3.6: The Lazarus Experiment
Synopsis: The Doctor brings Martha home rather unexpectedly, deeming their travels together at an end. As they are saying goodbye, they are distracted by a television report.
A London scientist, Richard Lazarus, age seventy-six, claims to have made the greatest scientific discovery of our time. In front of a hundred party guests, he steps into a machine, and emerges "reborn," as a much younger man. As the Doctor and Martha investigate, they witness his DNA strands morphing, and Lazarus begins, occasionally, to change into a hideous crustacean-like monster who seems to feed by sucking all the moisture from a living human body. The Doctor concludes that he unlocked something in the human gene sequence long-since rejected by evolution. Lazarus escapes into a cathedral, and Martha lures him up into the tower. The Doctor uses the large bell to resonate sonic-enhanced organ music, thus sending the Lazarus monster falling to his death.
During the action, Martha's mother, already mistrustful of the Doctor, is given some "intelligence" as to the Doctor's identity. She begs Martha to leave him, and when that doesn't work, she attacks the Doctor and demands that he stay away from her daughter. Afterwards, Martha refuses the Doctor's offer of "one more trip," so he brings her aboard the TARDIS as a full-time companion, acknowledging that that's pretty much what she's been all along.
Golden Comic Moment: There are several cute moments in this episode. The Doctor is delighted to be likened to James Bond, but also called a geek, and he likes Martha's shoes. But it's at the end when the Doctor claims that he picked up a thing or two about playing the organ from Beethoven, and Martha says, "Mm, especially about playing loud," that is the best joke of the hour. This is because it's not just a gag, but actually has a well-timed appropriateness and historical value. A person who does not have at least a cursory knowledge of classical music (because Beethoven went deaf) wouldn't get it, and it wouldn't work in any other episode. So bravo for some genuinely intelligent humor!
Golden Fangirl Moment: Francine Jones zeroes in immediately on the Doctor hovering quietly around Martha as mother and daughter greet each other. It doesn't take Freud to tell us what she means when she asks Martha if she went home on her own the night before, and then averts her eyes very dubiously in the Doctor's direction. And he jumps right in to act as a buffer, trying to be congenial with Martha's mum, to divert her mind quickly away from where it has irrevocably gone.
But ultimately, he makes it worse! We think that this little bit of dialogue (and reaction thereto) is just delicious! We would go so far as to say that never have the words "busy" and "stuff" on Doctor Who been delivered with quite such a loaded bag of innuendo!
Doctor: Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Jones. Heard a lot about you.
Francine: Have you? What have you heard, then?
Doctor: Oh, you know, that you're Martha's mother, and... (looks at Martha)
Martha: (averts her eyes, offers no help)
Doctor: Erm, no, actually that's about it. We haven't had much time to chat. You know, been... busy (trailing off awkwardly).
Francine: Busy? Doing what, exactly?
Doctor: (knowing he's just cornered himself) Oh, you know. Stuff.
Francine: (nods suspiciously)
Doctor: (sighs with clear relief as the lights dim and all attention is diverted to a speaker)
Cringeworthy Moment: This might be the mother of all cringes for Martha Jones fans. "This is it?" she asks, in disbelief as the Doctor rather blithely peeks round her flat, touches her underpants and smiles cluelessly as he tries to end their tenure together.
He can flee from her flirting, he can shoot down her advances and attempts at a deeper friendship. He sees through her, past her - everything but her. And she responds, mostly, with hurt and disappointment. But now, he's strung her along with regards to how long she can travel with him, and leads her back into her own flat, letting her think it's going to be a great adventure. This is really low. He isn't even man enough to break up with her properly by warning her what she'd find when she went outside, or (God forbid) discussing it with her in advance! After he'd broken their "one trip only" rule twice, she was well within her rights to think that she might get to stay on for a while.
The look on her face now registers exasperation and anger, and rightly so. And what even makes it all more frustrating is that he is happily whimsical about the whole thing, and rather pleased with himself for having landed the TARDIS exactly in the right time and place. This, perhaps more than any other scene, demonstrates what an emotional cripple the Doctor can be.
Just like that - is he really ready to never see her again? Ugh.
