The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Sarah Jane Smith

"Back to London and the beginning of the end for Sarah Jane Smith..."

For the first two adventures in Big Finish's new Sarah Jane Smith series of audios, rather appropriately Sarah's co-creators, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts, have written the first two plays. Dicks' has been involved with Doctor Who since the late 1960's right up to the recent publication of his latest original Doctor Who novel, Warmonger but Comeback marks his first contribution to Big Finish and their audio series.

In bringing Sarah Jane Smith back to life for this series, Big Finish announced they were taking a more gritty, contemporary approach and Comeback hammers home the point that the frivolity of Sarah Jane's previous spin off appearance in K9 & Company will not be carried on here with a symbolic parting of the ways as Sarah attends the funeral of her Aunt Lavinia, especially when the mysterious Mr Harris and his associate predict the beginning of the end for Sarah Jane Smith immediately afterwards. This scene is handled well with a convincing display of emotion from Elisabeth Sladen, and Robin Bowerman underplaying his role as Harris impeccably to give him a real sense of menace that begins the story well. The grittiness of the story is also evident in the use of some moderately stronger language than the typical Doctor Who related play, which while not really necessary, does add an extra layer of realism to the proceedings.

Comeback has a primary motive to reintroduce Sarah Jane and the other main characters that will feature in the rest of the series and the plot of the story takes a backseat to this, at least for the first half of the story. Sarah Jane Smith is still undoubtedly one of the most popular of the Doctor Who companions, and Elisabeth Sladen's performance here demonstrates why as she revives her character with effortless ease, showing her pluckiness and her assertiveness splendidly. Joining her are Jeremy James as Josh Townsend, who rapidly becomes Sarah's unyielding faithful sidekick, and Sadie Miller, who plays Natalie Redfern, a disabled young woman who, thanks to her computer skills, watches over Sarah and makes sure she gets whatever she needs. Thanks to the likeable performances of these three, this new team comes across very strongly immediately and gives hope for the quality of the series overall.

While the bulk of the first half is all about introducing the characters, the story shifts into gear at this point when Sarah and Josh find all clues pointing to a typically dodgy small village named Cloots Combe, where people are turning up dead. There is a very definite split between the two halves of the story and it is here where Comeback falls down. While the ideas behind the truth of Cloots Coombe are definitely interesting, there isn't really any sense of them being developed and as such the abrupt resolution is a little disappointing.

Comeback's greatest strength is in the cast. Elisabeth Sladen's voice does not seem to have changed at all and as a result she conveys Sarah's character powerfully and it's easy to see why she inspires such devotion in the likes of Josh and Natallie. On this evidence, Josh will be Sarah Jane's main foil for the series and as such the casting of him was crucial given the weight of the characters use and Jeremy James plays him excellently. James has worked extensively across Big Finish's various ranges of audio plays in supporting roles and he makes the step up to leading player without difficulty, portraying the affable Josh as an everyman type of character and he and Elisabeth Sladen develop a promising rapport. Sadie Miller, who is in fact Elisabeth Sladen's daughter, shines as Natalie Redfern and while she is less prominent than Sarah and Josh, she presents herself with a forceful presence in the scenes she's present and it's a shame she's often limited to being the voice at the end of a telephone.

The guest cast performs impressively. Juliet Warner's character Ellie Martin is played well, but woefully underused despite influencing events before she appears, and Patricia Leventon makes a rather odd, but somehow suitably appropriate for the story, eco-terrorist. David Jackson, most famous for playing Gan in Blake's 7, makes a suitably convincing "dodgy" squire, using a wonderfully intimidating voice to full effect and making a marked contrast with the more sinister Harris, as played by Robin Bowerman. Peter Sowerbutts' performance as the local Reverend is also worth listening out for.

David Darlington provides the sound design and score, and as well as contributing a lively series theme tune, his work gives the play a really distinctive, urbane feel which thoroughly emphasises the contemporary feel of the play taking on more sinister, ominous overtones as the story reaches it's conclusion.

Comeback is a decent, enjoyable start for Sarah Jane Smith. It introduces the recurring characters for the series well and the impressions formed of these are strong, but it does so at the expense of telling a satisfying story and so it must be considered only to be a partial success. It does offer a lot of promise for the rest of the series though as the quality of the characters and the hints that there are definitely strange things going on behind the scenes show that now the introductions are out of the way, with a tighter focus on the plot itself, Sarah Jane Smith could achieve great things.