Story #185 - Human Nature / The Family of Blood (2007)

Sarah -
I have been looking forward to rewatching "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" since we started this marathon and I enjoyed it as much -- or possibly even more than -- past viewings. This was also the first time my daughter watched the story and her review at the end was an effusive, “That was great!”


Harry -
This story is class. Lush Doctor Who to wrap oneself in like an amazing blanket.


Sarah -
Paul Cornell’s script is adapted from Human Nature, his Virgin New Adventures novel, which featured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield. I’ve still not read the novel. Have you?


Harry -
I read the novel just before the TV adaptation was broadcast, and both of them -- as young Latimer might put it -- are wonderful. This is Cornell's masterpiece.


Sarah -
It’s been on my to-read list since 2007. Apparently, I haven’t managed to find a moment to read it in the past 12 years, but, to be fair, it is quite a long list.


Harry -
Having escaped near-disaster in "42", the Doctor and Martha have got themselves right into another jam. "Human Nature" begins with the both of them scrambling for cover inside the TARDIS with a blast of laser fire behind them. The Doctor is on edge, knowing that he's being pursued by a relentless enemy. It's not a situation where the TARDIS can simply slip away. After flailing about and wracking his brain, he seems to arrive at a terrible decision, and brandishes a watch at Martha...

...and then he wakes up in a comfy set of PJs, in a comfy bed, in a comfy English room.


Sarah -
That is a comfy room, isn’t it? The housemaid turns up with some breakfast, and its Martha. It’s a confusing situation for everyone, but especially the viewer at this point. 

It’s 1913 and the Doctor is Dr. John Smith, a teacher at the Farringham School for Boys. Martha is there to keep an eye on him, but the Doctor doesn’t know who she really is or why he keeps having dreams about traveling time and space.


Harry -
There have been previous instances on TV and in print where the Doctor has experienced temporary amnesia or a lack of coherence, but it's something else to watch David Tennant play a Doctor who has completely forgotten that he's the Doctor. He describes his dreams of being an adventurer in time and space and he finds it all jolly fun. However, he knows it's all made up and he's just John Smith, schoolteacher, with Miss Jones his loyal servant.

Servant, yuck. But Martha plays along with the times they find themselves in, even if it means not reacting to the casual racism and sexism thrown her way by students and staff.


Sarah -
David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are so amazing in this story. He has created an entirely distinctive character in John Smith, while she has to portray a 21st century woman living 100 years in the past. It’s a master class in characterization.


Harry -
At least Martha knows that this current reality is the made up one.


Sarah -
The Doctor has used chameleon arch technology to rewrite his DNA and appear human, so he can hide from the Family, about whom we don’t know much at this point. He’s left a video with instructions for Martha, which tells her that the Family will find him if the watch that contains his true DNA is opened.


Harry -
The John Smith ruse has been going on for two months, with Martha maintaining appearances, keeping the Doctor under cover, and keeping that pocket watch nearby at all times. A perception filter keeps Smith from being curious about the watch and flipping it open.


Sarah -
The casual treatment of the watch by everyone else in the story was terrifying. I can’t imagine how Martha slept at night!


Harry -
Aside from his duties at the school, Smith has been spending time with school nurse Joan Redfern. Their relationship has grown over the weeks, to the point where he suddenly confides in her that he keeps a dream journal. He hands it over to Joan, right in front of Martha, who immediately recognizes his sketches of Daleks and the TARDIS. Smith describes some of the fantastic things he's written down, recording his dreams as fiction.


Sarah -
The journal! This was one of the most exciting moments in all of NuWho for me. It feels like a stupid thing to see from 2019, but in 2007, the sketches in the journal finally helped me accept the Eighth Doctor as canon. Up until that moment, the TV Movie was still something that only filled me with disappointment. It was also before I started listening to Big Finish. I might have gotten there eventually, but that little sketch of Paul McGann’s Doctor made it all possible.


