TV Retrospective - The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 1 Part 2 - Eye of the Gorgon/Warriors of Kudlak

Welcome back to my retrospective on the Sarah Jane Adventures – not much point doing recaps since the show is not heavily serialised. They’ll follow up on things occasionally but it’s rare to see a story that actively requires knowledge from another episode.

So, let’s start today by looking at Eye of the Gorgon

Eye of the Gorgon part 1

We open at a spooky house, a nursing home, this will be one of the horror episodes of the season an elderly woman is confronted by a nun but she’s gone when she turns the light on. Clyde has called in Sarah Jane to investigate, several of the residents have seen this ghostly nun. Luke takes an interest in a woman in a purple scarf.

Chrissie has decided to be annoying and come to stay out of the blue, much to Maria’s delight. Luke speaks to the woman, she clearly has dementia, a concept I’m not entirely sure Luke understands. But she has her clearer moments and talks sense for a while, she takes Luke to a tree, where she’s stashed a glowing amulet thing, she gives it to Luke, making him promise to stay shtum about the whole affair, she goes back into dementia state before she can tell Luke who’s after it, but the defiant manager of the care home is looking on.

OK, back to Maria’s house where Chrissie continues to be annoying and against the idea of Maria having friends! It drives a bit of a wedge between them. Alan tries to comfort Maria but her temper is still not in check and she blows up at him as well. Sarah Jane asks Mr Smith about the possibility of hauntings, he claims there’s no evidence but points out the alien artefact Luke is holding. Mr Smith runs an analysis and finds nothing, wanting to run something deeper to fully investigate. Maria storms in and realising what a state she’s in, Sarah Jane takes her to investigate alone, particularly with the woman who gave Luke the talisman. Look, there’s a thing, it’s called keeping up pretence, Luke should’ve come, it would’ve looked less dodgy.

The manager speaks to the nuns but they’re angry that the woman clearly knew more than what was letting on, she has to speak to the Abbess now, who takes off her hood causing the manager to scream. Sarah Jane and Maria enter the ladies room, finding she and husband were explorers, she contracted Alzheimer’s soon after his death. He knew something about Sontarans, which is odd because this is before season 4 of Doctor Who and they haven’t invaded Earth in the present yet.

One of the nuns arrives at the house and unfortunately, Luke is not the type of smart where he can keep up an act for more than a line of dialogue. Alan interrupts, thinking the nun is collecting money. It drives her away but Luke and Clyde want to go back in the action. The lady regains sanity enough to tell them they found the talisman in Syria, and the nuns are hiding the gorgon.

Luke is kidnapped by the nuns after maybe seeing the word but Clyde quickly gets word to Sarah Jane who uses a fake press badge to gain the nuns attention to allow Maria and Clyde to look around. She’s locked in a library as Maria and Clyde gain entry through a convenient open window. However, they quickly find the Abbess. They’re all quickly brought together in the Library. Turns out the Gorgons arrived on Earth and have been protected by the sisterhood of St Agnes. The key to their travel here is that talisman. The Abbess is old and going to die, apparently she wants to go home.

Sarah Jane is coerced into escorting them to it, with the boys remaining in the abbey as collateral, Sarah Jane tries to turn the table with her sonic lipstick, but the nuns take the veil off the gorgon. Sarah Jane and Maria may look away but an approaching Alan is quickly the victim. Oh, and the sisters get the talisman.

It's a decent episode but far too much Chrissie for me

Rating 6.5/10

Eye of the Gorgon part 2

Maria begins to regret her past action and lashes out at Sarah Jane. You can forgive this in kid characters, Sarah Jane calms her down for the time being. Luke reads up on the history of the abbey and found it was built during the reformation era when priests were being hunted. So naturally it has secret passages straight out of Scooby Doo movie. Look, I’m no history expert but I imagine it wasn’t quite that elaborate back then.

