[SJA] Review - The Gift
pbo...@aol.com
farting's heavily toned down except for the end), and their latest
scheme - seeding the Earth with an apparently innocuous plant with the
intent of harvesting it as a drug crop once it had taken over the
world - was solid.
There are certainly numerous identifiable faults with this story - the
requirement for the Blathereen to be outside 'skin-suits' for the
whole story, combined with close-ups, emphasised how poor the non-CGI
Slitheen costumes are. The villains were panto'd up a bit too much
with their hysterical evil laughter. The whole concept of the
resolution - that preventing the plants communicating causes them to
shrivel and die on the spot, incidentally curing anyone who's inhaled
spores in the process - is especially ill-conceived, and the idea that
these Blathereen became evil just by having a Slitheen ancestor is
also daft. Sarah Jane was especially dim this week, taking a
Blathereen computer's word at face value without, say, having a comm-
link to Mr Smith that would allow her to verify it. Oh, and the
Slitheen themselves were given a very cursory, two-dimensional
treatment at the start with some dreadful "Money, money, money!"
dialogue.
However, even collectively most of these are rather minor, ordinary
faults. I just found this story tedious, especially in the first half
- the basic premise apparently managed the feat of both requiring a
pace too slow to be interesting while at the same time accelerating it
to an unfeasible extent.
Maybe also it's just that the characters were given no very
interesting lines - the SJA writers still haven't quite put their
finger on K-9's dialogue, which is strange considering how easy a
character he is to write for (see, for instance, School Reunion).
Clyde got in another Ghostbusters line while covered in goo from an
exploding monster, but that was about it.
In summary, the latest season of SJA has tailed off pretty badly
towards the end - this was a slight improvement over last week's
story, but for a season that's given us two of the show's best, the
mediocrity of this offering stands out.
Phil
Monsieur Tabernac
>Hmm. Why didn't this work? I've never minded the Slitheen (and the
>farting's heavily toned down except for the end), and their latest
>scheme - seeding the Earth with an apparently innocuous plant with the
>intent of harvesting it as a drug crop once it had taken over the
>world - was solid.
>
>There are certainly numerous identifiable faults with this story - the
>requirement for the Blathereen to be outside 'skin-suits' for the
>whole story, combined with close-ups, emphasised how poor the non-CGI
>Slitheen costumes are. The villains were panto'd up a bit too much
>with their hysterical evil laughter. The whole concept of the
>resolution - that preventing the plants communicating causes them to
>shrivel and die on the spot, incidentally curing anyone who's inhaled
>spores in the process - is especially ill-conceived, and the idea that
>these Blathereen became evil just by having a Slitheen ancestor is
>also daft.
I thought the biggest fault was the fact that they gave the plant to
Sarah Jane, risking her putting it in isolation and correctly
identifying it as a threat. Given that the Blatheen could teleport
anywhere in the world, why didn't they just go and plant a few at the
side of the road?
> Sarah Jane was especially dim this week, taking a
>Blathereen computer's word at face value without, say, having a comm-
>link to Mr Smith that would allow her to verify it. Oh, and the
>Slitheen themselves were given a very cursory, two-dimensional
>treatment at the start with some dreadful "Money, money, money!"
>dialogue.
>
>However, even collectively most of these are rather minor, ordinary
>faults. I just found this story tedious, especially in the first half
>- the basic premise apparently managed the feat of both requiring a
>pace too slow to be interesting while at the same time accelerating it
>to an unfeasible extent.
>
>Maybe also it's just that the characters were given no very
>interesting lines - the SJA writers still haven't quite put their
>finger on K-9's dialogue, which is strange considering how easy a
>character he is to write for (see, for instance, School Reunion).
>Clyde got in another Ghostbusters line while covered in goo from an
>exploding monster, but that was about it.
>
>In summary, the latest season of SJA has tailed off pretty badly
>towards the end - this was a slight improvement over last week's
>story, but for a season that's given us two of the show's best, the
>mediocrity of this offering stands out.
