May 22: "Day of the Moon"

As dark as "The Impossible Astronaut" seemed, with its killing of the Doctor and investigations of aliens who you can't remember, "Day of the Moon" is much darker.  There's a sense of ratcheting up the paranoia in this episode, as our heroes try to fight an enemy that are almost impossible to learn about and who have been here for thousands of years.  "They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head: we are not fighting an alien invasion, we're leading a revolution," the Doctor tells the others.  (So that's another alien species interfering with humanity's development to add to the list.)

The opening scenes are pretty tense, with Amy, River, and Rory covered in tally marks and being hunted by Canton for the last three months²²⁶, while the Doctor is kept in chains at Area 51 and slowly entombed in a building made of dwarf star alloy (with no explanation beyond the hand-wavy "Area 51" reference as to how 1969 Americans came across such advanced technology -- but at least we get a Warriors' Gate reference).  The cliffhanger is barely addressed, other than a brief flashback (to see something we haven't actually seen yet, but it's treated like a flashback) to show that Amy didn't kill the child in the astronaut suit and that Canton sees a Silent there.  It's not actually clear what we're meant to think regarding Canton -- even when it becomes clear that he was just trying to get everyone in a space that the Silents²²⁷ couldn't listen in on, it's still not obvious what his cover story was.  But fine, now it's time to go on the offensive.

The girl in the astronaut suit, flanked by two Silents. ("Day
of the Moon") ©BBC

Honestly, it's a clever plan, even if it feels a bit bloodthirsty by the Doctor's normal standards, and we get lots of moments where people confront the Silents and don't remember it -- the case of Dr. Renfrew in the children's home being particularly well done, as the Silents have been around him so much that he's essentially lost two years of his life.  But it's still rather convenient that they manage to get a recording of a Silent saying that humanity should kill them when they see them.  Nevertheless, it provides for a suitably epic conclusion, as everyone watching the moon landing turns on the Silents in the room with them.

Other parts that are entertaining involve Nixon rescuing the Doctor from various circumstances, while being rather confused by what's going on.  Still, they're fun sequences, and you can tell Steven Moffat is getting a little kick out of the Doctor telling Nixon to record everything, just in case the Silents try to get to him, and inadvertently creating the Nixon White House tapes as a result.  And there's also the exchange between Nixon and the Doctor: "Will I be remembered?" Nixon asks.  "Oh, Dicky.  Tricky Dicky.  They're never going to forget you," the Doctor replies.  Oh, and while we're discussing good moments, the final one between River and the Doctor, where he kisses her for the first time and she realizes it will be the last time she kisses him (because their lives are running in opposite directions), is heartbreaking.

This is an episode that's brimming with the same self-confidence that characterized much of the previous series, but it's also an episode that sees a definite shift in the way the long-running plot threads are treated.  Under Russell T Davies, and even last series to an extent, they were a sort of extra, a little bonus for those willing to stick with an entire run but not necessary for casual viewers to have kept up with.  Here, on the other hand, those plot threads look like they're increasingly the point.  We have an awful lot of unanswered questions here at the end of "Day of the Moon": what's the deal with Amy's pregnancy?  What was up with the lady with the eyepatch?  Who was the little girl, and how could she possibly be regenerating at the end?  Are these Silents related to the TARDIS exploding (it's a good bet they are), and if so, how?  As such it's a bit difficult to adequately evaluate "The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon"; the story itself is told with great aplomb, but it trusts that the audience will stick with the series to find out the answers to these lingering questions -- but that puts pressure on subsequent episodes to deliver good explanations...







²²⁶ It's presumably during this time period that Amy is replaced by her double, given the pregnancy comments that (more or less) immediately follow the reunion of the Doctor and Amy.
²²⁷ Another minor controversy: Silence or Silents?  The end credits list Marnix van den Broeke as playing "the Silent", but the DVD subtitles opt for "Silence" every time the aliens are referred to.  It gets more complicated when you factor in later stories, which talk about a religious order called the Silence.  The TARDIS wiki appears to have opted for "Silence" for the order and "Silents" for members of the alien race, which is as good a distinction as any.

