The Sarah Jane Adventures...
Jan. 5th, 2007 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrakoInitially I hadn't planned to watch The Sarah Jane Adventures. I don't much like most kid's shows, and even though Sarah Jane was delightful in "School Reunion" I hadn't much interest. Then I saw a trailer for the show, and thought, "I want to watch that." The mark of a really good trailer.
So I watched it. Enjoyed it, though it kept up a sort of oscillating continuum of things I liked and things I didn't. Rubber monsters? Oh dear.
I've heard Russell T. Davies and other producers make the point several times that the adult material of Torchwood and the kids' material of Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures would not cross over in any way. So it came as a surprise to see Sarah Jane, in one of the first scenes, talking to an alien who looked like Toshiko's girlfriend in the Torchwood episode "Greeks Bearing Gifts". My first thought was, of course, that Sarah Jane had an alien girlfriend. She turns out to be a friend who is a poet; and Tosh's girlfriend, of course, was a murderer and a heart-eater, a criminal of her race. Tosh would have done better with a poet.
Stuff I disliked:
(1) The Willy Wonka nature of the plot.
(2) Kelsey Harper, Maria's friend, who is annoying. Owen Harper in Torchwood is also annoying. But James Harper was not. I guess I can absolve Russell T. Davies of a grudge against people named Harper.
(3) Plastic monsters.
(4) Monsters who operate from the ceiling. I thought that was absurd in the Doctor Who episode "The Long Game" and it was no better here. Does Russell T. Davies think ceiling-monsters are scary? I prefer closet-monsters, as in "Fear Her".
Stuff I liked:
(1) Maria Jackson, the young protagonist. I thought she looked a little like Indira Varma and she had a lot of style and charm.
(2) Luke. Interesting character, engagingly portrayed.
(3) Maria's father. He was terrific. (Her mother was just weird, but presumably mostly absent.)
(4) Maria and her father have William Morris wallpaper in their house. I loved that. Of course, it was probably the doing of the former tenants. I hope they don't cover it up.
(5) The corporate-alien-villain nature of the plot. And the set design on the evil soft drink factor - terrific visuals.
(6) Sarah Jane's references to the Doctor as "a very special man".
(7) Sarah Jane herself. There were many things I liked about her that strike me as fairly unusual on television - the 'successful single woman' angle done right. Her cool house. He comment that "There are two kinds of people. Those who panic, and then there's us."
(7) A line from Sarah Jane that struck me as being very like something out of Doctor Who: "The people I fight have plans and weapons but I don't. It's what makes me different." The point has been made that the Doctor wins by having no plan, by playing things by ear. Seems to me that this is contrary to the usual received wisdom of the popular media, where 'having a plan' is a good thing. (Teamwork too.) I love it that this isn't the case in these shows.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 05:21 am (UTC)I quite agree with most of your dislikes and likes...although I have no real opinion on ceiling monsters. They'd probably always get me though: I'm generally look at the ground when I walk. Maybe RTD does the same? The only monsters from the Whoniverse that really scared me were the fairies, though.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 10:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 10:42 am (UTC)I think Torchwood has spoiled me for some of the more child-friendly material, to be honest.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 10:54 am (UTC)She lives for me trough the audio storiesproduced by Big Finish. In the last of those Sarah Jane is delirious in a space ship that has lost control (it was supposed to just make a short tourist outing but 1 person brought a gun and shot eveyone but Sarah Jane.)
Now my mind suffers from severe continuity problems..
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 11:17 am (UTC)Eeek! I can imagine! Obviously she survived that adventure... But how?
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 11:21 am (UTC)In a way, I liked that - that two (very different) examples of the same species should come to Earth and meet two of our female protagonists. But. All the same. Given what we know about Mary, the connotations are odd. In retrospect, I like the contrast - it's as if an alien were to meet random humans and met Ed Morgan, Eugene, and Captain Jack - all very different types of personalities.
The Willie Wonka plot put me off rather...
Yes, me too. Especially since the only version of the story I know is the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp version and I didn't like it.
I think Torchwood has spoiled me for some of the more child-friendly material, to be honest.
Yeah...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 11:25 am (UTC)Early training! Sounds like an unfair advantage! Those plastic monsters were the reason - one of the reasons - I wouldn't watch Doctor Who in the 1980s. Just too silly, visually. I have no real problem with it in the new series because the stories are so brilliant, but the plastic monsters are still my least favourite part.
