Maureen Flynn - Author
Wow. All the feels. And I say that as someone who doesn’t ship Rose/Ten. I guess time has made me kinder to this finale. Also, sorry for the blogging delay, but t’was the silly season. Pre-Title Sequence Ben: As is usual with these two-parters, the…
Well, what can I say? As an angst riddled teen I loved this finale. Then I re-watched in my uni years and found the whole thing irritating melodrama. Then, um, Ben and I re-watched and well, I kind of like, enjoyed this first part of…
This is weird. My memory told me Love and Monsters and this episode were the two worst Doctor Who episodes of the RTD era. My memory has lied in a happy accident. Or maybe it’s just I really am not feeling the Thirteenth Doc so the re-watches seem better than they are? I dunno. Either way, this was bad, but not as bad as I remembered.
Pre-title sequence
Ben: This episode started with a feeling of disquiet between the warnings of the old lady, Maeve, and Chloe singing Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. Then a kid named Dale gets trapped in a drawing! I wonder how Maeve knew it was about to happen? Plus, it’s pretty clear that Trish knows what’s going on from the beginning and doesn’t know what to do. #mysterious
Maureen: I was too busy being all,’hey didn’t this come out in 2006 and like wasn’t the Olympics in 2012? Was the UK forward planning that much? Damn!’ and ‘what have I seen the actress playing Trish in before’ and ‘why an aussie song? How very specific.’ Ahem. I promise I can be a TV critic! Anyway, I thought the opening had a great sense of horror atmosphere until the cheesy drawing of the kid wearing the Union Jack shirt.
The Companion
Ben: Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching the current season of Doctor Who and the Thirteenth Doctor and her three companions just don’t have any chemistry to speak of, but I could practically feel the crackling in the air between Rose and the Doctor.
Maureen: OMG BEN I AM SO HAPPY YOU THINK THIS BECAUSE I WAS BEGINNING TO THINK I WAS GOING MAD. But enough current show slamming. I am not the biggest fan of Ten/Rose, but there’s no denying that they’re always better sans Mickey and other quasi companions. If Mickey had never existed on this show, I would have dug these two a lot more. You can just tell that in the scenes where it’s all on Billie and David, they are having a right laugh and it bleeds into every scene. I loved them laughing over hot banana and I even shipped them at the end when they held hands and I never ship these two.
Ben: Plus, her hair and makeup was nice.
Maureen: Superficial. But I cannot deny it. I wrote that in my notebook too. Also, yellow does not Billie Piper suit when the fake tan she embraces.
Ben: I also (to be a broken record) really loved how much Rose got to do this episode. She was the first one to suspect Chloe, not the Doctor. And she was the one who investigated Chloe’s room, and the one who figured out where the Isolus’ ship was! Not only that, but she’s instrumental in restoring the ship to a working order, and guided Chloe and her mum through the attack by nightmare dad. You go Rose! Her and the Doctor have become a great team in the time they’ve been together, but that doesn’t mean she can’t do her own thing if she has to!
Maureen: Yeah, which is why I’ve never understood the show’s obsession with having Rose spout lines about being nothing without The Doctor (but more on that in next week’s episode). Also, nice callback to The Idiot’s Lantern as The Doctor runs off as Rose is mid-sentence … again. My favourite Rose moment was actually the scene in Chloe’s room when she’s all, I’m not gonna open it (the box), I’m not gonna open it, and does only to get attacked by a scribble.
The Doctor
Ben: Ahh yes! It’s been awhile since we’ve had a ‘the Doctor can’t drive the TARDIS’ gag.
Maureen: God, I can’t wait for River Song!
Ben: And then we get the whole ‘Doctor gets lost in his memories and ignores his companion pointing something abnormal out’ chestnut. And then we get the ‘Doctor gets too focused on checking out A Clue™ and gets himself in trouble’ situation. Luckily the psychic paper sorts that out quick.
Maureen: I’m loving these trope names. You missed the whole lonely God trope though, which is surprising, BECAUSE THIS IS ALL OF TEN’S SHTICK.
