A review of Lost in Time

Sarah, Rani and Clyde are tempted to investigate a local shopkeeper's report of a massive alien creature, but it turns out they have been lured there because the shopkeeper needs them to complete a quest. Three pieces of chronium, metal forged in the Time Vortex itself, have been spread across Earth's history and now all three are needed to stabilise time and stop Earth from being sucked into the Vortex. Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are then dispatched to separate time zones to complete their quests, and if they fail to do so in time, Earth is doomed.

It's no secret that former BBC One Controller Peter Fincham was impressed with Series One of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and he made Russell T Davies the offer to have it's status bumped up from being a CBBC show to a Saturday evening BBC One programme running in the same timeslot as Dr. Who, Robin Hood and Merlin. Davies declined, believing that Sarah Jane Adventures was perfect for CBBC and that in some way Dr. Who should have a presence on the channel specifically catering to children. I agree wholeheartedly with him, although this series has been surprisingly adult in tone and is dealing with issues and displaying incidents that would never have appeared in Series One. For example the developing romance between Clyde and Rani would never have been developed when these characters were younger. But Lost in Time in particular deals with some very adult themes, such as the execution of The Nine Day Queen, small children dying in a house fire and displaying Nazis running around with automatic guns. One of the strict rules when Sarah Jane Adventures started was "No guns!". How much this little show has grown up along with the characters!

Lost in Time has a tantalising plot which is cleverly resolved, although the main strength is the drama. The scenes with Lady Jane in particular stand out as Rani deal with her inevitible fate although Sarah Jane's storyline in early 20th Century also has a fair bit of dramatic oomph. The nature and identify of The Shopkeeper and his parrott is never explained, and it doesn't need to be. Nevertheless I find the idea that whoever or whatever has stepped in to fill the vacant role as time's guardians are disguising themselves as parrotts to be somewhat bizarre!

The only signficant issue I have with this story is the lack of humour. There were plenty more opportunities for Clyde to have a laugh at the Nazi's expense and although the segments featuring Rani and Sarah Jane were deadly serious a few more gags would have helped break the tension of this unusually serious story.

Even so Lost in Time is a superb story. It's cleverly plotted, dramatic and heartbreaking. Anyone who won't watch this because it's a CBBC programme doesn't know what they're missing.

5/5

A review of The Empty Planet

Clyde and Rani wake up one morning to find that they're the only people left on Earth. Nobody else, and no mobile coverage, TV, radio or anything. But then they discover another another human and when robots appear out of nowhere things get even stranger…

Gareth Roberts has proven himself to be an invaluable addition to the Dr. Who writing team. In the 1990's he wrote about a dozen Dr. Who novels and all were heavy on humour but tended to have ropey plots and The Doctor, Benny, Roz and Chris often acted out of character. Roberts has come a long way since then, and The Empty Planet is a good example of the knack he's developed for clever plotting as well as his ability to write excellent character pieces.

As Sarah Jane is missing for almost the entire story The Empty Planet focuses almost entirely on Clyde and Rani, who have to work out what is going on and save the world without any help. This is handled exceptionally well and their, er, relationship starts to develop some more. Much of the point of this is to give Clyde and Rani a chance to realise that they're not second best, they're not just sidekicks. In fact they're just as important as Sarah and Mr. Smith. It's also good to see the gradual evolution of Clyde and Rani from kids into adults. They're now in Sixth Form (the UK equivalent of Grade 12) and are really young adults, so the production team is being clever by not pretending they're still 13 year-olds.

Asides from it's strength as a character piece, The Empty Planet is remarkably eerie and has to be one of the most atmospheric pieces of children's TV ever. Seeing Rani verge on panic as she realises there may be nobody else left and watching them chased through the deserted London streets is a sight more at home in a sci-fi horror film than a CBBC programme, but it's handled in a way that shouldn't freak small children out too much. Oh, and there are cool robots. I like robots.  :)

It's hard to say more about the plot than what's shown in the trailer without giving away too much, let's just say I didn't see the twist coming and the resolution really is very clever.

Overall The Empty Planet is another excellent story. Starting to sound like a broken record, am I? Well that's because this series is just so good!

5/5

A review of Death of the Doctor

UNIT shows up at 13 Bannerman Rd with terrible news. The Shansheeth, known as the intergalactic carers of the dead, have returned a body to Earth and DNA tests confirm it's the Doctor. Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani attend the funeral and there they meet Jo Jones, formerly Jo Grant, and her grandson Santiago. Sarah Jane is convinced it's a setup while everyone else puts her reaction down to denial.

Of course The Doctor isn't dead and the whole thing is a trap but it's fascinating to see how people would react to the Doctor's death and this makes for interesting viewing.

Like The Nightmare Man this is an excellent character piece, as we see Sarah Jane's reaction to the mere possibility of the Doctor being dead and how her life compares to that of Jo Jones, played perfectly by Katy Manning. I was never a huge fan of Jo but Katy Manning plays the role as perfectly as she did 37 years ago. Jo is still the scatterbrained, bouncy character she always was, just much older and is a perfect example of the ageing hippy. Bringing Jo back was clever because it allows the audience to see the massive contrast between her life and Sarah Jane's. While Sarah was childless and somewhat lonely for most of her life Jo married and has a huge family. Yet both women spent their lives after travelling with The Doctor missing him dearly and hoping he would come back for them.

And on the topic of The Doctor, Matt Smith is, as you would expect, wonderful! Russell T Davies has particular fun with his appearance as he plays havoc with established continuity by discarding the old 12 regenerations rule and in a pleasing moment he The Doctor states that he doesn't have to be white. And listen carefully for the revelation that the scenes of The Doctor saying goodbye to his companions in The End of Time was only the highlights. He actually went back and saw all of them.

The Shansheeth are an interesting villain and reasonably well realised considering the budgetary constraints of a CBBC production. The plot holds together quite well and at first it seemed The Shansheeth's plan was a bit ropey, but upon reflection it makes perfect sense.

In terms of fan pleasing references this takes the cake of any and every episode of Nu Who or Sarah Jane. Not only are there flashbacks to Doctor in his First, Second, Third, Fourth and Tenth incarnations, but everything from Aggedor to Zygons gets a mention or a brief clip. And if that wasn't enough no less than six former companions have their stories closed off in the final, touching scene and it's revealed that Liz Shaw is stationed on UNIT's Moonbase! As with The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, it's sad that The Brigadier was unable to make an apperance and meet The Doctor again, but Nicholas Courtney's health problems have prevented him from working, so it appears that we've sadly seen the last of The Brig.

But all these flashbacks and references work within the story, and are anything but gratuitous and unnecessary. Because ultimately Death of the Doctor is a story about the power of nostalgia and the impact positive memories can have to keep one going through a difficult present.

Despite the strength of the plot and well drawn characters the best aspect of Death of the Doctor is that is's just plain FUN! Yes, this is a thoroughly enjoyable story filled with aumusing situations and sparkling dialogue that could elicit a chuckle from even the sourest viewer.

Death of the Doctor is another very good story, just don't get too caught up obsessong over the continuity references and remember to laugh!

5/5