SJS ADVENTURES PILOT - INVASION OF THE BANE - REVIEW
Contains spoilers. Click Read More to read the review.
Right.
I sat at the TV, with extremely low expectations. Sure, it was a Doctor Who spinoff, but it was a kids show. I was expecting extremely loud teenagers or something more like the crap that makes up most of kids TV.
But.. I actually found myself liking it. I don't know if it was my low expectations upon sitting down to watch it, but I thought it was very good.
As for the characters, Sarah Jane Smith was excellent as always. Carrying on her life with the Doctor, without him. She has a different attitude to danger than him [Sarah Jane: "Stay out of it. I work alone." Doctor: "Wewt, danger! Come with me plx and i'll giv u dangerz =D"], which was nice. It made her seem more mysterious [throughout the first half of the episode, at least], and this was a good thing.
Maria was good, and all of Maria's family. She seems like the kind of child that gets on well with her family, and shares a very communicative and good relationship [with the occasional 'embarrasing' bit like being made to kiss dad on the cheek] which is good to see.
Kelsey.. Oh god, I hated her. Within 20 seconds of her being on screen I twitched and shouted "I HATE HER". She seems the kind to give in to peer pressure, and think that the views of so-called friends are the most important thing. I really hate characters like that. Always having the latest phone, always following the latest trend, etc. It may just be my natural aversion to all things normal that makes me hate this, though. She was a most annoying character.
Luke was good, too. A logical mind, beginning to learn about the world. A mind that can store a lot, and learn very quickly. The backstory and general character of him is very good. Seeing the world as only black or white, good or bad, etc. I'm sure that as [if] the series progresses he'll learn more and more, and start to see that the world isn't just black and white, and he'll mature, and eventually start thinking as a [maturer] adult [ie. many different shades of grey].
As for K9, I didn't quite see why Sarah Jane mentioned him, or anything. But I can see why he'll not be in the actual series now. It's hard to comment on the short amount of time he was on screen, so I'll just say he was awesome. *nods*
Now, the plot. Aliens come, market a drink, put bits of themselves [or their own species anyway] in the drink, and use that to control humans. That is a good plot. It is thought out [as well as it could be, anyway] and every aspect is explained, as far as I could tell. Why Luke was made, why they came, etc. I think, actually, that this plot was better than [some of] the Doctor Who episodes. I'm thinking mainly of Love And Monsters, and Fear Her, and stuff like that.
Mm, I did enjoy this. The resolution wasn't entirely perfect in my mind, but apart from that, it was fantastic.
8.8/10.
A very satisfying show, I felt. My quibble is still with the K9/Sarah Jane split, which I just knew there was going to be some kind of plot-hole to allow for. Well, you don't get better plot-holes than black holes, voids and rifts... Very convenient, but its aimed squarely at kids so I'm not going to pull it to pieces. If only appearing sparsely from hereon in, at least k9 was in the pilot.
The plot was quite good, agreeable, and Samantha Bond's Miss Wormwood was a diamond character, although a little overcooked and wobbly in delivery. The kid's characters play well off each other, with Kelsey being the frightened gobby pop-cultured one and Maria more middle-class, principled and courageous; The Archetype/Luke impressed most of all with the ever-recurring question "is that bad or good?".
I had hoped the Wormwood ref would be to Absinthe, but alas it was not to the Fee Verte but to the biblical mention of Wormwood in Revelations, the first of many such apocalyptic references today (see Torchwood reviews later) in keeping with the seasonal catastrophobia and attendant messianism that seems to spring up around the turn of the year. Its still connected though, and if you view the images of Absinthe portrayed as the Green Death at the time of its prohibition, you can easily see this idea of something exotic (alien) which poisens the food supply of a society and drives it to all its ills. You can also arrive at the conclusion that substances are not behind all the murders, rapes and ritual disembowelings of society, since they continued unabated after Absinthe was outlawed as they did before it!
Amongst the best features of the show I felt were the parental dyamics, which in a way sort of diluted and portrayed some of the same sort of dynamics we have in Torchwood's Gwen secret/private/public/family compartmentalisations of her life. When the contents begin to spill across borders (i.e. when The Archetype tells Maria's mum that he has no name, for example) then there are awkwards moments, needing clever resolutions (rather than pub brawls).
Sladen seemed a little self-conscious at first, but I think this is only to be expected. Sarah Jane was still reasonably convincing though, amidst piles of special effects (some of which I felt were deliberately twee, and yet on a par with some Doctor Who/Torchwood effects).
It had little-loup sitting stock-still immersed in it, which is quite a feat for a TV show. Also, it made him ask lots of questions and he says he is keen to see it again. As a kids show, it definitely seems to succeed. All of which I think makes it a 9/10.
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