Make New Friends But Keep the Old… One is Silver and the Other GOLD!

Days left till the 50^th: 86

Episodes watched:  17

Today’s Episode: School Reunion

Writer:  Toby Whithouse

Today, Rose and the Doctor are back on “modern day” earth.  Mickey called them because there was a UFO sighting, and suddenly a school where kids didn’t have good grades where getting top marks. Thus Rose infiltrates the school as a Dinner Lady (we call them Lunch Ladies here in ‘Merica!!!) and the Doctor is the Physics teacher..

And after asking the kiddos some IMPOSSIBLE questions that one of them manages to answer, he comes to the conclusion that these kids know stuff beyond planet earth… he tells this to Rose at lunchtime, whilst she is drooling over the amazing chips that the school serves. (in ‘Merica we call them French Fries!!!) Rose gets reprimanded for having a break while she is supposed to be working. So she heads back to the kitchen to see everyone moving this “toxic” barrel around, and the stuff gets accidentally knocked over and spills on one of the ladies, and she ends up “exploding”. Rose realizes there must be something in the chips.

Meanwhile the Doctor hangs out in the staff room whilst the principal, played by Anthony Head, comes in. I don’t care about the character’s name at this point, I shall dub him Giles as I spent wayyyyy too much time watching Buffy to think of him as ANYONE else. I do feel bad for Giles as he did audition for the Doctor, and sadly got shot down.. at least he is in Whovian lore now with this character! So back in the Staff Lounge, Giles requests the attention of all staff, and introduces Ms. Sarah Jane Smith, as she is doing a profile picture.

The Doctor just takes one look at her and has the biggest grin slapped on his face!

Now a little background for ya’ll… Sarah Jane Smith is played by Elizabeth Sladen. She has been an official companion to Three, Four, traveling on the Tardis with those guys, as well as Ten and Eleven, mostly one off episodes, she was also in the 5 Doctor special, thus the ONLY regenerations she hasn’t met are Six, Seven, Eight and Nine. Tennant is a HUGE fan… I can imagine his SQUEEEE when he first read the script!

Back to the episode, he introduces himself as John Smith.. his usual alias. She mentions that she knows someone by that name, and he figures out she’s investigating the school too.. not a fluff piece! She moves on to talk to other people

So we then skip ahead to later on that night.. Mickey, Rose and the Doctor decide to use the Tardis to break into the school. Rose goes to the kitchen to check out the oil, Mickey is off to the Maths to see the computers, and the Doctor is off to see Giles’s office. Off hand.. Rose says she used to think that teachers slept in the school… silly girl.

So we see Rose get the oil, and then we see that the team, well comrades, well gang, are not the only ones to check out the school. Sarah Jane manages to sneak her way in. She finds the Tardis, and is just shell shocked, when suddenly…

Awesome reunion occurs, Doctor mentions that he has changed his face quite a few times since Four left her..

In the middle of this nice conversation, she thought he was dead of course, but she didn’t believe he was investigating until they heard a scream. Then they both go running off to find the source, on the way bumping into Rose. She was aghast to see the Doctor with someone else, and the Doctor introduces them both.. and the both find Mickey..

MICKEY:Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I — I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell out of them.

The Doctor bends down and picks a few up to examine them.

ROSE: Oh, my God, they’re rats. Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats.

THE DOCTOR: And you decided to scream.

MICKEY:It took me by surprise!

DOCTOR: Like a little girl?

MICKEY: (indignantly) It was dark! I was covered in rats!

DOCTOR: Nine, maybe ten years old. I’m seeing pigtails, frilly skirt.

They then decide to check out Giles’s office, and on the way we have our first standoff between Rose and Sarah Jane. Now remember how Rose though that teachers slept in the school? Well Bat Teachers do, upside down in the headmaster’s office. As they leave, Giles wakes up and sees them,  and the gang runs out of the school. The Doctor realizes he needs the Tardis to analyze the oil, but Sarah Jane has a better solution! K-9!

Sadly he’s broken. She just can’t take him anywhere to get fixed, thus destroying timelines, so they head off to a coffee shop to work on K-9 (that serves chips aka French fries aka freedom fries too for some reason) and Sarah Jane and the Doctor have one serous conversation about how she left him.. since he dropped her off in a totally different town than where she asked to go. The reason why he had to let her go, was that he was headed back to Gallifrey, where humans were not allowed. She basically was working on forgiving him for leaving her behind, because once you traveled like that, it’s hard to go back to doing everything in the right order.  After a bit, he does manage to get K-9 working… and  K-9 is happy to see the Doctor. The Doctor rubs some of the oil on this pointy thingy he had sticking out, and K-9 figures out that it’s Krillitine Oil,and the Bat Teachers are Krillitanes. Thus making us all screwed… since they kill off entire speices just to get one or two biological traits and assimilates them into each new generation of Krillitanes.

Outside the shop.. if anyone dared to look up, was Giles and another Bat Teacher spying on them. They all leave the shop and outside Rose decides to confront the Doctor, using the “Curse of the Timelord Speech”…

ROSE: How many of us have there been, travelling with you?

DOCTOR: Does it matter?

