"The Eaters Of Light" Reminds Viewers How Doctor Who Can Be Fun!

The Good: Good development for Bill, Good ending, Decent performances
The Bad: Mediocre/Derivative CGI, Somewhat predictable plot development
The Basics: "The Eaters Of Light" is a fun episode of Doctor Who that does a generally good job of utilizing the characters currently in play.


There's something ballsy about the current season of Doctor Who. The show opened the new season with the announcements that the current season is the final one for Peter Capaldi as The Doctor and the disappointing aspect of that was that Capaldi's Doctor has been much maligned and much-misused. So, the idea that a new showrunner was taking over was a glimmer of hope for fans that perhaps Peter Capaldi's Doctor would be better-written and better-developed . . . but, as has become the habit, new executive producer, new Doctor. So, Peter Capaldi - great actor - is given the short straw on content for The Doctor and a severely limited challenge in that he has not had much material to rise to his talents. Similarly, Pearl Mackie's tenure as The Doctor's Companion Bill was quickly announced as a one-season character. These observations come at the outset of the review of "The Eaters Of Light" because the episode finally finds a pretty brilliant way to write The Doctor, Bill, Nardole and (even for her brief part) Missy. In other words, "The Eaters Of Light" is a bit of a "fuck you" to fans of Doctor Who; showing viewers the potential of Peter Capaldi's Doctor and the Companions unique to his tenure . . . a mere couple of episodes before they're all gone.

"The Eaters Of Light" follows upon and (eventually) references "Empress Of Mars" (reviewed here!) and is enough to remind fans of Doctor Who how excited they were about Peter Capaldi being announced as The Doctor. "The Eaters Of Light" is a pretty typical "invader from another dimension" episode of Doctor Who, but writer Rona Munro and director Charles Palmer manage to make it feel fairly fresh, even if it cops out in the first of the episode's two climaxes.

The Doctor, Nardole and Bill arrive in the 2nd Century, Scotland, where Bill is excited because there is a historical mystery in Cairn. The Ninth Legion of Roman soldiers abruptly disappeared and Bill believes something mysterious happened. The Doctor points out, when they arrive, that five thousand Roman soldiers retreating ought to be visible, from their landing point. When Bill goes in search of the Ninth Legion, The Doctor and Nardole head off in the opposite direction. Bill finds a Celt, who chases her and she falls down a hole, where she meets a Roman soldier. The soldier tells her that the Ninth Legion was wiped out by a monster and only the deserters survived.

The Doctor and Nardole, in the meantime, meet up with the local tribe, who informs them that the Romans have been wiped out by a creature and The Doctor visits the gate that the Celts are guarding. There, The Doctor identifies the invaders and recognizes that they will eat all of the Universe's light if they are able to break through. As the two communities meet again, The Doctor and Bill have to convince them to work to save the world.

Almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the episode is a final scene that involves Missy that works to set up the next episode of Doctor Who and it enhances the promise represented in "The Eaters Of Light." "The Eaters Of Light" develops Bill's character exceptionally well; Bill realizes that The Doctor or the TARDIS are responsible for how she can understand other languages when she encounters Romans and recognizes that she is understanding Latin as English and speaking English, while the Romans she speaks with hear Latin. Bill figures out what The Doctor usually explicitly has to tell his Companions, which is very cool.

In a similar fashion, The Doctor is written as witty, resourceful and a decent blend of crabby and clever in "The Eaters Of Light." Peter Capaldi rocks as The Doctor in a way that he has seldom been allowed to do. The plot might not be the most original idea for a Doctor Who episode, but Capaldi makes it feel fairly fresh. Similarly, Matt Lucas's Nardole continues to grow and be more intriguing, as opposed to simply used as comic relief.

The creature design and special effect for the interdimensional being seemed incredibly familiar as opposed to audacious and the effect was a little less refined than some of the other effects in Doctor Who. But for the most part, "The Eaters Of Light" is a solid episode that makes viewers wish The Doctor and Bill might stick around for quite a bit longer.

For other Doctor Who episodes directed by Charles Palmer, please check out my reviews of:
"Oxygen"
"Family Of Blood"
"Human Nature"
"The Shakespeare Code"
"Smith And Jones"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

6/10

For other television episode and season reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Long Way To Go For Its End: "Oxygen" Is Disappointing Doctor Who!

