PREVIOUS                                                                                  NEXT

1ST NOVEMBER 2010 - 2ND NOVEMBER 2010

(2 EPISODES)

On New Year’s Day 2007, The Sarah Jane Adventures began with Invasion of the Bane, an hour-long special episode. The show featured the Doctor’s most popular former companion, along with her adoptive son Luke, their young friends Maria and Kelsey, super-computer Mr Smith, and even K-9, who promised to make the occasional future cameo. How things change. Kelsey didn’t even make it to the series proper; Maria left at the beginning of the second year; and now Luke has left, taking K-9 with him. Now that the line-up of the show has been altered, going from the trials of school-aged teens to the adventures of two college students who weren’t even in the original premise of the show, what else could be taken out of the equation? Sarah Jane herself?

Cleverly, this is exactly what The Empty Planet does. The episode hinges almost entirely

on the actions of Clyde and Rani. Sarah makes only the briefest of appearances here, and even the protagonists’ parents vanish for the majority of the screen time. Now that the series revolves primarily around the adventures of two ordinary humans, with no special powers or TARDIS-travelling credentials, it’s the perfect time to explore just how much they bring to the show - so it gets rid of everybody else on the Earth (well, very nearly everybody).

The concept of one or two people waking up in a deserted world isn’t exactly original; I’m sure there was an old episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits that did this very thing, and the idea no doubt goes back much further than that. In fact, what it really puts me

in mind of is an episode of the classic 1990s kids’ show Eerie, Indiana, in which the very same thing happens when Omri Katz’s character puts his watch back an hour on the wrong day. Only there, he’s pursued by sinister binmen, not snazzy looking robots.

This is a better show, however. Clyde and Rani have both been the ones to save the day before, but always with the help of Sarah Jane’s experience, Luke’s hyper-intelligence, Mr Smith’s databanks or K-9’s, um, nose laser. For once, these two ordinary kids (well, adult actors pretending to be kids - Daniel Anthony is twenty-three now!) have to save the entire human race all by themselves. The result is something rather brilliant. The first episode sees some wonderful direction by Ashley Way, as he creates a desolate section of London for the two leads to explore. It’s reminds me of similar scenes in 28 Days Later, or its own ancestor, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, yet it’s actually a lotmore effective. Rather than huge vistas or photo-friendly landmarks, we see the two leads wandering around a perfectly ordinary street, past abandoned stalls and shops with recognisable fascias, using an empty café as their base. It is its very normality makes it work so well. It’s also logically thought out; there are no mobile signals or television, with nobody to operate the systems to provide them; when they realise that no cars have crashed or planes dropped from the sky, Clyde and Rani deduce that whatever removed humanity must have removed these things also, and are therefore keeping people safe.

Both Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra are excellent here. Anthony in particular impresses as it is clear how much he has developed as an actor over the last few years. The two share a great chemistry, and the slow development of their characters’ romance is still there, now brought more into view. Nothing blatant; just a held-hand here, a joke about Adam and Eve there, and a little kiss on the cheek at the right moment. The characters worry that they aren’t up to the task of solving the mystery and saving the world; that they can’t cope without Sarah Jane or Mr Smith. This story proves that both the characters and the actors are capable of carrying the show on their own.

While the pair of them slowly begin to piece together what’s happened to the world, it’s clear that they can’t remain alone for long. Three more characters are brought in to up the pace. First is the only other survivor of humanity’s great disappearing act, Gavin, played with some conviction by young actor Joe Mason. While it’s part of the show’s appeal that it has grown up with its audience (I mean its intended audience, not us ageing geeks), it needs to remain entertaining for new, younger viewers if it is to survive amongst all the rest of the nonsense on CBBC. Including a thirteen year-old character is therefore a wise move, especially one

as sympathetic as Gavin. I’m sure that most of us, at some point in our childhood, wished that we were someone else’s son or daughter, that we were really a royal heir from a far-off land, just waiting to be taken back to a life of riches. Luckily for Gavin, he is, and he is soon to escape from the perfectly safe, yet seemingly loveless life he has.

The two robots sent to find the half-human Son and Heir are tremendous fun. I’ll allow myself a little hypocrisy, after complaining about the garish new toy-style Daleks, and praise these two brightly-coloured mechanicals. They bring a striking flash of colour to the empty world

as they stride through the abandoned streets. They’re singularly useless at their job, though; unable to find the young prince, due to his being hidden by a bio-damper, they remove every other person on Earth. Only they can’t actually see him while his bio-damper is active. It’s a good thing for them that Clyde and Rani were grounded by the Judoon (in a very nice bit of continuity linking back to the Series 3 opener, Prisoner of the Judoon). If they hadn’t been left on the Earth to help out, those two robots would never have found Gavin!

Still, this a fine script by the ever-dependable Gareth Roberts, full of his usual high-standard of dialogue of peculiar imagery. However, it’s Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra who own these episodes. They’re at the centre of this story, and rightly so; they’ve become the core

of this series.

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.

With the series’ budget being cut, this year’s money-saving serial had to be even thriftier than ever, and so you’ve really got to admire the cleverness of The Empty Planet. With performers, sets and special effects all impinging upon an already tight budget, this two-parter eases the strain by telling a story carried almost entirely by the performances of its trio of teen characters. The Empty Planet is what in the USA they’d call a bottle show;

the only difference is that, for The Sarah Jane Adventures, the bottle is the entire planet.

Narratively speaking, Gareth Roberts’ script is homage to all those post-neutron bomb / last man alive type of science fiction stories that have been done many times over the years, with varying degrees of success. The premise is straightforward: Clyde and Rani find themselves in an empty London. Along with a thirteen year-old boy named Gavin, they appear to be the only human beings left on the planet. Pursued by two colourful robots – one tomato ketchup, one mustard – our two heroes must solve the mystery of Gavin, the robots, and the abducted human race before time runs out.

The piece has more of a Disney whiff about it than it does something grittier like 28 Days Later, particularly in the second episode, as the truth about Gavin could have been torn out

of any teen prince fairytale. Even as an adult viewer though, this didn’t bother me too much as the plot is just a vehicle to explore Clyde and Rani’s characters; their mutual CBeebies crush; and even their deep-rooted insecurities. Both Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra give tremendous performances as their characters are forced to take a cold, hard look at what they each contribute to the team, and ask whether their combined strengths will be enough

to save the world when Sarah Jane’s not around.

The story is slow to move forward, however, even in Part 2 when aided by a false deadline. Nevertheless, The Empty Planet is a rite of passage that I expect will prove a hit amongst the target demographic. It’s colourful, comic and even a little bit naughty (you wouldn’t Adam and Eve some of the innuendo), and best of all it has an illicit Home Alone feel that is sure

to thrill younger viewers.

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.

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.