The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Mad Woman In The Attic

It's 2059 and a young lad, Adam (Gregg Sulkin) has snuck into 13 Bannerman Road to confront The Mad Woman In The Attic - who turns out to be a lonely, bitter old Rani Chandra (Souad Faress).

Old Rani tells Adam about the time she lost touch with Sarah Jane and the others. She was jealous of the attention they still paid Maria (even though she's now 'working' in the States as "the new Sarah Jane Smith") and felt they were ignoring her own ideas, so - upon receiving an email from an old friend in her old hometown, Danemouth on the South Coast - she set out to investigate a case on her own.

First off I have to say I was very pleased to see a Sarah Jane Adventures story focusing on Rani Chandra, because the talented and cute 18-year-old Anjli Mohindra deserves her moment in the spotlight.

It was just a shame it was so obviously an "alternate future" story and something was going to happen in the second part of the story to negate the future where Rani turns into a crusty old spinster living in the attic of Sarah Jane's old house.

I couldn't help thinking of season one's Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? and season two's The Temptation Of Sarah Jane Smith, not so much for the content but for the theme of altering decisions or actions at pivotal moments causing divergent - and usually less pleasant - timelines.

Rani bececame involved with Eve (Eleanor Tomlinson), a psychic alien with great story potential, especially being a young, time-sensitive refugee from the Dalek/Time Lord Time War (although that conflict was never cited by name, the clues were very clear - especially when Eve spoke to people being "exterminated").

The stunning, red-skinned alien also had a damaged timeship, known as Ship (Kate Fleetwood), helping two humans, Harry the theme park caretaker (Brian Miller) and Rani's friend, Sam (Toby Parkes) to look after her.

My main problem with Joseph Lidster's script was that there was so much going on that it became an unnecessarily tangled web that was clearly just hitting key points for future stories, such as freeing K-9 from his black hole duty and signposting the major guest star of the next story.

Creepy abandoned fairgrounds are rather hackneyed, as are possessed youngsters (especially in The Sarah Jane Adventures), which did little to contribute to any sense of verisimilitude in the avalanche of plot threads and big ideas (for example, Sarah and Luke were the last people to visit Sam in the children's home - in fact he left with Luke - and if he never goes back, which seems unlikely as he is now with Eve, wouldn't there be some kind of investigation... involving the police, maybe?)

While several parts played out rather like a clip show, flashing back to previous episodes, it was really good to see the foreshadowing of The 10th Doctor's appearance in next week's story and a couple of Sarah moments from the Classic Era with earlier incarnations of The Doctor.

Despite the disappointment - and predictability - of the main plot, there were still some great moments in The Mad Woman In The Attic, such as the comedic interplay between Sarah Jane and Clyde, especially when he was joking about her age (which might also be another indicator of her sudden desire to get married in the next story) and the story coda with Rani's "real", happier future (was I the only one who read into this the inference that she and Luke got married?) .

Wouldn't it be great to see in some future episode of Doctor Who - or a Sarah Jane Adventures with time travel - Souad Faress return as the older, grandma Rani with her kids and grandkids. And the further adventures of Eve, Ship and their companions. I'm a sucker for this kind of continuity.

Next Week: The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith.