Beyond The TARDIS The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane by Andrew Allen

 

‘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 ..

Beyond The TARDIS Bad Samaritan by DJ Forrest

 

 This film starts out kinda pedestrian, goes abbbbsolutely tonto – Tony J Fyler

Robert Sheehan plays Sean Falco, a photographer with high dreams of going places with his girlfriend Riley Seabrook. However, the cold hard reality of it all, is as much as his photography gets him a little money, it'll never get him the fame and fortune he so desperately wants. Riley can probably see this and so pursues her own career by working through university, something Falco was never keen on. Education. Good Job! 

Falco does have another money-making scheme however, that pays dividends, but at the expense of others. He's a small-time thief working as a valet alongside his friend Derek Sandoval. They set up outside Nino's Restaurant, (it's part of the service by the restaurant), except Nino doesn't know that their side-line is driving the cars to the owner’s homes and robbing them blind, while they sit unaware inside. 

This scam has been going on for some time and they're making enough to get them by, but when Cale Erendreich pulls up in his Maserati, things take a walk on the very wild side. It's Falco who gets behind the wheel of the car, but already Cale creeps them both out with threats if his car comes back in less than pristine fashion, there'll be trouble. 

Using the inbuilt sat nav in the Maserati, Sheehan's character Falco, heads up to this really big and expensive house built on the side of a hill, where nearly every part of the house is worked remotely by a click of a button operated by a mobile phone app. You've seen them, right, those setting the Hive timer for the heating. Putting on the kettle so it's hot for a cuppa when you get in? Checking who is ringing your door bell or sneaking a peak through your windows? 

When Falco arrives at the house, the car operates the controls for the garage and in he drives. Once in, he's got the run of the house, except for the locked room.  Falco finds a letter for a new credit card on the bedside table, and activates it. It's a black credit card, which I’m assuming would buy him everything he would ever want, and more. 

This house is all about minimalistic value. There are obvious signs of wealth but as far as living there, it's more of a single person's abode who has little interest in dust collecting items on shelves. So, no good for me. 

The film so far is, as Tony remarks, completely pedestrian. Until we reach the locked door.

When Falco finally opens it, he finds an office in darkness, but a computer screen lit up, and takes a seat beside it. But when he looks up from the screen, he sees something across the room that shakes him to his very bones. 

Chained up and gagged, in a chair facing the monitor is a young woman, who has been there for some time, given the marks on her body and face. Releasing her from her bonds however, is another problem that unfortunately he doesn't have time for. Cale needs his car back, and he's checking his phone to see that everything is how it should be in the house, not a thing out of place. 

When Falco later calls the police about the woman in the house, Cale is one step ahead. From here on in, it's all goes abbbbsolutely tonto! 

It's brilliant casting and Tennant plays a bad guy as if he was born for the part. In fact, there's something to be said about Tennant's characters, from Des, Barty Crouch Jr, and his character in Jessica Jones. He just really plays a blinder. The anger and rage behind each and every scene when Cale begins to lose control is frightening, and his despicable acts of violence against the young Riley Seabrook is chillingly brutal. 

Falco is under his skin. He is everywhere, determined to find the woman he found chained in the office, but every time he gets close, he's always two steps further away. Then Cale starts dismantling Falco's life, piece by piece. 

So now, it’s personal. 

Sheehan often plays characters who you never really, completely gel with, but Falco has to be the best role I've seen him in since perhaps, The Umbrella Academy or Geostorm. You can't help but root for him. 

Tennant is awesome as Cale Erendreich whose backstory we learn about as the film unfolds. He's cold. Fierce. Likes to be in control. And he's not scared about beating a young person senseless and throwing them down the stairs, to make a point. 

There is a moment at the end though, where he reminds me of Barty Crouch Jr, be sure to look out for that. You can't miss it really. In that chair. 

Bad Samaritan was written by actor and writer Brandon Boyce, who also plays the FBI Supervisor in this. 

Dean Devlin directed the film. His list of credits is amazing and perhaps not surprising that Robert Sheehan played a role in this, considering Devlin was the writer of Geostorm - in which Robert played the bad guy. 

Bad Samaritan was nominated for the Saturn Award at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Film, USA in 2019 for Best Thriller Film. 

You can find Bad Samaritan on Amazon Prime. Book yourself a seat on the sofa for 1hr 50 mins. Bring provisions. Get comfy and strap yourself in. You're in for one hell of a ride.

Credit

Special thanks to Tony J Fyler for heading quote.

Beyond The TARDIS The Dig by DJ Forrest

 

Starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes 

In 1939, at Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk, Edith Pretty, hired Basil Brown to excavate one of the large burial mounds at her rural estate. He unearthed, not Viking, but an Anglo-Saxon ship, complete with a treasure trove and gold coins. Soon, news of her dig reached Cambridge archaeologist Charles Phillips played by Eric Stott, who declared the site to be 'of national importance' and took over the dig by Order of the Office of Works. Basil Brown was retained only to keep the site in order, but Edith soon stepped in and as she had hired him, on her land, he was soon reinstated and allowed to dig. 