May 21: "Space" / "Time" / "The Impossible Astronaut" Prequel / "The Impossible Astronaut"

The TARDIS materialises inside itself. ("Space") ©BBC

Nope, we're still not quite to the official start of series 6 yet, as before we get there we've got two mini episodes (and a prequel scene) to go.  "Space" and "Time" were broadcast on 18 March 2011 as part of Comic Relief, the charity telethon that the series has occasionally contributed to.  (See Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and "From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love" in case you've forgotten.)

It's a brief little scene, designed more to be cute than anything more substantial, and at this it succeeds reasonably well.  It helps that we're given a clever idea to play with, with the TARDIS inside itself and no way of getting out, which leads to lots of opportunities for characters to react to themselves -- most memorably, Amy seems oddly taken with herself ("Oh, this is how it all ends," the Doctor remarks.  "Pond flirting with herself.  True love at last"), but the bit where Rory asks himself if he'll have to remember all of what his future self just said is also charming.

It's a quick story that doesn't outstay its welcome, and as such is the perfect sort of thing for Comic Relief.  I suppose you could fault it for not being more ambitious, but the time aspects of this are complicated enough that it was probably a wise move not to push it too far.  A charming interlude.

And then we got a quick little prequel teaser of Richard Nixon informing a girl on a telephone that "there are no monsters in the Oval Office", followed by a shot of a strange alien standing there (although the framing of the shot erroneously suggests that Nixon is aware of the alien standing near him -- as this is Nixon we're talking about, you could be forgiven for thinking he was in league with them), and then finally a month later, series 6 properly begins with "The Impossible Astronaut".

DVD and Blu-ray releases

The episode opens with a caption dedicating it to the memory of Elisabeth Sladen (albeit with the wrong birth year -- Sladen was born in 1946, not 1948), who sadly died four days before its premiere²²⁵ -- it's a sweet tribute to one of Doctor Who's most enduringly popular actresses.  We then get a fun little sequence of the Doctor off doing various things on his own that masks an important sea change: before this point, once you started travelling with the Doctor you stayed with him until you left.  Sure, you might occasionally see him again or be able to call him to help you with your Sontaran problem, but travel in the TARDIS was, with the small exception of Pertwee's companions (who were a special case, what with the exile and all), a one-time deal.  But now we see Amy and Rory, dropped off in their own time and place and living their lives but ready to be picked up again by the Doctor at a moment's notice.  It makes running away with the Doctor less risky, if you know you can go home and then back out again without having to worry.  Of course, now we also have to wonder why anyone ever leaves the Doctor, if this is his attitude now.  (And it's not really a question that we have a good answer for -- we've only had three companions (Amy, Rory, and Clara) since this became the norm, and the show had to bend over backwards to provide an explanation for the first two, and Clara is still at time of writing traveling with the Doctor.)

The Doctor is reunited with Amy and Rory. ("The Impossible
Astronaut") ©BBC

So that's the new subtle difference.  The new obvious difference is the location filming.  Doctor Who has performed principal photography in other countries before, but never in the United States -- and as a resident of that country, it's really thrilling to see recognizable landmarks like Monument Valley and knowing that they're really there.  Doctor Who really is going global.

Now as far as plotting goes, "The Impossible Astronaut" is structured oddly.  The first third appears to be setup not for this actual story but for this series' overarching plotline: the Doctor's impending death, which (because this is a show about time travel) we see early on, as an astronaut shoots him dead in 2011, in front of Amy, Rory, and River.  Only it seems that was an older Doctor, and now a younger Doctor arrives, not knowing about what his friends saw, and they have to try and figure out how to save his life.