Golden Moment: "Leave him, Lazarus! He's old and bitter. I thought you had a taste for fresher meat." These are Martha's words that divert Lazarus' attention from the Doctor, and set him running after her. It also begins the inevitable shouting of commands at one another as the Doctor first tries to stop her, she shouts back that he should act now, and then he tells her what specifically to do. From there, Martha and Tish act on the physical side, actually dodging the monster, keeping him occupied as the Doctor does the technical bit. Admittedly, he stays out of the fray and lets the girls do the hard part, but he does the thing that only he can do, and that's why he's cool.
We said that Fear Her actually has a Golden Moment in which the Doctor/Companion partnership is very well-demonstrated because the Doctor becomes incapacitated, and the Companion knows him well enough to act in his absence.
This is another moment like that, of a well-functioning partnership, which shows us why the Doctor needs a Companion, other than to keep him company. The Doctor frequently has inspired ideas of how to defeat the enemy, but just as frequently, he can't pull it off without help. How would the monster have gotten into the bell tower if Martha hadn't been there? Sure, the Doctor picks up one-off companions along the way who can do a lot of running and shouting, but only someone who is astute and knows the man and vice versa can communicate with him this way. Notice how she looks up into the tower just as he begins to do the same, while Tish, who has just met him, misses it. She sidles up close and waits for him to tell her what to do, and the rest of their conversation takes place in shouted spurts. We are of the opinion that yes, perhaps Rose or Donna could have done this, but not Astrid nor Christina, etc.
Why I Beg To Differ: Why do I beg to differ? Well, really, I don't. The subdued conversation between Lazarus and the Doctor over the travails of humanity and mortality is cited in DWM as the Golden Moment. I have made it my business to pick something else, so I did, but really, this is a beautifully played scene. Lazarus shows us that part of being human (there it is again!) is trying to dodge one's own mortality, and the Doctor shows us that it is good and satisfying to accept death. He, the impossibly old Time Lord, points out that a longer life doesn't always mean a better one, and that in the end, the only certainty is ending up alone. As the author points out, we are shown that Lazarus is a villain for wanting to "steal" a longer life, and the Doctor is a hero for enduring one.
I went in a different direction and chose a Golden Moment for the Doctor and his Companion (whom he had earlier tried to ditch, mind you), because outside of that conversation, there are no greater words of wisdom! Well, other than the Doctor and Martha's various comments on fashion. They are stylish, what can I say?
A London scientist, Richard Lazarus, age seventy-six, claims to have made the greatest scientific discovery of our time. In front of a hundred party guests, he steps into a machine, and emerges "reborn," as a much younger man. As the Doctor and Martha investigate, they witness his DNA strands morphing, and Lazarus begins, occasionally, to change into a hideous crustacean-like monster who seems to feed by sucking all the moisture from a living human body. The Doctor concludes that he unlocked something in the human gene sequence long-since rejected by evolution. Lazarus escapes into a cathedral, and Martha lures him up into the tower. The Doctor uses the large bell to resonate sonic-enhanced organ music, thus sending the Lazarus monster falling to his death.
During the action, Martha's mother, already mistrustful of the Doctor, is given some "intelligence" as to the Doctor's identity. She begs Martha to leave him, and when that doesn't work, she attacks the Doctor and demands that he stay away from her daughter. Afterwards, Martha refuses the Doctor's offer of "one more trip," so he brings her aboard the TARDIS as a full-time companion, acknowledging that that's pretty much what she's been all along.
Golden Comic Moment: There are several cute moments in this episode. The Doctor is delighted to be likened to James Bond, but also called a geek, and he likes Martha's shoes. But it's at the end when the Doctor claims that he picked up a thing or two about playing the organ from Beethoven, and Martha says, "Mm, especially about playing loud," that is the best joke of the hour. This is because it's not just a gag, but actually has a well-timed appropriateness and historical value. A person who does not have at least a cursory knowledge of classical music (because Beethoven went deaf) wouldn't get it, and it wouldn't work in any other episode. So bravo for some genuinely intelligent humor!
Golden Fangirl Moment: Francine Jones zeroes in immediately on the Doctor hovering quietly around Martha as mother and daughter greet each other. It doesn't take Freud to tell us what she means when she asks Martha if she went home on her own the night before, and then averts her eyes very dubiously in the Doctor's direction. And he jumps right in to act as a buffer, trying to be congenial with Martha's mum, to divert her mind quickly away from where it has irrevocably gone.