Going into the film blind, you’re given nothing at all about Mulligan’s character Edith Pretty, apart from the fact that she came from a wealthy family, living on an estate complete with household staff and she has a young son, Robert. Her son is highly imaginative and spends a lot of time with Basil, learning about ancient pasts, and archaeological digs, and Basil enjoys Robert’s company, as he and his wife were unable to have children of their own, and so Basil and Robert form a kind of close bond. 

You’re aware that Edith’s husband is no longer around, and that she tends to his grave, but you’re unsure what he died of. But given that era, you’re aware that he probably died in military service somewhere, or at least connected to something military, given the sad glances at the soldiers walking through her village where they’re billeted, as she heads towards the railway station for her private appointments in London. 

That being said, the film in general touched on a certain part of Edith's life, which was primarily about the Dig, and how much Basil meant to her son, and indeed her, during the whole excavation of the mound. At one point, you wonder if the two of them will actually get together. Set in the English countryside and with a moving soundtrack, it was a story without guns and without fighting, but it did have a tragic plane crash and a community working together to rescue the crashed pilot. 

Despite the setting, the house, and the lady of the manor, as it were, the story wasn’t really about Edith, but Basil, the man who came to work on three of the 18 mounds on her estate, and despite his earlier thoughts on one of the smaller mounds, her persistence that he digs the largest one, eventually happened. 

It was Edith’s determination regarding the unearthed ship, that kept Basil on the job when the Museum came begging for a piece of the action. With the ever-creeping War, the excavation of the burial mound would have to cease, so it was literally, as many hands-on decks as possible, to unearth the rest of the finds, and pack them away in a bunker somewhere safe, till after the War had ended. 

Edith insisted that Basil’s name be mentioned alongside everyone who was at the dig, reminding them, that he was the one who had unearthed the find in the first place. However, his name did not feature anywhere in the credits of the dig. It was only when the items were put together for an exhibition at the Royal Museum in London, many years later, that Basil's name was added, posthumously. Which seems terribly unfair, because if it hadn't been for Basil, who unearthed the find, the Museum would have nothing to show of a bygone era. 

The underdogs always go unnoticed. 

What you discover, when you do a little research. 

As much as I know that Carey Mulligan is a wonderful actress, and going in blind for this film, you see a woman completely in control of who she hires, and you see how much her health is debilitating her, and confining her to her bed more than out in the fields, watching over the dig, with her son, you’re fooled into thinking that Edith was a young woman when she was mother to son, Robert. Truth be known, Edith was 47 when she gave birth, which is quite an age really, and for there to be no complications either, as is often the way of the world nowadays. So, during the time of the dig, Edith would be in her 60^th year, as young Robert, as far as I could tell from the film was about thirteen. So, Carey was much too young, I feel to play such a role. 

Also, I was led to believe that her husband had been killed in battle. It turned out, that after the First World War, Frank Pretty, remained within the Suffolk regiment obtaining rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Commander of the 4th Battalion, and died at the age of 56 from stomach cancer. 

If it’s the only quarrel I have with the film, it’s a small one. 

For everything else, this film, is a wonderful look back at a bygone era, where life seemed far less fraught as it is today. Summers seemed to stretch out for months, and the premise was relaxing and easy on the mind. I could rewatch this film countless times over and not be disappointed. Except perhaps only with the less than credible casting, and then only because I did my research. Curses! 

Carey Mulligan wasn’t the only Doctor Who actor in the film, Danny Webb (Impossible Planet) was the butler, Arsher Ali (Before the Flood/Under the Lake) also starred and Chris Wilson (Torchwood 2006 – 2011), who was involved with the Museum crowd – which means I’ll have to watch it again!!! 

The Dig was a 2021 film directed by Simon Stone and based on the novel by John Preston. The book was published in 2007, and I might just look that one out. The film is currently streaming on Netflix. Book yourself a seat on the sofa, with popcorn and maybe some ginger beer! 

Beyond The TARDIS His Dark Materials by DJ Forrest

 

Written by Philip Pullman and adapted for television by Jack Thorne, His Dark Materials was to go deeper into the characters and much further on than The Golden Compass ever accomplished. 

It has a soundtrack on par with Game of Thrones and even The Crown, and a cast of such magnitude in the television world that there is no room for failure. Such a brilliant performance from young Dafne Keen who plays young Lyra Belacqua, who discovers more than the truth of who her parents are but what they want to achieve in life, and how they go about it. 

The series explores the lives of the people in the story. The Gyptians, and especially Ma Costa, whose young son had been taken by the Gobblers and had been separated from his daemon. It explored his story in more detail, because at the end of the initial film, I hadn't realised what happened to him. This series explored that ending, thoroughly. 