Ben: The gag with the cat and the back combing was worth a chortle or two. Then we get to the heavy stuff, as the Doctor deduces Chloe is using ionic energy to trap people in her drawings. It’s just a shame that the parallels between the Doctor and the Isolus never really were explored, but they’re both lonely travellers who’ve been travelling the universe for years upon years.
Maureen: Wait. What? I thought they were about as subtle as a sledgehammer. But then, I have like bells going off in my head or something every time there’s even a hint of Ten’s lonely God. I present to you the key last of my kind moment:
Rose: You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you. How?
Doctor: I know what it is to be alone.
But also, I found this throw away line intriguing.
Rose: Kids can’t have it all their own way.
Ten: They deserve understanding … I had a son once.
From such dialogue whole new series arcs are born. I was way less keen on everything that happened from The TARDIS vanishing. So Rose whispers ‘the magic of love’ to Chloe and somehow that makes the alien leave Chloe, except the leftover alien energy manifests as Chloe’s violent and abusive Dad? What now? Also The Doctor running with the Olympic flame and the onscreen reporter saying he’s a symbol of love and hope can fuck right on off. Leave the love stuff to Moffat. And even then not always.
The Alien of the Week
Ben: The episode’s premise was really interesting to begin with – children vanishing, energy being drained from the street, and the strange smell of ionised air left behind wherever someone vanished. Then we see the kids living in Chloe’s drawings, and the nightmare dad coming to life in her closet. It’s a shame Chloe’s actress was a bit out of her depth as the Isolus and it’s motivations were really quite compelling, plus they set up the parallels between it and Chloe – two lonely kids just managing the best they can in a bad situation. It made a lot of sense that the Isolus is a child, it makes emotional and illogical decisions and can’t be reasoned with. It’s also a shame that the resolution of this episode was rather ridiculous, with the Olympic torch and the power of love reawakening the Isolus’ ship. And then we get the ridiculous spectre of nightmare dad, which really didn’t make sense to me.
Maureen: What Ben said. I also felt like the abusive dad side story and Mum not talking about him could have made for deeper exploration. I wondered at the end with the rushed sugar sweet denouement if this shouldn’t have been a two-parter.
Final Thoughts
Ben: Having an episode set in 2012 being in the not too distant future definitely made me feel old. And in a lot of ways this episode reminded me of The Idiot’s Lantern episode, a good/interesting premise let down by a shocker of an ending. The shoehorning in of the Olympics was a bit awkward too, similar to the Queen’s coronation. Additionally, Chloe’s mum Trish was really the highlight of this episode. She’s an excellent actress portraying a complicated woman. A woman who’s scared of her child, but at the same time trying to protect her. Which unfortunately only helped to highlight how bad Chloe’s acting was. The casual racism at the start of the episode also felt really out of place with the accusation of the black council worker of being behind the vanishing kids, but I guess is now surprisingly realistic in today’s climate. All in all, it was an episode that started off well but then lost it’s way. I’m giving it a 5/10.
Maureen: I’m with Ben as usual. I think you’re right about The Idiot’s Lantern comparisons. With a second script edit and perhaps a second part, this could have been a lot stronger. Given the rushed and cheesy ending and some bad acting at times, I’m giving this 4/10 inky stars. I gave it one star less than Idiot’s Lantern because my attention wondered after the first twenty minutes in a way it didn’t with the latter.
Before I get into this review a quick note on why no episode by episode reviews of Series 11 starring the thirteenth Doctor. Here’s the honest truth: I love Jodie, I don’t mind the visuals or the almost X Files vibe the show has going…
Just a quick note before this review to let people know I’m overseas for a month so will a) miss the first female Doctor’s debut and won’t be able to live blog my reaction and b) The series two re-watch stops till I get back…
Ah, Mark Gatiss. What variable episodes you write. I always like his period piece Who episodes best, and back in the day I loathed The Idiot’s Lantern. Maybe it was just that the previous two-parter was so, so terrible, but this time around I didn’t actually find the episode that bad. More thoughts from Ben and I on Rose and The Doctor visiting the year of the Queen’s coronation below …
Ok, ok, I ship this a little … ok … a lot.
