Players
Russ Abbott (Martin Trueman); Carryl Thomas (Cheryl Farley); Ed Hughes (Stuart Farley); Nicky Ladanowski (Lisa Trotter); Joanna Bending (Linda); Nicholas Osmond (George); Sagar Arya (British Newsreader); Anthony Debaeck (French Newsreader); and Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells*).
* So, she DOES have a name after all.
NOT South Croydon
The East Acton New Theatre is apparently in East Acton, Ealing. Amazing!
Blink and You’d Miss It
Sarah Jane’s got a picture of Luke in football kit in her parlour. Nothing wrong with that except Luke has never been seen to be playing football on a team, and it just reminds us of Tommy Knight’s disturbing Think You Know educational video, Tom’s Story. Go ahead and look it up on You Tube if you must, but you’ve been warned it’s not for the squeamish. Sarah Jane makes an oblique reference to being hypnotized left right and center during her time with the Doctor..
K9 Says…
Mr Smith mentions the zodiac of the planet Draconia, visited by the Doctor Master on screen in Frontier in Space (1973).
Generation Gap
Trueman refers to some of the audience members as “Golden Girls”, referencing the award winning series about retirees set in Florida from 1985 through 1992. Two comments; most women act a little more upset when making such remarks about their age, and we preferred Brighton Belles anyway.
Things That Embarrass Us
Luke confuses “cheesy” with “milky”.
Things That are Really Starting to Annoy Us
Sarah again gets all testy with Gita for calling her “Sarah”, although that’s the name she has gone by for years! The writers should be forced to watch the classic series episodes with her in them so they start to get this right because obviously none of them know what they’re doing.
The Sarah Jane Utility Belt
She’s got a torch, she has.
Today’s Horoscope
Rani is Aries. Clyde’s birthday is June the 5th, making him a Gemini, same as Gita. Sarah Jane is a Taurus, which puts her birthday sometime between April 21 through May 21, but Luke has no astrological sign according to this story.
Eldrad Must Live (and everybody else must die)
Trueman chooses to dissipate rather than go back to being a nobody.
Blokes Gita Thinks are Fit
She thinks the Doctor “sounds gorgeous”.
Blokes Clyde Thinks are Fit
He puts his arm round Luke in Sarah Jane’s attic and seems a bit overly-comfortable with him*, if you catch our drift. We discover at the end he’s not under Luke’s control though… at least not in front of Sarah Jane.
* This doesn’t mean your editors in any way support those slash fics we found online. No siree bob.
“And He Goes… And She Goes…”
“She’s a plant.” – Sarah Jane
“A vegetable life form?” – Luke
“What was it, what’s so special about me?” – Clyde
“Oh, so many things.” – Sarah Jane
K9 Says…
The Universe was created 13 billion years ago in the Big Bang. The Ancient Lights are from the Universe that existed prior to ours and therefore obeys different physical laws.
Things That Don’t Make Sense (even to a six-year old)
Rani’s obviously been a part of the group for a while now (although Trueman says she just moved house), and she seems to know that Luke wasn’t born so much as “switched on”. Does this mean they’ve just been telling their entire life details to their new friend? She doesn’t know Clyde’s birthday, but seems to recall that Luke doesn’t have one. We suppose they might have told her, but still it must make for interesting chat over tea: Luke says, “Oh, did I ever tell you how I was created by an octipodial alien swarm in order to further their plans to take over the Earth but thanks to this chav called Kelsey it all ended up with Sarah as me mum.” And Rani goes, “Uhm, no. Can you not sit so close to me.” Oh the hours of fun at the Smith house. When Trueman talks about Sarah’s journeys with the Doctor the clips shown are both from School Reunion, but he was talking about the time she was traveling with the Doctor. A perfectly good excuse to use the clips from the classic series wasted on pointless shots of the Tenth Doctor that aren’t what’s being referred to at all in the script. Hopeless. Mr Chandra channel hops through what appears to be terrestrial stations (judging by the old-school OSD) and then starts taking the cable box apart. The parents of John on Bannerman Road think he’s “playing up” because he walks out of the house (possibly in the middle of a conversation?) – we can only assume they’ve never met a 10 year old boy before.
Snafus
This story features only the second really obvious shot of Cardiff in Sarah Jane Adventures, with the well-known and distinctive New Theatre making an appearance. In the lobby of the theatre, the warning bell rings once before a five minute warning is given – traditionally the number of rings denotes the amount of minutes remaining. In Sarah’s attic Clyde has his arm round Luke one moment, and then by his side the next. When Rani calls Clyde, Trueman holds the phone with both hands in the closeup and with one hand in the longer shot. Also, the “Rani Calling” graphic is clearly a desktop image that has been added to the phone, as the ‘cancel’ button overlaps with the ‘back’ one. How can Mr Smith pick up news broadcasts when he said previously that Trueman was broadcasting on all television channels worldwide. Yeah, maybe the shows were switching back, but as Luke points out Trueman needs his broadcast to send his control around the world, so he’s not really likely to allow that control to be interrupted for news bulletins. This sequence appears to take place in the afternoon in the UK (considering that Gita leaves her house at a quarter till 1pm), suggesting that the President of the US was seeing the wife of the Prime Miniser of Kazakhstan for breakfast – possibly explaining why they’re holding hands!
Also Known As
Our mums remember when Russ Abbot used to be funny. They still talk about when he used to be on TV all the time, in The Freddie Starr Variety Madhouse (1979), Russ Abbot’s Madhouse (1980-1985) and The Russ Abbot Show (1988-1995). Then he tried doing serious things, like September Song (1993-1995) and Heartbeat (2000). These days he usually crops up on daytime TV as a special guest star in things like Doctors (2005). Carryl Thomas was in Family Affairs (1997) and Holby City (2006) before being cast in Sarah Jane. Nicky Ladanowski has been in loads more, though, like The Bill (2000) Paradise Heights (2002), Grease Monkeys (2003), Coronation Street (2003) and The Bill again (2008). Joanna Bending was just in Dipper (2005), Tick Tock Lullaby (2007), Doctors (2008), Love Soup (2008) and The Bill (2008). Sagar Arya was in the Doctor Who Christmas Special The Christmas Invasion (2005) playing the same newsreader, and also in shows like Life on Mars (2006) and A Touch of Frost (2008). Anthony Debaeck has done a bunch of stuff in French, including a great episode of Le Collège des coeurs brisés with the snappy title La couleur des traces des pattes du chat sur un sol de ciment frais (1992) before he started making stuff in English – he also made an appearance as a newsreader in Doctor Who, this time in Army of Ghosts (2006). Lachele Carl also seems to be in Doctor Who a lot, as her American newsreader was in Aliens of London/World War Three (2005), The Christmas Invasion (2005), The Sound of Drums (2007), The Poison Sky (2008), Turn Left (2008) and The Stolen Earth (2008).
Photographic Proof
