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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