Death of the Doctor

I just watched the episode of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" titled "Death of the Doctor".

For those who don't know, "The Sarah Jane Adventures" is a spin-off show from "Doctor Who" that follows the adventures of the Doctor's former companion, Sarah Jane Smith. She was the companion to the Third Doctor, the Fourth Doctor and then again for a brief time with the Tenth Doctor. The show is really a children's show so the tone of it is much lighter and simple than it's parent show. It also clearly has a smaller budget. I don't normally watch "The Sarah Jane Adventures" as its childish tone gets to me after a while. That being said, I have been sure to watch both times when the Doctor has made an appearance on the show.

This time it was the Eleventh Doctor's turn. The story (warning spoilers) has UNIT coming to Sarah Jane to tell her the bad news that the Doctor is dead. A race called the Shansheeth, basically intergalactic undertakers, have found the Doctor's body on another planet and returned it to Earth due to the Doctor's fondness of the planet and the fact that his home planet, Gallifrey, no longer exists. It turns out of course that the Doctor is not dead, the Shansheeth have stolen the Tardis and are using Sarah Jane and company's memories to create a key to the Tardis so that they can get inside. Meanwhile the Doctor uses a rough space teleport device to get to Earth and ultimately stop the Shansheeth. A very simple and at times silly story.

What I really liked about this episode was seeing the Doctor and Sarah Jane back together and the pleasant surprise that they also brought back Jo Grant, companion to the Third Doctor. There were some great moments between Sarah Jane and Jo as they talked about the Doctor. Sarah Jane revealed that she had seen him again. Jo was sad that she had not. My favourite part was the conversation that the Doctor had with Jo. The Doctor had left and he had told her that she would see him again. He promised. But she never saw him again. She had waited and waited. The Doctor then tells her that she has lived an amazing life and that he is aware of the things she has done. While he doesn't look back, in fact he can't, the last time he was dying he, "looked back on all of you. Every single one. And I was so proud."

Russell T Davies wrote this episode. I guess this is the only time he has written for the Eleventh Doctor. It was nice to have some more RTD Doctor scenes. He is great at writing those little emotional moments.

Matt Smith also plays a very good Doctor and I am looking forward to more of him when the Christmas special airs and then with series 6. You can expect to see some reviews of that.

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Ben Stacey