The Good: Some of the acting is all right
The Bad: Another simple problem, complex solution episode, No real character development (until the last moment), Awkward direction, Dull pacing
The Basics: "Oxygen" is a Doctor Who episode built around its final reversal and it does not entertain, excite, or even make much sense.


It has been a while since Doctor Who did an episode set on a space station. In fact, Capaldi's Doctor has only been on a space station in "Kill The Moon" (reviewed here!) and Matt Smith's incarnation of The Doctor only briefly appeared on the occasional space station ("Asylum Of The Daleks" is the only one that comes to mind for Smith's Doctor, with other vessels being only debatable as space stations). But for a proper episode where the setting is a space station for the bulk of the episode, it has been quite a while. Doctor Who is about due for a space station episode and writer Jamie Mathieson delivers one in "Oxygen."

"Oxygen" picks up the adventures of The Doctor, Nardole and Bill following "Knock Knock" (reviewed here!), but does not reveal what is going on in the vault The Doctor has established on Earth. Instead, The Doctor starts to feel the pull to go back to space and in the process, he, Bill, and Nardole end up in a painfully contrived episode. When we were done watching "Oxygen," my wife likened it to the Frasier episode "Enemy At The Gate." And she's right; the anaology is a solid one. "Enemy At The Gate" is an episode that features Frasier and Niles stuck in their car at a parking garage where Frasier is taking a moral stand against paying the parking fee for just entering the garage and turning around. In the process, Frasier misses the beginning of his radio show and Roz has to go on the air. The episode keeps Fraiser off the air until he bursts into the show and, unprepared for what Roz has been saying, makes a hilarious confession about his experience that had a double entendre for what Roz has been going through. In other words, the entire episode is a twenty-one minute set-up for a one minute punchline. The episode works the first few times because the punchline is absolutely hilarious, but the more one watches it, the more it might seem like a long way to go for a single joke (no matter how funny that joke is).

"Oxygen" is just like that for Doctor Who.

In fact, just like the situation Niles and Frasier are in in "Enemy At The Gate" would have been quickly resolved if Frasier had just paid the $2.00, "Oxygen" has a painfully simple solution. Instead of executing that solution, though, The Doctor makes a grand statement that costs him dearly.

When The Doctor starts feeling the pull to go into space, he encourages Bill to pick a place and time and space to visit. The Doctor sees a distress call on the monitor and he, Bill, and Nardole go to that point in time and space. That places them on a space station that is devoid of oxygen. Cut off from the TARDIS, The Doctor realizes that the miners on the space station only receive oxygen through their space suits. The space suits have killed thirty-six of the forty people aboard the station and the corpse-filled space suits are not hunting the four survivors and three visitors. The Doctor comes to realize that the station is galactic capitalism at its most extreme and as he and the others flee through the station, The Doctor recognizes that Bill's defective space suit might be her undoing. As he works to save lives, The Doctor is forced to make a real sacrifice.

"Oxygen" is written to be much smarter than it ends up being and directed to be unfortunately dumber. The smart aspect of "Oxygen" comes when the corpses begin to attack the survivors on the space station. Astute viewers will note that the suits "deactivate" the central nervous system of the people they attack. So, when The Doctor begins to correlate that the suits are money-driven and he gets control of the station's computer system, the solution seems like it would be obvious; The Doctor is going to convince the suits that the station is profitable again, fool them into believing there is money in everyone's accounts to pay and then the suits will simply reactivate the nervous systems of all the people they have deactivated.

But no, that's not how it goes. "Oxygen" is not that smart, it's just vamping for time until the last two minutes of the episode.

And, sadly, in those last two minutes, the writing is minimal, but the direction is terrible. The direction in the last few moments of the episode makes an implication that it quickly contradicted by The Doctor and his dialogue. Without spoiling the episode's resolution, "Oxygen's" penultimate moment is directed to imply that the viewer is seeing out of The Doctor's eyes, when that is not the case.

