Back from the dead

Doctor Who – The Lazarus Experiment

[WARNING - MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

A great episode with chases down corridors and a really scary monster – almost classic Who!

The Doctor and Martha return to present day Earth, after Martha’s had her ‘one trip’. But there’s something happening which the Doctor decides is more interesting, so he sticks around – Professor Lazarus is going to “change what it means to be human”. A bit of a party and a few whizzy effects later and Lazarus (brilliantly played by Mark Gattis, writer of The Unquiet Dead and The Idiot’s Lantern) has demonstrated his machine which alters his DNA to enable him to appear young again. But he’s been messing with forces he doesn’t fully understand (how often does that happen in Doctor Who??) and his restructured DNA causes him to mutate into a monster which feeds off the life of other people.

Cue lots of screaming and running down corridors. There’s some great moments, including the Doctor explaining that he’d “reversed the polarity”, which was a delight to hear again (this was one of Jon Pertwee’s Doctor’s favourite phrases). There’s been some great old classic Who moments creeping back into this series – what with the Macra the other week, and the reversing polarity this, not forgetting the mention of Gallifrey in the Christmas episode.

The episode also saw more than just a mention for ‘Mr Saxon’ (who’s first name it seems is Harold), who I think must be this year’s Bad Wolf. We’ll have to wait to find out more …