But it wasn't just those in Lyra's world, there was another child, Will from our world who was equally as important, and Carlo Boreal played by Ariyon Bakare who was in a desperate search to find him, because of letters he was sent from his missing presumed dead, father, played by Andrew Scott. 

The Magisterium, who Carlo Boreal worked for, were far more sinister than the original film portrayed. It seemed a very religious organisation, that didn't like new ideas or new inventions and frowned upon the work of Lord Asriel, played by James McAvoy. To be fair, his character role of Asriel was perhaps stronger than the limited version by Daniel Craig in The Golden Compass. There was a darkness with McAvoy that perhaps wasn't there with Bond star Craig, and for that, I'm almost grateful. 

Yet, it was Ruth Wilson as Mrs Coulter who stole the show. Her performance as Lyra's mother was outstanding. She can carry a crazy role like Coulter and add a darker, more twisted soul than Kidman ever could in The Golden Compass, and I'm not being harsh when I say that. Kidman herself can play some real cruel and memorable characters, but Ruth has that almost Woman in Black feel to Coulter. That scream of rage on the other side of the door, with Lyra screaming on the other. Oh my god! Sent shivers down my spine. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda plays Lee Scoresby, and as much as my favourite (at the time) was gravel drawled Sam Elliott, I have to say, that Miranda explores his character in much more depth than the film ever did. 

There are some noticeable differences between the film and the series, however, in the way that The Golden Compass was quick to pace out the film, with action and sequences, and for those of us who hadn't then read the books, and for some of us who still haven't yet, assumed that everything was fine, but as the series shows us, there were some areas that were extended, and some sequences that had been used for another scene and for another part of the story. Such as the narrow icy bridge that Lyra crosses, which in the film was the journey to the shed hiding Billy Costa. The film also didn't explore Billy's future in the way that the series had. It wasn't explored that Billy had a brother, so I fully enjoyed the series that explored the Gyptians and their fight against the Magisterium. 

Lord Asriel's betrayal however, to his daughter, that was probably the hardest part of the story, and so full of emotion. The girl who looks up to the man who she assumes is first her Uncle and then her Dad, and is then horrified to learn of his deed against young Roger Parslow, that was only ever touched upon in the final credits of The Golden Compass. 

But there's a new part of this story that wasn't in the film. What happens beyond Lyra's world? The cut between worlds, where some people are able to step between them as if stepping into another room, such as Carlo in his pursuit for the letters left by Will's Dad, who disappeared, presumed dead after an arctic expedition. You know yourself, that if you're going to use Andrew Scott in a small news excerpt, that you're going to see a lot more of him at a later date. 

Series 2 explores Will's World, who we're introduced to in Series 1. A young teenage boy who is looking after his Mum, who suffers from extreme anxieties, especially those surrounding her husband and people who would want to find out what happened to him. 

The interesting thing regarding this entire series, is the amount of cast from Doctor Who. For much of the episode regarding Roger, I was certain I'd seen him before, and in much the same way as the original Roger from the film had been in Torchwood, Lewin Lloyd had been in Doctor Who, and after getting all excited after seeing Nina Sosanya as Will's mother, it was more of an I-Spy game of Who Else Has Been in Who?

It's been a brilliant first series, so I'm looking forward to this second one. What else can we do these days but settle in front of the tellybox with some decent materials to watch.

Beyond The TARDIS Des by DJ Forrest

 

Dennis Andrew Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer who murdered 15 young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 at his home in London. His youngest victim was only 14. He was convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 4^th November 1983, with a recommendation that he served a minimum of twenty-five years. This was later changed to a whole life tariff which means that he would never be given parole. That he will never be released. 

On 12^th May, 2018, Nilsen died in his prison cell at the age of 72. 

I had heard of Nilsen when I was a youngster but there were a lot of serial killers at that time, so he was just another in a long list of criminals. However, Des, and indeed the documentary after the three-part series, really opened my eyes as to just how vile Nilsen really was. 

Tennant’s depiction of this character was horrifying, and the likeness between the pair visually was shocking. Not once during his performance of Nilsen did Tennant break a smile. Not once did I witness a touch of the Doctor. He displayed a deadness behind the eyes. A cold-hearted killer. This was not a character role that you could warm to, that you would want to root for. 

In one of the scenes, his biographer, Brian Masters could not understand how Nilsen could sit and eat a sandwich in his kitchen, while the severed head of one of his victims was boiling away in a pan on the stove. 

Tennant played Nilsen to a tee. 

To be fair, much of the three series event was like a Doctor Who reunion, but each of the actors played characters so far removed from the sci fi series that you couldn’t see them in anything other than the roles they played in Des. 

But it wasn’t just Tennant who played a ‘blinder’. Daniel Mays as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay was also outstanding in his role, along with Jason Watkins as biographer Brian Masters and Ron Cook as DSI Geoff Chambers. 

