Sarah Jane Smith: Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre

Sarah Jane Smith #1.5

by Peter Anghelides, Elisabeth Sladen (Narrator), Peter Miles (Narrator)

A bio-warfare scandal from the 1940s takes Sarah to a remote island in the Indian Ocean. A long way from home, and far from safe, will Sarah see the dangers in her present and the enemies from her past - before it's too late?

Cast
Sarah Jane Smith – Elisabeth Sladen
Hilda Winters – Patricia Maynard
Josh Townsend – Jeremy James
Natalie Redfern – Sadie Miller
Taxi Driver – Mark Donovan
Taxi Driver – Toby Longworth
Wendy Jennings – Louise Faulkner
Doctor Brandt – Peter Miles
Harris – Robin Bowerman

Length: 65 minutes

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, British Literature

2 pages, Audio CD

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Anghelides' first published work was the short story "Moving On" in the third volume of the Virgin Decalog collections, which led to further short stories in the fourth collection and then in two of the BBC Short Trips collections that followed. In January 1998, his first novel Kursaal was published as part of BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures series on books. Anghelides subsequently wrote two more novels for the range, Frontier Worlds in November 1999, which was named "Best Eighth Doctor Novel" in the annual Doctor Who Magazine poll of its readers, and the The Ancestor Cell in July 2000 (co-written with departing editor Stephen Cole). The Ancestor Cell was placed ninth in the Top 10 of SFX magazine's "Best SF/Fantasy novelisation or TV tie-in novel" category of that year.

Anghelides also wrote several short stories for a variety of Big Finish Productions' Short Trips and Bernice Summerfield collections. This led, in November 2002, to the production of his first audio adventure for Big Finish, the play Sarah Jane Smith: Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre.

In 2008, he wrote a comic which featured on the Doctor Who website

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another one that doesn’t quite deliver as much as I’d expected. This one closes off the first series for this range, and it would be three years before the next one was released. Perhaps that tells me something, maybe this range wasn’t overly well received when it was first being released. In any case, this is a big wrap-up with lots of reveals and twists along the way. Too bad it wasn’t everything I’d been hoping for.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Finish's Sarah Jane Smith audio play, Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre picks up from where the previous audio, Ghost Town left off. Sarah is now on some islands off the coast of India, trying to interview local fisherman about a disastrous biological warfare experiment that went wrong in the 1940s. Her interview with the local fisherman is not going well when she's approached by another former Planet 3 reporter, Wendy Jennings. No sooner than they start to talk, when Wendy tells Sarah she's being watched, and leaves her, her card with a time and place for a second meeting written on it.
Sarah meets Wendy at the restaurant and they start to chat, only to have Wendy again insist they are being watched. Next, they meet on the beach - and are nearly run over by a Jeep.
Bit by bit, Wendy and Sarah do get to "compare notes", as not only are they investigating the same story from the 1940s, which will be released to the public in a week's time anyway as the result of the Official Secrets Act Statue of Limitations (basically) running out, but Sarah and Wendy suspect that a British biological research company with offices in the UK and India is intent on reviving the project. Wendy takes Sarah to meet the scientist from the original project, but a police officer shows up and kills the scientist.
This is part one, essentially, of the story - although this audio play is not officially broken-up into episodes, like many Big Finish Productions, and it is a single disc story. Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre is framed with voicemail messages at Planet 3. Sarah, also a little paranoid (but with good reason), is using the voicemail system at Planet 3 to keep in touch with Natalie and Josh. Natalie has apparently recovered from her sense of betrayal as a result of the events of Test of Nerve. Back home in the UK, while Natalie researches Scarla, the British bio-weapons firm, and checks on Wendy Jennings' background, Josh is unpacking and setting-up Sarah's household in yet another new flat, this one Claudia's old apartment.
Back in India, after the scientist is murdered, Sarah is much more sympathetic to Wendy's stories. The two head to Scarla's Indian headquarters. There, Wendy claims she's used her Planet 3 credentials to get an interview with the CEO - really she is on a fact-finding mission and a distraction, while Sarah looks for proof. Sarah investigates in the records room and discovers that Scarla plans to use a much more virulent and deadly version of the 1940s virus to poison the Parambikulam-Aliyar project - a huge project of interconnected dams, tunnels, and viaducts, that will bring clean water for drinking, agriculture, and power to most of India by damming and connecting seven rivers. But Sarah is captured.
Taken to the CEO office, Sarah is confronted by Miss Winters and Mr. Harris. Harris had been after her throughout the entire series, since Comeback, and Sarah discovers it was Winters who set her up for the fall at Planet 3. Not only that but Wendy Jennings is actually Wendy Jellicoe, the daughter of Professor Jellicoe. Everything Sarah's been through, being set up for publishing a "fake" story, losing her career, being constantly pursued, the loss of her reputation, even the death of her friend, Claudia, is all due to Winters, Harris, and Wendy wanting revenge on Sarah. This leads back to events in the aired story, Robot, and Think Tank and the Scientific Reform Society. Furthermore, the three plan on poisoning the Parambikulam-Aliyar project, which will result in the deaths of millions and the destruction of hundreds of acres of land. Sarah ends-up rescuing Wendy, whom Winters and Harris plan on sacrificing in a car crash, with help from Josh. Josh had gone to India to speak with Sarah personally since she wasn't really answering the frantic voicemails he and Natalie had left - and when she did phone them she seemed off. Meanwhile, Natalie had called in a tip to the Indian authorities claiming Tamil rebels were going to attack the Parambikulam-Aliyar project. Sarah returns to the UK with Josh and meets up with Natalie, knowing now, just who set her up and why.
I enjoyed this audio play. As with all the Sarah Jane Smith audios, it moves very fast. So fast, in fact, that on the first listen I was really confused when Sarah and Wendy arrive at the Indian headquarters of Scarla, and everything changes. I liked Wendy, and I thought another reporter made a good companion for Sarah. However, tying everything that's happened so far into an aired episode of Doctor Who was clever - as was casting the same actress to play an older Miss Winters. And Sarah saved Wendy from drowning, so she may turn out to be an ally. Winters and Harris' plot was also significantly horrifying (and realistic) and gave the audio much relevance. I have been very pleased with all the Sarah Jane audios I've heard so far, and highly recommend this audio and the series.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final installment of the first series of Sarah Jane adventures reveals at last just who is behind her being framed and hounded. Probably, it will not be a surprise to most of you since you know the cast lists of the series. Let's just say that she is as nasty as she was in 1975. Peter Miles, who has made a small career out playing nasties in Dr. Who and its spin-offs returns for another interesting performance. As Steve Martin once said about himself, "This guy's good." The main problem with the story is its scope, crossing both England and India, running from the 1940s to about 2002, both tying up the plot against Sarah and advancing an unsuspected dastardly scheme, there is just too much happening in 1 hour.

