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| "Lord Vader...the time has come. Execute Order 66!" |
I'm happy to go ahead and tell you that The Lazarus Experiment is actually a good episode, and not just because it comes after the massive cluster of problems I covered in Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks. It's a typical monster of the week story, but done very well with some good acting bits and genuine pathos.
No, the problems I have with it are its connection to the overall arc of Series 3, which I can mostly ignore and enjoy the story for what it is.
The TARDIS lands and Martha is excited by the prospect of where they're going next, only for the doors to open and her to find...her flat. The Doctor's brought her home. As he'd said, one trip...and they really stretched that out quite a bit. Luckily for Martha, it's been only 12 hours since she left - meaning that she won't suffer the same problem that Rose did back in Series 1.
A message on her phone gets Martha to turn on her television, seeing that her sister Tish has gotten a new job working for a Professor Richard Lazarus. A scientist, he promises that he's going to "change what it means to be human", which both the Doctor and Martha find intriguing. However, the Doctor's got to go. Martha thanks him before he leaves in a very touching moment and he leaves with the pair on amicable terms...and then immediately returns, because he knows we have a whole episode to fill.
...I mean because he's so interested in what's going on with Lazarus' experiment. Let's go with that.
So, the Doctor and Martha (the Doctor putting on a tux for the occasion - Martha commenting he looks very James Bond) head off to the launch party. While they head that way, we get the first acting credit of Mark Gatiss in Doctor Who as said Professor Lazarus. He discusses with Lady Thaw some of the potential drawbacks of the procedure. Thaw also mentions that a "Mr. Saxon" is worried about their investments.
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| "Call the PR department!" "I am the PR department!" |
Now we get to the moment where Martha sees several members of her family - namely Tish, her mother, and Leo - for the first time in what has been for her a longer time than the night they've had since the end of the party. Here, we have the Doctor being - and someone shoot me for using this term un-ironically - "adorkable" as the Doctor tries to stumble through an explanation of what he and Martha were doing because Russell wants to push the Doctor and Martha shipping.
If it seems like I'm going on about this, it's only because I am. With the Doctor and Rose it was clear that Russell wanted it to be endgame material. With Martha, it's her getting led on for thirteen episodes and it's just painful to watch.
...also, completely random note here, but how the hell did the Doctor know where Martha's flat was? It's not like he picked her up from it, he found her in an alley outside a pub and lured her to the TARDIS. Was he spying on her beforehand? It's weird.
Regardless, after Francine naturally doesn't believe a word of this crap, Lazarus kicks in with the plot. He takes the stage, claiming that he's going to perform a miracle. Stepping into a capsule, the music kicks up and the Doctor gets a stern look on his face while science happens! Science, of course, being a bunch of blue lights around the capsule. As you might expect, as with any monster movie, something inevitably goes wrong and the Doctor hops in to assist. After some jiggery pokery, however, the capsule stops...and Mark Gatiss walks out without the old age makeup on.
...I mean, Richard Lazarus has dropped about forty years in age and proudly proclaims that he has been reborn!
The Doctor is, of course, less than convinced.
Thaw gushes over Lazarus, proclaiming she'll be first in line once they get the funding for the project. Lazarus seems quite pleased with himself, then shivers before devouring a tray of hors d'oeuvres much to Thaw's astonishment. The Doctor questions Lazarus, but it goes nowhere beyond setting up that Lazarus is a smug asshole. The Doctor and Martha aren't convinced but, thanks to Martha getting a DNA sample by Lazarus kissing the back of her hand, they can run some tests.
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| "Oh, sweet Rassilon, he's gorgeous!" |
Upstairs, Lazarus and Thaw talk. Lazarus reminiscences about the Blitz during World War II, how he huddled in an old church as the bombs fell. It's very poetic and helps to add some dimensions to his character beyond just making him out to be a gigantic ass.
Thaw pulls Lazarus in for a kiss, talking about how they can rule this new empire they've created together...and Lazarus rejects her, inviting her to look at her shriveled form in the reflection of the window.
In the lab, the Doctor and Martha discover that Lazarus' DNA hasn't just changed, it's still changing. The Doctor resolves to find out what he's changing into.
Lazarus, meanwhile, is giving Thaw the business. She is threatening to protect her own investment until Lazarus appears to be having a seizure. His body contorts, Thaw panics, and a scorpion-like tale rips out of Lazarus' body as Thaw screams.
Back at the party, Francine questions Tish on Martha's supposed new squeeze. While Leo and Tish aren't convinced that anything's out of the ordinary, Francine's not convinced. Tish, meanwhile, gets met by...a rather human-looking Lazarus, who takes her away from the party to discuss "business".
Upstairs, the Doctor and Martha find the withered skeleton of Thaw, having been drained completely of life. The Doctor theorizes that Lazarus will need more energy, and thus the pair head down in the lift...only for Lazarus and Tish to come up the other lift. They find out that Tish has gone up, Francine attempts to flag the Doctor down to no avail. After he and Martha leave, Francine is visited by a mysterious man who tells her that Martha should indeed choose her friends more carefully...
Using the sonic, the Doctor and Martha head up to the roof. Lazarus shows Tish the view and gets about seducing her...rather in the way a lion seduces an antelope. The Doctor arrives, finishes a T.S. Elliot quote, and Tish gets irritated with Martha trying to cockblock her...and finds Lazarus turning into a scorpion monster behind her.
