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Wasn't sure what to expect, but I wasn't disappointed. No spoilers here. It was pretty entertaining. Not as "kiddie" as The Sarah Jane Adventures (which I did enjoy), but sort of along those lines. Too soon to judge the format after watching only one, but it seems to mix the idea of a monster of the week with an arcing subplot. I was hoping for grittier visuals but they fall more along the lines of the RTD era of Doctor Who. We all already know it's a spin-off, so I don't think this is a spoiler - but just in case - a guest appearance really elevates the episode. I'm only going to go 6 out of 10, based on the single episode, but I could see future episodes bringing that rating higher. Hoping for more character development as we go on, which I can't imagine not happening. All in all a solid start, not earth shattering, but strong enough to get me to see episode 2.

***Updated*** Okay, I'm 4 episodes in, and re-rate this a 7.5 (it only gives whole number options), it's getting better. Not Doctor Who good, but worth watching. At the end of episode 4, I'm left wanting episode 5. And that is how good television should be.

This show is completely different. It's sci fi teenage horror ish all in one. It's bloodier and has sex scenes inappropriate for children. It is, however, entertaining if you go into it thinking of it has an alien sci fi series. I think it's quite creative in its invasion ideas. The writing, yeah it's teenage based thinking. I enjoyed it for what it was.

The main influence of this series isn't Doctor Who but Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is a long list of similarities, from the high-school grounds being the center of adventures, to the teen angst, and to easy parallels between the two monster-fighting gangs (prime example: the reluctant ally who would hurt the main characters if it wasn't for a brain implant). The show does well to openly acknowledge this influence (mentioning the similarity to Buffy's "Hellmouth" in the very first episode), which is actually part of a very good start: at first, the show doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, throwing in lots of jokes and pop-culture references.

This good start is later spoiled by the very wrong pacing, which makes the show run out of steam and out of ideas remarkably quickly. It's as if the creators decided to condense 22 episodes into 8. The development of the characters and of the dynamics among them skips several steps, there's hardly any bonding, team-building and character-developing episodes, since almost every single episode past episode 3 addresses the main story arc and feels like a finale. The rushed nature of the whole season is so obvious that I can't help but thinking it was for external reasons (budget cuts leading to a much shorter season than originally planned maybe?). In any case, a good opportunity has been missed in this show. It *could* recover if a second season returns to a normal pace, but there are a lot of rushed plot lines that need to be fixed for this to work.

This is a dark spinoff of Doctor Who. The students of Coal Hill Academy has to deal with strange other worlds in between class. Miss Quill is the harsh new teacher. New kid Charlie Smith is secretly a refugee, Prince of the Rhodians, from another planet. Quill is forced to be his protector. The battling races were caught unaware when their planet was conquered by the Shadow Kin. The Doctor rescued them and placed them in the school.

The chemistry with the kids is still developing. The kids are questionable as actors. The show is darker and faster pace than the Doctor Who of its time. It's pushing a bit too fast and too hard that the story gets a bit jumbled. The characters don't have the space and time to develop their relationships. Miss Quill is probably the best character. All in all, this is an interesting start but it's incomplete as a show. It needs more time. It's cancelled after an eight episode first series.