Sarah Jane Adventures - "Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith" (Parts 1 & 2)

Spoiler Level: High

The last story of Series 4 of Sarah Jane Advent- ures, can you believe it?  This is The Little Show That Could.  Story #24,  episodes 46 & 47.  (I love that they do that, by the way; it's like recapturing the old serialized format that Doctor Who used to have.  Maybe someday we'll get some stories that runs longer than 2 episodes.)

So, it's the end of the season, and the title of the last story is "Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith."  Which is a great concept for making one think that this might be the send-off for the entire show... if they hadn't announced that they've already filmed part of the next series!

The story itself holds up to the usual high quality of the rest of the season, albeit with a few somewhat large holes in logic towards the end.  Sarah Jane & crew meet up with Ruby White, another alien hunter who's just moved into the area.  After a shaky start she begins to fit in nicely with the group, while Sarah Jane starts to have memory lapses.  You know something's up when she asks Luke "And how's... oh, what's his name... the metal dog?"  And Sarah Jane continues to fall apart, to the point where she's ready to hand it all over to Ruby.

There's some very good developments in the second half; Luke comes back to try to help, so it's nice to have him back.  Unfortunately, even though he knows something is so radically wrong that he races on the scene cursing "What the hell is going on?!?" he didn't think to actually bring K9, so they have to consult him via videophone.  That's the first of those big gaps in logic I mentioned. Perhaps in this case they couldn't actually get the K9 prop to the set, so his scenes had to be literally phoned in?  Maybe it was a requirement by Bob Baker to keep K9 from being over exposed on both his own show and Sarah Jane adventures?  Beats me.  But it sure came across as odd.

It turns out Ruby is an alien that feeds off of extreme emotions such as excitement and despair, with the energy going into a very large stomach that's kept outside of her body. She intends to help out the alien invaders that Sarah Jane usually stops, which will raise the emotional level of the world, which she'll feed off of until the Earth is used up.  "Want to colonize the Earth? Pick a continent!" she shouts with glee.  Okay, so far so good.  So Luke hatches the plan to use a hologram system to make it look like the entire Earth is being bombarded with asteroids, which will raise the excitement level of the entire world at once and send Ruby into overload.

Umm, see the logic problems here?  Rich and I each saw a different one.  Rich pointed out that Luke has intentionally sent the entire world into a panic. This means that at the very least, there are going to be people dying from heart failure, if not auto accidents, suicides, what have you.  And I pointed out, umm, didn't Ruby just say that letting the Earth get attacked was part of her plan?!?  What was she planning on doing, saying "Yeah, could you please not all attack at once?  I can't take that.  Only attack one continent at a time, thanks!"  So really, what was Luke thinking?

The final bit of trouble is when she's banished back to her orbital prison cell.  They send Ruby back, but not her external stomach.  Wouldn't that mean she would keep getting powered up from the people of Earth?

So yeah, some big holes in the plot in the last half, but it was nice to see Luke and K9 again.  When things start to work out Luke blurts out, "Rani, I love you!" which might be intended in the vein of "You rock!" ...or might be intended to set up a love triangle, as Clyde and Rani were definitely clashing in this episode over Sarah Jane's leaving.  With all the set up they did for Clyde & Rani, I'm surprised that it didn't culminate in anything in this story, so I can't believe that Luke's comment wasn't intentional.

Sarah Jane Adventures will return in 2011, and I'll be looking forward to them.

Sarah Jane Adventures - "Lost in Time" (Parts 1 & 2)

Spoiler Level: High

Another fine outing from Sarah Jane Advent- ures.  This time our intrepid band of alien hunters are lured to a curiosity shop, run by a charming yet mysterious Shopkeeper who knows everything about them and has a parrot named "Captain."  The Shopkeeper sends Sarah Jane and her companions (I still get a kick out of saying that) into three separate time zones, with a mission for each of them to retrieve a piece of "Chronosteen," an item hiding there as something native to that time zone.  It's a premise used in Doctor Who in both the Key to Time story arc and "The Keys of Marinus" that always works well for me, and it works just as well here.