Pre-Title Sequence
Ben: The pre-title sequence was rather long this week! There was a lot of scene setting, a man down on his luck and a family discussing getting a tv. And then bam! Mr Magpie is getting his face sucked into the tv by a strange woman with an evil laugh.
Maureen: I feel like people of my Mum’s generation would relate to this opening. After all, they would have been the kids watching with wide-eyed wonder as their disapproving parents watched on.
Grandma to grandson: TV pulls your brains outta your ears.
Re Mr Magpie, I was all OMG HOW GILLIAN ANDERSON IN AMERICAN GODS. Except this came first. Clearly, the producer was watching 😉 Also, there was another pre-title audience wink-wink, nudge-nudge moment from the villain of the week.
The Wire: Are you sitting comfortably? Now. We begin.
The Companion
Ben: Rose is looking quite lovely in the beginning of this episode. I can almost forgive her for calling the Doctor ‘daddio’. Even typing the word makes me shudder.
Maureen: Billie is always gorgeous anyway. But also, I liked the ‘daddio.’ Rose minus other companions just works so much better with The Doctor and you can tell Billie Piper is having the time of her acting life.
Ben: I must sound like a broken record by this point, but Rose gets to actually participate in things this episode! At least until she gets her face sucked off. I particularly liked the Union Jack/Flag bit, and not just because that was a piece of trivia I didn’t know. And! She gets to do some proper detective work of her own! Beginning with spotting the weird electricity coming from the TV, she traces it back to its source and finds out what’s happening before The Doctor! She was quite the interrogator, getting in Mr Magpie’s face like that. It’s a shame that that was the extent of Rose’s contribution until the end of the episode. But on the bright side, her fridging was only temporary?
Maureen: This episode reminded me quite a bit of one of Mark Gatiss’ contributions to Big Finish in the Eighth Doctor range, actually. The 1920s alien invasion story with Orson Welles one. We had detectives, we had interesting companion adventure, we had conspiracy, we had villains manipulating a major human point in history. Compared to previous episodes too, I agree Rose got to do so much more and use her intellect to get to the bottom of the mystery. I didn’t mind the Rose face-wipe as such, though I do think the denouement of the episode was rushed, and the story would have benefited from being a two-parter.
Ben: I wasn’t particularly happy with the advice Rose gave to Tommy at the end of the episode either. Years of abuse shouldn’t be that easy to forget. But I guess they had to have a happy ending for everyone involved.
Maureen: I get what you mean with this, Ben. It felt contrived after how horrible Tommy’s Dad was painted throughout the episode. Sexist AND violent. What a guy. If anything, the Tommy ending just raised more questions for me. Will Tommy grow up to be like his father, and will sustained contact encourage that negative growth, or is Tommy truly shaped by his adventure with Rose and The Doctor and will forgive his father even as he doesn’t endorse who he is?
Ben: Hmmm, from the get go the family dynamic was weird, and then you discover the Dad’s such a piece of work. Eddie is a slimy abusive son-of-a-bitch. Poor Rita is the down-trodden housewife, and their son Tommy rounds out the family. Tommy is trying to do the best he can, considering the circumstances. The actor who played Eddie was actually very good, from the look he gives when his wife starts opening up to The Doctor, to the overwhelming guilt on his face when Tommy is talking about how the police are showing up to take people away and no one knows how they know. This episode was much subtler than the cybermen episodes before it, where everything was big and loud. The line about beating the mummy’s boy out of Tommy was particularly horrific, though. Anyway, it comes as no surprise that Eddy has been ratting everyone out to maintain his reputation and position. Masculinity can be so fragile. It all happened rather quick with Rita kicking her out, perhaps it would have been better stretched across two episodes. Things get a bit more blunt towards the end with the family, with Rita talking about how the Coronation is just the thing to make you forget all your troubles.
