March 30: The Mark of the Berserker Parts One & Two (SJA)

And so the moral of the story is, clearly don't let Sarah Jane go deal with monsters in Tarminster and leave the others by themselves...

In some respects The Mark of the Berserker wants to be about strained family relations, about what happens when the father who left comes back, and when he's not emotionally ready to have a serious relationship with his now-older son.  Clyde's father Paul comes back, but he seems really awkward around Clyde, as if he doesn't know how to behave or react -- but the fact that he came to see him still says something.  The only problem is that Paul seems to be too selfish to handle this well, and throwing in an alien artifact into the mix only makes things worse.  This is The Sarah Jane Adventures, after all, and it wouldn't be the same without something alien causing problems.

Clyde and his dad laugh as Rani's dad is compelled to do
push-ups. (The Mark of the Berserker Part One) ©BBC

Now while there are some additional consequences of this (such as Haresh Chandra being compelled to do push-ups forever, more or less), the primary focus is on Paul and his relationship with Clyde.  Paul doesn't seem to be a bad person so much as a weak one, and the Berserker pendant gives him the opportunity to have what he wants: cars, clothes, and his son by his side (even if Clyde has had to be compelled to forget his friends and mum).  It does provide an interesting twist, though; Paul doesn't want to rule the world or anything like that -- he just wants to escape his responsibilities.

The nice surprise in The Mark of the Berserker is the guest appearance from Maria and Alan Jackson, who are enlisted to help Luke and Rani while Sarah Jane is off tracking down an alien slug.  It's a lovely little appearance, and it's nice to see them helping out -- "And you thought we'd left it all behind," Maria tells her dad.  (They must be racking up one hell of a phone bill on that international call, though.)

If there's a problem with The Mark of the Berserker, it's that there doesn't seem to be a real connection between Paul Langer and the Berserker pendant -- it's used to extend Paul's wish-fulfillment, but as he's not actually a bad person, turning him into a Berserker soldier doesn't carry quite the impact that the script is hoping for.  It's interesting to get a look into Clyde's family dynamics, and it's fun to see Maria and Alan again, but this story ultimately ends up being an average tale.

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).

Sarah Jane and Clyde watch as Martin Trueman prepares for his
apotheosis. (Secrets of the Stars Part Two) ©BBC

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...

March 28: The Day of the Clown Parts One & Two (SJA)

So Maria and Alan Jackson have moved to Washington (with a quick little voice cameo from Maria at the top of the story) and a new family is moving in across the street from Sarah Jane: Haresh and Gita Chandra, and their daughter Rani.²⁰¹  Rani quickly establishes herself as distinct from Maria -- she seems much more headstrong and determined, and essentially bullies her way into Sarah Jane's affairs, despite Sarah Jane's warnings to Luke and Clyde.  Although, to be fair, she's also seeing a creepy clown, so she has a vested interest -- it's not like she's snooping around or anything.

Odd Bob offers a balloon to Clyde. (The Day of the Clown
Part One) ©BBC

But yes, as you may have worked out from the title, the main problem this time around is a clown wandering around snatching up kids -- but only some people can see him, for some reason.  Well, I say "some reason", but it's all the kids who have a ticket to Spellman's Magical Museum of the Circus.  Rani and Clyde both have tickets, so they've both been seeing this sinister clown flitting about.

Even for someone like me who's not particularly scared by clowns, The Day of the Clown does a really good job of creating a creepy atmosphere.  Odd Bob the Clown is not a particularly unthreatening-looking clown, and the way he appears and disappears is really well done.  The first part of The Day of the Clown is filled with effective shots like this -- so kudos to director Michael Kerrigan (who you might remember as the director of Battlefield -- making him the second director, after Graeme Harper, to work on both the original Doctor Who and the modern franchise) -- that do a great job of making Odd Bob seem mysterious and threatening.  And Phil Ford's decision to tie in this weird clown with the Pied Piper is really lovely -- it lends things a thematic consistency (making it easier to have a clown be interested in taking children) and gives the story a bit of that extra impact, being rooted in history (a lot like Hinchcliffe-era Who, which took old tales and such and put a new spin on them).

