Day 713: School Reunion

This episode, within the first 5 minutes, has Physics and chips. And if that isn't a summary of my 3 years at The University of Newcastle, then I don't know what is. But that's just one brief element of how School Reunion speaks to people, reaching into their past and finding things to talk about. And, perhaps more pertinent to most people, it revolves around the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9.

Their return is clearly an attempt to play on nostalgia, for these two characters are two of the more beloved companions in the series' history, with Sarah Jane's era coinciding with one of the more popular times in the show's history while K9 proved to be a cultural icon, much like the Daleks or Cybermen, entering into the culture of the world around him through a mixture of a good performance, a good design and good writing. And their return is fun to watch, as we see that Sarah Jane never stopped investigating strange goings-on, while K9 is still able to defend people against alien threats. And the story focuses on that return to a certain extent, reminding the audience of the old times with the Doctor and letting them go on one last adventure with him.

But where the story fails, in my opinion, is that it decides to throw in a stupid sub-plot for Rose. Rose is now jealous of the fact that the Doctor has travelled with other companions, because she was under the impression that she was special. So she decides to make things difficult for both the Doctor and Sarah Jane because she's so blind as to not see that one day she will leave the Doctor and they will both move on with their lives. It's an annoying character trait and does not endear me to the character of Rose at all, nor does it endear me to this Doctor as he, in a way, encourages her, creating a 'special and perfect bond' with her that continues to make her feel as if she's the only companion that's ever going to travel with him. It's a sour note on an otherwise fun story, and one that unfortunately will continue across the series to come.

Still, on the plus side, "Forget the shooty dog thing" is one of the greatest lines of dialogue in the history of Doctor Who.