Smith and Jones (Doctor Who): Difference between revisions

183 - Smith and Jones
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Production
Directed by	Charles Palmer
Written by	Russell T. Davies
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	3.1
Running time	45 minutes
Setting	2007
First broadcast	31 March 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by The Runaway Bride Followed by → The Shakespeare Code

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. The episode features the Judoon, described in a press release as "a clan of galactic stormtroopers".

Synopsis

When she meets the mysterious John Smith, medical student Martha Jones finds her life turned upside-down. A lightning storm sends the Royal Hope Hospital to the moon and Martha must cope with the fierce Judoon and a blood-sucking Plasmavore. And soon she realises John Smith isn't really who he says he is.

Plot

File:Smith and Jones.jpg

"Scans detect lethal acceleration of mono-magnetic pulse"

Martha Jones is walking to work when she receives a series of phone calls from her family about her brother Leo's 21st birthday party that evening. She gets interrupted by a stranger (the Doctor) who takes off his tie, smiles, and says "Like so, see?", and walks off. Bemused, she continues on. She arrives at work, a hospital, bumping into a black leather-clad man wearing a motorbike helmet at the entrance, who ignores her. Later, getting her white coat from a locker, she receives an electric shock.

The consultant, Mr Stoker is leading a ward round and Martha is one of the medical students. They start with Florence Finnegan, whom Mr. Stoker diagnoses as being salt deficient, and continue on to the Doctor, introduced as John Smith. Martha challenges him about the events earlier that morning, but he denies being present. She wonders whether he might have a brother, but he answers "not any more". Martha listens to his chest and hears two hearts. He gives her a wink and she smiles back at him.

Later on, Martha is chatting to her sister on the phone. It is raining outside but her sister says where she is, nearby, it is beautiful weather, and it is like on cartoons when it's raining only over a single person. Her co-worker tells her to look at the rain, as does her sister and Martha see it is going up instead of down. There is a tremor and when Martha looks out, she realises they are on the Moon. Many of the patients and staff are scared, but Mr. Stoker looks out calmly, while Florence Finnigan searches for him.

Martha and her colleague head for a window which Martha intends to open whilst the Doctor nips behind a curtain. Martha's colleague panics, telling her if she opens the window all the air will be sucked out. The much calmer Martha rationalises that that cannot be true as the window is not sealed, so it would have happened already anyway. The Doctor pulls back the curtain to reveal himself now wearing a blue pinstripe suit and tells Martha she is correct. They discuss why they can all still breathe, with the Doctor impressed with Martha's reasoning. He asks if they have any kind of balcony, to which Martha tells him they have one for patients to use. The Doctor invites her to go step out onto it with him, warning her they might die. Martha calmly replies they might not, winning the Doctor's further approval. Going out on to a balcony, the Doctor demonstrates the presence of a force field around the hospital. He asks Martha what she believes is going on. She firmly believes the situation is alien interference, noting that it would have sounded crazy a few years ago, but with the Slitheen, Sycorax and Cybermen invading over the past year, it's much more believable. As she continues to refer to him as Mr Smith, the Doctor informs her of his preferred title. Martha assumes he means Doctor Smith, but he clarifies he means just 'the Doctor'.

Huge cylindrical ships appear and land outside the hospital. Black armoured soldiers march out and the Doctor identifies them as the Judoon.

As Mr Stoker looks on, Florence Finnigan enters with two motor biking couriers, telling him she needs help. Mr Stoker says he doesn't believe he can help anyone in the current situation and reflects on his plans to have retired in two years time to Florida and how he believes he will never see his student daughter ever again. Florence insists he can help her and explains cryptically why her salt levels were abnormal. She tells the couriers to hold him as she takes out a straw and walks menacingly towards him.

The Judoon enter and begin scanning people. Their leader removes his helmet, revealing a head not unlike the Earth's Rhino, then issues orders in an alien language, presumably ordering the Judoon to draw their guns, as this is what they do. One of the trainee doctors attempts to speak for the humans, but the leader responds by shoving him against a wall and using a device in order to translate his own speech into Earth English. He then scans the trainee, confirms him as human and marks him with a black cross on his right hand. Hiding above on the balcony with Martha, the Doctor says they are looking for non-humans, which means bad news for him. Martha is shocked at his statement, but doesn't believe that he is an alien. The Doctor tells her that Judoon are like police-for-hire, and if they find out that the hospital is hiding a non-human criminal, the hospital will be sentenced to death.