As I said, Spellman and his other incarnations make a very effective villain, and the scenes of Sarah Jane being confronted by clowns and trying to overcome her fear of them are really well done.  I particularly like the part where she enters the hall of mirrors while trying to find Luke -- her decision to smash them is a good one.  The resolution is, perhaps, not the action-packed sequence we would like, but there is something oddly satisfying about watching an entity that feeds off fear being weakened and ultimately dealt with thanks to a load of rubbish jokes ("Police toilet stolen -- the cops have nothing to go on").  It's a nice ending to a good story.

The Day of the Clown is a really well-done tale -- not only is it suitably creepy and engaging, but there are also lovely character moments with the introduction of Rani and her family.  Making her father the new head teacher at Park Vale Comprehensive School is a good move, as well as softening his character from his initial appearance ("Did your dad go all Captain Bligh again?" Gita asks Rani), and Gita is really lovely and charming (even if she keeps forgetting the "Jane" of "Sarah Jane" -- apparently Sarah Jane is more touchy about this subject than she was in the '70s, when the Doctor would call her "Sarah" all the time).  If the series continues like this, we'll be in for a real treat.







²⁰¹ Not that Rani.  Now you're imagining a show where Elisabeth Sladen and Kate O'Mara team up to fight aliens.  Stop it.

March 27: The Last Sontaran Parts One & Two (SJA)

Other than the major cast upheaval at the end of Part Two, the opening story of The Sarah Jane Adventures series 2 is pretty much business as usual.  This is a sort-of sequel to "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" from series 4 of Doctor Who, with Commander Kaagh explicitly being the only Sontaran survivor from the events of that story.  Kaagh wants to destroy the planet in order to avenge the destruction of the Tenth Sontaran Battlefleet, and it's up to Sarah Jane and company to stop him.

But as I said, this is largely business as usual.  We get a lot of running around a forest, avoiding Kaagh while also trying to foil his plan of crashing a whole bunch of satellites into nuclear power plants and thus turning Earth into "a cinder floating in space" (and I'm willing to bet this is a deliberate reference to one of William Hartnell's more infamous fluffs, from The Chase -- Phil Ford knows his stuff).  Part one is probably the better of the two, because we actually discover things and get some mystery.  (Even if they decide to keep the identity of the alien villain a mystery for a bit, with some sort of invisibility field and a couple of shots of just hands -- thus keeping alive the grand old Who tradition of holding back the first appearance of the monster named in the episode's title.)  There are floating balls of light and some sort of invisible creature causing problems for an isolated radio telescope father-and-daughter combination, and when we do finally see Kaagh revealed we get some entertaining exposition about what he's doing, as well as a couple references to Sarah Jane's time on Doctor Who (including Kaagh's desire to perform experiments on Clyde -- see The Sontaran Experiment if you need reminding).  Part two, on the other hand, is essentially an extended chase sequence.  Who Kaagh is chasing and where varies from sequence to sequence, but we're still just watching them scramble around, while Kaagh goes after one group or the other, as they try to stop his plan.

Luke, Clyde, Maria, and Sarah Jane are confronted by Commander
Kaagh. (The Last Sontaran Part One) ©BBC

But where this episode succeeds is in the character moments. Anthony O'Donnell does a great job as Kaagh, trying to erase the disgrace of an entire Sontaran Battlefleet having been defeated by a single man.  Meanwhile, Yasmin Paige gives a great performance as the conflicted Maria, who wants to go to America with her dad but is still sad about leaving her friends behind.  And Joseph Millson and Juliet Cowan are really quite lovely as Alan and Chrissie; it's especially nice to see Chrissie matter-of-factly accepting the existence of aliens and being worried about Maria's safety instead.  (And it's also really nice how, after Maria tries the old "make her think she just had a weird dream" trick, Chrissie reveals at the end that she wasn't remotely fooled: "I remember it all, you know," she says to Sarah Jane as Alan and Maria drive away.)  Of course, that's always been one of the great strengths of The Sarah Jane Adventures -- the way the characters interact with each other and react to the situations -- but it's still good to see it continue.  And I also like how, at the end, Kaagh is sent on his way, rather than being killed or anything like that; it's good to see this show retain its sense of mercy and compassion.

However, this is indeed the final story for Maria Jackson (barring a cameo or two) and her family.  As she's been the primary audience identification figure for the show, it'll be interesting to see how the dynamics change.  But Yasmin Paige has been very good as one of the leads, and it'll be sad to see her go -- and indeed, to see Joseph Millson go as well, as Alan has often been one of the best parts of the show.  They could have done a lot more with this (particularly with Alan now being comfortable with the idea of aliens), but alas, it wasn't to be.  (And it's not like it was for a bad reason, mind -- Paige wanted to focus on her studies, which is a laudable thing.)

