‘What? You mean Area 51? Dreamland? Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there.’ Unlike subsequent “gap years”, 2009 definitely doesn’t feel short of Doctor Who material. This animated episode fills a gap between The Waters of Mars and the Christmas Special. Like the previous animation, The Infinite Quest, it was originally broadcast in segments (this time on various streaming services), but this full-length version made it to TV.
‘There should’ve been another way.’ The cheeky ending mocks the campness of sombre, Saward-era Doctor Who by having Sarah Jane regret resorting to extreme measures to defeat the Blathereen while having just watched them fart themselves to death and dripping with their entrails. It’s the best moment in a script full of fun, which moves on from each element before it wears out its novelty.
‘I’ve had bad experiences with aliens bearing gifts.’ The Sarah Jane Adventures revisits The Claws of Axos with seemingly-friendly aliens offering the solution to world hunger, only for that gift to turn deadly. The good news is this is much (intentionally) funnier than The Claws of Axos, with a script that’s well balanced between the comedy of Sarah Jane entertaining the Blathereen for dinner, or Clyde borrowing K9 to cheat a biology test, with Luke succumbing to the effects of the rakweed spores.
‘Anything I do just makes it happen.’ This one was trailed as ‘the scariest to date’, but despite the presence of 28 Days Later style running zombies (except transformed by a single drop of water rather than blood), the visceral horror is predictably subdued. Instead, there is existential dread at the terrible inevitability of events, as both the crew of Bowie Base One and the Doctor confront the path that’s set out before them.
‘That enigmatic smile everyone bangs on about? Wind.’ The usual Part Two runaround, with some nice additions like Mona Lisa’s vampire-like allergy to direct sunlight (old paintings do have to be kept in carefully controlled conditions), and Harding’s dawning realisation of what obsession can do. It’s neat that this ends with both Luke and Harding learning to appreciate the woman in their lives – whether the feeling is reciprocated or not. The only bit that I didn’t really get was the Dark Rider – the concealed face and suggestion of long brown hair made me wonder for a while if this was going to turn out to be Sarah Jane in disguise, somehow.
‘Before I met Luke, who was I? A lonely, frosty woman in the big house who knew more about creatures from outer space than she did humans.’ This is more like it, a script that balances Luke and Sarah Jane’s evolving relationships, as they explore the reality of the relationship between parents and young adults, while also having to deal with the Mona Lisa stepping out of her frame and going on a rampage.
‘It’s a super-spook smack-down.’ Probably the limpest Sarah Jane Adventure yet, as it lacks either the emotional punch of something like The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, or the comic action of Prisoner of the Judoon. The result has the requisite amount of running round, but not much more going for it. Principally, there aren’t the jump scares or haunting moments that would make this an effective chiller even for kids.
‘I think what you experienced was a stone tape manifestation.’ They missed Halloween thanks to the wedding, but this is a fast follower, a ghost story complete with spooky point of view shots, a sobbing girl, a mysteriously rocking horse and a gothic secret passage. All the cliches are present and correct. So too is Sarah Jane’s Doctorish scepticism, although I am surprised she isn’t more forthcoming about her own encounters with the ghosts of N-Space.
‘It all rests with you, Sarah. Your greatest challenge. The hardest thing you’ll ever face in your life.’ The reason this works as a Sarah Jane Adventure is that the Doctor is a red herring, pretty much only there to run round with the kids and remind Sarah that she knows how the Trickster operates. Cleverly, he’s kept trapped in a separate pocket of time for most of the episode, which means Tennant gets to dash around looking cool, doing Tom Baker impressions and being brilliant one last time – these were, after all, his final scenes recorded – while Sladen gets the meat of the story.
‘The world can look after itself. I’m busy with something normal for a change.’ I really enjoy the tone of this one, and the way it starts as a light comedy, like Mr Smith prissily arguing with the newly-returned K9. There are also strong elements of farce, including K9 bustling about trying to help Rani and Clyde catch an alien as Sarah Jane attempts to hide her uncanny side-line from Peter. This is all summery and sweet, as the December bride brings her new fella home, while Rani, Clyde and Gita rubberneck and K9 forlornly admits he can offer no useful advice to Luke on what to say or how to behave.
Next Time... 