Saturday, April 19, 2008

Confessions of a Giddy Fan Girl (Revenge of the Slitheen, part 1)

Actually, tonight, it's more like, Rantings of an Irate Fan Girl. Rather than this being a review, I feel it is my duty to those who are seeing Sarah Jane for the first time on SciFi to report on what was missing from the episode. (and, believe me, some were doozies). If you think I've missed something (which I probably have)-big OR small from part 1-please, leave a comment!!!

What was missing:
1. Maria's narration at the beginning of the episode-basically summing up the events of Invasion of the Bane. She is seen redecorating her room with her dad. There is also a shot of Sarah working on something in her attic, and Luke comes up behind her. This probably could remain on the chopping block-especially since IofB was just on last week for us-and nothing new was revealed here.

2. The intial scene where Clyde introduces himself to Maria and Luke. I don't remember the exact dialog from the scene, but Clyde indicates he'll hang out with Maria and Luke until he finds someone cooler. The rest goes something like this:
Clyde: 'I'm Clyde'.
Maria: 'Maria'
Luke: 'How do you do? I'm Luke Smith' (Luke holds out his hand for Clyde to shake it)
Clyde: 'Okay, I was kidding, but now I'm not' (referring to the 'hanging out with you until I find someone cooler' part)

I mean, HELLO? Come on!!! The first time we hear Clyde's name is when Luke mentions him to Sarah later that day. Okay, so most people probably assumed it was the new kid that Luke was referring to-but really!! A proper introduction to his character would have been nice!

3. The classroom scene with Luke and Clyde. Once again, another change to be introduced to Clyde's character is cut. Luke has not only answered an hard question, but also come up with his own theory-thus showing that he's quite smart for his age.
Clyde: to the class: 'Just so you know, I'm not with him.'
Teacher: 'Name?'
Clyde: 'Clyde Langer.'
Teacher: 'Troublemaker.'
Also, Clyde snuck in a sandwich (since you can't trust the canteen)-he's caught eating it, the teacher confiscates it, sniffs it, and nearly has a heart attack as he tries to get rid of it.

Those were the three that really stuck out for me. Here are a couple of others:
4. Sarah's intial escape from the Slitheen Janine. Also, I may have missed it-but did Janine mention that she liked Sarah's perfume when they first met? (sometimes I got so caught up in writing down what was missing, I missed little bits of what was on!)

5. The beginning of Sarah's conversation to Maria, just before she tells her to have a look around the school.

So, how much important stuff can you cram into a half hour? Apparently quite a bit, since the editing for commericals was so noticable. It's a shame SciFi doesn't have a 45 minute time slot-then the cuts probably wouldn't have been so harsh. I do not envy SciFi's editing department...but really, Clyde? They couldn't find something else to cut besides two of his biggest introductory scenes? Well, what do you expect from the network that has a character profile for Chrissie and not Alan?(Apologies to all the Chrissie fans)

I will try to do this for each episode of SJA. I can't guarentee that I'll be able to post this quickly after the episode airs here in the States, but my goal will be to have it up by the following Monday...evening...Eastern Daylight Time. *hee*

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

maybe if you stuff the american thing for a sec and get on to the news about Maria! She has been rumored to not be in series 2 and filming has been seen of and indian couple with a daughter entering Maria's house and Sarah-Jane and Luke greeting them. This is bad news.

That's MIZZ Gypsy To You! said...

Considering how much BBCA had to cut to make Torchwood fit in the allotted time, I wasn't surprised but I am glad I got to see the original of SJA before hand so I wasn't too confused. As it is I'm pretty sure I'll have to explain things to my godschildren...

Nabu San said...

Yeah I'm with anonymous. Can't believe the Maria news hasn't hit sarahjanetv yet. I've been ranting about it on my blog alot. If they ditch Maria, I've lost about 20% of my respect for the show, I think. I'm still hoping it's some alien plot.

Anywho, naughty SCI-FI! Are they actually cutting the episode? Or just interupting it with commercials at the worst possible moments?

I hate it when televison shows get butchered.

hrh said...

Re: the Maria news - Well, I just saw on Joseph Millson's site that he is "filming some of the SJA" so if he's there, will Maria be, too?

And thanks for filling in the blanks of ROTS. I'm thrilled Scifi's showing it but their edits and website stink!! The site says "Friday's at 7:30." Huh??

Nabu San said...

I have a theory that Alan and Chrissie got back together and they're living at Chrissie's place - meaning Maria's moved out, but still close by. Like Clyde.

New occupants of Maria's house could be an additional companion! Two girls, two boys.

Romana1 said...

Anon and Nabu San: From past experience, I've noticed jackharkness doesn't like to report on rumors unless he hears something official to back it up. There's also a chance that he just hasn't had time to address the rumor. I kind of feel the same way about rumors. I can't say I never post rumors, but in this case, I decided to er on the side of caution. (I'm extremely hesitant to report on rumors involving casting changes).

hrh: You're welcome!! Like I said in my post, I'll try to keep up and have the cuts up by the end of the weekend.

Nabu San: Yeah, unfortunately, they're cutting the episodes. SciFi is also notorious for interrupting with commercials at the worst possible moment.

Mizz Gypsy: I know what you mean!! I haven't had a chance to ask anyone here who has only seen the SciFi version if they are confused or not...but I hope they weren't too confused. Since you're like me and have seen both the unedited and edited versions, if you happen to notice anything I missed, please feel free to add them in the comments!

Nabu San said...

I'd be annoyed if they cut up Doctor Who, too.

Any channel that does that doesn't deserve to have the show, imho.