Still, while it might not be the most fantastic send-off ever, The Last Sontaran is a great representation of what The Sarah Jane Adventures are usually like.  One of the great things about this show is that so far they haven't had a story that was of noticeably lesser quality than the others, and The Last Sontaran continues that trend.  It's actually probably one of the weaker entries in the show thus far, and when that's the case you know things are going well.

March 26: "Journey's End"

26 March 2005 was the debut of "Rose"... so the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who is ten years old today!  It's therefore somewhat fitting that today we've reached "Journey's End" and the final major appearance of Rose Tyler (though not of Billie Piper).

So.  How do you wrap up your two-parter (and series 4) when your first part was mainly running in place?  Well, the way "Journey's End" chooses to do it is to add an extra 20 minutes to its running time -- so this is rather like an old five-parter then.  Except that the majority of that hypothetical Part Five is saying goodbyes and dealing with the after-effects of what we see here.

Davros confronts the Doctor. ("Journey's End") ©BBC

Still, what we get here is surprisingly compelling -- surprising because, in a way, "Journey's End" is just as motionless as "The Stolen Earth" was.  After the Doctor ends up not dying by redirecting the regeneration energy to his severed hand¹⁹⁹, he's locked up for the majority of the episode, taunted by Davros in the bottom of the Daleks' Crucible ship, and one by one his companions get locked up too.  But what makes it so watchable isn't just Graeme Harper's direction; it's also designed to be a character study of the Doctor and what he does to others.  "The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun," Davros taunts him.  "But this is the truth, Doctor.  You take ordinary people, and you fashion them into weapons.  Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers.  I made the Daleks, Doctor.  You made this."  It's an interesting argument that never actually gets refuted or qualified in some way -- indeed, the Daleks are ultimately stopped because the meta-crisis Doctor (the one who spawned from the Doctor's hand) ends up killing them all to stop them from terrorizing the universe, which doesn't look very good if you take Davros's point of view (as he points out: "Never forget, Doctor, you did this," he cries as the Crucible explodes around him.  "I name you forever!  You are the Destroyer of Worlds!").  This is, in fact, the reason why Davros is in this story.  Because, let's face it, there's nothing inherently inventive about the Reality Bomb (which oddly looks an awful lot like the insanely deadly weapon from Star Trek Nemesis -- right down to the green glow), nothing that really says "Davros" about it.  No, Davros is there to challenge the Doctor, to provide the Daleks' viewpoint and declare that the Doctor is no better.  (And also to get in a couple good rants, worthy of Michael Wisher and Terry Molloy.)

The Doctor and his friends fly the TARDIS together. ("Journey's
End") ©BBC

And that's one of the most impressive things about "Journey's End": the way it cons you into thinking you're watching a big action-packed story, but when you stop and think about it you realize it was a character study.  Of course, we do get action at the end, as everyone drags Earth back to where it supposed to be²⁰⁰, and while it is an exciting moment (even if it's also incredibly daft), the episode chooses to focus on the goodbyes for longer.  In many, many ways, this really feels like the end of an era -- so much so, in fact, that it's frankly strange we've still got a year with five episodes left.  But the whole gang is back together (even K-9!) to give this Doctor one last triumphant send-off.

This is not to say that it's perfect, though; there are in fact two glaring problems with "Journey's End" that both manifest at the end.  The biggest one is the return of Rose Tyler.  There were really only two options available for bringing Rose back: have her stay or kill her off.  But Billie Piper's not returning and Davies wasn't about to kill off the darling of (particular teenaged girl) fandom, so they settle for a deeply unsatisfying middle ground.  It makes our Doctor look like a bit of a git, as he essentially says, "Yes, I know you traveled through multiple dimensions to get back to me, but I'm taking you back and then heading back home -- but here's someone who looks just like me that you can have instead.  Only he's a bit genocidal, so you'll have to watch him."  (And once again, I'd just like to point out just how well the story of the Valeyard's origin matches up with what we see in this story, when coupled with the knowledge that the tenth Doctor we see from "Journey's End" to The End of Time is the twelfth incarnation of this Time Lord.)  It's trying to have it both ways, and it really doesn't work, no matter how much Murray Gold's music tries to convince us otherwise.  Still, at least Rose finally gets a proper kiss from someone who looks like the Doctor, at least.

