Chaotic Edit, Clear Outcome: DOCTOR WHO "Smith and Jones"

We looked at one set of techniques which make a chaotic scene perfectly clear: it establishes where characters are and what they’re doing before going Full Chaos within the scene’s pre-set parameters.

Doctor Who 3.01 “Smith and Jones” chase sequence is just as chaotic, but does something quite different with characters, location, and action. The events are just as easily followed to the outcome, so let’s look at how this way of doing things works!

The Setup

This chase comes halfway through the episode — we’ve seen hospital equipment, met black-helmeted baddies, and watched a blood-sipping fugitive twirl her mustache (well, plastic straw) and announce her plan.

Crucially, none of this is necessary to understand the scene. What matters is we see who is chasing who, and understand the mechanics (weeeell, give or take some sonic-screwdriving-immortal-alien-physics handwaving) of how Martha and the Doctor get out of the jam.

Eyelines + Insert Shots

The sequences uses this technique multiple times, including to kick off the chase.

A closeup of Martha looking down cuts to what she sees: prone feet!

The camera tracks up: a moto-helmeted-henchperson!

The cut goes back to Martha, eyes up now, clearly demonstrating the shot was her POV and she’s taken in both these things.

Martha — obviously — scrams as a woman with a bloody straw decrees get her!

And we’re off and running!

Running Sequences

Some chase scenes elicit empathy by putting us ‘in the shoes’ of a character. Some chases go for a surreal feeling. There are many chase scenes where the direction someone is running really matters, or it must be clear where pursuer and pursued are in relation to each other or a goal.

This is not a surrealist chase. We already empathise with Martha and the Doctor so no special care is taken there. The Doctor and Martha have no goal besides ‘get clear and make up a plan’. The layout of the hospital and thus running direction doesn’t matter; if we’re confused by the changing angles, so are Martha and the Doctor by the labyrinthian hallways.

The only real similarity between the “Smith and Jones” scene and any of the above is we know where pursued and pursuer are in relation to each other. This is accomplished as simply as possible: the henchperson regularly running into/through frame close behind Martha and the Doctor.

Said motogear-clad-baddie gets closer and closer until . . .

Repeating Techniques

Martha and the Doctor enter a room and slam the door behind them, right in the face (well, helmet) of their pursuer.

The Doctor starts fiddling with equipment, and when he tells Martha figure out how the machine works, the scene uses the eyes-item-action shot series again.

This chain of events is pretty clear in itself, but repeating the technique where ‘Martha sees something important’ makes it even easier for the audience to follow amongst the hullaballoo.

Make It Fun
Even [especially] If It Doesn’t Make Sense

Because the Doctor’s science is so advanced we can’t understand it with our puny 21st century human brains, it’s very handy to have David Tennant confidently shout it while hopping around and brandishing a sonic screwdriver.

But whether you have such a weapon in your film arsenal or not, you can do everything else the scene does to sell the chaos while keeping actings clear, eg. fun props such as a big yellow button, special effects like an animated X-Ray skeleton, and expositional signs declaring RADIATION ON.

Despite the every-which-way running, characters hopping about, quick edits, manic shouting, and hand-wavy-weebly-wobbly-science-schmience, the techniques used throughout the scene mean we are never confused as to what people are trying to accomplish, and we can easily follow both the chase, and its resolution.

Takeaways

One way to consider ‘is this scene clear?’ is ask if you could put it scene at the start of the episode, then do a “one hour earlier” to introduce the location and villains and flesh out why it ‘matters.’

The events in this scene are clear within the sequence, even if we don’t know who the baddies are or what they want. Figure out what is important to your scene — for example, make the hospital seem big and confusing, make it seem the henchperson is getting closer and closer, distract the audience from the very thin ‘science’ of radiation while making clear it’s radiation solving the problem — and then engineer your scene around those needs.

Once that’s all clear, add chaos as desired!