The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

I know I never got a review up for The Mad Woman in the Attic, but I wanted to do this review for the Doctor Who cross-over story now, and TMWinA may get a review later, I did like the story, but The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith was simply to awesome to wait.

Okay, so lets crack on with things. I loved it from start to finish. This series is really shaping up to be the best so far, and of course my appreciation level for the episode(s) are bound to be increased some by the indescribable appearance from Mr. David Tennant, playing none other than the 10th Doctor. It was a joy to see him on screen again, it's been a long time since Easter, and with Sarah Jane being my favourite of the two spin-offs, I was in awe. But I think I'm getting slightly ahead of myself here, lets retun to the actual story for a while.

Part One began with Sarah Jane acting very paculiar, and the kids acting very suspicious of her. Well, as it turns out, Sarah Jane has been meeting up with a man named Peter, who from the off, looks as if she is very smitten with. Now, this being The Sarah Jane Adventures, we know that something is obviously not right, and it is unlikely that this romance will last until the conclusion of the story, but together Peter and Sarah Jane were a very nice couple. In fact for a children's show, there was a great chemistry between Elisabeth Sladen and guest-star Nigel Harves. I suppose that made it all the more emotional when Sarah Jane did have to say goodbye to her perfect man. Soon, with help from a few "Two weeks later"montages, we arrive at the couple's wedding reception, which we the audience, as well a suspicous Clyde, suspect that something is wrong with this impromptu wedding. But as it turns out, we aren't the only ones concerned. Enter, the Doctor screaming "Stop this wedding now!"

With that, we arrive at Part Two, and after the cliffhanger involving the Trickster making a shock re-appearance and kidnapping Sarah Jane, the second part of the story begins with Luke, Rani, Clyde, K-9 and the Doctor stuck in an alternate second than Sarah Jane. Now, after a brief apperance in the the first part of the story, we are in full Doctor mode from the off. We get the much missed shouting, running and babbling (we even get an Allons-y!) which we haven't witnessed in all too long, and must say goodbye to very soon. But what I particulalry loved about this part was how the Doctor did not simply take over, the kids, specifically Clyde, were given so much to do in order to rescue Sarah Jane, and there was an instant feeling of teamwork coming accross, just like the Doctor has with his own companions. Now, although the Doctor was probably one of the best things about this story, a couple more things are worth noting; the fact that Peter wasn't a villian or alien and the wonderful acting my Ms. Sladen, who gave us yet another side of Sarah Jane.

The conclusion of the story involved both Peter and Sarah Jane making incredibly heart-breaking sacrifices - saying goodbye to each other as Peter gave his life back to the Trickster in order to save the world. It was a heavier scene than I had anticipated considering the show is on CBBC, but it worked. It didn't feel out of place, it just felt so emotionally weighted and it just goes to show that a childrens TV show doesn't have to be made up of silly presenters, slime and gunge. Let's face it, if that's all children wanted to see, then we wouldn't even have The Sarah Jane Adventures on our screens. The story drew to a close with a nice scene in the TARDIS, where the kids got to have a look around, which made me smile, and Sarah Jane said goodbye (for now) to the Doctor, who aksed her to not forget him. As if she, or us for that matter (who I like to think Sarah's reply was supposed to echo) would forget such a wondeful Doctor.

Time For Miracles by Adam Lambert

It was announced a while ago, that American Idol 8 runner-up (don't get me started on that) was working on a top secret movie soundtrack. It quickly surfaced however, that he was was working on the lead single from the apocalyptic blockbuster 2012, and then some weeks later the title of the track was released, before a 30 second preview was released on Amazon.com last week. So it has been a long wait for this song, but it has finally arrived. And it was totally worth the wait.


Now I'm not the biggest music fan out there, and I very rarely get excited over new songs or have the biggest music collection on my iPod, it has been such a wait for something new from Adam. Packed into the four minute, fourty odd second track is the perfect theme for such a film, which although doesn't appeal to myself personally, does appeal to a lot of cinema goers. If you've seen the trailer you'll know what I'm taking about. The chorus is perfect for those montages of explosions and earthquakes they seem fond of, and the drama of the song really compliments the struggle of humanity to survive against forces beyond their control. I hear that a music video has been filmed to compliment the film, which I can't wait to see. Something Adam does best is the dramatic elements of performance, so such a video will be exactly the kind of platform to enable Adam to well and truly break into the industry.

