Smith and Jones

Whilst "Doomsday" may have bled straight into "The Runaway Bride," the first episode of Series Three feels much more like a clean sheet. Firstly, "The Runaway Bride" is given a stand-alone DVD release, separating it from the third series. Secondly, "Smith and Jones" begins without a pre-title sequence ? the first episode to do so since "Rose". And it makes sense. The Doctor makes jokes about having spent "fifteen years as a postman", and although I would only take that with a pinch of salt, there is no doubting that "Smith and Jones" is set long after the events of "The Runaway Bride".

THE DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
MARTHA: As far as I'm concerned you've got to earn that title.

Companions rarely impress right from the word go, but Martha does just that; Freema Agyeman does exceptionally well in this episode. Not only does she look much more beautiful ?in the flesh' (as opposed to in her publicity stills, which I don't think do her justice), but she also portrays the character with such confidence that the viewer feels like they really know Martha within just a short few minutes of screen time. Driven; forceful; intelligent. A plethora of ?girl power' adjectives spring to mind, but they are not the same ones that I would use to describe Rose. Martha is a career girl. She is more academic than Rose; she's a professional. She's also a cut above her peers in almost every sense ? "Smith and Jones" skilfully demonstrates how she differs from those like Julia and Morgenstern. When they find themselves stranded on the moon, Julia turns into a gibbering wreck whilst Morgenstern gets delusions of heroism without actually taking any action. Only Martha has the presence of mind to try and reassure the patients; think logically about the hospital not being pressurised et cetera? In short, she has her head switched on.

Russell T. Davies recycles many elements that he first used in "Rose" ? not just the obvious and necessary ingredients, but things such as the whole ?holding hands' "Run!" sequence. A hospital corridor may not be as cinematically epic as Westminster Bridge by night, but in a Doctor Who sense I suppose it is at least a bit more traditional!

"Do you remember the Zygon gambit with the Loch Ness monster?
Or the Yeti in the underground?"

In the past, I've criticised the new series' umming-and-arring and about whether or not the people of contemporary Earth are ready to accept the knowledge that they are not alone in the universe. In Torchwood, Gwen was initially under the impression that recent global events, like those depicted in the "Aliens of London" two-parter, were the result of sort of terrorism. After all the Doctor's spiel about a "?brand new planet Earth?" in "The Christmas Invasion," Stephen Cole's novel "The Feast of the Drowned" confirmed that population had gone back to believing that the Sycorax and the Slitheen etc. were no more than high-profile hoaxes. Martha, however, knows better. She lost her cousin in the Battle of Canary Wharf (Ah. So that's why?) If the twenty-first century is when it all changes, then Martha is ready. And the Doctor appears to recognise this from the off.

This means that the Doctor doesn't have to waste time trying to convince her that aliens exist. Of course, when she looks out across the surface of the moon and sees a platoon on intergalactic alien stormtroopers heading straight for her, she'd have a hard time denying their existence.

The Judoon landing isn't the first stunning visual in the episode. The hospital under the black cloud is a simple, but striking image, as so eloquently described in the script: "like in a cartoon where a man has a cloud over his head". Moreover, I have always thought the Cybermen marching across the surface of the moon in "The Moonbase" is one of the most enduring images of the Patrick Troughton era ? it is certainly up there with the Cybermen coming out of the sewers near St. Paul's Cathedral or emerging from the Ice Tombs of Telos. And whilst I doubt very much that in the future the Judoon's moon landing will be held in such high regard, for me it completely hammered home just how good Doctor Who is in this day and age. No suspension of disbelief is required ? the Judoon look like they mean business. Their spaceships may look phallic, but the standard of the C.G.I. is outstanding. The prosthetics on the Judoon leader are even better. A rhino in a leather centurion's skirt with the silhouette of a Sontaran? How does Russell T. Davies do it? Even their native language sounded awesome ? it is completely alien, yet in an all-new and extremely amusing way. All those O's!

Unsurprisingly though, the plot of "Smith and Jones" is not head-scratchingly complex or fascinating. I do think, however, that it is a damned sight better than the science-fiction plots in both "Rose" and "New Earth." Basically, there is a Plasmavore hiding within the hospital where Martha Jones works. The Judoon ? an intergalactic police force ? are called in to arrest her. However, in order to do so, they have to transfer the hospital to the moon ("neutral territory") because under intergalactic law they have no jurisdiction over Earth. The second problem the Judoon face is that plasmavores can disguise themselves; their very nature means that they can easily absorb the blood of another species so that they may pass themselves off as, in this case, a human.

"You're quite the funny man, and yet I think laughing on purpose, at the darkness."

