STORY PLACEMENT

 THIS STORY TAKES

 PLACE BETWEEN THE TV

 STORIES "WARRIORS OF

 KUDLAK" AND "THE LOST

 BOY."

 

 WRITTEN BY

 GARETH  ROBERTS

  

 DIRECTED BY

 GRAEME HARPER

 

 RATINGS

 1.15 MILLION

 

 RECOMMENDED 

 PURCHASE

 'THE COMPLETE FIRST 

 SERIES' DVD BOX SET

 (BBCDVD2700) RELEASED

 IN NOVEMBER 2008.

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

 BLURB

 Maria wakes one

 morning to discover

 Sarah Jane has

 disappeared, and

 only she remembers

 her...

 

 

 PREVIOUS                                                                                    NEXT

 

 

29TH OCTOBER 2007 - 5TH NOVEMBER 2007

(2 EPISODES)

 

 

 

                                                       

 

 

Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? is a story that really holds its own against anything that Doctor Who or Torchwood have to offer.

 

The story’s premise is both simple and frightening. Maria wakes up one morning to find

no-one has heard of Sarah Jane or Luke, and when she goes to knock on Sarah Jane’s door she is greeted by the smiling face of Andrea Yates (Jane Asher) – a girl who should have died falling from a pier instead of Sarah Jane back in 1964. As the story progresses,

it is revealed that a creature of unknown origin and intent, referred to (quite fittingly) as a ‘Trickster’ by Maria’s Dad, has altered time. A meteor is about to collide with the Earth

which the Trickster knows that only Sarah Jane can stop, and so to promote the chaos on which he feeds, he erased her from the timeline, effectively switching her fate with that of Andrea.

 

Everything about this two-parter works wonderfully. The Trickster is a truly sinister piece of work; I got goosebumps when he started making threats about erasing the Doctor from history, which of course, I now realise, he would later make good on in the extraordinary Doctor Who episode Turn Left.

 

What left more of a mark on me than anything though was the emotional heart of this story – Sarah and Andrea, or Sarah versus Andrea, if you will. Time said that one of them had to die, and so one of them had to die. At times you really feel for Andrea – her final scene is particularly moving; Asher and Sladen play it so very well.

 

Arguably the series greatest triumph to date, Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? is must-see TV, irrespective of your age.

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2009

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

 

 

 

                                                       

 

 

Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? is the undoubted highlight of the series. It

has a very simple concept – Sarah is written out of history, and only Maria can remember her – yet the story takes it to its limit and plays it for all its worth. When Sarah Jane vanishes from time, replaced by Andrea Yates (Jane Asher), only Maria can remember her, thanks to the protective effects of a puzzle box given to Sarah by an alien soothsayer.

 

Yasmin Bannerman beautifully plays Maria’s anguish, as she desperately tries to convince those closest to her that something is wrong. Sarah never moved to her street, having died years earlier, aged thirteen. Andrea, her best friend, originally died falling from a pier, but

the two have some-how been switched.

 

Part 2 picks up the pace, as Andrea’s story becomes clear and Maria is removed from history herself. Jane Asher, van Dyke accent aside, plays her role equally brilliantly. Though it’s easy to hate Andrea, when looking at things from her point of view, things become a lot more sympathetic. From her point of view, the consequences of a choice made decades ago have come back to haunt her. As a thirteen-year-old, there was no way that she could say no to the offer to continue her life. Who in such circumstance could? When confronted with her guilt, she panics, and Maria is sent to oblivion along with Sarah.

 

So, Part 2 becomes Alan’s story. Now I’m going to rave about this guy. Maria’s father, is so wonderfully played by Joseph Millson that he has quickly become my favourite character in the series. Sweet, caring and totally devoted to his daughter, he forms the perfect underpin-ning to the more peculiar events in Maria’s life. He’s also a joy to watch, and he’s gorgeous. How this guy is still single at the end of the series, I don’t understand.

 

Juliet Cowan, as Chrissie, his ex-wife, is almost as good, working as the self-obsessed comic relief, but with such a love for Maria that the Jackson family is totally believable in its malfunctioning glory. In this episode, thanks to the erstwhile puzzle box, Alan is the only one to remember the changes to time, stopping at nothing to find out what has happened to his daughter, fighting aliens and facing down Andrea’s pleas to get her back.

 

The other triumph in this story are visuals. When Maria ends up in 1964, the events are suffused with a golden sunlight that is reminiscent of both summer-tinged memories and sepia-tinted photos. Andrea and Sarah Jane’s younger selves both look and act perfectly

to character. The Trickster, the demonic force of chaos that has offered Andrea her terrible choice, is perhaps the finest monster in any of the Doctor Who series. A faceless horror floating between worlds, his only feature his gaping mouth, he’s absolutely terrific. He must have given a lot of kids nightmares, and no bad thing.

 

The Trickster is also one of the show’s most interesting villains. He wants to remove Sarah from history so that she is not around to prevent a meteoric collision with the Earth that will wipe out all life. In his featureless realm, he confronts the lost soul of Sarah and taunts her, threatening to see just how chaotic a universe he could create if he removed the Doctor

from time (a threat he eventually makes good on –  the events of Turn Left are down to creatures identified as members of the “Trickster’s Brigade”). The only weak point is his

use of a Graske as his muscle – the comedy dwarf feels totally out of place in this otherwise grim story.

 

There are more questions than answers raised by the Trickster. Just what is he, and where is he from? He certainly seems rather similar to the Black Guardian, in concept if not in execution. While we’re questioning – it is rather convenient that the alien soothsayer drop-ped the magic puzzle box off just in time. Yes, he’s a soothsayer; he can see the future, but even so. Why does Maria arrive in 1964 right before the catastrophic events at the pier? Is

it just due to the Trickster’s trail linking times? And just why would Andrea, living an entirely separate life, end up living in the house that Sarah Jane would have lived in? It all suggest to me that someone else is pulling some strings, someone as devoted to order as the Trickster is to chaos.

 

Overall, Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? is an absolute triumph from start to finish. It’s without a doubt a step beyond anything else on children’s television, and a fair way beyond most of adult television. 

 

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2009

 

Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

Unless otherwise stated, all images on this site are copyrighted to the BBC and are used solely for promotional purposes.

‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ is copyright © by the BBC. No copyright infringement is intended.