All well and good, but then the episode, despite the production team's best efforts to tie these two things together, seems to start again as this two-parter's specific story gets underway, as we head back to 1969 America (so it's not just a quick scene and then we're gone -- the whole story is set in the US) and the time of the moon landing, to meet up with a man named Canton Everett Delaware III.  And so Mark Sheppard makes his move to yet another SF show, after having appeared in things like The X-Files, Star Trek: Voyager, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural, and a host of others.  Here he's an ex-FBI agent summoned by Nixon to help track down the child who keeps calling him.  Stuart Milligan is a passable Nixon, and after a brief commentary ("Richard Milhous Nixon," River says.  "Vietnam, Watergate.  There's some good stuff, too," she adds.  "Not enough," the Doctor replies.  "Hippie!" River exclaims.  "Archaeologist," the Doctor retorts) the script wisely stays away from any controversial positions, as this story isn't about Nixon.  No, it's about some creepy aliens who look like Edvard Munch's The Scream (an acknowledged influence) and rather wonderfully dress in suits and which no one can remember the moment you stop looking at them, which is a novel and creepy idea.  The death of Joy in the restroom is both funny and frightening, and the total failure of anyone to remember them means that they seem incredibly dangerous.  (They don't appear to be working with Nixon though, as the prequel seemed to imply.)

But answers as to who they are and what they're doing will have to wait, as we've almost reached the cliffhanger.  We've seen a spaceship (presumably belonging to the aliens) that's almost identical to the one from "The Lodger" and River has told Rory about the heartbreak of meeting the Doctor ("The trouble is, it's all back to front. My past is his future. We're travelling in opposite directions. Every time we meet, I know him more, he knows me less. I live for the days when I see him, but I know that every time I do, he'll be one step further away. And the day is coming when I'll look into that man's eyes, my Doctor, and he won't have the faintest idea who I am. And I think it's going to kill me"), which is both sad and strange as we've already seen her die -- so the audience has knowledge that the character lacks, and we know that she's right: it will be the death of her.  But the actual cliffhanger involves an astronaut that we're invited to believe is the same as the one that will kill the Doctor in 2011 -- only there's a young girl inside looking for help.  But that doesn't stop Amy from grabbing Canton's gun and shooting at the astronaut.  "What are you doing?" the Doctor cries.  "Saving your life," Amy replies as she pulls the trigger.  Now that's a cliffhanger.







²²⁵ This caption is missing from the Region 1/A release of The Complete Sixth Series boxset, although a similar caption (with the year corrected) does appear before part one of The Nightmare Man on the fourth series DVD of The Sarah Jane Adventures.  It's not clear why they moved it -- maybe they didn't want the wrong year being perpetuated?

May 20: "A Christmas Carol"

Doctor Who has done Christmas specials before, obviously, but while many of them have been Christmas-y in nature, none have been quite so overt about it as the 2010 one, "A Christmas Carol".  This is emphatically about Christmas, and it makes no secret of its borrowing from Dickens to tell its tale (with Steven Moffat thus subscribing to the Terrance Dicks school of "draw attention to the issue to make it go away" writing).

But because this is paralleling Dickens' most famous Christmas story, there's a danger of this episode feeling derivative or dull -- "A Christmas Carol" may be one of the first time travel stories, but that doesn't mean it's therefore necessarily a natural fit with Doctor Who.  But this episode succeeds because it's so openly admiring of its source material; there aren't any sneers at the set-up or awkward jokes about the underlying idea (or even cracks about giving Dickens the idea in the first place), but rather a sincerity underlying everything here.  Moffat doesn't want to simply adapt Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"; he wants to use it as a starting point and a framework to tell his own version of the tale, and so the result works quite well.  (So here's another example of Moffat following in fine Who tradition.)