Harry -
Martha tries pushing the Doctor to remember the things in his journal, but he brusquely dismisses her and reminds her of her place. He does this with Joan in the room, and Martha now has to cope with the fact that John Smith has fallen in love. The Doctor left no instructions what to do in that eventuality.


Sarah -
It’s really heartbreaking to watch how John Smith treats Martha. She’s the one keeping everything together and he has no idea what he’s doing to her. “You had to go and fall in love with a human and it wasn’t me.” It’s heart-rending. 

At the same time, I can’t not love Joan Redfern. She’s amazing and Jessica Hynes hits every note perfectly. When the Doctor gets around to making copies of himself, he should have made a John Smith to send back to Joan. (I’m sure there’s a fanfic for that.)


Harry -
For all the grief that the character of Martha Jones gets from fanhood at large, I just can't see why. She's brilliant here as the Doctor's guardian, putting up with shit that would make anyone want to scream, and pressing on to keep the ruse in place.


Sarah -
Martha Jones is a fucking badass who needs to be recognized as an exemplary companion. I will fight anyone on this and Exhibit #1 will be "Human Nature". The story is brilliant on its own, but it also provides so much character development for Martha that will carry us through the rest of the series. This is the story where Martha becomes more proactive and she just gets more awesome from here on. 

The story is set in a British boys’ school, so we inevitably meet the bullies (Baines) and bullied (Latimer). While Latimer polishes Baines’ shoes, Baines, who feels free to insult and belittle Martha, slips out to try to find some hidden beer. Being the doof he is, he doesn’t find the beer, but manages to stumble into an invisible spaceship.


Harry -
I liked Baines' transformation from noisy schoolboy ("I SAY WHO'S THERE?") to sinister alien after his body was taken over by a Family member. Harry Lloyd did a skin-crawlingly good job leering, sniffing and barking his way through the rest of the story.


Sarah -
Just when you thought his character couldn’t be any more repulsive! But, honestly, his performance is amazing.


Harry -
Thomas Sangster's performance was an emotional opposite. Quietly observant and totally contained. Latimer has a gift of second sight which makes him subject to ridicule from the other boys, but it also guides him to John Smith's watch. He sees right past the perception filter and picks it up, sensing that there's something supernatural about the timepiece.


Sarah -
Martha really should have kept that watch in a safe place.


Harry -
Meanwhile, out for a walk with Nurse Redfern, John Smith experiences a moment of heroism and saves a woman and her baby from a falling piano. An astounding split second calculation and/or muscle memory allowed him to hurl a cricket ball into a series of amazing ricochets that kept the mum and pram from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Astounded by his action, Smith chokes out an invitation to Redfern, asking her to the upcoming dance. She readily agrees and it's a date!

If this was a totally different show, about a humble schoolteacher who had some deep inner gift for doing good things, I could watch an entire season of this. After each extraordinary feat of heroism, his catchphrase could be "Goodness! I didn't know I had it in me!" and then Nurse Redfern takes him by the arm and calms him with a warm "Oh John."

The romance between Smith and Redfern is so sweet.


Sarah -
It’s so wonderfully sweet. I would read the entire series of the Joan and John Smith novels. Book four would feature a visit from his Irish parents, Verity and Sidney.


Harry -
I still remember to this day, that moment in 2007 when Smith uttered those lines about being from Gallifrey (presumably somewhere in Ireland), and the names of his parents. It was like a jolt of electricity surged through me.


Sarah -
Thank you, Paul Cornell, for making us all so happy.


Harry -
Naturally after all these sweet scenes, disaster was bound to happen. While the great Edwardian courtship has been going on, the Family has been snatching bodies all across the countryside.


Sarah -
Snatching bodies and animating scarecrows! Those scarecrows were scary AF, even on a repeat viewing. Some of the marching scenes are a big egregious and feel like they’re there to pad the story a bit. But that’s proper Doctor Who, isn’t it?


