An Hour of Who a Day: 02/09/15

February 9: "Smith and Jones"

The start of Doctor Who's third series sees us launch straight into the opening titles -- no teaser this time around (the first time that's happened since "Rose"). "Smith and Jones" also sees a new start for the show: Rose Tyler is gone and while David Tennant is still around, we have the debut of new companion Martha Jones. But it's old in some ways, as we get a number of Who veterans in this episode -- Trevor Laird (Martha's dad) was in Mindwarp, Adjoa Andoh (Martha's mum) was in "New Earth", and Anne Reid (Florence Finnegan, the villainous Plasmavore) was Nurse Crane in The Curse of Fenric. Even Freema Agyeman, the new companion, was in "Doomsday" as Adeola (here retconned as Martha's cousin). And while Roy Marsden hadn't actually been in Doctor Who before, he seems like the sort of actor who should have been. (Well, all right, he'd been in the Eighth Doctor audio Human Resources earlier in the year, but that's not what I meant and you know it.)

There's a lot to admire and enjoy in this episode. Occasionally the revived show has felt rushed in its storylines, as it tries to cram in a lot of incident and action in a 45-minute slot, but "Smith and Jones" feels like it's just the right size. We get lots of incident and action, but we also get quiet moments to breathe, to explore the characters a bit. Obviously, there are a lot of introductions to get out of the way, but they never feel like it's too much too soon. Instead we get a look inside Martha's life and we see how capable she is. Freema Agyeman charms by being strong and sweet as Martha, with a nice helping of intelligence to boot. Her interactions with David Tennant are good; they clearly have chemistry, and so their scenes together are very watchable.

It certainly helps that they've got a clever little storyline to work with. The Judoon are a cool creation, and the idea of them as slightly dim mercenary cops is entertaining. I also like their solution regarding a lack of jurisdiction on Earth by taking the entire hospital up to the moon, which is the sort of mad idea that Doctor Who does so well. Meanwhile, Anne Reid is so wonderful as the Plasmavore that you can't help but love to hate her. The straw is a gloriously kitschy touch.

But it's really David Tennant who's in top form, from happily commenting on a little shop in the hospital to praising Martha for keeping her head in such a strange situation to his frankly marvelous performance as a confused mailman to get Anne Reid to suck his blood. There's also the way he mouths "bigger on the inside" as Martha says it and then charges ahead: "Is it? I hadn't noticed." He is a joy to watch, and it's easy to believe he's the Doctor in this. I also like the new blue suit and red Chuck Taylor's he's wearing, and the gag with the tie is great: "Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden. Except for cheap tricks."

It's not perfect -- the bit with the Doctor shaking the radiation out of his body is a strange attempt at humor that takes you almost completely out of the story, and I'd like to know just how you could turn an MRI machine into a device that could kill half the planet from the moon -- but the confidence on display, matched with all the things that do work in "Smith and Jones", means that this is BBC Wales' most successful season opener yet.