Foreword

This is the sixth installement in my series of reviews covering the third season of "New" Doctor Who. At the moment I'm writing this, S3 has already concluded in Great Britain, but I am aware that such is not the case in most other countries. That being said, I won't put any "spoiler warning" anywhere; each review clearly states the episode it's covering and therefore I trust you won't look if you haven't seen that episode yet and don't want to be spoiled :-)

The Lazarus Experiment

A solemn place, the outlines of which disappear in the shadows. No background music to detract your attention. Two men facing each other, both much older than they look, both clever, probably too clever for their own good. And perfect lines of dialogue

It's all it takes really. All it takes to transcend the genre of sci-fi, to transcend Saturday evening family television. It sounds so simple, but the reality is, it rarely happens. The Lazarus Experiment, at least for a few minutes, manages to do just that

The rest isn't too bad either, thank you very much. The episode opens when the Doctor brings Martha back home, 12 hours after they left (which is a nice nod to S1's "Aliens in London" when the Ninth Doctor thought he had brought Rose back home 12 hours after they left, whereas one year had actually gone by), a move which both surprises and upsets Martha, although she tries to hide it. They are interrupted by a phone call: it turns out Martha's sister, Tish, is on tv, acting as head of the PR department to a professor Lazarus who announces he would show that night something that will "change what it means to be human". Of course the Doctor's curiosity gets the better of him and he an Martha head for Lazarus' party. There they meet up with Tish, as well as Martha's mother and brother, before Lazarus steps into a machine he built. The Doctor must intervene to prevent it from exploding, but when the door opens, it's a Lazarus several decades younger who appears to the crowd. Yet although his experiment is hailed as a success and he and Lady Thaw begin to discuss its commercial exploitation, it appears all didn't go quite as planned when a monster seems to have crashed the party....

Most of its middle section is spent running from a very, very ugly monster (btw, I must say that, for once, the Mill didn't quite nail it: it's not too convincing as CG creatures go, and more ugly than frightening....) amidst explosions, which earned this episode, back then after it was first aired, somewhat cautious reviews, mostly because people felt that there wasn't quite enough substance to it. Looking back on it now, it is understandable but rather unfair. Unfair because it actually does shed a different light on the main themes of this season, and actually is pivotal to its main story arc; understandable because it's easy to miss the latter at this still early stage, while the former only becomes obvious after the closing of the season, and probably after repeat viewings

However, even if you're part of the people who didn't rate it too high, you just can't trash this episode because the dialogues are so damn good - and it doesn't hurt that they are said by actors at the top of their game. It's all the more stricking after Evolution of the Daleks, which had been rather a letdown on both counts. It may feel from time to time that Martha is reduced to once again running after the Doctor, both literally (btw, good job for running so fast in high heels!) and figuratively, but this moment is very important for her: it is when both her relationship with her family and with the Doctor is redefined to take their final shape until the season's finale. And I think it's worth noting that Martha shapes her own destiny, that she's not just thrown around by fate and ends up miraculously back in the TARDIS: she fights her way back in, but also refuses to be taken back just for one ride. It not only saves her character, preventing her from becoming a bit of a pathetic groupie, but paradoxically, reveals that her emotions aren't just cheap infatuation that can be bought by empty "one more trip" promises. And the Doctor will be glad that he's agreed to a real committment this time as her complete loyalty to him will be key on more than one occasion. Again Freema Agyeman is stellar both in her scenes with the Doctor and with her family

Speaking of which, it's really nice to have a chance to learn to know them better. Leaving them at the end of Smith & Jones, it felt like we had landed yet another dysfunctional family ala Tyler, and there's noway they could have topped that one. Luckily, the Jones turn up to be quite different, and not least in terms of mothers, even though the Doctor ends up being slapped again ("All the mothers....every time"). There'd be a lot to say about Mrs Jones, but most of it is tied to the "greater scheme of things" so to speak, so I won't dwell on her here. Tish is quite interesting, being shown as someone quite futile (her sudden change of attitude after Lazarus looks younger towards his advances, a situation that gives her one of the funniest line: "I know the age difference is a bit freaky but it works for Catherine Zeta-Jones!") yet not unlike her sister as soon as things begin to heat up (how she follows Martha up to the bell tower when they are trying to lure Lazarus there)

