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locker_monsterDon't mind me, flist. I'm just going to blab about The Sarah Jane Adventures for a bit. Sure it's a kid show, but it helped to fill that Doctor Who void. ;-D
I think the best part about spin-offs is that they expand the universe of the parent TV show. You either get more information about a character or different scenarios not possible on the parent show. Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures do a bit of both. I've always liked Sarah Jane as a companion. Slightly prone to fall under hypnosis or get kidnapped, but hey, that's life with the Doctor. Plus she was the first spin-offable companion, along with K-9, but we all know that show didn't end well. But they brought her back and the show made it past one episode!
Now, I've been thinking about this ever since the first episode. SJA is totally like Buffy. Really. You've got the super powered teenager who has special powers and worries about fitting in, the adult parent figure who has all the resources and experience, the loyal female friend who starts off meek but ends up kicking butt, and the wise cracking male friend who's just as loyal. Probably coincidence, but Russell T Davies is a big Buffy fan. :-D
I think the best part about spin-offs is that they expand the universe of the parent TV show. You either get more information about a character or different scenarios not possible on the parent show. Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures do a bit of both. I've always liked Sarah Jane as a companion. Slightly prone to fall under hypnosis or get kidnapped, but hey, that's life with the Doctor. Plus she was the first spin-offable companion, along with K-9, but we all know that show didn't end well. But they brought her back and the show made it past one episode!
"Invasion of the Bane" was way back in January so I can't really remember what I thought. I kind of thought it lame that they gave Sarah a son, but it actually paid off as the series got underway. It seems that Sarah has ended up a surrogate mother of sorts, taking in these kids from broken families and giving them something else to focus on. Since SJA is a kid's show, having the kids around is understandable. I actually appreciated the fact that Maria, and eventual Clyde, do have divorced parents. That's the reality nowadays and a kid in the same situation watching the show can feel better. People also make family; it's not just about having the same DNA. This idea really pays off, but I want to talk about the other episodes first.
"Revenge of the Slitheen" was a good start. I'm not that fond of the Slitheen as villains, so that part of the plot didn't really appeal to me, but they work better here than on Doctor Who. The Slitheen look kind of cute, even if you put them in shadows, so the lighter approach here, both in tone and in lighting, fits who they are. And a kiddie Slitheen! It looked like he had an overbite; it was so cute. The part I did like was Sarah's apprehension about her relationship with Luke. A bond isn't going to form overnight and she's probably fretted over the idea for the whatever number of months that passed between this episode and "Invasion of the Bane". I'm glad they included this; it made Sarah's adoption of Luke more realistic. And Mr. Smith, Sarah's super computer. I wasn't fond of him either when he got introduced. I would have preferred K-9 but the rights to him are tied up. But in the moment when Clyde is talking to him and Mr. Smith gives him a zap and calls him "boy", I totally guessed he would be evil. And look, it came true. :-) And they made a reference to the Brigadier! He's still alive. That means he can show up on Doctor Who now. :-D See what I mean about expanding the universe?
"Eye of the Gorgon" kind of felt like old school Who. The team were running around, investigating and getting into trouble. The one point in the story that really didn't get touched on, but I really liked, was the parallels between Sarah and Bea. There's one moment in the episode where Sarah looks at Bea, this woman who had great adventures with her husband but who now is alone and has Alzheimer's, and you know she's just thinking, "That might be me in 30 years." It would have been nice to see more of that.
