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So, last night at the local Doctor Who fan club meeting, I got to see two stories worth (4 episodes) of The Sarah Jane Adventures, the latest Doctor Who spin-off series.
This was my first exposure to the show. I enjoyed it a lot, more than I expected considering that it's very much a kid's show. My strongest reaction was, "Dang, why wasn't there stuff on TV like this when I was a kid?" The basic premise is: Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist with a more than passing experience of aliens thanks to her time spent travelling with this bloke called the Doctor, saves the world from alien invasion with the help of her adopted teenage son, his best friend, and the girl from across the street. It's light-hearted, fast paced, and, for the most part, cleverly written. (Sometimes I find the writing falls flat - the scenes in "Eye of the Gorgon" where Maria argues with her parents didn't sound right to me - like all the characters were being much too articulate about what was really on their minds.)
I'm rather unexpectedly smitten with the Yasmin Paige, who plays Maria, the girl from across the street. I don't think I've been so thoroughly convinced by a smart, spunky teenage screen heroine since I saw Labyrinth. (I should note that I was 13 when I saw Labyrinth - whether that would have made me more or less critical, I'm not sure.) I like that she gets to be a bit girly, but likes math and gets to more or less as much action stuff and playing with alien gizmos as the boys. Luke and Clyde, the boys, aren't quite as interesting, though I'm not sure if that's the fault of the actors or the writers. (Actually, I'm quite sure that the writing gets some of the blame. Clyde, in particular, is written perilously close to the stereotype of the wisecracking and streetwise (black) sidekick. But I'll need to see more than two stories' worth before I can really pick apart what the writers are doing wrong and doing right.)
I think I want Elisabeth Sladen's wardrobe person to go shopping for me. I especially love the outfit she wears in the episode "Eye of the Gorgon" - the burgundy overcoat and knee-high boots evoke a feminine and stylish version of Tom Baker's 4th Doctor costume.
I do hope that this show gets picked up by some channel here in the States, or at least gets a region 1 DVD release so that more people in this country get a chance to see it. It's a marvelous kids' show, and it's got a lot to offer adults looking for a good sci-fi romp. (The audience of adults plus two toddlers at the fan club meeting last night gave both episodes resounding rounds of applause. Ironically, the toddlers were the least impressed, as far as I could tell, but they're still a bit younger than the show's real demographic, and are almost never impressed by anything that's not a Dalek.)
Some spoilery comments on the individual stories follow:
"Eye of the Gorgon" really feels like vintage Hinchcliffe-era Doctor Who redone as modern kids' television. You've got the mythological creature who turns out to be an alien; the cult of deluded humans worshipping and serving said alien; the rambling old house/abbey in the countryside, full of secret passages. I think it loses something in translation: "Eye of the Gorgon" is no "Pyramids of Mars". It's not quite as creepily atmospheric, and the Gorgon never really comes across as having a personality.
On the other hand, the story gives us a wonderfully drawn secondary character in the form of Bea, an elderly woman with Alzheimer's who had her own encounters with aliens in the past. She's lovely, and I hope we might see the character again, and get a bit more of her backstory.
"Warriors of Kudlak" is based on the premise that a race of aliens who are fighting a long intergalactic war are operating a chain of laser-tag centers around Britain, kidnapping the best players to use as soldiers in their war. The idea's not new, but it's got some nice touches. Luke and Clyde get kidnapped, and lead their band of fellow "recruits" in a number of escape attempts - which only makes the alien general, Kudlak, more eager to have them as soldiers - as they demonstrate teamwork, determination, and ingenuity. There's a nice scene where Kudlak attempts to play on the kids' pride and ambition, tempting them with the glory of being elite soldiers - and some of the kids are tempted. It might have been nice to explore that a bit more.
The whole thing falls down a bit at the end - Luke hacks into the computer and discovers that the war has actually been over for 10 years, but the computer which runs Kudlak's ship has been concealing this fact from him because it was never programmed to cope with the possibility of peace. Meh. I think Douglas Adams ran that gag into the ground nearly thirty years ago. However, this is followed up by a nice bit: Kudlak offers his gun to Sarah Jane, so she can kill him. She declines to do so. Kudlak vows to track down the survivors of the children he has sent off to war, and return them to their homes. I'd like to see that, though I have a feeling that any story involving the surviving child warriors would be too dark for The Sarah Jane Adventures to tackle.
(Actually, the show never really answers the question - if the war is over, where are the child soldiers being sent? It's strongly implied that they are being sent off to battle somewhere. Maybe they're forced to fight against each other. That would suit the computer's twisted reasoning, I suppose.)