Anne Reid as the plasmavore is terrific. She's got that lovely little gimmick ? a straw. Just a normal, everyday straw and yet this show takes it and turns it into something menacing. Watching her exsanguinate Roy Marsden's consultant is very nasty - it will certainly put little kids off wanting to visit their grandmothers for a while!

I also though it was refreshing that the Judoon weren't just portrayed as baddies per se. Obviously they aren't goodies - all the "justice is swift" stuff and all that ? but nevertheless their apparent amorality makes them a bit more interesting than say, the completely immoral Slitheen. They also inject a lot of humour into the episode; there is a delightfully comic moment where after giving Martha a thorough (and, one would imagine, very uncomfortable) scan and determining that she is in fact human, they immediately doll out "compensation!"

"Forgive me for this, it could save a thousand lives; it means nothing."

Which brings me to the kiss. Just like all the uproar about "The Parting of the Ways" and "New Earth," it was all just a fuss about nothing. The Doctor Who production team are certainly very shrewd about how to garner media interest. Stick a fleeting, sensationalist snog in there for the most tenuous of plot reasons ("That was a genetic transfer!"); cut it into about a million trailers; stream in online; stick it in The Sun; and you've got ten million viewers on Saturday night! A Cynical, but smart move that I cannot really fault. And to be fair, it doesn't spoil anything. At least not for me - I quite like to see the Doctor getting about a bit in his old age. Besides, I don't think that anyone can argue with the emotional resonance that episodes like "The Girl In The Fireplace" and "Doomsday" have. A bit of romance simply helps tell a better story.

"I'd rather be on my own."

However, this isn't romance. This isn't a manly tear on a beach. This is attraction ? one-way attraction, according to Davies on Confidential. Like poor tragic Charlotte Pollard before her, it seems that Martha Jones is destined to be the victim of unrequited love. Her quips about the TARDIS being ?intimate' and the Doctor wearing tight pants certainly imply that she is attracted to him, but equally, the look on her face when he says "good" in response to her statement that she isn't ?remotely interested' in him speaks volumes.

"Your spaceship is made of wood."

In many ways, this episode has much in common with "Rose" in that it inducts Martha Jones and all her crazy family (who look brilliant, by the way. Especially her Dad and Annelise!) into the world of the Doctor. The key difference is that "Smith and Jones" does not also have the job of introducing a new audience to the Doctor. The new audience knows him now. This means that we can share the Doctor's amusement as he mouths "bigger on the inside" in perfect synch with Martha. In fact, the entire ?welcome to the TARDIS' scene has a whole new dynamic for the audience. The Doctor has seen the reactions of countless companions to the TARDIS interior and by now, even the new audience have seen the same thing about five times. Naturally, Davies ensures that although repetitive, the scene if far from boring. Martha's feisty comebacks to the Doctor's cryptic statements range from discerning to amusing.

THE DOCTOR: [I'm a] Time Lord.
MARTHA: Not pompous at all then.

Martha is without doubt a world away from Rose; if anything, her kick-ass attitude is closer to that of Lucie Miller, the eighth Doctor's companion in the recent BB7 radio series. Martha's got the brains though, too.

She's the full package.

There is so much more to enjoy about this episode ? that lovely ?time travel' trick with the tie; Murray Gold's stunning score that includes "Martha's Theme" (a soaring orchestral waltz); David Tennant's madcap performance as he tries to expel radiation through his left shoe! There's even the odd line to get the internet forum's buzzing tonight ? "Vote Saxon? Mr. Saxon was right about aliens?" and "?we were together?", the Doctor says, talking about Rose. Together how, hmm? "Do you have a brother?" Martha asks the Doctor. "Not anymore!" he says with a grin and a wink. That's a new ?un?

More negatively, the Slabs were a bit of a rubbish monster ? they were just two blokes in leathers and motorcycle helmets! In any other episode they could have looked quite sinister, but next to the Judoon they just looked like cheap miniatures! Furthermore, the way the Doctor stopped the M.R.I. overload ? unless I've missed something crucial ? was also a bit disappointing. I thought to myself, ?they've got rid of the sonic screwdriver, so he's going to have to something really clever to get out of this one.' Then he seemed to just fiddle about with some buttons, unpull the odd plug and turn the damned thing off! Boo!

On the whole though, my first impression of Martha and of Series Three are profoundly positive. I had my concerns when I first saw the rather lacklustre teaser trailer at the end of "The Runaway Bride", but this episode quashed any nagging doubts that I had. It really is "the same, but better."

Martha is just so real, and I'm sure that with her onside and with his "brand new sonic screwdriver" (there's a novelty hit single if ever there was one) in his brand new suit pocket, the third series has the potential to be even better than the last. "Smith and Jones" is certainly the best opening episode of the new series to date, leaving the exposition-crammed "Rose" and the distinctly mediocre "New Earth" in its wake.