About
- Broadcast: 5 May 2007
- Viewers: 7.19m
- Availability: DVD Series 3: Volume 2
Synopsis
Martha returns home. Could this be the end of her travels with the Doctor? When she discovers her family is caught up in the scheming of Professor Lazarus and his Genetic Manipulation Device, it becomes a fight for survival, as human DNA twists into monstrous form.
Credits
Written by Stephen Greenhorn
Directed by Richard Clarke
The Doctor – David Tennant
Martha Jones – Freema Agyeman
Tish Jones – Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Leo Jones – Reggie Yates
Francine Jones – Adjoa Andoh
Lazarus – Mark Gatiss
Lady Thaw – Thelma Barlow
Party Guest – Lucy O’Connell
Mysterious Man – Bertie Carvel
Quotes
The Doctor: "Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Jones. I’ve heard a lot about you."
Francine: "Have you? What have you heard then?"
The Doctor: "Well, you know… that you’re Martha’s mother and… um… no, actually, that’s… that’s about it. We haven’t had much time to chat, you know. We’ve been… busy."
Francine: "Busy? Doing what exactly?"
The Doctor: "Oh… you know… stuff."
Professor Lazarus:"That’s an interesting perfume, what is it?"
Tish: "Soap!"
The Doctor: "You can’t control it, the mutation’s too strong. Killing those people won’t help you. You’re a fool. A vain old man who thought he could defy nature, only nature got her own back, didn’t she? You’re a joke, Lazarus! A footnote in the history of failure."
The Doctor: "It really shouldn’t take that long just to reverse the polarity. I must be a bit out of practice."
Professor Lazarus: "I find that nothing’s ever exactly like you expect. There’s always something to surprise you. Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act… "
The Doctor: " …falls the shadow’."
Professor Lazarus: "So the mysterious Doctor knows his Eliot. I’m impressed."
The Doctor: "Wouldn’t have thought you had time for poetry, Lazarus, what with you being so busy to defy the laws of nature and everything."
Professor Lazarus: "You’re so sentimental, Doctor. Maybe you are older than you look."
The Doctor: "I’m old enough to know that a longer life isn’t always a better one. In the end you just get tired. Tired of the struggle, tired of losing everyone that matters to you, tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you’ll end up alone."
Professor Lazarus: "That’s a price worth paying."
Professor Lazarus: " I swore I’d never face death like that again. So defenceless. I would arm myself, fight back, defeat it."
The Doctor: "That’s what you were trying to do today?"
Professor Lazarus: "That’s what I did today."
The Doctor: "What about the other people who died?"
Professor Lazarus: "They were nothing. I changed the course of history."
The Doctor: "Any of them might have done too. You think history’s only made with equations? Facing death is part of being human. You can’t change that."
Professor Lazarus: "No, Doctor. Avoiding death, that’s being human. It’s our strongest impulse, to cling to life with every fibre of being. I’m only doing what everyone before me has tried to do. I’ve simply been more… successful."
Francine: "Martha, it’s your mother. Please phone me back, I’m begging you. I know who this Doctor really is. I know he’s dangerous. You’re going to get yourself killed. Please trust me. This information comes from Harold Saxon himself! You’re not safe!"
The Doctor: "Some people live more in 20 years than they do in 80. It’s not the time that matters, it’s the person."
Notes
This episode is set one day after Smith and Jones which would place events sometime in 2008.
Mark Gatiss (Lazarus) wrote episodes, The Unquiet Dead and The Idiots Lantern.
The aged Lazarus make-up took three hours to apply each day.
Mr. Saxon first name is revealed, Harold. He is also revealed to be funding the experiment.
Second appearance of Tish Jones (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) Leo Jones (Reggie Yates) and Francine Jones (Adjoa Andoh).
"Reversing the polarity" was a frequently-used phrase during Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the third Doctor.
Filming locations included Wells Cathedral, in Somerset and The National Museum of Wales in Cardiff city centre.