(With apologies to
I say this every week – but Here Be Spoilers
Sometime it’s scary to think about how long Doctor Who has been running. Sarah Jane Smith joined the series when it was already eleven years old, and also in the year I was born. Which is a roundabout way of getting to the points that (a) Liz Sladen looks great and (b) I don’t have any original memories of her time as a companion (and very few of the K9 years) though I have seen some of her stories on video/DVD and I have childhood memories of the K9 and Company spin off. So I fell somewhere between those of Russel T Davies’s generation who have a strong attachment to Sarah Jane and those who started last year and who have never heard of her.
So what did I make the grand reunion? Good stuff. Liz Sladen was note perfect as someone who’s been waiting thirty years (or twenty depending on your attitudes to UNIT dating – and if that means nothing to you then for your own sake don’t ask) for her man to walk back into her life. And David Tennant did well with his side of the deal – his joy at seeing her becoming guarded as he saw how he had affected her and was affecting Rose.
In fact this was the best performance from Tennant so far, except for the classroom scene at the start. I like him much better when he’s playing angry or mysterious or surprised. His bouncy puppy motormouth act is rather tiring, but apart from the aforementioned scene it wasn’t much in evidence this week. With the impact of this week’s glimpse at the past and future for the Doctor and Rose, and with Mickey joining the crew, I hope that the shake up will mean fewer “we’re great we are” scenes with Rose and more of this good stuff.
Those of us how have read the novels are used to companions having to deal with life after the Doctor (in fact Sarah Jane has featured in a number of books) but for people who just watch the TV (whether new or old) this was new territory – and exactly the sort of more emotional but still sci-fi tone that the new series is rightly aiming for.
Oh look, they had K9 and giant bat monsters and they blew a school up. How couldn’t anyone love all that?
(Interesting touch – the skin colour of the bat monsters matched the skin colours of their human forms.)
Can Tony Head act or not? It seems that he can, but there’s always a vague (sometimes not so vague) whiff of ham about his performances. From the way the producers were salivating in Confidential you would think that the scene in the swimming pool was the greatest piece of acting ever seen. It was okay, and by the standards of Doctor Who was even very good. And most importantly it was a Doctor – villain set piece of the sort that’s been rather lacking in the new series. More please, but don’t get too up yourselves.
Plot? Not as weak as New Earth, for example, but still rather simplistic and rushed with a few loose ends (the rats?). But really, this was an episode about the Doctor and his companions (all four of them!) and the plot just gave them something to run away from and blow up.
Another 9/10 (in fact I’m almost considering revising last week’s down to an 8).