School Reunion

The Mrs and the ex together. Every man's worst nightmare.

I first saw School Reunion in my early days of Doctor Who watching, before I started to go back and watch the classic series. I was aware of who Sarah Jane was given my viewing of Masque of Mandragora, but the depth of her relationship with the Doctor was unknown to me and I certainly hadn't seen The Hand of Fear yet. I think this gave me a perspective on the episode that would have been shared with a good percentage of the viewing audience at the time.

Plot Summary

The Tenth Doctor and Rose, on a tip from Mickey, go undercover in a school to investigate some strange happenings there. Unbeknownst to them, the Doctor's old companion Sarah Jane is also investigating. Together they discover the headmaster and some of the teachers are an alien race trying to use the children to unlock the formula that will allow them to manipulate all of matter, energy, and time. After a chase, the Doctor sets a trap for the aliens where they will be blasted with the same oil being used to control the children, which is toxic to them. This involves K-9 (Mark III) sacrificing himself but it does blow up the aliens. The Doctor offers to let Sarah Jane come back with him but she refuses, noting that she must move on to other adventures. The Doctor repairs K-9 for Sarah Jane and then leaves with Rose and Mickey.

Analysis

With this episode being early in Series Two, a good portion of the audience (like me at the time) would have either no or a mere passing knowledge of who Sarah Jane and K-9 were in relation to the Doctor. That put the writers in the position of needing to avoid too many references to the past. They do a pretty good job but slip in a few references that would please the old school fans but not hinder the story. These come mostly in the competition banter with Rose and the reunion talk that referenced the end of The Hand of Fear. The competition banter is mostly for fun and Sarah could have referenced anything she wanted but the fact that old school fans could reference every story by the cites she gave was nice. The rehash of the end of The Hand of Fear was necessary but it was done in a a way that it didn't feel like you were missing anything by not having seen that scene.

The banter between Sarah Jane and Rose was funny, but it was a bit of a reinforcement to me as to why I don't like Rose very much. She was very bitchy in the beginning and reacted badly to the mere thought that someone else might have held the same place that she currently does. This led to her confronting the Doctor about whether she was just next in the line or meant something special. This was always my main problem with Rose. She was so needy about the idea that she loved the Doctor and that what they had was "the real thing." It plays like a tired teen romance and it makes whatever good characteristics Rose has fade into the background because she is acting like a petulant child.

Shifting gears, the Krillitane were a decent adversary but it was good that Mr. Finch was there as the front man. The CGI on the Krillitane was not great but no so bad that it stood out. The acting of the other teachers was also a bit off but I think that was intended to showcase their alieness. It was Mr. Finch that really sold it though. He carried himself with a superior air that gave the Krillitane a menace they were otherwise lacking. He also got off a few amusing one-liners that both added menace and gave some levity to the scenes: "Ignore the shoot-y dog!"

Overall, I'd say the episode was pretty good. I recently rewatched it and enjoyed it on a new level as I've now seen all of the Sarah Jane/Fourth Doctor stories and nearly all of the Sarah Jane stories in total. There are some small nits, mostly with the acting in some of the minor characters, but it's an easy story to get in with excellent rewatch value.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5