Doctor Who - School Reunion (8/10)

Possibly one of the most keenly awaited episodes of new "Doctor Who" aired on Saturday night, uniting past and present characters in a sophisticated manner. For Sarah Jane Smith and K9 were back, 23 years after their last cameos alongside Peter Davison et al in "The Five Doctors". There were anxieties that the current format might do them an injustice, but all fears were misplaced by "School Reunion"

So why an 8 out of 10 from me? Basically because the reunion itself asserted itself as the A plot and ate up so much of the episode that the 'monster' B plot suffered a McCoy era incoherence on first viewing. A second viewing at the local group last night helped fill in some rushed dialogue I'd previously missed, but I felt elements like the vacuum packed dead rats and the Krillitane 'staff' hanging upside down in the headmaster's office, though nice touches, maybe should have been dropped in favour of some more overt explanation of the batlike shape-shifters physiology and grand plan. Thus guest-star Anthony Head, while matching a stern David Tennant in a swimming pool 'showdown' and getting some great villainous one-liners about 'early lunches' and 'shooty dog things' warranted a bit more screentime as the smooth to the point of greasy Headmaster, Mr Finch.

Something else that niggled occurred later to me - Mickey.

With Sarah-Jane, the Doctor and Rose all actively undercover at the school (as "Sunday Times" profiler, supply teacher and dinner-lady respectively) he was demoted once more to cowardly comic relief, despite the promise of his character turning around this season. Saddled with a rickety K9 like a postmodern Shaggy and Scooby, even Mickey realised he was 'the tin dog' for the Doctor and Rose. Obviously this ultimately leads him to decide to board the TARDIS properly at the end of the episode, though I believe it's about as brief a duty as Adam's last year. K9 too was somewhat underused until his heroic sacrifice at the climax, where he zaps the Krillitane oil and blows up the school.

But the central focus was on the triangular dynamic between the Doctor and the two female companions. Though Sarah was given a couple of bitchy lines, the team gallantly presented Rose's less pleasant side as her tenure by the Doctor's side was indirectly questioned. The much trailed scene where Rose and Sarah try and trump each other's monsters before realising their folly and collapsing into giggles at the Doctor's quirky habits was frothy but satisfying. And the pathos of their situations and that of the Doctor was also excellently played by the trio. Some fantastic moments - Sarah's blurting out "I thought you'd died" to this new Doctor and, importantly, his reply that "Everyone else died" - later picked up when he plaintively explains to Rose that he is forever alone, cursed to watch as his companions grow old and die. Most interestingly the Doctor actually hesitates when tempted by Headmaster/Head Krillitane Mr Finch (Anthony Head) to reverse these realities and restore Gallifrey - it's Sarah who rejects, reminding him that all things must come to an end and die. It's something her character has obviously learnt the hard way since the Doctor's abandonment - ironic for such a well-loved companion that Sarah was the only one he 'chucked' ... well until the aforementioned Adam. A nice touch to add the revelation that the drop-off point (as Sarah exclaimed in 1976) was not Croydon at all - it was Aberdeen!
And later Sarah again turns down the opportunity of boarding the TARDIS once more, preferring to let another Smith take up the offer. Instead she merely asks that the Doctor actually says goodbye this time which he does - giving her such a huge hug that he sweeps her off her feet and gushes "Goodbye my Sarah Jane Smith!". There were more than a few Kleenex moments around Britain at that point, for we knew we were bidding an underlined farewell to Sarah as well. And K9 had been dispatched too ... or had he? As the TARDIS dematerialised, in it's place Sarah found a shiny Mark IV awaiting his mistress. Then, magnificently, the duo walked off into the sunset ...