Doctor Who - "Smith and Jones"

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-03-31 02:45pm

The magic word for this series is, apparently, "Mr Saxon".

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2007-03-31 02:49pm

Certainly a fun start to the series.

What did the Doctor say to her right at the beginnning? When he took his tie off.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-03-31 02:50pm

Indeed. There's also a 'Vote Saxon' poster behind Martha near the end, in the alley. Presumably he's a politician of some sort.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-03-31 02:54pm

I liked this one, a lot. Jones seems a perfect fit for the Doctor's tastes: intelligent, inquisitive, enthusiastic and stubborn. The moment he grabbed her hand and told her to "run" was a neat little touch, too.

Since this episode was mainly a way of setting up the new companion, the rest of the plot was pretty pedestrian, but who cares? The Judoon looked really cool if a bit silly, they covered the continuity plothole of Ageyman working at Canary Wharf during the battle - great work all round.

Crazedwraith · Post by **Crazedwraith** » 2007-03-31 02:58pm

That was awesome. Easily better than the christmas special. I loved the reference top Martha's identical cousin who worked at Touchwood. I laughed an my family looked at me oddly 'cos they didn't get it.

Aygeman is a very good assistant but I felt the alien ships landing on the moon seemed a bit to long and too much like the only point was saying 'oh look we have good SFX now!"

Old Peculier · Post by **Old Peculier** » 2007-03-31 03:17pm

I loved the way they tagged all the humans with pen marks, and how they did a close-up of the Doctor locking the door manually instead of with his sonic screwdriver.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-03-31 03:43pm

I liked it. Even if they did manage to resurrect and clone Black Stig...

The Judoon Lasguns was damn nifty as well, they reminded me of the disintegration gun from DAH!

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-03-31 03:45pm

Also: The fact that the Judoon returned the humans to Earth also was a nice touch, showing that they were not the stereotypical baddies. More of a 'grey' faction, as it were.

I'm going to say that I think they may make a return in the future. Intergalactic storm troops are just too nifty not to have around, heh.

Glimmervoid · Post by **Glimmervoid** » 2007-03-31 04:24pm

I like it, I like the new companion I think she is better for the Doctor than rose (who I never really liked), I like the rhino / stormtrooper / Judge Dread bad guys, I like it that the rhinos scanners did not identify a Time Lord (the black box in The End of the World had a problem doing it too) and I liked that some human finally admits to evidence of aliens.

I did not mind the straw, or the MAR earth destroying bomb.

I did not like the doctor pushing out the radiation into his shoe bit.

Also did any one else notice the bit were the doctor said (or something like it) “I don’t have a brother, not any more”; sounds to me like he did have one and he now is dead.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-03-31 04:30pm

Crazedwraith wrote:That was awesome. Easily better than the christmas special.

I'm not so sure about, but it was certainly better than "Rose" and "New Earth"; I like the new companion (and they conveniently explained why the same actress played another character in last year's season final).

Aygeman is a very good assistant but I felt the alien ships landing on the moon seemed a bit to long and too much like the only point was saying 'oh look we have good SFX now!"

Who cares?! It was an awsome scene!

And I was a little puzzled that the Judoon were minimising Earth casualties by isolating a very dangerous alien suspect on the Moon, had no interest in conquering Earth and were even kind enough to put the displaced hospital back where it belonged, yet they zapped a relatively innocent bystander that tried to attack them and couldn't be bothered fixing some faulty hospital equipment (but a MR scanner fatally eradiating both the Moon and Earth was pretty

).

I had a chuckle when the Doctor ditched his infamous sonic screwdriver about two thirds of the way into the episode.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-03-31 04:49pm

And I was a little puzzled that the Judoon were minimising Earth casualties by isolating a very dangerous alien suspect on the Moon, had no interest in conquering Earth and were even kind enough to put the displaced hospital back where it belonged, yet they zapped a relatively innocent bystander that tried to attack them and couldn't be bothered fixing some faulty hospital equipment

In the words of the Doctor: the Judoon are "logical and a bit thick". The man attacked them; he was executed. Jones was falsely accused; she was compensated. The Plasmavore died; the Judoon leave. As they themselves said, they didn't have jurisdiction over Terran matters nor did they care about humanity, they were just doing their job by the book.

Even if they did manage to resurrect and clone Black Stig...

I knew they looked familiar

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-03-31 06:16pm

Glimmervoid wrote:Also did any one else notice the bit were the doctor said (or something like it) “I don’t have a brother, not any more”; sounds to me like he did have one and he now is dead.

Interestingly, it's been claimed that the producers once intended to make the Master the Doctor's literal brother...

Skelron · Post by **Skelron** » 2007-03-31 07:05pm

Manus Celer Dei wrote:Certainly a fun start to the series.

What did the Doctor say to her right at the beginnning? When he took his tie off.

This isn't a 100% complete translation but I think it was...
'Like this, see..' And then lift the tie off. It confused me as well.

Teebs · Post by **Teebs** » 2007-03-31 08:13pm

I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed the humour as ever, and the episode came together quite nicely. I especially liked the aliens with, as someone mentioned earlier, their grey attitude rather than being black and white good/bad guys. However, I didn't like the MRI scanner being able to wipe out life on Earth, and I didn't think the episode was quite good enough for a 5, so 4/5 from me.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-03-31 09:05pm

Bounty wrote: Jones was falsely accused; she was compensated.