Mr Smith says that the process that’s turning Alan to stone is incomplete and can be reversed for the next 90 minutes, but he doesn’t know how to do it. They decide to head back to the nursing home and leave the statue visible to a public eye. This will be an unfortunate plot point. Sarah Jane takes Maria back to the nursing home as Luke and Clyde find their way out of the abbey, finding stone warnings in the garden. At the front they see Mother Abbess head through the entrance, she’s weakening. Luke wants to stay and recover the talisman.

The nuns begin the process of opening the portal bringing all the gorgon race to their promised land. Mother Abbess is too weak and needs a new host before the portal opens. Chrissie goes to investigate and ends up breaking into Sarah Jane’s house and she admits her flaws to the statue of Alan, you can see a tear flow down his eye.

Luke has a plan to get the talisman back, it initially succeeds but the crew meet up with Sarah Jane and are quickly surrounded. Maria speaks to the woman and after much grieving she tells Maria the talisman can restore people, it happened to her, she gives Maria a mirror to help her against the Gorgon’s stare, I think you can guess where this is going. The boys and Sarah are locked in a cell, realising that the Gorgons rely on host bodies to survive. Mother Abbess is not the Gorgon, just the host body.

Sarah Jane is tied up, ready to be transformed they prepare the transfer, Luke and Clyde attempt a rescue but are quickly captured. Maria arrives and uses the mirror to turn Mother Abbess and the gorgon to stone. They recover the talisman and use it to save Alan. They drag him to the bench and he’s confronted by Chrissie, intent on showing them the statue, naturally nothing but it drives a rift that will continue throughout her remaining time on the show.

Maria finds out that the talisman has the ability to revert things, and thinks it might be useful for reverting the lady’s Alzheimer’s. Fortunately for the contents of my stomach, that turns out not to be the case, but it does manage to bring her some peace with her dead husband.

In all honesty, Eye of the Gorgon is not one of my favourite episodes, that said it has some decent moments and is one of the better portrayals of Alzheimer’s. You want a terrible portrayal of dementia, I’ll be reviewing Mrs Peregrine’s home for Peculiar children later this year. 

Rating 7/10

Warriors of Kudlak part 1

We open with the carrpyest looking storm I’ve ever seen. There’s a game of laser tag going on and the winner is being escorted through the building with poor lighting, he’s sent into a trap and is teleported away. The alien responsible talks to his mistress who says they need more.

Luke is trying out jokes, and wants to understand humour, this is just a phase, it’ll pass, it’ll pass. Maria heads out to buy a bag and by the mother of co-incidences they’re passing Combat 3000, the laser tag place that abducted a boy in the beginning and had that cr*ppy looking storm. One Mr Grantham reports to his boss, a Mr Kudlak, who wants more children.

Sarah Jane is talking to a Mrs Metcalf, her son, Lance, was the guy for the opening, and she’s incredibly distressed about it. Sarah Jane tries to reassure her and asks about the two of them. They never argue, life’s too short. He was supposed to meet a friend only his friend said Lance never showed up. They didn’t play laser tag together?

Luke apparently nicknamed Lance ‘the corporal’ at school which isn’t really all that funny, not sure why anyone laughed at that. Anyway, his father was killed in Iraq, which answers a question from earlier. Yes. Context matters. Luke feels guilty but given that he wasn’t exactly social even before the nickname, I highly doubt that was reason to run away. 

Maria and Sarah Jane go to see Brandon, they find out there was a very, very localised and sh*tty looking rainstorm that neither Maria or Sarah Jane saw. Clyde goes to comfort Luke and has some success. Here’s a repeat of a scene from earlier. Next.

Sarah Jane and Mr Smith cross-reference child disappearances with freak weather conditions, turns out 24 matches, all in major towns and cities across the UK and none anywhere else on the planet. Yeah… So they create a McGuffin to analyse the weather around the storm site. Meanwhile, Luke asks Clyde about games, particularly the laser tag thing. Clyde deduces the best way to explain it is to try it out.

