9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could've been a series if the Beeb had stuck with it, December 26, 2003
The first Doctor Who spinoff debuted inbetween the departure of Tom Baker and the debut of Peter Davison as the Doctor.
The story: Sarah Jane Smith, former companion of the Fourth Doctor, has arrived in the village of Moreton Harwood to pay a Christmas visit to her aunt, Lavinia Smith, who is on a lecture tour in the US, but leaves suddenly without a word. She arrives at her aunt's house, where she discovers a packing crate, and inside, a gift from the Doctor, K-9 Mark III, a duplicate of the robot dog whose fellow counterparts accompanied the Doctor. Sarah also looks after Brendan Richards, Lavinia's teenaged ward, who's on break from school.
Sarah discovers through the various villagers that there are some people who still believe in the black arts to make their crops grow, and that her aunt, a rational scientist, upset many of them by publishing an article on witchcraft. So her plans to write a book are interrupted when two of the locals attack Brendan, who is later kidnapped. Only her robot dog can save the day.
The quick cuts of Elizabeth Sladen, be it profile or in different outfits, and the music, is styled after American TV programmes like Magnum PI. And she comes off well reprising her 1974-76 role as Sarah Jane, a role she would repeat in The Five Doctors (1983) and Downtime (1995).
The programme also pushes knowledge of computer architecture, as the knowledgeable Brendan refers to K-9's logic gates, integrated memory, buses, and heuristic interfaces. I should know, I had to learn that stuff back at NMSU and thank goodness I'm out of it. Still, it's nice to see it referred from an ex-CS major's point of view.
Bill Fraser plays Commander Pollock, Lavinia's neighbour and partner in her market garden business, and he does so with a gruff but sensible old gentlemanly charm. Ian Sears does reasonably well as Brendan. And yes, John Leeson does the voice of K-9 like he did in the Doctor Who series.
Originally intended as a pilot to a Doctor Who spinoff series starring Elizabeth Sladen and K-9, it aired on 28 December 1981, netting 8.4 million viewers, and would've garnered more had a transmitter in the North West region not suffered a power blackout. The reason why a full series wasn't pursued was changes in BBC management. Also, it's dwelling on the occult was a debit, as there was a censorship group in England that was quite sensitive about that.
Standing on its own, nothing on par with the Doctor Who stories, but it's good to see Elizabeth Sladen and K9 interract without the Doctor in the story.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spin Off: Not a totally stupid idea, January 18, 2000
To give Doctor Who a bit more publicity, The writer of many story's, Terrance Dudly, created this story.
After being left on Earth by the Doctor, Sarah-Jane Slowly manouvers back into her life as a Jouranlist. Having time up her sleeve, she decides to go to her Aunt Lavinia's home in Moreton Harwood, to write a book, only to find that she has gone to America.
Arriving at her Aunt's house, she meets her Aunt's ward , Brendan, and a whole town of weirdo's, including a Rather talkative Post office attendant, A grumpy old Retired Navy Commander, A Couple Of people who seem out of the ordinary, and A Father and son team who take everything Just a little too far.
When she arrives in the house, she finds the place riddled with books and papers of the occult and witch craft, and a box, from the Doctor, in the middle of the room.Inside the Box is K-9
After Brendan is Kidnapped by a cult of Wictches, Sarah and K-9 begin to investigate the townies and finds that Brendan is to be savraficed to the Goddess Hecatae at the Winter Solstice.
In this 50min Story, the people you least expect to be in the cult are the leaders and the people you believe would have started the cult are infact, the innocent.
Considering that there is no Doctor, it is a rather interesting plot. Slightly better acting in this than in UNIT Story's, and for those Keen on Sarah-Jane, Is a must see.
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