I liked the alien paper money...

The so called Judoon belonged to some pan-galactic authority if they were doing things by the book and (most of the time at least) not needlessly killing innocent civilians, but we still don't know who they work for and it's possible the Doctor could see them again but on better terms. I really like the design of the Jadoon race, their cylindrical skyscraper ships looked cool and they're not unlike how I imagine the Idirans from Consider Phlebas to resemble.

And yet another link to Simon Pegg - Anne Reid (the vampire witch) had a notable supporting role in the recent Hot Fuzz (I thought she looked familiar).

Vegi · Post by **Vegi** » 2007-03-31 11:35pm

Great start to the new season. One thing I didnt catch though, did the Judoon know the Doctor had stopped the MRI bomb? If they didnt....did they expect to wipe out all of earth?

Vegi · Post by **Vegi** » 2007-03-31 11:35pm

By wiping out all of earth I mean teleporting the hospital back to earth with the MRI bomb still (as far as they know) in the hospital.

Flash · Post by **Flash** » 2007-04-01 12:26am

Manus Celer Dei wrote:What did the Doctor say to her right at the beginnning? When he took his tie off.

He says 'Like so', takes his tie off, then says 'See?' and wanders off.

Vegi wrote:Great start to the new season. One thing I didnt catch though, did the Judoon know the Doctor had stopped the MRI bomb? If they didnt....did they expect to wipe out all of earth?

I very much doubt they cared. As far as they were concerned the job was done. The plasmavore was executed and that's all they were there for, so anything that happened after they put the hospital back (say, the MRI going nuclear

) was not their concern.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-04-01 01:11am

I'd like to say that the backup is clearly inside the LCD monitor casing.

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2007-04-01 05:55am

NecronLord wrote:
Glimmervoid wrote:Also did any one else notice the bit were the doctor said (or something like it) “I don’t have a brother, not any more”; sounds to me like he did have one and he now is dead.
Interestingly, it's been claimed that the producers once intended to make the Master the Doctor's literal brother...

That. Would. Suck. Suck so bad it blows. I would rather have Braxialtal ? sp as his brother, although it may be better if he simply didn't have one.

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2007-04-01 09:29am

Commenting as I watch it on youtube.

1) British medical students still wear lab coats.

2) During that scene with the lady in hospital who presents with dizziness. When the doctor asks the students any ideas.

I can't believe not one of the medical students thought of taking a history from the lady followed by examining her

I can only say that diabetes, menieres disease (unless she also complains of tinnitis and hearing problems) wouldn't be the first things on my mind. And if I suggested lets do a CT scan for dizziness in a clinical exam just off the bat I would have most probably failed.

The next obvious thing would be to most probably check blood pressure especially for postural drop given that "she woke up, then felt dizzy". Granted low blood pressure from a salt deficiency wouldn't exactly be on my mind since I suspect its likely to be rare because of the body's ability to retain salt, and the more common cause is dehydration. But hey, she is a freaking alien.

3) Did the Juldoon energy weapon do an NDF effect?

4) The sonic screwdriver can also interface with computer systems.

5) with a few adjustments he can also increase the radiation of radiology machines by 5000%.

6) Nice move by the Doctor tricking the Plasmovore to assimilate his blood and getting caught by the Juldoon

7) all in all, not a bad episode. I give it 4 out of 5.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-04-01 11:22am

mr friendly guy wrote:3) Did the Juldoon energy weapon do an NDF effect?

No. It appeared to cremate, and we saw remains falling - though not actually on the floor. The only thing that makes it unusual is that there's no lethal overpressure from the steam release, though we do see steam or smoke coming off the victims. It's a little unusual, but NDF was coined to explain things like phasers and zat guns, that leave no visible remains and appear to just make their victims go nowhere. This appeared to make its victims dead by more conventional means, namely, burning. We're just tastefully not shown what becomes of the corpses here, as far as I could tell. We're shown that they have effects on the enviroment too - where they melt the glass in passing.

Teleros · Post by **Teleros** » 2007-04-01 11:44am

Could it be a combination of effects? An NDF element to the beams would explain the lack of anything explosive, but if (for the sake of argument) it was "sheathed" in a laser beam or was a less efficient NDF technology than a phaser or zat gun could that account for the heating witnessed?

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-04-01 11:51am

Without knowing how much vapourising was going on, there's no need to resort to any kind of NDF explanation. It could just be that it cooked most of the body and charred the surface.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-04-01 07:27pm

That Judoon death ray burned victims from the inside out leaving a small slag heap of roasted flesh and melted bone fragments (they didn't show that to keep the rating a PG or 12).

And I wonder why the hospital staff didn't pay attention to those two metre tall figures in black leather jumpsuits and shiny biker helmets striding around, acting in a obviously suspicious manner (but at least they were not listing to cheesy 1970s glam rock or 1980s power ballards

).

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Doctor Who - "Smith and Jones"

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Doctor Who - "Smith and Jones"