...also the Doctor and Lazarus debate immortality versus how unnatural it is. It's actually some good stuff that I'll get into later.
We have come to the chase scene, the Doctor, Martha, and Tish fleeing Lazarus as the building locks down in security. The Doctor gets down, doesn't get listened to when he tells the party guests to book it, and is proven right when the Lazarus Scorpion makes itself known. Leo gets hit by a table in the chaos as Martha gets the doors open with the sonic. Lazarus also eats a party guest who forgets that she can actually move to get out of danger.
The Doctor tries to face down Lazarus, and we get a full look of the Scorpion beast in this scene...and boy is it some bad late 2000's CGI. It's very obvious, even for the time, that the man isn't actually there. While the Doctor leads Lazarus away, Martha tries to get her family and the other guests to safety. While Francine begs Martha to stay with them, she resolves to go back for the Doctor.
She catches up to him after the Doctor literally attempts to blow Lazarus up, which only seems to annoy him. They flee.
Outside, Francine is once more met by the mysterious man, who whispers of terrible things to her...
Back inside, the Doctor and Martha hop into the capsule. As the Doctor attempts to jimmy rig the capsule, he theorizes that Lazarus managed to unlock dormant genes in his genetic code - things that were rejected in human evolution for some reason. I'm not entirely sure that that's how science works, but this is Doctor Who where you can apparently walk around in space with only an unsealed, loose-fitting helmet, and lightning bolts can transfer genetic material.
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| "Hey, have I got something in my teeth?" |
Anyway, Lazarus activates the machine while the Doctor manages to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and make the capsule send out energy rather than receive it. This seems to kill Lazarus. The Doctor quotes some more Elliot over the body, "this is the way the world ends: not with a bang, but a whimper". Of course, if you know anything about both Lazarus' Biblical namesake and the fact that there's about ten minutes left in the episode's run time, you shouldn't be too surprised by what happens next.
Lazarus' body gets put into an ambulance while Francine comes up and slaps the Doctor across the face but good (now two mothers he's been slapped by in the space of three years), warning him to stay away from her daughter. Francine tells Martha she's been told things...but doesn't explain what said things were and doesn't even get the time to do so before the ambulance carrying Lazarus is attacked offscreen. The Doctor and Martha follow after, Tish coming with them despite Francine's protests. The Doctor tracks Lazarus down to the Church he was showing off earlier, finding him at the altar seizing up.
Here, we get into some more of what the Doctor and Lazarus were talking about earlier - namely the immortality vs. natural death debate. Lazarus goes on about how fighting off death is humanity's natural instinct, and thus he's achieved the ultimate goal of humanity by what he's done. The Doctor counters that a longer life isn't always a better one, having earlier said that some people live more in twenty years than some do in eighty.
It's not the length of the life, the Doctor says, it's the quality of the life.
Of course, Lazarus sees nothing wrong in his actions. The people he killed were nothing and not worthy of weeping over. He has become more than the ordinary human. The Doctor counters with one of my favorite lines from the Tennant era and, in fact, the show overall:
"There's no such thing as an ordinary human."Alas, the Doctor's attempts to get him to feel some remorse or rekindle his humanity are fruitless. Lazarus has to feed, and Martha uses herself and Tish as bait to distract him while the Doctor saves the day. He uses the sonic on a church organ - actually doing something involving sonic waves. Martha and Tish get trapped in the bell tower, the reverb from the organ casuing Lazarus to fall to his death. This time, it takes, and the scorpion form reverts to a naked Mark Gatiss in a cut.
At last, we're at the true denouement. The Doctor brushes Lazarus' eyes closed - him going from young to old again between cuts in the sweep of the hand. The Doctor gets a Beethoven joke and then we're back in Martha's flat. The Doctor offers Martha one more trip, and she declines. She doesn't want it to be "one more trip", and the Doctor says okay...which Martha takes to mean he's leaving. Quite the contrary, he's offering her a more permanent place onboard. She joyously hugs him and they head off, the TARDIS dematerializing as Martha's answering machine gets a message from Francine.
The Doctor is dangerous, she knows the truth now, and this information comes from Harold Saxon himself...Martha isn't safe...
The Lazarus Experiment is a great episode despite the minor issues I have with it that are largely the fault of Russell's meddling. Davies apparently instructed writer Stephen Greenhorn to craft a "Marvel Comics-esque" monster of the week episode, and I'd say he delivered. Beyond the forced drama conflict moments and the bad CGI you see something quite beautiful. Like Mary Shelley's epic, this episode deals with themes of life and death, triumph and pride, and what it means to be human.
Mark Gatiss has a great turn as Lazarus, progressively falling more and more to the monster he has become until it consumes him utterly.
...also, that fall from the bell tower had a hand in it. Gravity can be a cruel, cruel bitch indeed.
Next week, we'll be entering territory that wasn't controversial to some, but might very well be now. The first script on Doctor Who ever written by Chris Chibnall. Is it good? Eh...it's not bad. If he'd been pulling more of this instead of what he actually did, then Series 11 might have actually been good instead of mostly terrible with a rather interesting Doctor. Next time, we find out the true meaning of 42...and by that, I mean the episode is forty-two minutes long and doing a Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy crossover would have been over budget...
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