The Tertiary Console Room: Article - Sarah Jane Smith: The Audio Series

After making eighteen Doctor Who appearances between 1973 and 1977 and staring in it's only television spin off K9 & Company, the popularity of Sarah Jane Smith as a character cannot be doubted. Therefore she was a natural choice for Big Finish to feature in their latest series of audios from the ever expanding real of Doctor Who.

Sarah Jane has remained a firm favourite with Doctor Who fans due to the combination of Elisabeth Sladen's acting and the calibre of stories she featured in during her time on the show, but could she stand as the leading character in her own series? As Sarah is an investigative journalist, this immediately opens up interesting dramatic possibilities as to the types of stories that can be told, offering the chance to tell them in a contemporary setting without having to radically retool the character. Big Finish subverted this concept slightly, by putting Sarah into a situation where her credibility as a journalist is destroyed and she is cut off from her usual resources with a powerful someone out to destroy her. This concentrates the Sarah Jane Smith audios onto her character rather than her position as she is forced to survive using her skills to survive in a world where she's lost everything. In doing so this gives the audios a much darker tone than might have been expected, deliberately contrasting the mood of K9 & Company, and by keeping a tight focus with the minimum amount of continuity references, this combination helps to ensure Sarah stands up as a believable and credible central character.

Comeback

There are essentially two types of stories that make up the Sarah Jane Smith series, those that feature the 'arc' of the continuing storyline and standalone titles. While this is a fundamentally sound concept to build the series around, it proves troublesome here as it hampers the fluidity of the ongoing story. The TAO Connection escapes this, but after the high drama of the series mid-point Test Of Nerve where the listener gets some revelations about why Sarah is undergoing this ordeal, the following release Ghost Town ignores this totally which unfairly infects it with a degree of anticlimax as it's inevitable to expect some kind of follow up.

With the series' contemporary context, it's necessary for Sarah to be presented as she is now, and this is something very much at the heart of her characterisation throughout the five titles. She retains her essential qualities - her inquisitiveness, determination, relentlessness and her fierce loyalty, but she has developed as a person too with much of her perspective tempered by pragmatism in that she knows the bigger picture must come first over personal interests. This is shown perfectly by her reaction to her friends being placed in danger in both The TAO Connection and especially Test Of Nerve. Sladen's performance throughout the releases is consistently excellent and serves to remind what a talented actress she is.

To provide assistance for Sarah, Big Finish have created two new supporting characters in the shape of Josh Townsed, played by Jeremy James, and Natalie 'Nat' Redfern, who is portrayed by Sladen's own daughter Sadie Miller. James portrays Josh very much as an affable fellow, who like Sarah, has a keen sense of loyalty which he shows throughout the season, even when she rejects it for his own sake. Given his greater prominence than Nat, it's fair to say that Josh's role in the series is akin to the companion's in Doctor Who - a fact that's recognised in Ghost Town. When Josh first meets Nat, Sarah tells him she is her "guardian angel" which shows the level of trust they share immediately. Sarah needs Nat and her computing skills to survive and find whatever she needs to keep ahead of her faceless pursuers. In some of the stories where this is her only real contribution, then Nat does seem to be a convenient way of advancing the plot, but in stories where she's more active, such as Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre and especially Test Of Nerve Sadie Miller gets to show her considerable acting ability too. Josh and Nat enjoy a spiky relationship, emanating from Nat's protectiveness of Sarah and the fact that they are both strong willed individuals. But by Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre there are signs that their suspicion has grown into mutual trust.

The TAO Connection

Sarah Jane's world is dark and dangerous and a recurring theme of the plays is how much these people are willing to involve themselves with her and how much she'll let them, which inevitably leads to them being placed in peril. Sarah tends to blame herself for this as it's her unseen foe who has caused the situation in the first place, and strives to keep Josh and Nat out of danger where possible, firstly by limiting the extent they become involved in Test Of Nerve and when that doesn't work by shutting them out completely in Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre. As an investigative reporter, Sarah sometimes has to bend the law to achieve results, even more so here given the situation she has been placed in. This leads both Josh and Nat into committing morally questionable acts for her, which demonstrate their commitment and belief in her.

Appropriately Big Finish turned to Sarah's co-creators, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts, to write the first two plays in the series. Dicks' Comeback introduces the premise of the series, setting things into motion well and establishes the characters excellently with Sarah and Josh demonstrating an immediate rapport, although Nat is underused here. But it's very much an audio of two halves with the first part being the more successful - particularly in that it also introduces Harris (brilliantly played with quiet menace by Robin Bowerman), who is working for Sarah's unseen opponent, but the second half of the play suffers from the shift to the village of Cloots Coombe where something nasty is lurking in an ancient well. The ideas shown are interesting but this whole plot is wrapped up too neatly and quickly to give Comeback a truly satisfying ending making it a very mixed verdict.