Harry -
The scarecrows were almost superfluous to the story. The Family were scary enough. Four of them now appear as humans, hunting the scent of the Time Lord. All things converge on the night of the dance, when the family crashes the party and starts killing bystanders, demanding that the Time Lord give himself up. They don't know what he looks like, they can only pick up the faintest of scents from him.


Sarah -
Martha doesn’t know where the watch is and tries to tell John Smith who he really is, urging him to change back into the Doctor. He and Joan are shocked by this news, but it also leads the Family to discover him and we end with an epic cliffhanger as they threaten to kills Martha or Joan: "Maid or matron, friend or lover, your choice." Oh, the drama!


Harry -
Tennant on top of his game again as the frightened, freaked out John Smith who struggles to cope with this nightmare.


Sarah -
With her friend and fellow maid Jenny possessed by the Family, it’s up to Martha to save the day...again. She has a standoff with Son of Mine and gets everyone out of the dancehall, because she is awesome. Everyone retreats to the school and the alarm is sounded. At last, all that machine gun training will come in handy.


Harry -
The scarecrows did come in handy as machine gun fodder, for a moment. The bullets proved ineffective as they simply reanimated. The folly of teaching young boys that machine guns are the answer comes to no good end. Their own headmaster falls victim to the Family, another casualty of their laser disintegrator.

I liked the spontaneous Team Jones that formed as Smith and Redfern coalesced around Martha's leadership. Also, my obligatory shout out to the fantastic night time footage during this part of the story.


Sarah -
This whole story is on Martha’s back and she more than rises to the challenge.


Harry -
The second half of the story felt like an extended chase scene until Latimer finally -- FINALLY -- shows up and returns the watch. But suddenly, another terrible choice must be made. If Smith opens the watch, he will disappear as the Doctor's body is restored to Gallifreyan form. He will essentially kill himself, and lose everything including Nurse Redfern. There's nothing Martha can do at this point, but hope for the Doctor to return -- even as Smith berates her again. 

DOCTOR: Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him? 
MARTHA: No. 
DOCTOR: Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die? 

Sensing that he really has no choice, Smith then breaks Redfern's heart.

JOAN: If I could do this instead of you, then I would. I'd hoped. But my hopes aren't important. 
DOCTOR: He won't love you. 
JOAN: If he's not you, then I don't want him to.

So painful. This is peak RTD.


Sarah -
Doctor Who so rarely makes me cry, or even tear up. This scene is enough to open the waterworks.


Harry -
The scene cuts to the interior of the Family's ship. Smith stumbles inside pleading a meek surrender. He's come to beg for understanding from the Family, and he gives them the watch. Gleefully they gather round and flip it open, but it's empty.

And then comes the revenge of the angry god.


Sarah -
They did not know with whom they were dealing.


Harry -
While playing Smith, the Doctor has rigged the ship to blow up. Everyone scrambles outside, and one by one, the Doctor doles out his revenge on each member of the Family. They had sought the immortality of a Time Lord. Instead, they face an eternity of punishment.


Sarah - 
There is no compassion for the Family and they deserve none.


Harry -
As a human, we saw how far John Smith would go to be decent and kind and helpful. Here we see the counterpoint that RTD hammered home -- that the Doctor is capable of unleashing anger and vengeance and death. Even wrapped up in the cuddly character of the Tenth Doctor, it's still terrifying.


Sarah -
We end with the Doctor inviting Joan to join them in the TARDIS and she’s having none of it. This exchange guts me:

DOCTOR: Come with me. 
JOAN: I'm sorry? 
DOCTOR: Travel with me. 
JOAN: As what? 
DOCTOR: My companion. 
JOAN: But that's not fair. What must I look like to you, Doctor? I must seem so very small. 
DOCTOR: No. We could start again. I'd like that. You and me. We could try, at least. Because everything that John Smith is and was, I'm capable of that, too. 
JOAN: I can't. 
DOCTOR: Please come with me. 
JOAN: I can't. 
DOCTOR: Why not? 
JOAN: John Smith is dead, and you look like him. 
DOCTOR: But he's here, inside, if you look in my eyes. 
JOAN: Answer me this. Just one question, that's all. If the Doctor had never visited us, if he'd never chosen this place on a whim, would anybody here have died? (The Doctor doesn’t answer.) You can go.


