SJA reviews and ramblings

[dbskyler]

SJA might qualify as a fandom for this year's Yuletide, and I decided to nominate it so I could make sure that if it does end up qualifying, the more recent characters will be on the list. Well, someone had got there before me because Rani and Gita and Haresh were all there, along with another character whom I didn't recognize: Jo Jones. It gave me pause. I sat there racking my brains, thinking, "Who's Jo Jones?" Then suddenly in one of those "duh!" moments it came to me, and I remembered that Jo Grant married Cliff Jones and is therefore now Jo Jones. Then I marveled at the fact that someone has actually included Jo in the official list of SJA characters for Yuletide. The Doctor's in there too, but I did figure out who he was right away. I admit that I was then tempted to add the Brigadier, using the same logic that qualifies Jo, but I managed to restrain myself in time.

I am now ridiculously excited for next week's episode. The Doctor, Jo and Sarah, all in the same episode together! SQUEEEEE!!! I hope we get to see them all actually together for a good portion of the episode, because I really want to see how Sarah interacts with Eleven. I was also very happy to see the preview they showed after tonight's episode, but I'm slightly miffed that RTD has apparently stolen the opening scene from my fanfic, "Turn Again." UNIT coming to the door to tell Sarah that the Doctor is dead? That's my scene, mine! Although I suppose it's just barely possible that he thought it up completely on his own . . . ; )

I think the episode is going to be a joss-fest for me, as my fanfic "Break of Day" will certainly be jossed, and now it looks like elements of "Turn Again" might be, too. Oh well, it'll still be worth it! At least, I hope it will be. Please please please be a good episode!



Series 4 of SJA has gotten off to a strong start in my opinion. I really liked the structure of "The Nightmare Man," I thought it had a great villain, I enjoyed mad!Sarah in Clyde's nightmare (I hope she makes a reappearance someday as a full-fledged character), and I appreciated the quality send-off for Luke. I hadn't realized K-9 was going too, but I'm not sorry to see him go; he's fun, but he's also difficult to use well (and he's redundant with Mr. Smith, as both K-9 and Mr. Smith have pointed out in some of the best inter-computer banter ever written). "Vault of Secrets" had a very strong part one -- Gita was OMG marvelous -- but it fell down a little in part two, I thought, with a lot of the episode devoted to running around. Not that Sarah shouldn't be used to a lot of running around, getting captured and escaping again . . . *g* . . . but it really stood out as filler, and unless you have a 4- or 6- part story, I don't see how you can justify filler. I didn't quite get the background on the androids, although I thought it was interesting that they apparently stopped getting actively involved in hiding aliens from Earth around the time that UNIT started up. But why did they stop, anyway? Did I miss that explanation? Anyway, it's too bad that they did stop being actively involved, because I'd like to imagine them tangling with Delgado!Master at some point. Anyone motivated to write that fic? *looks around hopefully*

And that's all I have to say for now, except ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL THE SJA EPISODE WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!!!!!!!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Comments

[shadowturquoise]

Oooh! I love your excitement, it's contagious! LOL at you not knowing who Jo Jones was. I guess it has been in the forefront of my mind for a few years because I once read an early TW fanfic where she was Ianto's mother. But yeah, I was just as excited about the 30 second preview as I was the whole episode that preceded it.

I agree with you about the 2nd part of this one being a bit too much filler, but I loved it anyway. As annoying as Gita would be if she knew about aliens, I'm a bit sad that she doesn't. I feel that Gita and Haresh get played as the fool too much and it makes me really uncomfortable. I always liked it a lot better after Alan found out the truth and I think I would with the Chandras as well.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet, the swamp viper that poisoned Androvax: looks an awful lot like Prisoner Zero to me! Am I reaching or am I right?

