The sixth episode of this series is the first time that
Martha has been back in modern day settings. Martha attends an event which sees
a man turn back the aging process. The setting of this episode allows the whole
Jones clan. There is a nice thing where a lackey of Mr Saxon’s plants a seed of
mistrust in Francine’s mind. Whilst Tish and Leo are more willing to go based
on what they see but people are whispering in her ear and the final words in
the episode are hers because she is warning her about the Doctor because of
what Mr Saxon has said. I am going to go on a bit of a rant here about the
Jones family and in particular Leo. There is a point to have Adjoa Andoh and
Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Francine and Tish respectively) but what was the point of
casting Reggie Yates. At the time he had a career on Radio 1 and clearly very
busy so his involvement in pretty limited as a result. This is the most that we
see of him in this series and there is a blink and you’ll miss it in the
finale. They could have cast someone else in the role and they would probably
have had a greater impact in the series and definelty the finale.
The interesting thing about this episode is how it seems
like a lot of superhero moves which sees some smart or rich person who tries to
change something or do something that is beyond them and things go badly wrong.
That’s not a bad thing and Stephen Greenhorn does well with this idea but it’s
one that is split into two parts. The idea of someone wanting to look younger
is something that is never going to end well and it’s interesting to see how
the Doctor deals with someone else who looks younger despite being very old. It’s
almost as if the Doctor is jealous of Lazarus which is quite amusing.
Mark Gatiss stars in this episode instead of writing it. He
plays Professor Richard Lazarus who starts the episode as an old man. Gatiss is
one of those rare people who is just as good an actor as he is a director. Gatiss’
best scene comes in the church where he’s just wrapped in a blanket talking with
the Doctor circling him. Thelma Barlow plays Lady Thaw and is the second person
from the BBC sitcom Dinnerladies to feature in this series. Lady Thaw is
someone who clearly wants money and power and doesn’t care how she gets it and
so when she is killed I can’t find myself feeling sad. When Lazarus dies, there
is a bit of sadness because he ends up dying whilst looking the same as he did
before the experiment.
I thought that the creature that Lazarus turns into was
really good. The only thing that let it down is the face. It looks rather poor
but thankfully the close ups are kept to a minimum. The rest of the effects
work rather well and there are several moments which look awesome and shows
again that the effects department have taken a step in the right direction
since the previous series.
There is a cool shot where the creature is chasing the
Doctor down a corridor and the camera does a full 360 rotation and that was
sadly ruined in the NEXT TIME trailer at the end of the previous episode. Despite
this, it’s still a good camera shot. It’s another well directed episode from
Richard Clark.
For me the best part of the episode is what takes place in
the church. This feels more like new Who and the fact that Tish seems to have
joined the Doctor and Martha is something that works well and the way that the
creature Lazarus is defeated is quite good and overall I thought that this was
a sort of return to form. It’s not a classic of the series but it is another
good story that has some impressive moments and there are things that develop
the Saxon story arc a bit more. Tomorrow’s episode the second anniversary and it’s
a story that not in my Top 10.
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