Harry -
I said earlier that this is Cornell's masterpiece, but everyone made it so. The writing acting, sets, direction, all of it makes this a highlight of Season 3. The hot streak continues as we move on to Steven Moffat's story next. We'll need refills on the splishy-splashy for sure.


Sarah -
Everything about "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" is perfect. It just may be my favorite Tenth Doctor Story. We’ll see if anything manages surpasses it.


Harry -
Best Line:
JOAN: Ever the artist. Where did you learn to draw? 
DOCTOR: Gallifrey. 
JOAN: Is that in Ireland? 
DOCTOR: Yes, it must be, yes. 
JOAN: But you're not Irish? 
DOCTOR: Not at all, no. My father Sidney was a watchmaker from Nottingham, and my mother Verity was, er. Well, she was a nurse, actually. 

Favourite Moment: the alternate-history montage of Smith and Redfern's lives together.

Lasting Image: Baines' psychotic expressions after his body is possessed by a Family member.

9/10


Sarah -
Best Line:
"That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love. Why can't I be John Smith?"

Favorite Moment: Every time Martha is being amazing. 

Lasting Image: Martha Jones watching over the Doctor. 

10/10 - I don't think I've given out a 10/10 since the Fourth Doctor Era!

Our marathon continues with Story #186: Blink...

Story #184 - 42 (2007)

Sarah -
We can be forgiven for having thought Chris Chibnall’s first Doctor Who script would be a homage to Douglas Adams. It was actually inspired by the TV series 24, which was a huge hit at the time.


Harry -
Oh yes, Jack Bauer’s time-sensitive adventures were all the rage in the 00s, and Chibbers provided us with a Whovian spin on the format.


Sarah -
The story begins with Martha becoming a proper companion when the Doctor upgrades her mobile to universal roaming.


Harry -
It’s a deceptively casual opening, with the Doctor even ditching his necktie for a more loungey look.


Sarah -
Things take a quick turn when the TARDIS picks up a distress signal and they find themselves on a spaceship hurtling towards a sun, with only 42 minutes until impact. I’m a huge fan of base-under-siege stories and being under siege by a sun is about as siege-y as you can get.


Harry -
The pacing of this episode is positively frantic. So many conventions got compressed in the opening minutes, from receiving the distress signal, to the TARDIS landing, to meeting the crew and getting hurtled right into the action.


Sarah -
And, did I mention "42" was directed by Graeme Harper?


Harry -
And, he delivered a cracker.


Sarah -
The direction is outstanding.


Harry -
Having met the panicked members of the crew, the Doctor realizes that the TARDIS is stuck in the spaceship’s venting room and temperatures inside have soared by thousands of degrees. The craft is being pulled into a sun, and the on-board computer is counting down the minutes to impact.


Sarah -
Things aren’t looking good. The engines have been compromised by someone who knew what they were doing and the auxiliary engines are behind a series of password-protected doors. The crew isn’t feeling particularly hopeful and the Doctor tries to rally them with, “Oh, listen to you. Defeated before you've even started. Where's your Dunkirk spirit?” It works enough to get crew member Riley working on the passwords with Martha’s help. 

The passwords are all tied to pub-quiz-type questions and they’re stumped when asked who had more number ones -- The Beatles or Elvis. The Doctor is busy with other things, so Martha uses her universal roaming privileges to call her mum back on Earth.


Harry -
Martha's flip phone was endearingly antiquated.


Sarah -
Remember the excitement of your first flip phone? It was incredibly satisfying to shut it with a snap after a call. I imaging Francine doing a lot of snapping her phone shut back in the day.


