About JE Smith
Location: Irving, Texas
Occupation: Freelance
Bio: JE Smith, aka Jeff S., is a forty-something guy who was born in Illinois, but has been living in the wilds of Dallas, Texas for almost twenty years. He has been a movie nut ever since seeing Escape from the Planet of the Apes at Steeleville Theater in 1971 and is also obsessed with Doctor Who, Ultraman, Star Trek, The X Files, Batman, Spider-Man, Doc Savage and many other pop culture icons. For fifteen years (1981 - 1996) he published the sf/horror filmzine Wet Paint, and tried his hand at self-publishing his own comics with Bulletproof (1999, 3 issues) and Complex City (2000 - 2003, 4 issues and a trade paperback), both of which bombed. He's been writing film reviews for almost thirty years and is just getting the hang of it. Married to the lovely Barbara for over 15 years, and owned by a sleepy cat named Max.
Posts: 176
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Doctor Who enters into Aliens territory with a great big slavering CGI monster that wants to suck the life force out of anyone and everyone. Plus, Martha lets her hair down and puts on her party dress, showing off a nice pair of gams.
Plot Points – The Doctor finally gets Martha back to contemporary London, but overhears a TV report from a Professor Lazarus (Mark Gatiss) who claims to be able to change “what it means to be human.” Intrigued, the Doctor sticks around, and accompanies Martha to a gala event where the elderly Lazarus unveils his greatest creation: a machine that rejuvenates his body, giving him the appearance of a thirty-year-old man. The Doctor suspects trouble, and indeed, the good Dr. Laz soon begins mutating into a Lovecraftian nightmare, destroying everything in its path.
Doctor Who? – The Doctor appears delighted to be referred to as a “science geek,” but seems a bit annoyed at being compared to James Bond.
Martha My Dear – Martha displays a fierce devotion to the Doctor that has nothing to do with her doe-eyed infatuation, as in some lesser episodes. By the end, the Doctor has agreed to take her on as proper companion, rather than just as a thank-you for saving his life. We also pay a return visit to Martha’s immediate family here, but thankfully they’re a lot less irritating than Rose’s clan was. And my goodness but Freema looks gorgeous with her hair down.
Too Cool – Well, it’s all about the monster isn’t it? While the devolved/mutated Lazarus never seems completely real, it’s at least admirably complex-looking and horrifying, if a little typically in the Lovecraft mode. A well-rendered creature overall, and certainly one of the most aggressive monsters ever seen in Doctor Who.
Rosewatch – The third consecutive episode where Rose’s name is not mentioned. Could it be the end of Rosewatch? Alas, no….
Weird Science – Not much to complain about here. Some outlandish concepts, but it’s all dealt with fairly logically by the script.
Dumb Stuff – To paraphrase J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man 2, “A guy named Lazarus comes back from the dead. What are the odds?”
Classic Who – The Doctor says he must be out of practice of “reversing the polarity.” This is a reference to the Third Doctor’s supposed catchphrase “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow,” which he only ever actually said once during his regular tenure.
Internal Continuity – The Doctor claims that “whenever I wear this [a tuxedo], something bad happens.” This is a reference to 2.5 “Rise of the Cybermen,” where the Doctor was also wearing a tux. The Doctor notes having seen the Blitz first-hand; this is most likely a direct reference to 1.9/1.10 “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances,” though the Doctor also experienced WWII in the classic series’ “The Curse of Fenric.” Also, I’ve largely been ignoring the “Saxon” references, but here they’re unavoidable, as Martha’s mum (with her terrifying eyebrows) is told by one of Saxon’s cronies that the Doctor is dangerous. Just who is Harold Saxon? Time will tell, my children…
Final Answer – After three increasingly awful episodes, it’s nice to see that “The Lazarus Experiment” is actually pretty entertaining. The story is exceedingly simple, and the action well paced. It does its job efficiently, and provides a solid hour of watchable television. The problem is, this kind of story is not what I want from Doctor Who, and seems better suited to something like The Outer Limits. The earthbound mad-scientist genre has certainly been mined in the classic series (particularly during the Pertwee era), but it seems exceptionally out-of-place among the more outrageous stories in this season. And while it’s nice to have Mark Gatiss, who has scripted two episodes of the new series so far (1.3 “The Unquiet Dead” and 2.7 “The Idiot’s Lantern”) finally appear in an acting role, the fact is that the human Dr. Lazarus is a bit of a colorless part; Gatiss is a gifted comedic actor (and a member of the outrageous comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen), and it would have been nice to see him in something that played more to his strengths. Still, MG does a fine job, and there is an absolutely lovely scene between Lazarus and the Doctor in the church near the end, which is superbly played by both Gatiss and Tennant. In the end, “The Lazarus Experiment” is enjoyable but a bit pedestrian. Not the worst crime to be committed this season, but hardly memorable.