Yes, it's been a rather dull series this year. Unlike you, I did
quite like the Mona Lisa one (I thought it was funny, and more
importantly, small-scale which more SJA stories should be). I'm not
sure what they could do to improve the show. I do think they are
missing opportunities in developing the characters and exploring the
interactions between them -- the characters don't seem much more than
one-dimensional plot devices at the moment. I know the show is aimed
at a much younger audience than you and me, but surely even a young
audience would appreciate better material than this. The appreciation
index scores the show routinely gets seem to prove me wrong, though.
pbo...@aol.com
wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:03:20 -0800 (PST), "pbow...@aol.com"
>
>
>
>
>
> <pbow...@aol.com> wrote:
> >Hmm. Why didn't this work? I've never minded the Slitheen (and the
> >farting's heavily toned down except for the end), and their latest
> >scheme - seeding the Earth with an apparently innocuous plant with the
> >intent of harvesting it as a drug crop once it had taken over the
> >world - was solid.
>
> >There are certainly numerous identifiable faults with this story - the
> >requirement for the Blathereen to be outside 'skin-suits' for the
> >whole story, combined with close-ups, emphasised how poor the non-CGI
> >Slitheen costumes are. The villains were panto'd up a bit too much
> >with their hysterical evil laughter. The whole concept of the
> >resolution - that preventing the plants communicating causes them to
> >shrivel and die on the spot, incidentally curing anyone who's inhaled
> >spores in the process - is especially ill-conceived, and the idea that
> >these Blathereen became evil just by having a Slitheen ancestor is
> >also daft.
>
> I thought the biggest fault was the fact that they gave the plant to
> Sarah Jane, risking her putting it in isolation and correctly
> identifying it as a threat.
Apparently they were confident in the plant's ability to appear
harmless while dormant, counting in SJ's magic computer being too
stupid to realise that plants have a propagation stage.
Given that the Blatheen could teleport
> anywhere in the world, why didn't they just go and plant a few at the
> side of the road?
There was a bit of dialogue that suggested they almost felt sorry for
the humans - maybe getting a gullible dupe to accept the plant made
them feel slightly less evil.
> > Sarah Jane was especially dim this week, taking a
> >Blathereen computer's word at face value without, say, having a comm-
> >link to Mr Smith that would allow her to verify it. Oh, and the
> >Slitheen themselves were given a very cursory, two-dimensional
> >treatment at the start with some dreadful "Money, money, money!"
> >dialogue.
>
> >However, even collectively most of these are rather minor, ordinary
> >faults. I just found this story tedious, especially in the first half
> >- the basic premise apparently managed the feat of both requiring a
> >pace too slow to be interesting while at the same time accelerating it
> >to an unfeasible extent.
>
> >Maybe also it's just that the characters were given no very
> >interesting lines - the SJA writers still haven't quite put their
> >finger on K-9's dialogue, which is strange considering how easy a
> >character he is to write for (see, for instance, School Reunion).
> >Clyde got in another Ghostbusters line while covered in goo from an
> >exploding monster, but that was about it.
>
> >In summary, the latest season of SJA has tailed off pretty badly
> >towards the end - this was a slight improvement over last week's
> >story, but for a season that's given us two of the show's best, the
> >mediocrity of this offering stands out.
>
> Yes, it's been a rather dull series this year. Unlike you, I did
> quite like the Mona Lisa one (I thought it was funny, and more
> importantly, small-scale which more SJA stories should be).
Both of the season's best stories - Mad Woman and Eternity Trap - were
small-scale too. I didn't find Mona Lisa funny at all; the actress was
trying too hard to be funny without success.
I'm not
> sure what they could do to improve the show. I do think they are
> missing opportunities in developing the characters and exploring the
> interactions between them -- the characters don't seem much more than
> one-dimensional plot devices at the moment.
Agreed. They seem to realise this problem to some extent - this year
they've focused heavily on Clyde, the best-developed of the
characters, and marginalised Luke, the least. But a better balance
would be to give Luke and Rani personalities of their very own.
Phil