3x01 Smith and Jones
3x01 “Smith and Jones”
Grade: B+
The Doctor: Welcome aboard, Miss Jones.
Martha Jones: It's my pleasure Mister Smith.
Oh Martha. Ok, I’m going to be upfront and get this out of the way, so you know where I’m coming from for series 3. I don’t like Martha’s series 3 story arc. It’s just too close to home for me. Martha and I share a lot of the same qualities, including flaws. I am always the one keeping a cool head in emergency situations, approaching things rationally. I’m the academic one in my family, going to a good school and pursing post graduate education. In my family, I tend to be the peacemaker, the mediator, the one who is holding everyone together. I have that family that always seems to have some sort of crisis or meltdown where I’m left feeling as if I’m the only sane one, just like Martha at the end of this episode. I also have been in her position so many times when it comes to guys. So many futile crushes. So many moments like Martha has in “Human Nature”, “he had to go and fall in love with a human, and it wasn’t me”. Thus, Martha’s whole unrequited love storyline is just a bit too painful for me to watch and enjoy. Watching your own flaws unfold on the TV screen in front of you is just not good times. So that’s why I’m not a huge fan of her series 3 story arc and didn’t really start loving her until The Last of the Time Lords. I mean, Martha is definitely awesome in her own right and watching the episodes in retrospect, I can appreciate her, but yeah. Her series 3 storyline is never going to be fun for me to watch and thus she’s never going to be my favorite character.
Plotwise, I think it's my favorite series opener. I mean, I think that "New Earth" is a lot more fun, but I really like the plot and story in "Smith and Jones". I LOVE the rain going up bit. It’s perfectly creepy without being scary or anything like that. It’s just a really awesome way to set an atmosphere of something being not quite right. The idea of an intergalactic police force is pretty neat. I like the Judoon. I think that in the Confidential RTD referred to them as “librarians” with the way that they catalogue people. Haha. Also, LOL, the budget clearly only had enough for one talking rhino head because all the others Judoon keep their helmets on at all time. The plasmavore is appropriately creepy too. Basically I just enjoy that this isn’t a straight forward plot. It’s not some bad guy trying to destroy or take over the world. Rather, the humans are just kind of an unfortunate casualty of the conflict between the Judoon and the plasmavore.
Outside of my ~issues with Martha’s series 3 arc, this episode is a nice introduction to Martha. It doesn’t hurt that Freema Ageymon is completely stunning.
Martha proves that she is calm and logical when faced with extraordinary circumstances. She reasons out that the windows in the hospital aren’t airtight, so there must be something protecting them. She doesn’t flip out when she realizes that they’re on the moon. Instead she has an air of wonder about her. I love that she kind of just jumps into saving the day with both feet.
The Doctor: We might die.
Martha Jones: We might not.
The Doctor: [gives a measuring look] Good.
I like that Martha figures out what the Doctor was intending to do and is able to get the Judoon to figure out that Florence was the plasmavore. I feel like Martha and the Doctor aren’t really on the same page when it comes to interpersonal stuff, but she works really well with him when it comes to practical stuff.
I also love that she points out that the Doctor’s space ship is made of wood. Hee! And I love that the Doctor mouths along “It’s bigger on the inside!” followed by the Doctor’s sarcastic, “really?! I hadn’t noticed!”.
The Doctor is at his adorably manic best in this episode. His messy fauxhawk hair is absolutely gorgeous.
And the way he raises one eyebrow when Martha says “oh you’re kidding me”? SO HOT. Unfortunately it needs to be said that this episode is the debut of the BLUE SUIT OF DOOOOOM. :|
Throughout this episode the Doctor has some extremely amusing dialogue, and I'm going to post a bit of it here, though there are many other gems throughout the episode.
The Doctor: Ah, you've got a little shop. I like a little shop!
Can I count this as a Rose reference since this is a call back to New Earth? No? Just a bit too batshit crazy of me? Yes? Sorry. Haha.
The Doctor: Judoon platoon upon the moon.
The bit where the Doctor pretends to be human is extremely amusing as well.
The Doctor: Have you seen? There are these... things. These... great, big space rhino things! I mean rhinos from space! And we're on the moon! Great big space rhinos, with guns, on the moon! And I only came in for my bunions! Look, they're all fixed now, perfectly good treatment, the nurses were lovely, I said to my wife, I said, I recommend this place to anyone. But then we end up on the moon! And...
[faltering]
The Doctor: did I mention the rhinos?
[getting the radiation out of his feet]
The Doctor: Ow! Itchy... itchy... itchy...
[takes the shoe off and throws it in the bin]
Martha Jones: You are completely mad!
