The Lazarus Experiment

183 – "The Lazarus Experiment"
Doctor Who episode
The mutated Lazarus bears down on a party guest.
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)
Others Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Tish Jones Reggie Yates – Leo Jones Adjoa Andoh – Francine Jones Mark Gatiss – Professor Richard Lazarus Thelma Barlow – Lady Thaw Lucy O'Connell – Party Guest Bertie Carvel – Mysterious Man
Production
Writer	Stephen Greenhorn
Director	Richard Clark
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Producer	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	3.6
Series	Series 3
Length	45 minutes
Originally broadcast	5 May 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "Evolution of the Daleks" "42"

"The Lazarus Experiment" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 5 May 2007 and is the sixth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It stars David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones as his companion, played by Freema Agyeman. On Earth, in present day London, The Doctor, Martha and her family attend a scientific demonstration by the aged Professor Lazarus. But when the experiment goes wrong, a horrific product of genetic manipulation is unleashed, leaving a trail of death in its mission to live indefinitely.

According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 7.19 million viewers and was the twelfth most popular broadcast on British television in that week. Executive producer Russell T Davies has stated that he directed writer Stephen Greenhorn to base this episode on the typical Marvel Comics plotline: "a good old mad scientist, with an experiment gone wrong, and an outrageous supervillain on the loose."

Plot

The Doctor returns Martha to her flat, twelve hours after she first stepped in the TARDIS. Clued in by a telephone call by Martha's mother Francine that her sister Tish is on the television, they watch a news report with a statement from the elderly Professor Richard Lazarus, announcing that later that night, with one demonstration, he will "change what it means to be human." The Doctor leaves in the TARDIS, but quickly rematerialises when he recognises the impact of Lazarus' statement.

They dress for the formal dinner party at Lazarus Labs, and meet up with Tish, who works for Lazarus; Francine, Martha's mother; and Leo, Martha's brother; Francine is immediately suspicious of the Doctor's interest in Martha. Their conversation is interrupted as Lazarus announced he will perform a miracle and steps into a capsule in the center of the reception room. Technicians start the machine, filling the capsule with strange energy, and the Doctor quickly steps in when he believes that the system is overloading. As the machine comes to a stop, Lazarus leaves the capsule, now a much younger man; his machine is able to manipulate the subject's DNA to make them younger. The Doctor is concerned about unknown side effects; Martha points out that they obtained a DNA sample when Lazarus kissed her hand earlier. The two race to Lazarus's lab and get a look at that DNA: it is fluctuating, and thus unstable.

As they investigate, Lazarus returns to his office on another floor with his business and romantic partner, the elderly Lady Thaw. She insists that she be the next to undergo the process so they can be young together, but he refuses, saying he didn't want to "waste another life with [her]." As she threatens to have Mr. Saxon pull their funding, Lazarus begins to undergo a transformation into a scorpion-like being, and kills Lady Thaw by draining her life energy, leaving her a desiccated corpse. After returning to his human form, Lazarus returns to the reception; meanwhile, the Doctor and Martha find Thaw's body, the Doctor surmising that Lazarus must drain the life energy to keep his DNA stable.

Lazarus goes up to the roof with Tish, who seems attracted to the young Lazarus. They talk for a few minutes in that desolate spot, and then the Doctor and Martha run in and warn Tish; Lazarus transforms, but the Doctor, Martha and Tish escape to the elevator. Tish is shocked by the giant scorpion Lazarus became: "I was going to snog him!" As Lazarus tries to get through the locked door, the security protocol starts locking down the entire building. The Doctor, Martha and Tish take the stairs down and warn the group gathered on the main floor of their danger, quickly followed by the monstrous Lazarus. The Doctor gives Martha the sonic screwdriver so she can unlock the security doors; Lazarus kills one guest while the other guests flee the room in panic, and then the Doctor attempts to reason with him while Lazarus chases him through the building. Martha rejoins the Doctor, returning his sonic screwdriver, and the two take shelter in Lazarus' device, the Doctor believing he will not harm his own invention.

The Doctor explains to Martha that Lazarus's transformation is the result of an evolutionary throwback locked away in dormant human genes that are now becoming dominant. Unfortunately, Lazarus manages to activate his device, but the Doctor reverses the polarity, causing the field to affect only Lazarus outside of the capsule. They emerge to find Lazarus in his human form naked and apparently dead.

As the police and medical workers arrive to take care of the wounded, Lazarus' body is taken by an ambulance. However, when the Doctor hears a nearby crash, he, Martha, and Tish race to discover the ambulance has crashed, its drivers drained of life. They find that Lazarus, alive but human, has taken shelter in Southwark Cathedral. The Doctor tries to reason with Lazarus but is unable to stop him transforming again. Martha and Tish, under the Doctor's orders, lure the creature to the top of the Cathedral's bell tower, while the Doctor manipulates the church's pipe organ to produce the maximum volume it can. The vibrations caused by the organ interfere with Lazarus' manipulated DNA, and he falls to his death to the floor below, returning both to his human form and his original age.

Martha and the Doctor return to her flat, and the Doctor invites Martha to come along for "one more trip." She refuses, saying she doesn't want to come along as just a passenger anymore, like he's doing her a favor. The Doctor agrees that she has always been much more than that, and they board the TARDIS. As the machine dematerialises from the flat, Martha's voice mail records Francine's warning to her daughter about the dangers of the Doctor as told to her by Mr. Saxon.

