Smith and Jones: Ranking - 132

   Smith and Jones

(Series 3, Dr 10 with Martha, 31/3/2007, showrunner; Russell T Davies, writer: Russell T Davies, director: Charles Palmer)

Rank: 132

  'Is this the reading room for the platoon of Judoon on the moon? They're not here yet but soon - this afternoon? No I'm not a rhino you big baboon! I'm an alien on my honeymoon, only I fell into a lagoon being chased by a raccoon in a typhoon and ended up here on the lunar surface in June. It's a giant egg you know' 

 

 In which a platoon of Judoon are on the moon and things go boom– though regrettably none of them play a bassoon. It’s the kind of episode where they would though: this is a delightfully bonkers extraordinary DW story set in the most ordinary of settings, the hospital, only instead of a string of Friday night winos the Doctors and nurses are faced with alien Rhinos. Did I say Doctors? Yes, this is where Martha joins and she’s important not only as the first long-term modern Who companion that isn’t Rose but as the first time since Harry they’ve done the obvious joke and put a medical Doctor in the Tardis along the timelordy one. Taken separately the twin plot stands of the Doctor meeting a new companion and a new monosyllabic race of monsters would be flimsy indeed. Luckily both are intertwined with immaculate skill by Russell T Davies who manages to make trainee doctor Martha every bit as interesting as Rose by putting her in a life or-death situation very quickly and watching her keep her cool as everyone else around her cracks up. She’s a more than worthy replacement who doesn’t get enough love in the Whoniverse: she’s so very different to Rose, being introverted and disciplined and way more experienced without the free-range excitement and extroverted adventure of Billie Piper but she’s every bit as brave, empathetic and curious. As for the plot, well, its strange that we‘ve never really had a DW story set fully in a hospital before: they’re the sorts of everyday places everyone in the audience has been in at some point after all, even if it was only being born. Well we have had one I suppose but since ‘The Invisible Enemy’ was set several centuries in the future and involved a bacteria that looked like a giant prawn where the most relatable character was a robotic dog, this one has a very different feel. You get the feeling that Russell T is having fun doing all the things that the scifi fan wanted to do during his original TV job on ‘Children’s Ward’ but was never allowed to do – evaporating annoying patients, having the cause of an outbreak turn out to be nothing mundane but the result of a bloodsucking monster and interrupting the flow of daily hospital life with an invasion of space rhinos. The Judoon, law enforcing giant space rhinos who talk in minion-type nonsense rhyme, are – like the ‘Autons’ before them – a bit too simple and one-note to work as a big all-powerful epic monster species (though Chris Chibnall gave it a good go in ‘Fugitive’ I have to say) but are perfect for an episode where the threat has to be sketched in very quickly so we can get on with the real business of watching the Doctor watching Martha at work. The Judoon are great little creations, seen little enough so that their rhyming scheme doesn’t get tiring and David Tennant copying their style at speed makes for one of the laugh-out-loud moments of the series. It’s nice to have them as ‘actual’ monsters too, animatronic men in costume rather than CGI for a change. Freema Agyeman is never better than in her debut and nails Martha’s kind concern early on but it’s an even better story for David Tennant, who gets lots of opportunities to do everything we’ve come to expect from this regeneration in one place|: run around madly, ask lots of questions, do a bit of flirting, crack some jokes, gets huffy at the aliens and be really sad. Mostly you see this story is still about Rose even in her absence: this story is about how different the world is without her there, just as ‘The Christmas Invasion’ was all about how different things are without the Doctor. Dr 10 is lost, going through the motions without anyone to spark off and even when he meets Martha and strikes up an instant rapport it’s the conversation of two people with mutual respect rather than best mates at work (the title, a great riff on the fact that the Doctor’s alias is nearly always John Smith and she’s Martha Jones, makes out that they’re ‘partners in crime’ to quote anothert title, but really their relationship is more master doctor and trainee, somewhere between Dr 4 and Leela or Romana). It’s a real shift from this being a straightforward ‘buddy’ series in space (and time) and all part of the emotional realism Russell T brought to the show– the Doctor’s never been seen to dwell on absent companions for very long before and even grand-daughter Susan was rarely mentioned two weeks after she left. In time the Doctor’s obsession with one companion when he’s known so many will get silly but here you really feel the weight on the Doctor’s shoulders, even in a plot that would otherwise be, well, a bit silly. After all the Judoon are tracking down a Plasmavore, a blood-sucking creature who sucks out their victim’s blood with a straw, an idea which had it appeared in fan fiction or even a Big Finish audio or missing adventure novel would have been roundly mocked. It somehow works on TV though, thanks to a highly visual script that doesn’t take itself too seriously and the performances which are strong all round this week. What this story doesn’t have is any real feeling of danger. We know the Doctor’s going to solve this one with a wave of sonic screwdriver without breaking a sweat and even seen through Martha’s eyes she’s probably seen a lot scarier things doing an A and E nightshift on a Saturday night to be honest. We also don’t get to see much of the moon which is a waste as despite all the fuss in the intro about the hospital being transported there it might as well be anywhere for all the relevance it has to the plot (and why aren’t people bouncing around or commenting on the lower gravity?), while you’d think the first mass abduction by aliens would be bigger news on everyone’s return to Earth somehow and at the very least would make Martha a mini-celebrity on her return to Earth. Oh well, there are stories with far worse flaws out there while not every DW story is meant to be deep and ‘Smith and Jones’ wears its comedy better than most with an energy and buzz that lights up even the daftest scenes. It’s a good little re-set button for fans who’d been starved of the show for the three months since Christmas and a solid reminder of everything that makes this show so special, if ultimately not much more than that.

+ Anne Reid is superb as the plasmavore. After a career playing fussy little old ladies (including in plasticine as Wendolene in the later Wallace and Gromit films and in more human form in Russell T’s own excellent drama series ‘Years and Years’, a show that was meant to predict the Earth getting more and more out of control in the future – which as things turned out wasn’t anywhere near as scary and ridiculous as the real future proved to be) she’s the last person the audience expects to be the alien and is having a whale of a time playing against type as a ruthless alien whose bloodthirsty in every sense of the word. Now this is what the stunt JNT guest casting of the 1980s should have looked like!

- One of the great strengths of Rose was the family around her we saw on screen: the lonely mum, the dead dad, the scaredy-cat boyfriend, all of whom grow and develop every bit as much as she does across two series. Martha isn’t so lucky. Her mum’s a bigger bloodsucker than any plasmovore without the redeeming features of fellow companion mothers Jackie Tyler (whose biggest crime is being a protective single mother whose lonely) or (by the end) Sylvia Noble (who loves her daughter Donna dearly, but finds it easier to never ever express that). Martha’s sister is even worse. Her brother’s an utter wimp. Their reaction to their daughter/sister becoming a junior doctor is to put her down and their reaction to her being in trouble and being a hero is to turn the story on themselves. How the heck did Martha end up the way she did with those genes and growing up in that environment? It takes a heck of a lot of effort to be a Doctor and anyone who does so needs a firm support network to get through the gruelling hours and low pay – Martha has none of these things. You do wonder why Martha still continues to do so much for a family who all need their heads banging together. Amazingly, the Jones family get even more unlikeable in ‘The Lazarus Experiment’.