As medical student Martha Jones is preparing for both work and her kid brother's 21'st birthday party,she continually finds herself encountering a mysterious man who,as a patient she is looking after in the presence of head doctor Mr. Stoker identifies himself as John Smith. As she talks to her sister on her cell phone,she finds that a steady rainfall is localized around the hospital and suddenly moves upward before the hospital is shaken by a violent energy pulse and Martha and everyone else in the hospital find themselves on the moon. Martha meets up with the John Smith there who,of course then identifies himself as the doctor and she correctly suspects the involvement of extra terrestrials considering all of the similar incidences in London in recent history. The doctor determines them to be Judoon,who are Rhinoceros-like creatures who act as police for higher and are genetically cataloging the humans in the hospital in their search for some type of alien suspect. As the doctor and Martha soon discover during the long and rather torturous cataloging process,Mr.Stoker has been drained of all his blood by a creature the doctor identifies as a Plasmavore,capable of mimicking any life-form whose blood it consumes.
The doctor manages to irradiate one of said Plasmavore's artificial security drones after which he manages to by some time by kissing Martha to give her a trace of his alien DNA. While the Judoon catalog her,the doctor discovers in the MRI area that a hospital worker named Florence Finnegan,apparently the Plasmavore the Judoon is looking for due to her murder of the child princess of Padrivole Regency Nine,is trying to use the MRI scanner to destroy the side of the Earth facing the Moon so she could use one of the Judoon ships to make her escape. The doctor allow Finnegan to extract his blood,thereby allowing the Judoon to execute Finnegan who is now identified as the culprit. The hospital is promptly returned to Earth after Martha's attempts at CPR on the doctors twin hearts saves his life. Upon returning to Earth,with the entire incident written off as a drugging in the press,Martha escapes her brothers chaotic birthday party to find the doctor has invited her to journey through time and space with him. A surprised Martha, marveling typically at the spectacle of the TARDIS gladly excepts.
This is an excellent introduction for Freema Agyeman's Martha Jones. As a quick on her feet learner,who is able and willing to look beyond herself in order to assist those around her in the manner of the best doctors,endears her very quickly to the doctor. In fact,between his time buying kiss to her when confronting the Judoon,as well as her willingness to save the life of the alien man she hardly knows in order to save the life of those in the hospital staff of their dwindling air supply on the lunar surface shows her to be squarely in the spirit of the Sarah-Jane Smith Doctor Who companion archetype. There's also some potent insights into the doctors character in this well written action-adventure tale. He reinforces that roentgen-type radiation has little to no effect on his body. Not only that but his reactions to Martha's quick witted and relatively cool head about what she's experiencing indicates that,perhaps many of his travelling companions are selected by him long in advance and my not be the random travelers they sometimes appear to be.
Succeeding a Doctor Who companion as notable and popular as Billie Piper's Rose Tyler is no easy task,not unlike what Louise Jamison faced when she succeeded Elizebeth's Sladen's Sarah-Jane Smith in her role as Leela during Tom Baker's years with the show. Yet that is just what Freema faced in 2007 when she took on the role of Martha Jones during the second series of David Tennant's tenth doctor. Today is her birthday. And although it's been many years since Martha has been on board the TARDIS,a special shout out to Freema and her family!
Known primarily for his role as Captain Jack Harckness in the first seasons of the Doctor Who relaunch and the program's spin-off Torchwood,John also has the distinction of being an actor,singer,
musical theater performer,writer and TV personality who enjoys duel citizenship between the US and the UK. He is proudly and openly homosexual and his portrayal of the bisexual Captain Jack in Doctor Who and Torchwood added a vital dimension to his character in both. I would like to dedicate this post to John and his partner Scott Gill the best of days today!
Upon Rose's request,the doctor takes her to November 7th,1987 to witness the car accident that killed her father Peter Alan when she was a baby. At first unable to bare witness to the event,she and the doctor return and on impulse she runs into the street and pushes her father away from the car that was supposed to have killed him. Upon returning to her future home with her father,extremely grateful she saved his life,the doctor accuses her of selfishly interfering with history and returns to his TARDIS to regroup. There he finds the TARDIS has become a regular police box and he is menaced by a huge red eyed Gargoyle type creature. Rose and her father meanwhile are on the way to family friends Stewart and Sarah's wedding. Stewart's father has disappeared,along with many others in this end of London. As Rose confronts her mother and fathers apparently difficult relationship,the doctor arrives along with the Gargoyle's to reveal the reason for the disappearances.