Continuity

• According to Russell T Davies in the Radio Times, the trap that is set by the professor's "enigmatic paymaster" will close in "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords". Ultimately, this trap is revealed to be the Master's use of the reverse process to age the Doctor.
• This episode continues the theme of genetic manipulation which played a part in "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks".
• On a number of occasions during the episode, the Doctor notes the similarities between the Time Lord regeneration process and Lazarus' experiments.
• The Doctor talks about having seen the Blitz first hand; he visited this time period in "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances". In the later episode Victory of the Daleks, the Doctor visits Winston Churchill during the London Blitz, and it is apparent that they are already good friends.
• The Doctor, after reversing Lazarus' machine to supposedly kill him, claims it should not have taken him so long to "reverse the polarity," saying he "must be out of practice". "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" was a phrase associated with the Third Doctor.
• The Doctor, after being slapped by Francine Jones, says that it happens every time he meets a companion's mother, referring to Jackie Tyler slapping him in "Aliens of London".
• Martha refers to her travels seen in "The Shakespeare Code", "Gridlock" and "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks".
• The Doctor dons the dinner jacket that he wore in "Rise Of The Cybermen"/"The Age Of Steel". He remarks that it always causes trouble. He later wears it again on the ill fated cruise ship in Voyage Of The Damned.
• On the banners hanging outside Lazarus's laboratory, the logo for his company is reminiscent of the Gallifreyan symbols frequently seen on the monitor in the TARDIS.

Cultural references

Film and television

• The preview of the story in the Radio Times magazine claimed that the episode's conclusion, wherein a monster, mutated from a man, dies in a large London church, is a reference to that of the 1953 science fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment. Coincidentally, David Tennant and Mark Gatiss appeared in the 2005 live remake of The Quatermass Experiment.
• While playing the church organ, literally pulling out all the stops, the Doctor declares "we need to turn this up to eleven." This figure of speech, which originates from the film This Is Spinal Tap, has come to mean "beyond maximum intensity" (compare with "110%").
• Martha likens the Doctor's appearance when wearing a dinner jacket to James Bond; the Doctor appears skeptical but flattered. The commentary track mentions the Doctor's loosening of his bow-tie as a "Daniel Craig moment".
• Tish refers to Catherine Zeta Jones' marriage to Michael Douglas, comparing that situation of a big age gap to her own near-dalliance with Lazarus.

Literature

• Lazarus is a biblical character, mentioned in John 11:41-44, whom Jesus raised from the dead. When Lazarus escapes from the ambulance, the Doctor notes he should have realised Lazarus would return from the dead.
• Both the Doctor and Lazarus quote T. S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men. The Doctor completes Lazarus' quotation with the line, "Falls the Shadow" — which has been used as the title of a Doctor Who novel. There is also a Doctor Who novel called The Hollow Men featuring animated scarecrows. The Doctor later tells Martha that Eliot got it right in saying that it all ends "not with a bang, but a whimper". The Doctor also alludes to Eliot's reference to Lazarus in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead."

Production

• Gatiss' appearance has made him one of a select few to have both written for and acted in the show. Gatiss began his writing career on the New Adventures Doctor Who novels, and acted in material for a BBC Doctor Who evening before the new series was commissioned. Others with similar credits include Victor Pemberton and Glyn Jones.
• Whilst the exterior shots of Southwark Cathedral are the cathedral itself (or a matte image edited onto the Cardiff exterior sets), the interiors were filmed in Wells Cathedral (apart from the tower as seen from the crossing and the interior of the tower, which is a set). A model of Southwark Cathedral, along with one of Michelangelo's David, also appear in Lazarus's office.
• The interiors of Professor Lazarus's institute were shot in Cardiff Museum, the Welsh Assembly's Senedd building, and St William House, Cardiff. The latter also served as a location for the pilot episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and the Torchwood episode Random Shoes.
• A scene cut from the episode, but included as an extra with the DVD release, reveals that the Doctor participated in the writing of the United States Declaration of Independence and in fact carries a copy of the first draft folded up in the pocket of his dinner jacket. An outtake of this scene is featured on the DVD as well, in which the Doctor has completely unfolded the document, only for Tennant to realise that he and Agyeman have run out of track.

Broadcast

The following episode, "42", was delayed by one week to make way for the BBC's broadcasting of the Eurovision Song Contest. The BBC Doctor Who web page announced in advance that 'something special' would be appended to the end of the original broadcast of this episode. This proved to be an extended teaser for the remaining episodes of the series, taking the place of the usual "Next time..." teaser trail and headed instead "Coming up...". This was also made available immediately after transmission on the BBC's Doctor Who website. The extended trailer featured many short clips from upcoming stories: eyeless animated scarecrows and the titular Family of Blood, the return of Captain Jack Harkness, Sir Derek Jacobi in character, Michelle Collins likewise and, briefly, John Simm as the mysterious Mr. Saxon seen smiling for press cameras before the Houses of Parliament and in the Cabinet Room at No. 10 wearing an oxygen mask, sinisterly tapping out the heavy rhythm of the incidental music and surrounded by inert bodies. At the very end, a further caption ahead of the "The Lazarus Experiment" credits revealed that "Doctor Who will return in two weeks". The "normal" trailer for "42" was then made available on the BBC Doctor Who website and was used on the DVDs instead of the special trailer.

External links

• The Lazarus Experiment on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• "The Lazarus Experiment" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• "The Lazarus Experiment" at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• "The Lazarus Experiment" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• "Tonight, I'm going to perform a miracle" - episode trailer
• "The Lazarus Experiment" at the Internet Movie Database

Reviews

• "The Lazarus Experiment" reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
• "The Lazarus Experiment" reviews at Outpost Gallifrey