Eye of the Gorgon (TV story)

Eye of the Gorgon
Featuring:	Sarah Jane Smith Maria Jackson Luke Smith Clyde Langer Mr Smith
Main enemy:	Gorgons The Abbess Sister Helena
Main setting:	Lavender Lawns
Key crew
Writer:	Phil Ford
Director:	Alice Troughton
Release details
Story number:	3
Release number:	Series 1
Premiere broadcast:	1st & 8th October 2007
Format:	2x30 minute episodes

Eye of the Gorgon is the title of the second story in the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures and makes up episodes 3 and 4 of the series.

Plot

Sarah Jane and her companions investigate claims of sightings of a ghostly nun at Lavender Lawns, the local nursing home. Meanwhile, Chrissie Jackson moves into her ex-husband's house, but succeeds only in causing further problems with the family. Back at Lavender Lawns, an old lady gives Luke an ancient talisman, which is really the key to a portal in space and time. They find that a group of nuns are hiding an age-old creature, the Gorgon. When Sarah Jane refuses to give the talisman to the nuns, they kidnap Luke and Clyde and take the Gorgon and Maria to Sarah Jane's house where the Gorgon turns Maria's father to stone.

Having got what they came for, the nuns and Gorgon leave. Luke and Clyde escape from their entrapment via a secret passage. Mr Smith tells Maria and Sarah that Alan is retrievable until 16:00. Luke and Clyde see the Gorgon stumble, but are unable to prevent the talisman beginning the process of joining the Gorgon Homeworld with Earth. The Gorgon - a parasite inside the Abbess - chooses Sarah Jane as its next host. Chatting with Bea reveals to Maria that the talisman can revert those turned to stone. Clyde distracts the nuns long enough that Luke grabs the talisman, disconnecting the portal. However, Sarah Jane and both boys are recaptured and locked in another room, though Sarah Jane is soon taken and tied next to the portal. Luke and Clyde escape again and join Sarah Jane just as the Gorgon begins to transfer itself, but Maria arrives and uses a mirror to revert the transfer and turn the Gorgon - and Abbess - to stone, freeing the nuns of mind-control. Maria disconnects the talisman and the portal shuts down forever. The talisman brings Alan back to flesh-and-blood and Chrissie leaves, reuniting with Ivan.

Cast

• Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
• Maria Jackson — Yasmin Paige
• Luke Smith — Tommy Knight
• Clyde Langer — Daniel Anthony
• Voice of Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
• Alan Jackson — Joseph Millson
• Chrissie Jackson — Juliet Cowan
• Bea Nelson-Stanley — Phyllida Law
• Sister Helena — Beth Goddard
• Mrs Gribbins - Sarah Crowden
• Mrs Randall — Doreen Mantle
• Rosaline Evans - Emily Head
• The Abbess — Audrey Ardington

Crew

Executive Producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Phil Collinson Producer – Matthew Bouch Second Assistant Director – Anna Evans Script Editor – Lindsey Alford Focus Puller – Steve Rees Supervising Art Director – Matthew North Post-Production Supervisor – Nerys Davies Supervising Sound Editors – Paul McFadden, Doug Sinclair Dubbing Mixer – Mark Ferda Music – Dan Watts Casting Director – Andy Pryor Assistant Makeup Artist – Olivia Jones Visual Effects Coordinator – Jenna Powell Animator – Neil Roche Prosthetics Technician – Charlie Bluett Film Editor – William Webb Director of Photography – Rory Taylor

References

• Bea Nelson-Stanley mentions that "the Sontarans are the silliest race in the galaxy" and look like potatoes.
• Bea also references that the Sultan of Ishkanbar had seen a Yeti once, a reference to DW: The Abominable Snowmen.
• Clyde says he will never turn old, by placing his brain in a robotic suit. This is, of course reminiscent of the Cybermen, much to Sarah Jane's annoyance.
• There is a silhouette/scale drawing of a Jagaroth ship on the wall in Sarah's attic.
• Sarah Jane Smith, in attempting to guess where the abbey was, mentions Agatha Christie, a key character in the Doctor Who Series 4 episode The Unicorn and the Wasp.
• The Sonic lipstick does not work on wood, as shown with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in Silence in the Library.
• Sister Helena makes a punning reference to "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?", a famous song from The Sound of Music - which was performed by a group of nuns in that musical. It is also the title of a Sound of Music-related talent competition TV series which, in both its British and Canadian editions, featured John Barrowman as one of the judges.
• The idea of the nuns hiding an Alien being is very similar to DW: Tooth and Claw with the monks hiding the Werewolf

Story notes

Ratings

• Both episodes aired on the CBBC channel, and were broadcast on BBC 1 a week later.
  • Ratings
• Episode 1 - 365,000 (CBBC)
• 1.1 million (BBC 1)
  • Episode 2- 411,000 (CBBC)
• 1.0 million (BBC 1)

Filming locations

To Be Added

Myths

The Greek myth of a Gorgon is featured.

Production errors

• Sarah Jane's house number should be 13 but in these two episodes the door number is 21. Perhaps Sarah Jane hasn't had a chance to replace the number. A Bane did, after all, rip off the door in "Invasion of the Bane" and she may not have had time, due to the alien invasions, to buy a new number.

Continuity

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• Sarah Jane met the Sontarans in DW: The Time Warrior and The Sontaran Experiment.
• The Gorgon uses what looks like to be Petrifold Regression on Alan Jackson, which was last seen in DW: New Earth.
• The building used as Lavender Lawns is the same building used as the hotel when Donna, Wilf and Slyvia see London be destroyed, in DW: Turn Left
• The Doctor had previously encountered Medusa, another Gorgon, in The Mind Robber.

Home video releases

• This was to be released on a vanilla DVD along with Revenge of the Slitheen on 17th March 2008, until the release was cancelled. It is featured in the Series One box set, which was released in North America on 7th October 2008 and in the UK on 10th November 2008.

Novelisation

See Eye of the Gorgon (novelisation)

• A novelization was released written by Daniel Attwood.

External links

to be added