The Ghost House

"A house turning inside out through time."

Writer: Stephen Cole

Format: Audio

Released: November 2008

Series: SJA Audio 04

Featuring; Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde, Rani

Synopsis

Up early one morning, Sarah Jane is astonished to see that the house opposite hers has changed overnight: what used to be a nondescript 1970s family home has been replaced by a smart Victorian residence. 

How did a house from 1884 suddenly materialise in Bannerman Road? Where has then old O'Brien place gone? And more importantly, who – or what – has caused this temporal anomaly? Sarah Jane and friends must find out before time itself explodes and destroys the world...

Verdict

The Ghost House was an excellent audio adventure for the Sarah Jane Adventures! This might just be the best yet as I make my way through the audio range from the SJA spinoff as I loved pretty much everything about the story. Elisabeth Sladen was once again in the narration role and she's just wonderful. It's such a shame that she passed away before the SJA could have a proper conclusion and sendoff, with her being an incredible character in the Doctor Who universe. Having that wider universe referenced here was glorious as Sarah was aware of time experimentation in the Victorian era involving mirrors which was a lovely reference to The Evil of the Daleks, and blending the modern era with 1884 during the Victorian age was an intriguing setup. I liked the inclusion of the milkman to draw Sarah's attention to the house across the road that had overnight become an exterior of a completely different age. I thought it was fun to think it was for a film but it was not the case at all. A crack in time was opened and that meant 39 Bannerman Road had swapped places with its counterpart from 1884. A fun concept! I loved the later explanation from Deathy that he was drawn to the location because of Mr Smith and was actually siphoning power from the incredible computer following a suspected virus that was quite recent. That was a nice reference to The Lost Boy and Mr Smith's reboot in a really good use of continuity. I really liked that and it was refreshing for something to draw the alien involvement to Bannerman Road rather than the coincidence that is a little unbelievable at times. Having this story take place at 6am on a Sunday was an amusing way to not need to incorporate the parents of Rani and Clyde, with the former straight up and ready for action when Luke told her all about the house. Sarah's shining comments about the youngsters that help her was lovely to hear again, and it was fun to have them all shifting through time for short spells. Deathy, quite an incredible name to be dubbed, was a fun character as a bounty hunter and hearing Sladen's impression of him was great stuff. He wasn't the criminal that seemed to be the indication throughout, and him being the escaped Russian causing the time issues was fun. He was actually after Skak and had humorously imprisoned him in the outside toiler at 39 Bannerman Road and then trapped the premises in time between 1884 and present day. But time was being stretched and the threat of the boom was a good direction to try and prevent. I liked the teamwork aspect of the conclusion with Sarah and Deathy working well together to capture Stak and send him packing. Overall, this was a really strong audio adventure and definitely one of my favourite SJA stories off of television! 

Rating: 9/10