Torchwood episode 15: Sleeper (23/1/2008)

‘I thought the end of the world couldn’t get any worse.’ A routine episode that’s sharper than the first series, largely built around Nikki Amuka-Bird’s sympathetic central performance as the sleeper agent. Thematically, it begins where Doctor Who: Utopia ended: with a human revealed to be an alien monster in hiding (perhaps his experiences at the end of the universe have given Jack an extra-ruthless intensity when it comes to exposing the sleeper). From there, it goes down a different route, with Beth’s humanity not erased by the alien inside, but constantly struggling to reassert itself until the predictably tragic conclusion.

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Torchwood episode 14: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (16/1/2008)

‘Bloody Torchwood.’ The pre-titles sequence signals a shift from Series One, with the team (sans Jack) functioning as a unit to hunt town an alien Blowfish, only to predictably mess it up until Jack arrives – freshly back from the Year That Never Was – to save their skins. It’s funny, fast and fresh, with a sort of swagger that wasn’t entirely earned during the previous series. Then, post titles, Jack has to deal with the fall-out of abandoning his dysfunctional kids – which turns out, they’ve grown closer in his absence and now treat him like an absentee dad trying to worm his way back into their lives.

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Doctor Who episode 753: Voyage of the Damned (25/12/2007)

‘But if you could choose, Doctor, if you decide who lives and who dies, that would make you a monster.’ The centrepiece of Doctor Who’s imperial phase, as David Tennant and Kylie Minogue take over Christmas with a special episode so big it spills out of the traditional hour-long slot to pack in a pastiche of The Poseidon Adventure with a side dish of Die Hard. There’s a certain absurdity to it, but it only very occasionally tips over into outright shclock, such as Elizabeth II waving at a flying replica of the Titanic and wishing the Doctor a happy Christmas.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures episode 11: The Lost Boy – Part Two (19/11/2007)

‘It’s Only Fools and Horses with green skin and claws.’ This is, in the end, very mildly disappointing. Partly it’s because a lot of the things that made Part One so effective, like Luke’s “parents” and Clyde’s investigations, get dropped in favour of a race against time to stop the Moon crashing into the Earth – just like the race against time to stop a meteor crashing into the Earth a fortnight ago. Which then calls into question why Mr Smith didn’t just “fail” to blow up that meteor rather than concocting this very convoluted plot.

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Doctor Who: Time Crash (16/11/2007)

‘I’ve never met anyone else who could fly the TARDIS like that.’ The most picked-apart Doctor Who sketch since Moffat’s last one is essentially a safe way to reintroduce past Doctors into the 21st Century series. Davison was an obvious choice given both Moffat and Tennant’s liking for the fifth Doctor, and Tom would probably have been too big an event for an eight-minute mini-episode. As it is, this is just right, showing the old series love and respect while also poking fun at it (‘decorative vegetables’ and ‘Time Lords in funny hats’).

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The Sarah Jane Adventures episode 10: The Lost Boy – Part One (12/11/2007)

‘It seems you’ve got powerful friends, Miss Smith.’ This one definitely has an end-of-season-finale quality to it, which is quite impressive for a CBBC show. Maria coming clean to her dad about her involvement in Sarah Jane’s adventures is a neat recap of events in Series One to make sure that anyone who missed it knows about the Slitheen. The opening suggests the story is going to go in one direction, with Alan reacting badly to learning his daughter’s battling monsters and aliens, but pretty quickly it turns into a different kind of parent trap as Luke’s “real” parents make a tearful appeal on TV and Sarah Jane’s new life is upended.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures episode 9: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane – Part Two (5/11/2007)

‘A friend of mine just saved the world. Her name was Andrea Yates.’ Doctor Who will tell a similar story with more bells and whistles in Turn Left – the world’s fate again hinging on the decision of a ginger. This is an astonishing piece of kid’s television, taking the old City at the Edge of Forever story and making the victim herself the one to make the decision.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures episode 8: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane – Part One (29/10/2007)

‘Sarah Jane Smith, 13, died after falling from the edge of Westport Pier yesterday in a tragic accident.’ Here’s a thing: a Sarah Jane lite episode, with Maria taking the lead with minimal support from the other regulars. True, Jane Asher is on hand as Sarah Jane’s replacement Andrea Yates (should have called her April Walker), but Andrea is a very different proposition to Sarah Jane, and with even Alan unable to remember a world where Sarah Jane lives at Bannerman Road, Yasmin Paige is front and centre.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures episode 7: Warriors of Kudlak – Part Two (22/10/2007)

‘It’s always the innocents that suffer.’ This feels a bit less toned down than the previous episode, with Sarah Jane darkly hinting at what happens to men like Grantham in prison, and an eleventh-hour twist that reveals the real monster is the military-industrial complex (or something like that). It’s also nice to see the series spread its wings a bit with a trip into Earth’s orbit for the team. The show continues to be engaging and fun kid’s TV.

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The Sarah Jane Adventures episode 6: Warriors of Kudlak – Part One (15/10/2007)

‘I don’t see aliens behind every bush you know.’ A show like this carries a slight risk (or benefit, depending on your perspective) of becoming The Avengers In Color – the same plot every week with a different theme (cats, comic books, Hollywood), with a rather narrower range of story options available versus Doctor Who. After aliens hiding in a school and a nunnery, this focuses on a plot to use Laser Quest to kidnap children. And despite Sarah Jane’s sniffiness, yes: they’re aliens. But so far, the makers have cleverly navigated any limitations by jumping between settings that would probably be very familiar to most viewers (school, arcades) and less obvious settings for kids shows, like an old folk’s home.

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