May 11: "Taphony and the Time Loop" (K-9) / The Nightmare Man Part One (SJA)

In the UK, K-9 took a summer break, but then it returned in October 2010, coincidentally(?) right around the same time as the start of series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Taphony and K-9 have a discussion. ("Taphony and the Time Loop")
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This latest episode, "Taphony and the Time Loop", is a somewhat confused story.  It's about Professor Gryffen rescuing a girl (played by Maia Mitchell, who apparently is actually somebody -- although not at the time this was made) who he helped experiment upon a while ago, as he feels guilty about her being locked up in a maximum security prison, only for her to appear inside his house, rather than a safer location like he'd originally intended.  Taphony, the girl, is incredibly dangerous, it seems, and she's completely unaware of the damage she's causing -- believing that aging Professor Gryffen is a form of justice, and not comprehending that Jorjie doesn't want to die so that Taphony can live.  The script veers between considering her dangerous and misunderstood, and while it seems to eventually come down on the "misunderstood" side of things, it feels half-hearted somehow, as if the writers have made this decision because it's the sort of thing expected from the show, rather than because it makes sense.  It also doesn't help that it's never quite clear why Taphony is such a threat.  Yes, she can age people and steal their life essence, but how she can do this is vague.  Calling her a "time blank", like that's supposed to mean anything, doesn't help either, but that's all the explanation we get, and it's left to us to fill in the blanks.

Still, the underlying message of "being dangerous doesn't necessarily mean being malicious" is a good one, and it is rather fun to see Gryffen aged (and the make-up is quite good) -- even if the "he has to be de-aged before his birthday or else he's stuck" conceit is risible.  If this episode had committed more strongly to being one type of episode or the other (either make Taphony incredibly dangerous and naïve or just have her be evil), then they might have had a winner, but "Taphony and the Time Loop" tries to have it both ways and thus falls rather flat.

But as I noted above, it's not just K-9 coming back.  Autumn 2010 brought us the fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, which opened with The Nightmare Man.  Luke is off to Oxford, a year ahead of Rani and Clyde (apparently that brain really is good for something), but as he's getting ready to leave he starts to have nightmares...

It's striking, comparing The Sarah Jane Adventures to K-9, just how much more confident the former is.  Even allowing for K-9 being a low budget show in its first series, its aspirations appear to be middle-of-the-road children's fare.  The Sarah Jane Adventures, by contrast, is aiming much higher.  This first episode is a perfect example.  While we still get interpersonal drama, in Luke's leaving for university and how it's going to affect everyone, we also get the SF/horror idea of a figure from nightmares entering the real world (yes, much like A Nightmare on Elm Street).  But rather than being an end of itself, at least in the first part, writer Joseph Lidster has chosen to make the nightmares reflect the anxieties of most children who leave home for the first time -- the thought of people being glad that you're finally gone, or of being replaced and forgotten.  They're very plausible nightmares, and the realization here is more scary than the Nightmare Man himself (as played by Julian Bleach, who here becomes one of the very few actors (and possibly the only one who's not a member of the BBC Wales "company", à la monster actor Paul Kasey) to have appeared in Doctor Who and its two BBC spin-offs).  The Nightmare Man is scary not because of his appearance but because of the nightmares he can cause Luke to have.  We're deliberately at this point not given an explanation as to the Nightmare Man's true nature, which helps with the strange nature of this episode.

It's a good move, juxtaposing the change of heading to university with the associated nightmares and maintaining this focus throughout the episode, and this first part is a genuinely impressive and well-written piece.  It also leads to a great cliffhanger, as Luke finally succumbs to sleep, allowing the Nightmare Man to enter the real world -- while Luke is trapped in an empty void in his head...