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 . . . ; )