4.5 Lost in Time

[SiHart]

Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are Lost in Time in this week's new adventure... but what did you think of it?

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I haven't seen it yet Si.

Si.

[SiHart]

I haven't seen it either Si.

Si xx

[Dino]

I wish I hadn't seen it, Si's!

[Jonno]

I'm glad I saw it! I'm a sucker for historicals and here (so far) it's looking like pure historicals too - especially the situation Rani finds herself in. Talking of which, good old Whoniverse, educational as well as entertaining. I have to confess I know next to nothing about the Queen in question (being vague here for the benefit of those who haven't seen the episode yet just in case) so bravo to the makers of this show!

Still having a little trouble with the music drowning out the sound, though not quite as bad as the previous episode. Maybe I'm just getting old and deaf.

And how weird we've got Clyde unable to use his mobile just as we've had all that furore about the alleged time traveller with a mobile in that Chaplin film!

[Rob McCow]

We saw it, Si's!

I agree that it was pleasing to see a historical and the educational element wasn't too laboured or forced, which was good. The plotlines seem to have nothing in common whatsoever, but they're all quite entertaining.

Reminded me of Ghost Light in places - Did anyone else here Sarah Jane's ghost mention 'Miss Grosse?'

Hardly setting the world on fire, but it's a competent and enjoyable first episode.

[SiHart]

It was fun, but somehow it felt, despite the multiple timeline novelty factor, that it was of slightly lower quality than the rest of the season so far. There was nothing intriniscally wrong with it, but it just didn't float my boat as much as the other episodes have done. Prteyy much like his story last year- The Gift.

Maybe part 2 will be better?

Si xx

[shada pavlova]

Four minutes in and the "Key to Time Ripoff" scale hit 11.

[Dino]

Well for me, everything seemed like a backward step. Especially the way Clyde was written. He had the quips, but he didn't seem to have the initiative from last weeks story, misplaced in time or otherwise.
And plus, despite being promised four cliffhangers in DWM... we got four plot advances instead.
Hopefully Part Two will be worth it and feelgood, but the Next Time trailers are giving away far too much.
And it's a show mainly for kids, I get it, I'm over complicating things!

[Si Hunt]

I can see other people felt the same "niggling" feeling that I did with this episode!

I think it was because it was a REALLY unoriginal idea which turned out to be done really well. It didn't help that it was so upfront - in the first two minutes the three of them turned up to a magic shop for spurious reasons and were ladelled out some really clunky dialogue to the affect that three magic oojamacallits (three! There's a coincidence!) had got lost in history and they had to find them before the Universe exploded. Objects lost in history that need to be collected? It almost insults the inventiveness of this series it's so cliched!

However, once the adventures were underway, they were really good. Although predictable, Rani's scenes with Lady Jane Grey were touching and welcome, especially as she's not a monarch we see much of in these things, and the idea of her being a 9 day queen is ripe for storytelling. Clyde's strand too was good, with Nazi's in a Church and a bit of hearty racism thrown in - and again, a Luke replacement audition is seemingly conducted. Sarah Jane, however, got the best deal, with a wonderful spooky tale involving "future ghosts" (a great idea) and from the look of the trailer, the echoes of children in a burning room - a brilliant, spooky notion, and very Sapphire & Steel. At this point I almost wished each of these ideas had its own episode, as it took away from the drama a bit as we fluttered from one to the other.

So yes, this was very good. It's just a shame it was dressed up quite so transparently with the old cliche of the magician and the Quest Through Time (even the episode title is so generic you forget it immediately). It would have been better if the episode had started with each of our friends waking up in the different time zones, and the writer finding some interesting way of joining them together at the end - rather than tossing away this mystery in the opening few minutes with a really dull contrived reason.

Si.

[Dino]

Well the Sarah Jane storyline was the better out of the ones on offer.
The ending made me cringe. I don't know if it's "by-numbers" or "lite"?

That said, next weeks story looks more entertaining! And thankfully seems to have a plot that can't be summed up or spoilt by the "Next Time" recap!

I'll post more thoughts on "Lost In Time" when others have.

[shada pavlova]

I disapproved of the lack of foreshadowing. I mean, couldn't the shopkeeper have turned out to be the Black Guardian (no racist sentiment intended) and SJS & friends had just been duped into collecting the other half of the Key to Time for him? That would have made for a brilliant cliffhanger and set-up for the season finale!

[SiHart]

It was... OK. It pushed some emotional buttons and I did like the old woman turning up with the key at the end and saving the world, but while it was all fine, it didn't rise above that feeling that it could have been better. It just felt like it could have been much better.

While there hasn't been a truly dire episode of the show so far, this one is in the lower tier of Sarah Jane Adventures for me.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

That's not foreshadowing!

That's fanw*nk

But I agree. It seemed the whole business with the parrot wasn't explained simply because the writer couldn't be bothered to think of an explanation, rather than to be truly mysterious. Because that guy with the hat was about as mysterious as Dave Benson Phillips.



Still, for such a potentially rubbish episode it all turned out rather well. Despite the lack of imagination I found myself emotionally involved in all three plot-lines. I'm gonna hold my hand up and say that I thought it was good acting rather than good writing!

In Sarah Jane's timezone, why did they keep saying it was eight at night when there was light pouring in through all the windows? WTF?!

[Jonno]

Maybe it was set in the summer?! Was a date mentioned?

I enjoyed this, no letdown from part 1. I really loved the way Rani and Clyde looked up what happened to their "friends" although you could argue there was a nod to Human Nature there plus a nod to Blink with Emily's grand-daughter.

Oh and Si, I can't see George replacing Luke right now - he's 83!

So what with a brief visit to an alien planet and now time-travelling, it really is junior Doctor Who!

[shada pavlova]

That's not foreshadowing!

That's fanw*nk

It would have been brilliant though.

And I'm still not totally convinced that the Trickster isn't actually the BG...

[Si Hunt]

These people always grow up to found a hospital and save hundreds of lives don't they? If it was me I'd have had the granddaughter say "Well sadly she grew up to be a petty criminal and finished her days rolling about in her own filth in a crack den. But never mind, I turned out alright."

Si.

[Llordllama]

Wow. That was pretty awful. it was like they had three fairly paper thin ideas and then said "Hey, let's throw an unexplained framing device around it where SJA just takes mysterious man who knows too much's word at total face value". *sigh* Felt like this was the BBC Educational Unit's episode - History! it's good for the younguns. That said, enjoyed what Rani and Clyde did with precious little good material to work with. But as a whole, utterly forgettable. 3/10 (just for Clydes' "Come on 40's boy!" line!)

[Dirk Gently]

I didn't see it as SJS had any say in it at all about going back in time. She was completely sceptical about the Shop Owner* & was then thrown back in time without consent...may be I saw a different show to everyone else




*I really couldn't get the Mr Benn idea out of my head when "as if by magic the shop keeper appeared".

Spoiler tags just in case.

[Perry Vale]

Hmm, very unimaginative, as most have said. Clyde goes back to the Curse Of Fenric, SJS to Ghost Light with Ace, and Rani...somewhere slightly more interesting, whilst somone camps it up with a parrot and some cast-off props from The Wizard Of Oz.

If I wasn't already aware that a fifth series was in the bag, the arrival of Julie Graham next week would have sounded the biggest of alarm bells!

[Jamie McCrimmon]

I really loved the scenes with Rani realising she'd met Lady Jane Grey and couldn't save her from her fate, they were very poignant and well thought out. Not so keen on the story as a whole but still enjoyable. The Victorian girl would have made a good Doctor companion.