Maureen: I actually think that the family drama was the most interesting part of The Idiot’s Lantern. What a disturbing portrait of misogyny and patriotism and cowardice! I agree with Ben that the guy playing Eddie was phenomenal. The alien story of the week wasn’t that interesting in comparison once The Wire’s real intent was revealed.
The Doctor
Ben: Once again, the Doctor demonstrates he never passed his driving test (you will note he ignores the question when Rose asks him that after their little car chase). Landing in London instead of New York is quite a remarkable miss.
Maureen: I’d forgotten how much The Doctor being a bad driver was an on-going New Who joke. I thought the River comments came from Eleven, but now I can really see how that quip was set-up over time. Ten might be a new version of The Doctor, but some things just never change.
Ben: I did like the Doctor’s immediate assessment and subsequent take down of Eddie. In previous episodes, writers have been quite happy to partake in some bullying, fat shaming, and other general nastiness. It’s nice to see they’ve drawn the line somewhere. It’s a shame the Doctor’s bamboozling doesn’t last for long, as Eddie is back to his old ways as soon as he sees the power dynamic inside the house shift away from him and retaliates by knocking The Doctor out.
Maureen: I enjoyed that Rose and Ten bounce off each other in their Eddie put-down. They really lull him into a false sense of calm and then let the insults fly!
Eddie: Don’t mind the wife. She rattles a bit.
Ten: Maybe she should rattle more.
Ten: Do you suggest The Queen does the housework?
Eddie: I am talking.
Ten: And I’m not listening.
Ben: At least The Doctor gets a peek at old Gran before he gets knocked out. And then, after a slightly more successful car chase, he finds out there’s plenty more where Gran came from! The atmosphere in these scenes was spooky, with the faceless people looming ominously around the Doctor. It reminded me a lot of the mannequins from the first episode of New Who.
Maureen: I found it hilarious that The Doctor told Rose to hurry up and follow him, before promptly jumping on his motorbike and leaving her in the dust. My favourite part of the episode was actually Rose telling Eddie, ‘only an idiot hangs a Union Jack upside down,’ before dashing away with a manic grin to have her own adventure. The way The Doctor made zero sense to both Ben and I which did pull the episode’s score quite a way down from what it could have been. A real shame and brings us to …
The Alien of the Week
Ben: An electric alien that can live in tvs and eat peoples faces is a weird concept, that’s for sure! And The Wire gives a good villain speech too! The name ‘the wire’ is a bit dumb, though.
Maureen: I found The Wire to be the weakest part of this episode by far. She transitioned from scary to cheesy quite a few times throughout the episode. For example, the constant ‘feed me’s’ felt OTT, but some of her lines like, ‘goodnight children. Everywhere,’ were genuinely frightening. Then, her back story felt tacked on. I get she was an exile and was trying to win a safe place for herself, but her plan was so villainous I just didn’t sympathize with her at all. The Wire is another reason I think a two-parter would have worked better for this story.
Ben: The reveal of Gran was quite terrifying at least, with faceless Gran bumping around in the attic. I guess this is supposed to be a literal interpretation of the ‘tv makes you brainless’ speech Gran gave in the pre-title sequence.
Maureen: Yes, I found the faceless people sub-plot quite touching and sad. Rose mouthing in the TV, helpless, was brutal. It was The Wire herself who didn’t work for me.
Ben: I didn’t understand how she was defeated at all. If she feeds on the electrical power of the brain, why steal human faces? Or is that just an unfortunate side effect of the feeding process? Also, are millions and millions of people just going to forget the whole faces being sucked into their tv sets during the coronation? People seemed to brush it off remarkably quickly. I have to say, being taped over as your mode of demise was a pretty fitting end to what was at best, a very one note villain.
Maureen: The last ten minutes were really where the episode came unstuck for me. I can cope with one-note villains when there’s so much character drama to admire, but The Doctor’s solution simply confused me. Mr Magpie and Ten climbing the transmission tower was a rather mad-cap and dangerous solution from The Doctor and I’m not sure how The Wire generated the electricity to kill Magpie. As for the VCR hand-wave … my only comment was, ‘wait. what?’
