TV Retrospective - The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 3 Part 1 - Prisoner of the Judoon/The Mad Woman in the Attic

OK, it’s been a few weeks since our last retrospective. But we’re back, now it’s time to look at the show’s third season.

Nothing’s really happened between seasons so let’s just get right to it.

Prisoner of the Judoon part 1

We open with Clyde introducing the concepts of the show. Why is this necessary? It wasn’t necessary in the last 2 seasons, nor is it necessary in other shows.

After the credits we get the same narration we get every season about Sarah Jane and her backstory, did we need this after the last one. Sarah Jane heads off alone to some science centre and finds out kicked out after being too confrontational. She heads home, and later she sees a meteor crash land nearby, as you do.

They call up Mr Smith, and find that the meteor was actually a Judoon space ship. A life-pod ejected from the ship before impact and it’s outside the exclusion zone UNIT had set up. Luke is unsure for some reason but they head off anyway. Gita’s comic shtick for this episode is that she’s hoping to brighten up people’s offices with her flowers, with or without their permission. Sarah Jane gives her a pamphlet for Genetec, the nano-bot centre she was at earlier.

They arrive at the conveniently abandoned estate and immediately into gunfire as the Judoon begins shooting. Now, correct me if I’m wrong but the Judoon don’t have jurisdiction over the Earth, that’s why they teleported the hospital to the Moon before searching for the Plasmavore back in series 3. Far as I know, nothing has changed, so Judoon, trot off somewhere else, and report your findings to UNIT like a good little soldier.

Sarah Jane concludes that the pod likely contained a prisoner, and the Judoon is hell bent on catching him, humans be damned. Another Gita scene that can be safely skipped and Haresh is roped in. The alien knocks out the Judoon with some rubble but escapes when he hears Sarah Jane and co coming. Sarah Jane throws the Judoon’s gun away before he comes round. He assimilates the language and catalogues Sarah Jane because reasons. In Smith and Jones, they were cataloguing humans because the Plasmavore looked human and could blend in. The Androvax can’t, it can inhabit human bodies but I’m pretty sure the scanner would still register human.

He’s angry about them throwing his gun away but like I said, they don’t have jurisdiction over the Earth, they can’t pass sentence here, something that I will come back to later, again and again. He warns that the Androvax is a destroyer of worlds. Speaking of the Androvax he comes across a small child and licks his lips. Eww.

Anyway, the Judoon is called Tybo, and I don’t care about the rest of his backstory. Androvax is wanted in 5 galaxies with 12 counts of planetary destruction at his feet. Sentence execution already, Judoon are good at that. They hear the kid scream and Sarah Jane and Clyde run after it, they find the girl who says her mother was taken. Sarah Jane calls Luke, telling him to keep Tybo busy, as she doesn’t want to escalate a potential hostage situation.

After plenty of scenes to restate this point, one of which directly in Tybo’s earshot for some reason, next we get some pretentious stuff about racism before realising the kid has Androvax inside her, he comes out and into Sarah Jane’s body so we can do a long-lost doctor who tradition of turning Sarah Jane evil. Tybo realises the two have been wrong and destroys their phones because petty. Isn’t destruction of private property a crime?

Sarah Jane returns home as Tybo arrives where Sarah Jane was earlier, they find an entranced Clyde and a water spray wakes him up. Tybo explains what I told you earlier about Androvax. Sarah Jane enters the attic and wakes up Mr Smith. Police stop by for some reason and the Judoon tries to commandeer the police car. Again, you have no jurisdiction over the Earth, you aren’t allowed to do this. He rips off the handbrake which considering they were on a hill would’ve made things difficult.

Sarah Jane threatens Mr Smith to get him to obey her. Tybo won’t exceed speed limit because they’re undercover, ok, and tells a jerk in a convertible I doubt he could afford to turn his music down, ok. Funny? So after that comic relief, Gita and Heresh arrive at Genetec. Skip. So, they arrive at Sarah Jane’s house but she’s not home, the Tybo doesn’t understand the concept of a clue. Seriously? He gets an alert that a Judoon recovery team, that DON’T HAVE JURISDICTION ON EARTH! Have arrived. Got it feels annoying to have to keep bringing this up.

Haresh and Gita get caught putting plants in the reception area. Crime of the century. Skip. Sarah Jane enters the building and disables communications before saying she wants the nano-forms mentioned in the opening. They activate Mr Smith but discover that, presumably when he was the evil zylok otherwise this makes no sense, he has a self-destruct function that will take out the entire street in 60 seconds, start the clock.

*sigh* this episode has some good ideas and I like evil Sarah Jane but the Judoon are not a good race for this very earth bound show.

