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18TH OCTOBER 2010 - 19TH OCTOBER 2010

(2 EPISODES)

One good thing about my current work schedule is that, most days, I’m able to

take my rather belated lunch break at just the right time to dash home to watch The Sarah Jane Adventures on CBBC. It provides a pleasant just-home-from-school feeling during the broadcast. Of course, I then have to go back to work, which rather spoils it, but never mind. 

What’s noticeable is that, even with the main characters growing up and gradually moving on, this series still stays very true to its children’s television roots. While that can mean some very unsubtle bits of explanatory dialogue, and the occasional awful bit of kids’ telly any-old-rubbish level acting, it also means that the programme never forgets that, first and foremost, it’s purpose is to provide youngsters with a series of fun, colourful adventures in half-hour chunks. That the writers and producers manage to provide this and still raise some more serious questions is pretty impressive. In this week’s story, for instance, we have the return of the marvellously-designed lizard-man Androvax the Annihilator, leading to both plenty of larking about by the regulars whilst pretending to be possessed, plus some much deeper stuff about whether it’s ever right to sacrifice one group of people to save another.

Androvax, the last of the Veil, was, in his previous appearance (last year’s opener Prisoner of the Judoon) characterised as an out-and-out villain; a callous destroyer of worlds. Even then though, he was given a sympathetic back story, as it was the death of his own people that drove him to such madness. Nonetheless, he was a baddie through and through. Here, however, he’s dying from a venomous snake bite received on a prison planet and motivated entirely by the desire to return his species to existence, and so as a result the viewer actually starts to feel sorry for the yellow-skinned reptile.

A good deal of this is down to Mark Goldthorp’s fine performance, here getting far more time in the role than he had in his debut, in which the character was mostly inhabiting the body of Sarah Jane. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty of possession going on - more than ever, in fact. Starting off with a teenaged girl breaking into the eponymous Vault of Secrets, we’re teased into thinking that maybe this is Luke’s replacement; a new young character. However, she’s soon revealed to be a victim of Androvax, and is discarded like a holey sock. Later, regulars Elisabeth Sladen, Anjli Mohindra, Daniel Anthony and Mina Anwar all get the opportunity to camp it up, roll their eyes and lick their lips, as one by one their bodies are pinched. Anwar, as Rani’s mum Gita, gets the bulk of the run time, as much of the story is seen from her point of view. Indeed, as a direct sequel to Prisoner of the Judoon, Gita and Haresh’s accidental exposure to alien life is a big focus of the plot.

Admittedly, this does mean large stretches of the story get bogged down with unfunny stuff about BURPSS, Gita’s UFO investigation and support group. It’s a one-joke idea, although the constant burp puns are probably great fun for the youngest viewers. Plus, it gives Ace Bhatti, as Huresh, an opportunity to show that he’s the funniest thing in this series, giving his wonderfully deadpan reactions to everything. Nonetheless, it all has a part to play in moving the plot forward, as the group’s founder, Ocean Waters, has links back to the mysterious Men in Black.

Just as Prisoner had links to the animated Doctor Who story Dreamland through its use

of the Roswell spacecraft, so its sequel links in with the return of Mr Dread and his robotic MIBs. The androids are more impressive in the flesh, as it were, than as animated sprites, providing a deadly (and inexpensive!) alien enemy. Angus Wright is excellent as Mr Dread, deadpan and cool throughout, mixing up the MIB of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones with hints of The Terminator. He even gets to break his programming, at least to an extent, as

he ignores the instructions of his long-gone masters, the Alliance of Shades, and saves the Earth from the escaping Veil spacecraft. Although Dread is apparently deactivated at the end of this story, I’ll be surprised if we don’t see him again. The same goes for Androvax,

still at large, and now with a restored race of Veil at his side…

With all this going on, it’s amazing the writer managed to find time to develop, just a little, the growing relationship between Clyde and Rani. Although confined to a chaste, CBBC-friendly romance, the baby-steps of their gradually blossoming attraction are charming to watch. On the other hand, giving Anjli Mohindra lines like “Take me Androvax, I’m younger and fitter,” is only asking for older, less savoury viewers like myself to start making smutty comments and thoroughly spoiling the wholesome atmosphere.

One thing that does add to the appeal of this story, for me, is the sense of an interconnected universe that it provides. Not only do we have return appearances by characters from both SJA and Doctor Who, but we also have a fleeting cameo from the recently departed Luke, alongside sly references to Osiran pyramids and ancient Martian civilisations. It all gives the impression of a single, huge Whoniverse - all the more so when you consider the characters set to return next week…

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2010

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

Now in its fourth run, The Sarah Jane Adventures has reached a point where its writers can call upon the series’ growing continuity, bringing back creatures and characters from seasons past as well as from the parent series. The Vault of Secrets is an adventure that merrily does both, bringing back the popular character of Androvax, the last of the Veil, from last year’s Prisoner of the Judoon together with the mechanical Men in Black from the animated Doctor Who special Dreamland.

Though couched in CBBC sensibilities, Phil Ford’s story is actually quite a thoughtful one. Neither the waning Androvax nor the robotic MIBs that are pursuing him are wholly good or utterly evil, but both will go to extreme lengths to achieve their arguably laudable goals, and

it is only in appreciating their respective flaws and showing great compassion that Sarah is able to negotiate the outcome that she does. The Vault of Secrets is thus a modern morality tale, masked as a mêlée of body-hopping monsters and menacing MIBs. And the cleverest thing about it is that it’s all apparently so asinine, surreptitiously imprinting its ethics onto its blithely belching audience.

The execution is impressive too. The Alliance of Shades’ MIBs are every bit as effective in the flesh as they were in animated form; perhaps even more so. Their removable hand trick

may belong more to the realms of fun than it does fear, but it’s still wonderfully attuned to its audience, and those built-in blasters really do their job. What’s more, Angus Wright puts in

a tremendous performance as Mr Dread – he sounds very much like Peter Guinness did in Dreamland, yet manages to invest the part with so much more cold menace.

Furthermore, the regulars are all handled well, and, unusually, fairly evenly. Elisabeth Sladen is clearly the focus of the tale, not to mention the heart, but Daniel Anthony’s Clyde and Anjli Mohindra’s Rani are both given ample opportunity to have a little fun when their respective characters are each inhabited by Androvax. Best of all though, Rani’s pesky parents, Gita and Haresh, make their first amusing appearance of the season here, Mina Anwar and Ace Bhatti conspiring to fill a Luke-shaped hole with a perfectly-pitched blend of histrionics and embarrassed mortification.

For me then, The Vault of Secrets is another little cracker. Ford’s story fuses bog-standard toilet humour and thought-provoking drama in the way that only The Sarah Jane Adventures can, suitably spiced with a smattering of MIBs and some tentative teenage hand-holding. In

a word, it’s fab. Now fetch me the Doctor and Miss Grant.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010

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

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