Sarah Jane's line "The people I fight have plans and weapons but I don't. It's what makes me different." seems to encapsulate the whole essence of Dr Who in one neat phrase.
Yes. I love that so much. And Maria and Luke are two of the best young protagonists I have ever seen.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 11:30 am (UTC)That's a very good point. And the story was intelligent - putting aside my aversion to plastic monsters.
They'd probably always get me though: I'm generally look at the ground when I walk. Maybe RTD does the same?
Hee. I do too. Once a friend asked me why and I was hard put to answer. Maybe because, when walking outdoors, it's important to watch one's footing?
The only monsters from the Whoniverse that really scared me were the fairies, though.
The monsters which scare me most are the human ones. Ed Morgan in "Ghost Machine", Evan in "Countrycide", Henry van Statten in "Dalek", and so on.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 11:31 am (UTC)OOC:
Date: 2007-01-06 12:49 pm (UTC)Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-01-06 12:50 pm (UTC)Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-01-07 01:01 pm (UTC)Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-01-07 02:14 pm (UTC)Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-01-07 02:17 pm (UTC)Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-01-07 02:21 pm (UTC)Re: OOC:
Date: 2007-01-07 02:32 pm (UTC)and I half-expected S-J to melt whatever her name was... the other girl
no subject
Date: 2007-01-07 05:00 pm (UTC)especially Stupid- that MIhigh they advertised after it sounds good....]I liked the monsters, because they didn't look human. Humans that are monsters [in charecter]: good. Aliens that look like humans: Bad. [Except him, of course...] She ent used to monsters that can go upstairs...
The bubble-shock, a product that takes people over, being advertised on Blue Peter reminds me of a sciffy serial they ran on blue peter some time in the last ten years. [Liz was def in it, that could narrow things down.] This features a gas that took people over, that was being sold in spraycans.
I do hope gobby lass does not return. I can't hope for a long, lingering and painful death - it is a kid's show.
I spotted the Mary-a-like in the trails, and was worried.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-07 05:09 pm (UTC)Ah, now, I always like aliens who look like humans, and tend to dislike aliens who don't look like humans, and my like/dislike factor increases/decreases to the extent aliens appear like/unlike humans. I really have no interest in reading about or seeing unhumanlike aliens. Even when it's very cleverly done, as in, say, David Brin's novels (which I like), I have relatively no intellectual interest and little emotive connection with the nonhuman aliens. I'm trying to think of exception. The Wind in the Brian M. Stableford novels, perhaps, but then - the Wind is very human, just noncorporeal. I rather like shape-changing aliens like Durlans and Skrulls but I like them best when they appear human... Like that cutie Teddy in Young Avengers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulkling).
This is why I haven't pursued more episodes of Farscape (though I'm pretty sure I'd like it despite the plastic aliens) and don't like lots of classic SF movies and books.
[Except him, of course...]
*He* is the best of all possible aliens.
I do hope gobby lass does not return. I can't hope for a long, lingering and painful death - it is a kid's show.
Ah yes, but we can dream - and pretend it happens, unmentioned, offscreen! Being swallowed by a plastic monster sounds like just the thing.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-08 11:58 am (UTC)For a plastic character, plastic monsters are the perfect removal method.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-08 12:03 pm (UTC)Don't you appreciate the Doctor?
SJA News
Date: 2008-09-04 02:49 am (UTC)http://scifipulse.net/?p=1478
Re: SJA News
Date: 2008-09-04 02:57 am (UTC)I hope we see K-9.
Re: SJA News
Date: 2008-09-04 04:12 am (UTC)There's a reason he's in that frigging black hole, btw. It's a metaphor for the production black hole that a proposed non-whoverse K-9 spin-off (seriously) has fallen into with accompanying rights issues. Frankly, I hope the spin-off tanks altogether. If it doesn't, we won't see K-9 on Whoverse shows at all. So far the proposed show is still in limbo/pre-production.
Re: SJA News
Date: 2008-09-04 12:35 pm (UTC)New SJA Trailer
Date: 2008-09-07 10:00 pm (UTC)http://scifipulse.net/?p=1569
Re: New SJA Trailer
Date: 2008-09-08 12:27 am (UTC)Re: New SJA Trailer
Date: 2008-09-08 01:07 am (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJOl6oN_XiI
Re: New SJA Trailer
Date: 2008-09-08 01:23 am (UTC)