| SCHOOL REUNION by Toby Whithouse |
| Story 14 Synopsis: Deffry Vale High School has delivered sudden improved results. Mickey is suspicious and calls in the Doctor and Rose. She works as a dinner lady, he as a teacher. Three months before, a UFO was spotted, and then several new teachers and dinner ladies were brought in. Rose witnesses a strange oil being brought in. The Doctor meets Sarah Jane Smith, nominally writing a profile on new headmaster Mr Finch, but actually snooping to get the real story. She finds the TARDIS, and realises that "Mr Smith" is the Doctor. Rose gets a sample of the oil, but they can't get to the TARDIS to analyse it. However, Sarah has K9 with her. It reveals the oil is Krillitane oil. The Doctor explains the Krillitanes are a mongrel species, taking physical characteristics from races they conquer. He goes to face Finch, who seems surprised that the last Time Lord is so unlike the rest of his dead race. Sarah and Rose row about their relationships with the Doctor. Mickey finds he is left out, like K9. The oil is developing super-intelligence in the school kids, so that they will find an answer to the Skasis Paradigm - the God Maker. The Krillitanes attack, and the Doctor gets everyone out through the kitchen. Realising that the oil is inimical to the Krillitanes, he rigs an explosion, but the weakened K9 will die to cause it. Mickey gets the children out from their control, and out of the school. The Krillitanes die in the explosion. The Doctor and Sarah say their goodbyes, and Mickey asks if he can join the Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS. As it leaves, Sarah sees a present left behind for her, from the Doctor - a new K9. |
| Review:- Back to the present, back to school... and that's not all that's back. For a change, the story begins with the Doctor and Rose having already arrived and gone undercover. Blimey, it's like a New Adventure! The Doctor, being very bright, is a teacher, and Rose, not being so bright, is a lowly dinner lady. Kids are getting brighter, but how? And why? It turns out they're not the only people to rumble something odd, as Sarah Jane walks back into the Doctor's life, after a gap of a couple of decades. So, the story is about two things - what's causing kids to become bright, and how the Doctor treats his companions. The former is more interesting. In an amusing laugh for kids everywhere, it turns out that most of the teachers are in fact disguised aliens. Well, blow me down, what a novel idea. Anyway, these guys are Krillitanes, who interestingly are a kind of mongrel race who accumulate aspects of races they conquer into themselves. Somehow. And they're using their own oil, added to chips, to increase the intelligence of kids, in order that the kids will crack something called the Skasis Paradigm (aka the God Maker), which will allow them untold power to do god-like things. Tragically, they're unable to cope to being in contact with the oil themselves, and destruct when it happens. It's time for the word derivative, isn't it? Okay, maybe the companion angle is better. Sarah Jane is snooping around for the lowdown on the miracle of Deffry Vale. Until she sees the TARDIS, realises that the new teacher she met was the regenerated Doctor, and then she seems to revert to some hopeless whining jealous middle-aged ninny. Who keeps a metal dog in her car, even though it doesn't work. On the plus side, Mickey makes his first proper appearance since The Christmas Invasion, and realises the Doctor has used him too much like K9. This leads him to make a bid to join the TARDIS fun at the end, which the Doctor agrees to. This provides a small contrast to the previous Doctor, who mostly belittled Mickey, and was scathing about Adam joining the TARDIS. This change might be related to his battle to brush off Rose's affections here, by giving her a grown-up "we can only be friends" chat. And his very affectionate attitude to Sarah Jane. Oddly, the script plays Rose off against Sarah Jane, presumably to make Rose look good. Sadly, neither of them really benefit, and though he's barely in it, K9 steals their thunder with ease. And Mickey continues to show what value he brings to the show. I did enjoy watching this, although I appreciate it has come in for a lot of flak. The main issue seems to be continuity, and an associated change in characterisation. Sarah Jane has been almost as reused a character as the Brigadier over the years, but whereas he has had a solid background that most have adhered to, Sarah has been more flexible. Here, though, her character seems to have altered rather radically from what we have seen before, for no good reason, except to make Rose seem better by comparison. Also, dialogue suggests this is the first time they have met since The Hand Of Fear, which is patent nonsense. Does this matter? Well, possibly not, although it does a disservice to many in the audience, for a questionable short-term gain. It also calls into question what Elizabeth Sladen was thinking when she accepted the chance to come back. So, to sum up, the basic plots are pretty rotten, although entertainingly presented, thanks to one or two star performances. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |