Slurrrrrp!

Oh my, I loved that episode. Martha had so many wonderful moments in there that made me love her a billion times more than I already do.

By the way, the SciFi previews make me laugh. So melodramatic!

I noticed that Martha had the nice flowly labcoat for her running in hallway scenes. Clearly they need to add that back to her outfit.

Yeah, the melodramatic voice of testosterone!

Overall, I liked it, and I too loved Martha's lab coat - I hope she gets to keep it as it would compliment the Doctor's coat as well.

Also, since when don't super-magnetized MRI machines not kill computer hard drives? I leave a floppy anywhere near mine and it's fried. Computer's magnetic field, not MRI, cause, I'm not that rich or powerful.

Your... personal super-magnetized MRI? Hee.

ETA: Oh, cross-posted to cut me off at the pass. Double hee.

I wish - more like my personal super-magnetized hard drives on my comp (2 of them). They fry any tape or floppy nearby.

Cause, I saw the computer monitor flashing all those scans and thought, "I didn't think they could do that - shouldn't it be toast by now?" And realized the big giant plot hole. And how can a computer survive that? Especially if it's controlling the machine? Or did the plasmavore destroy that capability?

Unspoiled as he was, the Beloved Hubby is now on record as loving Martha "a thousand times more than Rose!" due to her sheer compentance.

And me, I'm always a sucker for some neck porn from Ten. Likewise, there's just something so expressive about DT's eyes, how he can sell any moment.

Word Cygnia - I loved his eyes in the scene just after Martha revived him. He can act his little heart out!

Oh, and:



Dirty!

It looks like the Thames got refilled after "Runaway Bride"; I wonder how long that would take naturally?

I love Martha Jones. Love Her!
Rose is fun and sexy, but Martha is bright and hot. I'm not sure who I like more right now.
I don't care for Martha's family at all, especially her mom (AKA Hag). They annoy and grate way too much.
A great episode overall with lots of fun moments. The JuDoon were awesome and I hope that we'll get to see their cataloging antics again. The PlasmaVore was quite charming and I didn't find her scary until her last few moments, after she had been discovered.
There were mentions of a Mr. Saxon in The Runaway Bride and Smith & Jones. Don't know if that will be important later, but it seems too much of a coincidence not to be.

Also, "Her name was Rose and we were together". Well, that settles that. Good for them.

That is EXACTLY the moment I was thinking of, arizonamyrie! It's like that small moment before Rose starts joking about mortgages in "The Impossible Planet"...like how all the weariness has finally just HIT Ten and he fears they're stuck permanently.

I know some people think DT is all shouty and manic, but he CAN do quiet and subtle too.

A lot of it is the writing - like tonight, ADD!Ten was back beyond full force. It was apparent that he was alien, or hyped up way too much caffeine.

That was fun. I'm holding off on direct comparisons between Rose and Martha, since it wouldn't be fair to Martha (damn, I need to memorize the actress's name, don't I?). One thing...the woman whom Papa Jones is with kinda resembles the illegitimate sister Jackie never knew about.

The villian of the week was a little weak, only because I'm used to heavies like the Autons, Sycorax, Cassandra and the cat nurses to start with. Her straw did make me laugh. It just seems so simple...no fangs, no vampire crap...just a straw. Beautiful. And I'm now hoping there's more of the Jadoon down the line, since there's always room for lumbering armored rhino-men, especially if you're into Hip Flask.



Suuuuuure it was, Doctor. Sure, it was enough to stall the Jadoon horde, but this Doctor always needs to kiss, if not merely hug ("Impossible Planet," anyone?). Curious...is Tennant a big kisser in real life? Maybe they had to work that into the scripts. Also cute how he lip-synched to the "bigger on the inside spiel," since I'm getting tired of it. Really, the Doctor should just press a button, and a "Yes, it is bigger inside!!!!!" sign would drop down. Just once: "It's...it's..." "Bigger on th-" "Tesseract technology!" "Okay, I love you. Wanna snog?"

Clearly, this must be investigated. I propose we assemble a crack team of researchers to test this hypothesis. Who's with me? :)

And Ten lip-syncing the "bigger on the inside" comment was DT's own idea according to the Confidential.

Cygnia, MisterIstari loves Martha for that very reason too. :D

Lantern7, I think you have to go back to Classic Who to find a (maybe) companion who *didn't* say that. ;)

All in all, loved it, fun, different mood, and do I detect an inner geek to Martha?

"Have you met Miss Jones..." Yes, indeedy. :)

I saw this one on Youtube and checked out the UK comments, so I found out one joke that us in the US wouldn't get at all otherwise: the planet Martha asks if the leather guy is from is the name of a cold medicine, whose commercials in the UK feature a woman who's so embarassed by her cold sores that she wears a motorcycle helmet all the time.

Seriously. How adorable was the Doctor, running around barefoot? *swoon*

...

I meant that in a non-fetishy way.

To quote an old episode: "Well, Sergeant Benton? Aren't you going to say, 'It's bigger on the inside'?" "Well, that's obvious, isn't it?"

Oh yeah - I think I've seen that one D.C. And it was/is a running joke of course that they always say that.