Final Thoughts
Ben: This episode wasn’t amazing, brilliant Doctor Who, but it was better than the Cybermen double feature at least. The episode starts of incredibly strong, and then loses steam as it goes. There were a few wasted scenes, or scenes that went on longer than strictly necessary. But the music was a lot better than last week, and on the whole it was a more enjoyable episode. I just wish Gatiss had had time to flesh everyone out a bit more and then this could have been a good horror themed two-parter. I’m going to give The Idiot’s Lantern 5/10.
Maureen: I feel kind of bad for our scores always matching up, but we really do view New Who in a similar way most of the time. I second everything you say. A two-parter would have turned this episode from ordinary to extraordinary. A second script look-in re The Wire would have helped too. Still, I enjoyed the character drama a lot. 5/10 inky stars.
Oh, man. Warning to all: I loved this two-parter as a teen when the show first aired, but oh my how the suck fairy visited this two-parter in Ben’s and my re-watch. I was so disappointed by how much I disliked this. On the plus…
The second Moffat story for New Who! In which all of his later series themes are laid out for us. Plus bonus The Time Traveller’s Wife riff, a great historical fiction revisionist slant on Madame de Pompadour and the chick who played Beth in Spooks.…
YAY!!! THE SARAH-JANE SMITH MEETS BUFFY GILES EPISODE. IN A SCHOOL. I wonder where Clara and Class got it from? Also, K9. Oh, and Mickey and Rose are somewhere in the episode. Don’t forget them!
The Pre-title Sequence
Ben: It’s what’s his face from BBC Merlin! Oh, and Buffy too, I guess. I found this title sequence to be pretty standard fare. It gives you a good idea of what to expect from the episode – a school setting, an evil principal, and The Doctor as a teacher!
Ten: Good morning, class. Are we sitting comfortably?
Maureen: A third wall audience shout-out if ever I heard one! I quite enjoyed The Doctor wearing glasses and teaching kids in suitable frenetic style. I wonder if Clara teaching Jane Austin in the Capaldi era was influenced by this episode?
Giles was seriously ominous.
Mr Finch (upon discovering the student outside his office was an orphan): No one to miss you. You poor child… thing… child.
The Companion/s
Ben: Miserable lunch lady Rose amused me greatly, particularly considering how poorly she treats Sarah-Jane later on in the episode. It’s like karma in advance. Although I do appreciate she got to do some investigating of her own.
Maureen: I thought it was also ironic that Rose escaped a life of chip eating and shitty retail jobs to travel with The Doctor, but in this adventure mundanity still catches her up. At least, Rose figures out something is suss with the chips… especially after a lunch lady is doused in it and an ambulance isn’t called as she screams and screams behind closed blinds! This whole episode reminded me very much of the TV show, Goosebumps, in terms of the ‘horror that’s relatable to young people’ fare. Young, nerdy Miles blowing up the school and the aliens to cheers from his classmates is one such example.
Anyway, Rose was fine to start with this episode, but her jealous swipes at Sarah-Jane over her past relationship with The Doctor can go die in a deep vat of spitting hot oil. Now I’m no longer a teen, Rose’s behavior isn’t relatable. It’s bitchy, needy and shows she defines herself through her romantic and sexual relationships with men. Her digs at other women can fuck right on off. Give it a rest already, RTD!
Ben: Yes, I agree. I understand there’s going to be some turbulence in having an old companion meet a current companion, but this whole ex-girlfriend meeting the new girlfriend-esque bickering is just immature.
Maureen: It’s sexist, thoughtless writing and it can go die in a hole. I suspect the only reason such scenes were includes in School Reunion were to reinforce to the viewer how important and special Rose is and how her and Ten have twu-love to move mountains or some such shit. I was relieved when Sarah-Jane and Rose finally bonded towards the end of the episode, even if their bonding was still in relation to The Doctor.
