The reunion between Sarah Jane Smith and the Doctor was a nice touch, sans the whole "Why did you leave me?" stuff. He was right about one thing: No matter the length a person spends with a Timelord, he will never grow old nor will he die. I couldn't help feeling that a Christopher Eccelston performance would have exploited that loneliness better. In fact, the whole underlying theme of loss made me think of Christopher Eccelston's Doctor rather than David Tennant's. Character development, however, is hard to achieve in science fiction.
As in the previous two episodes, the creature of the week was the main focus — this time, it's bat people. This race had incorporated themselves into human bodies to carry out a dastardly plan — they want to unlock the universe in order to make more of themselves. That's at least what I think they were trying to do. It feels like the dangers of the Doctor and Rose have been so passive and blah. I have the sneaky feeling that when another old enemy comes into play later this season, the writing will finally get a boost in quality.
Noel Clarke's Mickey Smith still came off as the black Adric, annoying and seemingly in the way. This time I think the writers have learned to tone that aspect of his character down, in favor of a more practical approach — make him do the grunt work. From pulling wires to smashing doors down, Mickey is good as a character to cut through the bullshit. This being the case, I think his return would have been better left out until later in the season. It's really hard to pay attention to him and the main plot and the return of Sarah Jane Smith without feeling confused. Since Sarah Jane hasn't been in the program for years, I would have stuck to that more.
John Lesson's K9 also returned for "School Reunion." The last time anyone saw him was in "The Five Doctors" in 1983, and he was relegated to a cameo. For all the technology that has come since the days of Tom Baker's era, you would think that he wouldn't be as stationary as he was this time around. The few moments K9 got to move seem like meters. I can understand the little time he was given as he wasn't the favorite of the Doctor Who production team in the early days. I'd like to see more of him in a Sarah Jane spin-off, but that was already attempted and failed to produce interest.
Rose has been on the sidelines lately — an answer to my prayers since Series 1. Billie Piper's new day companion character seemed to take over the series last year — it very nearly could have been named Doctor Rose. Paired up against Sladen's Sarah Jane, the chemistry felt forced and was creating tension just to do so.
I swear I wanted Anthony Stewart Head to be the Master — He had the creepiness down to a science and demonstrated a good set of acting chops as the Headmaster of the school. The character seemed to have a Nazi theme about him that was rather funny — always walking and turning like he was stiff. I hope the producers use him more for future episodes as he was one of the stronger actors to guest star on the show.
Overall, this was a good reunion of an old guest star to the show. In terms of the quality of the episode, it was only fair. Perhaps when the Cybermen come along later this season, the writers will finally use their full abilities to make a classic episode. That's one of the conditions in being a fan of a show: You stick with it even in the dark times.
Posted by Matthew at May 1, 2006 02:02 AM | TrackBack