The Sarah Jane Adventures
So, another thing last weekend was watching the first two stories of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Invasion of the Bane and Revenge of the Slitheen -- rusty-halo gives her thoughts here. My feelings were initially a bit mixed after Invasion of the Bane, but overall I enjoyed both stories more than I expected, really.
As someone who has not seen much of Old Who, I’m approaching Sarah Jane as a new character mostly, and I like her a lot in these episodes. I like her prickly, brusque, confident personality; her determination, her vulnerability, and her almost otherworldly air. I like that she’s not particularly nice, that she’s got a distance from the rest of the world that she’s not interested in crossing for quite a while. I was moved by her discussion of life back on earth after traveling with the Doctor, as well as her acknowledgement at the end of the episode that she was still figuring out her life -- just like everyone else. It almost goes without saying, but I love that a female character of her age is the lead, the mysterious person with a mission, and not the mom or the grandmother or any of the other supporting roles that seem to be the only way the media sees women after a certain age. And I like that the show faced that issue head on with the contempt verbally expressed for SJ by the baddies because she never married or had kids, versus the reverence they give to the grotesque mother Bane. Makes it especially satisfying when SJ and her troupe run rings around them!
But then, SJ becomes a mom, or at least an adoptive mother, by the end of the pilot episode. Is the show saying that she was incomplete without that role, after all? It’s a little bit of a tough call. I don’t think the show presents SJ becoming a parent as a replacement for her life’s work, but a positive addition to her life. She does need to connect more to the world around her, but taking on the role of mother is not specifically necessary - her connection to Maria as a potential protégé seems the crucial step to me. So I’m going to come down on the side that as long as SJ continues to be her complicated, prickly, adventurous self, then becoming part of a family is a positive thing, because it’s not replacing her previous identity but expanding it. And it’s not like she’s just slotting into the role - she’s really having to feel it out. It’s all very in-character, at least so far, so I like it.
Introducing Sarah Jane as a mysterious, intriguing figure who keeps trying to shut out our young, curious protagonist before finally allowing her to join the adventure - wow, where have we seen this one before? RTD does have a template he likes to follow in premiere episodes, as per the premieres of both Doctor Who and Torchwood. And yet it keeps working very well, so I can’t blame him. I like that he understands how crucial it is to get to know this version of the title character gradually, and that he doesn’t info-dump every detail within the first 10 minutes (hello, TV Movie) or even the first ten episodes. By allowing the audience to invest in the title character’s development, rather than presenting a fait accompli, the audience gains an emotional connection and a reason to keep watching - because the character has become their Doctor, their Jack, or their Sarah Jane, no matter how far back the history of the character may go.
Speaking of that protagonist - I love Maria! I really wasn't expecting to connect that much to the kids, but Maria is a well-written, rounded character and the actress playing her is really good. I love Maria's open curiosity, intelligence, initiative and enthusiasm. She’s a great adventurer in training, and I love the particular connection that developed between Maria and SJ - the whole kindred spirits feeling. I like the family situation with her awesome dad and flighty mom, and the fact that this is still a family despite the divorce. Alan is almost a little too perfect at this point, so it’ll be interesting to see how he develops as Maria’s adventures with SJ continue. I also really enjoy Luke - I think the actor is doing a nice job in the fairly restrictive “I’m new to this world and its strange ways” role - I like the little glints of humor that occasionally show through, and the sweetness the actor brings to the role is appealing. I also really appreciate that the “special" gifted-yet-innocent one is a young naive boy for a change, rather than a girl - and that his two primary protectors and guides are female characters. Nice reversal on the genders there.
The biggest improvement in the series for me, I have to say, was dropping Kelsey and adding Clyde. There just didn’t seem to be anything to like about Kelsey, and when she laughed at Sarah Jane and K-9, I seriously wanted to smack her. I feel like the writing was really at fault in this character - she could have differed from Maria without being so unpleasant and superficial. The mind-reading of the Bane hinted at more, but we never saw that when she was conscious. Clyde, OTOH, while overly-concerned about his cool, also seems more vulnerable, far less prone to catchphrases, and most importantly for me, displays the quality of wonder - he’s interested and excited by this new world opening up, and he wants to see and know and do more. And I liked that Clyde thought that there was no problem leaving the Slitheen to their deaths after they tried to destroy the Earth -- I'm glad someone spoke up with that point of view, whether SJ agreed or not (at the same time, I'm glad that funny lil'Slitheen got away at the last minute). The quality of the younger actors playing Maria, Luke and Clyde is impressive -- I definitely feel an emotional connection to their characters. Good for the casting department on finding these kids.
The visuals on the show are bright and fun, and I especially like the detail of the difference between SJ's older, bigger home versus the rest of the "normal" homes on Bannerman Road -- the mysterious older home is the kind of cool classic detail I remember from the books I read as a kid. The plots themselves are by the numbers so far, but I don't watch for plots that much anyway. Although I do hope the Who team will give up on trying to portray mass mind control of the London population for a bit -- it just always looks cheesy. Oh, and SJ putting down the way military organizations deal with aliens -- heh. Just cause it's a DW spin-off, doesn't mean Sarah Jane has to approve of Torchwood!
What else? Oh yeah, the DW TV movie. Hmm, that's pretty easy: it was awful. Other than casting a good actor in Paul McGann, just really terrible -- and even that detail they mess up by sticking the poor guy in that wig. And what was UP with all those candles? Bad, bad, bad -- and definitely makes me glad there wasn't a series that followed it. Yay for having good storytellers in charge of the new series when it did come back and not those folks.
