The
first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures
didn’t actually air until September 2007 – nine months after the pilot episode.
In that time, Kelsey has been ditched: less a comment on that character’s
annoying traits (although such criticisms would be fair), but more generally a
confidence in the ability to tell the stories without the need for laboured
exposition. That said, this episode and next are required to re-do the
introductions for any further late comers to the series, and it won’t be until The Eye Of The Gorgon (episodes three
and four) that The Sarah Jane Adventures
is truly able to stand on its own DNA. There’s various repeated references to a
mysterious traveller called the Doctor (more often than Sarah would really be
comfortable chatting about with relative strangers, if we’re honest), and the
return of the farting monsters from Christopher Eccleston’s season of Doctor Who.
Placing
the Slitheen as the primary villain of the first story makes a great deal of
sense. Largely, these episodes are doing the same work as the New Year’s Day
pilot episode, ensuring that everyone is strapped in for a relatively harmless
ride as the main cast are put into place. We’ve indicated that SJA doesn’t really kick in until the
second story of the first season, partially because it wants all the audience,
wherever they’ve come from, to be on the same page. The other factor in the
case of Revenge Of The Slitheen, is
that the story is having to reintroduce elements previously started – and
subsequently abandoned – in the pilot episode: namely, the completion of the
supporting cast.
Clyde
fills the Kelsey-shaped space as the overly confident, brash and bold outsider
who forces themselves into the plot. But whereas Kelsey was required to be
annoying, slightly selfish and distracted by hot young tour guides, Clyde
instantly becomes an integral part of the cast simply down to significant
amounts of charisma brought along by Daniel Anthony, who within ten minutes of
screentime, has earned his stripes as a main character.
While
the Slitheen-as-human characters are pure CBBC: panto performances offsetting
the moments that are genuinely horrifying for younger kids – there’s still
space for nuance – Lis Sladen’s expression as she watches Maria and Alan
indicates that she sees a healthy parent-child relationship as more alien than
any number of Sontarans, and Sarah has a cute line where they discuss the
‘ridiculous’ possibility of something mysterious hidden inside a school –
that’s how she got back into this game, after all.
One of
the major treats for the more grown up quotient of the audience is something
that would remain in place for the rest of The
Sarah Jane Adventures: the return of the episode cliffhanger. A staple of Doctor Who in the classic series, now
only sparingly seen, it’s perhaps at its most effective here: you get one
decent cliffhanger at the twentyfive minute mark: and then, simply the
resolution of plot: no need (as arguably may have happened occasionally in the
sixties and seventies) to have the story spinning its wheels for the middle
section. Therefore, you have a sharp,
zippy story that doesn’t outstay its welcome, and thanks to Gareth Roberts’
deceptively simple script, juggles a large cast supremely well.
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