Matt Lucas is fairly good as Nardole in "Oxygen;" Pearl Mackie is not given anything truly substantive to do. Peter Capaldi is set up to fail in "Oxygen." In his performance, Capaldi does not significantly differentiate between The Doctor sighted and blind. That undermines the magnitude of The Doctor being blinded in "Oxygen."

Moreover, Capaldi is set-up to fail by the writing in "Oxygen." In "The Angels Take Manhattan," River breaks her own wrist to escape a Weeping Angel and she is healed by The Doctor, who utilizes some of his regeneration energy. Unlike other times when The Doctor seems to only have some regenerative ability proximate to his recent Regeneration, The Doctor is able to provide limited healing power by tapping into his regeneration energies. So, why is The Doctor temporarily blinded to save Bill in "Oxygen?" According to the mythos created in "The Angels Take Manhattan," The Doctor should be able to use some of his regeneration energy to fix his own eyes while the team waits for Bill to regain consciousness . . . or the viewer deserves a satisfactory answer as to why that is not the case in "Oxygen."

"Oxygen" is initially creepy, but while the viewer waits for a satisfactory explanation to the original set-up, they are strung along to a disappointing punchline that fails to land . . . even on the first viewing.

For other Doctor Who episodes set on space stations or space ships, please check out my reviews of:
"The Waters Of Mars"
"The Long Game"
"42"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

1/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Martha Jones’s Chance To Excel Is Co-Opted By “The Family Of Blood!”

The Good: David Tennant’s performance, Character development, Plot progression
The Bad: Focus on secondary characters, Neglects the significance of Martha Jones for most of the episode.
The Basics: “The Family Of Blood” completes the story begun in “Human Nature,” but it does not do so in a particularly satisfying way.


In science fiction television, there is arguably no greater mixed bag than the two-part episode. Two-parters are more often about the tease than telling a longer, compelling story that could not simply be told in the time limits of a single episode. Instead, so many two-part episodes of science fiction television are about getting the characters to the worst possible place they can get and trying to intrigue viewers into tuning in the next week. In Doctor Who, there are very few actual two-part episodes and the one that seems like it does have a decent story to tell that is more drawn out is the two-parter that begins with “Human Nature” and concludes with “The Family Of Blood.” Unfortunately for fans of Doctor Who, to bring a climax to the episode “Human Nature,” “The Family Of Blood” begins in an unfortunately lame position.

Picking up immediately where “Human Nature” (reviewed here!) ended, “The Family Of Blood” makes Martha Jones into a compelling and complete hero. It’s a rare thing when a show allows the main protagonist to be replaced by the lead supporting character. “The Family Of Blood” allows Martha Jones to become the legitimate hero of Doctor Who, even if only for an episode. But “Human Nature” reached a peak where The Doctor had to make a choice and for all the intensity of that moment, how the subsequent episode goes it cannot be honestly dragging that decision out. The result is the feeling that “The Family Of Blood” opens at an artificially cheap point. “The Family Of Blood” is further hampered by the fact that the conflict is not significant-enough to carry the entire episode, so it turns into a somewhat maudlin tribute to the loss of youth brought about by World War I.

With The Doctor given the painful choice of having to sacrifice either Martha or Joan, Martha Jones leaps into action. Threatening The Family with their own weapons, Jones is able to create a distraction long enough for most of the people at the dance to get to safety. While Martha goes in search of the pocket watch that houses The Doctor’s consciousness, the headmaster meets with The Family. The school is suddenly under siege as The Family’s army of animated scarecrows descend upon it.

After a conversation with Martha Jones, Joan Redfern begins to suspect that Jones might be right about Smith’s true identity as The Doctor. With his TARDIS discovered and The Family closing in on the school, Tim figures out the nature of the pocket watch. Forced to retreat into the school, The Doctor acts as general to lead the students and help them survive the terrible night and the hideous creatures who menace them all!

Throughout “The Family Of Blood,” John Smith’s student, Tim Latimer, is hunted by the alien family that is searching for The Doctor. Tim is in possession of the (essentially) magical pocket watch that houses The Doctor’s true consciousness and will rewrite his DNA when it is open. Latimer opens the watch several times without fully unleashing The Doctor, which is not satisfactorily addressed in “The Family Of Blood.” The focus on Tim Latimer and his seemingly psychic ability to see the future (namely the day of his death in the forthcoming war) diminishes some from the focus on Martha Jones.