There's plenty to get excited about here, and it remains true to one of Adam's many musical sides. Think Areosmith's Armageddon theme but not annoying. And although I am excited for his actual album material, I hope this isn't over looked as one of his singles because it really is a superb track, and hopefully it will be included on his forthcoming album.

All we need now is to see the video.

Sarah Jane is Back - Prisoner of the Judoon Review

This past Thursday and Friday evenings saw the return of my favourite Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, this time showing twice weekly and in HD! Which is such a pity since the HD box is at home and I am in Newcastle at university for most of the year. Still, I took a little trip home this weekend to experience the show in HD, and just to get away from my flatmates negativity surrounding my love of the Whoniverse in general. So was it a wasted trip? Absolutely bloody not!


Events got off to an exciting start, with Sarah Jane and co. discovering a crashed Judoon ship, and the prisoner which was let loose from the crash. However, it wasn't until Sarah Jane herself became the host body to the Androvax, that the episode stepped up a gear with Elisabeth Sladen giving a fabulous performance as "Evil Sarah", obviously relishing the opportunity to do something very different with the character. Predictably chaos follows and before we know it, we are left with the traditional end of part one cliffhanger and the next 24 hours feel almost like a week, waiting to find out just how Luke, Rani and Clyde were to rescue Sarah Jane.


So arriving at part two, with great excitement, I wasn't disappointed. There was a suitably satisfying conclusion to the Mr. Smith cliffhanger from part one, which also offered a nice throwback to the first series episode The Lost Boy. So once that business was taken care of, the important matter at hand, was rescuing Sarah Jane and making sure that she and the Androvax were separated before a fleet of Judoon officers arrived at the scene. Again, the excitement was kept at a high and Lis' turn as both Sarah Jane and the Androvax was effortless as she switched between the two. It was obvious that she was having fun with the role however.


It all came to a brilliant conclusion with the kids, Luke in particular, steeping up and saving the day, and rescuing Sarah Jane, and in typical Doctor Who fashion preventing the destruction of Earth. But with all the excitement, Rani's parents Gita and Haresh still get a quirky little side-story, which actually is rather brilliant. Last series, the two of them were almost non-existent, and we saw very little of them in comparison to Maria's parents who played a fairly large role in Maria's episodes. So it was lovely to see that the writers have found things to do with their characters, and I am interested in seeing what they do with them (Gita in particular) in future stories. Who knows, maybe Haresh will be a more understanding Head after his encounter with the Judoon?


So all in all, as far as series openers go, I'd rate The Prisoner of the Judoon as possibly the strongest. It seems that the more exciting and action-packed stories such as this are carefully being perfected and hopefully we will see more like it. Don't get me wrong, I love the more dramatic and emotional stories they tell, but stories like this are perfect examples of tea-time entertainment.

One more thing I wanted to mention was that although the budget for this series has been cut, the quality looks even better than before. I mean that spaceship was really well designed, and it was refreshing to see an original alien again after the mostly human looking aliens (and often just simply human) and enemies of last series. So well done to all involved, I only hope they haven't blew their budget on this episode.

Roll on next week with Rani's episode "The Mad Woman in the Attic"!

Fantastic Blog

Firstly, I haven't updated this thing in a while, but I'm back at uni now. I can't believe it's four weeks in already! Next thing I know I'll be home for Christmas!

But anyway, I just wanted to leave a quick post to a new blog I've stumbled upon: http://teddyree-theeclecticreader.blogspot.com

It's a book review blog, and a great one at that. The books reviewed on there are all fairly new-ish to me, so if you prefer reading the lesser known (and often better than bestsellers) books, then check out the blog.

Glee

Continuing, for the moment along the TV series lines as yesterday, I just wanted to give a quick mention to Fox's feel-good musical series Glee. Initially, I was hesitant to watch, I just didn't think it was for me, but I gave in and watched the pilot and immediately afterwards I watched the second episode. It was that good. I don't want to get into a big rant about the show, but I do want to mention a couple of things which I found the most noteworthy.

What really got me, I think, was how it was nice to have the attention on the "other" kids for a change. By this I mean those who aren't the popular ones, who are slightly different and often feel slightly outcast because of that. It was also a joy to see the popular kids presented in a slightly, how should I put this, less sympathetic way. I'm not into stuff like 90210 or The OC where it just seems to be about popular rich kids, which is why I found Glee to be so refreshing. It gave a much more rounded view of school life, with obvious over exaggeration for the purpose of TV of course. Because let's face it, the popular ones are a minority, so why should they always get all of the attention on these kinds of shows? Glee - well done for trying something different.