The doctor explain to the befuddled and frightened crowd at the wedding chapel that these creatures represent the force that sterilizes time paradoxes of the type Rose created unintentionally. He notices the TARDIS key he asked back from Rose is glowing. He uses Stewart's cellphone battery to charge it enough to bring the TARDIS back. However,while convincing her mom and dad she is there daughter,Rose glances at her younger self,creates another paradox and the doctor sacrifices his life to save everyone else as a result. Crestfallen,Rose is comforted by her father who noticed out the window the car that was to run him over leaping back and forth out of time-with no purpose. He realizes his death is the only way to save his daughter and now the world. He jumps out in front of the car,and Rose has a chance to say her final goodbyes to her father before she departs with the doctor,alive again thanks to the undoing of the paradox,on their voyages through time and space.
This is probably the most emotionally involving story up to this point of the relaunched Doctor Who series. This story expands on the character of Rose even more so than the story of Ace in the seventh doctor era. I don't think Russell T.Davies was unaware of the irony of setting this story during the same time period the 7th doctor/Ace stories also took place. The story also takes a rather different spin on the idea of altering history. It's not an alternate timeline that's created: alien creatures,possibly something the time lords (if alive) could've prevented as the doctor pointed out,tried to destroy a perceived time paradox. Even though the doctors confidence in Rose is shaken,it's largely because as she points out he cannot take credit. Perhaps because it was a similar mistake he once made. While finding out her parents didn't have quite the sweet and romantic relationship she'd always believed,this story did give Rose the chance to put some closure on her existence.
Upon arriving on Satellite 5,part of the bountiful 4th human empire millennia in the future the doctor observes some odd behavior from some of the people there as Rose and Adam mingle with the other residents on the Satellite. For one there's the presence of two news magnets gunning for a promotion: long time head staff member Cathica and new hopeful Suki. As an intimidated Adam wanders off on his own to explore the Satellite,the doctor and Rose discover Cathica and all the other members of the news staff are in fact fed a wealth of information through a connection to a massive computer on the Satellite through chips in their brain that open up a gigantic memory core in the middle of their forehead. What Rose and the doctor don't know is at the same time,Adam has been trying to send computer information about human history back to his families answer phone,and inadvertently had such a chip installed in his brain in order to gain access. It is Suki who gains access to Floor 500 of the station,where it seems those chosen for the position of Editor are sent but never return. Rose and the doctor both question this,along with the unusually high temperature on board Satellite 5.
The man in charge who calls himself the Editor reveals Suki to actually be a resistance fighter to this news system who is sent to infiltrate Satellite 5,and she is pacified into working for him. When Cathica helps the doctor and Rose infiltrate Floor 500,they find their suspicions are correct-an alien called a Jagrafess has been the power behind Satellite 5 since it was built nearly a century earlier,manipulating the entirety of humanity by using media intimidation tactics to keep them from resisting it's will. It is not helped that Adam's attempt to interface with the main computer reveals the doctors identity and plans to the Editor and his master Jagrafess. Realizing the Jagrefess is diverting the heat to the rest of Satellite 5 to maintain it's own preferred cooler temperature,Cathica interfaces with the main computer and kills the Jagrafess and the Editor-leaving Cathica to rebuild humanities golden age back to where it was meant to be. Realizing the betrayal,the doctor continues on with Rose but leaves Adam behind with his family-asserting he "only takes the best".
This story represents the most telling and socially relevant socially relevant future fiction that either the audience ignores after the show is over or cynically takes the incorrect way. The message however is an important one. From the Jagrafess,The Editor and even Adam Mitchell-essentially the Benedict Arnold of Doctor Who companions,are all motivated by their own avarice and greed in their actions. The humans aboard Satellite 5 are controlled and mechanized like machines-literally the slaves of fear to an alien who is using their gullibility to take over their intergalactic empire. It's media manipulation gone amok. And Adam,of course being very much the spawn of another media controlled era of the early 21'st century,is just as susceptible for the Jagrafess's manipulations as anyone on Satellite 5. While the doctor,Rose and eventually Cathica reaching for her humanity are able to save it by thinking for themselves,Adam fails due to his own selfishness and therefore goes against the doctors core morality. A wonderfully written story that reveals not only much about Doctor Who and it's characters,but the dangers humanity face if they are not thinking independently.
Responding to an alien distress signal,the TARDIS lands the doctor and Rose in an underground facility in Utah in the year 2012 that contains a number of alien artifacts. They are approached by the head of this facility Henry Van Statten,who has been collecting many extra terrestrial artifacts hoping to make his fortune. While investigating the area for the source of the distress call,the doctor soon comes upon it: a single Dalek. Upon explaining to Van Statten that the Dalek would kill every human it encountered,as it took the destruction of his own people to destroy the Daleks in the last great time war,Van Statten learns of the doctors extra terrestrial natural. In the company of Van Statten's assistant Adam,Rose confronts the Dalek who makes it clear it has been mistreated by the people in the facility and mainly wants to survive. The Dalek interfaces with Rose,escapes from it's hold and begins to go on an enormous killing spree of those who brutalized it.