This was my first exposure to the show. I enjoyed it a lot, more than I expected considering that it's very much a kid's show. My strongest reaction was, "Dang, why wasn't there stuff on TV like this when I was a kid?" The basic premise is: Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist with a more than passing experience of aliens thanks to her time spent travelling with this bloke called the Doctor, saves the world from alien invasion with the help of her adopted teenage son, his best friend, and the girl from across the street. It's light-hearted, fast paced, and, for the most part, cleverly written. (Sometimes I find the writing falls flat - the scenes in "Eye of the Gorgon" where Maria argues with her parents didn't sound right to me - like all the characters were being much too articulate about what was really on their minds.)
I'm rather unexpectedly smitten with the Yasmin Paige, who plays Maria, the girl from across the street. I don't think I've been so thoroughly convinced by a smart, spunky teenage screen heroine since I saw Labyrinth. (I should note that I was 13 when I saw Labyrinth - whether that would have made me more or less critical, I'm not sure.) I like that she gets to be a bit girly, but likes math and gets to more or less as much action stuff and playing with alien gizmos as the boys. Luke and Clyde, the boys, aren't quite as interesting, though I'm not sure if that's the fault of the actors or the writers. (Actually, I'm quite sure that the writing gets some of the blame. Clyde, in particular, is written perilously close to the stereotype of the wisecracking and streetwise (black) sidekick. But I'll need to see more than two stories' worth before I can really pick apart what the writers are doing wrong and doing right.)
I think I want Elisabeth Sladen's wardrobe person to go shopping for me. I especially love the outfit she wears in the episode "Eye of the Gorgon" - the burgundy overcoat and knee-high boots evoke a feminine and stylish version of Tom Baker's 4th Doctor costume.
I do hope that this show gets picked up by some channel here in the States, or at least gets a region 1 DVD release so that more people in this country get a chance to see it. It's a marvelous kids' show, and it's got a lot to offer adults looking for a good sci-fi romp. (The audience of adults plus two toddlers at the fan club meeting last night gave both episodes resounding rounds of applause. Ironically, the toddlers were the least impressed, as far as I could tell, but they're still a bit younger than the show's real demographic, and are almost never impressed by anything that's not a Dalek.)
Some spoilery comments on the individual stories follow:
"Eye of the Gorgon" really feels like vintage Hinchcliffe-era Doctor Who redone as modern kids' television. You've got the mythological creature who turns out to be an alien; the cult of deluded humans worshipping and serving said alien; the rambling old house/abbey in the countryside, full of secret passages. I think it loses something in translation: "Eye of the Gorgon" is no "Pyramids of Mars". It's not quite as creepily atmospheric, and the Gorgon never really comes across as having a personality.
On the other hand, the story gives us a wonderfully drawn secondary character in the form of Bea, an elderly woman with Alzheimer's who had her own encounters with aliens in the past. She's lovely, and I hope we might see the character again, and get a bit more of her backstory.
"Warriors of Kudlak" is based on the premise that a race of aliens who are fighting a long intergalactic war are operating a chain of laser-tag centers around Britain, kidnapping the best players to use as soldiers in their war. The idea's not new, but it's got some nice touches. Luke and Clyde get kidnapped, and lead their band of fellow "recruits" in a number of escape attempts - which only makes the alien general, Kudlak, more eager to have them as soldiers - as they demonstrate teamwork, determination, and ingenuity. There's a nice scene where Kudlak attempts to play on the kids' pride and ambition, tempting them with the glory of being elite soldiers - and some of the kids are tempted. It might have been nice to explore that a bit more.
The whole thing falls down a bit at the end - Luke hacks into the computer and discovers that the war has actually been over for 10 years, but the computer which runs Kudlak's ship has been concealing this fact from him because it was never programmed to cope with the possibility of peace. Meh. I think Douglas Adams ran that gag into the ground nearly thirty years ago. However, this is followed up by a nice bit: Kudlak offers his gun to Sarah Jane, so she can kill him. She declines to do so. Kudlak vows to track down the survivors of the children he has sent off to war, and return them to their homes. I'd like to see that, though I have a feeling that any story involving the surviving child warriors would be too dark for The Sarah Jane Adventures to tackle.
(Actually, the show never really answers the question - if the war is over, where are the child soldiers being sent? It's strongly implied that they are being sent off to battle somewhere. Maybe they're forced to fight against each other. That would suit the computer's twisted reasoning, I suppose.)
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