Sarah Jane Adventures S4/1-3 Thoughts
Oct. 26th, 2010 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snorkackcatcherOverall: pretty decent without quite being terrific, and drawing on past continuity to a surprising extent. And are they messing with the shippers' heads or what? :)
So, the usual rambling thoughts follow, mostly meta rather than specific.
So far it's been good fun, but it does seem as if they're struggling a bit to expand the horizons of the show beyond places within easy reach of Ealing, even if they do have links to other planets or dimensions. I guess it's a bit like a closer-focused version of the way so many things in the parent show happen on or around Earth -- at some point you have to start doing a sort of meta handwave, and say that a timey-wimey effect of the presence of the time-travelling lead character actually draws the aliens in or something. (Unfortunately the plots suggest that some of those aliens appear to have hit them with a Stupid Ray, which is not a good thing; they're evidently trying not to make Sarah Jane seem too willing to trust people like Androvax, but I'm not sure they're bringing it off. And putting the Earth at risk every week does lose shock value very quickly.)
They are letting the characters and their situation develop, though, which is nice to see, even if their hand keeps getting forced by the cast quitting to concentrate on school! I'd managed to avoid virtually all spoilers, and was thus surprised and intrigued to see Luke doing a Maria and going off elsewhere. (Young Santiago looked like a possible replacement, but I guess Finn Jones must have been cast before he got the gig as the Knight of Flowers? Which role he looks well suited to.) The flashforward-flashback method was a striking way to start the new series off, so well done them. Wasn't too keen on the memory-wiping of Gita, though -- yes, it was presumably meant for comedy purposes and to echo the running joke of Chrissie's unawareness, but I'm not sure they thought through the implications of it seeming to go beyond just the events of that episode. (Incidentally -- Ocean Waters? To me, Cheryl Campbell here looked and sounded rather like an older version of Alex Kingston, so I wonder if the producers were trying to mess with our heads. :D)
Given the limited time available to develop the character relationships I thought they've handled the ramifications of Luke going away well, especially as it almost unavoidably knocks a hole in one of the basic premises of the show. It's sensible to concentrate more on Clyde and Rani, since Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra don't have to worry about 'A' levels (and sadly Liz Sladen's acting is still no more than adequate). Sending K9 off to Oxford as a protector for Luke was good continuity with the character established by previous K9's (staying with Leela and Romana), and neatly got around the problem of having one too many superintelligent computers to write plotlines for. :)
Continuity! I don't know what the kids make of it all, but they're definitely catering to Doctor Who fans old and new, even before we got to the Doctor episode. I practically punched the air when theMax Headroom Squadron Alliance of Shades from Dreamland turned up in The Vault of Secrets (and Angus Wright as Mr Dread was so much fun I'd love to see him turn up again), not to mention Sarah Jane being freaked out by the Eldradesque scuttling hand. And we practically had a roll-call of previous companions in Death of the Doctor. Jo, of course, and all the flashbacks and Three/Four reminiscences -- Liz Shaw on the Moon! (Actually, yeah, since when did UNIT have a moonbase?) Tegan, Ace, Ben and Polly, Ian and Barbara! Shame about Harry though. It was nice to see implicit confirmation that the scenes we actually saw in the last sequence of End of Time were just a sample, and that the Doctor went back to look up other past companions too. His offhand, was-he-joking-or-was-he-not-and-if-so-in-what-way '507' remark to Clyde was a neat method of having it both ways on the number of regenerations, and perhaps Paterson Joseph ought to take the reference to changing colour as a hint to send in his CV again when Matt Smith quits. :)
I often don't look to see who the writer of an episode was in advance, and didn't with Death of the Doctor until afterwards, but wasn't exactly surprised to see when I checked back that it was in fact written by RTD himself. It hit practically all his tropes, both good and bad. (Yes, let's note for the record the School Reunion-style treatment of Jo and Sarah, a touch of Lonely God!Doctor, killing off the CoC guest star and so on.) But it still had plenty of fine character moments too, kept up an excellent pace, and of course had a connoisseur's eye for continuity.