At its best moments, “The Family Of Blood” makes Martha Jones into a legitimate defender of The Doctor and the only real force that can stand in opposition to the villainous aliens who are attacking the boarding school. Jones is compellingly portrayed by Freema Agyeman when she is given enough of a part to play. Unfortunately for her chances of being the hero of the episode, “The Family Of Blood” often refocuses on Latimer or The Doctor.

“The Family Of Blood” affords a great chance for David Tennant to shine. Throughout the episode, John Smith is tormented by partial knowledge of his true nature. That leads to wonderful tortured moments when David Tennant plays Smith as regretful of being The Doctor. Tennant commits to the part and he is agonizing to watch in the moments where he plays Smith as lost and hurt by all he will have to give up if The Doctor is to live.

The initial concept of “The Family Of Blood” seemed to justify the two-part episode by creating a threat that immediately endangers The Doctor and Martha Jones. The full scope of the nature of that threat is not revealed in “Human Nature,” but does come out in “The Family Of Blood.” Unfortunately, that transforms The Family into another somewhat generic alien race that is an Alien Of The Week. While there is the potential of The Family to spread throughout the galaxy, that seems unlikely given that there are only four left and they only seem to be a real threat because they stole a temporal vortex manipulator.

The end result is a second part that is comparatively unsatisfying, like so many second parts of two-part episodes; “The Family Of Blood” completes the story set-up in “Human Nature,” but it does not make for a great resolution.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the second season of the Tenth Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other episodes of television where identity of a character is compromised, check out my reviews of:
“The Paradise Syndrome” - Star Trek
“Who Are You, Really?” - True Blood
“Yes Men” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

6.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and season reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page where the reviews are organized from best to worst!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Alter The Doctor; “Human Nature” Introduces A Big Conceit To Make The Episode Work!

The Good: Good on-screen chemistry between David Tennant and guest star Jessica Hynes, Some pretty awesome special effects, Decent acting, Good tension/mood
The Bad: The conceit is a bit much to buy considering other threats The Doctor has faced . . .
The Basics: “Human Nature” allows The Doctor to become human and he is forced to rely upon Martha Jones while they hide in Earth’s past from alien hunters.


Doctor Who is a television show that becomes much more limited by budget than by the imagination of the writers and executive producers involved in it. The best of science fiction either has a solid concept or is given the freedom to explore. Doctor Who strives to explore, but for all the supposed-greatness and imagination of the series, the show is very much a homo sapiens-centered television show. The adventures in time and space in Doctor Who are frequently focused on Earth and the fantastic elements are remarkably limited. As a result, Doctor Who has a tendency to be rather formulaic. When the show treads away from its somewhat narrow formula, it usually requires the introduction of a pretty serious MacGuffin. “Human Nature” is a big MacGuffin-containing episode.

“Human Nature” introduces a pretty huge MacGuffin in the form of the Chameleon Arch. The Chameleon Arch is a device that has, apparently, just been hanging around the TARDIS which has the ability to completely disguise people by entirely reworking their physiology and DNA. As the name of the episode implies, this is an episode where The Doctor is transformed into a human being. “Human Nature” is an episode that leads powerfully into the final arc of the season and also affords The Doctor a rare love story. Fortunately, “Human Nature” has guest stars that allow the romance to play out well and it mixes a credible relationship with the burgeoning romantic feelings Martha Jones has been developing for The Doctor.

Opening with the TARDIS under attack and The Doctor putting his complete faith in Martha, giving her an important artifact – a watch. Mr. Smith awakens in 1913, a teacher, where Martha Jones is a maid at the boarding school at which he teaches. Mr. Smith tells Martha of his fantastic dreams of being in the year 2007 with her as his Companion, but he is reassured when she gives him the newspaper and he gets along with his daily routine. John Smith runs into the school’s nurse, Joan Redfern, who flirts with him and, after Smith falls down and goes to her infirmary, Martha witnesses the two flirting. Martha is clearly protective of The Doctor in his persona of Mr. Smith. One night while Martha is out working, Redfern witnesses what appears to be a meteor and while Smith escorts her back to her living quarters, Martha tries to find where the “meteor” came down.