Rating 6/10

Prisoner of the Judoon part 2

Luke convinces Mr Smith that killing them endangers Earth which is counter to his purpose and stops the bomb. Only on this show would that work.

OK, the lead scientist, Mr York is forced to activate the nano-forms, she wants to build a space-ship, one from Dreamland in Arizona, something from an in-canon Doctor Who cartoon from around the time. So after a scene with everyone talking about what we already know, we find that the nano-forms unleashed will destroy the planet and Androvax doesn’t give two sh*ts.

So, another scene with Gita and Haresh, skip, the Tybo and the crew arrive and Tybo forces pay and display, but it’s a police car! Mr York is placed in a trance since he unlocked the lockdown. Another ‘funny’ scene with the Judoon meeting humans takes place. The Judoon arrive and assimilate the language, again and catalogue them for no reason again. And please for the love of god, just acknowledge it. THE JUDOON HAVE NO JURISDICTION OVER THE EARTH.

Oh, Sarah Jane is Goluming now, as the real Sarah Jane is beginning to speak out against the horrors. And finally now, Luke mentions that the Judoon shouldn’t be on Earth, even though it’s contrary to every single action Tybo takes in this goddamn story. For reasons that are completely unfathomable they lock the Judoon, their most powerful ally and the only chance they really have against Androvax in a container to delay the remaining Judoon. An act that wouldn't be necessary if they’d followed f*cking protocol in the first place. They find Sarah Jane incredibly easily after that

Scene with Gita and Haresh, skip. Sarah Jane knows that she won’t let Androvax go, so she can’t release her just yet. So the kids decide to talk the Androvax to death, it doesn’t work and Luke is entranced. She calls on the nanoforms to feed on the others, the kids into a computer lab, which they think might be useful. Sarah Jane wakes Luke up and knows his backstory suddenly. And I have to ask Luke to back up that statement about Sarah Jane saving more than 12 planets, not likely, maybe with the Doctor.

The spaceship’s built. Clyde and Rani decide that fire-extinguishers should slow down the nano-forms, despite them needing sub-zero temperatures. Unless those extinguishers are liquid nitrogen, I doubt they’ll be that effective. The Judoon rescue Tybo. And stupid method turns out to be effective. So, Androvax’s motivation is week, his world died so he kills others to kill hope.

The Judoon try and kill Clyde and Rani but the nanoforms begin dissolving the building. But Luke has a plan to help, he’s found the fuel bar for the ship and has taken it out. He’ll only give it back once Androvax leaves Sarah Jane and the nano-forms are disabled. He got 1, but the Judoon arrive before he can disable the nano-forms, Luke has to do it now instead. He’s successful, naturally.

Before the Judoon leaves he passes sentence on Luke, Clyde and Rani, something that the Judoon cannot actually do because they have no jurisdiction over the Earth. They’re confined to Earth and return home with some pretentious message about new life and Gita and Haresh arrive for skippable scene. The end!

OK, this isn’t a great episode either, but now I know they remember the Judoon don’t have jurisdiction over the Earth, it actually becomes even worse.

Rating 6/10

The Mad Woman in the attic

We begin in 2059 in the creaky version of 10 Bannerman road, the latest in the line of disposal side-characters, Red shirt and everything, breaks in and tries to talk to the owner. It’s Rani, for some reason she’s decided to move to the house right opposite.

Despite the fact she claimed to know what he was doing there before the credits, the first thing she does after is to ask what he’s doing. His name’s Adam by the way, I know you don’t care, he’ll be gone by the next episode. She drops some old photos which she claims to be all she has of them. Adam picks up the photos, all people who are gone.

She reminiscing about past, including several aliens she’s not met, the Bane Mother, the Gorgon and a couple of others there. But let’s get to the actual story this is the framing device for. Rani’s found a story online and goes to show the others, who were talking to Maria, who is not in this episode, she’ll never be in an episode again. When her story ends being just natural lightning she feels a bit left out, despite the fact she has talked to Maria before and could join in if she wanted. Maria is apparently helping the US government hide aliens. Wonder how she coped during the Zygon truce, if she ever knew.

She goes back home to sulk and gets an email from disposable character number 2, Samuel, one of Rani’s friends from when she lived in Danemouth. He’d been quiet for a while and his email was intriguing enough for her to pop over on a train. Rani tries to get to the bottom of why he was ignoring her but gets nowhere. They head to a closed amusement park. Four homeless people disappeared recently, a kid snuck into the fair and saw a demon. He leaves Rani to investigate on her own because he’s a d*ck, why were you two friends again?

Rani jumps in and uses her Dictaphone to record her findings. She’s playing the recording to Adam in the future. The guard catches Rani but she fakes a twisted ankle to stay inside the park. She’s taken into his office and we find his name is Harry Sowersby, good name. He tells Rani to leave but then a voice saying ‘playtime is beginning’ is heard and we see the missing people are entranced and going onto the rides.

