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5TH NOVEMBER 2009 - 6TH NOVEMBER 2009

(2 EPISODES)

With the sound of Jedward’s horrendous rendition of the Ghostbusters theme

tune ringing in my ears (the wife’s viewing choice, not mine) louder than the thump of any hangover or even of any nightclub-induced temporary threshold shift, on Sunday morning I sat myself down to watch the repeat showing of The Sarah Jane Adventures’ “superspook smokedown”, The Eternity Trap.

This story sees Professor Celeste Rivers (Floella Benjamin’s character from The Lost Boy and The Day of the Clown) and her assistant from the Pharos Institute join Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde for a good, old-fashioned ghost hunt at a supposedly haunted stately home. Benj-amin’s rousing opening narration took me right back to my toddling days of listening to her read nursery rhymes on cassette for Farley’s Rusks, setting up the ensuing story wonderfully.

Writer Phil Ford has clearly taken great delight in throwing as many ghost and poltergeist staples into his script as humanly possible, but these are complemented in almost equal measure by secret chambers; magic circles; and even a magician with very Hogwarts-sounding name, Erasmus Darkening ( the perfect role for the macabre Donald Sumpter).

As such, the resultant story was as good as guaranteed to appeal to the target audience.

“I’ve taken on just about every creep in the universe. I ain’t afraid of no ghost.”

However, though it is claustrophobic and creepy, I found The Eternity Trap to be sluggish

at times and even a little lacklustre in places. That’s certainly not to say that it isn’t fabulous fun though, Daniel Anthony’s Clyde and Anjli Mohindra’s Rani in particular being gifted with some wry observations and mordant quips. Rani’s Sixth Sense joke I found especially droll.

Luke is conspicuously absent, however, as Thomas Knight was away sitting his GCSE examinations during the recording of this story. His role in the proceedings is therefore usurped by Adam Gillen’s Toby, Professor Rivers’ assistant. Gillen’s performance is

utterly mesmeric; at first I thought that he was merely an extremely nervous nerd, then I wondered if he was deaf, and as the story progressed I just couldn’t get a handle on him

until the final (admittedly rather mundane) revelation came.

Callum Blue also impressed me as the tormented Lord Marshwood. Maybe it was his hoarse intensity – or his wig – but he really reminded me of Richard Armitage’s Guy of Gisburne in Robin Hood, which is definitely no bad thing.

On the other hand, I was a little frustrated to find that last week’s wedding didn’t even get

a proper mention. I know that this is a children’s show, but at least a modest degree of fall-

out would have been nice, and indeed the absence of the same does little for the show’s sincerity. Instead, we see Sarah Jane instantly back to her pre-heartbreak, go-getting self, albeit without her usual appurtenances like Luke, Mr Smith and K-9. Perhaps we will be treated to a meditative scene with Luke upon his return; I certainly hope so.

On the whole The Eternity Trap is an anomalous little story, but a reasonably compelling

one all the same. I’d probably hold it in higher esteem were it not charged with following

hot on the heels of the Trickster and the Doctor and all the fanfare of the wedding, but in

any event I’d still have said that it’s the season’s weakest story yet (which is perhaps more

of a reflection on the series’ overall quality than it is on the merits of this two-parter). 

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Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2009

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