I like how it starts out as a sort of disaster movie, as a ship clearly designed to be a parody/homage (delete according to preference) of a Star Trek bridge -- and specifically the one from the 2009 sort-of-reboot version -- is crashing into a planet.  But then the whole story shifts its emphasis; this isn't about the crashing ship, it's about trying to make a man on the planet below a different person, one willing to save that ship.  It's about the Doctor dipping back into Kazran Sardick's past and trying to make him a better man, and having adventures along the way.  This gives Moffat the excuse to play with some time travel ideas (such as the really quite wonderful one of the Doctor leaving the "present" and then walking into the "past" of the video recording while continuing his conversation with the old Kazran) while still maintaining the core of the story.  This is a good move, not taking the mickey out of anything that might now seem too familiar, and the jokes that are present tend to be at the main characters' expense.  And so we get Amy and Rory in their policewoman and Roman costumes, respectively, having apparently just left the honeymoon suite aboard the crashing ship, while there are some great lines regarding the Doctor:

YOUNG KAZRAN: Are you really a babysitter?
DOCTOR: I think you'll find I'm universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult.
(He shows Kazran the psychic paper.)
KAZRAN: It's just a lot of wavy lines.
DOCTOR: (looks at the paper) Yeah, it's shorted out.  Finally, a lie too big.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - A Christmas Carol)

But what really makes this story work is the central character of Kazran Sardick.  The idea of the Doctor changing his history, causing him to start remembering new memories (which is a really weird idea if you think about it -- why wouldn't the changes be instantaneous, and why wouldn't he remember Abigail's fate right away?  On the other hand, City of Death also had some stuff involving changes to the timeline not being instantaneous, so at least there's precedent in the series), is a good one, and Sir Michael Gambon is very very good indeed as the old Kazran.  But it's the case that all three Kazran actors -- Gambon, Laurence Belcher as the young version, and Danny Horn as the teenaged one -- are very well cast, leading us easily to focus on the growing romance between Kazran and Abigail that ends up being the heart of the story.  Katherine Jenkins has such good chemistry with all three versions of Kazran that the audience doesn't have any trouble believing this is the same person at various points in his life interacting with his love.  Plus we get a fun moment from the Doctor:

KAZRAN: I think she's going to kiss me.
DOCTOR: Yeah, I think you're right.
KAZRAN: I've never kissed anyone before.  What do I do?
DOCTOR: Well, try and be all nervous and rubbish and a bit shaky.
KAZRAN: Why?
DOCTOR: Because you're going to be like that anyway.  Might as well make it part of the plan, then it'll feel on purpose.  Off you go, then.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - A Christmas Carol)

Abigail and Kazran watch the snow fall. ("A Christmas Carol") ©BBC

Of course, it's not love that ultimately saves Kazran so much as a desire not to be like his father -- the moments with Abigail have simply turned him bitter for a different reason ("All my life, I've been called heartless," the old Kazran tells the Doctor.  "My other life, my real life, the one you rewrote.  Now look at me."  "Better a broken heart than no heart at all," the Doctor replies.  "Oh, try it, you try it," Kazran sputters), but it's when the young Kazran sees what he'll become that a real, lasting change is made.²²⁴  Because he genuinely doesn't want to be like his father, he finally changes.  It's a nice moment, even if it's soon tinged with the bittersweet knowledge that this will be Abigail's final day alive.  But Kazran's now a better person, and while he'll have to say goodbye to Abigail he'll still get to spend one more day with her.

It really is incredibly Christmas-y at times, but "A Christmas Carol" works because it takes its characters seriously (even if it doesn't necessarily take every moment seriously) and believes in them.  At its heart it's a simple tale of redemption told less-than-straightforwardly, but its sincerity keeps it afloat.  This is an episode that will bring a smile to your face and warm your heart, as it reminds us that Christmas means we're halfway out of the dark. 







²²⁴ You can explain away the lack of an explosion resulting from the Blinovitch Limitation Effect (as seen in Mawdryn Undead) in "The Big Bang" when Amy touches her younger self by arguing that those are two different Amys -- one that grew up in a world with stars and one that didn't, among many other differences.  It's a lot harder to explain why the two Kazrans don't cause an explosion in this episode -- my best guess is that they're also two different people at that moment because the changes to Kazran's timeline haven't caught up with old Kazran yet.