Sarah Jane asks about Rani, Gita told Sarah Jane that Rani said she was spending the day with them and they know she’s up to something, Clyde goes to investigate. The voice says ‘playtime is over,’ the rides stop and the 4 missing people. Clyde finds the email and Sarah Jane concludes that he knows everything. We find out a little more about Samuel, his parents died in 2001 in a car accident and he’s currently residing in a children’s home.

Rani decides to investigate the Ghost Train, much to Harry’s objections. They confront Sam who says Rani is with ‘her.’ Rani discovers ‘her’ an alien named Eve, with some kind of telepathic ability. Sarah Jane and Clyde go after Rani whilst Luke stays behind to see if he can get through to Sam. Eve uses her telepathic powers on Rani and helps us understand her fears which have been largely made up for this episode. Rani mentions her planet, another that was destroyed in the Time War, except they never mention the words ‘Time War’ ‘Time Lords or ‘Daleks’

They sonic their way into the park. Eve says she controls these sad lonely people so they can have fun. Sarah Jane and Clyde meet Harry and Luke probes deeper about the deterioration of the relationship between Rani and Sam, finding out her leaving may have hit him hard, since he really doesn’t have many other friends. Clyde tricks Harry into revealing that Rani was at the park as Rani tries to convince Eve to let the people go. Thanks to some mind games, Rani says ‘I wish they’d just leave me alone’ a line that will come back to bite later on.

The computer which projects into mirrors somehow tells Harry and Sam to grab a Smith, she wishes to learn more about Sarah Jane and Luke. Eve wants to show Rani her future and… well, we’ve seen the beginning of this episode so yeah, big cliffhanger.

Rating 7.5/10

The Mad Woman in the Attic part 2

Luke sees his past, then his future graduating for Oxford, we’ll get to that next season. Sarah Jane gets showed her life too, including clips from the classic show and we see a TARDIS in the attic. Sarah Jane is let out but the computer says she saw darkness in her mind and they need it. Rani is upset about what she saw and tries to promise herself she won’t become that way. Rani says they’re going to find a way to get Eve home.

Sam admits he couldn’t take all the talk about aliens and the battles whilst he was stuck alone. Luke confirms he was the one who saw the ‘demon’ who is Eve, obviously. He promises that she won’t be hurt but Luke is less sure. The two groups unite and Sarah Jane tries to take control because that’s the attitude she’s learned from the Doctor but it’s not gonna work and only upsets Rani further.

Luke finds that Sam was gone, he calls Sarah Jane and mentions how he saw a face in the mirror too. Turns out Eve has psycho-kinetic abilities as well as telepathic as she begins turning on the rides. Harry tries to stop her but she makes the rides even faster. Sarah Jane and Clyde ask the mirror what’s going on and she is worried. Rani walks away to try and get her stop but instead Eve tries to take over her mind. Sam arrives. The face is ship, Eve’s space-ship. Eve is too young is having trouble controlling her powers, if she continues playing like this, she will die.

The power begins to take its toll on her, Sarah Jane relates her situation to the people around her, Sam losing his parents, Sarah Jane losing hers, Clyde’s piece of sh*t dad. But friends help them through it, friends like Harry and Sam. But it turns out she can’t do it. They need to take her back to the ship to help her. They take her inside and ship drains her energy, allowing those she was controlling to be free.  

Rani convinces Harry to come with her to the ship. Apparently the ship feeds on black holes, bullsh*t but we need a way to resolve the K-9 stuff since… well, next week. Sarah Jane offers her the Black Hole K-9 was guarding and K-9 is back. He’ll be barely used for the rest of the season and disappear in the next one. The ship’s refuelled and ready to go and Eve’s eager to go. Rani and Sam reconcile and Sam decides to stay with Eve on the ship, Harry also ends up staying to see the stars. It’s nice that there’s no real villain in this episode.

But there’s a twist, Ship believes that Rani’s wish is what she’d said earlier, for them to leave her alone. And yes, this is how she becomes the mad old woman of Bannerman road. Adam reveals he’s the son of Eve and Samuel, he’s come to help restore things the damaged ship did wrong. Well, that ended quickly. So, all’s well that ends well. Sarah Jane apologises that he still has difficulty trusting people after so long alone.

They come to a family photo, Sarah Jane thinks about the Doctor’s oncoming appearance and somehow Rani still ends up living at 10 Bannerman road, someone explain that one to me. This time she has kids and grandkids.

I love this story, particularly this half. It’s good that for once there’s no real villain to it.

Rating 9/10

We’ll be returning next week for the moment you’ve all been waiting for