In our current world where we barely see anyone smoking a cigarette and most definitely not indoors, Des brought it all back to the screen. It was just like watching The Sweeney again except without the strong language. Everyone smoked, and Mays’ character was no exception. Peter Jay died of a cancer related illness many years later. 

If you haven’t seen Des yet, you can catch up with it on one of the streaming channels on the tellybox. It’s well worth a watch, but make sure you’ve a strong stomach. It’s not for the faint hearted.

 

Beyond The TARDIS Staged by DJ Forrest

How are you going to get an entertaining piece of television drama, where two furloughed actors talk to each other over the Internet?

Easy - use David Tennant and his co-star in Good Omens, Michael Sheen with Georgia Moffett and I'm guessing Sheen's other half, and throw in a few big names in film, such as Samuel L Jackson and Dame Judi Dench, and Nina Sosanya, and a few lesser known cast and people will flock in their hundreds - and you know, it worked!

It's BBC iPlayer, it's David Tennant being rude, and sweary and wearing the same clothing throughout the 6 episodes, and acting like a slobby teenager and Michael Sheen seemingly losing the plot with whatever is outside the windows and being manipulated by his elderly neighbour, over a few bottles of wine.

I never thought I'd find this piece of drama, funny, but I was laughing out loud and chuckling at the antics between the pair.

They've been asked to rehearse a Play, written by Jo, played by Nina Sosanya, but neither actor can settle on when to do it, and more importantly, whenever they attempt, someone loses signal, mostly the agent and offline events seem to take centre stage.  Then there's the casting as to who is going to play whichever part, and towards the middle of the series, each of the main cast, Tennant and Sheen, begin to back stab each other. It's absolutely hilarious how much they both carry on like petulant children, but it's brilliant in the way it's been put together over the internet.

I don't really settle to viewing television like this often but it worked. Perhaps it's because these are big names in television and film that I stayed to watch back to back episodes and hope that they bring out another series. Realising we're limited at the moment for entertainment, if this is the only way we can be 'entertained', then let's get on with it.

Beyond The TARDIS Fisherman's Friends by DJ Forrest

Jago: Put on a pair of shades ....and I'm Bonio!

Leadville: It's Bono, you pillock

Written by Piers Ashworth, Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft

Directed by Chris Foggin

Starring James Purefoy, Daniel Mays, David Hayman, Maggie Steed and Noel Clarke.

Ten fishermen from Cornwall are signed by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of Sea Shanties.

A light hearted film with laughs and sadness going hand in hand. It's sea shanties galore. It's Cornwall. It's pubs and fishing and life boats and cars parked too close to the water's edge. It's David Hayman, James Purefoy, Daniel Mays and Noel Clarke. It's a good, toe tapping, hand clapping, head nodding, sing along kind of film, where 'What shall we do with a drunken sailor' becomes your new earworm for the week.

Fisherman's Friends is the true story of a group of 10 fishermen who are the life blood of their little community in Port Isaac, who don't just catch crab and lobster for their village but are also the lifeboat men around that part of the coast, and during their spare time, sing sea shanties to the locals and holidaymakers out on the sea front.

Danny played by Daniel Mays, plays a London Music Executive who joins his friends for a stag weekend in Cornwall, and is pranked by Troy, his boss, and friend played by Noel Clarke, into signing up the Sea Shanty group for a record deal of a lifetime.

This is a hard task considering the group would rather put friendship and loyalty ahead of fame and indeed fortune. Danny has his work cut out here.

It's a great story and brings with it a sense of community that is often lacking in the world we live in. Of course, sometimes the flip side of community life, is that everyone knows your business but in this instance, everyone works together until they discover Danny has tested their loyalty when young Rowan asks for some financial advice and ends up selling the Pub.

There are a host of well known names heading up this cast of sea shanty singers. I'm unsure if the actors really sang the songs, or if the original group were dubbed over them but to be fair, whichever way they sang, it was an uplifting film and I can't wait for the sequel.

Beyond The TARDIS Renegades by DJ Forrest

Written by Luc Besson and Richard Wenk

Directed by Steven Quale,

Renegades, (aka American Renegades in the US of A) was a 2017 film full of action and adventure and crime. It starred Sullivan Stapleton, Charlie Bewley, JK Simmons, Sylvia Hoeks, Joshua Henry, Diarmid Murtagh and Dimitri Leonidas. It was based around the Bosnian war, where a small team of Navy SEALS helped a young local woman uncover the lost Nazi gold, which had been sealed in a bank vault, submerged at the bottom of a Bosnian lake.

The premise of the film begins in August 1944 when German forces moved their ill-gotten gains of oil paintings and 27 tons of gold ingots from Paris to a safer location, to collect after the war. They travelled to Bosnian town of Sosansko Grahovo and placed their collection in the bank vault there. The German soldiers rounded up all the townsfolk bar one young boy, who is later revealed (not a spoiler), as the grandfather of one of the main characters in the film.

