* Elisabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane Smith
* Yasmin Paige – Maria Jackson
* Tommy Knight – Luke Smith
* Daniel Anthony – Clyde Langer
* Alexander Armstrong – Mr Smith
* Joseph Millson – Alan Jackson
* Juliet Cowan – Chrissie Jackson
* Anthony O'Donnell – Kaagh
* Ronan Vibert – Professor Skinner
* Clare Thomas – Lucy Skinner
Plot Analysis from Wikipedia
Alan Jackson is offered a job in Washington, D.C. in the United States of America, but seeks daughter Maria's and ex-wife Chrissie's approval before he relocates himself and Maria there.
After strange lights are sighted around the Tycho Radio
Tower, Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Clyde Langer and Maria investigate.
As shown in the picture, they discover Sontaran Commander Kaagh, the
only survivor of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet which was otherwise
seen to be destroyed in Doctor Who episode "The Poison Sky".
Kaagh plans to avenge his fleet by bringing Earth's satellites down
on nuclear power plants across the world thereby wiping out all of
humanity with the resultant explosions.
Failing to overpower Kaagh as he implements his plan, Sarah Jane,
Luke, Clyde and Maria are saved by the arrival of Alan and Chrissie,
the latter discovering the truth about Sarah Jane's alien investigations.
Chrissie knocks Kaagh unconscious by jamming the high-heel of her
shoe into the probic vent on the back of his neck, but an electrical
charge also knocks her out and Alan and Maria think they can pass
the day's events off to her as a dream. Luke is able to deactivate
the computer Kaagh has rigged to ground the satellites and with his
ship's weapons deactivated, Kaagh is sent back to his home planet,
Sontar. Six weeks later, Alan and Maria leave for America. Chrissie
reveals to Sarah Jane that she remembers everything about the Sontaran
incident.
Plot Analysis by Leather Tuscadero
Sarah Janes back again with a brand new series of adventures and in the first episode we say hello to an old enemy and say goodbye to a familiar friend.
Sontarans have always been my favourite Doctor Who villain but ive got to say this episode left me kind of cold, I think that’s the problem with all firs episodes of a new series, there’s a lot of information to pack into a short amount of time and sometimes they don’t always get it right, don’t get me wrong I thought the characters were still great, I just thought the plot was a little weak.
So there’s one sontaran left on earth after the doctor killed them all in “The poison sky” and he wants revenge and to be known as the greatest Sontaran ever, that’s all well and good but ive seen this plot a hundred times before, it gets a little old, also I thought his Sontar Ha! battle cry was a little weak, come on man you’re supposed to be scary! Put some feeling into it! Still his helmet was kinda cool, and I like the way he could turn invisible, that’s new! I think the writers have seen “Predator” one too many times though, total rip off!
I suppose the main point of this episode was
to say goodbye to Maria, I was totally gutted when I heard Yasmin Paige
was leaving the show, apart from Elisabeth I reckon she’s the
best thing in it, I still think Yasmin is a fool to give up the show,
when I was her age I would have given up anything to have been a main
character in a hit TV show, still I guess she has her reasons.
Anyway, Alan got a new job in America and therefore they have to move,
how often does that really happen in real life?? Seriously? And what
exactly does Alan do anyway, do they really need that many I.T. technicians
in America, the whole “my dads got a new job so we have to move”
plot has been done so many times on children’s TV, I think it’s
a cheap lazy storytelling device! Still it was sad to see her go; I
think the reaction by Sarah Jane when she first heard about it was so
good, I swear that woman has some serious abandonment issues! Come on
woman you don’t have to be so frosty all the time! Still im glad
that in the end she finally told Maria that she was like the daughter
she never had, I knew that from the beginning! What bugs me most about
Maria leaving is the fact that they spent the whole of last season building
up the relationship between Maria and Sarah and now it’s just
all gone in the bin! It’s a complete shambles if you ask me.
I suppose there is one upside of saying goodbye to Maria, no more Chrissie! My god she is so annoying! Although she did have a cool scene when she knocked out the Sontaran with her shoe, I was actually a bit worried when she got knocked out too, for a minute I thought she might be dead, I don’t like the woman but I don’t want her to die! I thought the little exchange between Chrissie and Sarah at the end was pretty cool, with Chrissie remembering everything, I think that was a good ending to her character.
Luke and Clyde are still awesome, I liked the scene when they were using Mr Smith to play video games, he’s the most sophisticated computer in the world and they’re using his to play games, hmm, that’s like using K9 as a hostess trolley!
One thing that bugs me about Clyde is all the puns he comes out with, enough already, we get it! If I hear that a Sontaran looks like a potato one more time I’ll go mad I swear! Also Luke is turning into a bit of a mummy’s boy, I like the fact that he’s always concerned about his mum but he needs to butch up a little sometimes, I still think he’s adorable though.
It wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever seen on TV, but I just don’t think it was exciting as last years season opener, I remember it being more colourful too, spending all the episode in the woods is bad for the atmosphere of the episode, it makes it seem all cold and wooden, last year we had sunny skies and colourful clothes, believe me this stuff matters, its called Mise En Scene! A little thing I learnt from film studies in college. I’m sure the rest of the Season will be great though, one thing that’s starting to bug me though is Sarah’s monologues, like the one at the start of this episode, we ended last season with her talking about family, it’s getting old! Still at least they didn’t use Mr Smiths fanfare in this episode, perhaps the writers finally listened to us when we told them it was bloody annoying!
Review by Brandon Tempany/Leather Tuscadero
