When the one-minute preview for the rest of series three excites you more than the 41-minutes of story leading up to it, you know something’s wrong.
It’s not that “The Lazarus Experiment” is necessarily a bad episode of “Doctor Who.” It’s something far worse–a rather dull one.
The Doctor brings the TARDIS back to the current time, intending to drop Martha off since her promised trip in the TARDIS is now over. But before he can leave, he sees reports of an experiment being run by a scientist named Lazarus that promise to re-define what it means to be human.
In the first of many coincidences for the script, Martha’s sister works for Lazarus and gets the two on the guest-list for the big unveiling. Turns out Lazarus has invented a device that allows him to roll back his age…but he didn’t think the consequences of this move all the way through. Seems he forgot to stabilize his DNA after the experiment was over, causing him to morph into some kind of scorpion like creature that needs to feed on the life-force of humans to stabilize and stay alive.
Which all leads to the inevitable “Doctor Who” classic moment–running about corridors. The experiment and transformation all happen within the first fifteen minutes of the story and what we’re left with is thirty minutes of a chase sequence–not once but twice. At one point, the Doctor defeats Lazarus and he appears dead…only to resurrect in an ambulance and hide out in a cathedral. Luckily, the cathedral has the exact right set of circumstances to allow the Doctor to finally defeat Lazarus a second time–after a whole lot of running about, of course.
Visually, the corridors are stunning but they’re still just that–corridors. And the premise is an intriguing one, though it never quite gets explored as fully as I’d hoped. Why did Lazarus start this experiment, for example? And we’re teased a bit, finding out that the mysterious Mr. Saxon has funded the project and is interested, but beyond that we get nothing. I expect we may come back to this at some point in the season when Mr. Saxon makes his appearance.
And for a story that tries to give humanity the ability to do what the Doctor can–regenerate–you’d expect something more of it. I found myself wondering what compelled Lazarus to pursue this line of research and if there wasn’t another agent behind it? We previously heard the hints of another Time Lord being out there….could this Time Lord be trying to cheat death by Lazarus’s experiments? (If the villain of the season is who it’s rumored to be, that would make a whole lot of sense). Also, I wondered if this was some attempt to get the Doctor out in the open and part of some larger trap.
At several points in the story, an agent of Mr. Saxon comes to Martha’s mother and warns her about who the Doctor is. Martha’s mother is already not a fan of the Doctor and this only makes things worse for the new traveling companion for the Doctor. The Doctor, once again, gets slapped by an angry mother.
That said, the episode did have some nice moments. The Doctor debating what has been done with Lazarus was a nice touch and there were some hints that Lazarus may know about the Doctor’s true nature than he’s telling. The scenes with Martha struggling with her title in the TARDIS crew is a nice bookend to the episode and overall the acting by everyone is up to the task.
It’s just a shame the script itself is so lackluster. As I said to start things out, I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t enthralled either. Three weeks ago, “Gridlock” showed us how characters can drive a story relatively short on plot. This time around, the story is short on plot but arranged as such an action piece that the gaps show through.
That said, series one struggled at times with stories that were introducing concepts and ideas vital to the overall story arc of the season. Hopefully that is what “The Lazarus Experiment” is doing here and it will improve a bit in my estimation when I’ve seen the whole story that series three is trying to tell.
Until then, I come away a bit disappointed with it…
That said–that preview for the rest of the season was fantastic and I can’t wait to see where the second half of the season takes us.
PaulJ says
I think I mostly agree with this review — and the comparison with the episode “Gridlock” is valid. “Gridlock” was vaguely surreal and comical, which made it fun, but it wasn’t a typical Doctor Who episode. “Lazarus” _was_ fairly typical (at least of the new series), but there’s a wide audience it’s aiming for — the kind of audience that might have found “Gridlock” unsatisfying.
That said, I think Freema Agyeman is warming to her role as Martha, with some natural and convincing acting (better than Billie Piper, in my opinion).
Bronzethumb says
I have to disagree with you on this one. I quite liked Lazarus Experiment. I thought Gatiss’ performance was suitably creepy as the monster-cross-evil genius (something that RTD tried to do in Runaway Bride, but with less success). Tennant and Agyeman were as great as usual, and I think you’re right on the point you made in a previous review that Martha Jones may just be the definitive companion of the Tenth Doctor. The concept was interesting, both for the parallels it drew to regeneration that the Doctor pointed out (Tennant and Gatiss have some great dialogue) but for the wider implications that this could have on the whole season. I’m pretty sure that you are right about the events of this episode being part of a trap. And a very conniving trap at that one… is anyone else getting a very Fenric vibe from the mysterious Harold Saxon?
Tony says
An episode where Tennant doesn’t go goggle-eyed and start shouting every five minutes is what I’d like. I rather liked Gatiss in his League of Gentlement roles, but in this he was simply awful. Sorry, this season so far has been poo. Martha is great though.
Tony says
Also, someone should tell the CGI department to come up with something original, not use old Scorpion King models with someone elses face instead of Gatiss…
Michael in Nashville says
Interesting to hear the reactions to my review.
I have to admit I feel a bit alone in my just general lack of interest in this week’s episode. A lot of Dr Who fans seem to really like it….
Is it just me?
Jarsto from the Netherlands says
It’s probably not just you Michael, but I have to say I disagree as well. While it has a couple of weaker moments I enjoyed most of this episode. And I was out of my chair cheering at the Spinal Tap reference.
Alan says
And I’m a total Doctor Who fanboy, Michael. Even the absurd anachronism of black people enjoying equal rights and authority in the 1930’s couldn’t drive me away. This episode was a lottery win in comparison. But it was a bit dull in spots, and I do get impatient with RTD’s insistence on dragging the companion’s family into episodes. (But THIS family is just yummmmmy!)
Michael in Nashville says
Alan,
I am a total Dr Who fanboy myself–the insane collection of every moment of available footage on DVD or VHS will attest to that.
I just wasn’t thrilled by this week’s episode. And just so everyone knows, I wrote the review before I looked around for reaction. I wanted it to be totally my opinion and not swayed by any other fans.
Philip Bowman says
Must say, my first response to the ‘monster’ this week was that I hadn’t seen CGI like it since The Scorpion King (as per Tony above)