And the cold medicine - which one is it?

Agreed...his default position tonight seemed to be "chin up - eyes bulging". As for the rest, I wasn't really impressed. Martha is indeed competent. And bland. I'm hoping we will see something more of a character in the coming eps, right now we have generic medical student with annoying clichéd family. Believe me, I'm not looking for Rose's return but Martha is such a "meh!" that it's difficult to understand why the Doctor would return for her except for the fact she "saved his life".

Which was my second major problem with this. How is it possible for the Doctor to be sans heartbeats and not regenerate? Not even show signs that it would happen? Am I missing something?

Just "meh".

I was worried there for a moment that the Doctor would be without his sonic screwdriver. That would be a disaster. He uses it in every other scene.

So, as soon as they said they were on the moon, I said "Why do they have air? Are they in some kind of forcefield?" I hope that means that the Doctor would take me along with him if he showed up.

And on a purely shallow note, how effing cute was DT with the messy hair in the computer scene? I'm developing such a crush on him.

Good question; perhaps he was only mostly dead.

I still love this episode. Nice to see it on my big TV though.

I love Martha: quick, bright, funny, inquisitive, brave, honest ("are you ready?' "NO!").

I love the oh so hightech Sharpie pen used to catalog the humans. Oh and the hightech straw for sucking blood. Just goes to show you not all aliens have super high futuristic technology.

I wouldn't mind a genetic transfer from the Doctor. Call it what you like.

So I guess it would be bad form to go through his pockets and look for loose change.

I forgot - no money.

If that's all they needed to "disguise" themselves, then why didn't the Doctor and the plasmavore just draw the big "X" on their hands?

This was an excellent introduction to Martha, and a pretty darned good adventure, too. I have to admit I have a thing for rhinos. Like them. But I think the ones on the Serengeti might be a little brighter than the Judoon.

That little bit aside, though I liked the way the script made the onlookers act believably - which isn't always the case in Who. (The bit with Martha's colleague warning her not to open the windows would be the first thing I'd say, but sometimes Who writers make onlookers extra-stoopid...it's a little thing, but pleasant.)

Of course, the rest of the script is gloriously illogical, which is fine with me (I just want the little things to be believable.)

And, upon further thought and viewing, I think I get a kick out of Martha's family. I don't blame her mother, *and* I don't blame her father, either.

BB watched and said he thought Runaway Bride and Smith and Jones contained some of Tennant's most controlled acting to date. "He was manic where he needed to be, and quiet when he needed to be," says BB. "Not manic all the time." I'm looking forward to more good acting decisions on Tennant's part!

I really feel like Tennant is more settled in the role now. As in, he got over his fanboy excitment. As someone who loved him throught S2, I can only look forward to an even better year.

Awesome reference, Chorusgirl. There is a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

Which reminds me of what I thought about Martha's male colleague--Morgenstern, was that his name? Of course he exaggerated his importance in his interview immediately after the hospital landed back in London, and seemed rather full of himself when we heard him on the radio. That's expected on TV: people who toot their own horns are shown to be hypocrites and liars while the people who actually did the rescue work eschew or are denied the spotlight. But the truth was, he actually WAS pretty brave and sensible when he confronted with the Judoon, and was speaking in awestruck tones on the radio about something that actually WAS awesome--that is, going to the moon. He may have overdone it and enjoyed it a bit too much, but was was actually bragging about something worth bragging about, which I found forgivable and maybe even a bit endearing.

RTD is a wonderful writer/editor when it comes to this. I've always noticed how he seems to take the human condition as the most serious part of the story. It's as if the man has studied psychology.

Oh Martha... I just love her to death!

Oh, me too. I loved how Martha was just caught up in the wonder of it all, reacting with awe, wonder, and absolute bravery. I cheered a little when she grabbed the price-checker from the rhinalien and scanned the Plasmavore.


I hope this doesn't mean a second Doctor is being called.

Sorry. I've been watching BtVS reruns all week.

So before you started watching this show, did you think that was a sentence you would ever say?

Oh, I manage to slip it into a conversation at least once a week.

Wow. Martha made a great first impression with me. Rose was sweet and had the human touch and all that, but I'm really looking forward to Martha's smarts. I hope she's allowed to keep them, considering the common companion affliction of acting stupid when in the Doctor's presence. I can easily see why he's so taken with her.

The Doctor was on speed, though, even worse than normal. Wow. There were times I think I only got every other word that flew out of his mouth. Still, loved the messy hair and the tragic loss of the sonic screwdriver. I was also ridiculously happy to see that he'd gotten new Converse -- only for him to have to chuck them in the bin halfway through! Back to his tried-and-true white ones, at the end there, and it was admittedly quite cute for him to be running around barefoot.

The Jadoon -- when they first came in, I was groaning as I thought they were the old Doctor Who nemeses the potato head men (the Sontaran are apparently their real names). I was quite happy to see that it wasn't those bad guys! I really like these guys. Loved the sharpies.



That was great. Also about how he can't cross the time streams, except to perform cheap, impressive tricks (sorry, forgot the exact quote).