"Warriors of Kudlak" actually had a subtle commentary about war and that was cool. By this point I was starting to find it weird that Maria was spending more time with Sarah in the episodes than Luke. Luke was always being paired off with Clyde for the stories. You'd think they would have mother and son spending time together. This episode actually raised a pretty geeky fan girl question for me. Sarah and Maria get transported up to a spaceship in orbit. They look out the window and see Earth. Sarah says, "I'd never thought I would see that again" or something along those lines. Now, when was it that she saw Earth from orbit? I think most times she would have seen it on a monitor; the TARDIS doesn't exactly have windows. However, there were Sarah Jane audio dramas and in the last one she went up in space on an independent shuttle. A reference to that perhaps? I like to think so, because the Sarah Jane audio dramas can fit in to the established time line. All of those adventures would have happened before Sarah met Ten and it would explain why she's on her own until she meets Maria and Luke. Bad things happened, a friend might have died. It's enough to make someone push people away. Anyway, that's my crazy idea.
I rather liked "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?" The opening scenes were nice. You can see how far Sarah has come since Maria met her back in "Invasion of the Bane". She is a mother now. When they're taking pictures at the park you get one shot where Sarah's looking at Luke and she looks so proud. And then you have Alan, Maria's dad, being a goof in the background. :-D I thought Alan might be annoying since he's clueless about what his daughter is doing, but it never was like that. It's in this episode he's allowed to be in on the action. Look at Alan being all heroic on a skateboard! He's like a big teenager really. The one thing that totally bugged me was when Sarah gives Maria the puzzle box. Give it to the person you trust most, is what Sarah is told when she's given the box. Apparently she trusts Maria more than Luke. The villain of the story was interesting. He planned to going after the Doctor next and you're like, "No, not the Doctor!" And those crafty writers; Sarah hides the puzzle box behind a book. A book she wrote about UNIT. Hee.
Finally, "The Lost Boy". I thought it started out so well. The plot about Luke not being created by the Bane looked really cool. You get angst from Sarah, who so got used to having these kids around helping her. In a way, she got to be the Doctor and the kids were her companions. They never really addressed the issue that people can get hurt while trying to save the world though. You get a bit of it from Alan after he learns what Maria has been up to, but then his issues quickly go away by the end of the teaser. You'd think Sarah would worry a little bit about putting these kids' lives on the line. But anyway... Turns out Luke was created by the Bane and the parents who had been looking for him are Slitheen, the same Slitheen from the first story. They want more revenge; who would have thought. Oh, and evil Mr. Smith, too. Yay! Apparently he's part of this race that got buried in the Earth 60 million years ago. Well, at least we found out how Sarah got Mr. Smith. And it's teamwork all around as they try to stop Mr. Smith from destroying Earth. So nice to see Alan taking part in all the madness. And K-9! :-D He comes back to help Sarah at the end. Sadly he has to return to the black hole he's been monitoring, but this brief appearance means he can show up occasionally and be awesome. I do hope SJA gets picked up for another season. I haven't read anything about that yet. So the series ends on Sarah reflecting that she never thought she would end up with a family and that's a nice touch. She probably spent most of her time after she left the Doctor on her own and now she's in a place where she has a life of her own but still doing good.
"Revenge of the Slitheen" was a good start. I'm not that fond of the Slitheen as villains, so that part of the plot didn't really appeal to me, but they work better here than on Doctor Who. The Slitheen look kind of cute, even if you put them in shadows, so the lighter approach here, both in tone and in lighting, fits who they are. And a kiddie Slitheen! It looked like he had an overbite; it was so cute. The part I did like was Sarah's apprehension about her relationship with Luke. A bond isn't going to form overnight and she's probably fretted over the idea for the whatever number of months that passed between this episode and "Invasion of the Bane". I'm glad they included this; it made Sarah's adoption of Luke more realistic. And Mr. Smith, Sarah's super computer. I wasn't fond of him either when he got introduced. I would have preferred K-9 but the rights to him are tied up. But in the moment when Clyde is talking to him and Mr. Smith gives him a zap and calls him "boy", I totally guessed he would be evil. And look, it came true. :-) And they made a reference to the Brigadier! He's still alive. That means he can show up on Doctor Who now. :-D See what I mean about expanding the universe?