The Judoon continue upwards through the building, scanning each and every human. The trainee doctor insists they are only there to conduct a harmless scan on everyone, but a male patient panics and strikes a Judoon from behind with a vase, which merely shatters against the alien's armour. The Judoon leader declares this an act of physical assault and judges punishment of execution. The soldiers comply, shooting the man with laser guns which completely incinerates him. As the shocked trainee tells them they 'didn't have to do that' the commanding Judoon replies, 'Justice is swift'.

The Doctor attempts to access information from a hospital computer but finds to his frustration the Judoon have wiped the records. He explains to Martha that he had no idea that they were coming and he had only admitted himself to the hospital as he had detected signs of a Plasmavore. He asks her if she knows anyone who has checked into the hospital in the last week with unusual symptoms; she says that Mr Stoker would know and heads to his office. When she arrives there, Florence is still sucking his blood. Martha runs off but Florence orders one of the couriers to go after her. The Doctor meets her in the corridor and they run together to a room with an X-ray machine. The Doctor seals the door with his sonic screwdriver and tells Martha to activate the machine when he says "Now!".

The courier comes in and the Doctor scorches it with radiation but his screwdriver is destroyed in the process. He expresses remorse at first, saying, "I loved my sonic screwdriver...", but then throws it away.

Martha tells the Doctor about Florence and he says that because she sucked Mr Stoker's blood and assimilated him, she will register as human when the Judoon scan her. He explains to Martha that she is a Plasmavore, a blood-sucking alien. He hurries to find her before the Judoon but it is too late; she has already been scanned and marked as human.

The Judoon see the Doctor and scan him. He registers as non-human and they think he is the Plasmavore. They try to execute him but he escapes with Martha. Meanwhile the oxygen levels are going down and Martha's co-worker is giving extra oxygen to a patient. The Doctor tells Martha to give him time to find Florence and then kisses her to implant slight traces of alien DNA on her. He runs off, leaving a startled Martha in his wake. The Judoon catch up with her and begin scanning her and identify her as human, but with non-human traces.

Meanwhile the Doctor finds Florence, fiddling with an MRI device. Reverting to his cover story, he pretends to be just another amazed human who has no idea what's happening. She orders her remaining minion to hold the Doctor while she explains her plan. She says that she will fry the brains of the hospital and half of Earth, leaving her free to escape the Judoon because she is safe in the room. The Doctor tells her they are doing secondary scans so she sucks his blood. He falls to the floor, supposedly dead.

Meanwhile, the Judoon have confirmed Martha is human and march to Florence's room. Martha is shocked to see the Doctor dead on the floor but realises he sacrificed his life to save them. She scans Florence and because she sucked the Doctor's blood and assimilated the non-human blood she now registers as alien. The Judoon charge her with the murder of the child princess of Patravol Regency Nine, to which Florence proudly admits. She orders the Slab to attack the Judoon but they swiftly dispatch it and soon after eradicate Florence too, but not before she can activate the overload. The Judoon detect the problem, but declare their duty fulfilled and swiftly withdraw. At this point the oxygen is nearly depleted and the MRI device is about to activate.

Frustrated, she tries to resurrect the Doctor herself, eventually remembering to apply pressure to both his hearts. He awakes and unplugs the machinery. Martha passes out and the Doctor picks her up, crying for the Judoon to save them as they take off. Eventually, it starts raining again and the hospital is transported back to Earth where Tish, Martha's sister is waiting. Martha watches the Doctor leave and sees him head toward a strange blue box, but while she is distracted by her sister both the Doctor and the box disappear.

