TV Retrospective: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 Part 1 - The Last Sontaran/Day of the Clown

We continue our tribute to Elizabeth Sladen with the second series of the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Before we continue I should mention the 4^th series of Doctor Who, where the series finale was a crossover with the Sarah Jane Adventures, and Torchwood. I like what it was but I did feel it was trying to be too much. It was a crossover with the Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood, also bringing back Rose and Martha and their supporting cast, plus Donna Noble had to the be the focus since it was the end of her run as companion. All this in a 2-part episode with a half hour extension to the second part. Perhaps some smaller crossovers would’ve been better building up to this finale. I understand budget may make this restrictive but I didn’t say it had to all be done in the same season. As a result of all this. Luke’s role is minor whilst Maria and Clyde are written out entirely.

The episode itself is really dumb and Diamanda Hagan has said she’d do a twatty who review of it, whilst I don’t agree that it’s a bad episode, I do see the negatives here. The Doctor and Sarah Jane would meet again but that’s for another series. In the meantime, let’s take a look at series 2 of the Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Last Sontaran

We open with Maria and Sarah Jane looking at the stars, spouting dialogue that makes it clear that something is about to happen. Meanwhile we cut to a radio telescope where some interference is received indicating some kind of thing happening, two weird light bulbs floating around and heading into the forest. The main scientist follows them, leaving his daughter, Lucy, alone, not for lack of trying. She screams for some reason

Meanwhile, Alan has received a letter. He recently applied for a job with a London office but has been offered an office a little further afield. Meanwhile Luke and Clyde are playing a video game on Mr Smith. Pre-installed or… when did Mr Smith come with controllers? Also, it looks sh*t. Anyway, Sarah Jane interrupts asking about the reports of lights in the sky in village called Goblins Cox. *sniggers*

Yeah, Alan’s been offered a job in Washington, Maria is happy for him but knows she’s gonna have to leave her life behind. Sarah Jane decides to head to the radio telescope and drags the group on for the ride. The radio telescope was apparently converted from an old cold war listening station. A very familiar creature is watching them.

They enter the telescope, which is empty, Luke manages to hack their computer and discovers the interference. Lucy, having taken the longest run ever, rushes in, saying there’s “something in the woods” before passing out. She recovers quickly and explains that she was chased by something and hit her head.

She shows concern for her father and Clyde, being the outrageous flirt offers to go in and look. Sarah Jane says they can’t but naturally they will. With Lucy asleep, Sarah Jane goes to Maria and asks what’s up. She tells her and Sarah Jane is not exactly used to this sort of thing, her encouragement sounds false and bitter, even if she meant well by it.

Meanwhile Chrissie’s back, yay? And talking with Alan about the move. She’s not too pleased. Luke and Clyde have gone further into the woods, and confront the alien. After a brief period of observation, it reveals itself to be a Sontaran. The kids escape thanks to running but end up lost, they find another cloaked thing.

Lucy’s father arrives finally, but acts completely cold to everyone around them. He explains the lights were a rare form of lightning which is absolute codswallop. He begins typing at the computer and then stares ominously at his daughter. Luke and Clyde call Sarah Jane to the cloaked thing, she uses her magic lipstick to uncloak it and is alarmed by what she sees. She met Sontarans on two different occasions, they are prepared to leave but the Sontaran confronts them.

The Sontaran is Kaagh, the last survivor of the 10^th Sontaran battle fleet from the two-parter in Doctor Who. They use a child’s trick to escape, but he’s quickly after them. Luke and Maria are separated from Sarah Jane and Clyde. Sarah Jane and Clyde head back to the telescope and find the Professor deactivating satellites, with a mind control drone that the Sontarans do not need because they use hypnosis. Sarah Jane is about to deactivate it when Kaagh captures them

Luke and Maria are on the outskirts of the telescope, with Maria realising that Sarah Jane would’ve gone back. They discover a secret entrance. Kaagh explains that he didn’t really fall for a child’s trick, he knew they’d come back here and it saved him the problem of their escort. Sure, keep telling yourself that. The Sontaran reveals his involvement in the Atmos project, a brief recap of the Doctor Who episodes. He survived the mothership explosion but his ship was damaged on arrival, the shame of their defeat means he couldn’t return home. He plans to drop the satellites on nuclear power plants, essentially killing everyone. OK, sometimes it’s unnecessary for someone to reveal their plans to their enemy, such as when that person is part of a proud warrior race. 45 minutes before total devastation. Start the clock.

It’s a good way to start a series, introducing a deadly enemy from Doctor Who, something Class and Torchwood have veered from for some reason.

Rating 8.5/10

The Last Sontaran (part 2)

Sarah Jane is knocked out rather than killed for reasons that make very little sense. She’s taken prisoner and held with the Lisa. Luke and Maria open up a vent for Clyde to escape. Kaagh is quickly in pursuit. They find a door and manage to get it open just in time. They block the door so Kaagh can’t follow.