One of the students at the school, Baines, discovers the downed spaceship and the inhabitants appear to take him over. Martha reflects upon how The Doctor decided to hide from the interstellar hunters by using the Chameleon Arch to become fully human. One of Smith’s students, though, discovers The Doctor’s pocketwatch which houses his consciousness, and when he opens it, Baines checks in with the Hunters. Soon, the school and the surrounding villages are being attacked by scarecrow creatures. As Smith’s student Tim Latimer has flashes of The Doctor’s true nature, the aliens who were hunting The Doctor and Martha possess locals. Martha has to protect The Doctor from the alien infiltrators while they close in on him!

It is a very rare thing for Doctor Who to have a space battle and the one in “Human Nature” is more implied than shown. The TARDIS is under attack at the outset of the episode and that sets a tone of danger that takes a surprisingly long time to get back to in the episode. Instead, “Human Nature” works hard to illustrate how The Doctor lives as an ordinary human of the time before the mechanism of the conceit is simply revealed. That works well for the overall episode, creating a good mood and allowing for enough time for John Smith and Joan Redfern to actually develop the beginnings of a romantic relationship. Even so, the beginning feels incongruent to the love story and the creepy direction the episode goes in; this is not an episode filled with overt conflict.

The time spent setting up the mood and setting affords viewers the chance to accept that The Doctor’s new life is not simply an illusion or altered reality; this is the new state of being for The Doctor. The Doctor is usually the character with all the answers and in “Human Nature,” Martha Jones has more control of the situation. It is unfortunate, then, that she is forced to rely upon a recorded message from The Doctor which does not actually contain all the information she needs in order to survive.

“Human Nature” works exceptionally well because the acting in the episode is incredible. While Harry Lloyd’s performance as Baines foreshadows well his role on the first season of Game Of Thrones (reviewed here!), the role demands very little subtlety. Instead, Lloyd becomes creepy by making his physical performance inhuman; jerking his head to the side and staring intensely at the camera. The contrast of Baines at the beginning of the episode versus after his possession is made explicit through the performance.

Freema Agyeman rules “Human Nature.” While David Tennant and Jessica Hynes have great on-screen chemistry that makes their banter fun to watch, Agyeman proves that Martha Jones has all the qualities necessary to be the equal of The Doctor. While Jones gets frustrated at the lack of information left by The Doctor, Agyeman never makes her seem helpless or whiny. Instead, she seems frustrated by her inability to prepare and Agyeman gets through the emotional moments and the jargon with equal credibility.

“Human Nature” climaxes in a way that sets up a second part and there is some relief to this being merely the first part of a larger story. The irksome conceit (if the Daleks are hunting The Doctor, him not being a Time Lord would have been an excellent way to avoid them) of making The Doctor human works better when it seems like the conflict truly is a huge one. The menace in “Human Nature” is significant enough that The Doctor’s vulnerable position cannot be taken lightly by Martha Jones or the viewer and that helps sell the episode!

For other works with Thomas Brodie-Sangster, please visit my reviews of:
Game Of Thrones - Season 4
The Maze Runner
Game Of Thrones - Season 3
Love, Actually

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the second season of the Tenth Doctor here!
Thanks!]

9/10

For other Doctor Who episode and season reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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“Catspaw” For Doctor Who: “The Shakespeare Code”

The Good: Moments of concept, Performances
The Bad: Light on character development, Terrible villains, Awful mix of fantasy and science fiction
The Basics: “The Shakespeare Code” is a random bottle episode that creates one of the least compelling aliens of the week that blends fantasy into the usually strong science fiction series.


In the classic Star Trek, there is a Halloween episode that might have been fun when it first aired, but has aged incredibly poorly. That episode is “Catspaw” (reviewed here!) and while the Doctor Who episode “The Shakespeare Code” was not released as a Halloween episode, it suffers from many of the same problems. Doctor Who is solidly science fiction, as a time travel adventure through both time and space. Whenever one imports fantasy elements into something that strives for more realism than the fantastic, they are left wanting. “The Shakespeare Code” suffers for that reason.