Ben: Onwards! Poor Mickey is still far too attached to Rose. His realisation that he’s basically the K9 of the Ten/Rose/Mickey trio was apt, considering he ends up being about as useful as K9. And K9 doesn’t make snide remarks about how Rose should lay off the chips if she wants to keep The Doctor…
Maureen: Yeah, that was a low moment from Mickey. Every time he redeems himself, he does or says something petty and jealous to try and win Rose back. Unappealing! Ten and Mickey arguing about Mickey being afraid of dead rats echoed the bickering of Sarah-Jane and Rose and was just as irritating. Stop trying to one-up each other, folks! It’s turning into Doctor Who Eastenders!
Ben: Now, having not watched any of Classic Who I’m not at all familiar with the character of Sarah-Jane Smith, but from the moment she laid eyes on the TARDIS I was invested. The emotional journey she goes through this episode is compelling, to say the least.
Maureen: I’d seen bits of Baker/Sarah-Jane here and there. Sarah-Jane reminded me in this episode of Harriet Jones in how she goes undercover as a journalist to dig up an alien plot. I enjoyed her spunk. When she realises Ten is a Doctor you feel her unresolved trauma and pain.
Sarah-Jane: I waited for you and I thought you’d died. You didn’t come back… did I do something wrong coz you just dumped me? You were my life.
Aside: echoes of Amy Pond? But this speech serves to remind the viewer of the alien danger of The Doctor. He’s alluring, yes, but time marches on and so must he. He ditches Sarah-Jane for Aberdeen, Scotland and doesn’t mention her again (or at least he hasn’t to Rose).
Ben: This reunion has re-opened some old and deep wounds. And this is something we’ve seen before, with The Doctor leaving mess after mess behind after he’s done saving the day. The Doctor really isn’t that great at follow ups. At least Sarah Jane gets the ending she deserves from the start – finally she can move on with her life. She is offered the chance to travel with The Doctor, but instead she’s going to start living for herself.
Maureen: I wasn’t a fan of the ending’s implication that Sarah-Jane is this sexless, love-lorn Doctor fan-girl, but I liked that she said no to further TARDIS travel and like Martha and later Amy decided to stop waiting.
The Doctor
Ben: My first impression of this episode is that if I hear The Doctor say the word ‘physics’ again it’ll be too soon. The second impression I got was how creepy kids who know things they shouldn’t are. Answering physics questions in a deadpan voice is not quite ‘twins playing in a hotel corridor’ levels of creepy, but it’s up there. And then Sarah-Jane Smith comes along and sweeps The Doctor off his feet! It’s not often we get to see The Doctor dumbfounded, but it was well worth it. Their second meeting was just as emotionally charged, but this time they’re on equal footing; this John Smith really is /her/ John smith.
Maureen: This episode showed the beginning of Ten’s real descent into the last of the Time Lord’s lonely God damage. Take this conversation between him and Rose:
Rose Tyler: I’ve been to the year five million, but this, this is really seeing the future- you just leave us behind! Is that what you’re going to do to me?
The Doctor: No. Not you.
Rose Tyler: But, Sarah Jane- you were that close to her once, and now… you never even mention her. Why not?
The Doctor: I don’t age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone you…
Rose Tyler: What, Doctor?
The Doctor: You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can’t spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on, alone. That’s the curse of the Timelords.
It makes one wonder what The Doctor would have done with Rose had the Series Two finale not happened!
Ben: The Doctor’s confrontation with the leader of the Krillitane, Mr Finch, was quite charged, and then he gives The Doctor the chance to join with him! I guess with the power of this God Maker plus a Time Lord they’ll be able to rule the universe or something.
Maureen: Yeah, I was pretty confused at Mr Finch’s motivations at this point too. My notebook simply says, ‘huh? O.K.’ On the plus side, Anthony Head was great as Mr Finch and delivered his lines so beautifully I didn’t care I couldn’t figure his character out.
Mr Finch: Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence.
Ten: I used to have so much mercy.