Harry -
Poking the touchscreen in anger just ain't the same.


Sarah -
Francine is immediately concerned about Martha, which is this case is entirely reasonable, and wants to know if she’s with the Doctor. Francine gives Martha the correct answer -- Elvis -- and we discover that a young woman, with ties to the mysterious Harold Saxon, is listening to their conversation. With hindsight, I really admire the way "42" was linked into the series arc in such a fluid way.


Harry -
Saxon's acolyte is found in the cast list as "Sinister Woman" played by Elize du Toit. How's that for a sinister name? It would have been perfect for the character.


Sarah -
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Captain McDonnell are trying to track down Korwin, McDonnell’s husband, after a series of seizures in the medical bay and the mysterious vaporization of Lerner, the medical attendant. The Doctor tells McDonnell that her husband has been infected by something and killed Lerner. She doesn’t want to believe him until another crew member has been killed.


Harry -
Alas, poor Abi Lerner, picked off after only a few lines of dialogue. She was played by Vinette Robinson and would return to Doctor Who eleven years later to star as Rosa Parks. I didn't realize that this was her first appearance on the show. And she's now a legendary repeat guest star!


Sarah -
Wow! I was so caught up in the story, I didn’t realized that was her. I love when Doctor Who guest actors go on to bigger things!


Harry -
Honestly, we'd barely gotten to learn anything about Korwin before his transformation. It must have been one of the painfully necessary cuts to the story that enabled Chibbers to realize the 42-minute framework.


Sarah -
I like to imagine Korwin was a lovely fella before his horrifying transformation. The first time he bellows, “Burn with me,” is chilling. Base-under-siege as horror -- I am here for that!


Harry -
Martha and Riley work well as a team, but having already burned through "ask an audience member" and "phone a friend", the pace of their lock-breaking slows. Korwin continues to wreak havoc on the ship and the pressure is building. The tension is augmented by vintage sci-fi elements like sirens and gratuitous steam -- very Alien! The colour palette is also fantastic, all harsh reds and yellows lighting up the actors' faces.


Sarah -
I was thinking the same thing about Alien. That movie really reset our expectations about how sci-fi horror should look.


Harry -
Crew member Ashton also becomes infected by the "burn with me" menace, and he chases Martha and Riley into a chamber. The door slams behind them and suddenly they are in a cool blue room and everyone gets the briefest of respites. However, Riley reveals that it's an escape pod, and Ashton begins attempting to jettison the pod from the ship. A frenzied back and forth of commands and countermands ensues, but Ashton succeeds and the Doctor arrives too late to stop the pod being jettisoned. Another fantastic nod, this time to 2001: A Space Odyssey, as the scene cuts between the Doctor and Martha, looking at one another and yelling across the silence of space as the pod begins to drift towards the sun. It was riveting stuff. 

Everyone was on their game in this one. Tennant, Agyeman, and all the guests acted the hell out of it. Murray Gold's score was also pulse-pounding stuff, and I remember it was used in promotional spots for this season as well.


Sarah -
That moment is absolutely perfect. The image of Martha in the window has always been the lasting image of this story for me and probably everyone else who’s ever watched it. Absolutely iconic!

Martha’s scene with Riley in the pod is so sweet. She tells Riley that the Doctor will save them, as unlikely as it seems. Riley’s not sure about the Doctor, but he’s clearly smitten with Martha. (And who wouldn’t be?) I was hoping they’d kiss, but instead, she calls Francine. That call doesn’t go well as Francine only wants to know about the Doctor. Fortunately, Riley is there to comfort Martha in her moment of distress, but, alas, no kiss.


Harry -
They really did form an effective team in no time. 

As the Doctor struggles to keep a handle on things, he's gotten no closer to figuring out the cause of this crisis, but during the mayhem of the jettison we were given a clue when Korwin confronted Captain McDonnell and said: "It's your fault."