[dbskyler]

I just always think of her as Jo Grant, not Jo Jones, what can I say . . . *g*

And yeah, I wasn't happy about Gita getting her memory erased, and I agree that the show was better once Alan knew the truth. First off, memory erasure is a bit too convenient, and it's been used a few too many times in the past on SJA. It's also brushed off as not a big deal, and I'm not happy about that -- if they really think they have to do it, there should at least be some remorse at having to tamper with someone's mind like that. I'd have much preferred to end the episode with the same situation we had at the beginning, where Gita and Haresh have seen aliens and believe in aliens, but don't know anything more. Besides, just think of the situations we could've gotten if they'd gone that route -- Gita trying to keep her knowledge of aliens away from Rani, for example. Wouldn't that have been great?

I didn't notice any resemblance to Prisoner Zero, so I'll have to go back and check for that. I did think the poison was taking an awful long time to work, and I wondered what would happen if Androvax died before he woke up anyone else on the ship. He might want to get on with that . . . ; )

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I think you should add the Brig in! He's essential!

The reason the androids concentrated on simply guarding the Vault is that The Alliance of Shades was disbanded. (The Alliance and its androids were used in DW: Dreamland - which, of course, Phil Ford - writer of Vault of Secrets - wrote.)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Ah, so that's why it went over my head -- Big Finish continuity!

The Brig is indeed essential, but I don't think he's a character people should require someone else to write if they've volunteered to write SJA. He can still be added in as an optional request for the writers who feel willing to take him on (which I would definitely volunteer to do!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Big Finish? I'm talking about Doctor Who's 2009 animated episode Dreamland. (If I'd meant the Big Finish story I'd have said BFA: Dreamland not DW: Dreamland.)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Oh. What's Dreamland? It's not Big Finish? I've seen that name around, but I thought it was Big Finish. There was an animated episode? Because we didn't get that on this side of the Atlantic . . .

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

There is indeed an SJS audio called Dreamland, but I was referring to the Tenth Doctor animated episode of the same name that was one of the 2009 "Specials" that aired last year. You can watch it on You Tube here. (It's been uploaded in 7 parts.) DT's girlfriend Georgia's in it...

It's not bad but I infinitely prefer The Infinite Quest...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting! Thanks for the link. I'd heard about Infinite Quest, but I didn't know about Dreamland -- I think I passed over any fandom mentions of it, and/or assumed they were talking about the Big Finish episode.

And hmm. After watching it, I have to say that some of the characters struck me as overly stereotyped. This was especially a problem with the Native American characters, whose depictions made me uncomfortable (and I'm not Native American). The anti-Commie Stark was so OTT, he seemed like a reject from "Dr. Strangelove." I was waiting for him to go off on a fluoride rant at any moment. But the rest of it was okay. It was nice to hear David again in a new story, at any rate. Also, Georgia Moffett does a good job at an American accent (so much better than David's horrific attempt in "Rex is Not Your Lawyer")!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yeah 'Of Mice and Men' remains David's least excruciating rendition of a US accent!!

I didn't think much of DW: Dreamland - as I said, I much prefer The Infinite Quest (and not *just* 'cos it's got Martha in it thought that's a huge contributing factor!) I don't much like the style of animation in this latest version.

[tempestas-inu.livejournal.com]

I was totally gonna tell you about the Alliance of Shades, but someone already did for me.

I've seen the word while perusing your entires before but... what exactly is "yuletide"?

Oh god, I think I'm gonna go crazy with how exited I am. I've basically put the next time trailer on repeat because I'm so impatient. I REALLY hope we get some good Eleven/Sarah interaction too (PLEASE LET THEM HUG!)... though, because Jo's in it, attention has to be evenly distributed to her as well, which is far from a bad thing, but it makes me wish they didn't only have an hour to have an adventure together. In the Wedding episode, Ten was in it for less than half an hour ;_;. At least we know that if anything, RTD is good at juggling multiple important characters in a story.

Hey, the fact he "stole" your fic scenes may be a good thing! If RTD's channeling your ideas unconsciously it HAS to be a good episode! XD.

I've been enjoying SJA. I thought this week's episode was a fun romp even if it could've been better. I quite liked Mister Dread; despite the fact he claimed he wasn't "programmed for comedy" I found myself laughing at the things he said/did. The CG for the vault was impressive. Someone told me they thought Sarah was perhaps channeling the Doctor too much in the episode though XD.

