Episode One
In November 2007, the
universes of Doctor Who reigned supreme. Martha Jones had saved the world in
Last Of The Time Lords, team Torchwood (while getting mixed reviews) had got
decent ratings and were heading back for their second series, and here, The Sarah
Jane Adventures was wrapping up its inaugural season. Everywhere, there’s a
sense of confidence and verve that makes compelling television.
So confident is SJA in
fact, that it decides to make its closing two-parter of this season about
making Sarah Jane the untrustworthy one – at least to start off with. After a
piece of marker dialogue that recaps the season for Maria’s dad’s benefit (in
which the Slitheen are helpfully mentioned – pay attention now, that might
become important later), and where there’s a threat that Maria might be dragged
out of the postcode for safety, tensions ramp up fairly quickly when a national
news story breaks that a couple of distraught parents are desperately looking
for their lost boy, one who turns out to be Luke. It had clearly been a mistake
when Sarah had said ‘The universe is smiling on us tonight’: obviously things
were going to go wrong. Mr Smith tells team SJ that he has run DNA tests to
prove the point, stating that the results are conclusive: ‘I don’t make mistakes
– that is a human trait,’ he says, rather snottily.
It’s not long before the
police are knocking on Sarah Jane’s door (Maria’s mum gave them the tip off
about ‘Calamity Jane’), and Luke is returned to his ‘real’ parents. This neatly
inverts a mild fantasy that many kids are likely to have had at some point in
their lives: the idea that the grown-ups they live with are not their own
parents, and a ‘real’ mum and dad will one day swoop in and rescue them. Of
course, when it happens for Luke, it’s a nightmare – it’s not exactly a humdrum
life he’s being released from, and even worse, he’s not in his new home two
minutes before he’s been threatened with a football match.
Sarah is swiftly released
from police custody without questioning (a bit of UNIT paperwork greases the
wheels of that particular plot stumble, which is as it should be when there’s
less than thirty minutes of screentime to play with, but the real-life
implications of that are horrifying: Sarah might be one of the most respected
alumni of UNIT staff, but surely even they would want to take a pause if one of
their own appeared to be involved in some kind of child trafficking ring.
Anyway ..). She then takes the reasonable decision to shut the kids of her
life, arguing that it’s not safe for them. She then appears to give up for a
morose moment, before Mr Smith turns up uninvited without his usual fanfare
(‘Perhaps you don’t realise you need me’) nudging her to an investigation of
the Pharos Project (apparently not the same one that did for the fourth
Doctor), where they’re doing all sorts
of things that come with the prefix ‘tele’, specifically telekinesis. When
Flollella Benjamin speaks of harnessing the power that lies dormant in the
minds of all humans, it feels slightly like we’ve wandered into a Barry Letts
produced episode of Doctor Who.
Clyde becomes convinced
that Luke really is Luke, and that his parents are lying, simply because ‘Mum’
claims that he’s good at skateboarding despite all evidence to the contrary.
Maria tries suggesting that Luke’s lack of skills are fallout from the Bane
(way back in the pilot episode), leading to Clyde’s actually quite sweet
rejoinder that ‘you don’t lose something like that; it’s instinct.’
There are actually two
child geniuses in this episode – the lost boy of the title, and Nathan Goss,
with an I.Q of 195 (Sarah smirks at that: Hawking and Einstein never got that
far), and it soon becomes clear that Nathan is part of the masterplan. When the
true identities of Mum and Dad (and Nathan) are revealed, it’s a pleasurable
moment of things clicking into place, but the true cliffhanger is saved for a
villain behind the villain. There have been some clues seeded throughout the
season, but’s still a very decent shockeroo that deliciously threatens to
destabilise the set-up of the entire show ..
Episode
2
So, who saw that coming?
Mr Smith being the Big Bad! It’s a very neat trick for The Sarah Jane
Adventures to pull off in its first season: usually genre series have to reach
into the back pocket of extended history to get the adrenalin rush that only an
old time villain can provide. With only a few episodes to draw on, SJA had to
be a bit smarter – and using Mr Exposition Console is a supremely clever way of
doing it – and helps ease the sensation that The Sarah Jane Adventures are
having to settle for the unwanted cast-offs of the parent series (which, in all
fairness, the target audience of SJA don’t even remotely care about).