The Doctor: You're right. I look daft with one shoe on.
I love that moment when the Doctor takes his sonic screwdriver out of the x-ray machine and it’s all burnt. Martha is trying to tell him something important, but he’s so fixated on his screwdriver and then he just tosses it out of the way. Lol. Ten. Seriously, this episode is chock-full of manic Ten. I LOVE HIM.
They got the requisite Doctor/Companion kiss out of the way early on this series! Haha. I think that this is perhaps the least epic of the required kisses. Nine/Rose was probably the most epic. Ten/Donna is pretty much the funniest thing ever and Ten/"Rose" was pretty hot as well as amusing. But poor Martha. “That was nothing?” And so it begins.
The Doctor isn’t really ready to be close to someone again. He doesn’t really want to be alone, but he’s not able to truly open up. He invites Martha along because he likes her and he likes being a show off, but poor Martha. The Doctor can’t really be there for her as a friend or anything else.
The way that the Doctor sort of “seduces” Martha into the Tardis is a bit reminiscent of the way that Nine convinced Rose to run off with him again at the end of "World War Three".
And I’m concluding this recap by rolling around in the Rose!angst. LOL. Whatever whatever. I love it and I do what I want..
Martha: I had a cousin, Adeola. She worked at Canary Warf. Never came home.
Doctor: I'm sorry.
Martha: Yeah.
Doctor: I was there. In the battle.
YOU CAN’T TELL ME THAT THE DOCTOR ISN’T ANGSTING ABOUT ROSE IN THAT MOMENT. And then of course the Doctor explicitly mentions Rose at the end of the episode.
Martha: But is there a crew? Like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?
Doctor: There’s me.
Martha: All on your own?
Doctor: Well, I sometimes have guests. I mean some friends, traveling alongside me. I had- it was recently- friend of mine. Rose, her name was. Rose. And... we were together. Anyway.
Martha: Where is she now?
Doctor: With her family. Happy. She’s fine. Not that you’re replacing her.
Martha: I never said I was.
Doctor: Just one trip. To say thanks. One trip and back home. I’d rather be on my own.
I see you, Doctor. I see you just brushing over the pain and telling yourself that she’s happy with her family because it hurts too much to remember her crying on Bad Wolf Bay. And he doesn’t want to have another companion. He’s not at all ready to open himself up to really caring about another person again. It hurt too much the last time.
Grade: B+
The Doctor: Welcome aboard, Miss Jones.
Martha Jones: It's my pleasure Mister Smith.
Oh Martha. Ok, I’m going to be upfront and get this out of the way, so you know where I’m coming from for series 3. I don’t like Martha’s series 3 story arc. It’s just too close to home for me. Martha and I share a lot of the same qualities, including flaws. I am always the one keeping a cool head in emergency situations, approaching things rationally. I’m the academic one in my family, going to a good school and pursing post graduate education. In my family, I tend to be the peacemaker, the mediator, the one who is holding everyone together. I have that family that always seems to have some sort of crisis or meltdown where I’m left feeling as if I’m the only sane one, just like Martha at the end of this episode. I also have been in her position so many times when it comes to guys. So many futile crushes. So many moments like Martha has in “Human Nature”, “he had to go and fall in love with a human, and it wasn’t me”. Thus, Martha’s whole unrequited love storyline is just a bit too painful for me to watch and enjoy. Watching your own flaws unfold on the TV screen in front of you is just not good times. So that’s why I’m not a huge fan of her series 3 story arc and didn’t really start loving her until The Last of the Time Lords. I mean, Martha is definitely awesome in her own right and watching the episodes in retrospect, I can appreciate her, but yeah. Her series 3 storyline is never going to be fun for me to watch and thus she’s never going to be my favorite character.
Plotwise, I think it's my favorite series opener. I mean, I think that "New Earth" is a lot more fun, but I really like the plot and story in "Smith and Jones". I LOVE the rain going up bit. It’s perfectly creepy without being scary or anything like that. It’s just a really awesome way to set an atmosphere of something being not quite right. The idea of an intergalactic police force is pretty neat. I like the Judoon. I think that in the Confidential RTD referred to them as “librarians” with the way that they catalogue people. Haha. Also, LOL, the budget clearly only had enough for one talking rhino head because all the others Judoon keep their helmets on at all time. The plasmavore is appropriately creepy too. Basically I just enjoy that this isn’t a straight forward plot. It’s not some bad guy trying to destroy or take over the world. Rather, the humans are just kind of an unfortunate casualty of the conflict between the Judoon and the plasmavore.
Outside of my ~issues with Martha’s series 3 arc, this episode is a nice introduction to Martha. It doesn’t hurt that Freema Ageymon is completely stunning.
