SMITH AND JONES (DOCTOR WHO)

'"Smith and Jones"' is an episode of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was broadcast on BBC One on 31 March 2007, and is the first episode of Series 3 of the revived ''Doctor Who'' series. It sees the debut of Freema Agyeman as new companion Martha Jones. According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 8.7 million viewers and was the fourth most popular broadcast on British television in that week.

Contents

Synopsis

Plot

Cast

Cast notes

Continuity

References to other stories

Outside references

Production

Broadcast

References

External links

Synopsis

On meeting the mysterious John Smith, medical student Martha Jones finds her life turned upside-down. A lightning storm and some upside-down rain send the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon, and Martha must cope with the brutal Judoon, an intergalactic police force, and a blood-sucking Plasmavore. John Smith, her ally in the crisis, soon proves he is no ordinary patient.

Plot

The Doctor is incognito in a London hospital, pretending to be a patient, to investigate the appearance of plasma coils on the hospital. Martha happens to be a particularly astute medical student.
A brutal mercenary police force, the rhinoceros-like Judoon, who have no jurisdiction on Earth, transport the hospital to the Moon by a H2O Scoop in order to apprehend and execute Florence Finnegan, a shapeshifting bloodsucker (a "plasmavore") who has the ability to appear as whatever species whose blood she consumes. Mrs Finnegan attempts to evade capture by sucking the blood of humans. Her first victim is Mr Stoker, the head doctor, and so she is registered as a human, but is cleverly tricked into sucking the Doctor's blood, believing him to be human. He collapses, unconscious. She is apprehended by the Judoon, pointed out by Martha, and identified as non-human and executed by the Judoon for the murder of the child princess of Padrivole Regency Nine.
Meanwhile before expiring the bloodsucker has modified an MRI scanner to make it destroy all intelligent life on the Moon and on the half of Earth facing the Moon. Martha uses CPR on the Doctor's two hearts and manages to revive him, and he turns off the scanner. Oxygen levels are low and the occupants of the hospital are near death, but as they depart the Judoon return the hospital safely to Earth.
Martha attends her brother's birthday party, but it breaks down into a family row. She notices the Doctor and follows him. He goes to the TARDIS and invites Martha to go on a trip with him as a reward for her help; during this, he refers to Rose Tyler and emphasizes that Martha is not replacing her, and that he prefers to travel alone.
In this episode, Martha's powers of observation and deduction are showcased: when the hospital is on the moon she realises that there must be some kind of force field keeping the air in, for the windows are not well enough sealed to stop the air escaping fast. She also observes, before the crisis, that the Doctor has two hearts, and remembers to perform CPR on both of them when she needs to revive him.

Cast

★ The Doctor — David Tennant

★ Martha Jones — Freema Agyeman

★ Florence Finnegan — Anne Reid

★ Mr. Stoker — Roy Marsden

★ Francine Jones — Adjoa Andoh

★ Tish Jones — Gugu Mbatha-Raw

★ Leo Jones — Reggie Yates

★ Clive Jones — Trevor Laird

★ Annalise — Kimmi Richards

★ Oliver Morgenstern — Ben Righton

★ Julia Swales — Vineeta Rishi

★ Judoon Leader — Paul Kasey

★ Judoon Voices — Nicholas Briggs

Cast notes

★ Freema Agyeman previously played Adeola Oshodi in "Army of Ghosts" (2006).

★ Adjoa Andoh previously appeared as Sister Jatt in the Tenth Doctor episode "New Earth" (2006).

★ Anne Reid previously appeared as Nurse Crane in the Seventh Doctor story ''The Curse of Fenric'' (1989).

★ Trevor Laird previously appeared as Frax in the Sixth Doctor story ''Mindwarp'' (1986).

Continuity

★ Martha asks the Doctor if he has a brother and he replies, "Not any more". A brother to the Doctor was previously mentioned in the spin-off New Adventure novel ''Tears of the Oracle'' by Justin Richards, which was edited by Simon Winstone, script editor for this episode. The brother's name, or at least the name he used, was Irving Braxiatel.