"Eye of the Gorgon" kind of felt like old school Who. The team were running around, investigating and getting into trouble. The one point in the story that really didn't get touched on, but I really liked, was the parallels between Sarah and Bea. There's one moment in the episode where Sarah looks at Bea, this woman who had great adventures with her husband but who now is alone and has Alzheimer's, and you know she's just thinking, "That might be me in 30 years." It would have been nice to see more of that.
"Warriors of Kudlak" actually had a subtle commentary about war and that was cool. By this point I was starting to find it weird that Maria was spending more time with Sarah in the episodes than Luke. Luke was always being paired off with Clyde for the stories. You'd think they would have mother and son spending time together. This episode actually raised a pretty geeky fan girl question for me. Sarah and Maria get transported up to a spaceship in orbit. They look out the window and see Earth. Sarah says, "I'd never thought I would see that again" or something along those lines. Now, when was it that she saw Earth from orbit? I think most times she would have seen it on a monitor; the TARDIS doesn't exactly have windows. However, there were Sarah Jane audio dramas and in the last one she went up in space on an independent shuttle. A reference to that perhaps? I like to think so, because the Sarah Jane audio dramas can fit in to the established time line. All of those adventures would have happened before Sarah met Ten and it would explain why she's on her own until she meets Maria and Luke. Bad things happened, a friend might have died. It's enough to make someone push people away. Anyway, that's my crazy idea.
I rather liked "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?" The opening scenes were nice. You can see how far Sarah has come since Maria met her back in "Invasion of the Bane". She is a mother now. When they're taking pictures at the park you get one shot where Sarah's looking at Luke and she looks so proud. And then you have Alan, Maria's dad, being a goof in the background. :-D I thought Alan might be annoying since he's clueless about what his daughter is doing, but it never was like that. It's in this episode he's allowed to be in on the action. Look at Alan being all heroic on a skateboard! He's like a big teenager really. The one thing that totally bugged me was when Sarah gives Maria the puzzle box. Give it to the person you trust most, is what Sarah is told when she's given the box. Apparently she trusts Maria more than Luke. The villain of the story was interesting. He planned to going after the Doctor next and you're like, "No, not the Doctor!" And those crafty writers; Sarah hides the puzzle box behind a book. A book she wrote about UNIT. Hee.
Finally, "The Lost Boy". I thought it started out so well. The plot about Luke not being created by the Bane looked really cool. You get angst from Sarah, who so got used to having these kids around helping her. In a way, she got to be the Doctor and the kids were her companions. They never really addressed the issue that people can get hurt while trying to save the world though. You get a bit of it from Alan after he learns what Maria has been up to, but then his issues quickly go away by the end of the teaser. You'd think Sarah would worry a little bit about putting these kids' lives on the line. But anyway... Turns out Luke was created by the Bane and the parents who had been looking for him are Slitheen, the same Slitheen from the first story. They want more revenge; who would have thought. Oh, and evil Mr. Smith, too. Yay! Apparently he's part of this race that got buried in the Earth 60 million years ago. Well, at least we found out how Sarah got Mr. Smith. And it's teamwork all around as they try to stop Mr. Smith from destroying Earth. So nice to see Alan taking part in all the madness. And K-9! :-D He comes back to help Sarah at the end. Sadly he has to return to the black hole he's been monitoring, but this brief appearance means he can show up occasionally and be awesome. I do hope SJA gets picked up for another season. I haven't read anything about that yet. So the series ends on Sarah reflecting that she never thought she would end up with a family and that's a nice touch. She probably spent most of her time after she left the Doctor on her own and now she's in a place where she has a life of her own but still doing good.
Now, I've been thinking about this ever since the first episode. SJA is totally like Buffy. Really. You've got the super powered teenager who has special powers and worries about fitting in, the adult parent figure who has all the resources and experience, the loyal female friend who starts off meek but ends up kicking butt, and the wise cracking male friend who's just as loyal. Probably coincidence, but Russell T Davies is a big Buffy fan. :-D
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