‘And you have a
computer in the wall,’ says Mrs Wormwood, not entirely sans sneer. ‘I had no idea
you could be so entertaining!’
And so, The Sarah Jane Adventures reaches the season finale. And if having a third season and its own Comic Relief special (complete with a guest appearance from British comedy icon Ronnie Corbett) on the way wasn’t enough of a statement of confidence, then in this story Sarah Jane Smith is now elevated to that rare status afforded very few characters who started out as support acts: getting their own arch-enemy. The Doctor has The Master, and now Sarah has Mrs Wormwood, who turns up making trouble for everybody. The plot contrives that they are seen as more ‘fun’ than murderous (in much the same way that Delgado’s Master was, despite his horrific body count), and Someone Who Is Not To Be Trusted despite the fact that they turn up asking for Sarah’s help.
Although this is the last episode of the series (and therefore reasonably unlikely to be the place where any new fans drop in for the first time), there’s quite a bit of backstory to be revisited via Luke’s bad dreams, in which Mrs Wormwood herself is reminding the lost boy of exactly where he came from - at one point, she’ll tell him ‘Luke, I am your mother,’ in a sly aside to a certain space opera saga - not long after riffing on one of Samantha Bond’s other iconic roles when she introduces herself as ‘Wormwood .. Mrs Wormwood.’ As the episode opens, Rani’s mum gets kidnapped. Mrs Wormwood throws down the gauntlet (and a few dozen roses), baiting Team SJ to seek Gita out in an empty warehouse, while Sarah gives us all a quick update on the history of the invading monsters, the Bane.
There are a few tricks learned from the then current series of Doctor
Who itself,
not least that
Sarah and her companion at one point hold each other’s hand for comfort, and Mrs Wormwood is swift to inform and unsettle Rani by telling her that she is merely the latest in a long line of assistants, mentioning that this one is ‘taller’. But it’s not long before Mrs Wormwood claims that the only reason she got Sarah’s attention in the first place was because she needed the latter’s help. Suddenly things kick up a gear when the Old Dark Warehouse they’re in gets invaded by some Bane, forcing Mrs Wormwood to scarper. Sarah gets attacked, but is saved by her former enemy. ‘I’m not past my sell-by date yet,’ she pithily snaps.
Mrs Wormwood explains that she bears the blame for the fall-out of the
failed takeover of Earth (as detailed in The Invasion Of The Bane) - during which Sarah
killed the Bane mother – but even that isn’t the reason why the Bane Kindred
are on the hunt for her. No, she claims to Sarah’s surprise. Mrs Wormwood is
trying to save the galaxy from an ancient being known as the Horath. The only
way to find out how is via an almost as ancient scroll, now in the
possession of UNIT. Sarah’s youngster friends are somewhat excited at the chance of hanging out with a bunch of alien-fighting soldiers.
Sarah manages to sum up much of early seventies Doctor
Who,
and the tension between
having a lead character who famously hated guns, but also plots that largely blew everything up in the finale: ‘In my experience, guns never solved a problem they didn’t first make worse.’
All of which leads to the last onscreen appearance of Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier.
There’s a certain poetry to this, as the role was originally intended to be played by Freema Agyeman’s Martha, who had to pull out because of scheduling conflicts, leading to an unintentionally neat echo of Mawdryn Undead, in which William Russell pulled out of an anniversary guest appearance, to be replaced by ... Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier.
Here, Sarah needs the Brig’s credentials in order to access The Black Archive (first seen here, then a pivotal part of the plot in the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary episode, The Day Of The Doctor). Lethbridge-Stewart is old enough and irascible enough to go pretty much anywhere he wants (mostly by using the passcode ‘in my day..’), although Major Kilburn is keeping a beady eye on him, channelling all manner of pantomime villains (even admiring his own reflection at one point).
However, Sarah and Rani being trapped in the Black Archive is not the big cliffhanger in this penultimate episode. Nor is it Luke and Clyde being attacked by the ‘one eyed squiddy things’.
It’s revealed that Kaagh, the Sontaran that we were introduced to at the start of season two, is working with Mrs Wormwood, and it’s worth remembering that Sontarans were the very first alien monster Sarah Jane Smith met, 35 years prior to this episode, and still making trouble.
Perhaps the roving
reporter has earned herself two arch enemies ..
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