But ultimately, he makes it worse! We think that this little bit of dialogue (and reaction thereto) is just delicious! We would go so far as to say that never have the words "busy" and "stuff" on Doctor Who been delivered with quite such a loaded bag of innuendo!
Doctor: Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Jones. Heard a lot about you.
Francine: Have you? What have you heard, then?
Doctor: Oh, you know, that you're Martha's mother, and... (looks at Martha)
Martha: (averts her eyes, offers no help)
Doctor: Erm, no, actually that's about it. We haven't had much time to chat. You know, been... busy (trailing off awkwardly).
Francine: Busy? Doing what, exactly?
Doctor: (knowing he's just cornered himself) Oh, you know. Stuff.
Francine: (nods suspiciously)
Doctor: (sighs with clear relief as the lights dim and all attention is diverted to a speaker)
Cringeworthy Moment: This might be the mother of all cringes for Martha Jones fans. "This is it?" she asks, in disbelief as the Doctor rather blithely peeks round her flat, touches her underpants and smiles cluelessly as he tries to end their tenure together.
He can flee from her flirting, he can shoot down her advances and attempts at a deeper friendship. He sees through her, past her - everything but her. And she responds, mostly, with hurt and disappointment. But now, he's strung her along with regards to how long she can travel with him, and leads her back into her own flat, letting her think it's going to be a great adventure. This is really low. He isn't even man enough to break up with her properly by warning her what she'd find when she went outside, or (God forbid) discussing it with her in advance! After he'd broken their "one trip only" rule twice, she was well within her rights to think that she might get to stay on for a while.
The look on her face now registers exasperation and anger, and rightly so. And what even makes it all more frustrating is that he is happily whimsical about the whole thing, and rather pleased with himself for having landed the TARDIS exactly in the right time and place. This, perhaps more than any other scene, demonstrates what an emotional cripple the Doctor can be.
Just like that - is he really ready to never see her again? Ugh.
Golden Moment: "Leave him, Lazarus! He's old and bitter. I thought you had a taste for fresher meat." These are Martha's words that divert Lazarus' attention from the Doctor, and set him running after her. It also begins the inevitable shouting of commands at one another as the Doctor first tries to stop her, she shouts back that he should act now, and then he tells her what specifically to do. From there, Martha and Tish act on the physical side, actually dodging the monster, keeping him occupied as the Doctor does the technical bit. Admittedly, he stays out of the fray and lets the girls do the hard part, but he does the thing that only he can do, and that's why he's cool.
We said that Fear Her actually has a Golden Moment in which the Doctor/Companion partnership is very well-demonstrated because the Doctor becomes incapacitated, and the Companion knows him well enough to act in his absence.
This is another moment like that, of a well-functioning partnership, which shows us why the Doctor needs a Companion, other than to keep him company. The Doctor frequently has inspired ideas of how to defeat the enemy, but just as frequently, he can't pull it off without help. How would the monster have gotten into the bell tower if Martha hadn't been there? Sure, the Doctor picks up one-off companions along the way who can do a lot of running and shouting, but only someone who is astute and knows the man and vice versa can communicate with him this way. Notice how she looks up into the tower just as he begins to do the same, while Tish, who has just met him, misses it. She sidles up close and waits for him to tell her what to do, and the rest of their conversation takes place in shouted spurts. We are of the opinion that yes, perhaps Rose or Donna could have done this, but not Astrid nor Christina, etc.
Why I Beg To Differ: Why do I beg to differ? Well, really, I don't. The subdued conversation between Lazarus and the Doctor over the travails of humanity and mortality is cited in DWM as the Golden Moment. I have made it my business to pick something else, so I did, but really, this is a beautifully played scene. Lazarus shows us that part of being human (there it is again!) is trying to dodge one's own mortality, and the Doctor shows us that it is good and satisfying to accept death. He, the impossibly old Time Lord, points out that a longer life doesn't always mean a better one, and that in the end, the only certainty is ending up alone. As the author points out, we are shown that Lazarus is a villain for wanting to "steal" a longer life, and the Doctor is a hero for enduring one.
I went in a different direction and chose a Golden Moment for the Doctor and his Companion (whom he had earlier tried to ditch, mind you), because outside of that conversation, there are no greater words of wisdom! Well, other than the Doctor and Martha's various comments on fashion. They are stylish, what can I say?