Eye of the Gorgon (TV story)

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

Synopsis
A haunted nursing home leads Sarah Jane to a mysterious order of nuns with an ancient - and alien - secret...

Part 1
At the local nursing home, Lavender Lawns, elderly women claim they have seen a mysterious nun who appears and vanishes like a ghost. Clyde informs Sarah Jane of the story and Clyde, Luke and she investigate. Meanwhile, Chrissie Jackson moves back into her ex-husband's house, but only makes more trouble for the family. Chrissie tries to catch up with her daughter, but the touchy subject of how she abandoned the family comes up and Maria calls out her mother for being thoughtless, only thinking about how divorce would affect her. Maria turns angry at Chrissie and yells at her mother, telling her to leave. Some of this anger later gravitates towards Alan, and she runs off to Sarah Jane's house to avoid any more unconformable conversations with her parents.

Back at Lavender Lawns, Luke encounters an old lady who peers at him through a window. He learns that her name is Bea Nelson-Stanley, who is suffering Alzheimer's disease. Luke finds Bea outside, where she gives him an ancient talisman, but has trouble explaining to him her reasons for doing so due to her condition. It is really the key to a portal in space and time. An order of nuns are hiding an age-old creature, the Gorgon. Meanwhile, Clyde is stuck doing favors for Mrs. Randall. He, Luke, and Sarah Jane leave Lavender Lawns to figure out the mystery of the apparent nun hauntings.

As Maria arrives at Sarah Jane's residence, Luke, Clyde and Sarah Jane are upstairs. Sarah Jane asks Mr Smith about any evidence of ghosts at Lavender Lawns. He disproves her concerns quickly, but instantly detects the talisman and reveals Luke has harbored an alien device into her house. causing Sarah Jane to confront him. Luke explains he had to keep it a secret to avoid breaking a promise with Bea. Sarah Jane takes the talisman and holds onto it for safekeeping from the nuns.

Mrs Gribbins, one of the caregivers at Lavender Lawns, is involved in the fishy activities, and during the night, she speaks with the nun who has been stalking the retirement home, Sister Helena. Gribbins tells Helena that the talisman they have been searching for has been passed on to the boy who just visited the retirement home by Bea. Annoyed by Mrs Gribbins's oversight, when she had previously described Bea as barely knowing her own name, Helena turns against Mrs Gribbins and has the Abbess deal with her. She has Gribbins escorted to a room where a hooded woman sits in a wheelchair, with gnarled fingernails and wrinkled, orange skin. The woman lifts up her hood, causing Mrs Gribbins to scream in terror at her countenance. A blue light fills the room. When it fades, Mrs Gribbins is revealed to have petrified into a statue.

The next day, Sarah Jane and Maria go back to Lavender Lawns to speak with Miss Nelson-Stanley about where she got the talisman. However, this proves difficult, as Bea's Alzheimer's hinders their success. Bea does mention a past where she was an archaeologist with her late husband Edgar, who found and gave her the talisman. Sarah Jane also perks up when Bea speaks of Sontarans, going as far to make a remark about their potato-like appearance and use of ray guns, which proves she has knowledge about alien life despite a cloudy memory.

While Sarah Jane and Maria are gone, the nuns track down Luke and Clyde, arriving at Sarah Jane's house. Luke, not knowing he shouldn't speak about the talisman, attracts Sister Helena's full attention. Alan encounters Sister Helena, thinking her to be an ordinary nun, and donates to their cause. However, when he leaves, Helena and the other nuns kidnap Luke by force and put him in a hearse. Clyde chases after the hearse in vain as it charges down the street. He immediately calls Sarah Jane and warns her about what just happened, making her and Maria depart Lavender Lawns and come back home.

Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Maria concoct a plan to rescue Luke from Saint Agnes Abbey. At the entrance gate to the abbey, Sarah Jane poses as a reporter wanting to get a story about religious information concerning the nuns, and she is permitted inside- though the nuns have already prepared for her arrival and trap her in the abbey. Luckily, she finds Luke, but is soon confronted by Saint Helena, who reveals Luke was never in any danger, but tries to coax her into giving up the talisman. Sarah Jane does not comply. Meanwhile, Clyde and Maria sneak out of Sarah Jane's car and infiltrate the abbey through an open window, soon reuniting with Luke and Sarah Jane. Unfortunately, Saint Helena is no longer willing to be so passive and makes Sarah Jane return to her house to get the talisman, keeping the kids in her possession as insurance. Luke and Clyde have to remain at the abbey while Maria is taken back to Bannerman Road with Sarah Jane, with the Gorgon in tow.