[Danny Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

So here we are at the end of Series 1, It's honestly been a really fun series and despite its mixed reviews, I actually think this series overall was pretty good. Nothing amazing sure, but still really solid stuff.

Sarah Jane Smith has gone to India to investigate a bio-warfare scandal from the 1940s. Josh and Nat are trying to find out where is she and to stop her from doing something incredibly silly. Meanwhile, Hilda Winters is about to finally come out from the shadows and rid herself of Sarah Jane Smith's meddling for good.

Peter Anghelides has written a fantastic finale that's actually very intense in tone. Tensions are high between our main characters, the villains are about to come out from hiding and the world is once again at stake. A really solid finale that concludes the series really well, whilst also setting up for a potential series 2 that I honestly believe was planned but had to be changed last minute.

Overall: I'm really enjoying this range so far and can't wait to see what series 2 has in store! 8.5/10

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm just not really connecting with this series. I will admit unlike most people Sarah Jane is not my favourite of companions, though I did love SJA. I think the problem is Josh is dull, Sadie's character is hardly used, and the plots never seem to appear until the last 15 minutes of the story. I'm glad I got these cheap. I'm hoping the 2nd season is better.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

These adventures just keep getting better and better!

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be the best of the series so far, but I'm still not as impressed with the series as I hoped I'd be.

[Marcel Driel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit convoluted and could have been a shorter, but the ending was pretty cool.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/881502.html[return][return]takes Sarah and friends to India for bio-terrorism, tensions within the team, and a pleasing round-off of the cycle with promise of more to come.

[Jadetyger Sevea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a relisten. My rating still stands. Loved this one. Sarah goes to India on the trail of a bio-weapons threat. Once there, she comes face to face with an old enemy. This was excellent, despite being a bit muddled in the middle. Now on to Series Two.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can Sarah ever investigate a possible story with out getting into trouble. Seems that this underground group wanted to poison the water supply of the 3rd world. Can Sarah Jane stop them. Great ending to a first series.

[Anne Barwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice wind up to the first season, and loved the way they linked it back to classic Who.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fitting end to first series.