Martha stays calm while everyone around her panics. She wants to open a window, reasoning that it must be safe because oxygen would be leaking out already. The Doctor pops into the room and has a diagnostic conversation with Martha that leads to them stepping out onto a balcony. The Doctor is clearly impressed by Martha and her reaction to her situation, “we could die any minute, but all the same, it's beautiful.” 

Martha is convinced that whatever is happening to them has to be extraterrestrial. Unlike Donna, she remembers every alien invasion -- the spaceship flying into Big Ben, killer Father Christmas, Cybermen -- and mentions the death of her cousin, Adeola, at Canary Wharf. Still assuming the Doctor is a patient, she assures him they’re going to get back safely. Having clearly found someone who lives up to his expectations, the Doctor introduces himself and their investigation begins. They determine that the hospital is encased in a forcefield, which means the oxygen supply is limited to what they’ve got. 

Right on cue, three spaceships land and we meet the Judoon. I remember being quite impressed by the Judoon the first time around. They’re proper new aliens and definitely hold up for me.


Harry -
I loved the Judoon so much I bought a pair of boots like theirs, for stomping around trying to look like a baddie.


Sarah -
How did I not know this before now? You should get sexy space armour to go with the boots.

As we will soon learn, the Judoon are not the baddies of the story -- they’re just looking for the baddies. They’re sort of a updated version of the Megara!


Harry -
I love their hilariously lo-tech method of marking each human they analyzed and catalogued with a magic marker "X" on the back of the hand.

The Doctor is worried because the Judoon are seeking an alien, and the look on his face implies that he could be found guilty of all manner of crimes in the view of interplanetary police thugs. Time to make oneself scarce.


Sarah -
It seems a little simplistic to only have two categories -- “human” and “alien.” In any case, our baddie has revealed herself! Florence Finnegan, the elderly lady with a salt deficiency, turns up in Dr. Stoker’s office, asking for help. While I found Stoker pompous and annoying in his earlier scenes, Stoker becomes quite human in this scene, as he worries that he will never see his daughter again. Alas, he never will, as Miss Finnegan turns out to be a plasmavore who is there to drink his blood. She produces the most terrifying plastic straw in the universe, pops it in Stoker’s neck, and sucks him dry while her leather-clad henchmen hold him down. Poor Stoker. 

Miss Finnegan is delightfully portrayed by Anne Reid, who previously appeared as Nurse Crane in "The Curse of Fenric", where she was killed by Haemovores.


Harry -
I've always wondered if this Plasmavore was a descendant or an evolution of Nurse Crane, but there does not seem to be any connection, just a coincidence.


Sarah -
I decree it’s now official Sofa of Rassilon Head Canon that she’s an evolution of Nurse Crane! Big Finish, get on it!


Harry -
When Martha discovers Miss Finnegan's secret, it triggers an awesome corridor run as she and the Doctor flee from the leather men. The Doctor figures out that by drinking blood she is not just feeding but assimilating -- and thus making herself invisible to the Judoon scanners. This comes to him as they turn a corner, right into a Judoon. "And again!" and off they go down another corridor.


Sarah -
A new companion should always be subjected to a lot of running up and down corridors to make sure they’re up to the job.


Harry -
Dekeing into an MRI room, the Doctor finds Finnegan prepping the device to fry everyone's brains so that she can forge an escape. Pretending to be a frightened patient, the Doctor gets her to spill her plan, but she now wants to spill some blood, and out comes her straw as the leather men hold down the Doctor.

Martha to the rescue! She brings in the Judoon, who analyze Finnegan and discover that she now has (the Doctor's) alien blood. Instant conviction and execution. Not sure I like the Judoon brand of justice, but it was effective here.


Sarah -
They don’t mess around!

The hospital is returned and all is well, until Martha’s brother’s birthday party, where things have gone as badly as expected. Everyone is upset and shouting at each other as Dad’s new girlfriend Annalise mocks Martha for claiming she was on the moon. The rest of the family storm off as Martha spots the Doctor, who invites her on a trip to thank her for her help. She declines, citing her commitment to medical school and doesn’t believe the Doctor’s claim that the TARDIS is also a time machine until he pops off in the TARDIS and returns looking the same as he did when she ran into him that morning -- tie in hand. “Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden...except for cheap tricks.” 

Martha decides to take him up on his offer and has the inevitable “it’s bigger on the inside” reaction, which is nicely played by Agyeman and Tennant.


Harry -
They both played that moment really well.  It's been done so many times it's like watching a new interpretation of Shakespeare.  Did I say that in a foreshadowing tone of voice?  Anyway, back to Martha's welcome.


Sarah -
She asks about a crew and the Doctor explains he’s alone, but, of course, has to tell her about Rose. This brings up the touchy subject of the kiss the Doctor planted on Martha to try to confuse the Judoon. Martha plays it off, but she’s clearly interested in the Doctor, and so begins the season of the rebound companion.


Harry -
The good news is that I've completely restocked the drinks cabinet.


Sarah -
This is why we're BFFs -- you know exactly what I need!

Smith and Jones also introduces the beginning of the Series 3 story arc, with the mention of Mr. Saxon. I remember hearing that line and seeing the Vote Saxon poster in the alley on my first viewing and realizing immediately that this was our first key to the arc. After “Bad Wolf” and “Torchwood” it seemed obvious.


Harry -
The Saxon arc was intriguing at first, but I'll always remember it as the most spoilered thing I've ever experienced.  I'll mope about that when we get to the critical moment. For now, well done, Doctor and Martha, our new TARDIS team.  Allons-y!


Sarah -
Best Line: The Doctor, when Martha says the TARDIS is bigger on the inside -- “Is it? I hadn't noticed.” 

Favorite Moment: Martha being calm and analytical when the hospital crisis strikes -- along with every other time Martha is awesome!

Lasting Image: The Judoon

7/10


Harry -
Best Line: "We're on the bloody moon!" 

Favourite Moment: the Doctor's mad patient scene in the hospital bed.

Lasting Image: the Plasmavore

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #180: The Shakespeare Code...