When she gets back home Sarah Jane quickly fetches her sonic liptstick and the talisman, then leads the nuns and the Gorgon into the living room, where she threatens to destroy the talisman with sonic disruption. Saint Helena intervenes and snatches the talisman, then allows the Gorgon to unleash its wrath on her while two other nuns assist the Abbess as she unmasks her face. Unaware of the Gorgon's presence, Alan walks into the living room and gazes upon the Abbess's exposed face. Several blue streams of light in the form of serpents surge out of her glowing mouth and eyes, surround Alan, and turn him to stone, terrifying his daughter Maria.

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, Maria learns the talisman can revert those turned to stone. Clyde distracts the nuns long enough for Luke to grab the talisman, closing the portal. However, Sarah Jane and both boys are recaptured and locked in another room, though Sarah Jane is 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, returning to Ivan.

After Maria witnesses the talisman restore her father, she goes back to Sarah Jane and wonders if it will cure Bea of her Alzheimer's. Mr Smith implies it is possible, encouraging her to return to Bea for one more visit, returning her mirror in the process. Sarah Jane tells Bea that the Gorgons have been vanquished, putting her at ease. She places the talisman around her neck and hears the voice of her late husband Edgar telling her "I will always love you, Bea." Misty-eyed, Bea smiles and remembers her husband, thanking Sarah Jane and Maria for bringing Edgar back to him, though her Alzheimer's does not subside. As they leave Lavender Lawns, Sarah Jane brightens Maria's spirits by letting her know the talisman has still helped Bea by letting her find peace. Maria comments on how lucky Bea was to have Edgar, then asks Sarah Jane if she wished she had someone special to share her experiences with. Sarah Jane assures her that she's found one for the second time, looking at Maria. The two rush back into her car to return home in time to watch the Viszeran Royal Fleet pass through the solar system, all 600 ships. Sarah says it "only takes a few seconds, but it is the most magnificent stellar light show this side of the galaxy."

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
 * The Abbess — Audrey Ardington

Culture

 * Sarah Jane Smith, while attempting to guess where the abbey was, mentions Agatha Christie.
 * Sister Helena makes a punning reference to the song "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?", which is performed by a chorus of nuns in the musical .

Spacecraft

 * There is a silhouette/scale drawing of a Jagaroth ship on the wall in Sarah's attic.

Species

 * Bea Nelson-Stanley says 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.

Story notes

 * The building used as Lavender Lawns is the same building used as the hotel where Donna Noble, her mother Sylvia Noble and her grandfather Wilfred Mott were staying when London was destroyed on 25 December 2008 in TV: Turn Left.
 * Phyllida Law (Bea Nelson-Stanley) would later play Belldonia, the Dowager Empress of Peladon, in AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon.
 * Sarah Crowden (Mrs Gribbins) is the daughter of Graham Crowden, who played Soldeed in TV: The Horns of Nimon.
 * Audrey Ardington (The Abbess) would later play Mrs Poggit in TV: Amy's Choice.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 1.1 million viewers BBC1,
 * Episode 2 - 411,000 viewers

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * Sarah Jane's house number should be 13 Bannerman Road, but in these two episodes the door number is 21.

Continuity

 * Sarah Jane met the Sontarans twice before. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment)
 * The Gorgon's attack on Alan Jackson resembles Petrifold Regression. (TV: New Earth)
 * The Second Doctor encountered a fictionalised version of Medusa, another Gorgon, in the Land of Fiction. (TV: The Mind Robber)
 * The sonic lipstick does not work on wood, similar to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. (TV: Silence in the Library)
 * The idea of the nuns hiding an alien is very similar to TV: Tooth and Claw, in which the monks hide the werewolf.
 * The First Doctor encountered a different type of Gorgon in the company of John and Gillian. (COMIC: The Gaze of the Gorgon)

Home video releases

 * This was to be released on a vanilla DVD along with Revenge of the Slitheen on 17 March 2008, but 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.