Sarah -
Whoops, that’s awkward.

The Doctor climbs outside the ship to magnetize the pod back to the ship. Hooray! Unfortunately, he also looks at the sun and realizes that it’s alive and that he’s become infected. It turns out McConnell has illegally mined the sun for fuel without checking for life signs and has essentially scooped the heart out of a living being. Things have just gotten even more awkward.

While Martha is trying to treat the Doctor in the medical unit, he confesses to her that he’s scared and tries to tell her what will happen to him if he dies. It’s really startling on the rare occasions when the Doctor admits he’s afraid, but Martha is having none of it. The Doctor saved her and she plans to save him.


Harry -
This story was great for Tennant being "physical". He stretches and heaves outside the ship. He thrashes and flops around on the floor. He makes terrible faces of anguish. It's all wonderful.


Sarah -
He does seem to be having fun with it. 

Things move quickly as Korwin shuts off the power to the stasis chamber where the Doctor is being treated. He’s trying to fight the infection, but manages tells Martha that the contraband fuel needs to be jettisoned. Meanwhile, McDonnell runs into Korwin, admits she is responsible, apologizes to the crew that’s left, and lures Korwin into an airlock, sending both of them into space. The crew vents the fuel and the day is saved -- hugs for everyone!


Harry -
Normally I hate when writers fall back on the "guest character commits suicide to save the day" trope, but here it worked. McDonnell atoned for her crime, removed the threat to her remaining crew, and saved the day without melodrama or histrionics. Nicely done by Chibs.


Sarah -
It works so well. The moment when she tells Korwin that she loves him is heartbreaking. 

More importantly, we finally get the kiss! Martha plants a big one on Riley and says goodbye.


Harry -
"Well done, very hot," Martha concludes. Oh, they really did make a sweet couple.


Sarah -
I want to find the fan fiction where Riley joins the TARDIS crew and settles down with Martha on Earth.


Harry -
That would have made for a much more satisfying conclusion than Martha and Mickey being shoehorned together as spare parts. Dammit, RTD!

Imagine how radical it would have been if Martha turned the tables on the Doctor. As he headed for the TARDIS doors, she could have cheerily announced that she'd prefer to stay with her new friend and lend her help where it was appreciated. If Leela could dump the Doctor for someone else, surely Martha could too. And he would have really deserved it this time.


Sarah -
And she actually had a relationship with Riley, unless the awkward Leela-Andred "relationship." I kind of love the Martha and Mickey pair because they're both awesome and, more importantly, because it confuses the heck of out of the Doctor. "What, you picked Ricky over me?"


Harry -
42 never seems to be talked about as a classic of Nu Who, but on this rewatch I totally loved every ticking second of it. Season three is really building up steam now, and not the gratuitous kind.


Sarah -
It’s a solid story that deserves more attention.


Harry -
Best Line:
"Talk about dumbing down! Don't they teach recreational mathematics any more?" As someone who never made it beyond grade 10 mathematics, I love it when the Doctor totally geeks out like this.

Favourite Moment: the escape pod is jettisoned.

Lasting Image: Martha and Riley.

9/10


Sarah -
Best Line: 
Ha! I noted the exact same line. Apparently, I get the badge for mathematical excellence on this sofa -- I made it to grade 11 maths!

Favorite Moment: THE KISS!

Lasting Image: Martha in the pod window

9/10

Our marathon continues with Story #185: Human Nature / The Family of Blood...

Story #183 - The Lazarus Experiment (2007)

Sarah - 
Here we are in episode six and the Doctor is ready to dump Martha off at home, just 12 hours after they left. “The end of the line. No place like it.” 

Halfway through the season and Martha is still being treated like an inconvenient guest.


Harry -
Cannot believe how shitty he behaves here. Like he can't wait to drop off a passenger and hit the road with barely a goodbye.


