Sarah Jane Adventures: Season 2
Dec. 2nd, 2009 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenI spent most of the day today mainlining Season 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes, I am really that far behind. But, hey, at least I'm less far behind than I was.
There be spoilers below. Just in case anyone is worried about being spoiled for stuff that was two seasons ago.
2x01-2 The Last Sontaran
Nice tie-in to "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky". I must admit, I like the NewWho Sontarans who are all into the honour of war. But, geeze, can't they get better aim?
I liked the Scientist-dad, particularly at the start when he was himself and he was raving on about how great astronomy was.
Chrissy's designer shoes in the probic vent for the win!
So, bye-bye Maria. 8-( I liked Maria.
2x03-4 Day of the Clown
Creepy clowns, evil circuses, been done before. Mind you, I think the ringmaster was played nicely creepy, in some ways more creepy than the clown. They also played the "seen out of the corner of your eye" thing very well.
Hello Rani. I knew as soon as he walked in the door that the new head teacher would turn out to be her father.
I wonder if they replaced Maria because they wanted a character who was more gung-ho about investigating things? Not that I dislike Rani, but I still miss Maria, partly because Maria had to work more at being brave, if you see what I mean.
2x05-6 Secrets of the Stars
I liked this, it was rather good. Of course, as soon as they mentioned that Luke didn't have a star-sign because he wasn't "born", I knew that that would have to be significant.
But I liked the "villain" of the piece, he was strangely sympathetic. And his assistant was very good at the creepy smile.
I think this is the first time "the universe before this one" idea has been used in TV-Who canon, though it has been used in Book-Who canon a few times before (most notably in "Millennial Rites", which was one of my favourite Missing Adventures novels).
I wonder how (or if) this relates to the powers of the Carrionites ("The Shakespeare Code") who seemed to use laws other than physics also, though they belonged to this universe (but in the "Dark Times", whatever they were).
2x07-8 Mark of the Berserker
Creeeepy start. That boy was really good at playing freaky outcast. The rest of it wasn't as creepy as that. Interestingly enough, I was expecting Clyde to be the one who stole the pendant, and that he would be tempted to take revenge on his father (and I was all ready to start saying "Don't do it, Clyde!"). Because, I guess, the creepiest thing about the pendant, for me, was the way that it tempted one to abuse its power. Which made what happened a bit of a let-down, because Clyde's father was a pushover in that department; he didn't resist temptation at all. Rather pathetic, really.
This episode was obviously Sarah-Jane-lite; I wonder if it was being filmed at the time when Liz Sladen was filming "The Stolen Earth"?
But I was really glad that that gave us the chance to see Maria and her dad again.
2x09-10 The Temptation of Sarah Jane
Interesting that we get another one with temptation in it.
"Father's Day" redux, with Sarah-Jane in the role of Rose. (yawn) Mind you, that had been telegraphed in earlier episodes, where we were dropped hints about S-J's parents. Nice nod to Old-Skool that it mentions that she was raised by her Aunt Lavinia "the genius in the family". (For those not familiar with it; when we first met Sarah-Jane Smith, she had infiltrated a think-tank pretending to be Lavinia Smith, a famous scientist who happened to be her aunt.)
But I did like S-J's mother.
LOL at the bit with the police box! (grin)
I liked the whole thing about how the Trickster was right in the way that S-J couldn't allow her parents to be killed, and then it was defeated by the parents in question.
2x11-12 Enemy of the Bane
Brigadier!!!!!!!! Eeeee! Golly, how old is Nicholas Courtney now?
Mrs. Wormwood is awesome. She is such an awesome villain. So articulate, so witty in her scorn, lying, double-crossing, playing mind games, but not completely hollow, either. The tug-of-war between her and Sarah-Jane over Luke was very good. She really made the story work, because she kept one second-guessing about what was really going on, what the motives of various players were.
Wormwood and Karg played off pretty well too, especially at the point where they were both agreeing that power was the most beautiful thing in the universe.
And the irony of Karg stopping Wormwood in the end, yes, that was good.
