Thursday, 5 March 2020

Beyond The TARDIS SJA: Mark of the Berserker Pt 1 by Andrew Allen




And so here we have the Sarah Jane Adventures version of a ‘Doctor-lite’ episode (as if you could imagine Doctor Who doing a story these days where the main character is shoved to the background for 45 minutes). Ms Smith is off doing an investigative journalism piece about hygiene in hospitals (the show doesn’t even bother to tell us just how much of a lie that is), and so if you have a two-parter without Elisabeth Sladen, you’d better make damn sure that everything else – script, supporting cast, direction and music are firing on all cylinders. Luckily, The Mark Of The Beserker delivers, creating genuine menace that’s very easy to get caught up in and care about.

The action begins in a school detention, and – which may be slightly rare for a BBC children’s production – the central kids: an ostracized bullied boy and his tormenters are all really well cast, believable and understandable. It seems that Jake (the object of the bullies’ attentions) has picked up some kind of alien pendant which bends anyone in earshot to his will, at the cost of painting him with a rather fetching tattoo (shades of a future episode of Class there). He’s soon discovered by Rani, who once again operates in what was surely the original plan for the show for her to take on chief investigative reporter role and finds the locket for herself. For a while, it looks like the story is going to centre on her, which would have been a good result: SJA certainly understands what a charismatic performer it has in Anjili Mohindra and certainly doesn’t underuse her, but equally, it never quite utilises her as much as it could do. But that’s alright really, because while Rani might be the brains of the show (after the title character, of course), the heart is obviously Daniel Anthony’s Clyde, to whom the action quickly jumps, as Luke is having his first ever ‘sleep-over’ at his house (Clyde isn’t overly keen to call it that) where we meet Carla Langer for the first time. The show is at pains to illustrate what a good relationship Clyde has with his mum, and points out that he’s good at art and cooking, two aspects that don’t exactly fit in with his cool guy persona, but do underline that his homelife, albeit with an absent father, is as idyllic as one could hope for. You can probably see where all of this is going even if you didn’t catch the ‘next time’ trailer from the previous week.

When Paul, Clyde’s father suddenly turns up on the doorstep, Langer Jr gets a nice scene in which he manages to tell his dad off – ‘I blamed mum’ – but then has a rather odd pivot in which, attempting to impress his father, he reveals the whole ‘I fight aliens’ thing, a revelation Paul frankly hasn’t earned. Indeed, the story up to that point has been at pains to make sure we don’t trust Paul with anything. Seemingly, it’s in order to get Paul into the attic where Rani has left the macguffin, but it really feels like there’s an edit or redraft that happened here before filming: it seems much more likely (and true to the characters) if Clyde only revealed all after his father had gained the power to force him to do so.

Speaking of being true to characters, even though Rani gives up the pendant/plot, the script understands that she’s SJ in waiting: ‘This is you we’re talking about,’ her dad says fondly when she’s doubting her abilities, ‘of course you’re going to try to work it out.’ And over at the Langers’, Luke again illustrates the show’s subtle grace when it comes to depicting families that do not look like the norm – whatever the norm is, and who will probably be watching the programme. ‘It’s complicated,’ he says when asked about the whereabouts of his father. ‘It usually is,’ Mrs Langer (Carla) replies. ‘Don’t forget your mum.’

‘You always do what you’re told, do you?’ Paul snarls, neatly underlining the draw of this episode, before ensuring that Rani’s dad goes all Red (sports) Shoes on the driveway, and telling Clyde to forget everybody who is important to him, leading to a very efficient cliffhanger that seems impossible to get out of.

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