Sarah rocks up the Old
Dark House of the Pharos Project in the middle of the night to steal a MITRE
headset (cool name), and gets a thrilling escape sequence packed with speeding
motorbikes, security lasers, and sonic devices. It’s like David Tennant meets
For Your Eyes Only era Bond. Meanwhile, Clyde has been zapped off world by Mr
Smith as Maria tries in vain to hunt him down (judging by his answerphone
message, Clyde either only gives out his number to girls, or is genuinely very
open about his dating interests). Clyde finds himself in the classic version of
the BBC Villain’s Lair (dark room, bit of what looks like the graphics of the
title credits in the background).
Maria’s dad is – as he has
been all season – remarkably patient in trying to cope with what sounds like an
outlandish X-Files type story. He attempts to invoke Ockam’s Razor to the
situation: it really is more likely that Luke is a lost kid with memory loss,
but he’s willing to dissect the problem with his daughter (indeed, he’s the
first to suggest that Luke’s ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ may not even be real people). It’s
not long before he gets dragged along by Maria to investigate exactly what’s
going on at Luke’s new home.
Meanwhile, Mr Smith
dismisses Clyde’s accusation that he’s suddenly turned into a villain – ‘I
haven’t gone bad, I’m fulfilling my purpose.’ Clyde manages to find a backdoor
to send messages to Alan without Mr Smith noticing, who then runs across road
to warn Sarah Jane. It should be mildly annoying that it falls to the
supporting male character to save the lead female from being shot, but this
episode just about manages to get away with it largely because it’s more about
Alan himself accepting and surrendering himself to the Scooby Gang.
Clyde’s actions are soon
discovered by Mr Smith, who rages ‘You’re not as stupid as you pretend to be,’
which is an importantly different line from, say ‘You’re not as stupid as you
look,’: Clyde’s DNA is based on him
appearing to be carefree and easy-going. For him, heroism is something he does
without witness or reward (sound familiar?), and he is soon knocked out by Mr
Smith – who repeatedly invokes the completion of his ‘purpose’, without ever
being particularly clear as to what that purpose is. The Slitheen’s purpose is
slightly clearer – as Maria points out to her confused father, ‘It’s like Only
Fools And Horses with green skin.’
The second part of the
episode is essentially finale, although Alan is concerned that they’re not
armed with laser guns. Sarah Jane has to assure him that the Slitheen are
combatted by simple vinegar. ‘Sure,’ he responds, munching on a chip, ‘Why
not?’ Later, he gets to deliver a cute Jack Bauer style move while holding a
bottle of chip shop malt. After some scrambles and grandstanding, Sarah Jane
and the Slitheen are forced to work together against Mr Smith as the moon is
dragged towards Earth, upsetting gravitational pull (one wonders if Russell T
Davies ever thought about nixing this script, considering what he had planned
for the following year’s Doctor Who finale). The amount of planetary
destruction delivered in this episode is arguably bigger than anything nu-Who
had so far dealt with (a news report suggests that this might be the ‘end of
the world’). Chrissie rings Alan to attempt to make peace – which is
impressive, if only for the fact that she might be the only person on the
panicking planet to make a successful phone call.
Mr Smith argues that he’s
not evil, but effective (‘Am I not merciful?’) and explains that the existence
of the human race is irrelevant to the survival of the universe (not actually
difficult to argue with that). In the closing few minutes of the episode, Sarah
Jane is able to draw on thirty-odd years of backstory (and a certain copyright
agreement) for a final rousing – and funny – guest appearance from a girl’s
best friend. After the dust has settled, there’s a hint that Chrissie might be
invited into the fold (there’s clearly been an off-screen conversation where
she’s been able to relax slightly about Sarah Jane). In the closing monologue,
Sarah Jane tells us she’s found the one thing on Earth she never expected to: a
family. And that’s what we have here – a strong group dynamic, ready to save
the world. It’s just a shame that the family is going to be broken up at the
start of the next series ….
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