So, yes, this could lose marks for having returning villains, but they were such good villains. Of course, if Wormwood returns again, I will roll my eyes.
There be spoilers below. Just in case anyone is worried about being spoiled for stuff that was two seasons ago.
2x01-2 The Last Sontaran
Nice tie-in to "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky". I must admit, I like the NewWho Sontarans who are all into the honour of war. But, geeze, can't they get better aim?
I liked the Scientist-dad, particularly at the start when he was himself and he was raving on about how great astronomy was.
Chrissy's designer shoes in the probic vent for the win!
So, bye-bye Maria. 8-( I liked Maria.
2x03-4 Day of the Clown
Creepy clowns, evil circuses, been done before. Mind you, I think the ringmaster was played nicely creepy, in some ways more creepy than the clown. They also played the "seen out of the corner of your eye" thing very well.
Hello Rani. I knew as soon as he walked in the door that the new head teacher would turn out to be her father.
I wonder if they replaced Maria because they wanted a character who was more gung-ho about investigating things? Not that I dislike Rani, but I still miss Maria, partly because Maria had to work more at being brave, if you see what I mean.
2x05-6 Secrets of the Stars
I liked this, it was rather good. Of course, as soon as they mentioned that Luke didn't have a star-sign because he wasn't "born", I knew that that would have to be significant.
But I liked the "villain" of the piece, he was strangely sympathetic. And his assistant was very good at the creepy smile.
I think this is the first time "the universe before this one" idea has been used in TV-Who canon, though it has been used in Book-Who canon a few times before (most notably in "Millennial Rites", which was one of my favourite Missing Adventures novels).
I wonder how (or if) this relates to the powers of the Carrionites ("The Shakespeare Code") who seemed to use laws other than physics also, though they belonged to this universe (but in the "Dark Times", whatever they were).
2x07-8 Mark of the Berserker
Creeeepy start. That boy was really good at playing freaky outcast. The rest of it wasn't as creepy as that. Interestingly enough, I was expecting Clyde to be the one who stole the pendant, and that he would be tempted to take revenge on his father (and I was all ready to start saying "Don't do it, Clyde!"). Because, I guess, the creepiest thing about the pendant, for me, was the way that it tempted one to abuse its power. Which made what happened a bit of a let-down, because Clyde's father was a pushover in that department; he didn't resist temptation at all. Rather pathetic, really.
This episode was obviously Sarah-Jane-lite; I wonder if it was being filmed at the time when Liz Sladen was filming "The Stolen Earth"?
But I was really glad that that gave us the chance to see Maria and her dad again.
2x09-10 The Temptation of Sarah Jane
Interesting that we get another one with temptation in it.
"Father's Day" redux, with Sarah-Jane in the role of Rose. (yawn) Mind you, that had been telegraphed in earlier episodes, where we were dropped hints about S-J's parents. Nice nod to Old-Skool that it mentions that she was raised by her Aunt Lavinia "the genius in the family". (For those not familiar with it; when we first met Sarah-Jane Smith, she had infiltrated a think-tank pretending to be Lavinia Smith, a famous scientist who happened to be her aunt.)
But I did like S-J's mother.
LOL at the bit with the police box! (grin)
I liked the whole thing about how the Trickster was right in the way that S-J couldn't allow her parents to be killed, and then it was defeated by the parents in question.
2x11-12 Enemy of the Bane
Brigadier!!!!!!!! Eeeee! Golly, how old is Nicholas Courtney now?
Mrs. Wormwood is awesome. She is such an awesome villain. So articulate, so witty in her scorn, lying, double-crossing, playing mind games, but not completely hollow, either. The tug-of-war between her and Sarah-Jane over Luke was very good. She really made the story work, because she kept one second-guessing about what was really going on, what the motives of various players were.
Wormwood and Karg played off pretty well too, especially at the point where they were both agreeing that power was the most beautiful thing in the universe.
And the irony of Karg stopping Wormwood in the end, yes, that was good.
So, yes, this could lose marks for having returning villains, but they were such good villains. Of course, if Wormwood returns again, I will roll my eyes.
