Behind the scenes of The Lazarus Experiment (Part Seven)
Excerpts from The Fact or Fiction article in DWM 519
The starting-point for the sixth episode of the third season of the 21st century series was a two-word phrase given by showrunner Russell T. Davies to first-time Doctor Who writer Stephen Greenhorn: Mad Scientist. Over the course of several drafts, in which Greenhorn’s ‘Professor Anger’ became a ‘Professor Lazarus’, it mutated into a Marvel Comics-style ‘supervillain origin’ story: “This is unashamedly Dr Octopus,” Davies told those who gathered for the episode’s tone meeting in August 2006, “a mad scientist’s experiment gone wrong.”
Fittingly, then, the story went under the working title The Madness of Professor Lazarus - but the eventual title appears to acknowledge a debt to the original BBC sci-fi thriller, The Quatermass Experiment (1953), remounted in 2005 as a live BBC Four broadcast featuring both David Tennant and Lazarus actor Mark Gatiss among its cast. That original Experiment, of course, ended with its scientist hero confronting the hideously mutating remains of a once-proud man within the Gothic environs of a magnificent London church…
We’ve emerged from our pandemic depression haze to talk about a triumphant and emotional hour of TV, San Junipero (Black Mirror S03: E04)!
While we generally like Black Mirror, we find it a bit overly pessimistic and monolithic in its attitude toward technology overall, so naturally this optimistic and very queer episode is our favourite.
Because death and mortality are central themes, our conversations veer toward the heavy a little more than usual, but we still had a lot of fun talking about the episode, and we definitely had A LOT to say.
some love for my mixed race girls… from left to right: imaan hammam, sarita choudhury, ruth negga, isabella peschardt, cassie, salma hayek, laura james, chanel iman, gugu mbatha-raw.
