S3E01: Smith And Jones

For the next twelve weeks I'll be doing a Heimlich on the new series of Doctor Who. It goes without saying that it'll be i) laden with juicy spoilers and ii) lost on the incognoscenti. Saturday nights being what they are, I'll usually post on a Sunday. Here goes!

Odd not to have a pre-titles scene but I like that they play with the format. That Music alone gets the episode off to a thumping start. How the hell do you pronounce new girl Freema Agyeman's last name?

Black people only listen to urban music, you know. If it's diegetic then this whole family listens to the same radio station.

Nice incongruous entrance for The Lone Doctor. Must be a time travel thing. Two minutes in and we have ourselves a fun little mystery! Russell T. Davies wrote this one so I'm apprehensive going in but he has improved over time. Fingers crossed, the trend will continue.



He's wearing Jackie's boyfriend's pajamas again and using an old alias. Fanboys everywhere touch themselves. "Alias Smith" meet Jones.

The rain's going up; the building's going up; nobody's wearing a skirt.

Martha's bright and brave. Let her be a modern Sarah Jane. Let her be a modern Sarah Jane. Let her be a modern Sarah Jane. She won't stop asking intelligent questions! I like Her.

Red Herring Bad Guy is doing a good amount of ambiguous actions. The evil old lady now sucking his blood out with a straw is more scary than silly.

"I thought, 'Two more years and retire to Florida.' But there's Florida in the sky. I can see it."

If the stormtroopers had parked closer to the building they couldn't have marched across the moon in foreboding formation.

Martha looks and acts different enough from her retcon cousin (played by the same actor two episodes ago) that, if The Doctor doesn't recognise Her then, hell, I buy that it's not the same person too.

These Judoon only have one vowel! They don't kill; they put an X on your hand with permanent marker. Now we can't get served at the bar.

If their guns take that long to charge, you'd think they'd be used to their targets escaping. Stupid aliens.

Alice was excited when He was wearing her Converse. Now that He's barefoot, she's spasming.

When will He run out of technobabble excuses to kiss people?

"'No sign of a non-human. We must increase our scans up to Setting 2.'"

The Doctor mouthing "it's bigger on the inside" - because everybody says that when they first see it - was to die for.

Two bits of undercover work, two costume changes, a bit of manipulating people, Plasmavores, the original version of what T.A.R.D.I.S. stands for (even though it makes less sense)... you can tell the lead actor, writer, script editor and the man who does the funny voices were all fans first.

In every department this was a stronger story than the Christmas Special and the introduction of the pevious two companions. The only flaw was that I bet my mate Shig that Martha's family would all die horribly right off the bat, to contrast with Rose and give Her less motivation to pop home all the darned time, and it didn't happen.

Next week it's another R.T.D. script and the same director. Bodes well.