who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

In continuing my utter, utter love of Sarah Jane, I started watching the episodes of Old Who that she's in, and they're rather crackily wonderful. Terrible quality- you can tell the BBC handed them five quid a week for a budget and got somebody's idiot cousin to work a static camera- but still, it's fun, like Scooby Doo when the villains don't pull off their masks at the end but they still want to say, "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids..."

I've watched all of season eleven so far, and these thoughts should be a picspam, frankly, but... I'm lazy and the caps I made are not exactly good quality and also I'm at work. SO WHATEVER.

"The Time Warrior", where Sarah Jane impersonates her aunt Lavinia, sneaks on board the TARDIS, lands in the middle ages, and promptly gets kidnapped, thus probably making her a stronger candidate for being Jeopardy Friendly than even Rose. Mostly I skipped over the bits with plot, because they're not particularly good. However, the Third Doctor chucking stink bombs over the castle wall totally was.

"Invasion of the Dinosaurs" has Three and Sarah coming back to London after their medieval adventures- an empty London. This is because, they find out, there are dinosaurs (or, possibly, Barney impersonators) attacking the city as part of a plot by an Evil Scientist. It really doesn't matter why, but Three and Sarah get arrested, naturally, and Sarah Jane learns to emulate the Doctor and treat arrest like a joke, naturally (I do think I need an icon of their mugshots. It's so adorable.) Eventually UNIT gets a hold of the Doctor and there are Schemes and Betrayals. Sarah Jane gets tired of being told to sit tight while the big boys investigate, so she pops out ("Tell the Doctor... tell him, I've gone out to play.") to find a paper trail of her own, discovers everything, and gets kidnapped! In the end, the Doctor tries to get her back on the TARDIS to continue traveling, at which she covers her ears and starts shouting that no way, nothing on earth could persuade her to step foot inside that damn box again... oh, Doctor, what's this about exciting moons and supernovas? In short, Three uses about the same technique that Nine used with Rose in "World War Three".

Then there's another serial with some Daleks and some security systems that include giving people migraines, and Sarah is insecure about the Doctor going off without her and he shows her she has every reason to be, as he wanders off without her. There is also a lot of walking through stone tunnels.

In the next serial "The Monster of Peladon" on a completely different planet there's a lot of walking through the same tunnels and more migraine-inducing security systems. EXCITING HUH. And Sarah explains second-wave feminism to a Barbie Queen. And the Doctor apparently gets killed several times, again, and Sarah freaks out, again, and it sort of makes me wonder about "School Reunion" when she said she had thought he was dead: He was always walking off to his death, and she was always sure she was all alone again, and he was always so surprised to find her mourning him. Oh, you two.

The last serial of the season, "Planet of the Spiders", I finished last night: there is an Englishman in not blackface but Indianface. It would probably be insulting if it weren't just ridiculous. They're back on earth, and Sarah Jane is proving that Freelance Journalist and Doctor's Companion are two jobs that fit fairly well together. Mike Yates, a seventies cutie who worked for UNIT before he through in his lot with the secret plot and got fired, calls Sarah in on a plot and they go investigate a monastary.

It was this episode that helped me appreciate the Brigadier the most, as he apparently has a designated TARDIS parking spot in UNIT headquarters, and when Three regenerated he showed how impressed he was by rolling his eyes and sighing, "Here we go again."

I'm feeling a bit conflicted about Three regenerating; I do like him and his cute old stylish self, and also the fact that HE IS A FUCKING NINJA IN A FRILLY SHIRT AND VELOUR JACKET. I mean. (And I think David Tennant takes fashion tips: we were wondering about the odd velour jackets he likes to wear to public events? I shall make an educational picspam later maybe.) But I suspect this will be like my feelings about Nine regenerating; I was all how can this beeeeeee and then wound up loving Ten like everyone else, and I'll probably think Four is awesome like everyone seems to. I have seen "City of Death" and he is cool, so. It'll be interesting to see how Sarah handles it.

I wish I was watching more tonight instead of going out, since the weather is absolutely vile. If I have to be drenched and windblown, why can't I at least be back in London?