The Lazarus experiment (2007)

Review
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Review

The Lazarus experiment was first broadcast on 5 May 2007. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot - though the title pretty much gives the whole thing away: ageing scientist professor Lazarus finds a way to, well, not be raised from the dead, exactly, but to become young again. As is always the case, knowledge has a price...

Let's start with some good stuff:

• we get a great performance from professor Lazarus, and the transformation from 'old' to 'young' is completely believable
• the episode is well-directed and moves along at a steady pace
• the story does make an effort to add depth to the character of professor Lazarus and to the story as a whole. Having Lazarus return to the cathedral where he hid from the German bombs during the war is a nice touch and ties in with his fear of dying, and there's also the discussion between him and the Doctor about death and the value of life

The not so good stuff:

• most of the efforts to add depth and believability to Lazarus fall flat because, as a character, he's such an incredibly nasty piece of work. Early in the story he makes a clearly unwelcome pass on Martha's sister, once he's rejuvenated he callously rejects the elderly lady who has financed his experiments, and when his transformation into a monster sets in he seems to have no problem at all with killing people and sucking them dry. This makes it hard to care about his motivations or even to believe in him as a human being
• believability is a problem for other characters in this episode as well. Martha's sister was clearly grossed out by Lazarus' advances when he was still old - why would she be so into him after the experiment?
• the story feels derivative. The problem is that in the stories that came before - Jeckyll and Hyde, and Dock Ock in 'Spider-man 2' come to mind - much of the tension came from the inner struggle that the scientist went through, between the monster that was unleashed by the experiment and the human soul that was still there. There's something tragic about seeing a good character turning into a monster against their will, but there's no tragedy or tension here. Lazarus is happy to become a monster, and he doesn't care who he has to kill as long as he gets to survive
• plugging the sonic screwdriver into a church organ to make the sound of the organ reverse the effects of the experiment? In the eighties the makers of Doctor Who decided that the screwdriver had to go, because it was turning into a magical device that could solve all problems (and hence was encouraging lazy scriptwriting). In 2007 Doctor Who, once again, we need someone to take the sonic screwdriver away from the Doctor and burn it

At the start of the episode, the Doctor drops Martha off at her flat, obviously ready to move on. At the end of the episode, she's an occupant of the Tardis and no longer a passenger. Well, yippee. I suppose this episode establishes some kind of turning point in their relationship, though I'm not seeing it. The story does well as long as it's showing us their relationship - when the two of them are working together to find a way to defeat Lazarus there's actual chemistry between them - but when it starts telling us about it - "I won't leave him!" "Maybe she loves him..." - it just doesn't convince.

My verdict:

Doesn't quite work.

My original review of this story:
07/05/07 Doctor Who: The Lazarus experiment

More about Doctor Who

An introduction:
Doctor Who reviews: introduction

More "quite good, actually" Doctor Who:
Doctor Who reviews: quite good, actually

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Doctor Who reviews: 2005 - now

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More about this episode

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Outpost Gallifrey

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