Christmas Review #8 of 12
“A spin-off too far!”, that’s what you told me (you know who you are!) and I almost believed you. I approached the Sarah Jane Adventures with trepidation and the remnants of a mild hangover accordingly. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be rather good. A bubbly storyline (pun intended) and some suitably OTT, scenery chewing acting (take a bow, Ms Bond) were further enhanced by the introduction of a somewhat melancholy and anti-social Sarah Jane. Liz Sladen is always supremely watchable (and astonishingly good looking for her, or anyone else’s age) and she picked up where School Reunion left off in spring of last year. The biggest surprise of all was that the child actors weren’t half bad either, I’m sure feisty Kelsey from down the road will get a little annoying by playing the sceptic all the time but Luke has a certain naive charm and Maria seems like a typical goody-two-shoes. However, one of my big fears (terrible kid actors) was averted and, despite being targetted at people much (much) younger than me, I think I’ll enjoy it when the series finally gets shown. There were some inevitable odd bits, such as how K9 was written out and the “Mr Smith computer” but for the main part it was entertaining, especially the in-jokes and nods to the fans.
Now, with 10 x 30-minute episodes to follow, plus 13 x 50 of Torchwood and 13 x 45 of Doctor Who and, no doubt, another Who Christmas Special, I make that over 26 hours of great TV coming in 2007 from the good folks at Upper Boat and BBC Wales (and that doesn’t include Doctor Who Confidential, Torchwood De-Classified, and Totally Doctor Who either). Methinks, they’re trying to make up for 16 years with nothing more than a dodgy American TV movie.
Tags: BBC1, Bubbleshock, Doctor Who, Elisabeth-Sladen, Invasion-Of-The-Bane, Liz-sladen, Sarah-Jane, Sarah-Jane-Adventures, Sci Fi, SJA
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[...] Way back on Sunday 1st January when we were nursing sore heads (and I was re-launching this website) there was a little show that sneaked onto BBC1 from the team that brought us Doctor Who. It wasn’t the much hyped Torchwood that was rattling towards its conclusion late at night on minority channels but instead it was The Invasion of the Bane, the first installment of the Sarah Jane Adventures. Now, here we are nine months later and that embryonic first outing has matured into a series of its very own. Kelsey, the annoying kid from down the street, has been replaced by the much more likeable Clyde but the other children are the same and that’s no bad thing. Say what you like about the folk at Upper Boat, BBC Wales, but they really do know how to make good casting decisions. (Insert your own Catherine Tate comments here!). [...]