The other problem is in a similar vein, and that's the fate of Donna.  At the time this also felt like Davies trying to have it both ways -- killing off Donna but not really.  Now I'm not so sure.  It's still an incredibly cruel act, taking all the character growth we'd seen and chucking it away in favor of "The Runaway Bride" version of Donna (in fact, it's probably crueler than just killing her off would have been), but I do wonder if Davies really was trying to tug on the heartstrings, rather than just avoiding killing off main characters (as it seemed at the time).  I still think killing Donna would have been the better ending, and the way things play out is incredibly vicious for the audience (and for the characters: "But she was better with you," Wilf laments), but it's no longer quite as cowardly an act as it seemed at the time.

Still, those problems only really make themselves known at the end, and everything up to that point is surprisingly good.  We're not deus ex machina-free, of course (in fact, this one seems to have more than ever before -- meta-crisis Doctor, the DoctorDonna, the TARDIS dragging Earth across space...), but they're delivered with such gusto that it's hard to get truly upset with this.  It's not perfect, but it is a tour de force, and ultimately that's what they set out to deliver -- so you can hardly blame them for succeeding.

And that, of course, wraps up series 4.  This is a series that has aged rather well; as time has passed its virtues have become more apparent.  One of the biggest virtues is Catherine Tate, who provides a fun, realistic companion in Donna Noble -- someone who's changed for the better by what she sees, and who's interested in seeing the universe, not in making out with her travelling companion.  It's a refreshing change -- not that I'm knocking Rose or Martha here, but it's nice to have a purer motivation for travelling in the TARDIS.  We also get a strong performance from David Tennant; in fact, it's interesting to watch him as he moves from series 2 to series 4, as he visibly gets better and better in the role (and it's not like he was bad to begin with).  All this and a reasonably strong run of stories (yes, there are some rough patches, but there are also some standout tales -- plus we get more variety in styles and locations, which is also a bonus) means that series 4 is as much of a success as the previous three were.

(After "Journey's End" I watched "Music of the Spheres", which aired three weeks later as part of the  Doctor Who at the Proms special.  It's an entertaining bit of fluff, and it was probably really fun to be there at the Proms in person and seeing the interactive moments, but it's hardly required viewing.  It's on the disc of "The Next Doctor" if you're curious though.)







¹⁹⁹ In a move that led to lots of online discussions at the time as to whether or not the Doctor had used up one of his twelve regenerations by doing this -- of course, now we know (thanks to "The Time of the Doctor") that the answer was "yes".
²⁰⁰ My brother mentioned, in regard to the previous entry, that the Doctor might have also been thinking of The Ultimate Foe, where the Time Lords moved Earth a couple light years using a magnetron (presumably not like the one in your microwave).  Here the Doctors and Donna use the Dalek magnetron to move the planet back, which suggests that RTD was also thinking of The Ultimate Foe.

March 25: "The Stolen Earth"

Wow, that sure was a lot of excitement for what's essentially little more than a set-up episode!

Because when you think about it, little happens in "The Stolen Earth" beyond moving all the pieces into position.  The Earth disappears before the credits even roll, and everything else involves getting everyone to where they'll need to be for the cliffhanger.  Still, it's really quite exciting seeing not just Martha Jones and Rose Tyler, but also Sarah Jane and Luke and what's left of the Torchwood team -- and being familiar with the spin-off shows does give these guest appearances more impact.¹⁹⁸  It's genuinely exciting to see Sarah Jane's attic and the Torchwood hub on Doctor Who -- and it provides a nice sense of interconnectedness among the three shows, rather than the one-way street it had been.

But because we're tying in three shows, Russell T Davies has to devote quite a bit of time to each one, to give just enough detail for those viewers who haven't been watching all three shows to know who these people are and what's going on.  That does take up a lot of time, and while the process is hurried along by the return of former PM Harriet Jones, who has them all talk to each other via her own version of Skype, it still does slow things down.  Fortunately, Davies has realized that this would happen, so he keeps interspersing these sequences with waves of Daleks attacking the planet while the Doctor and Donna pop off to the Shadow Proclamation (which is, oddly, an organization rather than an announcement) to work out that various instances of planets going missing are related.  "Someone tried to move the Earth once before.  Long time ago," the Doctor recalls in what's most likely a reference to The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