Evading capture after he swipes that bar of gold, legs it across the town and out into the graveyard where he buries his ingot at the foot of an angel statue, before heading out across the fields, where ahead of him, he sees bursts of gunfire through the trees and hears the screams of the townsfolk.

A soldier from the Partisan Resistance group draws him away from the field and to safety. The soldier is about to explode the dam high above the town but it's the boy who delivers retribution on the town below and wipes out the German Army. The gold becomes folk lore. Many people go in search of it but never find it, but one young woman has a gold bar, that was uncovered at the foot of an angel statue in a graveyard, buried by her grandfather in 1944 as he evaded capture by the German army.

Jump forward to 1995 in Sarajevo, and a team of Navy SEALS are disguised as journalists with the main aim of capturing and extracting Serbian General Milić who is responsible for many atrocities in his country. Naturally, it's meant to be a smooth operation but their escape plans are thwarted and their only means of escape is in a large tank. Which as you can imagine, causes a great deal of damage through the Sarajevo streets which seriously pisses off the Serbian army and puts the SEALS on a three day leave when they return to barracks.

One of the Navy SEALS is in a relationship with Lara, and it's from this reveal of the gold bar, does he bring the rest of his team in on the action, and a plan is devised for finding the gold and bringing it to the surface. Lara reveals that there were at least 2000 gold ingots worth at least $300 million, which would greatly benefit her people and her country.

Naturally to jog the story along, while they're diving and searching for the gold, is the Serbian Army closing in above the lake.

It's a good story, despite critics regarding it as far-fetched and a lack of action. For me, it held enough action to not go explicitly gory. To me the film was entertaining. It was an early evening film on Netflix, and was a 12A, so ideally, The A Team was perhaps its best comparison. Anything more and we'd be expecting to see a lot more blood and gore, and realistically, this film didn't really need that. There were a lot of good fight scenes and overall, it was most enjoyable.

What I enjoyed was seeing Dimitri Leonidas who played Jack Porter (he played Howie Spragg in Doctor Who episode, The God Complex). Leonidas was also in The Monument's Men. He suits a military role and looks a hell of a lot better now than during the Doctor Who episode. I look forward to seeing him in many more of these types of films.

As a side note: Did you know, that Dimitri's sister Georgina, played Molly in Basil Brush and Katie Bell in the Harry Potter franchise? His other sister Stephanie played Irisa Nolan in Defiance and Sophie Hawthorne in American Gothic.

Just a bit of useless information I know but I love these little nuggets that you uncover when researching. 

Beyond The TARDIS SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith by Andrew Allen

Episode One

It will frankly never stop being somewhat remarkable that a kid’s TV show with lasers, aliens, and monsters has as its protagonist a woman in her fifties, and more than that, one that leans in deeply to that woman’s hopes, desires and preoccupations without making her seem like an alien to the young viewers.

Of course, the great thing about The Sarah Jane Adventures – and Elisabeth Sladen’s performance of the part – was that we could always recognise implicitly what she was going through, even if we hadn’t had personal experience of the events ourselves. In The Temptation Of Sarah Jane Smith, we’re allowed to see a significantly more vulnerable Sarah than we’ve seen elsewhere: yeah, sure, she’s screamed often enough in seventies Doctor Who, and she holds Luke tight when she thinks the Daleks are about to exterminate everything in ‘Journey’s End’, but here – like many of the best stories in SJA – the truly terrifying battle is happening in her own heart.

It all starts innocently end-of-a-previous-adventure enough when Team SJ attempt to return a scared kid, looking like a cross between a manic Just William and a depressed Milky Bar Kid, back to his own time, from where (when) he has become lost. There’s a rip in time – a fissure – and Sarah has to return the lost boy back to the fifties, and close up the gap (‘like a time energy puncture repair kit’, Luke suggests. The kid needs an accompanying hand, however, and when Sarah goes back with him, she discovers that there’s a jump in geography as well as time.  

Apart from slightly, quietly and outrageously settling once and for all the UNIT dating controversy, and ignoring Sarah’s statement of her home era in Pyramids Of Mars (that’s not the only thing Sarah will choose to ignore about Pyramids in this story), Sarah Jane Smith pretty quickly deduces that some boxes are best left unopened (perhaps she saw the title of this adventure), and turns on her heel before she starts to look for parents. At which point – perhaps inevitably – The Trickster turns up, to provide some pre-title credit Diabolical Laughter ™.

Everyone soon suspects that Sarah’s trip to the past has unduly disturbed her – ‘She didn’t even complain when Steve Wright came on the radio,’ remarks Clyde, which tells you a) just how bad things have got, and b) that the kids round here really don’t keep to regular school hours. Sarah’s determined to do the right thing, and not mess around with time (‘The Doctor .. knew what he was doing,’ she comments, ‘most of the time.’

