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selenakIn which empathy and time travel win the day.
Okay,Long John Silver the time fixer at large was a bit too much of a plot device - for example, how do they know it's not the Trickster in yet another disguise? - and also I could see the gag with the parrot coming, but this is really just me reaching for something to nitpick, because this was an utterly delightful two parter.
Trivia observation: either they hired a German actor for König or an actor who can speak fluent German. Either way, thanks, show. Otherwise the Clyde-and-George-save-England-from-Nazi-invasion subplot was standard for such a plot but well executed, and if SJA has to do the Nazis, Clyde is really the best character to confront them. (I still yearn for Fenric of the mother show, but didn't expect that kind of story here.) The interaction with George was endearing, and Clyde after all the rallying speeches telling George NOT to enlist before 1945 because he didn't want his new friend to die was really touching.
Rani got the more interesting time travel/historic events plot. There are two basic variations: prevent history from derailing into something worse, aka the OMG THE NAZIS ARE WINNING WE MUST STOP THEM stuff which every genre show ever did at least twice, or the variation where something awful happens historically and you can't make it better because the awful event is the one supposed to take place. (And if your life really sucks, you even have to make it happen - ask Donna and the Doctor.) I always find the second variation more interesting because it's meatier character stuff. Rani after The Temptation of Sarah Jane has already witnessed what happens if you save people you like when they're really supposed to die, so I'm not surprised she doesn't come up with some escape scheme for Jane Grey. Instead, she stays with Jane as long as she can so Jane isn't alone which is such a lovely element of grace that I adored all their scenes to bits. (Also Rani looked nifty in her Tudor outfit.) (Clyde thought so, too.)
Sarah Jane's mission turning out to inspiring Emily to save the children, after first getting to know Emily and showing empathy towards her, was very fitting for her mentor position on the show. Of course the Victorian setting inevitably reminded one of Ghost Light and Emily looked a bit like Gwendolyn as well, plus she has lost a parent, and has a surviving one, so I wonder whether Sarah Jane turning her life around by enabling her to deal with her trauma via saving someone isn't a comment on the earlier story. But maybe it's just coincidence.
Was this a new writer? He can stay.
Okay,
Trivia observation: either they hired a German actor for König or an actor who can speak fluent German. Either way, thanks, show. Otherwise the Clyde-and-George-save-England-from-Nazi-invasion subplot was standard for such a plot but well executed, and if SJA has to do the Nazis, Clyde is really the best character to confront them. (I still yearn for Fenric of the mother show, but didn't expect that kind of story here.) The interaction with George was endearing, and Clyde after all the rallying speeches telling George NOT to enlist before 1945 because he didn't want his new friend to die was really touching.
Rani got the more interesting time travel/historic events plot. There are two basic variations: prevent history from derailing into something worse, aka the OMG THE NAZIS ARE WINNING WE MUST STOP THEM stuff which every genre show ever did at least twice, or the variation where something awful happens historically and you can't make it better because the awful event is the one supposed to take place. (And if your life really sucks, you even have to make it happen - ask Donna and the Doctor.) I always find the second variation more interesting because it's meatier character stuff. Rani after The Temptation of Sarah Jane has already witnessed what happens if you save people you like when they're really supposed to die, so I'm not surprised she doesn't come up with some escape scheme for Jane Grey. Instead, she stays with Jane as long as she can so Jane isn't alone which is such a lovely element of grace that I adored all their scenes to bits. (Also Rani looked nifty in her Tudor outfit.) (Clyde thought so, too.)
Sarah Jane's mission turning out to inspiring Emily to save the children, after first getting to know Emily and showing empathy towards her, was very fitting for her mentor position on the show. Of course the Victorian setting inevitably reminded one of Ghost Light and Emily looked a bit like Gwendolyn as well, plus she has lost a parent, and has a surviving one, so I wonder whether Sarah Jane turning her life around by enabling her to deal with her trauma via saving someone isn't a comment on the earlier story. But maybe it's just coincidence.
Was this a new writer? He can stay.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 07:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 11:37 am (UTC)