Test Of Nerve

Letts' The TAO Connection sees Sarah and Josh venturing into Yorkshire investigating the strange disappearance of one of his friends, leading them to the mysterious Huang Ti Clinic, who specialise in remarkably effective rejuvenation techniques. This story builds on the successes of Comeback by using the regular characters well and giving them an unusual - if ultimately stereotypical - villain in Moray Treadwell's Will Butley to face, whilst keeping a tighter focus on the plot. Letts infuses the story with a wonderfully bleak atmosphere although his dialogue and supporting characters distract from this with their clichéd nature. Unfortunately, this spreads to Elisabeth Sladen's performance here where the script requires her to go undercover at the clinic and she adopts a cod Northern accent to disguise herself which is very caricature in nature, making this part the only section of the series where she is anything less than excellent in her performance. The TAO Connection is also the first real instance of a recurring theme of the series where Sarah's friends are placed in danger when Josh is captured for use in producing blood for Butley's draught. Nat is in favour of calling the police immediately, but Sarah knows that if she does that, then there will likely be a cover up. She is prepared to leave Josh at risk so she can make sure the threat is closed down permanently. A particularly memorable scene here is Sarah's final confrontation with Butley where she convinces him to reveal the truth about his activities before denying him the draught he needs to survive in response to all the deaths he's caused through his quest for immortality.

David Bishop's Test Of Nerve is the strongest Sarah Jane Smith audio of them all. With a taut and thrilling script, it sees Sarah and friends in a desperate race against time to stop a terrorist attack on the London Underground which could devastate the city. The acting is superb, particularly guest star Roy Skelton who is powerfully emotive as ex-soldier Carver, and Sadie Miller finally gets a chance to really shine. The story is about Sarah's foe's attempts to drive a wedge between her and her friends and as Sarah tries to protect Josh and Nat by keeping them out of the information loop, much to their display, cracks begin to form in their association. At one point Sarah remarks that Josh ought to feel grateful that she's not involving him more, showing how she feels she's protecting him by keeping him away - a theme that would be emphasised further in Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre. At the crux of Test Of Nerve is an impossible choice for Sarah between the death of a close friend and the death of millions. By her actions in choosing to save the city, she shows how she has matured as a character and by acknowledging that the "world-savers" are no longer there, she has to just do the best she can even if it means leaving a friend to die. This situation gives the drama some of its most memorable moments, ranging from the utter cruelty and malice Harris shows Nat as he forces her to walk to save her life, knowing full well that her disability means she cannot and Sadie Miller imbues Nat with sheer determination in her bid to survive and not become a victim. The scene at the conclusion where Sarah has to face Nat, knowing what she did, is impressively played and full of emotion.

Rupert Laight's Ghost Town is something of an anticlimax, not really following up the issues raised by the previous story (save for Nat's absence) and the fact it's very much a traditional ghost story is its main problem - it's just far too predictable and having Josh crack Scooby Doo jokes often doesn't help as it just draws attention to the problem. Venturing out to Romania to visit her old friend Yolande Benstead, Sarah and Josh soon find that her house isn't as friendly as she believes as spectral images soon confront them. While the ideas are sound, it is the execution that lets them down particularly as the prologue is far too revealing about the plot to come. On the basis of this story, Laight's strengths lie in characterisation as the characters are presented well with some good dialogue but without a strong plot to work around, this cannot compensate. On the plus side though, the ghost scenes of this story are very effective as Laight is restrained enough to ensure the characters don't start describing in detail what is happening (as happened in Big Finish's Doctor Who ghost story Winter For The Adept), but leaves it to the imagination of the listener and David Darlington's excellent sound design to provoke the right response giving a very chilling effect.

Test Of Nerve may be the story where Harris' mysterious employer is revealed as Miss Hilda Winters, played again by Patricia Maynard, from 1973' Robot, but it isn't until the final story Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre by Peter Anghelides that she makes her most impact. This release sees Sarah cutting herself off from her friends as she heads out to India in pursuit of a new lead where she meets a like-minded journalist who may be able to help. Anghelides' audio ensures that this run of stories concludes in style with the pressure and paranoia finally getting to Sarah and leaving her playing right into the hands of her enemy, leaving those who can help unable to do so. By keeping the drama moving at a swift pace, Anghelides diverts the listener's attention away from suspicious elements and makes it plausible that Sarah is drawn in so totally. Reviving Miss Winters is an excellent idea as it gives a real emotional impact to the scenes involving her and Sarah, when she finally understands the truth, which a new character might not have had. Unfortunately though, Maynard's appearance is very limited which is disappointing after going to the trouble of bringing her back. It also continues the series' theme of strength through adversity by showing Sarah come out more determined than ever through her experiences here and posing questions regarding morality in how far an individual will go to achieve their goals or to defend their friends. The ending is a little unsatisfactory in that it's very abrupt, leaving a feeling of unfinished business left to settle.

Mirror, Signal, Maneouvre

Overall, the Sarah Jane Smith series of audios has been a mixed bag of stories, ranging from the high drama of Test Of Nerve to the somewhat predictable Ghost Town, which has on the whole been successful in offering entertaining and thought provoking drama. While the performances over the course of the series were generally excellent, particularly Elisabeth Sladen and her supporting regulars Jeremy James and Sadie Miller, and the characterisation good, where it could have been improved was in greater consistency of storytelling. Both Test Of Nerve and Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre stand out considerably as the best of the five and it isn't coincidence that these two are the most focused on the series' 'arc', dealing with the threat to Sarah and friends head on, and had all the stories taken a similar approach the overall consistency may have been stronger. As it is, these titles offer a promising base for future Sarah Jane Smith titles to build upon and given the nature of the ending to Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre this seems necessary to bring the overall story to its logical conclusion.