SJA: Eye of the Gorgon part 2
I can now honestly say that I'm enjoying SJA immensely. Eye of the Gorgon part 2 was great fun - good pacing, good plot and some lovely character stuff. I am curious, though, about what happened to all those nuns after Sarah Jane and co. left...
It was good to see Maria experiencing the possible negative side of being involved with Sarah Jane's adventures. Her response to her father apparently being turned to stone felt just right and so did her apology afterwards. She is, after all, only a kid and even adults would have had that reaction. To see her think things through, apologise and accept that she is messing around with potentially dangerous issues gave Maria a maturity that suits her very well.
The relationship between Maria and Sarah Jane is developing nicely. Sarah Jane is becoming a mixture of friend and older, wiser mentor for Maria. In a way they almost parallel the Doctor/companion relationship. Although Sarah Jane is definitely a mother figure to Luke and Clyde, that wouldn't work for Maria. She has a mother (a rather useless mother, but nevertheless a mother) and what Maria needs is someone who can fill the emotional gap that her mother can't and be a role model in a way that her mother isn't. If anything, Maria's mother is the polar opposite of Sarah Jane and also an example of what Maria doesn't want to turn into.
I think that keeping Maria's father out of the adventures for now - or at least not consciously aware of what's happening - is a good decision. There was a tiny part of me that was looking forward to how they would explain aliens and so on, but I think it would change the dynamic of the show and the characters too much to go there at this stage. Maria's father is her rock of normality when she needs him but I think that she enjoys knowing things that nobody around her does.
Luke and Clyde spent most of the epiosde together (usually attempting to escape from somewhere) and I'm thoroughly enjoying both of them. The show is building up a great, believable friendship despite - maybe because of - their differences. They're great fun.
I adored Bea and I'm oddly happy that the talisman couldn't restore her. It would have been too much like a get out of jail free card if the talisman had been able to cure her Altzheimer's. Also there would have been too much of a debate about what to do with this amazing device that can cure anything and later episodes wouldn't have the same kind of impact if we no longer need to worry about favourite characters being hurt. Nope, we don't need McGuffin like that hanging around clogging up the plots!
I still haven't cured myself of watching the trailer for next week. Bad Sel. It does look quite good, though.
Writing this while waiting for things to run on our new, super-duper, whizzy data warehouse. It keeps surprising me by, uh, running my reports quickly. Damn, I'm suddenly more productive.
We're considering putting go faster stripes on the new warehouse :-) Obviously we aren't complete geeks at all...