Episode 7: 42 (The Jones Review)

The tagline for this should be "In space, no one can hear David Tennant shout his lines". With 42 it seems that the good-to-bad episode ratio seems to be righting itself again. I enjoyed this one and even though it was derivative, dodgily acted and miscast in places - it was still a good episode. Perhaps this is where the modern Who finds it's feet, in tight spaces, short timeframes and classic plots.

42 minutes of deadline breaking mania, a significant nod to 24 and apparently the movie "Sunshine" brings a simple plot with no complicated logic or reasoning to contend with. The trivia quiz element to door opening was novel, if not that secure (though a twentieth century music history question? Oh come on!). The Cyclopsian helmet and glowing eyes added some nice anthropomorphisation to the eventual reveal of the antagonist of the story. The dips away to Martha's mum were good tension breakers, as was the silence of space when the pod disengages. Not so quiet when the Doctor pops out for a space walk, but consistency is never a Who strong point.

The Saxon elements are heating up and so is my dislike for Martha's mum, hope she meets a sticky end (though she probably won't - dammit!). Michelle Collins as the ship's captain was hopelessly miscast and wet, and the bit players seemed like they had personalities and histories that were once longer, but don't make sense in the 42 minutes of the main story arc.

All in all this reminds me of an old episode I can't quite put my finger on at the moment. Or maybe it's a classic Star Trek Original series story? It's hard to fault, becasue while watching it I had occasional niggles in the back of my head about where things were derived from, but like with the Lazarus experiment, it didn't seem to matter to me too much. I watched, I enjoyed and apart from the near death pod bit with Martha, paid attention to it.

David acts out his shoutiness a little less, and it has toned down a lot, though in amongst the noise and tension - the volume was not so bad. Once again his wit and pop references at the beginning lended a bit of weight to his Doctor as a character instead of the cardboard cutout hero of the dalek/cyber episodes.

Next week has zombie scarecrows, a boarding school background and a classic period piece that usually works well in Doctor Who. Add to this Jessica Stevenson, all we need now is a visit by Nick Frost and the 'Spaced trifecta' will have been played!

Episode 6: The Lazarus Experiment (The Jones Review)

After the disappointing Dalek arc, it's good to see Doctor Who get back on track again in episode 6. Much like the ealier success of Gridlock, this is another small episode, based mostly around one building with a short-ish timeframe and a very uncomplicated story.

The Doctor is shouty still, but not so much that it interferes with your ability to sympathise with the charcater. The references to being 'the last' and 'the oldest' play well to Lazarus's insanity and desire for the longevity that the Doctor feels cursed with. The Doctor is also playful and witty again; the pithy pop culture references bring his child-like tone back into play. There's some nice banter and the Doctor's curiousity seems to re-emerge from behind the facade of righteuosness that plagued the last two episodes.

Professor Lazarus as an old man looked pretty decent I thought, and while you know Mark Gatiss is under there it was easy enough to believe. However when Gatiss comes out for the 'young' professor, I suddenly found it much harder to take. While he does a wonderful line in unrecognisable (Hialry Briss, Mickey et al) Mark Gatiss is wholely unbelievable when not made up. All of his best efforts in this episode are in make-up or as the CGI monster. Still what a lucky bugger he is, isn't he? A fan, an author, a writer and now as an actor on Doctor Who. I hate him. Freema/Martha works out her 'relationship issues' right at the end, but only just so the final reference from the concerned mum can play itself out fully. Martha's mum is a bitch, who would have thought that maybe someones mum may object to having a child be a companion to the Doctor? Seriously, haven't they done this already? There's some ham-fisted 'Mister Saxon' references, and the sly aisdes to Mrs Jones from a complete stranger seem like pantomine villainy and grated a little.

This feels like an old episode, just done much better. The rogue scientist doing things he should not be doing, and creating a monster in the process. The science is only slightly covered off, so no embarassingly bad gaffes in reality. The genetic throwback angle is a bit lame (and inspired by 'The Relic' - columns and all), but it's better than the hackneyed Freudian ID monster. However overall it is a good episode and made me want to watch the whole way through instead of dissecting every other line, unlike the abysmal 'Evolution' story.The best bit though? A glimpse of John Simm as Mister Saxon in upcoming scenes from the rest of the season. Evil looking, if he's not the Master then he's going to be pretty good menace regardless.