Interestingly, “The Shakespeare Code” is enjoyable to watch, but pretty horrible to consider. The episode takes the usual time and space adventures of The Doctor and his new Companion from the prior episode, “Smith And Jones” (reviewed here!) and essentially tells a witchcraft story. The unfortunate aspect of this is that to buy the premise, the fantasy elements have to be blended with the science fiction and it gels poorly. In short: witchcraft is just alien powers. Bleh.

In London, 1599, a man is killed by what appears to be three witches. Living up to his promise to take Martha on one trip in time, The Doctor and Martha Jones arrive in London right after the murder. There, The Doctor takes Martha to the Globe Theater where they see Love’s Labour’s Lost. There, they see Shakespeare and are surprised when he promises the audience that the next day he will premiere Love’s Labour’s Won. Visiting Shakespeare in his chambers, Shakespeare gets smitten with Martha. Shakespeare’s maid is one of the “witches” and she dispatches of the local censor.

Shakespeare is being influenced by the “witches” to finish Love’s Labour’s Won, with lines that are essentially a spell which will open their portal to release another of their kind. While rehearsing the play while The Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare go to Bedlam to find the architect of the Globe Theater, the actors almost open the portal. The Doctor talks to Peter Streete, the architect, and does his mind meld with him to clear the architect’s mind. A “witch” materializes, kills Peter, and threatens the Doctor. The Doctor figures out that the witches are Carrionites, who are aliens who use words for power and who disappeared near the dawn of the universe. Together, The Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare work to stop the Carrionites.

Martha Jones almost instantly establishes herself as a smarter-than-usual Companion by asking all the right questions when she and The Doctor arrive on the streets of London. She quickly adapts to asking “when” they are, as opposed to simply “where.” She is concerned that she might be carted off as a slave and that her actions in the past might have serious ramifications. She is emotionally aware enough to be irked when The Doctor alludes to Rose again.

“The Shakespeare Code” falls back repeatedly on the joke of Shakespeare wanting to steal the lines of those who speak around him. The episode is notable in that it relies upon humor much more than most episodes of Doctor Who. While the appearance of Queen Elizabeth leads to perhaps the longest-running joke of the series, most of the jokes are repetitive and simplistic. Martha Jones is originally awestruck by Shakespeare and the whole interplay seems to be leading up to Shakespeare starting his famous sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” for her.

The humor notwithstanding, ”The Shakespeare Code” is problematic in that it is another episode where a “mythic” race is presented . .. but then has no real consequences. The adventure in Doctor Who do not, usually, involve The Doctor having long conversations with aliens he encounters. So, the idea that there is an alien race that has been lost since the dawn of time that The Doctor has heard rumors about seems almost as far-fetched as the idea that the Globe Theater was specially constructed as an amplifier for energy released by the resonance of specific words.

That is the start of the conceptual problem with “The Shakespeare Code.” Like all science fiction, “The Shakespeare Code” stretches to explain magic in a scientific universe. That’s fine and The Doctor noting things like DNA control mechanisms do a good job of justifying some of the magic in the otherwise realistic universe. But then the viewer has to accept that in Shakespeare’s grief, he released three Carrionites who then want to release the rest of their kind. How did the Carrionites possibly know the right words to feed to Shakespeare to get him (or the actors) to open the portal? Seriously, if the Carrionites ever figured out what the right words were, why would they have ever needed actors to open the portal?! The episode never truly addresses that.

The performances in “The Shakespeare Code” are pretty much all that make the episode watchable. Dean Lennox Kelly is great as Shakespeare. He infuses the character with energy and swagger that makes his credible as the popular author. That the name “J.K. Rowling” pops up so frequently in the Shakespeare episode is troubling, but Kelly manages to land the character. Kelly and Freema Agyeman have good on-screen chemistry. Agyeman and David Tennant continue to develop good chemistry for delivering their lines, despite how many jokes are in the episode.

The special effects in “The Shakespeare Code” are mediocre at best, but they do not drive the episode down too far. In fact, this is an episode that is plagued with concept problems and writing issues long before it was produced.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the second season of the Tenth Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Matt King, please visit my reviews of:
Paddington
The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret - Season 1
Inkheart

4/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Enter Martha Jones, The Next Great Companion: “Smith And Jones”

The Good: Good continuity, Decent initial characterization for Martha Jones, Decent performances
The Bad: Nothing superlative on the acting, plot or character fronts
The Basics: “Smith And Jones” shakes up the usual Alien Of The Week Doctor Who formula in favor of a familiar setting besieged by aliens . . . but without world-destroying potential consequences as Martha Jones first encounters The Doctor!