I know K9 was redundant but I'm gonna miss his and Mr. Smith's hilarious love/hate rivalry.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yuletide is a yearly fic exchange dedicated to small/obscure/inactive fandoms. The idea is to exchange fic in fandoms that don't have a lot of fic, or don't have recent fic. I participated in Yuletide last year for the first time, and I was a little nervous but it turned out to be a great experience.

It starts out with people nominating fandoms -- that just happened -- and then the mods go through the list and make decisions about what qualifies as a Yuletide fandom (i.e., is the fandom small, obscure and/or inactive). Last year Sarah Jane Adventures was not eligible for Yuletide because it was considered part of the Whoniverse, which is definitely way too big of a fandom to be eligible. However, this year spin-off shows are being considered separately and SJA may be deemed eligible. No one knows yet if it will make the cut or not (not even the mods, as they're figuring out as they go what the cut-off for "small fandom" will be).

If you decide to do Yuletide, you write a story for someone and you receive a story from someone. You offer to write in at least three fandoms from the list, and you request to get a story in three or four fandoms from the list. In the end you write one story in one of your offered fandoms and get one story in one of your requested fandoms. The mods match you up with a recipient (the person you're writing for) and an author (the person who's writing for you). It's very unlikely that your recipient and your author turn out to be the same person.

Here's the FAQ, which may change slightly this year but still gives you the basics: http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/faq.shtml

You can also follow along on up-to-date information at yuletide_admin and yuletide.

I'm not sure yet if I'll participate this year or not. We'll see . . .

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I think I'm gonna go crazy with how exited I am.

I think I've already gone crazy! I too am a little worried about Jo pulling attention away from Sarah, but I am optimistic that it will be all right and we'll get some quality Eleven/Sarah time. You're right, if anyone can pull it off, RTD can. (And yes, quality time means A HUG! COME ON RUSSELL, WE KNOW YOU LIKE IT WHEN THEY HUG, RIGHT?)

I hope RTD is not channeling "Turn Again," because if he is, the episode won't have been finished yet! That said, I love some of his stuff and I hate some of his stuff, so I'm crossing my fingers that this one will land in the love category.

The Mr. Dread stuff went over my head, definitely. I might need to re-watch now that I've actually seen Dreamland.

I'm hopeful that we haven't seen the last of the K-9/Mr. Smith banter. After all, it's easy enough to bring in K-9 for a snarky comment or two via computer monitor!

[tempestas-inu.livejournal.com]

Thanks for telling me about the Yuletide stuff, it sounds interesting. I hope SJA gets to be a category, even though I don't think I'll have time to write DX.

XD Well, it's just I'd figure what you'd wanna put in the episode would be to my liking.

Judging from trailers, Sarah and Jo hug in the episode, which means THE DOCTOR HAD SERIOUSLY BETTER GIVE/RECEIVE SOME. I think Sarah needs to get alot of hugs right now, since Luke's now gone.

Also, I love this promo picture quite alot. Because it kind of looks like Sarah's leaning on Eleven. And they have matching poses. Oh, and they're in the new TARDIS. whichsortofmakesthemlookliketheyreatimetravellingcouplewithjoastheircompanion*shotshotshot*



I hope K9 sometimes pops in in Luke's video feeds when he contacts Sarah, or something.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

One of the fun things about Yuletide is the amount of new fic it generates for rare fandoms. Yuletide stories are all public, so even if you don't directly participate, you get to benefit if someone writes in a fandom you like. So I hope SJA makes it too, even if I don't participate! (Also, if I do participate, I may not offer to write SJA. One of the things about Yuletide is it's a gift exchange, so you have to be willing to tailor the story to your recipient's wishes, which can be hard to do in a fandom where you have very strong opinions about the characters, like I do for SJA!)

I'd figure what you'd wanna put in the episode would be to my liking.

:D Well, I admit that I'm curious to see how RTD will handle that scene. It's certainly something that I wanted to see, which is why I wrote it. ; )

That's a great promo picture! OMG IS IT TIME YET????