Tuesday, 5 February 2019

Beyond The TARDIS SJA: The Eye of the Gorgon, part two by Andrew Allen




In the second episode of The Eye Of The Gorgon, the boys are grabbed by the nuns (which is exactly as painful as that might sound), while Sarah Jane and Maria have to look on helplessly as the latter’s dad is turned to stone. In an efficient and economical bit of storytelling, neither plot point is immediately resolved, meaning that the Impending Danger That Will Destroy The World ™ is still hanging over the gang.

This means that Joseph Millson doesn’t feature a great deal in this episode, even though a number of people interact with his character – albeit through the medium of his stone effigy (which leads one to wonder if actors who get artistic depictions of themselves in a film or television programme, get to take home the painting or garden gnome version). Juliet Cowan gets a surprisingly moving scene in which she once again gets to hint at depths hidden beneath the shallows.

When Sarah Jane manages to confront the gang of nuns, she’s firmly told that what’s going on is ‘salvation, not invasion’. This, and the vaguely catholic vibe of the baddies this time round makes them look quite fundamentalist – their methods stink, but they do seem to be acting selflessly for a higher purpose: even their chanting isn’t evidence of any kind of mind control (well, no more than any other church service). Somebody else who seems to be surprisingly in control is Mr Smith: he sends Sarah Jane and Maria off on a wild talisman chase, claiming that he doesn’t have enough information to save Alan from irreversibly becoming stone. Later, when Alan is illogically revived, Mr Smith is able to explain why. Such obstuffocation might become relevant later in the season. 

Even if it isn’t foreshadowing the finale, Mr Smith’s delaying tactics do mean that there are successfully three separate story strands as Sarah faces up to the Wimples, the boys are playing escape room in the basement, and Maria resorts to Plan Bea. Considering that all of that doesn’t even include the mild subplot involving Maria’s parents, and is all neatly folded up within twenty five minutes, it’s an instructive piece of narrative for anyone who thinks that three companions is too many characters for an episodic sci-fi TV show (cough cough).

The Bea of Plan Bea is the ‘dotty old lady’ played by Phyllida Law. (She gets a cheeky time travel reference – listen to the record she’s playing when Maria comes to visit), and she has a chance to wear the talisman at the end, promoted by Maria’s entirely logical but scientifically wonky theory that she could be ‘restored’ to an earlier version of herself in much the same way that her father was. Perhaps surprisingly, the episode makes the correct and respectful decision that Bea’s Alzheimer’s cannot be cured by sci-fi magic (a lesson that the much more recent Class failed to learn when dealing with not dissimilar territory), proving itself once again to be a very mature stable partner to Doctor Who. Indeed, what with the demonic chanting nuns, masked disfigured villains and candlelit stone basements, with only a few tonal and aesthetic adjustments, this could very easily be a story out of the classic era of Who, at least on the level of The Image Of The Fendhal.   

There’s a wordless gag involving Sarah Jane’s sonic lipstick (presumably The Doctor never bothered to tell her it wouldn’t work on wood), and generally she gets to do a bit more climbing and physical stuff than she has previously (no rolling down a gentle incline this time round), and generally this a fast paced and efficient two-parter that even manages to pull in a direct reference to Raiders Of The Lost Ark by the end. Keep your eyes open; you might miss something.

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