Sarah Jane and Maria use the McGuffin and get some entanglement shells, used for planetary tereformation, simulation and can be a by-product of teleportation. Luke and Clyde join a group for laser tag. Mr Smith access a military satellite and find that the Combat 3000 was right at the centre of the storm. Laser tag continues, lots of noise and very little understanding of what the heck is happening.

Clyde and Luke are the top 2 and are invited to a level 2 experience. Sarah Jane enters under the guise of wanting to book a party for Maria, the cashier is likely to lose her job with the way she treats them. Apparently in round 2 you only get 10 lives and the objective is to make it through the building into a special chamber, key to the world championships.

Sarah Jane and Maria enter Mr Grantham’s office and are soon confronted by him, he pulls a gun on them, the kind that would be very illegal to carry in the UK. Luke and Clyde complete the trial and are deemed worthy of being sent to the Mistress. Fortunately for Sarah Jane, Mr Grantham is a cartoon villain with a cartoon brain and is easily disarmed by sonic lipstick.

Sarah Jane tries to disarm the teleporter, realising that Luke and Clyde are the targets. They’re unsuccessful and Kudlak confronts them.

It’s a strong opener, opening up some character development for both Luke and Clyde that will continue to be explored in the next episode.

Rating 8/10

Warriors of Kudlak part 2

Sarah Jane and Maria make a break for it but Kudlak gives chase, they make it outside, saying they need to know who they’re up against. Luke and Clyde are shoved into a box. The Mistress contacts as Kudlak’s about to kill Grantham and despite the concern over the security breach, insists they carry on.

Mr Smith identifies Kudlak’s species as Uvodni, the find that Kudlak was a general fighting in the ghost wars against the Malakh, a particularly irritable species. He was injured 20 years and they conclude he’s recruiting people to fight in the war.

Luke and Clyde are dragged, with Luke noticing the floor was vibrating and they’re likely in combat 3000. Luke uses a thing he has for some reason to escape the crate and they begin rescuing others. And of course Lance is among them. They find Mr Grantham paying them a visit, Sarah Jane really needs new locks. Sarah Jane keeps him talking whilst Maria knocks him out with some things from the McGuffin.

A guard arrives but the kids trick into a crate, but he blasts his way out and they’re soon on the run. They see a window and realise they’re in space looking at the Earth. Kudlak confronts them and they’re escorted to have a talk with the mistress. Mr Grantam tells Sarah Jane that Kudlak serves someone else.

Kudlak admits he’s grown weary of sending people to die, the Mistress is completely against the idea of peace, and idea which will crop up near the end. You don’t suppose the writer of this had been reading Ender’s Game, I’m seeing more and more resemblance to it. Luke manages to wire Clyde’s phone into an alien computer. Erm, bullsh*t but whatever, they escape.

Mr Grantham teleports Sarah Jane and Maria up onto the ship, promising that they’ll be back. The kids prepare their escape and are quickly in pursuit. Sarah Jane evades some guards and sees the view of Earth. After some preaching, they move on. Luke opens the door and gets some information he thinks is important. Sarah Jane and Maria confront the mistress as Luke and co make a break for the shuttle but Kudlak confronts them again.

More preaching as Sarah Jane and Maria confront the Mistress but soon Kudlak arrives with the children, ordered to execute them, he’s stopped when Luke shows them what he’d found in their databanks, a message to Uvodni warriors that they’d agreed a peace treaty with the Malekh and to come home, send 10 years. The Mistress doesn’t understand peace and Kudlak destroys her. He offers himself to the human race to kill him but Sarah Jane refuses, instead he offers to find any of those that still survive where he sent them. The children are returned to Earth, never to be seen or heard from again. Mr Grantham escaped, Luke gets a kiss and we see the ruining between Lance and his mum. Luke wants to know about girls, something we’ll discuss another time.

This is a great episode, I honestly prefer this over Ender’s game (the movie version, at least) at least here the assholes are the villains, properly.

Rating 8.5/10

Well, that’s all for now, but next time we’ll see my favourite villain of the series and some very badly handled slander.