An Hour of Who a Day: March 29: Secrets of the Stars Parts One & Two (SJA)

Part of me, when hearing about celestial alignments and seeing red energy projected down to Earth, really wanted this to be the return of the Mandragora Helix from The Masque of Mandragora. Alas, it wasn't to be...²⁰²

It's odd; in many ways this feels like a standard Sarah Jane Adventures story, with a strange new alien influence and a great villain in the form of Russ Abbot's Martin Trueman, who's been taken over by the Ancient Lights. We even get an interesting explanation for the Ancient Lights, as energy from the universe before this one (so nobody tell the Doctor about it -- see "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit" if you need to be reminded why).

But that might actually be the problem with Secrets of the Stars: while we do get an explanation, it does feel rather hand-wavy at times, as if they put in a placeholder explanation and never got around to expanding upon it. And while Russ Abbot does an outstanding job of being charismatic and charming as Martin Trueman, there's never really a sense of menace, other than the moment near the end of part one where he threatens Sarah Jane and Rani -- he's so convinced that he's right that he doesn't even need to threaten people, which is great from a villainous standpoint but less successful from a dramatic one. There's also the issue that people's possession by the Ancient Lights doesn't seem as threatening or creepy as the possession in the previous story -- it's certainly a good idea, but it lacks punch onscreen. (This is especially curious given that this story was also directed by Michael Kerrigan, who did such a good job with The Day of the Clown.)

I should be clear; there's nothing actually terrible about Secrets of the Stars. The storyline is interesting, the casting is great, and everyone seems spot-on. They're also taking cares to make Rani's dad more likeable, after his abrasive introduction in the previous story, and that's a good thing. It just feels, at the end of it all, that it's missing something; there's a sense of "is that it?" as part two wraps up. There are also a number of questions at the end (How do the Ancient Lights actually work? Do other planets need to worry about the Ancient Lights? Will they ever come back?) that aren't even brought up to be set aside, and that leads to an unfinished feel. Oh, it's entertaining enough, but it lacks that extra punch that the best Sarah Jane stories have provided.

²⁰² At one point, apparently, it actually was going to be a sequel to The Masque of Mandragora, until they decided the Ancient Lights didn't quite fit with what we'd seen in the 1976 story. But there's clearly still enough left in the final version to clue me in. And to be fair, they never say it's not the Mandragora Helix...