19th January, 2013

The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 episode 5  "Death of the Doctor" Part 1

     Bring on the fanwank!
     We begin the episode with the obligatory Luke appearance via Skype. We get a better view of the top of his t-shirt that perplexed me a few episodes ago. Apparently it's not a college t-shirt, just a generic Austin, Texas shirt. This leads to a warning from Mr. Smith that a group of armed UNIT personnel is approaching the home. This turns into an oddly confrontational encounter. Did they really need to send an armed squad to inform Sarah of the Doctor's passing and invite her to his funeral? Did they intend to force her to attend if she declined?
     Arriving at the base, we're treated to an obviously fake matte painting of Mount Snowdon. Adding this to the unconvincing Shansheeth, the production values appear to take a downturn for this episode. They also created a new alien race by repainting the Graske costume and making the Groske a sort of cousin race to the villainous originals. I guess they blew the budget on this episodes' guest stars.
     Being sentimental saps, both Elaine and I enjoyed the meeting between Jo and Sarah Jane. The references to classic series episodes come fast and furious as they tell stories of their encounters with the Doctor. Not quite the game of one-upsmanship that we had when Rose met Sarah Jane, but you do get a similar vibe from this encounter. We learn it has been six years since Sarah Jane was reunited with the Doctor in "Class Reunion" which is roughly a year longer than has passed in real life. Also, we learn that there is a sinister motive behind this now-apparent ruse as the Shansheeth seem to want to feed off the energy of the memories of the former companions of the Doctor.
     UNIT's involvement in the ruse reinforces my earlier speculation of the purpose of their armed squad, but if this is truly UNIT, why are they assisting the Shansheeth? I trust that this will be revealed in the next episode. Thanks to last episodes' preview of this one, we knew what the result of Clyde's artron energy exposure would be. Still, the appearance of Matt Smith's Doctor provided the pay-off we were waiting for. His humor always dominates any scene in which he appears, although Jo becomes a victim to his straight-forward honesty. The comment about Jo's appearance is completely child-like honest and without intended criticism. But it is obvious which of his companions' looks have held up better over the decades.
     The body swap may have brought the Doctor around to help solve the dilemma, but it does leave Clyde on his own on a planet 10,000 light years away to deal with an unspecified danger. This is somewhat irresponsible of the Doctor, but may speak as to the level of danger being faced here on Earth. I hope this gives us a chance to see Clyde shine as he deals with whatever he faces on the alien world. The episode ends with the Shansheeth zapping the Doctor and Clyde's fate in question. We're enjoying it so far, more for the classic series references than for the story being presented here. We'll just have to wait and see if the plot can come together better in part two.