Doctor Who:
The Lazarus Experiment
By Stephen Greenhorn
Reviewed By Paul Bowler
" Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus. I am seventy six years old and I am reborn!"
The Doctor (David Tennant) and Martha (Freema Angyeman)
return to present day London, the TARDIS materialises inside Martha’s flat,
only a few hours after she first met the Doctor and stepped into to the TARDIS.
After listening to a message from Martha’s mother, Francine (Adjoa Andoh),
telling them that her sister, Trish (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), is on TV, they watch a
news report about the elderly Professor Lazarus (Mark Gatiss) who says he has
made a startling discovery that will change what it means to be human.
Having changed his mind about leaving, the Doctor
accompanies Martha to the launch party, where also Trish works, where they meet
up with Francine and Martha’s brother, Leo (Reggie Yates), before watching
Professor Lazarus as he steps into his machine. Suddenly, the machine begins to
run out of control, forcing the Doctor to intervene and stop the device
overloading. Professor Lazarus emerges from the machine, his DNA completely
rejuvenated, now a much younger man. The Doctor has doubts about the process,
so remembering they had a DNA sample after Lazarus kissed Martha’s hand, they
sneak off to the Professors lab to analyse it, where they are concerned to
discover the sample is indeed fluctuating and highly unstable.
Professor Lazarus leaves his guests and returns to his
private office with his partner, the elderly Lady Thaw (Thelma Barlow), but
things turn nasty when he spurns her advances and she threatens to get Mr Saxon
the experiments funding. Enraged, Lazarus suddenly transforms into a horrific
scorpion like creature and kills her. After returning to his human form, having
drained the life from Lady Thaw to stabilize his DNA, Lazarus returns to the
party and lures Trish up to the roof. Fortunately the Doctor and Martha
discover Lady Thaw’s dried out corpse and get to the roof in time to save Trish
from Lazarus before he changes again.
With the monstrous Lazarus creature in hot pursuit, the
Doctor gives Martha the sonic screwdriver so that she can use it override the
buildings security systems and help Trish get the guests safely out of the
building. Meanwhile, the Doctor is hunted by Lazarus, where he eventually ends
up trapped inside the Professors machine with Martha, who returned to help him.
The Doctor reverses the polarity of the machine and turns it against the
monster, apparently making Lazarus human again. The Police and ambulance arrive
to deal with the emergency, but Lazarus becomes a monster again, and he quickly
escapes. The Doctor, Martha, and Trish track him down inside Southwark
Cathedral, where the Doctor makes one last effort to reason with the Professor,
but he becomes a monster again and turns on them. The creature chases Martha
and Trish into the Bell Tower, giving the Doctor time to reach the Cathedral’s
pipe organ, where the intense sound waves disrupts the creatures horribly
mutated DNA and subsequently causes Lazarus to fall to his death, Afterwards
they see that the Professors crumpled body has reverted back to its normal,
elderly, human form.
Back at Martha’s flat the Doctor offers to take Martha on
one more adventure in the TARDIS, but she wants to be more than just a
passenger, and refuses. The Doctor relents, saying she means much more to him
now, he agrees with her, and together they leave in the TARDIS for their next
adventure. As the TARIDS fades away, Martha’s mother leaves a message on her
answering machine, and warns her daughter about the Doctor…
The Lazarus Experiment (2007) is the sixth episode from
the third season of Doctor Who, staring David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, and
Freema Angyeman as his new companion, Martha Jones. This is a really good
episode that sees the Doctor and Martha return to the present day, providing
the perfect opportunity to get to know more about Martha and her family. The
Doctor also gets a chance to wear his dinner jacket again when they attend the
launch party for Lazarus’ experiment, and it quickly becomes apparent that
Martha’s mother is very suspicious of the Doctor - for reasons that will become
much more apparent later in the season.
David Tennant and Freema Angyeman are excellent as the
Doctor and Martha. After losing Rose the Doctor seemed very reluctant to grant
Martha full companion status, saying that her travels in the TARDIS would only
be for a short time. Now after all their adventures, its clear just how much
Martha is beginning to mean to him, although he is still reluctant to get too
close to her, as he is still getting over Rose’s sudden departure. The Doctor
begins to give Martha a lot more responsibility as well, trusting her with the
sonic screwdriver, and in the final battle with the Lazarus monster in the
Cathedral. I really like how Martha stands up for herself at the end of the
story, telling the Doctor how she is not prepared to be a passenger any more.
Mark Gatiss also gives a terrific performance as
Professor Lazarus, a man who ultimately becomes consumed by his own experiment.
The makeup used for the elderly Lazarus is really convincing, which makes
transformation by the machine all the more startling, when he emerges from the
device as a younger man. The Doctor notes that the experiment is very similar
to the Time Lord regeneration process, indeed, it seems to restore Lazarus to
his youthful self, but the Doctor’s suspicions are confirmed when the professor
becomes a monster. It’s interesting how Mark Gatiss plays Lazarus, especially
after he becomes young, where the character is visibly repulsed by his former
companion, Lady Thaw, and instead turns his lecherous attentions to Martha’s
sister, Trish. Lazarus is driven to feed on the substance of others to maintain
his own DNA, his sudden change in personality is quite disturbing, its as if
the machine has exemplified the darker aspects of his mind as well as his body.
The story by Stephen Greenhorn rattles along at a breakneck
pace, with the action hardly letting up for a moment once the Doctor and Martha
arrive to watch the experiment. Drawing influences from such films as The Fly,
and the 1953 TV series The Quatermass Experiment, director Richard Clark crafts
a superbly creepy tale, especially the final showdown in the Cathedral where
the mutated Lazarus falls to his death. Indeed, the special effects used to
bring the Lazarus creature to life are superb, and really help build the
tension as the monster rampages after the Doctor and Martha.
The Lazarus Experiment is a brilliant story, featuring
some amazing special effects, and with great performances from the cast, it
remains one of my favourites from this season. We also get hints about the
mysterious Mr Saxon in this episode as well. A very traditional Doctor Who
story from beginning to end, full of nail biting action, The Lazarus Experiment
is a real highlight of the third season.
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