Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 2, Episode 3 - School Reunion
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Cut title sequnce...
As The Doctor teaches Physics to the class, one bright spark (Milo) clearly has a bit of a better grasp of the subject than he should do. Rose, meanwhile, is masquerading as one of the dinnerladies. At lunch they discuss how bizarre the school is, being very well behaved and all, when one girl (Melissa) gets moved up a class. Also, nice chips apparently. Bet that can't be a plotpoint. In the kitchen, a barrel of something is being moved through by the staff. Rose takes a call from Mickey, who tells her that three months ago there was massive UFO activity logged by the army, but Torchwood are locking him out. Just as he starts to talk all flirty to her, one of the dinnerladies knocks the barrel over herself, but when Rose tries to call an ambulance she is put off by another dinnerlady, despite the one with the barrel of goo on her appearing to explode in a sealed off room behind.
In the class Melissa was moved up to, the children all sit in front of PCs, appearing to try and solve a puzzle of a cube with strange markings covering it - they're all damn quick (about 60 of them), but they've not solved it yet.
In the staff room, The Doctor discusses with another teacher how half the staff were replaced with others when the Headteacher arrived three months back, when Sarah Jane walks in to be introduced by the Headteacher as a journalist doing a piece on him for The Sunday Times.
One of the children (obviously a nerdy one, because he wears glasses and refused to eat chips because he isn't allowed), hears a noise in the computer room that Melissa was in, and then finds an alien under a desk, which is a bit of a surprise to him. Especially when it turns into the teacher, who tells him to bugger off, which he promptly does.
At night, Sarah Jane breaks into the same room, just as The Doctor, Rose and Mickey are doing the same in another part of the building. They split up to search for clues, although Mickey needs a bit of extra help. The Doctor hears some alien screeching, as does Sarah Jane, and shadows start flying around, and Rose scoops up some goo when more shadows fly overhead, then Sarah Jane bumps into the TARDIS, and then The Doctor, and then we take a breath. They get a bit sentimental, The Doctor telling her that all the Time Lords died, when they hear Mickey scream. Bumping into Rose and quickly running on for fear of a jealous catfight between old companion and new, they find Mickey, who got scared when some bags of yellow colour vacuum-packed rats fell out of a cupboard. Moving through the school, and bickering as they go, they find a group of alien bats sleeping upside down in a room. Fleeing before they get eaten, Sarah Jane shows them a surprise in the trunk of her car - it's K9! Although he's a bit broken. They're being watched from the sky, however.
In a restaurant, The Doctor tries to fix K9, as Mickey jokes about The Doctor being like any other bloke, having lots of other women in his life before Rose, whilst on a building roof outside The Headmaster watches, calling all the other bat people to him. Sarah Jane questions The Doctor as to why he never came back for her, and though he explains it was because Gallifrey wouldn't allow a human on the planet when he was called back, you can tell it's a flimsy excuse. As she points out, he could've come back. Luckily, K9 comes back online before she can get too narky. Turns out the goo is 'Krillitane Oil', and the bat people are Krillitanes, an amalgamation of the best phyical bits of the people they have conquered. Imagine bat-Borg, I suppose. As they leave, Rose questions him about whether he'll leave her too, but just as he's explaining that it's damn hard knowing he'll live about 50 times as long as her and have to watch her die, one of the Krillitanes swoops down to attack. Looks like it's just a warning shot though, or else it's a really crap alien.
Back at the school, Rose and Sarah Jane go to the computers to analyse the hardware, Mickey stays outisde to play with K9, whilst The Doctor goes off to have a word with the Headteacher. Though he doesn't learn his plan, the Headteacher does tell him that the next time they meet, The Doctor will join the Krillitane. In the computer room, Rose and Sarah Jane finally seem to be getting on, discussing The Doctor's many faults. The Krillitane, on the otherhand, are about to launch the 'final phase', whatever that is. They order all the children into their classrooms, except the kid with glasses who hangs round the playground. In the staff room, all the 'good' teachers seem to get eaten, which is unfortunate, although topped off with a lovely pun about an 'early lunch'. Let's hope it doesn't happen to the children, all of whom are set to ultra-fast-cube-cracking mode on the computers, whilst the doors all lock, trapping them in. The code appears in the room that The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Rose are in, and he recognises it as the 'Skasis Paradigm', which when cracked gives the user control of the building blocks of time and space. The Headteacher ghosts in to suggest that The Doctor becomes a god by his side, with all the good he could do and civilisations that he could save. He looks briefly tempted, but his companions sway him back.
Outside, K9 suggests using the car to ram the school doors open. Mickey does so, reuniting with the rest of the group inside, the Krillitane giving chase. Trapped in the school hall, K9 comes to the rescue with his laser, allowing them time to flee. The Doctor speculates that the Krillitane Oil is now toxic to the Krillitane themselves because they have changed their physiology so often, and they go off in search of it to put an end to this all. The children are evacuated, as K9 offers to sacrifice himself by blowing up the barrels of goo from point blank range, and Jesus Christ is this a bizarrely emotional scene considering it's a robot dog. The school explodes, much to the delight of the children, who praise Kenny, the boy with glasses.They're clearly not thinking of the tax payers who will have to fund the re-building of the school, but that's kids for you.