May 19: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith Parts One & Two (SJA) / "The Eclipse of the Korven" (K-9)

It's rather heartbreaking, watching the first episode of this story -- we're constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop regarding both Ruby White and Sarah Jane's condition, but while we do so we have to endure the sight of Sarah Jane losing her memory and her mental acuity.  In many ways this is the heart of the episode -- once Ruby reveals her true colors, this is largely business as usual, but the scenes leading up to that cliffhanger are really well done.  Elisabeth Sladen does a beautiful job of portraying Sarah Jane slowly losing her grip as she becomes more and more absent-minded -- putting Clyde and Rani in danger because she's forgotten her sonic lipstick is one thing, but forgetting the name of the Doctor?  That cuts right to the heart of the matter, and it really is tough to watch at times.

It's also interesting to see essentially another Sarah Jane Smith running around, in the form of Ruby.  While we know that something's up (I suspected the Trickster, but alas, he's nowhere to be found in series 4), we don't know what, and it's still interesting to see the dynamic between Ruby and Sarah Jane, both when they're suspicious of each other and when they're on friendlier terms.  "They're great kids, but they're a different generation," Sarah Jane tells Ruby.  "I could do with a grown-up friend."  It's a lovely moment, even when you know it's going to go wrong.

Ruby drains Sarah Jane's life essence. (Goodbye, Sarah Jane
Smith Part One) ©BBC

Of course, it's really an alien plot, and as I said, this part of the story is on much firmer ground.  Sarah Jane trapped in a cellar, being digested by an alien stomach that feeds off "life essence" triggered by excitement, isn't exactly the sort of thing that the show has done before, but it does feel like the sort of thing the show could have done before.  I also like how Clyde immediately susses that something's wrong with the idea of Sarah Jane leaving without saying goodbye to even Luke and is trapped in an airless prison cell above the planet for his troubles.  (Although doesn't that violate the Judoon's "don't leave Earth" order?  You'd expect them to come in and arrest Ruby as an accessory...)  It shows that he's clever and loyal, and that it doesn't really matter -- a surprisingly bleak moment for the series.  The farewell message he leaves on his phone is also quite tragic (and he never finishes what he was going to say to Rani -- clearly the writers are playing with this Rani/Clyde thing).

But it's ultimately Rani and Luke who save the day (and hooray!  Tommy Knight's briefly back for more than just a computer screen cameo!), thwarting Ruby's plan to drain Sarah Jane and overloading her with all the excitement of 6 billion people at once.  It's a clever resolution, and we get a suitably sequel-hunting ending, as Ruby vows to get her revenge on the planet.  And the "splurge" on Clyde is a cute moment.

This is an entertaining story, to be sure, but it also has a surprising amount of vulnerability in it as well -- Elisabeth Sladen's performance is really fabulous, and she greatly helps sell the concept.  And while the other bits might feel a bit typical, they're at least done with great style and confidence.  As another story in the series this does really well; as an ending to series 4, Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith is a great choice to close out the run.

Series 4 has been another strong run for the show -- despite the reduced role of Tommy Knight this year, the stories they've been telling haven't suffered at all, and we've in fact gotten a chance to see Anjli Mohindra and Daniel Anthony get more of a focus as Rani and Clyde.  All this, anchored by the ever-reliable and highly watchable Lis Sladen, means that series 4 has maintained (and in some cases even improved) the high level of quality we've come to expect from The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Jorjie, Darius, Professor Gryffen, Starkey, and K-9 observe the
STM. ("The Eclipse of the Korven") ©Screen Australia, Pacific
Film and Television Commission Pty Limited, Park Entertainment
Limited, Cutting Edge Post Pty Limited, and Metal Mutt
Productions Pty Limited

But it's not the only thing that's ending today.  We've now reached the finale of K-9, with an episode that's genuinely good.  This is the moment they really have (sort of) been building up to, as we get a number of disparate threads tied together in this finale.  So we learn more about K-9's regeneration unit, the STM, his connection to the Korven, and the mysterious Lomax who runs the Department.  It's almost like they know this is the last episode -- how else do you explain the awkward story-stopping moment of Jorjie telling Starkey that she has feelings for him, other than to wrap up a plot thread left dangling from "Aeolian"?