The doctor requests Van Statten cooperate with him instead of further experimentation to help locate the new Dalek threat. After dozens of Van Statten's guards have been exterminated,the Dalek accosts Rose while trying to escape but will not kill her. Instead the Dalek uses Rose as a hostage in order to secure it's escape from the doctor. When the Dalek confronts Van Statten,the man who captured it,it finds it cannot even exterminate him as it's affected by Rose's pleas to spare his life. Adam helps the doctor secure a group of alien weapons Van Statten had to try to destroy the Dalek. When he discovers Rose and the Dalek,he finds the Dalek has revealed it's biological self to Rose,and is begging to be killed. Since the doctor even cannot morally do this,the Dalek opts for destroying itself rather than live a life unsuited to itself. Van Statten's memory is wiped after being escorted from the facility for his crimes. After departing,Adam inadvertently steps into the TARDIS just as it departs.
Not only is this the first Dalek story of the relaunched series,but it's one of the least convention of it's type through the Doctor Who cannon. It focuses on a single Dalek,which as a lot in common with the doctor in being the last of it's kind and trying to survive. The wrinkle in this equation is both are convinced it's their duty to destroy the other. The doctor cannot kill the Dalek in the end,realizing the paradox between the Dalek's biological imperative to destroy from,as the doctor explains to Van Statten,it's nature as "the ultimate in racial cleansers" and the doctors own personal reasons for wanting the Dalek destroyed. Van Statten,motivated only by his own thoughtlessness and avarice,is countered by Rose Tyler's compassion for the suffering Dalek. It's the story that really introduces the complex morality of the doctors relationship to the Daleks in the relaunched series and emerges as one of the most powerful stories of this particular series.
Upon escaping from the Slitheen family,the doctor runs from the confused UNIT soldiers at 10 Downing street only to find Rose and Harriet Jones trapped in the conference room. As the Slitheen give chase,the doctor activates a security code that traps the trio within,but keeps the Slitheen out. Before locking the final door,the Slitheen reveal themselves to be a family who are not on Earth to invade it. Jackie and Mickey are frantically searching for Rose when they are again confronted by the Slitheen. The doctor,Harriet and Rose than proceed to troubleshoot the unusual smell of the gas expelled by the creatures and determine they are Calcium based lifeform,to the doctors understanding anyway,from the planet Raxicoricofallapatorius. He calls Jackie and Mickey and instructs them to create a concoction of pickle brines. Jackie throws it at the alien,who bursts into an explosion of viscous gel. It isn't long however before the group have bigger things to worry about. The members of the special council on extra terrestrials,of course actually the Slitheen in disguise,announce to the world that there are alien weapons trained on Earth,and the only way to defeat them is by using a nuclear weapons store.
When the doctor confronts the Slitheen-knowing full well they are lying to the people of the world,about their plan upon them again arriving at the concealed chamber,they reveal their true plan for the planet is to irradiate it so parts of it could be sold to fuel spaceships as a galactic recession is occurring As it turns out,the only way to save the planet is to blow up the parliament building at 10 Downing with a conventional non nuclear missile with he,Harriet and Rose within. Already begging the doctor to guarantee Rose's safety,this terrifies Jackie. Rose makes the choice: she is willing to go along and has the idea of the trio hiding in the earthquake proof maintenance closet. The pan succeeds and,with the prime minister dead,Harriet Jones now has a bit with the doctor and Rose's blessing. Just as Jackie is about to give the doctor a chance,Rose decides to formerly accept the doctors earlier invitation to join her-though this time she says her goodbyes.
This story points to humanity's inability to cope with life beyond their own. When the affair with the Slitheen is over,the doctor even evokes the hypocrisy of religion noting while the newspapers insist on an incident millions witnessed as a hoax,they are willing to believe in "something invisible". The doctors vulnerabilities are his concerned silence when Jackie Tyler begs him for an answer whether her daughter Rose will be safe in his hands. In many ways,the Slitheen are not that much different than many human political lobbyist groups,who often invent massive lies for the news media while they selfishly plot about events that could lead to the destruction of the world. Though a very well paced and tense action tale,at it's core the action delivers an important message of standing up against psychic numbing against the truth while your watching this story unfold while your on the edge of your seat.
