Smith and Jones (Doctor Who)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
183 - "Smith and Jones"
Doctor Who episode

As the Doctor lies unconscious, the Judoon evacuate to avoid an electromagnetic pulse.
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)
Writer Russell T. Davies
Director Charles Palmer
Script editor Simon Winstone
Producer Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code 3.1
Series Series 3
Length 1 episode, 45 mins
Originally broadcast 31 March 2007[1]
7:00 PM
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"The Runaway Bride" "The Shakespeare Code"
IMDb profile

"Smith and Jones" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 31 March 2007,[1] and is the first episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It sees the debut of Freema Agyeman as new companion Martha Jones. According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 8.7 million viewers and was the fourth most popular broadcast on British television in that week.

Contents

On meeting the mysterious John Smith, medical student Martha Jones finds her life turned upside-down. A lightning storm and some upside-down rain send the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon, and Martha must cope with the brutal Judoon, an intergalactic police force, and a blood-sucking Plasmavore. John Smith, her ally in the crisis, soon proves he is no ordinary patient.

The Doctor is incognito in a London hospital, pretending to be a patient, to investigate the appearance of plasma coils on the hospital. Martha is a particularly astute medical student. On her way into a hospital, she bumps into a strange man who pauses in front of her and removes his tie, saying, "Like so, see?"

A brutal mercenary police force, the rhinoceros-like Judoon, who have no jurisdiction on Earth, transport the hospital to the Moon by an "H2O Scoop" in order to apprehend and execute Florence Finnegan, a shapeshifting bloodsucker (a "plasmavore") who has the ability to appear as whatever species whose blood she consumes. Mrs Finnegan attempts to evade capture by sucking the blood of humans. Her first victim is Mr Stoker, the head doctor, and so she is registered as a human, but is cleverly tricked into sucking the Doctor's blood, believing him to be human. He collapses, unconscious. She is apprehended by the Judoon, pointed out by Martha, and identified as non-human and executed by the Judoon for the murder of the child princess of Padrivole Regency Nine.

Meanwhile before expiring the bloodsucker has modified an MRI scanner to make it destroy all intelligent life on the Moon and on the half of Earth facing the Moon. Martha uses CPR on the Doctor's two hearts and manages to revive him, and he turns off the scanner. Oxygen levels are low and the occupants of the hospital are near death, but as they depart the Judoon return the hospital safely to Earth.

Martha attends her brother's birthday party, but it breaks down into a family row. She notices the Doctor and follows him. He goes to the TARDIS and invites Martha to go on a trip with him as a reward for her help. Martha hesitates until the Doctor says he can travel in time as well, and proves it by traveling back to the previous morning and taking off his tie in front of Martha (later explaining, "Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden--except for cheap tricks"). After this demonstration, Martha steps into the TARDIS (noting that it's bigger on the inside). The Doctor refers to Rose Tyler and emphasizes that Martha is not replacing her but is only going to get one trip as he prefers to travel alone.

  • Martha asks the Doctor if he has a brother and he replies, "Not any more". A brother to the Doctor was previously mentioned in the spin-off New Adventure novel Tears of the Oracle by Justin Richards, which was edited by Simon Winstone, script editor for this episode. The brother's name, or at least the name he used, was Irving Braxiatel.
  • David Tennant says in Doctor Who Confidential that he feels some time has passed since "The Runaway Bride".
  • Morgenstern refers to a "Saxon" during his radio broadcast, claiming that the events of the episode prove Saxon's theories about alien life correct. A "Vote Saxon" poster, identical to one seen in the Torchwood episode "Captain Jack Harkness", and also in the trailer for the series, can be seen in the alleyway when the Doctor collects Martha.
  • The alias "John Smith" was given to the Doctor by Jamie McCrimmon in the serial The Wheel in Space and has been used as an alias by the Doctor on multiple occasions since, most notably during his third incarnation. Prior to this episode, his most recent use of the alias was in School Reunion.
  • At one point, the Doctor wears the same dressing gown he wore in "The Christmas Invasion", which originally belonged to Jackie Tyler's friend, Howard.
  • Martha refers to the spaceship crashing into Big Ben in "Aliens of London", the events of "The Christmas Invasion" or "The Runaway Bride", and the Battle of Canary Wharf against the Cybermen from "Army of Ghosts". She also recalls the loss of her cousin Adeola who "worked at Canary Wharf" and disappeared (a reference to the "Army of Ghosts" character played by the same actress [2]). The Doctor tells her he was at Canary Wharf (but does not reveal to her that he had killed Adeola who had been taken over by the Cybermen).
  • The Doctor voices his approval of the hospital shop, a reference to "New Earth".
  • The Doctor grabs Martha's hand and says, "Run!" when the Slabs burst through the door. This was the first thing the Ninth Doctor said and did with Rose in "Rose".
  • The Doctor facetiously asks for a banana milk shake. He previously mentioned the fruit in "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "The Doctor Dances".
  • The Doctor fires up the helmic regulator and the gravitic anomaliser before taking off in the TARDIS. The helmic regulator was last mentioned in The Ark in Space, and the gravitic anomaliser played a role in The Horns of Nimon. In The Pirate Planet, the Doctor reads off gravitic anomaliser readings to Romana in reference to machinery in the Captain's engine room.

  • Martha refers to Zovirax, a cold sore treatment. In the television advertisements for Zovirax a woman goes about her daily routine hiding her cold sores by wearing a motorbike helmet similar to those worn by the Slabs.
  • The Doctor says that he once had a laser spanner which was stolen by Emily Pankhurst. Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the founders of the early 20th century British Suffragette movement.
  • The name on Mr. Stoker's door is B. Stoker. This was pointed out as a possible reference to Bram Stoker by Freema Agyeman on the episode's audio commentary made available on the BBC's Doctor Who website.
  • The Doctor implies that he assisted Benjamin Franklin during his famous 1752 electricity experiment involving lightning, a kite and a key.

  • This is the first episode not to have a pre-credits sequence since the Ninth Doctor episode "Rose" (another season opener, also introducing a new companion).
  • The first use of Martha's theme in the music for the episode is sung by Melanie Pappenheim according to the Doctor Who Confidential episode "Meet Martha Jones". She previously featured in "The Doctor's Theme", "Bad Wolf Theme" and "Doomsday".
  • The music at the start of the episode, when Martha is talking on the phone to her family, is "Sunshine" by Arrested Development.
  • "Smith and Jones", along with "The Shakespeare Code" and "Gridlock", was released as a 'vanilla' DVD with no special features on 21 May 2007.
  • Royal Hope Hospital is mainly based on shots of Singleton Hospital in Swansea. The interior of the Hospital, specifically the foyer, was filmed in Swansea University's Library.

  • The first North American broadcast of the episode occurred on 18 June 2007, when the CBC aired it in Canada. "Smith and Jones" takes place after the 2006 Christmas special "The Runaway Bride", but the CBC aired them in reverse order, showing "Smith and Jones" immediately prior to "Bride".
  • "Smith and Jones" made its US broadcast debut on 6 July 2007, on the Sci Fi Channel, directly following "The Runaway Bride".

  1. ^ a b Johnson, Richard. "Master of the universe", The Sunday Telegraph, 2007-03-11, p. 3. Retrieved on 2007-03-12. 
  2. ^ Davies, Russell T. Interview with Lizo Mzimba. Exclusive Q&A: The brains behind Dr Who (Q&A). CBBC Newsround. 2006-09-12.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.