Luke is given the task of finding out what’s wrong with his mum, and after a while she tells him: on the other side of the ruptured time fissure are her parents, Barbara and Eddie Smith, shortly before they die in a car crash. Sarah also reveals that they had apparently abandoned her as a baby just before they died. Nobody knows that part of her history, she says – not even The Doctor.

She acknowledges that being so close to a pivotal, fixed point in time of her life is almost certainly a trap, and declares that she’s strong enough to say no. Luke doesn’t dissuade her – in fact, he’s downright persuasive, which almost hints at an earlier version of the script where the part of Luke was being played by The Trickster. In the end, he goes with her to the past, while taking the mickey out of her clothes (he doesn’t really have the right too, though: of course Sarah Jane Smith’s idea of a typical 1950s skirt would come complete with pockets).

Sarah decides pretty rapidly that she won’t come into contact with herself as a child (she doesn’t mention the BLE to Luke, but it’s fair to assume he could do the maths), but will attempt to save the lives of her parents. Her rationalising over her emotions is by necessity a slightly rushed affair (of which more next episode). Meanwhile, Rani and Clyde discover that a Graske was cosplaying as Creepy Kid, and attempt to save Sarah that way, by utilising a helpful box that protects them from (a certain amount of) harm.

So, yes – this is the episode in which a pair of charismatic jobbing character actors take on a gig for a children’s TV show, perhaps barely aware of the level of fandom that are going to be watching their every move far-too-keenly. Although, if there’s any justice, they now have a guaranteed route to the comic-con circuit for the rest of their professional lives as the mum and dad of Sarah Jane Smith.

There’s a very decent cliff-hanger image that looks like a cross between the image of the future The Doctor once warned Sarah about, and the UK posters for the movie The Day After Tomorrow. Having now set itself up as a companion piece to both ‘Turn Left’ and ‘Father’s Day’, this episode does a lot to suggest that Sarah Jane is the most important companion in the world. And we can hardly argue with that.

Episode Two

The second episode of this two-parter is both far too short, and has to do a bit of plot-delaying to get to the denouement. This isn’t anybody’s fault – certainly not writer Gareth Roberts, who’s doing a lot of juggling here, but more that the real villain is a much more emotionally nuanced thing than the Graske or even The Trickster: those masked foes are just the weaponry. It’s fear and loss that pull the trigger.

This will mean that by the time the episode ends, Sarah’s father and mother have to do a very sharp pivot both in terms of how they accept what they know about the universe and their place in it, as well as how they conduct themselves with Sarah (our Sarah, not their Sarah). Frankly, their willingness to sacrifice themselves for a nebulous greater good is by necessity sold very quickly. This is less a criticism than an observation: there just isn’t enough time on screen for Sarah to read out the Wikipedia entries of her adventures from ‘The Time Warrior’ onwards. Luckily, Roberts makes mum and dad very much the harbingers of doom in a way that makes no chemical or scientific sense, but is absolute poetry narratively: everything they touch in their own time turns to dust (which means they get to embrace Sarah at the end, but cruelly robs them of a final kiss with their baby Sarah).

There’s a cute visual joke with a police box – although it does make you think why couldn’t the Doctor Who crew just film a few seconds of their TARDIS, since Lis Sladen is clearly never in the same shot, and in any case, this police box is somewhat obviously much smaller on the outside considering the height of the police officer that pops out.

Rani meets (a version of) her mum, in scenes that harken back to – of all things – ‘The Dalek Invasion Of Earth’ (although in this case, the invading forces of approximately 50 years and the absolute destruction of all buildings in a single three foot alien). Sarah Jane’s name has still become iconic, and she’s known as the woman who sold the earth (although it’s telling that even here, it’s well established that she was tricked and lied to).

Rani and Clyde split off into smaller storylines (after sharing their first peck-on-the-cheek kiss) – the latter travelling with the Graske, and Rani back to Sarah’s past (‘yes, ethnic girl in the fifties,’ she manages to pith in the village hall).

It’s not too long before the elder Smith’s have driven off into the denouement, something that the Trickster had somehow not seen coming: ‘They’ve saved the world,’ Sarah Jane opines, ‘something that we Smiths are quite good at.’ As we’ve hinted, it feels like there should be another thirty minutes to deal with all the emotional fallout of this story (of which there is a lot), but as we’ve also hinted, that would likely be thirty minutes of Elisabeth Sladen and cast looking mournfully at one another and talking about the past. Which – don’t get me wrong, with these actors, would be a genuinely great piece of TV – but I can understand why they’d want to cut it short.

In the end, it’s about a beginning that we didn’t even know we had. And somehow, impossibly, makes a character we’ve known for forty years even richer.

