I tend to be the kind of person who fixates on unusual details. I saw Kevin Smith’s new film Zack and Miri Make A Porno Monday lunchtime and I was disappointed, despite being a big fan of the director's other films. And comics. And one man shows. For professional reasons I spent hours afterwards agonising as to what went wrong not really coming up with an answer but late in evening I began to wonder if it had to one of his casting choices in about the third scene, when we’re introduced to the coffee shop were Zack works and his boss, an angry so-and-so, with rude tongue. He’s played by Gerry Bednob who offers some of the most bizarre line readings this side of Matthew Waterhouse, and his verbal gesticulation stayed with me through some of the next few minutes of the film and kept returning now and for the other hour and a half. I was distracted.
Much the same thing happened in The Mark of the Berserker, but for different reasons. We can argue the character logic of Clyde taking his errant father up to the attic all we want but after Paul compared this alien tech to the Daleks, I stopped listening as suddenly this direct link to Journey’s End crashed in and more than that a proper, specific acknowledgement that mankind does indeed know of the existence of aliens on-mass. I know we’ve seen conversations about the Christmas goings on and whatnot in the main series, but this is the first time I think it’s been done so casually, as though it's accepted that yeah, there are aliens, fact of life, but y’know the government and army deal with it in general so I’ll just get on with my life as it stands, until the Earth drops out of its orbit again. Or whatever. I was distracted for the next hour, thinking about the fictional implications of that, but thankfully on this occasion not enough to ruin what might be the best story of this season so far.
Having been generally annoyed with the two-part format this season, I decided as an experiment to watch Joseph Lister’s story all in one go. Of course, I would pick the Sarah Jane lite story which contrary to rumour I think probably has more to do with a bit of double banking rather than simply giving Liz a week off. As a single fifty minutes it certainly held up and writer Joseph Lister paced the story well across both episodes, with its early spooky school based scenes, holding some of his story over to the second episode, compared to most first episodes this season where most of the revelations are already plotted out leaving everything to unspool in the second. Here the simplistic structure seemed deliberately chosen to allow room for a more character based tale, unlike most stories where it tends to be an excuse for more running around. It's a credit to director Joss Agnew that this shift into emotions over exploits didn't jar.
Even with Sarah Jane on sabbatical, Berserker was a PTA meeting full of parental guidance.
Even with Sarah Jane on sabbatical, Berserker was a PTA meeting full of parental guidance. Firstly, we’ve Clyde’s parents, yet another dysfunctional couple in the Whoniverse, and as ever it’s difficult to see how these two got together, let alone long enough to get married and have a child, specially since Carla seems like such an intelligent woman. Cleverly written as though she’s always naturally been in the mix, the key to Carla’s success as a character was Jocelyn Jee Esien whose subtlely strong portrayal of a wronged wife might well be another candidate for this series’s Bernard Cribbins, the comedy actor breaking our heart. I can’t believe this is the same woman who’s irritated me so in her comedy series and if Cardiff have any sense they’ll make her a regular next series.
Auf Wiedersehen Pet extra Paul is precisely the kind of washed up figure who usually turns up in fantasy shows when the writer needs someone to blunder into a situation, the kind of deadbeat who can’t do right for wrong, can’t understand why he can’t just waltz in and out of their child’s life, and hopes that they can change things just by being there. Gary Beadle painted him broad strokes initially, but was much better towards the end as he lost control finding himself unable to stop changing Clyde to the point of making him lose all of those things which made him different on really coming into his own when the Berserker finally took hold, offering some old school menace.
Maria’s Dad Tom made a welcome return and reminded us what an empty suit in writing terms (the) Rani’s father Haresh is. Perhaps I’m mentally retconning my memory of what Maria’s parents were like in the first series, but I do remember them being more compelling than this man whose whole contribution to the story was deciding on what to have for tea before barking like a dog and doing push-ups for half an hour, which you really can’t compare with someone clever enough to hack into UNIT files undetected. Obviously the production team wanted to contrast the two so as to make this new family distinctly different, and it’s no slight against actor Ace Bhatti who is doing his best, and I know that kids probably loved seeing Rani have that kind of control over her Dad, but it just seemed a bit – undignified (see what listening to Radio’s 3 & 4 all the time can do to you?).
As ever the kids were reliably good, especially Daniel Anthony who excelled when given more than wise cracks to work with, the first time this series where Clyde is a proper character rather than a walking punchline. It must not be easy when shooting a piece like to keep track of what you’re supposed to know when and how to react when a slice of your memory has been nullified, Daniel pitched it brilliantly, especially the moment when everything but his father had drifted away and when he had to look his friends and mother in the eye without a glimmer of recognition. Then, in the middle of it all we there’s the inevitable meeting between Rani and Maria and like the moment in Journey’s End were Rose and Martha finally looked each other in the eye, albeit over a video link, there was no bitchiness, flying in the face of perceived wisdom in kids dramas these days that all teenage girls want to do is scrape each other’s eyes out.
This was ultimately a very small story about parents and children in which, like the best early episodes of Buffy, the fantasy intrusion highlighted the thematic element of the story – that from a certain point parents can no longer control their kids and that similarly your mum and dad will end up disappointing you. Oh, and that an alien pendent isn’t really going to help the situation. It’s precisely the kind of tale I’d expected SJA to tell from the off, before like the parent series, every threat became global, and though there’s a suggestion of that in the Beserker’s commotion at the climax, this was ultimately the story of parental kidnapping, which is pleasingly dark stuff considering the timeslot.
