TV Preview: The Sarah Jane Adventures
We preview The Vault of Secrets; the second two-part story in the brand new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
The Vault of Secrets not only contains a lot of humour but also a lot of references to other works. The two-part story is littered with little nods to various films and television programmes from Dragon’s Den, X Files to the Men in Black films – Will Smith gets a mention. Then there’s a scene in the second part with just a hand running down a corridor – surely a reference to the Addam’s Family? However, these little nods thankfully don’t feel all that forced into the story and fit it well.
At times though the humour does feel a little forced and childish; it’s the kind of humour associated with the dreaded slitheen. For example during the course of the episode Rani’s mother Gita decides to visit a group who have seen/abducted by aliens. The abbreviation for the group is Burps and as you can imagine a lot of childish humour is made out of that. It’s the kind of humour that doesn’t really sit well with the Doctor Who universe which is the same reason why the Slitheen never really became a hit with the fans; its the humour you’d expect from something like My Hero.
That little grumble aside the story is entertaining enough though the possible fear factor – from certain situations – is played down in favour of playing up the humour. The story opens with a cameo appearance from Luke – who is now at university in Oxford – as the team gather in Sarah’s attic to watch a live feed from a Mars rover of NASA. Just as the Rover looks set to discover something the signal is rather helpfully blocked by Mr. Smith. So what is it that the rover was about to discover? Well by the looks of it a pyramid; perhaps a reference to the Doctor Who story Pyramids of Mars – a Sarah Jane story. Or maybe a reference to the Ice Warriors? Either way I’m quite sure it was a little nod to Doctor Who fans of past adventures featuring the Red Planet or its fictional inhabitants.
The plot of the two-part story itself revolves around the return of the ‘body-snatching’ Androvax who is dying after being poisoned in a Judoon prison. If you look closely at Mr. Smith during the scene where Androvax reveals this the creature displayed looks very similar to Prisoner Zero from The Eleventh Hour – Matt Smith’s debut story as The Doctor. Perhaps another nod to the parent series, if indeed it was the same kind of creature, and to remind fans of The Doctor who crops up next week in the series.
Androvax wants Sarah Jane’s help opening a vault which contains the last ship of his people; so his people can be saved. Sarah reluctantly agrees to help him but upon visiting the location of the vault comes across three androids – men in black – tasked with guarding it. It seems though these androids have met Ocean – the leader of Burp – before in 1972. We won’t give too much of the plot away but suffice to say there’s a cliff-hanger where everyone looks to be in peril and there’s plenty of ‘body’ hoping as Androvax hopes between the regular cast.
As I said at the start its a story which is more humorous than perhaps it should be but none-the-less it was entertaining enough. The brilliance of The Sarah Jane Adventures always lays in the performances of the regular cast who are, as ever, on fine form. Giving Elisabeth Sladen her own spin-off series was a stroke of genius by Russell T Davies/BBC as she is, after all, the companion forever most associated with the series by fans of a certain age. While the spin-off is targeted at a younger age the producers know that Doctor Who fans will also be watching hence the little nods here and there to adventures long past.
The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Vault of Secrets; CBBC Channel Monday & Tuesday at 5.15pm. Repeated on BBC One on Wednesday & Thursday at 4.30pm.