Back at the Tardis, Sarah Jane steps inside for the first time in 30/300 years. Though she's offered the chance to be a companion again, she wants to stay behind to build a proper life, so Mickey asks if he can stay. The Doctor agrees, although Rose looks less than pleased. Outside, they say their goodbyes, and she walks off as the TARDIS disappears, leaving behind a repaired K9, and GOD WHY AM I CRYING AGAIN?
Evil teachers running a school? That's how every child feels at one point, isn't it?
This is a really fun episode of Doctor Who, notable especially for bringing back Sarah Jane Smith, companion of the Third and Fourth Doctors, and robot dog K9. Though she's interacting with an incarnation that she hasn't met before, the acting is very strong all round, and you know she's talking to 'The Doctor', not 'The Tenth Doctor', if that makes sense. Elisabeth Sladen slips back into the role as if she's never been away, and the sadness behind her questioning of why The Doctor left her is the highlight of the episode. It's a wonderful way to bridge the gap between old and new, and though I didn't know who she was the first time I watched this episode, I loved knowing that they were bringing a part of Who-history to the forefront. You can tell how much Sarah Jane is hurting that The Doctor never came back for her, and that he chose to have other companions instead. It throws up something that would be true of any companion - they get a taste of this wonderful life travelling the universe, seeing everything it has to offer, and then they have to live ordinary lives where nothing like that happens. That really would be incredibly difficult, and highlights the difficulties that can arise from travel with The Doctor. This gets further touched on at the end of Series 4, when Davros accuses him of turning his companions into soldiers in his name.
Rose gets worried that he'll just leave her to, and with good reason - though he tells her, 'not to you', she points out that he was as close with Sarah Jane once as he is with her now. His explanation, that humans die and he can't bear to see that happen to someone he loves, is cut off when he can't bring himself to say the last bit, which is great news to Doctor/Rose shippers out there who want their love to happen, and a nightmare to those who hate the idea of romance between The Doctor and a companion.
One of the key qualities of a companion is highlighted again, however, when Sarah Jane talks The Doctor out of his brief consideration of using the Skasis Paradigm to become a god. The human companion is always the one that keeps The Doctor on the straight and narrow - just look at what happens in The Waters of Mars without one to stop him from trying to meddle too much with time.
I bet The Doctor has always dreaded former companions meeting like this - it's brilliant watching Rose and Sarah Jane bitch and bicker at each other, and boy do they get some cutting remarks in there each. Especially when Rose says that The Doctor has never mentioned Sarah Jane. Ouch, that one had to burn.
Anthony Head as the chief-Krillitane is wonderful. He positively drips with evil, and it's such a change from seeing him as Giles in Buffy, playing the good guy. There were hints of what he could do in Buffy, like when he confronts Willow for raising Buffy from the dead, but this is something else. Also, The Doctor's trait of offering one chance and then no mercy appears again, as he threatens the head of the Krillitanes before he discovers their plan. Apparently it's an age thing - when you reach 900, you just can't be arsed with naughty people any more.
The Krillitane themselves have a genuine sense of danger about them - when there are swooping alien bats flying around, you can't help but wonder if something is actually going to get eaten, although you're fairly certain that if it was a main character then The Doctor would find a way to have them regurgitated whole.
Whilst it's entertaining, has excellent performances all round, and has a good enemy, there isn't anything that pushes it to the highest realms of Who-excellence. That's not to say it isn't memorable, because Sarah Jane and K9s appearances can't fail to be memorable, but it's very much a case of 'that was great fun, let's move on to the next episode', rather than 'OMG I HAVE TO RUN AROUND SCREAMING ABOUT HOW AWESOME THIS WAS'.
There's more of Who's trademark humour, as The Doctor and one of the teacher's discuss how strange it is that the person The Doctor replaced won the lottery, despite never playing, with a ticket posted through the door at midnight. David Tennant's nonchalant reaction is brilliant, perfectly reminding me why he's so amazingly awesome in the role. What also made me laugh was The Doctor stumbling over calling himself, Rose and Mickey either 'team', 'gang' or 'comrades'. It's a good point - what do we call them? I usually call them either all by their names or 'the group', I think. 'Scooby Gang' is taken by Buffy, after all.
Poor Mickey, yet again - just as he and Rose seem to be getting back to flirty ways, and he starts to open up to her, some silly dinnerlady drops a barrel of goo over herself and Rose has to go investigate. Furthermore, he realises that, just like K9, he's the tin dog of the group. Though he gets full companion status at the end of the episode, Rose clearly doesn't want him around. Just can't win, can he?
Torchwood Mentions
Mickey tries to hack into an army database to discover more about a UFO crash three months previously, but is locked out by a flashing message baring the name 'Torchwood'.
Overall
A fun episode featuring the return of former companion Sarah Jane Smith and robot dog K9, with strong performances from all the main characters. It's not exceptional, but it's damn good.
8/10
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