Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Greg]

And now a jolly romp. With nuns.

Clyde hears about a haunted retirement home, and gets Sarah to investigate. It seems the ghost of a nun has been seen by various residents, though the staff pooh-pooh the story. But the woman in charge seems very hostile.

Meanwhile, Luke is given a talisman by one of the residents, an old woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease. And then the nuns are after him...

Freely acknowledging its roots in both Greek myth and Hammer movies, this story also seems to be the sort of thing that might have arisen in the K9 and Company series, if it had continued past the pilot and they'd put more work into it than the pilot got. It seems on a smaller scale than the previous stories, but the whole prospect of a monster that turns people to stone by looking at them is tailor-made for a younger audience - a simple but scary concept.

As you'd expect with a 2-part story, the first half is about establishing the mystery and the threat, and manages to include an effective cliffhanger that I hadn't expected, which again seems also designed to be scarier for the kids watching than the adults.

However, I think the actual plotting and writing of this episode is weaker than in the previous story, even if we are spared the fart jokes. I don't know writer Phil Ford's other work (which includes episodes of The Bill and the recent remake of Captain Scarlet), but it seems to lack the depth we saw from Gareth Roberts. I suspect it was written to put everything on the surface for the kids, which assumes kids can't (and don't need to be encouraged to) see different layers in a story.

That said, it was certainly serviceable, with a good central threat - and who can say whether part 2 will result in proving that things were set up for resolution later?

[meglos]

I love this show. To me it is a throwback to "Classic" Doctor Who. Interesting also that we get a mention of the Sontarans given the announcement of recent days

[Ohica]

I thought this was a great story and it was very much enjoyed by myself and the kids. Quite scary with action to boot. I liked the way there were parallels between Bea and Sarah with the 'all she's seen and now she's washed up here', comments. I thought those sorts of comments hit a bit of a nerve with old Sarah as well as Clyde's comments about old people as they left the building. I also loved Sarah's reaction to the mention of Sontarans. The poor thing was beside herself to think that at last she's met someone who knows what it's like to know about such strange things. I can't wait for the next part of the story. I loved the cliff hanger which was very unexpected and caused lots of surprised yelling from this audience. Whilst watching the trailer for part 2 and seeing what the Nuns have in store for Sarah, the first thought to enter my mind was " The Doctor will have to come and save her......hang on.....no Doctor!!!!!!!What will she do? " I love this whole series so far and I can only say that I hope it gets even better.

[Tegan]

I'm rather liking The Sarah Jane Adventures. The regular season has improved on the pilot episode, and I've finally convinced my daughter that a whoniverse show is worth watching.

Of course Sarah Jane was always a companion I liked, and now that Liz is the central actor, the character is doing fantastically well.

Now all I have to do is convince my daughter that Doctor Who is a show she can get into.

[Ohica]

I watched this ep again and noticed that we get a better view of Sarah's house in the outside shots. It's HUGE!!!! And there's some kind of white shed thing off to the right in the yard. To the left of the front door it seems to go back in 3 parts. I thought it was semi detached but the house up the road, on the right hand side, is just as huge. Such a huge house for one [originally] person. Perhaps she needs all that space to keep her vast collection of stuff. ?????? No doubt Luke will earn lots of pocket money doing all the vaccuming and dusting.

[Tegan]

[Theta Sigma]

Finally finished watching it.

Having seen writer Phil Ford's work on the new Captain Scarlet I am glad he has been given something to do in the Whoniverse.

Although Ford's plotting of the story using the Gorgon legend as a central plot point is fine, it did however feel slow at times. Thankfully this has been made up by the very good cliffhanger. Also I laughed that due to one of the characters being called Maria, that the Sound of Music line of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" was finally used. It was so worth waiting for.

Finally there is the reference to the Sontarans in this episode. Would have been surprised by it if I did not found out about it from Outpost Gallifrey at the time that it was reported that they will be in the parent Doctor Who series next year. Oh well.

[montypython]

A group of religious figures protecting an alien monster ... Tooth & Claw, anyone?

Great episode. A nice amount of mystery and horror, and as usual all the actors are great.

I'm loving this show more and more