But they mix in some genuinely compelling moments.  The best one is Professor Gryffen resolving to save the world even though it means confronting his agoraphobia and heading outside to shut down the STM at the source, as it really is a "punch the air" moment, but there are also things like Thorne being revealed as a Korven agent, helping them to invade (so that's why he's been such a git all the time), or the way K-9 saves the day by making the weird alien beast fight its own natures, which is a clever move.  Or the way Thorne receives his just desserts.

And then the ending goes straight for the feels, with K-9 seemingly dead and there being nothing anyone can do to save him.  All the actors appear to be actually crying during this extended scene, as they all say their farewells to K-9, seemingly forever.  Of course it works out in the end (as the regeneration unit just, er, appears in Starkey's hand), but it's still a really touching scene.

So the series definitely ends strong: "The Eclipse of the Korven" is a compelling episode with an engaging plot and some good performances from everyone involved.  This episode feels like it has a storyline that matters, and so it goes out on a high note.

And so ends this oddest of spin-offs, the one with only the most fragile of ties to technically its parent show, and the only one to date not made by the BBC.  (Or at least the only one that made it to broadcast, as opposed to the BBV stuff.)  The basic premise of the show isn't bad, but all too often, K-9 seemed to have few ambitions beyond standard children's TV fare.  It was rarely outright terrible, but because its sights were lowered, the times it hit the mark weren't as often as they should have been.  This is a shame; some talented people were in front of the camera, and probably could have done more if they'd be given the material.  Robert Moloney was easily the standout as Professor Gryffen, providing a solid anchor for the show and doing some really lovely acting, but we also had fine acting from people like Keegan Joyce as Starkey (once he had a couple episodes under his belt) and Philippa Coulthard and Daniel Webber, who showed that, when given the right stuff, they could easily rise to the occasion.  And as always, John Leeson was on hand to provide his ever-reliable performance as the voice of K-9.

Alas, the ambitions of the show just weren't high enough, and while they finally did start to spread their wings near the end it was too little too late.  The direction the show was going was a positive one, but they only got the one series, and the talk has moved on from "we're going to do a second series" to "we're going to do a reboot", which is a bit of a shame (even if it's understandable).  It was hardly a standout show, but in its own way it could be quite charming.

(All that said, the theme tune of the show might have been the best part -- it's a genuinely catchy piece of music.)

May 18: Lost in Time Part Two (SJA) / "Hound of the Korven" (K-9)

No, this episode is just as odd as the previous one.  We don't get much in the way of complications beyond things like being recaptured; instead, this is a way to have adventures in history with the thinnest of plot rationales.

Sarah Jane and the shopkeeper look at the time window. (Lost
in Time Part Two) ©BBC

The Sarah Jane portion has the least to do with a time period, but the stuff with the future echoes (to borrow a Red Dwarf term) is kind of nice.  I also like the subtle idea that, from the future kids' point of view, they were rescued by a ghost (as Emily must have appeared to them).  But other than that, we get Clyde's brush with a Nazi invasion and Rani learning a bit about Lady Jane Grey and what she was like as a person.

It does help that everything is done really well; for such a small amount of screen time spent in different eras, they do a good job of evoking the time periods, both in sets and in performances.  Everyone behaves the way we sort of intuitively expect them to behave, and this helps carry the day in terms of story and such.

But ultimately the plot is just an excuse to have some time travel without the Doctor or the Rift, and they haven't done a great job of disguising it as any more than that.  The shopkeeper is suitably mysterious, but that sense of mystery regarding his true identity and the nature of the chronosteel does mean that there's little there to hang the plot onto.  Fortunately the actors and the direction help carry the day, but it is a story that leaves you wanting something a bit more substantial afterwards.

But now it's on to K-9, which is almost over.  This penultimate episode, "Hound of the Korven", feels at the time like it should be very significant, but while it ends on something of a cliffhanger and changes the nature of our understanding of much of the show, there's still a sense of unresolvedness here (although hopefully the next episode will address that).