★ David Tennant says in ''Doctor Who Confidential'' that he feels some time has passed since "The Runaway Bride".

★ Morgenstern refers to a "Saxon" during his radio broadcast, claiming that the events of the episode prove Saxon's theories about alien life correct. A "Vote Saxon" poster, identical to one seen in the ''Torchwood'' episode "Captain Jack Harkness", and also in the trailer for the series, can be seen in the alleyway when the Doctor collects Martha.

★ The alias "John Smith" was given to the Doctor by Jamie McCrimmon in the serial ''The Wheel in Space'' and has been used as an alias by the Doctor on multiple occasions since, most notably during his third incarnation; prior to this episode his most recent use of the alias was in ''School Reunion''.

★ At one point, the Doctor wears the same dressing gown he wore in "The Christmas Invasion", which originally belonged to Jackie Tyler's friend, Howard.

References to other stories

★ Martha refers to the spaceship crashing into Big Ben in "Aliens of London", the events of "The Christmas Invasion" or "The Runaway Bride", and the Battle of Canary Wharf against the Cybermen from "Army of Ghosts". She also recalls the loss of her cousin Adeola who "worked at Canary Wharf" and disappeared (a reference to the "Army of Ghosts" character played by the same actress ^[1]). The Doctor tells her he was at Canary Wharf (but does not reveal to her that he had killed Adeola who had been taken over by the Cybermen).

★ The Doctor voices his approval of the hospital shop, a reference to "New Earth".

★ The Doctor grabs Martha's hand and says, "Run!" when the Slabs burst through the door. This was the first thing the Ninth Doctor said and did with Rose in "Rose".

★ The Doctor facetiously asks for a banana milk shake. He previously mentioned the fruit in "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "The Doctor Dances".

★ The Doctor fires up the helmic regulator and the gravitic anomaliser before taking off in the TARDIS. The helmic regulator was last mentioned in ''The Ark in Space'', and the gravitic anomaliser played a role in ''The Horns of Nimon''. In ''The Pirate Planet'', the Doctor reads off gravitic anomaliser readings to Romana in reference to machinery in the Captain's engine room.

Outside references

★ Martha refers to Zovirax, a cold sore treatment. In the television advertisements for Zovirax a woman goes about her daily routine hiding her cold sores by wearing a motorbike helmet similar to those worn by the Slabs.

★ Martha asks the Doctor what his sonic screwdriver is she also asks "What else have you got, a laser spanner?" He replies with "I did but it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, cheeky woman." Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the founders of the early 20th century British Suffragette movement.

★ The name on Mr. Stoker's door is B. Stoker. This was pointed out as a possible reference to Bram Stoker by Freema Agyeman on the episode's audio commentary made available on the BBC's Doctor Who website.

★ The Doctor implies that he assisted Benjamin Franklin during his famous 1752 electricity experiment involving lightning, a kite and a key.

Production

★ This is the first episode not to have a pre-credits sequence since the Ninth Doctor episode "Rose" (another season opener, also introducing a new companion).

★ The first use of Martha's theme in the music for the episode is sung by Melanie Pappenheim according to the ''Doctor Who Confidential'' episode "Meet Martha Jones". She previously featured in "The Doctor's Theme", "Bad Wolf Theme" and "Doomsday".

★ The music at the start of the episode, when Martha is talking on the phone to her family, is "Sunshine" by Arrested Development.

★ "Smith and Jones", along with "The Shakespeare Code" and "Gridlock", was released as a 'vanilla' DVD with no special features on 21 May 2007.

★ Royal Hope Hospital is mainly based on shots of Singleton Hospital in Swansea

Broadcast

★ The first North American broadcast of the episode occurred on 18 June 2007, when the CBC aired it in Canada. "Smith and Jones" takes place after the 2006 Christmas special "The Runaway Bride", but the CBC aired them in reverse order, showing "Smith and Jones" immediately prior to "Bride".

★ "Smith and Jones" made its US broadcast debut on 6 July 2007, on the Sci Fi Channel, directly following "The Runaway Bride".

References

1.

External links

★ ''Smith and Jones'' shooting script at BBC Writers Room