Yeah, shipping. Maybe it's just a touch of Fandom Eye creeping in, but it did seem like we had hints of clearcut, intentional, might-be-developed-later Clyde/Rani, not to mention plenty of the usual friendship stuff that could be used as subtext for Clyde/Luke, Luke/Rani, and indeed Clyde/Luke/Rani, not to mention K9/Mr Smith (if anyone can think of a sensible way to actually ship superintelligent computers!), and of course those Jo/Sarah hugs. :) But we did get Ben/Polly, of course, and even if there had been nothing else of merit in the entire episode, it would have been worth it for the fact that (unless and until they use the retcon hook provided) Ian/Barbara IZ NAO OFFICIALLY CANON. Thank you Mr Davies. :)
So, the usual rambling thoughts follow, mostly meta rather than specific.
So far it's been good fun, but it does seem as if they're struggling a bit to expand the horizons of the show beyond places within easy reach of Ealing, even if they do have links to other planets or dimensions. I guess it's a bit like a closer-focused version of the way so many things in the parent show happen on or around Earth -- at some point you have to start doing a sort of meta handwave, and say that a timey-wimey effect of the presence of the time-travelling lead character actually draws the aliens in or something. (Unfortunately the plots suggest that some of those aliens appear to have hit them with a Stupid Ray, which is not a good thing; they're evidently trying not to make Sarah Jane seem too willing to trust people like Androvax, but I'm not sure they're bringing it off. And putting the Earth at risk every week does lose shock value very quickly.)
They are letting the characters and their situation develop, though, which is nice to see, even if their hand keeps getting forced by the cast quitting to concentrate on school! I'd managed to avoid virtually all spoilers, and was thus surprised and intrigued to see Luke doing a Maria and going off elsewhere. (Young Santiago looked like a possible replacement, but I guess Finn Jones must have been cast before he got the gig as the Knight of Flowers? Which role he looks well suited to.) The flashforward-flashback method was a striking way to start the new series off, so well done them. Wasn't too keen on the memory-wiping of Gita, though -- yes, it was presumably meant for comedy purposes and to echo the running joke of Chrissie's unawareness, but I'm not sure they thought through the implications of it seeming to go beyond just the events of that episode. (Incidentally -- Ocean Waters? To me, Cheryl Campbell here looked and sounded rather like an older version of Alex Kingston, so I wonder if the producers were trying to mess with our heads. :D)
Given the limited time available to develop the character relationships I thought they've handled the ramifications of Luke going away well, especially as it almost unavoidably knocks a hole in one of the basic premises of the show. It's sensible to concentrate more on Clyde and Rani, since Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra don't have to worry about 'A' levels (and sadly Liz Sladen's acting is still no more than adequate). Sending K9 off to Oxford as a protector for Luke was good continuity with the character established by previous K9's (staying with Leela and Romana), and neatly got around the problem of having one too many superintelligent computers to write plotlines for. :)
Continuity! I don't know what the kids make of it all, but they're definitely catering to Doctor Who fans old and new, even before we got to the Doctor episode. I practically punched the air when the
I often don't look to see who the writer of an episode was in advance, and didn't with Death of the Doctor until afterwards, but wasn't exactly surprised to see when I checked back that it was in fact written by RTD himself. It hit practically all his tropes, both good and bad. (Yes, let's note for the record the School Reunion-style treatment of Jo and Sarah, a touch of Lonely God!Doctor, killing off the CoC guest star and so on.) But it still had plenty of fine character moments too, kept up an excellent pace, and of course had a connoisseur's eye for continuity.
Yeah, shipping. Maybe it's just a touch of Fandom Eye creeping in, but it did seem like we had hints of clearcut, intentional, might-be-developed-later Clyde/Rani, not to mention plenty of the usual friendship stuff that could be used as subtext for Clyde/Luke, Luke/Rani, and indeed Clyde/Luke/Rani, not to mention K9/Mr Smith (if anyone can think of a sensible way to actually ship superintelligent computers!), and of course those Jo/Sarah hugs. :) But we did get Ben/Polly, of course, and even if there had been nothing else of merit in the entire episode, it would have been worth it for the fact that (unless and until they use the retcon hook provided) Ian/Barbara IZ NAO OFFICIALLY CANON. Thank you Mr Davies. :)
