Sarah Jane Adventures: The Madwoman and the Doctor...
This evening, with
fairestcat,
commodorified,
random, auriaephiala and raynedaze, I watched The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes "The Madwoman in the Attic" and "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith".
I liked the story of "The Madwoman in the Attic", but I thought it was awkwardly written. It could have been more moving and more suspenseful: in the end, it came out as heavy-handed. But still, good moments. I loved the idea of Rani herself being the Madwoman of the title, and I liked seeing her with her grandchildren at the end.
At the same time, I wondered why, if Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde weren't her friends, Rani's life would entirely go to hell and she'd never have any friends again, let alone lovers or family. Did I miss something?
"The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" was of course the one I have been eagerly awaiting, because of the inclusion of the Doctor in the story. Although I feared they might make his part small - and we all predicted the Doctor would only appear in the last few minutes of the first part, with the tried-and-true pacing of comic books everywhere - they made his part delightfully quirky and juicy, and though they didn't dwell on his relationship with Sarah Jane, they didn't dowplay it either.
I loved it that Peter turned out to be genuine (albeit dead) and that he really did love Sarah Jane, and she him. I liked the "trapped between seconds of time" scenario - where did we see that before? - and I am such a Doctor Who sentimentalist I got all choked up when the Doctor allowed Rani, Clyde and Luke into the TARDIS.
I love it that Luke is no longer the clueless wonder he was in the first series, and is happily settling into human ways.
Watching "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" right after "The Madwoman in the Attic", it was so obvious how the pacing, the action, the characterization and the interest level rose with Gareth Roberts' script, so much better than Joseph Lister's.