Sarah -
For a show based on changing the lead and supporting actors on a regular basis, it feels incongruous for the Doctor to still be mourning Rose’s departure. Did the production team think the audience wouldn’t watch without Rose? Viewers had already been through the Doctor’s regeneration, so why not trust them to survive a new companion?


Harry -
The production team's infatuation with Rose is evident.


Sarah -
The Doctor is ready to move along until he hears Professor Lazarus, for whom Martha’s sister, Tish, works, declare on television that he will “change what it means to be human.” The Doctor can’t resist finding out what’s going on and heads off to Lazarus’ big reveal with Martha, who finally gets to change out of her TARDIS uniform and into evening wear.


Harry -
All dressed up to the nines, they look smashing. This time, they can march right into Lazarus Laboratories and not have to pretend to be the hired help.

One of the hallmarks of the RTD era was providing expanded views of companions' lives and families, and it looks like most of Martha's family members have made their way to the reveal gala. Joining Martha and Tish are their brother Leo and their mum Francine.


Sarah -
Including the companions’ families is one of my favorite things in the RTD era. We occasionally met a family member in the classic era, but they usually didn’t stick around too long before meeting the business end of a tissue compression eliminator.


Harry -
Martha throws her arms around her mother, delighted to see her again after all of her adventures with the Doctor -- to which Francine frankly replies that they saw each other only the night before. Then she recalls Martha's sudden departure, turning her gaze onto the Doctor. Losing his cool, he stumbles through some awkward explanations of where they'd been and what they were doing. You can practically see the suspicion fall all over Francine's face.


Sarah -
One of my least favorite things about the RTD era is the way the companions’ mothers are portrayed. It doesn’t seem out of line for her to be concerned about what Martha’s been doing with this weird man, but she’s pretty much turned into a villain by the end of the story.


Harry -
It must be a given that RTD did not have a good relationship with his mother.


Sarah -
I have to admit I’ve wondered about that. 

So, Professor Lazarus performs his parlour trick and emerges from his device several decades younger. My favorite fact about this story is that the wig that Mark Gatiss wears as the young Lazarus is the one he wore as the veterinarian on The League of Gentleman, a character that was based on Peter Davison’s Tristan in All Creatures Great and Small. It’s a small world in the Whoniverse.


Harry -
What a factoid! How long have you been waiting to drop that one, Toby?


Sarah -
I bide my time...


Harry -
I have to say the wig did look a bit silly on him. Maybe it was meant to be a symbol of Lazarus' vanity, as he soon shows us that he's a tremendous jerk.


Sarah -
To be fair he was already a creeper when he was old, asking Tish what her “interesting” perfume is called. Her response, “Soap.” was brilliant.


Harry -
Flashback to Mister Jobel in Remembrance of the Daleks, another wig-wearing jerk. In both instances, these were characters of rather limited physical appeal who nonetheless believed themselves to be ladies' men.


Sarah -
They’re definitely cut from the same creepy cloth.


Harry -
No sooner had he rejuvenated than Lazarus batted his partner Lady Thaw aside. His partner in matters professional and seemingly personal, she had assumed she'd be next in line for the treatment. Instead, Lazarus tells her he'd grown tired of her. When the side effects of the experiment cause him to mutate into a giant scorpion monster, Lady Thaw ends up being his first victim as he sucks the life out of her body.


Sarah -
That was even more horrifying than I remembered. Before she leaves us, Lady Thaw lets us know that the experiment is being funded by the mysterious Mr. Saxon.


Harry -
The season arc gains another hint.


So it's clear then that the experiment has not been a total success. Lazarus is able to present his younger form for a few minutes, but the mutation keeps kicking in. His body is literally going haywire. This is confirmed when the Doctor and Martha step away to a lab to study Lazarus' DNA. They see it is unstable and set off to find him.


Sarah -
The Doctor runs past Francine, spilling her drink on her, as they dash off to search for Tish. A rando immediately sidles up to her, whispering in her ear about the Doctor.


