Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Monday 2 April 2007

Walking on the Moon



With “Smith and Jones”, “Doctor Who” was back with a bang! A better season opener than either of its two predecessors, I only wish an episode as strong as this had heralded the programme’s return a couple of years back. It got the balance right between domestic and universal. Martha’s family problems were only allowed to top and tail the episode not dominate the entire proceedings. What happened in-between highlighted the triviality of those everyday concerns.

The problem, of course, is that Martha’s family follows Rose’s, which on paper makes it sound like a new family has moved into the square, umm… street, sorry TARDIS! If Rose’s family hadn’t preceded Martha’s I wouldn’t be focusing on it now because, despite Martha’s Dad’s airhead bimbo of a girlfriend, her family weren’t overwhelming for the viewer even if they were for each other!

Russell wrote Roy Marsden out too quickly for my liking, also, which is another trait of new “Who”. Every year this happens with only a short amount of airtime given to quality guests such as Richard Wilson and Don Warrington. Good actors obviously don’t come cheap so I suspect they’re hired for a short space of time in order to lay claim to having had them on the show! Anyway, Roy had the best line, at least the one that made me laugh-out-loud, albeit lifted from “Fawlty Towers”, as he walked away from patient “John Smith” recommending a full psychiatric review!!

Anne Reid was the main guest of the episode and she clearly relished her role. She was more memorable in this than “The Curse of Fenric” although I’m not for one minute saying that “Smith and Jones” is better than my favourite McCoy serial. And Freema was terrific. For my money, miles better than Rose because she is playing an intellectually, not emotionally, more intelligent character and hopefully won’t be prone to bouts of tears every few minutes.

I hope the audience picked up on all the clues. The Doctor’s passing reference to once having had a brother. Now, I wonder who that could be?!! That could be the red herring that RTD has slipped in to put the fan forums into meltdown, never to be mentioned again, or might conceivably be connected to the posters in the alleyways urging us to vote Saxon! As I’m sure everyone knows by now, a certain actor from “Life on Mars” has been cast to play the villainous black-suited Mr Saxon in the final two episodes. Now, again, I wonder who Saxon could really be?!!

I really hope the rest of the season is as strong as the first episode and doesn’t let up like it did after the black hole story last year. Even so, I couldn’t help thinking “Smith and Jones” would’ve made an even better four-parter with the cliff-hangers coming where Florence is revealed to be more than just a little old lady, where the marvellous Judoon march inexorably towards Martha, the audience in the knowledge she contains Time Lord DNA, and finally, and very traditionally, where the Doctor is believed dead. However, “Doctor Who” seems very much back on his/its feet, with or without trainers!!!

3 comments:

Steve said...

I noticed the Saxon poster too... and was praying it was just a plot device and not the return of some dodgy eighties neanderthal rock band...!

Stuart Douglas said...

Yeah, that was more like it in many ways - it's just a shame that yet again the companion ends up saving the Dcotor's life in the end.

Still, so long as the family JOnes don;t make much of an appearance, this is a more promising start than last season.

TimeWarden said...

Steve, it was rumoured, at the time, that Hawkwind were going to provide the incidental music for the final “Doctor Who” serial of the Eighties! And, Stuart, I don’t think the Joneses are back until episode six, so there’s hope yet!!