Rani is sent to 1553 and meets up with Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days' Queen."  Clyde is sent to 1941, during World War II.  And Sarah Jane is sent to 1889 where she meets up with a lady ghost hunter.  Rani and Clyde's stories are extremely enjoyable; I've always been a fan of the historical stories on Doctor Who.  Not so much the modern historical stories (with the wonderful exception of "Vincent and the Doctor,") becuase they've always felt the need to add an alien or a monster or some other science fiction element.  I'm more of a fan of the classic Hartnell historicals, because shows like "The Aztecs," "The Romans" and "The Reign of Terror" showed there was plenty of danger to be had in history itself.  And that's exactly what happens in Rani's arc here; the Chronosteen element is barely a part of the story, and it's more about Rani being caught up in the events of Queen Mary I retaking her thrown from Lady Jane Grey's perspective.  History tells us that Lady Jane Grey was executed, which gives us the tragedy of what's about befall this likeable young queen, as well as the threat that as her handmaiden, Rani will be executed as well.

Clyde's story is a little more of a modern historical, as it revolves completely around the Nazis using their piece of Chronosteen to knock out the British radar and stage an invasion, and with the Chronosteen giving them the ability to change history, it just might work.  And Sarah Jane's isn't an historical story at all but more of a time travel story, where she learns the "ghosts" that the ghost hunter Emily Morris is investigating are actually future echoes of a tragic event that hasn't happened yet.

All three stories are enjoyable in their own right, as each member secures their piece of Chronosteen before it's too late.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, if they don't gather them in time, the entire world will be sucked through The Eye of Harmony the Time Window.  So okay, a lot of the elements of the story have been used in Doctor Who before, but technically it's all new to Sarah Jane Adventures, and I'm willing to be more forgiving when it's done in an interesting manner.  Rani's friendship with Lady Jane Grey is great, Clyde standing up to the Nazis is downright inspiring, and Captain & the Shopkeeper were interesting characters that I'd love to see more of, so I can forgive any recycling going on here.

One last thing I have to give this story kudos for:  when Rani was sent to 1553 and Clyde to 1941, I was sure that it wasn't going to come up that neither one was white, which lets face it, for the times they were in is something that would have come up.  But I was completely and totally wrong; when she first arrives, Lady Mathilda asks how Lady Jane could put her trust "in this... foreigner," and one of the Nazis derisively calls Clyde a "negro."  And in both cases Clyde and Rani used it as an opportunity to put those people in their place.  It was really well done, making it both more historically accurate and giving show a great opportunity to fight against racism.  Major kudos to writer Rupert Laight!

The Sarah Jane Adventures - "The Empty Planet" (Parts 1 & 2)

Spoiler Level: Fairly High

Another Sarah Jane-lite episode, which always strikes me as odd since there are no Sarah Jane Adventures Christmas Specials.

Story wise, Sarah Jane being missing works fine; Rani and Clyde wake up and discover they are the last two people on Earth.  Their search for anyone else leads them to a young boy named Gavin, the only other person on Earth who hasn't vanished.  Rani & Clyde then try to figure out what pattern there could possibly be between the three of them, since both Rani & Clyde have had all kinds of amazing things happen to them but Gavin has led a normal life.  Then a couple of robots show up and start chasing them around a lot.

The story itself is pretty good, although everyone spends way too much time wandering around yelling "What's going on?!?" in the first episode.  They do eventually start hunkering down and putting their minds to the problem to try and figure it out, which gets the plot moving, but with only three characters (and two robots) for the entire cast it takes a while.  On the plus side, it's also an opportunity to have Clyde and Rani spend a lot of time alone together and gives their blossoming romance a chance to unfold a little further.  The fact that they may be the new Adam & Eve is brought up more than once.