Sarah Jane wakes up, her bag’s not with her so she doesn’t have a sonic lipstick so she has to rely on ingenuity. Meanwhile Chrissie is preparing to leave and not a moment too soon, actually any moment is too soon but thankfully this is her last episode, so benefit of the doubt. Maria makes a call to her father and yeah… you can guess where this is going and yup, Chrissie is going to find things out this episode.

Naturally she still doesn’t like Sarah Jane because… insert rant about the last series finale here. Alan has trouble making up an excuse so naturally Chrissie doesn’t believe a word of it. He seems uncomfortable with the phrase “Mr Smith, I need you” Chrissie breaks into Sarah Jane’s house because her security is sh*t.

We get the usual spiel about the Sontaran’s and how their weakness is the probic vent on their neck. Chrissie interrupts and Alan tries to spin it as a role-playing game. Something Chrissie doesn’t buy for 5 seconds. Alan decides to buck up and admit the truth and she believes him because he has a tell, his mouth twitches when he lies. They head off to help.

The trio head back to the Sontaran pod, hoping Luke could concoct some knock out gas to use on Kaagg.

  

Unfortunately it sets of an alarm, and Kaagh is instantly alerted. Clyde goes to try and buy them some time. Sarah Jane and Lucy complete a device to jam the telescope, stopping it from transmitting the instructions to the satellites. Maria looks through some photos on her really cr*ppy phone. And finally it’s time to admit to Luke that she’s leaving, he’s a little more open than Sarah was, and it’s understandable. Sarah Jane was abandoned more or less by the Doctor, hence why she’s closed off and cold about it, Luke has known Maria longer than he’s known anyone else, even Sarah Jane, she’s the first person he ever talked to, he doesn’t want her to go. Clyde will find out… some when I’m sure.

Professor Skinner comes to investigate, leaving the door open for Sarah and Lucy to escape, they lock him inside and soon find Clyde running from Kaagh, they let him in and shut the door. Luke prepares the knockout gas but Sarah Jane has discovered they have less than 20 minutes left. Luke and Maria close in on the telescope but are attacked by the drones, Sarah Jane arrives to help and they split up again, this time Clyde going with Maria to disable the satellite to prevent the up-link whilst Sarah Jane and Luke do something else.

Luke attempts to hack into the up-link. Clyde and Maria are captured by Kaagh, who anticipated their plan. Chrissie takes off her high heels. Thanks to stupid logic, Luke manages to disable to programme but with Maria and Clyde captured, it’s rather useless and the knockout gas is taken. Kaagh activates Lucy, he sleeper agent, if you’re surprised at his, welcome to your first television show. They pull stunts like this all the time. She had a backup of the programme in her phone and uploads it to the mainframe. They try in vein to appeal to his better nature but Chrissie has a much better plan, stick her heal in Kaagh’s vent, it knocks her out. They plan to use the knockout gas to convince her it was a bad dream, the sick bastards. Sarah Jane deactivates the control chips and the phone is disconnected.

They tie Kaagh up and force him into his ship, with his weapons disabled he chooses to leave Earth. And Clyde still doesn’t know about Maria leaving. Chrissie comes to and they finally talk as a family about leaving to America. Maria as she has been all episode is more than happy to go. 6 weeks later, it’s time for them to go. Wow, they sold the house quickly. It took my family more like 6 months. Sarah Jane admits her true feelings, hugs, kisses. Clyde hugs and we never actually saw his reaction to the news, which is quite something. Chrissie admits she remembers everything because that was so necessary, she will never appear in another episode.

It’s a great episode, with some excellent character bits. It was a bit soon to write Maria out but it may not have been their choice. Kaagh is an excellent villain and he’ll be making an appearance in the series finale, but we’ll get to that later.

Rating 9/10

The Day of the Clown (part 1)

We open with some kids playing football in the field. One kid sneaks through a fence to retrieve a ball he’d kicked very hard and soon he begins seeing something. He finds the ball but is confronted by a clown.

Luke is reading an email from Maria and feeling about down about her having left. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. So, a new family is moving in over the road and Clyde makes Sarah Jane paranoid that Maria may have left something behind. So, how do I describe the new neighbours. There’s Rani, an amateur journalist who is a great fit for this show, Gita who’s quirky, in a good way, mostly and then there’s the school headmaster, Haresh, guess they found a replacement for the Slitheen and it’s only taken them however long the last 5 stories took place over.

Rani bumps into Clyde and he begins fawning over her. These two will grow as a couple, to the point where Luke ships them in the final season. I’m looking forward to that, it’s very funny. But in the meantime, enjoy this awkward sh*t. Class starts and Rani sees the clown. Haresh demonstrates his firm attitude and warns about the disappearances and tells everyone to be careful. Sarah Jane comes around with a welcome and uses it as an excuse to briefly scan the house with her watch.

