Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Greg]

Moving across the road from Sarah Jane Smith opened up a whole new world for Maria Jackson. And then one morning Maria woke up to discover that Sarah never lived across the road, and that no one had even heard of her...

The "what would have happened if you never met so-and-so" story is a staple of science fiction and fantasy stories, so it wasn't surprising to have it turn up here. In this case, the story results in half of the regular cast being removed from early on (neither Sarah nor her adopted son Luke ever lived across the road), and that Maria becomes the primary focus of the story - as the fourth regular, Clyde, only got to know Maria through their mutual friendship with Luke.

I've commented earlier that the kids in the show put in credible performances, and this episode is largely carried by Yasmin Paige as Maria. The simple truth is that, if she couldn't act, this story would have fallen apart. With more experience, she'll be a good actor (although her performance lacks enough variety for that rating at the moment).

The episode introduces a threat that Sarah is going to stop, but her sudden vanishment means that the threat is still going to happen - with no one there to stop it, and only Maria knows. So, she's trying to resolve why Sarah isn't around anymore on a very strict timeframe, giving an extra element of tension.

You may see the name and associate the story with the movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, however there's no substantial resemblance in plots - the closest perhaps being some of the secretive and moderately paranoid behaviour of Andrea Yates, the woman who it has turned out has lived across the road from the Jacksons since they moved in. However, there is a great in-joke for fans in this character - she's played by Jane Asher, who was previously involved in a Doctor Who related radio production called Whatever Happened to Susan?, playing the role of the Doctor's granddaughter. Having her return in a similarly named production is either a casting in-joke of the highest order or a bizarre coincidence.

Some of the portrayal of the Trickster, the villain of the story, is a bit frustrating - the very shiny black hooded robe and, worst of all, the lurking in the bushes at the start of the show only to walk out - and no one notices. It's like there was a big someone saying 'How can we cliche this up?'.

I was also mildly annoyed that Maria didn't wonder how the various plots of the earlier stories didn't come to fruition without Sarah there to stop them.

The ending of this story, though, promises that next episode will be at least interesting, and gets down to the very nub of the problem - knowing what changed in history to remove Sarah, will Maria be able to fix it?

[meglos]

Excellent. I love this sort of story. It really held my attention, and the acting was great, especially, I thought, from the guy who plays Maria's Dad. Can't wait for part 2.

[Ohica]

This was a good show with lots of suspense wondering what indeed had happened to Sarah and how would they ever get her and Maria back. I have now seen part two and all up a great show that was a bit different to the others. I loved the skateboarding scene with Alan showing his form and also his involvment in the whole plot. Nice to see something of Sarah's childhood but I'm glad it was just a small snippet. I'm also glad they did not give her a ridiculous age which is what previous bios have tried to do. 13 in 1964 [a great year by the way] is just right and not too far removed from ES's real age and about right on the age Sarah should be.

The next story looks pretty scary on an emotional level and will keep us on the edge of our seat. Can't wait. Hope they do a second series coz I don't think I could stand it if there was no more SJA.

[Theta Sigma]

This is brilliant.

A brilliant script from Gareth Roberts and direction from Graeme Harper.

Jane Asher finally makes an appearance in the televised Whoniverse as she previously appeared in the 1994 radio production of Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman. Funny how both stories involving Jane Asher both have titles starting with the words "What Happened to" followed by the name of a person.

Remarkably this episode is somewhat similar to a Twilight Zone episode I saw weeks ago called And When The Sky Was Opened.

Although I saw it briefly in the trailer for this, it still caught me by surprise the appearance of a Graske.

Excellent cliffhanger with Maria meeting Sarah as a young girl.