beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2010-10-26 08:58 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2010-10-26 08:58 pm
Entry tags:
Sarah Jane Adventures :-D
I have watched both parts of this week's Sarah Jane Adventures, with the Doctor and Jo Grant. Now I has happy. Weirdly slightly tearful happy, but still, happy. More TV should be like that.
I love Jo Grant this way. Mad old grandma lady who never stopped running, Doctor style, saving the world. Now that's a proper future.
And there was Sarah Jane's little speech at the end, with Tegan and Harry and Ben and Polly and Ian and Barbara and Dorothy running a charity called ACE! Tons of happy futures, and different ways of saving the world.
And Liz is on the moonbase. UNIT have a moonbase. With Liz on it.
Layers of awesome.
... the secret base in a mountain though just made me think they got jealous of SG1.
There was also plot and adventure with lots of running around in it. That was fun too. I liked using the Memory Weave against itself and hiding in the coffin, right up until the Doctor pointed out how clever that was and I was all *facepalm* and 'Dear Writer: Get Over Yourself'.
I wasn't quite sure the two episodes fit together with what the Doctor said to Jo Grant. Also: Baked! Who says that? It's like he's surprised she's changed in the past few centuries from his perspective. Honestly, silly. But he said in that bit the last time he'd seen her she was 22, and the next bit said he went looking for her at the end of his last life and knew all about the kids and the grandkids and all. But he also said he couldn't find her cause she never stops moving. So it does fit, he found all this stuff she'd been part of, but never could catch up with her.
He said he'd visited every single one of his friends that time. Obviously dying of radiation poisoning takes a rather long time, but that sounds like an epic quest and a half. It does leave some lovely room for stories where the Doctor fixes just one thing for each companion.
All those happy versions of the past-future really ignore things done in books and audios and probably comics and all. Which they can do, because nothing ever fit together anyway, and also I didn't like that audio with Tegan anyway. Don't like it, fix it, all done. Leave room for more stories.
And talking of: Clyde asks the Doctor if he can regenerate black, and the Doctor says yes. Also he asks if there's a limit, and the Doctor says 507. This is a good answer: if taken literal it's far too far away to bother anyone in the forseeable future, and if someone wants to do an angsty death of the Doctor story at some regeneration point then it can be an answer the Doctor doesn't really believe but is just saying cause a kid asked him. It has that silly too specific ring if you want to say he's being daft.
I felt like Sarah Jane and Jo connected right off, instant old friends sort of thing, but I wasn't sure 11 connected so well. He did but he didn't but he did. I wasn't sure. But then Jo said that about 'get you into trouble with the Time Lords' and suddenly that made sense in character, because there's this vast gap between old and new and he really doesn't want to fill it in again again again. So I think I liked that.
Also this was a total 'watch the DVDs' show without being a clip show, and it made sense as you went along as well as being goldmine for those of us who watched it all. All the references make one level of the meaning, and the kids not getting them and sitting together and having their own set is another level of it. And you can watch it with either knowing everything like the wise elders of the tribe or knowing nothing like Santiago and you've got someone being your point of view. I think it was quite nicely balanced.
The only bit I didn't like was the Groske. Honestly, it wasn't funny the last time with the 'different color different species', or the time before that, give it a rest. Just have a Graske that isn't trouble! Honestly, not difficult.
Also sending all the soldiers with guns to go get Sarah Jane for a funeral doesn't actually make sense. Soldiers have to tell people someone has died fairly regularly, I don't think they turn up with armed guards like that. But if there was a back up plan to just steal her then that makes sense, so, *shrugs*.
I liked the bit Rani's dad was saying about death and how it takes a while to get your head around it. That was a good bit. It was somewhat undermined by the whole thing where she's actually right, but, this is science fiction.
I think I liked the vulture dude's motivation, wanting to fix death cause they've seen too much grieving. And the hint that was the UNIT colonel's motive too. It can't all be universal conquest.
But again, it says something about how death happens and you can't go around time traveling it better, only the Doctor is an exception.
*shrugs* again.
So I think I liked it, with some wobbly bits.
Even if most of what I liked is the idea everyone went off to have more adventures and lots of happy.
I love Jo Grant this way. Mad old grandma lady who never stopped running, Doctor style, saving the world. Now that's a proper future.
And there was Sarah Jane's little speech at the end, with Tegan and Harry and Ben and Polly and Ian and Barbara and Dorothy running a charity called ACE! Tons of happy futures, and different ways of saving the world.
And Liz is on the moonbase. UNIT have a moonbase. With Liz on it.
Layers of awesome.
... the secret base in a mountain though just made me think they got jealous of SG1.