Ben: Luckily Sarah-Jane has wise words of wisdom to say about how everything has to move on, and that pain and suffering is part of existing, and The Doctor snaps out of his daydream and smashes a tv screen.
Sarah-Jane: No. The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world, or a relationship… Everything has its time. And everything ends.
It’s all very dramatic and doesn’t make much sense. I’m not entirely sure what this episode was trying to focus on? I definitely think it was a case of biting off more than they can chew. Why not focus on The Doctor struggling with the idea of being in control of this God Maker code? Now that would have been an interesting episode. Anyways this episode ends with the Doctor finally saying a proper goodbye to Sarah Jane Smith and presenting her with a new and improved K9. Shame he didn’t change the voice too. To say K9’s voice grates on the ears is an understatement.
The Alien of the Week
Ben: Even though you know the principal is up to No Good, we’re left with more questions than answers for the first chunk of School Reunion. E.g. Surely you’d find a more secure way to transport a mysterious dangerous substance than a rickety old trolley; why the obsession with the chips? And finally, why are kids frantically mashing keyboards whilst staring blankly at creepy green screens while dramatic music plays in the background? Oh, and why are the kids freakishly smart, I guess.
Maureen: I thought the freakishly smart thing was explained! It was because of what was in the lunch chips! And the kids were mashing keyboards to break the Skasis Paradigm. Because aliens had reasons?
Ben: After some creepy night-time investigating the gang discovers that these mysterious aliens are in fact Krillitanes – an alien race that takes on traits of races they conquer. And they’re doing something to the children in the school! Other than eating them, as we saw in the intro. I had a couple of issues with the evil plot these Krillitane have come up with, particularly how well integrated the Principal is after being on Earth for all of three months? He knows about orphanages and the Sunday Times, and how to successfully make small talk with a journalist. Their nefarious scheme to crack the Skasis Paradigm – the God Maker – didn’t really make sense to me. How exactly are these schoolkids cracking it? All it looks like they’re doing is mashing their keyboards while a weird green screen of technobabble flashes in front of them. Plus, I take issue with the fact that they need kids to do it because they need their imagination. Plenty of adults have great imaginations and pure souls, or whatever else the Doctor thinks they need. And if it was such an easy thing to crack, this code to the universe, surely the Time Lords would have done it ages ago.
Maureen: The Skasis Paradigm thing was so much what?!? A mcguffin if ever I watched one!
Ben: Anyways, the way they’re defeated is very Superman and kryptonite – the aliens have changed their own physiology so much that oil native to their planet is now toxic to them. Sure. And for some reason they explode so violently upon contact with this oil the schoolkids think the school has been blown up and celebrate. It’s a very strange ending.
Maureen: It was a very noisy ending that doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny, that’s for sure!
Final Thoughts
Ben: Overall, this was a very average episode of Doctor Who. I loved Sarah Jane Smith’s arc, I hated the frenetic keyboard smashing the kids did when they were hacking the universe. But overall it was just a bit too… vague for me. It felt like they came up with the idea of wanting a Sarah Jane episode and then shoehorned the rest to fit. I dunno, maybe the script needed another round of refinement. And less K9. I liked a lot of individual ideas in this episode, but the coming together left a lot to be desired. I’m giving it a 5/10.
Maureen: The overall episode tone reminded me of another RTD penned script in a crime show called Touching Evil. The elements just didn’t come together and whether intentional or otherwise, hints of nastiness bled in the script to make the episode mean. I feel like the same thing happened with School Reunion. Bringing Sarah Jane back was a great idea, but RTD ran into trouble with the Ten/Rose ship and explaining Sarah Jane’s meaning to The Doctor which led to un-neccessary female to female nastiness. And I agree Mr Finch’s plan made little sense. 6/10 inky stars
Ah yes. The episode where Torchwood begins. Where Rose spends an episode trying to get Queen Victoria to say she is not amused. Where there’s werewolves and it’s 2006 when the Twilight Saga is huge! Bring it, baby! The Pre-Title Sequence Ben: This was a…