Eye of the Gorgon

TARDIS Coordinates: October 1, 2007

I’m going to be a bit direct here. I’m not sure how comfortable I am when the Sarah Jane Adventures gets…domestic.

It isn’t difficult to understand Maria’s anger or to tap into it for story purposes. She’s a thirteen year old girl whose parents just got divorced, moved into a new house, has to make new friends, and it’s clear from this episode that she doesn’t really understand why. Oh, intellectually, she gets it – she’s a smart girl – but there’s still an emotional price to be paid.

The result is that this episode gives us a very angry Maria. She’s furious with her mother, who pops in and out of her life as she pleases. She’s not at all happy with her Dad, who isn’t that good at vocalizing his own emotional difficulties. Later in the episode, she becomes furious with Sarah Jane Smith, blaming her when an accident causes Alan to turn to stone. There is nothing about Bannerman Road that she likes right now, and the story taps into her helplessness and frustration in a way that her intellect never allowed.

And you want to say, it’s okay, it’ll work out all right, you’re a resourceful girl with tremendous assets, everyone in this story is on your side and all the heroes will stop at nothing to make sure everything’s fixed. You want to say that, but you’re not exactly sure yourself. And you start to think, maybe this is a bit much for a thirteen-year-old. Maybe she’s right in that she doesn’t belong in this world until she has the tools to cope…

I’m already getting a little fed up with being told that Doctor Who is going to hurt me in some way if I keep watching it, but more and more canonical fiction is experimenting with emphasizing the horror show that getting involved with the Doctor can be, as opposed to the overwhelmingly positive takeaway of broadening one’s horizons.For

tunately, Maria’s tantrums don’t form as large a theme in this serial as it appeared at first blush; frankly, considering all she’s been through, a little venting is probably necessary, just to re-frame the character as a real person. If “Eye of the Gorgon” manages anything, it’s proving to Maria that she can deal. She can look for clues, she can find the answers, she can make sense of the story and bring it all together for the final showdown. Her emotional capacity may be lagging behind her intellectual abilities, but she can handle it. Sarah Jane Smith is captured in a late act of this episode, and its up to Maria not just to determine the final sanction, but to perform the rescue, rushing in to capture the Gorgon in its own unearthly trap.

The episode doesn’t show that she’s matured past the challenges of her life, which is just as well, but it shows that she can understand them, and that even if a solution isn’t immediately forthcoming, one will appear given time.