One of the enduring conceits of Doctor Who is that the Doctor does not travel alone. Within the modern Doctor Who narrative, that is explained by The Doctor’s desire not to become insular and disconnected. As a practical element of science fiction storytelling, the Companion serves as an exposition device. The Doctor, encountering fantastic things, needs someone to affirm his brilliance to and to explain the plot contrivances encountered by the alien time lord. Without someone to explain things to, The Doctor might be brilliant, but virtually anyone who was watching the show would be lost for most of the time the show was on. In “Doomsday” (reviewed here!), The Doctor lost his most consistent Companion since Doctor Who returned to television. “Smith And Jones” sets up the next Companion, Martha Jones.

Unlike Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble in “The Runaway Bride” (reviewed here!), Martha Jones was introduced to be an enduring Companion and her initial characterization was quite different. Martha Jones is characterized as smart, quiet and methodical. She is aware of the slew of alien incursions on Earth and she is intrigued by her surroundings. Martha Jones is characterized as young and exuberant, much like Rose Tyler was, though she has more in the way of internal goals and motivations built into the character from almost the first moments of “Smith And Jones.”

Opening with Martha Jones, walking to work, talking to her family about her brother’s impending 21st birthday (and the date her estranged father is planning to bring to it), the Doctor appears in her path, removes his necktie and she finds herself bewildered. Arriving at the teaching hospital she is working at, noticing people in motorcycle gear, Martha Jones is shocked to see The Doctor as one of the patients and she immediately notices that he has two heartbeats. Almost immediately, people notice that the rain outside is going up and suddenly the hospital appears to be on the moon.

Shortly thereafter, a ship arrives and alien soldiers invade the hospital. Assimilating the English language, the Doctor identifies the aliens as the Judoon, a race of alien police for hire. As the Judoon search the hospital for the nonhuman they are hunting for crimes it committed, The Doctor and Martha work to find the guilty party before the hospital runs out of air. . . or the Judoon discover the nonhuman Doctor!

“Smith And Jones” is a study in how little details can make the mundane feel wonderful. As The Doctor and Martha find themselves confronted by one of the villain’s goons, The Doctor needs Martha to activate a diagnostic tool that uses radiation. As a medical student, there is no real reason Martha Jones would know how to use such equipment. So, rather sensibly, Martha Jones goes for an operations manual and has to look up how to activate the tool. That makes for a good moment that enhances the initial characterization.

Similarly, those who like details will be thrilled by how The Doctor grabs Martha’s hand to run through the hospital. That mirrors the first action of the prior incarnation of The Doctor in “Rose” (reviewed here!). That simple act fueled the virtually instantaneous belief that The Doctor had a protective instinct for Rose and it might imply that The Doctor has a really short grieving period (or that Martha just tickled his fancy that quickly)!

“Smith And Jones” manages to take the usual “creature of the week” episode and make it feel fresh again. The plasmavore is an intriguing adversary and the Judoon are a neat idea that make a potentially absurd idea (the gravity on the moon is never addressed, though the air is!). The combination of the hospital being teleported to the moon and the hunt within the hospital by both the Doctor and the Judoon makes for an engaging episode.

Freema Agyeman explodes onto the screen as Martha Jones. She had a very minor role in “Army Of Ghosts” (reviewed here!) and in “Smith And Jones,” she is able to do quite a bit more. Agyeman has a screen presence that gives her decent force, making for a good pairing for The Doctor. Unlike Billie Piper’s flirtatious Rose, Agyeman plays through the technobabble exceptionally well and while the lines she was given might establish her character as a woman of intelligence and ambition, it is Agyeman who lands them. Agyeman and David Tennant play off one another very well.

“Smith And Jones” might not be flawless, but the plot flow and chemistry make the episode work fairly well and offer a promising start to the third season of Doctor Who!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the second season of the Tenth Doctor here!
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6.5/10

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© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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