"The Sarah Jane Adventures Special"

Just watched the one hour first episode of the new Doctor Who spin-off--for kids, unlike Torchwwod--"The Sarah Jane Adventures." (13 half hour episodes will be coming this spring.) How was it? [TomBaker]Wellllllll....[/TomBaker] It was fun. There were some really great parts and some fairly cheesy parts and I thought it climaxed a bit too neatly/quickly, but it is a show for kids. Mostly. Well, it is a show for today's kids and is, thus, sometimes a bit slick and unlike the mid-70s Who I think of when I see Lis Sladen. Who was marvelous, by the way. The action does take place some time after last year's "School Reunion," at least a year and a half, most probably considerably more. There were some lovely touches (look for the photos in Sarah's attic--the one of Ian Marter gave me a sad little sigh), as well as....well, there's at least one bit that has '70s Doctor Who all over it. I think you'll know it when you see it. As far as the kids go, their acting and characters were actually quite good too, with the possible exception of the young girl playing Kelsey who really should enunciate better. Although it's not fair to single her out, as her character is supposed to be only barely likable, so she probably did a very good job. ;-) Oh, and the baddies were good too!

But yes, compared to a certain other attempted spin-off starring Lis Sladen, this was wonderful. (Of course that might sound like damning with faint praise, but it's not meant to be.) She proves, yet again why Sarah Jane came in 2nd (after Rose) in this year's DWM reader poll as "Favorite Companion." (She's actually held the #1 spot for most of the past, oh, 25 years or so!) I wasn't in a good mood when I started watching, and it's left me feeling quite happy, so there you go.

So yeah, definitely looking forward to the new series! And look, no spoilers!