Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?

[meddow]

Due to being rather busy I haven’t made any posts lately on the Sarah Jane Adventures and how utterly wonderful it is, because it just is. Of the two Who spin-offs I would recommend it over Torchwood to everyone, and never ever think that just because it’s a kids show it doesn’t have a maturity at the heart of it. So far it’s tackled motherhood, divorce, war (with specific mention of Iraq), aging, consumerism, Alzheimer’s, the UNIT dating controversy and this week it deals with death, specifically the accidental death of a teenager, and it does this without ever feeling like an after school special. And don’t think that it’s small scale, so far the planet has been saved no less than four times and there has been time travel and space travel. Not to mention, it never fails to give you warm fuzzy feelings at the end of a the second part and watching a 59 year old woman kick butt from week to week is good for the soul.

What I’m basically saying is, if you like Doctor Who, and you can watch the Sarah Jane Adventures, and for some reason you are not, well you should be.

Okay, that’s my PSA done for the day. Now onto the main event:

Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?

I have to say I was waiting to see how the programme would give a thirty year old character a back story that would not screw too much with the character we know, and I was feeling somewhat pessimistic about it. I mean, if Sarah meets an alien or time traveller in 1964, then it undermines her meeting of the Doctor in 1974 or whenever because she already knows about time travel and aliens. But I should have given Gareth Roberts more credit, because it doesn’t do that. Following that, I’ve decided that it is canon that the events in 1964 gave SJS a lifelong fear of falling, which explains the sudden freezing up in Genesis of the Daleks and her reaction to the bottomless pit in The Hand of Fear.

I’ve also got to give the show so much kudos for the way it took on such matters as a teenager’s untimely accidental death and a woman’s sacrifice. They tackled the issue head on, Andrea reacted as I would have expected anyone in that position to act: with bitterness and resentment that she had to die. By doing that the issues in this were heavier than those in Father’s Day, which I think is the mother show’s equivalent. And I love who it’s brought up that it only ended up an either/or because the Trickster (is that his real name, or the one that Alan gave him?) made it an either/or, which somehow made the whole plot sit easier with me.

But getting past that, loved the humour in this episode: Alan skateboarding, Chrissie watching as Alan runs from a ‘dwarf in a suit’ and Clyde fitting in Maria next Tuesday.

Maria might want to develop some people skills. Yelling at someone they should have died isn’t exactly the greatest way to get them to do what you want. Though Clyde’s the one of the three with people skills, anyway, shame he couldn’t have helped more. I do love how Maria is the hot-headed one of the three teens.

Alan saves the world! I just loved that last scene with Sarah and the teens all excited because they deflected the meteor and the Alan looking too them for an explanation and all four of them, Sarah included, like a bunch of scolded children. And not just Alan, Andrea saves the world and Sarah saves the world. World saving all round for the adult characters this time. Nice to know that it’s not just the kids that can save the day.

Oh, and loved Sarah telling the Trickster to leave the Doctor out of it. Sarah Jane’s not his ex, she’s not Doctor-lite. She is his equal and his protector. I love that.

Comments

[snorkackcatcher]

I liked it too. It just occurred to me though that Sarah Jane would (or could) have recognised Maria when she met her for the first time in 2007, albeit as that odd girl who warned her not to go on the pier. Was there any hint of that in the Bane pilot? (I missed that one.) That's assuming Maria's time-travelling wasn't wiped from Sarah Jane's timeline, of course.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

That would have been interesting, kind of like the Doctor taking notice of Martha because she had met future!him in the street that morning. Though Sarah didn’t show any sign of having met Maria before in Bane, in fact she spent the first half of the episode ignoring Maria, being rude to Alan and at one point outright telling Maria to go away and leave her alone, so I don't think she did recognise Maria.

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

Sarah Jane smiled at Maria in Invasion of the Bane and was rude to Alan. I doubt she made any connection, but I wonder if that could just be time playing tricks. I know that I have barely any detailed recollection of traumatic events from my childhood, and would not recognize someone from those times if I saw them now (especially if they had not aged at all). Would be a nice fanfic, though, showing Sarah gradually remembering meeting Maria and recognizing that she saved her life all those years ago.

My personal fanon is that SJS instinctively liked Maria from the outset, possibly a reaction to their encounter thirty years earlier, but pushed her away as she pushed everyone else away. In Maria's case, those, she was at least kind about it...sorta....

[meddow.livejournal.com]

That would make for great fanfic. And maybe it was remembering that it was Maria who met her in the past and warned her that promoted Sarah to decide Maria was the person she could trust the most.

[cybertardis.livejournal.com]

Following that, I’ve decided that it is canon that the events in 1964 gave SJS a lifelong fear of falling, which explains the sudden freezing up in Genesis of the Daleks and her reaction to the bottomless pit in The Hand of Fear.

OMG, yes! I hadn't even thought about it, but it makes perfect sense.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Well, I’ve been maintaining that Sarah’s afraid of heights since my flatmate scoffed at her while watching Genesis, so I’ve been on the look out for the perfect explanation.