The resolution was completely different than what I had theorized it would be, which I was quite pleased about.   It tied the whole story together quite well and provided some very interesting answers to all the questions that were raised.  Another very good story, even if Sarah Jane herself was barely in it!

Sarah Jane Adventures - "Death of the Doctor" (Parts 1 & 2)

Spoiler Level: High

This is the story that, if you don't watch Sarah Jane Adventures, you're still going to watch if you're a Doctor Who fan.  And really, this is the one you definitely should see.

UNIT shows up on Sarah Jane's doorstep and says a group of aliens have delivered the Doctor's body, and are taking her to a special UNIT facility for his funeral.  While there, Sarah Jane gets to meet the Doctor's previous companion from UNIT, the one and only Jo Grant!  (Or Jo Jones, rather, after the events of her departure story, "The Green Death.")  It's not long until the Doctor crashes his own funeral and all the running starts!

"Death of the Doctor" works even better than the Doctor's previous guest appearance, last year's "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith."  Just like last year, the Doctor himself doesn't show up until towards the end of Episode 1, but it works a little better here because (1) Matt Smith actually gets to do more that just shout one line before the credits roll, (2) even if the Doctor himself isn't in the first 20 minutes or so, the action is all about him, so his presence is still felt, and (3) we get to see Jo right away, which is probably even more of a thrill than getting to see the Doctor.  I know I'll see Matt Smith again in December;  this is the first time I've seen Jo since she left the show in 1973, and I may never see her again!

In some ways she's the same old Jo, all enthusiasm and smiles.  And in other ways she's grown so much; like Sarah Jane, she's become the one in charge now, traipsing all over the world with her husband, their children, and their grandchildren.  (And let me just also mention here how happy I am that she and Professor Jones are still happily married!)  Jo's brought her grandson, Santiago, who fits in with Clyde and Rani wonderfully.  I didn't want the show to just drop in a new male lead to replace Luke like they did with Rani being introduced right on Maria's heels, but I have to admit, if they were going to replace him, the grandson of Jo Grant would be a great choice.

Russell T Davies excels at character pieces, and that's exactly what this is; even the bad guys motivation is an angle to feature as many memories as possible about the Doctor!  We even get some wonderful little bits of news as Sarah Jane tells Clyde and Rani what she's learned about Ian & Barbara, Ben & Polly, Tegan and Ace since they left the TARDIS!  (Ian & Barbara's especially made me smile, and Ace's made me breathe a sigh of relief I think I've been holding since I saw Mindgame Trilogy.)

Not that it's perfect; some of the special effects are surprisingly below current standards. There's a very obvious matte-painting for the UNIT headquarters, and some very obvious puppeteering for the aliens, which is a bit of a surprise considering how well the special effects have looked on every Doctor Who related program since the show's return.  I don't know if it was done "old-school" deliberately to give it more of a classic Who feel, or if the money just wasn't there, or if it just looked worse to me because I saw it on a 58" TV!  Personally, I'm going to go with the "old school" theory, at least for me.  And I actually kind of prefer puppets to CGI.

Aaaannd, since it was a very nostalgic, memory-oriented episode, it made for a great lead-in to Whofest 2010!

Sarah Jane Adventures - "The Vault of Secrets" (Parts 1 & 2)

Spoiler Level: Kinda' High

Time to reveal another gap in my knowledge:  I thought the Men in Black, as in guys who investigated aliens and confiscated anything alien left behind on Earth and then wiped the memories of witnesses, was created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg for Malibu comics, then sold to Sony and made into a movie, where the term became popular.  Boy, do I feel foolish.

(Even more foolish than the time I actually met Mr. Rosenberg at a convention.  I was setting up my booth, and he wandered by and we talked for a bit.  In conversation he mentioned how Sony was going to make a big-budget movie based on his "Men in Black" comic.  I just nodded politely and thought to myself, "Yeah, that's gonna happen."  But I digress.)