Beyond The TARDIS Mark of the Berserker Part 2 by Andrew Allen

After a quick recap of last week’s misadventures. Rani and Luke do the logical thing, and attempt to ring Sarah Jane herself for help – leading to a cute cameo from Lis Sladen who’s turned her phone off in accordance with the rules of the hospital in which she’s alien-hunting (apparently the ward is OK with all other sonic devices). When they can’t get in touch with the lead of the show, Rani and Luke begin to call up the rest of the supporting cast, leading to another cute cameo from Mariah and her dad, who manage remarkably quickly to hack into the secret files of UNIT and find out the history of this week’s Scary Alien Artefact.

Meanwhile, Clyde’s dad is fulfilling his function as Typical Nightmare Weekend Divorced Dad by getting his son lots of new clothes and driving around in a flashily expensive car (yes, it’s all stolen, but that’s almost beside the point).Clyde has renounced his friends and any degree of interest in ever saving the world again. It reminds you of what the style of the Doctor Who universe was when it was being overseen by Russell T Davies – OK, fine, have the world about to end, but if you can’t push that crisis into the background in order to concentrate on a family dispute, then the story isn’t worth doing.

In this, the script is subtly economical too, never taking half a page of dialogue to achieve what can be delivered in just a few words: as soon as Carla discovers that Paul’s car is heading towards the marina, her reaction is absolute and immediate: ‘He’s taking my baby,’ she cries, terrified. We’ve said it before, but in many ways SJA, via its script, very often proves itself to be somewhat more mature than its parent show (no, we’re not even entertaining the possibility that one might call Torchwood ‘mature’ – not without smirking, anyway).

By the end of the episode, everyone is gridlocked into an immovable position – how exactly can you defeat a force that can bend everyone to its will? This is a story that has very little of Sarah Jane in the episodes, which is a trick that the concurrent seasons of Doctor Who used to do. But – with the exception of Turn Left – those stories were not particularly concerned with the absence of the title character – indeed, in Love & Monsters, or Blink, the Doctor still prowls around the edges and influences the plot. This double of Sarah Jane Adventures goes a little further, suggesting that as powerful and resourceful as the supporting cast are, the story cannot continue without Sarah Jane, and the day can be won only by bringing the star of the show back into the mix: which is exactly what the episode does, with a quick handwave of exposition to explain why she’s suddenly in the right place at the right time.

By the time we get to the epilogue, Clyde gets to talk about his ‘found’ family – Sarah and friends – indicating that he is who he is because of knowing them – while Ms Smith gets to briefly mention her own parents, which is so incongruous it can only be a plot seeding for a forthcoming episode ..   

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.

Beyond The TARDIS SJA: Day of the Clown by Andrew Allen

Episode One

This is the third episode of series two, and already it feels like there’s something of a soft reboot, since the cast has changed, and there needs to a slight restating of what the shows rules are. But since none but the biggest Maria Jackson fans are really going to care one way or the other that there’s a new girl in town, neither will we for just the moment, and instead concentrate on the fact that a CBBC show going out on British TV at 4.45 in the afternoon has straight up decided to remake Stephen King’s It.

It’s not even as if the allusion is particularly subtle: the opening sequence has a young child chasing after a lost toy – for the resident of Derry it was a paper boat, here it’s just a football – but when a creepy clown with scary teeth rocks up (offering red balloons, no less), it’s safe to say that we know where inspiration has been found. The paintjob of this episode’s vehicle is straightforward (scary clowns gonna be scary) and clever (scary clown is also an alien, while being the original Pied Piper), but the really impressive thing – again, considering that this is a kid’s show going out before it even gets dark, is that its largely preoccupied with at least some of the same fears that It itself is: in other words, the abduction and murder of children. And while the dialogue may skate over the ramifications of that so quickly, we may miss it if we blink too much, the actual implications are clear: these children are indeed being taken away from their families. And (in yet another direct link with the Stephen King novel), as is pointed out, this clown also feeds on the abject fear of the distressed parents. This is pretty dark stuff for a kids show, dark enough that it cannot (and perhaps should not) depict at all realistically: mere hours after a child’s abduction from within school grounds, the school has not -  as you might have expected - been placed into lockdown, but still has after school activities going on where the missing child’s mates cheerfully answer interrogations from a visiting middle aged stranger.

All of this – Bradley Walsh as the Pied Piper, the child abduction plot, the breathlessly casual way that the previous headmaster has (presumably) been killed off, takes secondary status to the arrival of Rani Chandra. Later on, when Clyde introduces her to Mr Smith, he smiles ‘This is where it gets interesting,’ and a similar line can be thrown at the show itself. Not because the previous episodes have been lacking – indeed, many of them have been glorious – and not because Maria or even Kelsey were flawed as characters – but as soon as Rani arrives, there’s an almost audible click of everything falling into place. The Scooby Gang is all here.