Harry -
Meanwhile, the newly-young lecher has lured Tish up to the roof of the building.


Sarah -
Tish is disturbingly taken with the new young Lazarus, flirting with him and brushing his cheek. So gross. When the Doctor and Martha find them, he confronts Lazarus about defying the laws of nature. Lazarus believes living multiple lives is a gift, but the Doctor is all to aware of the curse it can be. 

While Tish is trying to justify her attraction to Lazarus ( “I know the age thing's a bit freaky, but it works for Catherine Zeta-Jones.”) he starts to go all scorpion again. The scorpion effect is more than a bit dodgy, but if you can’t handle dodgy monsters, you really shouldn’t be watching Doctor Who.


Harry -
The CGI scorpion is dodgy but I didn't mind it. The Lazarus Experiment is a very straightforward story. Corporate power and arrogance, laboratory tinkering, science gone mad and the Doctor saving the day while an old nemesis lurks in the shadows... this could have been a dusted off script right out of the Pertwee era. Of course, back then the giant scorpion might have been an awkward effect like something out of Invasion of the Dinosaurs.


Sarah -
It does feel very Pertwee-ish, doesn’t it? I believe the Third Doctor’s era is Gatiss’ Doctor Who touchstone and many of this stories feel like they could have been made in the early 70s, which I mean as the highest compliment possible.


Harry -
Lazarus' demise was mostly of his own making. The first time around, anyway. Finding himself trapped with Martha inside Lazarus' machine, the Doctor reverses the polarity (hah!) and causes a shockwave to blast outward, seemingly killing Lazarus.

Naturally, you can't have a character with a name like that not rising from the dead, and Lazarus escapes the authorities and flees inside nearby Southwark Cathedral. The Doctor, Martha and Tish follow him in. After a final failed attempt at reasoning with him, the Doctor convinces the incredibly trusting sisters to lure Lazarus (once again in scorpion form) up a tower. The Doctor then plays the church organ at maximum enhanced volume -- enough to kill a giant scorpion monster but no one else! -- and Lazarus plummets to his death once and for all.


Sarah -
He turns the volume up to 11 and that’s the end of Lazarus.


Harry -
Maybe because there's not much to the story, I didn't really have any strong positive or negative memories about it. It's just kind of there. The acting and production are good, the "Saxon" arc is nudged forward ever so slightly, and one other notable factoid here is that this is where Mark Gatiss begins his reign as the New Who era's perpetually returning guest actor. A Michael Sheard or John Abineri for our times.


Sarah -
"The Lazarus Experiment" is a solid-enough story for the middle of the series. In retrospect, it’s clear that it’s setting up the series finale, but we’ll get to that eventually.

Back at Martha’s place, the Doctor offers Martha one more trip, which she turns down without hesitation. She doesn’t want to just be a passenger, so the Doctor offers a long-term residency and Martha is back in the TARDIS.


Harry -
It's awkward how they go back and forth like this.


Sarah -
As the TARDIS dematerialises, Francine leaves a message on Martha’s voicemail, “I know who this Doctor really is. I know he's dangerous. You're going to get yourself killed. Please, trust me. This information comes from Harold Saxon himself. You're not safe!”


Harry -
Oooo!


Sarah -
Onward!

Best Line: "I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle, tired of losing everyone that matters to you, tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone."

Favorite Moment: I have to admit I enjoying Francine making the Doctor squirm. It’s fun to see Mr. “Act Like You Own the Place” feel uncomfortable.

Lasting Image: The dodgy scorpion

6/10


Harry -
Best Line: 
Tish: He's a science geek, I should've known.
The Doctor: Science geek, what's that mean?
Martha Jones: That you're obsessively enthusiastic about it.
The Doctor: Oh, nice!

Favourite Moment: Squirming Doctor.

Lasting Image: rejuvenated Lazarus' wig.

6/10

Our marathon continues with Story #184: 42...