Martha proves that she is calm and logical when faced with extraordinary circumstances. She reasons out that the windows in the hospital aren’t airtight, so there must be something protecting them. She doesn’t flip out when she realizes that they’re on the moon. Instead she has an air of wonder about her. I love that she kind of just jumps into saving the day with both feet.
The Doctor: We might die.
Martha Jones: We might not.
The Doctor: [gives a measuring look] Good.
I like that Martha figures out what the Doctor was intending to do and is able to get the Judoon to figure out that Florence was the plasmavore. I feel like Martha and the Doctor aren’t really on the same page when it comes to interpersonal stuff, but she works really well with him when it comes to practical stuff.
I also love that she points out that the Doctor’s space ship is made of wood. Hee! And I love that the Doctor mouths along “It’s bigger on the inside!” followed by the Doctor’s sarcastic, “really?! I hadn’t noticed!”.
The Doctor is at his adorably manic best in this episode. His messy fauxhawk hair is absolutely gorgeous.
And the way he raises one eyebrow when Martha says “oh you’re kidding me”? SO HOT. Unfortunately it needs to be said that this episode is the debut of the BLUE SUIT OF DOOOOOM. :|
Throughout this episode the Doctor has some extremely amusing dialogue, and I'm going to post a bit of it here, though there are many other gems throughout the episode.
The Doctor: Ah, you've got a little shop. I like a little shop!
Can I count this as a Rose reference since this is a call back to New Earth? No? Just a bit too batshit crazy of me? Yes? Sorry. Haha.
The Doctor: Judoon platoon upon the moon.
The bit where the Doctor pretends to be human is extremely amusing as well.
The Doctor: Have you seen? There are these... things. These... great, big space rhino things! I mean rhinos from space! And we're on the moon! Great big space rhinos, with guns, on the moon! And I only came in for my bunions! Look, they're all fixed now, perfectly good treatment, the nurses were lovely, I said to my wife, I said, I recommend this place to anyone. But then we end up on the moon! And...
[faltering]
The Doctor: did I mention the rhinos?
[getting the radiation out of his feet]
The Doctor: Ow! Itchy... itchy... itchy...
[takes the shoe off and throws it in the bin]
Martha Jones: You are completely mad!
The Doctor: You're right. I look daft with one shoe on.
I love that moment when the Doctor takes his sonic screwdriver out of the x-ray machine and it’s all burnt. Martha is trying to tell him something important, but he’s so fixated on his screwdriver and then he just tosses it out of the way. Lol. Ten. Seriously, this episode is chock-full of manic Ten. I LOVE HIM.
They got the requisite Doctor/Companion kiss out of the way early on this series! Haha. I think that this is perhaps the least epic of the required kisses. Nine/Rose was probably the most epic. Ten/Donna is pretty much the funniest thing ever and Ten/"Rose" was pretty hot as well as amusing. But poor Martha. “That was nothing?” And so it begins.
The Doctor isn’t really ready to be close to someone again. He doesn’t really want to be alone, but he’s not able to truly open up. He invites Martha along because he likes her and he likes being a show off, but poor Martha. The Doctor can’t really be there for her as a friend or anything else.
The way that the Doctor sort of “seduces” Martha into the Tardis is a bit reminiscent of the way that Nine convinced Rose to run off with him again at the end of "World War Three".
And I’m concluding this recap by rolling around in the Rose!angst. LOL. Whatever whatever. I love it and I do what I want..
Martha: I had a cousin, Adeola. She worked at Canary Warf. Never came home.
Doctor: I'm sorry.
Martha: Yeah.
Doctor: I was there. In the battle.
YOU CAN’T TELL ME THAT THE DOCTOR ISN’T ANGSTING ABOUT ROSE IN THAT MOMENT. And then of course the Doctor explicitly mentions Rose at the end of the episode.
Martha: But is there a crew? Like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?
Doctor: There’s me.
Martha: All on your own?
Doctor: Well, I sometimes have guests. I mean some friends, traveling alongside me. I had- it was recently- friend of mine. Rose, her name was. Rose. And... we were together. Anyway.
Martha: Where is she now?
Doctor: With her family. Happy. She’s fine. Not that you’re replacing her.
Martha: I never said I was.
Doctor: Just one trip. To say thanks. One trip and back home. I’d rather be on my own.
I see you, Doctor. I see you just brushing over the pain and telling yourself that she’s happy with her family because it hurts too much to remember her crying on Bad Wolf Bay. And he doesn’t want to have another companion. He’s not at all ready to open himself up to really caring about another person again. It hurt too much the last time.