It starts well, actually taking some time to address the events of the previous episode, as Darius sees his father trapped in a VR prison after his arrest last time around.  Thorne wants K-9's regeneration unit (which, you may recall, he was also interested in in "Robot Gladiators") and he's willing to return K-9's memory chip in exchange for it.  There's also some stuff involving Lomax, the head of the Department, ordering that the sewers be mined and filled with a stun gas, even though June argues that there are civilians (three guesses who) down there.

The best part, however, might be the reveal that the Jixen (marked as enemy number one since the beginning of this series) are actually benign.  The conversation between the Jixen and Starkey is pretty good in its exploration of this misunderstanding, and the hints that suggest that K-9 was actually being used by the Korven to hunt the Jixen are interesting.  There are also some extra details to suggest that the Jixen aren't bad (such as the fact that their war with the Meron was apparently an effort to reclaim their home), which are welcome.

But once we learn that, we get a stand-off between the Jixen and a Korven-controlled K-9 (of course the memory chip thing was a scam) that only narrowly avoids killing everyone (although we see that K-9 has a sense of humor: after he overrides the Korven programming telling him to explode in the presence of Jixen, he then resumes the countdown just to see how everyone will react.  "Four.  Three.  Two.  One.  Bang," he says).  It's done decently, but it leaves a lot of unresolved questions.  This means there's quite a bit of pressure on the series finale to wrap some of this up.

However, what we get here is reasonably compelling and surprising, and it leaves the viewers wanting more.  It may have taken the entire run, but it really does look like K-9 has gotten to an objectively interesting and worthwhile place.

May 17: "The Last Precinct" (K-9) / Lost in Time Part One (SJA)

I'm not quite sure what to make of "The Last Precinct".  Maybe it's because the last episode was hinting at something bigger down the line, but it feels like some of the stuff we learn here will also become important in the future.  But that's wrapped inside a slightly disconnected plot about Darius's father running a terrorist organization and taking over Gryffen's house and making everyone inside hostages.

Sgt. Pike issues his demands. ("The Last Precinct") ©Screen
Australia, Pacific Film and Television Commission Pty Limited,
Park Entertainment Limited, Cutting Edge Post Pty Limited,
and Metal Mutt Productions Pty Limited

I suppose Sgt. Pike has noble goals -- he was apparently one of the last police officers before the Department switched over to CCPCs, and he wants to put people back into the policing job -- but his methods don't exactly endear him to anyone, breaking into Gryffen's home and threatening everyone.  Just because it turns out that he actually has a good reason to do all this (since apparently Inspector Thorne's been augmenting all the new CCPCs with some form of modified alien technology, the purpose of which is unknown) doesn't mean that we're really on his side or anything, and as the entire crisis is caused by him and his group the Last Precinct, it's hard to feel any sympathy for him -- even though the ending suggests that's what we should be doing.

But despite the shortcomings of the storyline, all the actors are on fine form -- Daniel Webber does a good job as Darius, confronted with the face of the father who left him in favor of his police crusade, while Chris Betts as Sgt. Pike makes it seem like the police being fired genuinely was the worst thing to happen to him.  And while Thorne once again has stuck his fingers into secret pies, at least Jared Robinsen makes him seem quite threatening.

If only the actual plot was more interesting, this would have been a winner.  As it is, the efforts of the actors almost but don't quite elevate this episode.  It should be something more special than it is, what with Darius's father turning up and shenanigans regarding the CCPCs being exposed, but they just can't quite make it.  Still, it's by no means the worst episode K-9 has produced -- it's just not as good as the last one was.

