3.6 The Gift

[SiHart]

The Sarah Jane Adventures reach the finale of season 3- The Gift starting tonight.

What did you think of it?

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

I know a song called 'The Gift'.

It's by The Velvet Underground and is about a guy who mails himself to his girlfriend because he can't afford the bus. Then his girlfriend opens the parcel by stabbing it with a huge pair of scissors...

I doubt that the SJS story will be anything like that.

[Anthony Williams]

It's by The Velvet Underground and is about a guy who mails himself to his girlfriend because he can't afford the bus. Then his girlfriend opens the parcel by stabbing it with a huge pair of scissors...

Wouldn't mailing yourself be more expensive these days? £2 for the bus, or £50 to mail an adult human?

Ant x

[Si Hunt]

And they're bound to go on strike just after you posted it, so you'd have to face a week stuck in a sorting office as well.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

I hope he remembered to put air holes in the packaging.

[Rob McCow]

Waldo Jeffers does indeed remember the air-holes:

http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/th.../the_gift.html

And remember this was America in the 60's, when mail got delivered for a low, low price.

[Si Hunt]

Is that his real name? Sounds like a Master-esque alias for Wayne Jefferies.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Well anyway, bit of a disappointing episode this week. Very limply directed. And the subplot about Clyde using K-9 to cheat at a biology test was dull, dull, dull.

Even with Simon Callow and Miriam Margolyes as the Blathereen!

[SiHart]

Miriam Margolyes is long overdue a role in Doctor Who! She deserved better than this.

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

It was certainly a bit... uneventful, for a season finale. Maybe, to be fair, we've just been spoiled over the past few weeks with some real corkers!

[shada pavlova]

It's an okay story, I think, but not worthy of the finale slot. IMO, I think they should have put The Mad Old Woman in the Attic first, this story second, and the Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith last. That would have been a much better series.

[Andrew Curnow]

I agree, it's such an odd choice for a season finale. It would be a bit like swapping around the running order of, say, season 8 so that The Daemons is mid-season and Colony is the last one.

That said, I enjoyed part 2, but again it was nothing outstanding. It's almost as if somebody somewhere believes that the Slith/Blathereen are always a popular hit, so any story with them is automatically a hit (bit like the Dalek factor). I mean, maybe they are, but I don't get that impression somehow.

[Rob McCow]

In the end, I rather enjoyed that!

I think knowing that the Slitheen / Blathereen were voiced by Simon Callow and Miriam Margolyes really helped. The direction was still really limp though.