Fazzinchi

“The Girl In The Fireplace”…. on the wall

Episode 4 of this series sees the Doctor take a wander down the road less travelled, well at least as far as he’s concerned, and that is the road to love. This may not be the premise that would attract your “traditional” Doctor Who fan, but these days the traditional fans are hugely outnumbered by the nouveau Whovians, a fact to which the truly astonishing viewing figures would testify (7.9million tuned in to this). So, Mickey’s first trip aboard the TARDIS sees him and his two travelling companions land on a spaceship in the far future with the animosity of Rose, exhibited at the end of School Reunion, having strangely disappeared. A little investigation and the viewers find this sci-fi staple is not as simple as it first appears because the deserted spaceship is curiously juxtaposed against 18th century France, via a series of “holes punched in the universe”. It is through these “holes” that the Doctor first sees and then travels to meet a young Reinette, who will grow up to be Madame de Pompador. Trips back and forth see the Doctor appear at various stages of the courtisan’s life, and as the script cleverly points out, she takes the slow road through life as he spends no more than a day falling in love with her.

So, this 21st century Doctor feels a little love tug at the strings of his hearts, but the question is, “Does it work?”. Kind of depends who you listen to (especially if you are moved to read the ramblings of a few of those “traditional fans”) but as you’re reading this, I can tell you that the unequivocal answer is “Yes!”. Even if the love story was not to your taste, I haven’t even mentioned the beautiful clockwork droids that are the main villains of the piece, the witty yet moving script penned by the magnificent Stephen Moffatt, or the acting of Sophia Miles that was marvellous to behold. It wasn’t without its faults, of course, but then what is, and anything I mention here would only do a disservice to a great episode. Certainly vying with “Tooth and Claw” as the best of the series, even vying with “The Doctor Dances” as the best of the revised series and, just in case that’s all not quite enough, it has the best twist at the end I ever did see.

“I think I’m going back to the things I loved so well in my youth”

When I first heard that Liz Sladen was to reprise her role as Sarah Jane Smith I have to confess that I doubted the wisdom of the decision. It’s been 30 years since she was regularly on our screens and travelling with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker’s 3rd and 4th Doctors, so who was going to remember her and what kind of relevance would her presence bring to the story other than to kow-tow to us die hard fans. It was that kind of indulgent, self-reverencial attitude that some argue led to the show being put on ice all those years ago. My recollection of her character was from the exact time I fell in love with Doctor Who, from all those years ago when the fan in me was born, from another time. Fine, bring back Doctor Who for a new generation, speed it up, smarten it up, sharpen it up and make it a 21st century success story, but don’t go messing with it and especially don’t go messing with the bits from my childhood.

I should never have doubted. Here we start with a simple coincidence, the Doctor and Rose were called by Mickey to investigate the strange goings on at Deffry Vale High School, the same strange goings on also attracted the attention of investigative journalist, Sarah-Jane (so simple, I’m surprised they haven’t bumped into each other before). And just for good measure she brough K9 along for the ride. Just in case this five-strong Scooby gang wasn’t enough, we also got the sinister Mr Finch portrayed by Anthony Head in a role that oozed malevolence. So the ensemble was in place, could they deliver?

Of course they could, and they delivered one of the great Doctor Who stories. The plot was, to put it mildly, simple… alien bat people take over a school to use the childrens’ brains to solve a mathmatical problem that will give them great power. They are thwarted and blown up. Told you it was simple. However, this was merely a backdrop to the emotional development and interplay of the five main characters. A witty and quotable script from Toby Whitehouse flowed seamlessly between action and fun, sorrow and loss, jealousy and anger, and good and evil. Sarah-Jane got closure, Mickey came to realise a little more about himself, Rose got a glimpse of the future, The Doctor got a glimpse of the past, and even K-9 got an overhaul in the end.

I will remember “School Reunion” for a long time: the confrontation between Mr Finch and The Doctor by the swimming pool; the cracking dialogue (”You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can’t spend the rest of mine with you.”); finally realising that K-9 is not so useless after all; the feeling that we’ve got to the middle of Rose’s journey now that she’s seen where her relationship with the Doctor may end. But it’s not those things that I will remember most of all…. it was Lis Sladen’s return, it was, after all, the nod to all of us die-hard fans, it was “My, Sarah-Jane”.