As someone who has not seen much of Old Who, I’m approaching Sarah Jane as a new character mostly, and I like her a lot in these episodes. I like her prickly, brusque, confident personality; her determination, her vulnerability, and her almost otherworldly air. I like that she’s not particularly nice, that she’s got a distance from the rest of the world that she’s not interested in crossing for quite a while. I was moved by her discussion of life back on earth after traveling with the Doctor, as well as her acknowledgement at the end of the episode that she was still figuring out her life -- just like everyone else. It almost goes without saying, but I love that a female character of her age is the lead, the mysterious person with a mission, and not the mom or the grandmother or any of the other supporting roles that seem to be the only way the media sees women after a certain age. And I like that the show faced that issue head on with the contempt verbally expressed for SJ by the baddies because she never married or had kids, versus the reverence they give to the grotesque mother Bane. Makes it especially satisfying when SJ and her troupe run rings around them!
But then, SJ becomes a mom, or at least an adoptive mother, by the end of the pilot episode. Is the show saying that she was incomplete without that role, after all? It’s a little bit of a tough call. I don’t think the show presents SJ becoming a parent as a replacement for her life’s work, but a positive addition to her life. She does need to connect more to the world around her, but taking on the role of mother is not specifically necessary - her connection to Maria as a potential protégé seems the crucial step to me. So I’m going to come down on the side that as long as SJ continues to be her complicated, prickly, adventurous self, then becoming part of a family is a positive thing, because it’s not replacing her previous identity but expanding it. And it’s not like she’s just slotting into the role - she’s really having to feel it out. It’s all very in-character, at least so far, so I like it.
Introducing Sarah Jane as a mysterious, intriguing figure who keeps trying to shut out our young, curious protagonist before finally allowing her to join the adventure - wow, where have we seen this one before? RTD does have a template he likes to follow in premiere episodes, as per the premieres of both Doctor Who and Torchwood. And yet it keeps working very well, so I can’t blame him. I like that he understands how crucial it is to get to know this version of the title character gradually, and that he doesn’t info-dump every detail within the first 10 minutes (hello, TV Movie) or even the first ten episodes. By allowing the audience to invest in the title character’s development, rather than presenting a fait accompli, the audience gains an emotional connection and a reason to keep watching - because the character has become their Doctor, their Jack, or their Sarah Jane, no matter how far back the history of the character may go.
Speaking of that protagonist - I love Maria! I really wasn't expecting to connect that much to the kids, but Maria is a well-written, rounded character and the actress playing her is really good. I love Maria's open curiosity, intelligence, initiative and enthusiasm. She’s a great adventurer in training, and I love the particular connection that developed between Maria and SJ - the whole kindred spirits feeling. I like the family situation with her awesome dad and flighty mom, and the fact that this is still a family despite the divorce. Alan is almost a little too perfect at this point, so it’ll be interesting to see how he develops as Maria’s adventures with SJ continue. I also really enjoy Luke - I think the actor is doing a nice job in the fairly restrictive “I’m new to this world and its strange ways” role - I like the little glints of humor that occasionally show through, and the sweetness the actor brings to the role is appealing. I also really appreciate that the “special" gifted-yet-innocent one is a young naive boy for a change, rather than a girl - and that his two primary protectors and guides are female characters. Nice reversal on the genders there.
The biggest improvement in the series for me, I have to say, was dropping Kelsey and adding Clyde. There just didn’t seem to be anything to like about Kelsey, and when she laughed at Sarah Jane and K-9, I seriously wanted to smack her. I feel like the writing was really at fault in this character - she could have differed from Maria without being so unpleasant and superficial. The mind-reading of the Bane hinted at more, but we never saw that when she was conscious. Clyde, OTOH, while overly-concerned about his cool, also seems more vulnerable, far less prone to catchphrases, and most importantly for me, displays the quality of wonder - he’s interested and excited by this new world opening up, and he wants to see and know and do more. And I liked that Clyde thought that there was no problem leaving the Slitheen to their deaths after they tried to destroy the Earth -- I'm glad someone spoke up with that point of view, whether SJ agreed or not (at the same time, I'm glad that funny lil'Slitheen got away at the last minute). The quality of the younger actors playing Maria, Luke and Clyde is impressive -- I definitely feel an emotional connection to their characters. Good for the casting department on finding these kids.
The visuals on the show are bright and fun, and I especially like the detail of the difference between SJ's older, bigger home versus the rest of the "normal" homes on Bannerman Road -- the mysterious older home is the kind of cool classic detail I remember from the books I read as a kid. The plots themselves are by the numbers so far, but I don't watch for plots that much anyway. Although I do hope the Who team will give up on trying to portray mass mind control of the London population for a bit -- it just always looks cheesy. Oh, and SJ putting down the way military organizations deal with aliens -- heh. Just cause it's a DW spin-off, doesn't mean Sarah Jane has to approve of Torchwood!
What else? Oh yeah, the DW TV movie. Hmm, that's pretty easy: it was awful. Other than casting a good actor in Paul McGann, just really terrible -- and even that detail they mess up by sticking the poor guy in that wig. And what was UP with all those candles? Bad, bad, bad -- and definitely makes me glad there wasn't a series that followed it. Yay for having good storytellers in charge of the new series when it did come back and not those folks.