caz963 | DW Rewatch - 2x03, School Reunion (Reply)

As the lovely Mr Tennant pointed out yesterday, BBC Three ‘occasionally’ (which is probably some sort of Time Lord code for ‘all the time’!) repeats Doctor Who. They’re currently re-running all his episodes, and tonight aired what is one of my favourites - School Reunion, aka ‘The One with Sarah-Jane Smith. I’m pretty sure that by the time this episode aired, the SJA was in production, or had at least been green-lit, so this was also kind of a set-up episode for that as well as an opportunity to explore just what ‘life-after-the-Doctor’ means, and to delve a bit deeper as to how the Doctor thinks of his companions.

One of the things I’ve loved about RTD’s era has been the ‘quiet moments’ he’s given us – the bits in between the running and the flashes and bangs, where the characters really talk to each other and we get some insight into what’s making them tick. This, to my mind, was the first episode of Tennant’s run where that happened. Sarah-Jane was ‘my’ companion. She worked with both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker - the third and fourth doctors respectively, was on the show for about 6 or 7 years – and I was utterly delighted to see her back. I loved that she actually got some closure after all this time, and her presence gave us the chance to start to delve more into the Doctor’s character, and his feelings about the people which whom he travels.

This incarnation of the Doctor is probably the one who has taken the greatest delight in the companionship afforded by those who have travelled with him – and who has been most in need of having someone around. (It’s one of the things that still makes me tear up when I think about it, because he ‘died’ alone). And what I really liked about this episode was that the return of Sarah-Jane made him actually face up to what it means to travel with a human companion. Or if not face up (because I honestly can’t remember right now whether he has before) then at least admit it to someone.

Rose annoyed the hell out of me this episode first time round, and continues to do so. She gives the Doctor a hard time about his never mentioning any of his previous companions. So did she think that meant he never had any? That he spent 900 years completely alone until he met her? Silly cow. But the Doctor in that scene… to me, it’s one of those rare moments he actually lets the mask – the pretence – slip; and he’s been pretending to himself as much as to Rose or anyone else that those relationships don’t have to end the way they do.

One thing I think was made very clear in this episode – the Doctor really loves all his companions (I don’t mean in the romantic sense) even though, as he says in The Next Doctor they break his heart in the end. He puts himself through that over and again because, for him it’s worth it. Which echoes what Sarah-Jane says to Rose in this episode – “some things are worth getting your heart broken for."

The plot about ~~Giles~~ the evil headmaster trying to take over the universe is very much secondary to all the other stuff, which is probably what makes this episode such a winner for me. Oh, I like the fast and furious and the flashes and the running around saving the world, but I like the backstory and the character development even more.

Finally after all that pontificating, time for the shallow, because there was an obscene amount of pretty on display.

If I’d had a Physics teacher who looked like this, I’d either have a) failed all my Physics exams because I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate or b) worked so hard I’d have become a physicist!

This scene kills me each time. The look in the Doctor's eyes when he sees Sarah-Jane. That, my friends, is love.

It’s like he still can’t believe it.

I think this is as much about the Doctor’s being pleased to see K-9 again as it is about David Tennant being a Who fanboy!

“I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die.”

“You can spend the rest of your life with me. 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.”

Crap. It’s the Offsted inspectors!

*ahem*

I love that the Doctor gives Sarah the sonic screwdriver without even a second thought. Rose needs to get over herself.

The “don’t fuck with me” stare.

“I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it.”

The way David Tennant can make the Doctor so goofy one minute and then chillingly scary the next never ceases to amaze me.