But the spotlights are stolen away by men, a situation not unlike the Shakespeare Code, only this time the central character, Lazarus, happens to be also the main villain. Unless he is the victim, both of his genius and his arrogance in the face of nature. What makes Lazarus so interesting is partly how he turns up to be a match, at least to a certain extent, for the Doctor: he is undeniably a brilliant scientific mind, he's curious, and he knows his way around words. In fact, he isn't just a partial match, he is a partial reflection - albeit distorted - of the character of the Doctor, and again, there's a lot that could be said about it but which I can't, not yet. What I am allowed to tell though is that Mark Gatiss (who I knew before mostly for his work in dark comedies like League of Gentlemen and Nighty Night) is superb, in particular in his scenes with the Doctor

And it's so good to have the Doctor back after some really grating, uncharacteristic moments in the previous episode. Here David Tennant is once again on top of things: hilarious one moment, dangerous the next, charmer or dead serious in between, and all the transitions occur naturally, seamlessly. Of course it helps that he is given excellent lines, but there is so much he brings that cannot be expressed by words: I could go on all night if I had to list them all, but probably the best illustration of this lies in that scene I was referring to at the very beginning of this review, in Southwark Cathedral, when he talks about the curse that being prisoner of a long lifespan can be. Suddenly this Doctor, always bursting with energy, constantly on the move, quoting indistinctevly from the Lion King and Dylan Thomas, appears infinitely tired and his eyes seem so ancient they look out of place in a face so young

The Lazarus Experiment is not quite the best we can expect from Doctor Who, but it's definitely getting there, and with the Doctor/Companion relationship now formally established, we're definitely in good hands wherever travel in time and space might take us

A few things to watch out for

Favorite scene: The dialog between Lazarus and the Doctor in Southwark Cathedral. Obviously....

Favorite line: Oh dear, what to choose? The whole piece in the above-mentioned scene deserves to show up here but I'll limit myself to those lines:

"Facing death is part of being human, you can't change that"
"No, Doctor! Avoiding death, that's being human. It's our strongest impulse, to cling to life with every fiber of our being"

"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 to watch everything turn to dust"

On the other hand, it's hilarious how all of Ten's eloquence flows right out of the window as soon as he faces one of his companions' mother

"Lovely to meet you Mrs Jones! I've heard a lot about you"
"Have you? And what have you heard, then?"
"Oh, you know, that you're Martha's mother, and....erm....no, that's about it really. Haven't had much time to chat you know, we've beeeeeeen....busy"
"Busy? Doing what exactly?"
"Oh! You know....stuff?"

Other noteworthy stuff:

Mark Gatiss isn't just an excellent writer, he's also a scriptwriter. Actually he began his carrier with the Doctor Who New Adventures novels, and was later hired to write for the new series' first two seasons (The Unquiet Death and The Idiot's Lantern). However, he isn't the first to have both written for and acted in the tv series

Ok, geeky fangirl delight aplenty in this episode: it's not enough that they throw at us Tuxedo!Ten (last seen in season two's Cybermen two parters), he also wears specs in the lab scene. And in the end it's Tuxedo!Ten without the tie. Life is good. Life is really, really good

I liked how, in this episode, although there's the odd pop culture reference (the "I'll have to turn it up to eleven" Spinal Tap one when he plays the organ), there are a lot more classical culture ones. Of course T.S. Eliot makes a noted appearance, being quoted twice, but there's also the hint at Bethoveen's deafness and, more subtle, Lazarus is a character in the bible who is raised by Jesus from the dead. I wonder to this day if this is the reason why the Doctor says, when Lazarus escapes from the ambulance, that he should have known....

The Saxon references. I. Can't. Tell. You. Why. But really, the Saxon references. You should definitely pay attention to those

I was deliriously happy at the line "It shouldn't have taken me that long to reverse the polarity. I must be out of practice" (Me think it's a bad excuse and that he was really distracted by Martha's shoes. But I disgress....). It's a really nice touch as "Reverse the polarity" is maybe the Third Doctor's most famous line. With a show whose history is so long, is nice to see nods here and there at past incarnations of the Doctor, even as subtle as this one


Next episode: 42