Sarah Jane Adventures - The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith (Parts 1 & 2) - Reaction Post
Sonic Lipstick Link: < a href="http://persiflage-1.livejournal.com/195936.html">SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith (Parts 1 and 2) reviewed by < lj user=persiflage_1>
It's taken me another viewing of this two-parter to be able to write a (semi)coherent reaction (my initial reaction mostly consisted of "WTF? OMG? You what? DO. NOT. WANT!")
Bullet points first, and then some other comments:
- I surely wasn't the only person who was instantly suspicious of "Oscar" and the way he ran away from SJS and the teenagers?
- It was interesting that all three of the teenagers wanted to go through the fissure to see another time.
- I liked the way Luke and Rani had their arms around each other as they walked away from the fissure (they seem rather more easily touchy-feely with each other than Luke and Maria were).
- I laughed at Clyde calling Luke "My young Padawan".
- I was pleased that SJS knew it was a trap.
- and amused to discover that Luke now knows enough about clothes/fashion to comment on SJS' pink skirt suit.
- and I laughed aloud at SJS and Luke calling themselves Victoria and David Beckham!
- Luke trying to reason with SJS against interfering with her own timeline was interesting - he was being very Doctor-ish.
- SJS demanding some kind of reward for all the lives she's saved seemed very OOC.
- Clyde wanting to organise the Graske's slaves into a rebellion was brilliant. I love that young man so much!
- and I loved the way he hugged the Graske - it was cute - and that he didn't hesitate to keep his promise and give the Verran Soothsayer's box to the Graske.
- I noticed that Luke and Rani didn't hesitate about going back through the fissure to their own time. Got the impression they were very eager to go home!
- The way Clyde squeezed Sarah Jane's shoulder before going home was sweet.
Now the rant.
I can understand the show wanting to demonstrate to children that not even someone as awesome as Sarah Jane (who is this show's Doctor) is not completely infallible, but did they have to do it at the expense of making Sarah Jane so out of character and seem so selfish?
I can accept that Sarah Jane wanted to see her parents, but for her to be so selfish about trying to save their lives, even when Luke was advising her not to interfere with a fixed point in time and despite knowing full well that it was a trap, was just unbelievable. Sarah Jane is not like that - for goodness sakes, she saved loads of lives in the Turn Left 'verse and sacrificed her own in the process. Rose (more or less) had an excuse for her behaviour in "Father's Day" since she was still fairly new to the whole time-travel lark, but Sarah Jane's got decades of experience of time-travel, and she's pretty smart too, so she didn't have any excuse to interfere. And the whole business of just wanting to take a look at how her life would have been different is complete and utter rubbish - she *knows* it doesn't work like that! Congratulations, Gareth Roberts, on making Sarah Jane Smith into an idiot. I never thought I'd see the day! What you did is even worse than what Toby Whitehouse did in "School Reunion"...
And it's a pain, because I like the concept of the Trickster, I think he's an interesting villain (I would love to see him in the parent show, actually), but now I won't be able to bear to watch this story again because Gareth Roberts turned Sarah Jane Smith into a whinging, selfish cow instead of allowing her to be her usual awesome, kick-arse self!
In conclusion: Grr, argh!
It's taken me another viewing of this two-parter to be able to write a (semi)coherent reaction (my initial reaction mostly consisted of "WTF? OMG? You what? DO. NOT. WANT!")
Bullet points first, and then some other comments:
- I surely wasn't the only person who was instantly suspicious of "Oscar" and the way he ran away from SJS and the teenagers?
- It was interesting that all three of the teenagers wanted to go through the fissure to see another time.
- I liked the way Luke and Rani had their arms around each other as they walked away from the fissure (they seem rather more easily touchy-feely with each other than Luke and Maria were).
- I laughed at Clyde calling Luke "My young Padawan".
- I was pleased that SJS knew it was a trap.
- and amused to discover that Luke now knows enough about clothes/fashion to comment on SJS' pink skirt suit.
- and I laughed aloud at SJS and Luke calling themselves Victoria and David Beckham!
- Luke trying to reason with SJS against interfering with her own timeline was interesting - he was being very Doctor-ish.
- SJS demanding some kind of reward for all the lives she's saved seemed very OOC.
- Clyde wanting to organise the Graske's slaves into a rebellion was brilliant. I love that young man so much!
- and I loved the way he hugged the Graske - it was cute - and that he didn't hesitate to keep his promise and give the Verran Soothsayer's box to the Graske.
- I noticed that Luke and Rani didn't hesitate about going back through the fissure to their own time. Got the impression they were very eager to go home!
- The way Clyde squeezed Sarah Jane's shoulder before going home was sweet.
Now the rant.
I can understand the show wanting to demonstrate to children that not even someone as awesome as Sarah Jane (who is this show's Doctor) is not completely infallible, but did they have to do it at the expense of making Sarah Jane so out of character and seem so selfish?
I can accept that Sarah Jane wanted to see her parents, but for her to be so selfish about trying to save their lives, even when Luke was advising her not to interfere with a fixed point in time and despite knowing full well that it was a trap, was just unbelievable. Sarah Jane is not like that - for goodness sakes, she saved loads of lives in the Turn Left 'verse and sacrificed her own in the process. Rose (more or less) had an excuse for her behaviour in "Father's Day" since she was still fairly new to the whole time-travel lark, but Sarah Jane's got decades of experience of time-travel, and she's pretty smart too, so she didn't have any excuse to interfere. And the whole business of just wanting to take a look at how her life would have been different is complete and utter rubbish - she *knows* it doesn't work like that! Congratulations, Gareth Roberts, on making Sarah Jane Smith into an idiot. I never thought I'd see the day! What you did is even worse than what Toby Whitehouse did in "School Reunion"...
And it's a pain, because I like the concept of the Trickster, I think he's an interesting villain (I would love to see him in the parent show, actually), but now I won't be able to bear to watch this story again because Gareth Roberts turned Sarah Jane Smith into a whinging, selfish cow instead of allowing her to be her usual awesome, kick-arse self!
In conclusion: Grr, argh!