Eye of the Gorgon (TV story)

Eye of the Gorgon
Novelised as:	Eye of the Gorgon
Main character(s):	Sarah Jane Smith Maria Jackson Luke Smith Clyde Langer Mr Smith
Main enemy:	Gorgons The Abbess Sister Helena
Main setting:	Lavender Lawns, 2008 Ealing, West London, UK, Earth, 2008
Key crew
Writer:	Phil Ford
Director:	Alice Troughton
Producer:	Matthew Bouch
Release details
Story number:	3
Premiere broadcast:	1 & 8 October 2007
Format:	2x30 minute episodes
SJA television stories
← Previous	Revenge of the Slitheen
Next →	Warriors of Kudlak

Eye of the Gorgon was the third story in the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It is comprised of episodes 3 and 4 of the series.

Plot

Part 1

Elderly women at the local nursing home, Lavender Lawns, have claimed they have seen a mysterious nun that appears and vanishes like a ghost. Clyde informs Sarah Jane of the story, and she, Clyde, and Luke go to investigate. Meanwhile, Chrissie Jackson moves back 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.

Part 2

Having gotten what they came for, the nuns and Gorgon leave. Luke and Clyde escape 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 cannot 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 for Luke to grab 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. 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

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson

Written by Phil Gladwin	Produced by Matthew Bouch	Directed by Charles Martin	Director of Photography Rory Taylor	Production Designer Tim Dickel Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill
Make-up Designer Emma Bailey	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Sam Watts	Costume Designer Stewart Meacham	Edited by William Webb	Special Effects Any Effects
Original theme music by Murray Gold

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Production Manager - Debbi Slater Location Manager - Jonathan Allott Production Accountant - Dyfed Thomas Script department Script Editor - Lindsey Alford Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Dan Mumford Script Supervisor - Nicki Coles Lighting - Mark Hutchings	Art department Costume department	Make-up and prosthetics Prosthetics - Millennium FX Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Abbi Collins General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Nerys Davies Special and visual effects Colourist - Jon Everett Sound Sound - Brian Milliken Dubbing Mixer - Mark Ferda Audio Post-production - Doug Sinclair

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

• Bea Nelson-Stanley mentions that "the Sontarans are the silliest race in the galaxy" and look like potatoes.
• Bea also says that the Sultan of Ishkanbar saw 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 reminds Sarah Jane of the Cybermen, much to her 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, similar to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in DW: Silence in the Library.
• Sister Helena makes a punning reference to "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?", a 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 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.

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 destroyed in DW: Turn Left
• The Second Doctor had previously encountered Medusa, another Gorgon, in DW: The Mind Robber.

Home video releases

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

Novelisation

See Eye of the Gorgon (novelisation),

• A novelization was released written by Phil Ford.

Footnotes