ROSE: (voice trembling) Yeah, it does, if I’m just the latest in a long line.

DOCTOR: (stopping, hurt) As opposed to what?

He is staring at her, looking angry and hurt.

ROSE: I thought you and me were… but I obviously got it wrong. I’ve been to the year five billion, right, but this… now this is really seeing the future. You just leave us behind. Is that what you’re going to do to me?

DOCTOR: (abruptly) No. Not to you.

ROSE: But Sarah Jane… you were that close to her once, and now… you never even mention her. Why not?

DOCTOR: I don’t age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you–

He stops when he realizes what he was about to say.

ROSE: What, Doctor?

The Doctor stares at her intensely, as if willing her to understand.

DOCTOR: You can spend the rest of your life with me.

Rose looks up at him, eyes shining with unshed tears.

DOCTOR: But I can’t spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone. That’s the curse of the Time Lords.

This episode is the first one of Tennant’s tenure where we see him really diving into the Doctor’s character. Seriously if you think about it, it’s the first time we really see him have a serious conversation with Rose about their relationship, and what it means to be a companion. Toby Whithouse did an awesome job broaching this topic, as this was his first outing with the Doctor.. such good writing.

Back to the Episode.. our Bat Teachers.. realize that this dude is a Timelord! WOOT! One species they haven’t added to their conquest!

So we fast forward to the next day of school, where Giles and the Doctor have a good olde fashioned Good vs. Evil talk… where the evil tries to get the good on its side, telling the Doctor that he can join once he figures out the plan. The good Doctor issues his ONE WARNING at this point, if he doesn’t like the plan… they are goners.

Rose and Sarah Jane are trying to figure out the computers… and not getting along..

SARAH JANE : (walking up to her, indignant)I had no problem with space stuff. I saw things you wouldn’t believe.

ROSE: (coldly) Try me.

SARAH JANE: Mummies.

ROSE: I’ve met ghosts.

SARAH JANE: Robots. Lots of robots.

ROSE: Slitheen. In Downing Street.

SARAH JANE: Daleks!

ROSE: (snorts) Met the Emperor.

SARAH JANE: Anti-Matter monsters.

ROSE: Gas masked zombies.

SARAH JANE: Real living dinosaurs!

 ROSE: Real living werewolf!

SARAH JANE: The Loch Ness Monster!

ROSE: … Seriously?

Sarah Jane puts her hands over her mouth and shakes her head. Rose smiles and laughs slightly.

ROSE: Listen to us. It’s like me and my mate Shireen. The only time we fell out was over a man, and… we’re arguing over the Doctor.

Sarah Jane relaxes against a desk, and Rose looks at her for a moment.

ROSE: With you, did he do that thing where he’d explain something at like, ninety-miles-per-hour, and you’d go, “what?” and he’d look at you like you’d just dribbled on your shirt?

SARAH JANE: All the time!

They laugh.

SARAH JANE: Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?

ROSE: Yeah! Yeah! He does! I’m like, “do you two wanna be alone?”

They laugh madly, and then the Doctor walks in.

DOCTOR: How’s it going?

The sight of him makes them laugh even harder.

DOCTOR: (oblivious) What? Listen, I need to find out what’s programmed inside these.

They take no notice of him and fall about laughing hysterically, Rose pointing the sonic screwdriver at him.

DOCTOR: (genuinely confused) What? Stop it!

A bit of behind the scenes behind that laughing… the Director, James Hawes asked Tennant to play a prank on the girls. So, Tennant shows up with a sharpe mustache.. thus giving us that great scene of the laughter..

 

Then lo, Giles decides to bring the kids back inside, and locks everyone in the school. He has them finish this computer program once and for all. Thus turning on all the computers in the room that Rose, Doctor and Sarah Jane are in, and the Doctor figures it out once he sees the formula on the screen. They are using the oil to make the kids smarter, and thus ask Rose a maths question, that she answers quickly, and realizes that these Bat Teachers are trying to solve the Skasis Paradigm, aka God-maker theory, that would allow someone to shape the universe as they see fit.

With this revelation.. Giles comes strolling in, and offers the Doctor a place by his side once the code is cracked. He gives him the idea that he can bring all of his people back, keep Rose and Sarah Jane young forever by his side.. and Sarah Jane pretty much saves the day by reminding the Doctor that everything has its time and that everything must end.

The Doctor rebels against the idea, and thus the chase is on… Bat Teachers vs. the Gang! The Gang wins due to K-9 blowing up the school. Seriously though… how many times must Anthony Head deal with schools blowing up?

So then we have our awesome goodbye scenes, the Doctor offers Sarah Jane a place on the Tardis, to which she says no, however Mickey pipes in to say he wants to join them. Thus before the Doctor can object, Sarah Jane does state that he needs a Smith on board! Then the Doctor and Sarah Jane have a proper goodbye… where he actually said it. Once the Tardis dematerialized, we see that he left behind a present for her, a remodeled/improved K-9! WOOT and away they go… saving the Earth on their spin off… the Sarah Jane adventures!

Thus I leave you with this awesome touching tribute, David Tennant reading the introduction to her biography, just months before she passed way.. warning.. the FEELS come HARD.. and this is in his Scottish brogue!