Smith and Jones

[owl]

It's started! Finally!

First I'd like to say that the physics in this was completely whack. You crank up the X-ray x50 and expect Martha to say safe in the observation room that was meant for normal strength? And throwing your shoes in the clinical waste bin isn't going to help, either. And as for the MRI machine...50 000 Tesla? With the door open? Not that it matters, as any loose steel object is probably going to punch through the door....

So far, Martha is brilliant. She's clever and can work things out without the Doctor telling her, so she can be the audience exposition maybe for a change. Also she's a bit bossy which is good with the Doctor. I hope she stands firmly on any megalomaniac tendencies like becoming God that the Doctor happens to have this series. However, she might need to buy some trainers for running in. Does she stay in her party clobber for the whole series? She seemed to be wearing the maroon jacket a lot in the preview on Confidential. Still, it's better than Donna Miss Havisham-ing about in her wedding dress I suppose.

Oh, yeah, the plot. The rhino police guys were very good and stompy; I liked their skirts and boots. And the geeky looking JHO trying to welcome them and to calm down the patients was great. And Martha being wowed at being on the Moon. Hey, they've had a balcony scene!

And they did the hand-holding and "Run!" thing, and he earned being called "the Doctor" and he winked at her not to blow the gaffs about the two hearts. And he had a brother too, once? He's acquiring presumed-deceased family at a rapid rate. I loved him stalling the vampire granny with babble about his bunions. His death scene was a bit bizarre; how come Martha's running out of oxygen at the same time as the people who have the cylinders? Wouldn't she run out sooner? And what good are heart compressions going to do if he has no blood in his body?

Martha's family is harder to get straight than Rose's. I liked the "my cousin, Adeola" explanation. The row was funny in the way that rows are when you aren't part of them (This is me putting my foot down!). Is Martha in the middle? Did we get a name for her friend, the other girl? Martha seems to be the one who smooths things over; I wonder how they'll manage without her for a while? Because I can't see the Doctor managing to deliver her back to the same time as she left, even though he managed the thing with the tie very handily. I was wondering through the whole episode what was going on with it, and I was glad to have it solved. And she asks good questions about the TARDIS, like why it's made of wood. And I loved the Doctor mouthing along to "It's bigger on the inside!"

He's already snogged her so we won't have to wonder if they will. Am not too keen on the unrequited love thing that they were talking about in Confidential, as it seems rather depressing. And the romance is usually as subtle as a brick...ah, well, hopefully Martha won't let it get her down.

Now I want it to be next Saturday already!

Comments

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I think it'll probably do Martha's family the world of good to have to sort out their own problems.

I really liked him earning the right to be called the Doctor, and I thought Anne Reid was great.

[owl]

Yes, a really creepy granny!

[gonewithoutjam.livejournal.com]

Martha definitely does need trainers.

If you waded into the entire history of Doctor Who with a teaspoon and an open mind you'd probably come out with enough good physics to fill the teaspoon. That's if you raided all the books as well. The clue is probably in the second part of the term 'science fiction' there. It's not meant to be good science, it's meant to entertain. The whole show would have had me tearing my hair out by now if I let myself care about just how scientifically inaccurate it is.

[owl]

Perhaps the Doctor can shrink her a pair of Converses from his inexhaustible store? He could do it with the new sonic.

I don't mind the inaccuracy when it's all aliens in 58039485 AD, but I did do a Physics in Medicine module.

[gonewithoutjam.livejournal.com]

Matching shoes would make the press goons explode.

I teach a medical physics module. I wince more at Who whenever Ice Warriors are mentioned though.

[owl]

Fun to see the Sun (the newspaper) spontaneously combust, wouldn't it?

[crazy-vasey.livejournal.com]

Martha's family were a bit on the Eastenders side of characterisation for my tastes. Ah well. Maybe they'll grow on me like Jackie did. I kept expecting someone to say something about the gravity too. You'd think someone'd realise that they shouldn't be moving the same on the moon as they did on Earth. But anyway, I enjoyed the episode well enough despite all that.

[owl]

That's a very good point about the gravity. Hey, perhaps that's why Martha was so good at sprinting around in heels!

[badonkatonks.livejournal.com]

I really do like Martha. I think she is strong enough to have a handle on the Doctor's character flaws as he does have a tendency to be a bit full of himself while at the same time despising himself. I can't wait to see him get slapped again, though, I wonder who it will be this season. And I think Martha is going to figuratively slap him around and humble him some, at least I hope so. Yeah, I don't like the unrequited love or the holding a torch for Rose subplots, but you can't have everything.

I also hope she gets herself a good pair of trainers, otherwise she's going to bust her butt. I don't know how she didn't go sprawling with all the running they did in this episode.

[owl]

Perhaps Martha will be doing actually slapping! Though she has plenty of family to do it on her behalf, too.

[boji.livejournal.com]

So far, Martha is brilliant. She's clever and can work things out without the Doctor telling her, so she can be the audience exposition maybe for a change

I utterly agree with you on this. I also think she's either the eldest or the sandwhich child which would depend on which year of med school she's in. I think she's probably the eldest of three with the sister being the youngest. Thank God I don't know physics *grin* because then I would have been more annoyed. As it is I took the radioactive shoe as having been tempered - the radiation I mean - by it's trip through the Doctor's body.

Loved the episode.

[owl]

I think the BBC said at one point that she was 23, which would put her in fourth or final year.

I have decided that 'It's not physics, it's magic' will help my enjoyment of the series.

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

I liked the "my cousin, Adeola" explanation.

I'd rather they hadn't mentioned it. It just draws attention. And also, how many identical cousins are there in the world? It makes me worry about what's really behind all those family rows.

Did we get a name for her friend, the other girl?

Do you mean the other med student who'll only slow them down? Looking at the credits, I think she must be Julia Swales. Martha's myspace blog (http://www.myspace.com/marthajonesuk) (which I think we now have to assume has the same status as whoisdoctorwho.co.uk and such) talks about a Julia who has just split up with her fiance. But "Made of Steel", the S3 Quick Read, has a Rachel Swales at Royal Hope. So I think there has been a name change at some point between Terrance Dicks being given the materials to write his book with and the final making of the ep.

The problems with the physics I ignore by taking a Faction Paradox-ish approach that to higher beings adapting tech is all about manipulating the symbolism rather than the actual physics. The Doctor can make an X-ray machine into a gun because humans have a thing about "radiation".

[owl]

The problems with the physics I ignore by taking a Faction Paradox-ish approach that to higher beings adapting tech is all about manipulating the symbolism rather than the actual physics. The Doctor can make an X-ray machine into a gun because humans have a thing about "radiation".

The thing he was aiming at wasn't human, though. Do you mean it's all psychological? I'm not quite getting it.

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

Well, I find it a bit hard to look at the radiation thing as being related to real physics when the next thing the Doctor does after using the x-ray is do a little dance so he can consciously drop the radiation out through his foot. ;)

[owl]

True. If he has this ability to manipulate amazing quantities of photons, why doesn't he do it all the time?

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

I suppose he only wants to absorb the extra radiation when it immediately endangers the other people around?

[owl]

I'm sure it would come in handy at other times, though.