Next Week (or the week after I’m not sure yet): The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most, huh?
Maria
and Alan's appearance also helps build up the story proper and they
give us the information about the pendant that we need, the script now cutting back
and forth in an effective structure which was something that in Part 1
was lacking. The scene in which Paul brainwashes the car dealer into
giving them the sports car underlines a couple of rather uncomfortable
associations to the character which, although we read as partly due to
the influence of the pendant, may suggest that his criminal actions are somehow also coded as part of his black identity. It's
somewhat insensitive of the programme that it makes these associations,
even if unconsciously. Yes, you could argue that the pendant leaves
Paul with no choice but the story has already established him as an
absentee father who walked out on his family so he's already codified
as a negative stereotype.
So, Carla to the rescue and a final
showdown at the marina. Crucially, Clyde is still questioning Paul as
they hurtle to this last scene and hasn't had any nagging doubts
satisfied by their consumerist frenzy or dampened by the power of the
pendant. The scene where Clyde confronts Paul with his disappointment
in his father is superbly written and played. And Paul again shirks his
responsibilities to Clyde and would rather that complex emotions and
feelings be forgotten, urging Clyde to reject the very self-doubt,
anger and rejection that makes him what he is. Ultimately, it leads to
Paul demanding that Clyde forget about Carla, his mum. This works very
powerfully here because the escapist plot, with its car chase, sat
navs, Maria and Alan is all pulling together with the emotional core of
the story. It's ceased being 
Paul
demands, 'We just need a boat' and it looks like his rampant consumerism is killing
him as he turns into a Berserker when in fact it's really that he's just running away from his
responsibilities as a father again. Cue Sarah Jane in her little mack,
finally coming to the rescue. Interesting that this has also been about
gender domination too with Paul making Clyde reject the major female
figures in the story and yet all of them, Carla, Maria, Rani and Sarah
logically reassert this principle in the story. And Sarah is the one
female figure that Clyde hasn't been forced to reject yet so naturally
she's the Earth mother who resolves the situation with a bit of
one-to-one therapy. The whole sequence at the marina is a satisfactory
ending to the story with Clyde reconstructing his view of fatherhood,
somewhat idealised for sure, back into Paul. But even Paul knows his
own nature and that's revealed when he confesses to Clyde about running
away from his pregnant girlfriend. It seems he can't change his nature
but Clyde, in rejecting his father, does suggest to Paul that there is
a second chance at being a father that's now open to him.
As soon as Sarah Jane fesses up she's off to investigate some dirty
dealings in the NHS and leaves the kids to twiddle their thumbs you
know this is going to be a break for Lis Sladen (I bet it's an urgent appointment
to check on that portrait she has hidden in her own attic) and there is
the dawning realisation that the younger actors are going to have to
carry this on their own. Whilst I don't think the result makes for
compelling viewing, I do think that both Daniel Anthony and Anjii
Mohindra gave it all they've got to keep it working. It does suffer
from the reductionist principle of having no Sarah Jane and, whilst
she's away, no Mr.Smith too. Laudable as it is to let the series be
carried by the younger members of the cast, it doesn't totally succeed
as a story within the series own format. Where we get a Doctor-lite episode of the parent series, we
do usually get a very strong script to support it and to date I would
argue that 
Lidster introduces us to Clyde's family via Luke having to sleep over
whilst SJ goes on a bug-hunt in Tarminster. It's done very naturally
and I did like Jocelyn Jee Esien as Clyde's mum. The interplay between her and Daniel is
well done and she's a bit of a revelation. The sweet friendship between
Luke and Clyde is also brought to the fore here and pointedly in the
scene where Clyde offers to teach Luke how to draw, demonstrating a
father-son relationship which is all about mentoring that's in contrast
to what becomes Paul Langer's destructive effect on Clyde. The first
episode basically uses a number of characters to establish what the
alien pendant does, first with Jacob, then Rani, and how its power affects the
user. This then narrows down to the reappearance of Clyde's absent
father, Paul. The pendant then becomes the MacGuffin - the way the
story will expose Paul as a weak father and reveal to Clyde why he
shirked his responsibilities to his new born son. Good on paper but the
actual episode is more or less a soap opera rather than a fantasy
adventure story. It's little more than a CBBC version of 
And then you do ask yourself why Clyde would tell his long absent
father about his exploits with Sarah Jane? Of course, he's trying to
show off to his father, as any boy would, but I found it a little
incredible that he would expose the gang in such a short space of time
and so easily. It's a stretch and it's clear that Lidster had to get
Clyde and his dad into Sarah's house and in contact with the pendant.
Clunky and not very convincing. Mind you, I did chuckle at Paul's line
, 'OK, is this some kind of trading card thing?' when Clyde reveals
that he's saved the Earth on numerous occasions. Of course the big clue
about Paul is his reaction to all the artefacts in Sarah's attic. He
just wants to acquire it or flog it and it signposts how he exploits
the alien pendant too. The build up to the cliffhanger, centring around
Rani's father doing push-ups, Rani's suspicion that Paul has the
pendant and Luke getting cross because Clyde has given him access to
the attic is hardly the stuff of scary, fantasy adventure is it?
However, it is saved by the horrible realisation that Paul has used the
pendant to make Clyde forget who Rani and Luke are. A very
uncomfortable moment in the plot - tense because we witness a father
remodelling his son in his own image and bewildering that Clyde would
actually go so far as to defend and then side with a parent who has had
little positive influence on his life. It does make Clyde out as rather
gullible and, to be blunt, stupid.
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