In this case, these particular Men in Black are the androids we saw in the Doctor Who "Dreamland" animated special.  Originally from Area 51 where they were known as the Alliance of Shades, they've made themselves the guardians of everything that Area 51 packed away... which also includes a lost spaceship with the last of Androvax's people, the Vale.  (Androvax, in case you're like me and have a lousy memory for these things, is the alien bad guy from last season's "Prisoner of the Judoon" story, who was on the run from the Judoon and could hide inside other people's bodies.)  It's a tale of potential redemption, rebirth and burps. Or rather burp humor, for the British UFO Research and Paranormal Studies Society, or BURPSS.  Which made me wonder aloud, since UFO is already an acronym, should it be BUFORPSS?  While you wouldn't get to do the obvious burping jokes, I find BUFORPSS a much funnier word on its own.  But according to the Chicago Manual of Style, it's okay to put an acronym inside another acronym, so hey, that's just me.  Am I digressing again?

At any rate, BURPSS comes into the story because Rani's mum has joined the group to try to get some support for her previous encounter with Androvax last season.  And in doing so, I find myself very relieved that Matt Smith's first season as the Doctor has explained away why no one believes in aliens in Sarah Jane Adventures, yet in Doctor Who's "The Stolen Earth," Sarah Jane & Luke were right in the thick of the Daleks invading the entire world.  Now personally I'd rather have the world remember these changes, but hey, not every show can be The 4400.  So at least the Cosmic Crack gives us a reason why they don't stick.

More romance blooming between Clyde and Rani.  Aww, how sweet.  And Luke gets to stay in the opening montage and talk with everyone online.  Wonder how long that will last.

Sarah Jane Adventures - "The Nightmare Man" (Parts 1 & 2)

Spoiler Level: High

Sarah Jane Adventures returns for a fourth season, and it's got a tough act to follow with Series 3 having featured the return of K9 as a regular, the introduction of Rani Chandra, and a guest appearance by the Doctor.

"The Nightmare Man" is a good start.  The titular villain is very creepy, especially to someone like me who's had a lot of bad dreams over the last few years.  The cliffhanger to Part 1 pushes the boundaries for being downright terrifying for a children's series... or at least it would have if it hadn't gone straight into the previews for Part 2.

But this show's strengths have always been in its characters, and that's still the case.  Part of the reason that the Nightmare Man is effective as a villain is because he plays on the characters fears; Luke has passed his "A Levels" and is headed off to Oxford, and his nightmares consist of everyone being glad he's finally out of their lives.  By contrast, Clyde's afraid of never amounting to anything, and Rani, who wants to be a journalist like Sarah Jane, is afraid that her drive for journalistic success (and perhaps integrity) will force her to betray her role model.  And the Nightmare Man tries to make Sarah Jane afraid of being alone again, playing on her being abandoned by the Doctor all those years ago, and reminding the audience of how much she's grown since this series started.  These nightmares aren't just boogie-man scary-movie stuff; they're real fears that real people face, and it shows how strongly the characters rely on each other.

In an American kids show, this episode would have ended with "Oxford may be ready for me, but my place is here, with my mum and my mates.  Oxford can wait!"  Since I have a ten-year-old I've seen a lot of those, so all through the episode I was wondering if he was actually going to leave or if he'd stay.  So I was somewhat surprised when the ending came and Luke drove off with K9 at his side.  I have to admit, I totally cringed at the end of the pilot when Sarah Jane adopted him, but the series really made it work.  The writers gave it just the right amount of depth and character that I felt it really made Sarah Jane grow more than her four years on Doctor Who ever did.  And Luke's naivete and friendship with Clyde made him work as a character as well.  So I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm sorry to see him go, and wondering how well the show will work without him.  As Rich said to me after we finished watching it, he's the one who cements the cast together; Sarah Jane is his mother and the kids are his friends.  Oh sure, Clyde and Rani have become Sarah Jane's Scooby-Doo Crew, but it makes more sense for the kids to be going over to Sarah Jane's house to hang out with Luke.  If I recall correctly (and with me that's always a big "if"), Rani's parents weren't that sweet on Sarah Jane to begin with.  It will be interesting to see how well the dynamic holds up with Luke out of the picture.