And now it's back to The Sarah Jane Adventures, with the first part of Lost in Time.  This is a bit of an odd beast, to be honest; there's some sort of strange shopkeeper who lures Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Rani to his shop so that he can send them through a "time window", so that they can each retrieve some sort of metal MacGuffin that could catastrophically change the course of history.  So Sarah Jane is investigating "ghosts" in 1889, Rani is waiting on Lady Jane Grey during her nine-day reign as Queen of England, and Clyde is watching Nazis land in Britain on 7 June 1941.  It basically looks like an excuse to play around with three different time periods -- very Whoish, but at this point the special "chronosteel" metal that has the power to change time really does just look like a MacGuffin.  Clyde's the only one who actually sees the piece he's meant to find, as it's powering some secret Nazi weapon (although it's possible the dagger that Rani sees Matilda procure is also chronosteel), while Sarah Jane is more concerned with hearing voices from the future (the "ghosts") and listening as the voices apparently set the locked room they're in on fire in said future.  All while the shopkeeper watches their exploits and frets that "we need the chronosteel now.  And the sands have almost run through.  If Sarah Jane and her friends do not return soon, they'll be trapped in the past.  Forever."

So it's sort of hard to judge this episode, seeing as how we still haven't gotten to the main thrust of the plot by the end of part one.  It does look like an excuse to explore a couple eras of history, which is nice, but even then we haven't gotten a complete handle on these eras yet -- Rani's part is probably the most fleshed out, while Sarah Jane's feels like it could be almost anywhen.  So we'll have to see how the rest of this story pans out...

May 16: The Empty Planet Parts One & Two (SJA)

Not that was really any doubt, but the nice thing about The Empty Planet is that it ably demonstrates that Clyde and Rani can carry a story pretty much on their own.

It's an effectively eerie idea, having the entire planet essentially abandoned -- it brings to mind movies like 28 Days Later (as well as Doctor Who's own takes on the subject, including The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Invasion of the Dinosaurs), with its cities devoid of life. Even if these moments in this story don't quite reach those same heights (as, other than a shot of a quiet London skyline, we don't get shots of famous landmarks looking abandoned), it's still very well done.

The first part focuses more on this feeling of isolation and abandonment, as Rani and Clyde try desperately to find anyone else at all still around. There's an interesting sense of chemistry between the two of them in a way that we haven't really seen before -- almost a romantic quality. This might partly be because they keep bringing up the "Adam & Eve" stuff, but it's still a new side to the characters. It's not the entire thrust of the episode, however, as they also encounter one other boy, Gavin, who was left behind, even if they can't figure out why he too remained.  "Is Gavin normal, though?" Clyde wonders.  "When I was alone, I thought I was the only one left.  It was horrible.  If I'd seen anyone else, even if it was Chris Moyles, I would have run towards them, not away, like Gavin did.  Wouldn't you?"  "Yeah," Rani replies.  "But when you were that age, sixth form kids looked big and scary."  "I'm not big and scary," Clyde argues.  "And that flat, apart from one photo, was there anything that said a kid lives here?  No kids' DVDs lying around, no photos of them with him.  And his room, it was like a cell.  No computer games or anything.  Isn't that weird?"  "Then we should feel sorry for him, not start judging him," Rani responds.  "He lives a really rubbish life, and what's our first reaction?  Oh, maybe he's an alien.  What are we?"

Gavin with the two robots. (The Empty Planet Part Two) ©BBC

And then we get some genuinely impressive robots tracking them down -- they're a really great design and they're very well realized.  Their appearance also changes the nature of the story somewhat. It's no longer just about being alone, it's also about avoiding the robots. Although it seems the robots aren't actually evil -- they're just trying to find the heir to the throne of their homeworld, which is Gavin. (I guess they thought he'd be easier to find if they got rid of all the humans?) But it takes a while for our heroes to realize that, so we get some nice chases and some fun disbelief dialogue from Gavin, as he tries to keep up with what Rani and Clyde are saying, as they try to work out why they were left behind, bringing up time travel and the TARDIS and the Judoon, while Gavin just listens on in sort of amazement.  "You keep saying these really stupid words," he says at one point.  "If you're so clever, why can't you just go out and stop the robots?"  But of course that's what happens.  It's a good move, making Gavin as much an innocent as anyone else in this story -- no one has any sinister motives, and it all ends very happily.

So overall this is a nice little story focusing on Clyde and Rani, the "hangers-on" of Sarah Jane's group, who nevertheless prove to be more than capable of handling this latest problem. The Empty Planet is a fun story with a satisfying plot and a pleasing resolution.