elisi | She saved the world a lot.

Current Mood: grieving

Entry tags:

She saved the world a lot.

Elisabeth Sladen, aka Sarah Jane Smith, has passed away.

I honestly, genuinely, do not know how to tell my children.

ETA: From looking at wiki, they were apparently working on S5 of SJA, but it's unclear whether it had been completed or not. However, I am so grateful she got to meet Ten and Eleven. To quote

calapine from her review of the first part of 'Death of the Doctor', because it sums everything up just beautifully (even though it also chokes me up):

"Hello, Sarah Jane," says Eleventy because Doctors have to do that to Sarah now and look at her beautifully with love and he does.

Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

My eleven year old sister was in the room when I saw the news on LJ. She was pretty upset. She loved SJA because Doctor Who is too scary for her.

I think its really hard for kids especially cause on some level, when you are that age, it's difficult to separate actors from the characters they play.

SJA was purely for children, which I think made a big difference. (I'd classify DW as a family show, I think.)

And yeah, it's hard... :(

Oh definitely. Though Moffat didn't really help from her POV. (The Radio Times cover for the new season just says 'Be Afraid'. So I don't think she'll be watching.)

:-(

No. I can see how that'd not be a good thing. (It's odd how Moffat is writing more with children in mind and also doing scarier stuff...)

I think it makes sense. Because the things that Moffat picks up on are the things that really freak you out when you are a kid. The fear of the dark, the thing under your bed, the statue that might have moved etc. So his stories work with children because there is the stuff that is in their brains up on screens but (if you can watch to the end) he also shows the tools that you can use to defeat the bogey man. He gives them the poker to reference Terry Pratchett.

Then with adults he just reminds us what we used to be afraid of and gently points out that while we might think that we've left behind childish things we haven't really and aren't there a lot of statues around...

*nods a lot*

Although the girls (the youngest is 5, the eldest 12) watched 'Blink' and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about... The Library episodes unsettled them though.

Well Blink unsettled me (and when I say unsettled I mean watched bits of it from behind my fingers) and I recently had a nightmare based on the Library episodes and woke up in a very dark room...

Obviously what scares you differs from person to person. And me and my sister are obviously cut from the same whimpish cloth. :-)

Well most people I know on LJ were *terrified* of Blink...

Thus I have at least some evidence to maintain that reason I was scared stiff was because Moffat taps in to the primal fears of humanity not just because I'm a whimp.

Not a wimp! You were *supposed* to be terrified!

Exactly!

I completely love this insight and am reminded of some discussion I saw about the Christmas special. Because flying sharks were Moffat's childhood fear. And he put it up on screen and had the Doctor make it into a glorified aquatic reindeer pulling a sleigh. As someone put it: "he ridikulused his boggart!"

As someone put it: "he ridikulused his boggart!"
Ha! That's perfect. And yes, I remember him talking about his fear of sharks...

Oh I didn't know that he was scared of flying sharks. Though just shows that he was just as inventive as a kid as he is now.

Off topic a bit - not really odd? I think it's only with the era of Disney that we've come to think that fairytales are supposed to be nice. I honestly don't know if sheltering kids from the not nice parts of stories is good, or doing them a disservice.

True.

Maybe this isn't new but it is my view: Doctor Who is a fairy tale – not sci-fi, not fantasy but properly a fairy tale. And I don't mean Disney-style where the endings are changed and everyone lives. Doctor Who is how we warn our children that there are people in the world who want to eat them.
Steven Moffat

And as I said above, the show then gives the kids the knowledge they need to defeat the people who want to eat them. Most of the time.

Pratchett does a good line in that as well:

THE WORLD WILL TEACH THEM ABOUT MONSTERS SOON ENOUGH. LET THEM REMEMBER THERE’S ALWAYS THE POKER. ~Death

WISE WORDS!

When in doubt quote Death.

:-)

Well you managed to put a smile on my face... :)

TP's words tend to do that. And you know, discussing a show that is all kinds of interesting and complex and wonderful.

Indeed.

*has wobbly smile*

(no subject)

thornyrose42.livejournal.com - 2011-04-19 22:07 (UTC) - Expand

Also, seriously appropriate and awesome icon.

Gorgeous, isn't it?

(This is why I'm an icon addict - I just love having the perfect thing for any situation... Plus they're so PRETTY!)

I would love to be an icon addict but I just can't quite justify a paid account to myself. Though maybe knowing I was paying would push me to contribute a bit more.