There was also plot and adventure with lots of running around in it. That was fun too. I liked using the Memory Weave against itself and hiding in the coffin, right up until the Doctor pointed out how clever that was and I was all *facepalm* and 'Dear Writer: Get Over Yourself'.
I wasn't quite sure the two episodes fit together with what the Doctor said to Jo Grant. Also: Baked! Who says that? It's like he's surprised she's changed in the past few centuries from his perspective. Honestly, silly. But he said in that bit the last time he'd seen her she was 22, and the next bit said he went looking for her at the end of his last life and knew all about the kids and the grandkids and all. But he also said he couldn't find her cause she never stops moving. So it does fit, he found all this stuff she'd been part of, but never could catch up with her.
He said he'd visited every single one of his friends that time. Obviously dying of radiation poisoning takes a rather long time, but that sounds like an epic quest and a half. It does leave some lovely room for stories where the Doctor fixes just one thing for each companion.
All those happy versions of the past-future really ignore things done in books and audios and probably comics and all. Which they can do, because nothing ever fit together anyway, and also I didn't like that audio with Tegan anyway. Don't like it, fix it, all done. Leave room for more stories.
And talking of: Clyde asks the Doctor if he can regenerate black, and the Doctor says yes. Also he asks if there's a limit, and the Doctor says 507. This is a good answer: if taken literal it's far too far away to bother anyone in the forseeable future, and if someone wants to do an angsty death of the Doctor story at some regeneration point then it can be an answer the Doctor doesn't really believe but is just saying cause a kid asked him. It has that silly too specific ring if you want to say he's being daft.
I felt like Sarah Jane and Jo connected right off, instant old friends sort of thing, but I wasn't sure 11 connected so well. He did but he didn't but he did. I wasn't sure. But then Jo said that about 'get you into trouble with the Time Lords' and suddenly that made sense in character, because there's this vast gap between old and new and he really doesn't want to fill it in again again again. So I think I liked that.
Also this was a total 'watch the DVDs' show without being a clip show, and it made sense as you went along as well as being goldmine for those of us who watched it all. All the references make one level of the meaning, and the kids not getting them and sitting together and having their own set is another level of it. And you can watch it with either knowing everything like the wise elders of the tribe or knowing nothing like Santiago and you've got someone being your point of view. I think it was quite nicely balanced.
The only bit I didn't like was the Groske. Honestly, it wasn't funny the last time with the 'different color different species', or the time before that, give it a rest. Just have a Graske that isn't trouble! Honestly, not difficult.
Also sending all the soldiers with guns to go get Sarah Jane for a funeral doesn't actually make sense. Soldiers have to tell people someone has died fairly regularly, I don't think they turn up with armed guards like that. But if there was a back up plan to just steal her then that makes sense, so, *shrugs*.
I liked the bit Rani's dad was saying about death and how it takes a while to get your head around it. That was a good bit. It was somewhat undermined by the whole thing where she's actually right, but, this is science fiction.
I think I liked the vulture dude's motivation, wanting to fix death cause they've seen too much grieving. And the hint that was the UNIT colonel's motive too. It can't all be universal conquest.
But again, it says something about how death happens and you can't go around time traveling it better, only the Doctor is an exception.
*shrugs* again.
So I think I liked it, with some wobbly bits.
Even if most of what I liked is the idea everyone went off to have more adventures and lots of happy.
no subject
Agreed, Jo and SJ instantly fell into a friendship rhythm most people need years to build, but the Doctor didn't quite click. I see two reasons for this. One is the gap in age and experience between the actors. Sladen and Manning are both seasoned actresses while Smith is still very young. He can't pull "old friend with tons more experience" off against them entirely. Previous faces of the Doctor probably would have and with all the flashbacks we just saw before he came on the screen, they were very present in the viewers mind.
The other reason is in-story. This was in essence a celebration of the people whose lives have already been touched and often changed for the better by meeting the Doctor. Not just the former companions we see in the episode, not even just the ones mentioned in the dialogue, but all of them by implication. They don't really need him there again to give them a purpose, because they have all found their niche to make the world a better place. And it's beautiful, but in a way that makes the teacher obsolete.
Also sending all the soldiers with guns to go get Sarah Jane for a funeral doesn't actually make sense.
Maybe RTD put it in to make things more dramatic, originally. Which kinda doesn't work when the episode title already tells us why they're there and the trailers let the trap thing out of the bag. :S
Even if most of what I liked is the idea everyone went off to have more adventures and lots of happy.
Oh, that was definitely the best part of it all. :D I love that all those former companions went and did something amazing with their lives and even more that Sarah Jane has been keeping tabs on them. Give those fanfics where she leads the "Former TARDIS Travellers Club" some extra kick.