Smith and Jones

There was one moment where Smith and Jones had me worried. It came when the Doctor was discharging the radiation from his body after having killed the Slab with the x-ray machine. I had a horrible, horrible feeling from the way he was standing and talking that he was going to discharge the radiation by way of passing wind. I was cringing ready for it, but mercifully my fears proved groundless, and we ended up with the rather jolly bit about looking silly in one shoe.

That was the only worry. The rest of the episode was excellent ? probably the best series opener the show has had since its return. Probably since Remembrance of the Daleks, in fact. Rose was excellent and vital in making the comeback a success, but Smith and Jones takes on board all of the lessons the production team had learned over the previous two series and uses them to hit us with a sharp, exciting, witty and energetic curtain-raiser that really gets series three going on a high.

It is interesting to note, though, that the episode had much in common with Rose, also being a kind of relaunch now that Billie Piper has left. This was underlined by it being the only episode since that March 2005 opener not to have a pre-titles sequence, plunging us straight into the theme music and then into the world of Miss Martha Jones. Davies quickly sketched out her character's family background for us via the phone conversations, and then dropped a nice dollop of mystery into things with the Doctor's brief time-bending appearance ? surely the first time in Doctor Who's history where the companion and the Doctor have first met each other at different times.

I wasn't too sure what to expect from Freema Agyeman. Her brief role in Army of Ghosts was the only thing I'd seen her acting in before, and while she played that part perfectly well, there wasn't really enough for her to do to show how she might fare as a companion. Certainly all of her press interviews and appearances have displayed an infectious charm and enthusiasm for the show and her role, but as the opening titles faded away it was still a bit of a mystery just how well she might do in what's now one of the highest-profile roles on British television.

Well, she was fantastic, to coin a phrase. I took to the character of Martha Jones pretty much instantly; I liked Rose Tyler, but even after only one episode I have the suspicion I will like Martha Jones a lot more. That's not to denigrate Piper at all ? she did a wonderful job and was a major part of the success of the show's resurrection ? but Agyeman's Martha seems to be very much a Sarah Jane Smith to the Jo Grant of Piper's Rose. More independent, a little more grown-up and generally a bit sassier and more dynamic, she was great throughout and promises to be an excellent foil for the Tenth Doctor. I'm sure her "We're on the bloody moon!" exclamation will become one of the most oft-quoted lines from this series.

Speaking of which, the whole business of going to the moon and so forth was equally terrific. The lifting of the hospital, the CGI images of the building sitting there alone on the lunar landscape, the Judoon ships? Great, big, exciting, iconic sci-fi images that really gave this series-opener a sense of the different and the slightly epic. Space Rhinos! On the Moon! As the Doctor himself excitedly points out when trying to pass off as human to the Plasmavore, this is weird, crazy stuff. Exactly the sort of thing Doctor Who does best.

Another feather in the cap of Doctor Who ? particularly modern Doctor Who ? has been prosthetic creature creation, and the Judoon leader was a magnificent achievement, so well done that I don't think you ever really noticed too much that the others (all five of them!) never took their helmets off so as to avoid the cost of building another mask. I liked the general concept of the Judoon too ? mercenary galactic policemen with a quick and harsh system of justice, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them crop up again in the future. Indeed, I very much hope that they do.

There'd been a bit of sleight of hand in the trailers and publicity which gave the impression that the Judoon were perhaps the main adversaries in this episode, so it was a nice twist that the evil-of-the-week was actually Anne Reid's batty old Plasmavore in human form. Reid is always good value in any of her roles ? indeed, the whole guest cast this week was very strong, I would say ? and I liked the comic touch of her bendy straw. It has to be admitted, however, that the weak part of the episode's plot was the super-strength MRI machine. However, real science has never been a strong point of Doctor Who, and I'm prepared to let that one pass, especially given the fact that ? like Rose ? this episode's plot didn't matter anywhere near as much as its introduction of the new companion to the Doctor did, and in that task it succeeded admirably.

There are a few other niggles here and there, mind you. What was the point in destroying the sonic screwdriver only for the Doctor to have got himself a brand new one by the end of the episode? I don't dislike the screwdriver as much as some do, but it would have been interesting to see how he managed to cope without it as his get-out-of-jail-free card for a few episodes. I also didn't like the Doctor's stumbling remembrance of Rose at the end, as he's talking to Martha in the TARDIS ? it felt a bit artificial somehow, the same was as it did back in The Runaway Bride when he had similar moments with Donna. I suppose it's really because I was never a fan of the way the character of Rose was shown to have made such an apparently big impact on him, but that's a very personal sort of reaction and not something Davies and the production team can really be criticised for.

There were extra little positives lying around as well as the niggles, however. I was intrigued by the Doctor's throwaway mention of having previously had a brother. I have no idea whether this is going to prove to be in some way relevant in the long run or not ? I suspect not ? but I always enjoy these little off-handedly mentioned bits of continuity, scraps of dialogue that offer glimpses of the history of the Doctor without really giving any answers. Anything that increases the mystery and enigma of the character and his origins is all right by me.

Something that seemingly is going to prove more relevant is the character of ?Mr Saxon', first seen mentioned on a newspaper back in Love & Monsters, referred to again in The Runaway Bride and now talked about on the radio here, as well as ?Vote Saxon' posters being prominently on display. I know that Saxon is to be played by John Simm towards the season's end, but who or what exactly he might be is an interesting little mystery. We all have our ideas, of course, but once again it seems there's to be a nice little element of mystery simmering away across the background of this series' episodes.

Which is as it should be. Doctor Who, for me, has always been about strange mysteries, engaging characters and exciting adventure stories. Smith and Jones had all of these things, and for my money was a fine opener to what promises to be, if this standard is maintained and perhaps even built upon, a fine set of episodes.