A bio-warfare scandal from the 1940s takes Sarah to a remote island in the Indian Ocean where she must face an enemy form her past.
A bio-warfare scandal from the 1940s takes Sarah to a remote island in the Indian Ocean where she must face an enemy form her past.
SARAH JANE SMITH: MIRROR, SIGNAL, MANOEUVRE
It’s been quite a roller coaster ride through this spinoff series, with “Test of Nerve” a definite high point amongst mediocrity. And so, after five releases, Big Finish’s first season of Sarah Jane Smith plays comes to a close with Peter Anghelides’s “Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre,” a story that stands as the second-best of the five but sadly fails to distinguish itself. It’s not for lack of trying: Anghelides employs a gritty, realistic feel akin to David Bishop’s earlier script, and even attempts to give the play an international feel, with Sarah flying from country to country. There’s even a great scene where Sarah discovers the identity of her nemesis — and correspondingly great performances from Elisabeth Sladen and Patricia Maynard. Ultimately, though, everything seems disjointed. Yes, the trap employed to catch Sarah is skillful and even unpredictable, but it seems peculiarly unnecessary. Yes, Miss Winters has a dastardly scheme to threaten the world, but it doesn’t seem particularly clear what she plans to get out of it. Fortunately, the character work makes up for it: I especially enjoyed the framing device of Sarah’s voice mail system. And while David Darlington’s sound design is of its usual high quality, I think the script was self-limiting: the story never feels like it’s set internationally — if I hadn’t been told, I would have assumed we were in England the entire time. Overall, I’d describe “Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre” as a play that struggles to find its feet, succeeding in places and failing in others — and as such it’s a perfect microcosm of the first season as a whole.
6/10
Season 1 average: 5.6/10