The Glittering Storm

"Gold fever is taking ahold around here."

Writer: Stephen Cole

Format: Audio

Released: November 2007

Series: SJA Audio 01

Featuring: Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde, Maria

Synopsis

When Sarah Jane disturbs a burglar in the night, she is surprised to find a middle-aged woman, her pockets stuffed with jewellery, demanding gold. The next day, she reads a newspaper story about a granny who broke into a jewellers, and then Maria reports that a woman has been stealing rings and necklaces from the girls' changing room at school.

All the women had recently attended the Auriga Clinic, a private health centre specialising in treating muscular aches and pains. Is there a link between the clinic and the odd behaviour of its patients?

Sarah Jane decides to find out, but she soon discovers that the clinic's secret agenda is more sinister than she could ever have imagined...

Verdict

The Glittering Storm was a strong story for the BBC Audio debut for The Sarah Jane Adventures! I managed to stumble upon the entire collection of BBC audios for the SJA spinoff on an Audible free trial so I hope for the next few months that there will be a bit more Sarah Jane in my life. I think the spinoff is still a little underrated and that's a little understandable given it was aired on CBBC and aimed at a younger audience, but I thought this was a fine audio and went along nicely with the Series 1 chronology. It definitely did have a feeling of being early on in the chronology and that was no more evident than with Luke who was still a little rusty on normal human interaction and sentiment. Sarah Jane was still getting used to being a mother and the references to Invasion of the Bane in explaining the current situation was a nice touch and positive continuity. I thought it was also clear just how earl things were with the position of Clyde in the main cast dynamic. He didn't quite feel as part of the team and was almost suggested as a bad influence on Luke which was amusing. That wasn't exactly untrue and I'm not sure it ever wasn't! It was a fun dynamic though and a little different to what I'm used to. I did think there were probably a few too many introductions with Elisabeth Sladen having to set the stage on characters and the likes of Mr Smith and her past a few too many times. I think if a listener is going as far as picking up a Sarah Jane Adventures audio story, there should be some assumed knowledge. I enjoyed the theme of gold and jewellery going missing from Maria's school was good. That being tied with Sarah Jane being the subject of a break in, and not exactly a willing one, was nicely done. Everything tying together to the Auriga Clinic was good and I enjoyed the detective nature of how everything was pieced together. Augur made for a good villain and his baffling deal and belief with the Keratin was typical of so many deranged men standing as enemies in the past. The prospect of the Keratin boiling the oceans of Earth was a bit barmy considering their intentions were to take the one or two particles per billion of the water makeup. I think there must have been an easier way to obtain gold! However, the callousness of them simply saying so what to the fate of the Earth was chilling. I thought the format of the audio could have benefitted greatly from some minor sound effects and I really do think they could have benefitted. Just hearing the effects of Mr Smith opening up would have been terrific. That's not to say Sladen didn't do a fine job though! Maria being treated with gold was excellent and I liked the idea of them even receiving signals and the particles actually lodging themselves behind Maria's eyes. Clyde was fun and he and Luke being crucial to the resolution was strong. The Keratin being slug creatures and susceptible to salt water was further amusement with their plan. Was it really worth the risk? Still, Sarah getting to reference the gold asteroid of Revenge of the Cybermen was delightful and the taking over of the control device was efficient. Sarah and Luke destroying the bacteria personally was good and I loved the insinuation of Sarah calling in UNIT to clean everything else up. Overall, a really good audio!

Rating: 8/10