10.21: The Lazarus Experiment

In which a functionally immortal alien lectures an old man about how he should probably just die.

Broadcast: May 2007

Watched: August 2021

“Facing death is part of being human.”

Stylish, well made, compelling, but ultimately empty because Greenhorn doesn’t question his starting assumptions. Someone else invents regeneration and the functionally immortal regenerating alien’s position is “this is unnatural”, and then the first guy starts eating people and nobody at any point says “that’s convenient, or you’d have looked a right hypocrite”. Tom Stoppard said the key to writing is “A, not A, but A”, or words to that effect; Greenhorn believes it’s “A A A A A A A”. He’ll do the same thing in his next script, declare this person is the Doctor’s daughter by fiat, and have the world of the show just accept it.

Considering all of which it’s rather good. Certainly well made. We’re into the RTD imperial era now, when they are just *brilliant* at making this show, even if it doesn’t always do what I’d like it to.

Anyway, the plot. The Doctor dumps Martha. Dick. Then sticks around because there’s an adventure in the offing. Oh, Tish has a new job, there’s a surprise; it won’t be the last. Steffan [Alun; Welsh comedian, also in my nerd groupchat] has often mocked Moffat for this tic, but RTD did it first.

Gatiss is cast in the first of his, what, four appearances in the show? (This, Danny boy, the weird Viking thing in Wedding, Granddad Lethbridge-Stewart). Interesting that it happens once it feels like RTD doesn’t want his scripts any more.

And to be fair he is brilliant in the role of a creepy old Tory, whose assistants are all beautiful young women (who need the Doctor to help them, presumably because they weren’t hired for their post doctoral qualifications). He is eye-gougingly awful in the scene in which he tells his wife he’s not going to let her use his machine.

The other thread is the Martha one. Her family don’t come off well. Tish is absolutely game for banging the married 76 year old just as soon as he’s got his liver spots sorted out. Their mum is just horrible – even if Doctor is rude to her and she’s being manipulated by Saxon’s guy, she seems to be most offended by the way Martha turns her back on her, literally. Except... she’s right, isn’t she? The Doctor is going to ruin her life and her entire family. The message is very confused. Oh well, Greenhorn isn’t very good, but it looks pretty.

Other things:

• There’s a running theme this season of what it means to be human: disguising species as each other in Smith and Jones, Shakespeare as the most human human ever, human Daleks, Lazarus, Human Nature, the futurekind... I’m not sure it coheres, or indeed means anything at all, but there is an attempt to do something there I think.

• The science stuff is incredibly funny: the graphics of DNA literally changing, and so on.

• There’s a nice bit when the string quartet starts playing bits of Murray Gold instrumental music.

• The “olive” woman is a terrible actress.