High school politics aside for a moment, Glee is also a musical. And fair enough, some of the songs are slighlty theatrical, but they are supposed to be aren't they? Although, some of the time, the sounds was a little too polished when considering these kids were supposed to be singing these songs. It did sound like a bit of studio magic had been weaved on some tracks, Gold digger in particular. But, they are fun songs, especially when the whol gang is together just letting go and having some fun. Which, is what Glee is. It's fun, and it has heart, and it seems to come off as less cheesy as you would initially think.

That's about it for now, although I'm sure I'll end up rewatching these episodes in the near future, so I'm likely to come back with a few more thoughts.

A New Find in the Form of Castle

As a self confessed Joss Whedon fan, I was hugely looking forward to his latest offering - Fox's Dollhouse. I was however, left disappointed with the show, and eventually gave it up all together. The thought to return has occurred to me from time to time, especially after hearing just how much the show improved from midway through onwards, and I have viewed mere minutes of later episodes, which didn't leave me with much of a feeling that this show was worth sticking with. Now, that does sound slightly harsh, but in all fairness, I did give it half of its run, perhaps even a litte more than that. But, I just couldn't get over my initial disappointment that this was actually a show from Joss Whedon. He's a complete genius, and leagues above any other writer on TV. But Dollhouse just didn't sit well with me.

Which brings me to ABC's crime drama Castle. Starring Nathan Fillion, of course from Whedon's axed "space western" Firefly. I turned to Castle after, aside from being a pretty big murder mystery fan, to see just what one of Joss' alumnis was up to. And I liked what I saw. After loving Alyson Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother, eagerly anticipating anything with Sarah Michelle Gellar, relishing Felicia Day's The Guild, loving Tom Lenk's Pepsi add(!) and keeping a close eye on Amber Benson's flourishing career as a novelist, I was hoping to be equally entertained by another recognisable face. But getting back to the actual show for a moment, I was pleasantly surprised by Castle.

Going into it, I expected it to be the usual, run of the mill, US cop show. But it was actually a fun mix of comedy, drama, mystery, and crime. However, what really made the show for me, was Fillion's fun and adventurous turn as bored crime novelist Richard Castle, who is called in by the police, after murders mirroring those in his books being to spring up, to help them in their investigations. He was arrogant but charming, funny and immature but also smart and resoruceful, and it makes for such a refreshing to change to see a crime show which doesn't take itself so seriously! Apart from perhaps Psych and Monk, I can't really think of any other crime drams on TV which take a more light-hearted approach, and isn't made up of people walking around for forty minutes, in suits, testing DNA. As we all know, crime is a serious matter, but this is TV, we want an escape every now and then, and Castle makes for perfect escapist TV and more. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the more serious TV from time to time, and when with a slightly different angle, the crime show genre can be successful. Medium, for one springs to mind as an example which does something different to other crime shows.

Now, I have no idea how well it will fair post-pilot. Of course I understand it to be fairly formulaic, but I hope (and expect) as with Psych, the lead will really own the show. I hope to watch the second episode soon, but for now, Castle's pilot gets two thumbs up from me.

And sorry for the sligh anto-Dollhouse ramble at the start! Hopefully, I will get around to watching those final episodes soon, and maybe my opinion will change?

It's been a while

It's been a long time since I posted in this blog, but it's been summer so I've been to busy to post, and at other times to bored to have anything decent to post about.

Anyway...

Earlier this month I did a week at a newspaper, my local The Whitehaven News. It was actually a lot of fun, and it was good experience which I was in total need of. I got a few things published (which I'll post links to at the bottom of the post) which my Dad is very excited about. Every time someone comes round, he gets the clippings out! But I've hidden them now, so he won't be able to find them next time :)

But it did make me realise that perhaps journalism is something I might want to go into. The original plan for uni was to actually do a journalism degree, but after freaking out in case I didn't want to be a journalist, I settled with the more useful and less scary English Language. But now I'm thinking I want a bit more experience in that field, so hopefully something will come up this year. I know I'm doing creative writing as one of my modules which may include some article type assignments, but truth be told, I'm just excited to get away from grammar for a bit! I still don't know what a transitive verb or an adverbial clause is. I mean, probably I could make a guess, but it will be no where technical enough for it to be right :D So that's why I'm excited for creative writing, there's a bit more freedom. And hopefully, there won't be too much, let's share with the rest of the group sessions.

So yeah, summer is coming to an end, less than a month until I'm back at uni (it's welcomed! I'm so bored with home now!). Oh, and as promised those articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6