That night it is Leo's party and the family are arguing over Annalise, who mocks Martha's claims of having been to the moon and cites the publically released cover story (involving everyone in the hospital being drugged in a conspiricy) as truth. As the family follow each other down the street in an increasing argument, Martha spots the Doctor. She follows him around the corner, to see him standing before that blue box, whereupon he introduces himself as a Time Lord and this box as the TARDIS - a Time and Relative Dimension in Space. He then offers her a trip, to thank her for her help; but she tells him she does not have the time - she cannot go off into space with him, what a thought! She has to go into town the following morning and pay her bills! He smiles and informs her that his ship is also a time machine. She doesn't believe him, so proves it. The TARDIS dematerialises and rematerialises, as the Doctor steps out, holding his tie. Martha realises that that accounts for their encounter in the morning.

She then slowly goes into the TARDIS and is amazed that it is bigger on the inside. The Doctor talks about Rose, but says Martha is not replacing Rose; he is just going to take her on one single trip to thank her for saving his life. Martha and the Doctor shake hands over the TARDIS console as it flies through the time vortex, with a greeting of "Welcome aboard, Miss Jones!", to which she replies "It's my pleasure, Mr Smith!", as the TARDIS hurtles through space to their first destination...

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
• 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

• The Doctor re-dons the pyjamas and dressing gown he wore in The Christmas Invasion, which had come from Jackie Tyler's friend Howard.
• The likeness between Martha and Adeola, a character who appeared and was killed in the Series 2 episode Army of Ghosts and was also played by Freema Agyeman, is touched on in this episode. Martha mentions that her cousin Adeola worked at Canary Wharf and never returned on the day of the Cybermen attack.
• For much of the episode the Doctor is seen wearing a blue pinstriped suit, as opposed to the brown suit he wore throughout season 2. In the final scenes, however, he is once again seen wearing a brown suit.
• The Judoon are large humanoid aliens with rhinoceros-like heads and clad in metal armour with dome shaped helmets, making their appearance reminiscent of the Sontarans, and their energy weapons fire red beams.
• The Judoon's choice of footwear is New Rock Boots, made on Earth!
• The Doctor's sonic screwdriver is destroyed in this episode, but he obtains a new one.
• 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, which was edited by Simon Winstone, script editor for this episode.
• When the hospital disappears, a large crater is seen directly across the River Thames from the Palace of Westminster and close to Waterloo Station and the London Eye (which is also briefly in shot as Martha first arrives at the hospital). This site is in real life occupied by St Thomas' Hospital, the south wing of which has a similar overall architectural structure to Royal Hope, but is much a lower-rise building.
• When the Doctor and Martha are running from the Slab, a sign on a corridor wall is briefly visible showing the "SCi" logo of South Central Infirmary, the hospital in which the Bodies TV series was set.
• The Doctor reveals he flew a kite with his "mate Ben" Franklin, whereupon he got rope burns from said kite and got electrocuted for his troubles.
• The Doctor once had a laser spanner that was stolen by Emmeline Pankhurst, reportedly a "cheeky woman".
• 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 his theories 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 Doctor says he likes banana milkshakes when talking to Florence Finnigan (although the Seventh Doctor orders a strawberry one in Dragonfire), a continuation from various Ninth Doctor and Tenth Doctor episodes (The Doctor Dances and The Girl in the Fireplace respectively) in which he enthuses about bananas.

References to other stories

• Martha references 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, and refers to the loss of her cousin Adeola who "worked at Canary Wharf" and disappeared (a clear reference to the Army of Ghosts character played by the same actress).
• The Doctor voices his approval of the hospital shop, a reference to New Earth.
• Vampires have appeared in several other Doctor Who stories, including State of Decay and The Curse of Fenric, as well as several novels and audio plays.
• The Doctor fires up the helmic regulator before taking off in the TARDIS. The helmic regulator was last mentioned in The Ark in Space.

Outside references

• The title of this episode - referring to Martha Jones (the Doctor's new companion) and the Doctor's common alias, "John Smith" - is a reference to the Western television programme Alias Smith and Jones, although the phrase is probably more familiar to UK viewers as the name of the comedy sketch show, whose name was also derived from that programme.
• Martha refers to Zovirax, an advert for which featured a woman going about her daily routine wearing a motorbike helmet, similar to those worn by the Slabs.
• One of the medical students is named Oscar Morgenstern, one of the originators of game theory. He quotes Mr. Saxon.
• The surgeon's name is Mr Stoker. He was killed by having his blood drained. This is an obvious reference to Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula

Production

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