New Who Review for “Smith & Jones”
Posted By Kathleen David on July 10, 2007
Spoilers behind the cut and in the comments.
It is always interesting to see how a new companion is introduced and how they act and react with the Doctor. Martha Jones is a medical student who is working towards becoming a Doctor. She has a pretty ordinary life over all but she keeps her eyes open to the world around her which is something that the Doctor likes in a companion.
I liked this episode over all. I thought it was a good introduction to a character that is supposes to become our POV character in the series. The villain of the piece is rather creepy but you do have to suspend your disbelief about her weapon of choice. I did miss the call on one of the monsters because of the photos made them look like another old Dr. Who Villain.
Not the best of the season, but worth watching more than once.
This had a Caroline Scare Factor of None. She watched the whole thing without hiding her eyes once.
I am grateful for new companions who are made of stern stuff.
I really like the look into Martha’s life. She is the peacemaker in her family. Everyone comes to her with the disputes they have with each other. She is important to them. I find it interesting that both Rose and Martha have strong family connections to Earth but they chose to have a walk about with the Doctor.
I know the Doctor was there because he knew something weird was going to happen, but I also felt like he was scoping out a new companion in Martha. Donna told him that he needed someone to keep him in check. Be his moral compass so to speak. And he seemed to be looking. Martha passed whatever test he handed her. The Doctor sort of took the backseat in this episode but that was fine since it was introducing a new companion to the fandom.
I thought the Judoon were the Sontarians from the pictures I saw. Give the writer/director credit for creating a look that they didn’t have to do too many masks for. I can’t think of a time during the episode that we saw more than one Judoon face at a time. Great budget saver if you ask me.
Peter is still hung up on how the plasmavor got the straw into a view considering how flimsy plastic straws are. I said how do we know it is plastic straw of earth manufacture? So that’s my theory for the straw.
Next episode Shakespeare which was shot in the New Globe Theater.
What, has Peter never quickly jabbed a “flimsy plastic straw” into an orange? Physics, my boy… physics. 🙂
Hmmm. I felt that it was not necessarily a good story, but a very good introduction for a new Companion.
Hmmm. I felt that it was not necessarily a good story, but a very good introduction for a new Companion.
I really liked the straw, but I think it definitely belongs more to a DW-as-fairytale reading of the show than to a DW-as-SF reading.
I’m really happy about the timing of SciFi’s broadcast of the new series, but rewatching with my wife just a week after watching the series finale throws some things into new perspective. It was really interesting to watch the introduction to Martha’s family, for instance.
I also enjoyed it a lot. It was cute how they explained Freema’s previous acting part as her cousin. The going back in the same timeline only to prove a point or joke was cute as well. When he appeared right at the beginning, taking off the tie, it seemed quite out of place. When he was fully dressed in the hospital we noticed that he was wearing different clothes and so knew there would be a nice payoff later on. On the commentary, they mention the introduction of a new suit for the Doctor, referring that his old one was getting to the point of “walking on its own” by the end of the 2nd series. This time they actually went short in the filming and inserted some extra scenes later in the filming. The commentary is quite interesting to hear how it all fits together and that kind of behind the scenes info. The commentary is also Freema’s first time seeing the episode, so her reactions to what she sees is also interesting.
One thing about the Doctor’s showing off his time travel capabilities to Martha. He does that to show that he can bring her back in order that no one misses her or she misses things. We know how well that turned out with Rose – oops, it is a year later. I hope that doesn’t happen here, but that is firmly in my mind.
Neil
“How well that turned out with Rose”?
How about with Sarah Jane, who wound up in the wrong *city*, much less the wrong time.
Overall, having watched almost all of Martha’s run, i don’t particularly like or dislike her as a character, but i feel as if they didn’t thnk through all of the implications of a black woman s a companion – through much of Earth history, it *should* be an extra plot complication that i think they pretty much ignored.
(As usual, there is apparently a sizeable contingent online who consider Martha to be Worst Compaion Ever [with or without a n element of Give Us Back Rose[, just as there were people who felt that way about Rose and will be people who feel that way abut whever follows Martha. And Linda Thorson thought *she* had troubles following Diana Rigg on “The Avengers”…)
Ignored? In every episode I can think of when they were in a historical context where Martha’s ethnicity would have mattered it was most disctinctly *not* ignored. Given that our host wishes to avoid spoliers for episodes that have not shown on SciFi I won’t go into detail, but I must confess complete puzzlement as to how you came to that conclusion.
As far as Martha herself goes, I warmed to her much more quickly then I did Rose and found her quite enjoyable. There will always be WETRATS (Want Everything To Remain Always The Same, an acronym coined back in the day by PAD’s Aquaman editor, whose name escapes me) in every fandom, it’s just a reality that seems to have been made even louder by the internet.
As to the episode in question, I also thought the bad guys were going to be Sontarans, an effect I’m sure they were going for, for us old school Whofen. It was quite an enjoyble ep, not the best of the season, certainly, but it did a wonderful job of introducing the new Companion, which is what it was supposed to do.
And add me to the list of those who liked the straw, and the other touches of fantastical whimsy that have been added to the rebbot of the series. That the universe is a much stranger and wonderful place then we think has been an underlying theme that I quite enjoy.
Where are you getting the commentaries? I got the season 2 commentaries through the iTunes Podcast, but it seems that for season 3, the podcast only has the most recent episode available, so I can’t download any of the older ones that way.
LOOKING FORWARD TO READING PETERS LATEST DR WHO NOVEL, SLIGHTLY DISSAPOINTED HE CHOSE THE 8TH DOCTOR
(PAUL MCGANN) AS ID LIKE TO SEE GET TO WORK TRANSLATING THE NATIVE MANCHESTER ACCENT OF THE 9TH,
CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON, .
You can get the commentaries on the Doctor Who sounds page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/sounds/
There is a list there of all the episodes in reverse order with the title being the commentary link. The Runaway Bride commentary is on the previous year’s page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/sounds/index2006.shtml
Neil