COMEBACK

Comeback is the first of Big Finish’s Sarah Jane Smith adventures (not to be confused with the later TV series for the kiddie audience) starring the late Elisabeth Sladen begins as a bit of a disjointed affair.

The first scene sees Sarah mourning over the loss of her Aunt Lavinia, and dropping info that Brendan is not around right now.  This links the series directly to K9 & Company, although there is no K9 in this adventure (not even a mention of him, or the Doctor).

We hear a couple of mysterious men talking about plans for Sarah the next morning, which seems to hint more at a series arc than any direct involvement in the adventure.

After the opening music, we’re immediately dumped into a bank with Sarah-Jane masquerading as a bank teller just prior to a hold-up, at which point she meets her series companion Josh.  Through him we learn that Sarah had previously been working as an undercover investigative journalist for Planet 3 broadcasting prior to a few months ago when she was sacked in disgrace (we later learn that she was set up for a fall by a company she’d been investigating, which left her with no money, no job, and no life).

Now, together with a friend, she continues her investigations with the hope of reclaiming all that was taken from her.

To this end, after her “bank teller” guise is blown, Sarah investigates other paths which eventually leads her (and Josh) to a small village with mysterious goings on around a well, and dead bodies that age rapidly despite only being dead for a day.

The episode has a fair degree of action that would have looked pretty good on TV (Sarah’s car blowing up, the big house exploding at the end, etc).  On audio, however, it comes across largely as a talkfest.  There’s enough to keep your interest, particularly if you want an adventure led by Sarah-Jane without either K9 or a bunch of kids stealing the limelight.

The feel of the episode is akin to K9 & Company, only a little more grounded in reality.  Being the first adventure, I’m sure subsequent entries will tighten up a bit as they get into their stride.  The adventure ends with sufficient tag for us to know that there is a continuing arc that’ll be ongoing (presumably for the whole first series).

Comeback was written by Terrance Dicks, which explains why the story makes sense and the narrative progresses in a sensible way (despite the necessary disjointedness of it being a first episode).  It probably isn’t “must listen” audio, but there’s nothing here to make you avoid it either.  No silliness.

I’m more keen to see how the series progresses than I am to listen to it again.

Unfortunately, for reasons I don’t understand, Comeback is only available on CD (not download), so it’s £9.99 from Big Finish – although you can get the entire first season (5 adventures) for £20 with free shipping.  This is what I did during one of their deals when the set was £16.  If you’re going to spend £9.99 on the first one, you may as well spend another tenner and get the other four at the same time.  The other four are available on download but, at £8.99 each, it doesn’t make sense to buy individually.  You’ll get the other four on download when you buy the CD bundle anyway.  You could even buy both series (9 adventures) for £30.