Rani and Luke have a conversation, it’s awkward, Clyde hits Haresh on the head with a basketball. So Clyde briefly talks to a random guy we’ll never see again whilst waiting at Haresh’s office. That random guy is the next to disappear. Clyde sees the clown before it disappears, he searches the toilets, and finds him in the mirror. I think Steven King’s IT very much inspired this one, hopefully it won’t turn out to be a cr*ppy looking spider this time. Unfortunately, Haresh decides to look in the toilet to find… that’s not disturbing at all. Naturally, Haresh doesn’t believe a word Clyde says, so it’s time to take the matter to Sarah Jane

Clyde spots the clown again and he and Luke chase it, Luke can’t see it. They find a balloon because balloons are scary. Oh yes, they float! Rani intervenes and stops them touching the balloon because reasons, she reveals she can see the clown as well. They try to ward her away but… She reveals that Rakesh is her dad as he’s driving down the drive right now.

Whoa and it’s time for everyone to show up at once and bring this scene to a muddle. Sarah Jane reveals she’s afraid of clowns because of course she is. Rakesh reveals what he knows about the disappearance and since it was under his watch, I suspect he should be talking with the police right now!

Rani had stolen some random boy #2’s workbooks and found clown graffiti on them and sees the clown in the house, it stops when Luke arrives. Sarah Jane and Clyde to talk to random boy #3, you know, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have some stock supporting characters in the school. Anyway, his father tells him that journalists are scum, probably touting #FakeNews now. They ask about Clowns and remembers that a clown was offering tickets to somewhere, the 2 boys that disappeared so far both took tickets. Clyde had took one too, Bellman’s magical museum of the circus. Rani has found a ticket to the museum herself and concludes only people with the ticket can see the clown, and that they’re targets.

Sarah Jane arrives at the museum, doing everything it can to make clowns scary. Mr Spellman confronts them and explains some history of clowns. Sarah Jane asks about their tendency to scare people. Rani arrives at the museum, with Luke continually trying to drag her away but failing miserably. The colours of the clown resemble the pied piper of Hamlin and you get a brief mention of the story behind it. Mr Spellman disappears as the group meet up and clown manikins begin moving on their own. Sonic lipstick disables them but they’re still locked in. And yes Mr Spellmen is the clown and the pied piper apparently.

It's an interesting episode, and filling the horror story quota of this series early, also a decent introduction to the Chandras.

Rating 8/10

The Day of the Clown (part 2)

Luke and Clyde manage to break down the door after the clown is distracted by a phone ringing. After some coaxing, Sarah Jane agrees to tell her everything. They head into the attic, apparently, they’ve saved the world 12 times, I count from the Bane, the Slitheen, the gorgons, the Kudlak doesn’t count, he didn’t threaten the world, the meteor, the Zylok and the Sontaran, I count 6 times, so did the other 6 happen in spin-off media?

Oddbob the clown had been linked to disappearances across America, which makes me think the police should be more interested in people seeing clowns than they are.  They also mention that it’s a historical fact that Hamelin lost its children. That was the basis for the story, although in this case it’s a little more than that. They find out from records that definitely shouldn’t exist that a meteor landed in the 13^th century that could give prudence to the pied piper alien theory. But it was too small to be a spacecraft.

Because of plot convenience said meteor is on loan to the UK, at the Pharos Institute no less. Fortunately, Sarah Jane has that contact there who owes her thanks to keeping the situation with Nathan Goss quiet. Sarah gives Rani a force-field thing to protect her, not doing the same for Clyde, well done.

But that for later, Sarah Jane is looking at photos of clowns, Luke enquires about her being scared. She reveals that she shared a room with a clown puppet which seemed to move during a storm. We also hear about Sarah Jane’s dead parents, something that will be brought up later on. Rani sees a balloon outside her house and now Sarah Jane sees clowns. Professor Rivers greets Sarah Jane and lets her take sample of the meteor. The clown confronts her, suggesting he may have made her clown come to life during the night. He intends to make a nation terrified.

Balloons, balloons, so scary, balloons! They end up in the hands of most of the extras and they begin walking information. Why Luke, Clyde and Rani aren’t affected is anybody’s guess really. Mr Smith’s analysis of the meteor concludes that Oddbob is a creature born of fear. Created by the town’s fear of rats and sustained by the abduction of children. Mr Smith calls every pupil in the school and frees them of control but Oddbob kidnaps Luke instead. Sarah Jane goes in alone to confront him. Hall of Mirrors scene. Clyde and Rani sneak in. Rani has a plan, Clyde begins spouting out rubbish jokes, apparently the laughter of 3 people can destroy him, with him weakened, he’s pulled back into the piece of meteor, Luke’s back and so is as many people, Sarah Jane contains the piece in steel and for safe keeping throws the bloody thing into black hole for safe… wait no, she doesn’t do that bit. Pity.

Rakesh thinks the balloon thing was a prank, Clyde and Rani make up an excuse and are invited to dinner. The end.

It’s a bit on the silly side but honestly the ending is more interesting than IT

Rating 8/10

Join us next time where alternate universes and evil tattoos reign