Which is to say, this is a very fine ensemble cast (and, not to belabor a point, a prime example of how having three companions is not too much to cope with for a sci-fi show that’s led by a woman and features Bradley Walsh. Not that we’re attempting to draw any direct correlations here). Luke will always suffer from having to carry double duty on plot exposition (as per demands, he either knows absolutely nothing about fairly obvious stuff or absolutely everything about alien stuff – and even that is surplus to requirements if Mr Smith is powered up and ready). Clyde has a much easier time of it, getting to be both hot-headedly heroic and smart-ass, while Elisabeth Sladen is allowed to do new things with her character: for a woman who’s faced off Daleks and the Loch Ness Monster (copyright, Toby Whithouse, 2006), it makes some sort of sense that the one thing that would genuinely unsettle her would be rooted in irrational childhood panic.

All of which leads us to the point that this review has been hurtling toward for some time now, which is to pour fulsome praise on Aniji Mohindra. It’s a very confident performance right off the bat. Things are slightly unsettled in parts of episode 2, where Rani is both written and directed to be a little more wide-eyed and frenetic than she will be elsewhere, in a fashion that owes something to her predecessors, and makes one suspect that the episodes were filmed in reverse order. Otherwise, right from her first meet cute with Clyde, immediately making snarky comments, and her nonjudgmental observation that Luke is a ‘bit weird’ (Luke’s clarification that he’s actually ‘different’, could easily be read as code for viewers who are not neurotypical), all lead to the sense that Rani has earned her place in the team even before the end of her first scene. It’s almost laughable – it’s certainly impressive – how the show makes little to no effort to disguise the fact that Rani is being posited as a prototypical Sarah Jane – she even wants to be a journalist, for god’s sake. If The Sarah Jane Adventures has a ‘classic team’ in the way that Doctor Who has – the Doctor, Victoria and Jamie, for instance, or indeed, the Doctor and Sarah herself – it’s with this episode that Team SJA is firmly put in place.

Episode Two

Once they’ve escaped the cliffhanger of the previous episode, Sarah, Luke and Clyde decamp to Bannerman Road, joined by Rani. There’s the briefest of hesitation before the plot – and Sarah Jane herself – decide to invite Rani onto the team properly, via a Russell T Davies-style ‘all of time and space’ speech (only Sarah calls it work experience). Luke has a momentary feeling of loss, moping at Maria’s photo (which to be fair is more than many classic companions in Doctor Who got). Sarah has already been asked if she’s always saving the world, or is that just on Mondays (a cute meta reference to when this episode was first aired), and it’s time for Rani to find out what saving the world actually means. There’s mild flirtation energy from Clyde, which is mostly unnoticed. When alien life forms need help, Sarah explains, they give it. And if they’re looking for trouble, Clyde grins, they give them that, too.

Before long, Sarah’s put down the rules for being part of her team – ‘We look after each other, we respect all life, no matter where it comes from,’ which seems like a pretty sound guide to life. Yes, her career is journalism, but saving the world is ‘more of a hobby’. Rani is mostly impressed by the talking computer in Sarah’s attic that can answer any question (which depressingly reminds you how much this story predates your Alexa). Mr Smith is rattled by Rani right away, dismissing most of the connections that she immediately makes, so it’s good to see that Sarah backs her up right away.

There’s a quick cameo from Floella Benjamin back at the Pharos Institute as Sarah collects this week’s macguffin, before Rani has a chance to earn her place in the team. Not at the episode’s denouement, which we’ll come to in a moment, but in a more subtle way: she gets to deliver the type of speech usually reserved for Sarah Jane at the close of an episode. ‘It’s incredible, isn’t it,’ she muses as her new mentor looks on. ‘The universe. I mean, it’s scary .. but it’s amazing.’

We just have time for a reasonably obscure Doctor Who clown reference (no, not that one) and Sarah explaining why clowns scare her more than any number of aliens (which is both a somewhat difficult thing to make long-term fans buy, and also something that writer Phil Ford manages to deliver). In one last reference to It, there are plenty of red balloons that push against the wind, which make the schoolkids fall into zombified silence (shades of Children Of Earth there). The kids are pulled back to the villain’s lair, and Sarah Jane struggles to battle her fear – ‘We’re only scared of what we don’t understand,’ she claims, only to have OddBob snarl that he literally defies understanding.

At the close of the episode, Luke is captured (it’s neatly astute that it’s he that is the damsel in distress rather than the new girl), and Rani – continuing to prove her Sarah Jane pedigree – deduces that Clyde’s rep as the joker in the pack (along with his bad jokes) will dilute the bully with the painted face. Again, it’s essentially the same ending as the Stephen King book (we even get a version of the ‘deadlights’), coupled with the argument that a mother’s fear is not a weakness, but rather a strength.

As happy endings go, it’s somewhat bleak (we’re told quite clearly that hundreds of children over many years have been killed by the entity formed of fear itself), but as a mission statement, you couldn’t hope for better: fear does not have to overwhelm you, it’s OK to be scared, and even bad jokes can save the day.

Oh, and the universe really is surprising.