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15TH NOVEMBER 2010 - 16TH NOVEMBER 2010

(2 EPISODES)

Never let your girlfriend join you when you’re watching something like The Sarah Jane Adventures. Really, she’ll only take the piss. Yes, so there’s some ridiculously over-the-top acting, and yes, so there’s some painfully trite moralising, and yes, some of the dialogue can be pretty awful. There’s a lot of gratuitous gunge as well. But it’s a kid’s programme, and you have to watch it through a child’s eyes, especially if you’re reviewing it as I am here. This can be a bit tricky - I’m absolutely sick to death of the Slitheen turning up, but apparently they are very popular with the young ’uns.

So, I’m trying hard to review this season finale as a child. From that point of view, at least, it’s a small success. It’s the end of the series, and while we adult fans know that a fifth season is following next year, most of the target audience don’t spend their time trawling the internet for tidbits of news. When Ruby White (played by Julie Graham, most familiar to sci-fi fans for the Survivors remake) comes in to usurp Sarah Jane’s position, it really could feel like the end of an era. And while it’s blatantly obvious from the outset that she’s a villain, fooling no-one but the regular cast, that’s not really the point. She’s a thoroughly hissable baddie, who, as

a sort of anti-Sarah Jane, provides the show with a suitable threat. Things get even better when she reveals her true identity, as an alien Katesh, a psychic soul-sucker who’s out to drain humanity of its life force. The moment when she reveals her stomach, sat quivering in an alcove in a hidden cellar, is wonderfully repellent - and in the second episode we learn that the thing has its own teeth!

Ruby even has her own Mr Smith figure, a portable AI who gets predictably nicknamed “Mr White”, and who turns out to be a reprogrammed, albeit very sophisticated, games console. What she doesn’t have is friends and family, and it’s here that Sarah’s strength lies. Clyde, for one, totally refuses to believe that Sarah Jane would leave, and very rapidly ends up in trouble, locked in Ruby’s prison pod in orbit, with only a very limited air supply. It’s Luke to come to the rescue, though, restyled for his uni career, with an internet link to K-9 for extra back-up. Everything is set up for a fast, clever finale - with obligatory gunge.

As an adult viewer, however, this story seems to be something of a missed opportunity. At first, as Sarah begins to forget names and important items, it appears that we’re looking at an exploration of the difficulties of ageing. The show has touched on dementia before, but having the lead character face it is another matter. There aren’t many children’s adventure shows where the lead is a woman in her sixties, and however young Elisabeth Sladen may look for her age, it’s something that the series was going to have to address at some point. Sadly though, what could have been something rather interesting is for the most part played in very broad strokes, and Sarah’s fear of not being able to continue the life she loves loses impact once it becomes clear that her illness was due entirely to Ruby’s influence.

So, as a po-faced grown-up, this finale is a little disappointing, especially after the excellent and mature Lost in Time. From a less cynical, more appropriate point of view, Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith is a cracking little story, fast-paced and with plenty of incident. What’s more, with the defeated Ruby vowing revenge, I can foresee a return appearance - Ruby White being the first genuinely convincing archenemy character for Sarah Jane since Mrs Wormwood back in the early days. For if the Doctor has the Master, then Sarah needs her own opposite number, and Ruby White could well be it.

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.

Erstwhile Doctor Who Magazine editor Clayton Hickman and his writing partner, Gareth Roberts, have a number of popular Doctor Who audio dramas to their name, each of which is notorious for its rampant comedy. And, true to form, their script for the final serial of The Sarah Jane Adventures’ fourth season provides their trademark mixture of mirth and madness, but this time there’s plenty of melancholy on offer too.

The story is wonderful fun. Following a series of apparently senile slip-ups by Sarah Jane, flash “Wonderwoman” Ruby White moves into Bannerman Road to try and usurp Sarah’s role as defender of the Earth… or, at least, its “Ealing Triangle.” Julie Graham (At Home

with the Braithwaites, William and Mary) initially plays Ruby as a more caustic version of

the Sarah Jane that we met in Invasion of the Bane, haughty and aloof, before apparently softening her character as Clyde and Rani prove their usefulness to her. As the first episode progresses, Ruby does indeed seem to be another Sarah Jane Smith, albeit a little more glam and with a sports car instead of a mini.

Of course, Ruby isn’t another alien-savvy defender of the Earth, but an evil devourer of souls. Having been sentenced by her own people to an eternity spent floating in space playing on what looks like a high-tech Wii, she has long craved a life of danger and excitement, and so upon escaping she set her sights on the most exciting life on the planet, and it doesn’t take long for her to secure it. With Elisabeth Sladen tenderly portraying Sarah Jane’s coming to terms with what seems to be early onset dementia, a vacancy has arisen in the Attic…

Sarah Jane, inevitably, ends up being held in Ruby’s basement, her soul slowly being eaten away by Ruby’s external stomach. Accordingly, it falls to the youngsters to the save the day, including Luke, who returns from university for his first proper appearance since The Night-mare Man. However, it’s Daniel Anthony’s Clyde who steals the show with what might well be his best performance to date. From his unexpectedly emotive faux-death scene (in which he almost declares his love for Rani!) to his trembling hands as he holds Ruby at gunpoint, Anthony portrays the joker’s darkest hour with real finesse.

Altogether then, Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith is a thoroughly charming end to a charming season. Hickman and Roberts’ script boasts horror, heart and humour in equal measure, and that’s exactly what I look for when I watch The Sarah Jane Adventures. I dare say the nations’ kids do too...

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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