But, because there's so much maneuvering involved, it does take a while before things get started, but once they do, they hardly let up.  After Harriet Jones gets everyone talking (except for Rose, who's frankly a bit bitchy when she sees and hears about Martha), we get Harriet exterminated, the Doctor and Donna involved in the action on Earth, and an onscreen confrontation between the Doctor and Davros.  Davros, it seems, fought in the Time War but was pulled out by Dalek Caan (last seen "emergency temporal shift"-ing in "Evolution of the Daleks"), and has now devised some new plan that involves 27 planets.  They've done a really good job with Davros in terms of make-up and design -- other than a robot hand, he basically looks the same as he's ever looked, and Julian Bleach turns in a great performance which recalls the control of Michael Wisher's turn in Genesis of the Daleks.  Even if all he gets to do in this episode is basically sit there.

The tenth Doctor regenerates. ("The Stolen Earth") ©BBC

But what an episode ending!  Finally, after two series, the Doctor finally sees Rose again, but he's shot down by a Dalek before he can make it to her.  It's a shocking moment, but it's really well done -- we get the Doctor dying in Rose's arms, while Captain Jack (who's teleported to the scene) gets them to bring him into the TARDIS.  Where we watch as he begins to regenerate...

So "The Stolen Earth" is an episode that spends an awful lot of time in a holding pattern, waiting for everyone to get to where they need to be, but thanks to some great direction from Graeme Harper and a script that keeps moving, you still find yourself entertained.  It's not perfect (the return of the joke of Harriet Jones introducing herself to everyone isn't funny, and there's the aforementioned jealousy Rose displays -- and why is evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins talking about astronomical topics?), and there's an awful lot depending on how well "Journey's End" goes, as this has given us almost nothing in terms of actual storyline -- but as a Part One "The Stolen Earth" is a very solid effort indeed.







¹⁹⁸ In fact, one of the main factors for my deciding to include the spin-offs in this marathon was knowing that this story was coming up.

March 24: "Turn Left"

Having given us the "companion-lite" episode last time, this time we get the "Doctor-lite" episode.  "Turn Left" provides us with an interesting thought experiment: if Donna had never met the Doctor in "The Runaway Bride", how would things have turned out differently?  Quite a bit, the answer turns out.

There's no question that life is a lot worse without the Doctor around (his having died during the events of "The Runaway Bride"), but Russell T Davies seems to take some delight in showing us just bad things would get.  And so we get both Martha Jones and Sarah Jane and her gang killed during the events of "Smith and Jones" (with Sarah Jane being the one responsible for stopping the Plasmavore's super-charged MRI scheme; intriguingly this suggests that Sarah Jane, Luke, Maria, and Clyde were all present during the events of "Smith and Jones", and that they simply never crossed paths with the Doctor), the starship Titanic crashing into Buckingham Palace and irradiating southern England, half of America converted into Adipose, and Torchwood sacrificing themselves to stop the Sontaran plot to turn Earth into a breeding world.  Each event makes life worse and worse for the Noble family, but what's most interesting is how Davies has some people making the best of it (such as Rocco Colasanto and his family), even when things turn really nasty with the "England for the English" policy.  Donna, meanwhile, has grown up, albeit in a different way from when she met the Doctor.  There, she had her eyes opened; here, she's just had to hunker down and try to make the best of things, even when there's no realistic way to make that happen.

Rose talks to Donna as Donna prepares to travel back in time.
("Turn Left") ©BBC

But even though we don't have the Doctor around, we still need a Doctor figure, which is where Rose Tyler comes in.  After having been making quick cameos here and there throughout series 4 (mostly on monitor screens that the Doctor isn't looking at), she finally appears here to help guide Donna toward the right path, the one that will set the universe back on track.  She's incredibly Doctor-ish in her dialogue here, which is actually something of a hindrance -- Rose (or possibly Billie Piper) frequently sounds like she doesn't quite believe what she's saying, and it weakens these scenes as a result.  Rose is best when she's empathizing with Donna, not when she has to deliver technobabble.

This is definitely a dark episode, and it's interesting to see just how bad things can get when humanity has to rely on each other instead of the Doctor.  But while it's put together really well and does all the things a story like this should do, I find that "Turn Left" is, for me at least, an easy story to admire but a hard story to actually enjoy.  Maybe that's because it's ultimately a bleak look into an alternate history, with little to redeem things here.  But still, it's a story worth doing, and as a way to define the Doctor by his absence, it would be hard to do better than this.