S01E08: 'Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?' Part Two

This episode was a satisfying conclusion to this morbid tale of survival, with goodness winning the day as Andrea effectively committed suicide by restoring the correct timeline and bringing Sarah Jane back to reality. Not bad for a supposedly child-orientated show!

The central, eyeless villain of the piece - 'The Trickster' - was a frightful creature who was reminiscent of The Black Guardian from the classic Doctor Who series in terms of his voice, dastardly motives and dress sense.

In a nice twist, Maria's dad Alan was briefly placed in the position of being the only human on Earth to know about the truth once Maria had been captured by The Graske. Let's hope we see more of this appealing character, so far underused in the season.

Veteran director Graeme Harper, responsible for some of Doctor Who's finest hours, subtly used his direction to generate suspense. Just note all the very slow zooms creeping in on the characters, sucking in the audience.

However, everything was reliant on a superb script by Gareth Roberts that brought forward some interesting moral issues that challenged both audience and characters. Superb.