THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES REVIEW: THE MARK OF THE BERSERKER
WRITTEN BY: JOSEPH LIDSTER
DIRECTED BY: JOSS AGNEW
So, we've reached the half way mark of the second series, The Mark of the Berserker being the fourth story of the series. Sarah Jane has a minor role in the serial making it very similar to the "Doctor Who lite" type of stories such as 'Love and Monsters', 'Blink', 'Turn Left', 'The Girl who Waited' and 'The Crimson Horror' stories which don't feature the Doctor heavily. It's kind of like that.
So the story revolves itself around this weird alien pendant which is a piece of alien technology that gives its owner the power to make people obey their every command. So for instance, if I had the pendant and I told my sister to make me a sandwich she'd have to go and do it for me because she'd be under my spell. The problem with this pendant is that it corrupts the mind of the person using it, it's quite deadly in a sense because you lose all identity of who you once were, because your mind has been corrupted by power.
This boy at school is losing his mind to this pendant which he throws away and Rani picks it up, she starts to use it and then frightened by the fact that she might do something terrible takes the pendant over to Sarah Jane's attic so it's out of harms way.
Luke is staying over at Clyde's for the weekend whilst Sarah Jane is away, it's then we see the first appearance of Clyde's mum Carla. We have had her mentioned before in the series but this is the first story where we as an audience actually get to meet her. Then out of nowhere Clyde's dad Paul turns up after not seeing him for five years. This obviously comes as a terrible shock to both Clyde and Carla. Clyde decides he wants to give his dad a chance to explain to him why he left them, whilst they are out together Clyde lets his dad in on the secret of what he gets up to with Sarah Jane, Luke, and Rani. He takes his dad up to the attic, and what do you think Mr Langer takes from the attic? the pendant, once he learns of its power he likes it and the more he likes it the more he wants to use it, but the more he uses it, the more dangerous it becomes.
This one has always been one of my favourites of the series, it's one of the more emotionally centered stories above anything else and there are a few of them in this series. We've has stories which are about Luke, Maria, Sarah Jane and even Rani, but this is the first time we get to see a story which is all about Clyde. This is Clyde's story. It's Clyde Langer's time to shine. And what better way to do that than to resolve the major issue of Clyde's life - why did his dad walk out on him? I think this story deals with the emotionally centered bits really well, it raises awareness to people's struggles having to live in a separated/ broken up family and the difficulties that that can raise, it leaves the child asking a lot of questions, blaming themselves partly for it happening, amongst various other problems which that issue addresses. It was one of those stories which felt like a drama, it was a very good piece of drama for a children's programme. And there's also a brilliant continuity thing in this where Clyde sturs Sarah Jane's memories of her own parents, whom she longs to have known. This foreshadows the plot for the next story, and that's a great link.
The idea behind the main menace was simple which I liked, for a show which doesn't have a huge budget, it goes back to the days of classic Doctor Who where they have to do what they can with the money that they had for each season. This idea comes from a very simple premise and it's influential to children who can draw the mark of the berserker on their hand with a blue biro pen in the class at school if they ever go bored.
This is also the last story to feature Maria and Alan Jackson, who make a brief appearance in Part Two.
I suppose the main fault I could point out with this is that it doesn't feel that much like 'a Sarah Jane adventure' because it Sarah Jane's not in it that much. It's more like a more serious drama about Clyde and his story rather than being something more of what I perceive Sarah Jane Adventures to be, which is a fun and light sort of show.
I really liked it none the less. 8/10.
Next Week: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith.
