Mark of the Berserker
Oh, SJA. Making me all misty eyed this week.
Mark of the Berserker
Have I ever mentioned how much I love when characters are sent on silly side-quests to get them out of the way on Doctor Who? Like in The Green Death with those random but completely awesome scenes of the Doctor running away from giant stuff trying to kill him. So yes, having Sarah dressed up in scrubs attempting to catch an alien slug made my day. And, oh yes, her showing up at just the right moment and helping Clyde save the day because she was the only one around to do so, also so very fantastic. Then with the totally trusting of Clyde to do the right thing and bonding with Clyde and telling him he's mistaken about being weak. Really, this story wasn't Sarah-lite, it was Sarah-concentrate. All the fantasticness of Sarah Jane Smith squished into three scenes.
Yay for unexpected!Maria and particularly unexpected!Alan and him utilising his mischievous hacker past. It wasn't quite TSE's outer-space facebook of Earth saving, but it was quite awesome having them all communicating and Maria meeting Rani (no jealously there. Love how they have completely avoided the Rose and Martha situation).
But moving away from stuff that made me squee and onto the brilliant emotional stuff. I thought the Clyde and his father story as done so very well and again is an example of this show really going for heavy issues and dealing with them so so well. He really shouldn't have brought his father to the attic, but you can understand why he did it. And the end, when he realises that his father isn't a person he looks up to, and then chooses to exclude his father from his life, that's not the usual way for those sorts of stories to end, even in 'adult' shows (it's far more likely that deadbeat dad is included), and I applaud them for that.
I really loved the exploration of Clyde's backstory and the fact that it seems to have been building up. The fact he got expelled from his old school was something I didn't think of but was revelation that just fitted so nicely into what we know about Clyde, such as that he was a new kid like Maria and Luke, and also explains why Rani's father takes issue with her friendship with him. And then the lovely little revelation the SJA crew is not just Sarah and Luke's family, but Clyde's family as well.
Oh, yes, and I'd love to see more of Clyde's Mum.
On the other hand, would SJA please stop with the mind-wiping of the mothers. And for that matter, the character that would rather die than lose their special destiny. We've had four stories so far, and three of the endings seem to have harped back to poor Donna's fate in Journey's End. I'm still not over that, so the reminder is not pleasant. Plus, how is that the mind-wiping a good idea when the mothershow and SJA have gone out of its way to show that memory wiping or tampering is not a happy ending? But then, maybe we're not supposed to be entirely happy with what Clyde did. Morally ambiguous ending?
If the Trickster showing up next week completely undermines a fic that I have been writing for months and now is 14 000 words, I shall be very very hacked off.
Mark of the Berserker
Have I ever mentioned how much I love when characters are sent on silly side-quests to get them out of the way on Doctor Who? Like in The Green Death with those random but completely awesome scenes of the Doctor running away from giant stuff trying to kill him. So yes, having Sarah dressed up in scrubs attempting to catch an alien slug made my day. And, oh yes, her showing up at just the right moment and helping Clyde save the day because she was the only one around to do so, also so very fantastic. Then with the totally trusting of Clyde to do the right thing and bonding with Clyde and telling him he's mistaken about being weak. Really, this story wasn't Sarah-lite, it was Sarah-concentrate. All the fantasticness of Sarah Jane Smith squished into three scenes.
Yay for unexpected!Maria and particularly unexpected!Alan and him utilising his mischievous hacker past. It wasn't quite TSE's outer-space facebook of Earth saving, but it was quite awesome having them all communicating and Maria meeting Rani (no jealously there. Love how they have completely avoided the Rose and Martha situation).
But moving away from stuff that made me squee and onto the brilliant emotional stuff. I thought the Clyde and his father story as done so very well and again is an example of this show really going for heavy issues and dealing with them so so well. He really shouldn't have brought his father to the attic, but you can understand why he did it. And the end, when he realises that his father isn't a person he looks up to, and then chooses to exclude his father from his life, that's not the usual way for those sorts of stories to end, even in 'adult' shows (it's far more likely that deadbeat dad is included), and I applaud them for that.
I really loved the exploration of Clyde's backstory and the fact that it seems to have been building up. The fact he got expelled from his old school was something I didn't think of but was revelation that just fitted so nicely into what we know about Clyde, such as that he was a new kid like Maria and Luke, and also explains why Rani's father takes issue with her friendship with him. And then the lovely little revelation the SJA crew is not just Sarah and Luke's family, but Clyde's family as well.
Oh, yes, and I'd love to see more of Clyde's Mum.
On the other hand, would SJA please stop with the mind-wiping of the mothers. And for that matter, the character that would rather die than lose their special destiny. We've had four stories so far, and three of the endings seem to have harped back to poor Donna's fate in Journey's End. I'm still not over that, so the reminder is not pleasant. Plus, how is that the mind-wiping a good idea when the mothershow and SJA have gone out of its way to show that memory wiping or tampering is not a happy ending? But then, maybe we're not supposed to be entirely happy with what Clyde did. Morally ambiguous ending?
If the Trickster showing up next week completely undermines a fic that I have been writing for months and now is 14 000 words, I shall be very very hacked off.