Maybe because he hadn't prepared? Nine seemed to prepare for the change? I dunno, I'm just guessing.

D.C.,

Yes! I was struck by him, too, and was very glad that he didn't get lunched. I really agree with the idea that RTD understands and pushes that.


Heh.

I also loved the "bigger on the inside" bit. And how cute was David with the tie and the "that's how it's done!" And the wink at Martha in the beginning!

Six didn't have a sonic screwdriver at all. It got destroyed during Five's run because John Nathan Turner thought it was used as an ex Deus Machina all the time. Seven only used it during the TVM.

And One didn't have one either, since Two was the first Doctor to use it.

Didn't RTD at one point want to make sure that the Doctor used his wits more than the screwdriver to get out of situations?

Well, originally in the UK these two episodes aired four months apart, which would seem to be more than enough time (not that it's all that easy to figure out how far apart they were in the show's timeline, but that's a whole other (massively spoiled for US viewers) thread)



Aw, I love the traditional "Bigger on the inside" line, and also the standard "go inside, stop short, run back outside, carefully walk a circle around the entire box, then slowly, tentitively step back inside" move. I feel disappointed whenever we get a TARDIS newbie who doesn't do both.




Not to mention, it would take far too long to go through the Doctor's pockets because they're (say it with me kids...,) Bigger On The Inside!

This was kind of a minor, light hearted episode in which to start the season off. Fairly comical situation, the plasmavore villain was creepy scary but also creepy funny, No real Time War PTSD angst or hints of a "darker" Doctor, just some pining for Rose which at this point doesn't seem unreasonable. I thought it was a terrific introduction for Martha Jones, although her family was not so lucky, in fact I'd say their introduction here was completely botched. It was a perfectly fine, entertaining episode as far as it went, but as the first episode of the season I found myself wishing it had just a little more weight to it.




Which goes to why the Sci-Fi channel broadcasts are essential even to those who've already seen the episodes by other means: Closed Captioning.



If anything, I'd think it would be the opposite: he'd have to make a special effort & prepare himself *not* to regenerate and thus ruin the little con he was trying to run on her.

If anyone really wants to know (and correct me if I'm wrong - they are dates only, summarized from the thread mentioned): TRB was Christmas 2006 and it is hypothesized that S&J is sometime in Spring 2008.


Too bad we really don't know the true amount of time for the Doctor between TRB and S&J. We can figure it out for our timeline, but not for his as he as the benefit of the TARDIS to hop about with .

Oh dear.

I didn't care for that look of thwarted longing that Martha was throwing at Ten in that last scene there at all. I thought that this companion was meant to be sturdily romantically unimpressed with the Doctor and capable of calling him on his shit? Didn't I read that somewhere? I thought that I had. Maybe I just dreamed it? It was a very long time ago.

I found Martha rather bland, really. Everything about her was fine conceptually -- medical student, the stable point in a financially comfortable but emotionally dysfunctional family, capable of asking informed Excellent Questions, etc. -- but the character as written seemed strangely flavorless to me. She seemed almost more like a compilation of character ideas than like a person.

I think that I prefer angst-dampened Ten to manic Ten.

LostLenore, I was afraid the Judoon were going to be Sontarans too, from those big helmets! And I, too, was most relieved when they weren't. I never did care much for the Sontarans. I loved the rhino police...er, I mean, Judoon, though. I'd be happy to see them return sometime. They seem as if they could be quite useful recurring aliens.

I'd actually really like it if a new companion walked inside the TARDIS and just shrugged, like "After all the other stuff I've just been through, this isn't so bad."

Heh. I'd love it if someone said, "It's a bit... low-tech, isn't it?"

Didn't Romana diss it for being old-fashioned?

Romana dissed everything. I'm still waiting for a companion to walk in and say how "beautiful" it is, because in reality, where on Earth will you be able to see something like that without needing an oxygen tank and a scuba license? Plus, the whole technology behind the TARDIS is just genius - a sentient being as a time machine.

I did love the villain, bendy straw and all. Her line about killing the child princess because she was all blonde, rosy-cheeked, and simpering? "Really, she had it coming." BWAH!

Was that a reference to a classic Who episode at all? Because I swear I've heard that in some other media - and not just fairy tales as a kid.

So even ugly rhino-faced space aliens have 6-pack abs. Dang.

Count me as one who really enjoyed this episode and is quite encouraged by the ability of the show to get on without Billie Piper. I liked Martha from the first moment she was on screen. I'm taking Ten's lead and not comparing her to Rose or trying to think of her as a replacement. I just enjoy her for what she is. She's easy on the eyes, too. :)



I understand where you're coming from, but at the same time, that's been the way new major characters have been introduced in the RTD era. The series one premiere was nonsense. The Christmas Invasion was nonsense (the heaviest of the three, though, as it did touch on Torchwood). This episode was nonsense. I think that's good ... the point of those episodes was to introduce and develop new characters (Nine and Rose; Ten; and Martha, respectively). I'd rather have a lighter episode so I can do just that - get to know the important new people and not lose them in tons of long-term arc-significant events or high-drama angst.