And speaking of Clyde and Rani, this changes their dynamic a bit as well.  Before it was three friends hanging out; now it'll be a teenage boy and a teenage girl hanging out.  Potential romance?  It did seem like Luke was trying to push Clyde in that direction.  I'm not opposed to it per se, but I have to confess I never saw it coming.  Since this show is intentionally a kids show and a little more in the vein of the original Doctor Who, I always felt like there's no hanky-panky in the attic.

It's also interesting to note that with Luke and K9 gone, this now means that none of Sarah Jane's companions (it always feels funny to say that!) are the same as the pilot.

Some final thoughts on K9:  I'm sorry to see K9 leave (again), but I have to admit, with Mr. Smith in the picture K9 is a but redundant.   Having him leave with Luke as he starts his own adventure feels very fitting, as that's how K9 Mks I and II both went. And it's not like I'm going to have a chance to miss him when I still have 22 episodes of his own show left to watch...

The Sarah Jane Adventures - "Enemy of the Bane"

Well, this story had all the elements of a great story-- returning villians, a surprise Sontaran, and best of all, the return of the Brigadier-- but I kept finding myself starting to doze off during the second half. But I'm going to chalk that up to my staying up too late last night reading Watchmen rather than blame it on this story itself.

Good old Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It's so nice to see him and Sarah Jane together again. He's definitely having a harder time getting around these days (no running down corridors for him this time-- we don't even get to see him getting in and out of his car), but that doesn't stop him from still being authoritative and getting to even shoot a bad guy. I'm hoping this leads to him getting to come back in one of the 2009 Doctor Who specials, so he'll still get to be with the 10th Doctor.

Overall, I'd say Series 2 of SJA was a big improvement over Series 1, which was a big improvement over the special premiere. Rich told me the show was renewed for a Series 3, so that's good news.

The Sarah Jane Adventures - "The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith"

Two things I've really liked about SJA this season-- a stronger Doctor Who connection, and getting to learn more about Sarah Jane. This story is very good at doing both. Now that Luke's met the Doctor (at least via videoscreen) she doesn't have to act all mysterious about him, and dialogue involving the Doctor or the TARDIS just flows more easily.

I especially liked how the Trickster's trap turned out to be a predestination paradox. We don't get much of those in Doctor Who related shows anymore, which is part of what made it work so well.

And man, the Graske is the most used Doctor Who villian who has yet to appear in an actual Doctor Who episode!

The Sarah Jane Adventures - "Secrets of the Stars" and "The Mark of the Berserker"

You'd think after watching 15 episodes of Sarah Jane Adventures I'd stop being surprised by it, but the show always ends with me saying "That was a lot better than I expected." It's not even just the little touches (such as Mr Smith referring off-handedly to the Draconians) or the more flat-out blatant Doctor Who connections (the villain being able to sense Sarah Jane's long history with the Doctor), although those go a long way towards keeping my excitement up about this show.

"Secrets of the Stars" was a fun story on astrology. I would have liked to have seen Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker in the flashback sequences, but hey, you can't have everything. I thought Russ Abbott was great as the villian Martin Trueman. He has a very strong, theatrical presence.

"Mark of the Berserker" turned out to be a Sarah Jane-light episode (maybe she was busy filming "The Stolen Earth / Journey's End" at the time?), yet it still worked just fine. I think they've struck a nice balance with Maria having left-- while they're not obsessing over her being gone like they did with Rose on Doctor Who, they haven't totally forgotten her either. It was a nice surprise to see Maria still have such a strong presence in this episode. And poor Clyde. You can feel his father's desperation to be everything to him, all the while doing things to earn him the Worst Parent in the UK award.

And did anyone else wonder if Rani was going to end up opening that amulet to become The Rani...?