In which Sarah Jane Smith goes away for a few days to cover a story at a hospital, leaving Luke to stay with Clyde and his mother, Carla. Rani observes a fellow pupil at the school seemingly able to make his teacher and fellow students do whatever he wants. The boy, Jacob, runs to the bathroom where he sees his features change in the mirror, with white eyes and blue veins throbbing on his skin. The design on the pendant also transfer to the palm of his hand. He drops a silver pendant as he runs away. Rani pockets this and heads for home. Here she finds that her father seems strangely compliant, agreeing to everything she says. She realises that this is the work of the pendant. When her father offers to die for her, after an off-hand remark she makes, she realises the terrible power which the pendant could possess.
The next day, Clyde's father turns up at Carla's door. Paul Langer had run out on the family years ago, to set up home with his sister-in-law. Now he claims he wants to re-establish contact with his son. Clyde agrees to spend some time with him, and eventually tells him that he hunts aliens. His father refuses to believe him, so Clyde decides to take him to the attic of Sarah's home.
Rani has gone there to seek Mr Smith's help with the pendant, only to find that Sarah has deactivated the computer whilst she is away. Rani leaves the pendant there, and goes off with Luke to seek clues at the school. Clyde and his father enter the attic, and Paul pockets the pendant. Outside, they are challenged by Rani's father Haresh. Paul makes him do press-ups, which he cannot stop, and realises that the pendant has done this. Rani and Luke arrive, but Paul orders Clyde to forget about them. The two walk away, Clyde no longer knowing who Luke and Rani are...
Paul begins to abuse his new found powers, making a car salesman give them a brand new Porsche. Paul decides to take Clyde to the coast, where they used to go when he was a child. Luke tries to contact his mother, but she is busy investigating an alien creature at the hospital - a centipede-like Travast Polong. They then decide to contact Maria Jackson and her father in Washington DC, as he can hack into the UNIT database. They learn that the markings on the pendant relate to an alien race known as the Beserkers, capable of turning anyone into merciless soldiers. The pendant begins to take Paul over, mutating him as it did Jacob. He makes Clyde forget all about his mother and tells him that he is now one of his soldiers. Sarah finally gets the message to return and collects Carla. They go to the coast where they attempt to get through to Paul, rekindling his lost memories. Seeing himself in a mirror breaks the Berserker's hold on him. Clyde uses the pendant one last time to make his mother forget what she has witnessed, then throws it into the sea. Paul reveals that he has made his Carla's sister pregnant, so Clyde tells him he does not want anything to do with him anymore, and he should take some responsibility and not mess things up with his new child.
Contemplating family ties, back at the attic Sarah takes out an old photograph of her parents...
The Mark of the Berserker was written by Joseph Lidster, and was first broadcast on 3rd and 10th November, 2008. It was the first of three stories by Lidster for the series. His previous Doctor Who related credit had been an episode of Torchwood - A Day in the Death.
It is a Sarah-lite story, with the main character off on her own investigation for much of the time. In her absence, Clyde gets to take centre stage, and we are introduced to his parents, Carla and Paul.
She is played by comedy actress Jocelyn Jee Esien, and he by Gary Beadle, who had been a regular on soap East Enders.
The story is also significant for the final appearances by Yasmin Paige, as Maria Jackson, and Joseph Millson, as her dad Alan. They had left the series as regulars at the conclusion of the first story of this season, as Paige had wanted to concentrate on her studies. The schoolboy who is affected by the pendant in the opening section - Jacob - is played by Perry Millward.
The basic plot is an old one - of a magic talisman which grants whatever you want, but there is a heavy price to pay.
Overall, an okay story. Nice to see Clyde getting the spotlight at last. After Sarah herself, he is generally thought of as the most popular character in the series.
Things you might like to know:
- As Daniel Anthony is playing a character much younger than the actor's own age, his mother here is only 8 years older than him.
- The hospital which Sarah is visiting is said to be in the town of Tarminster. This is a reference to Terror of the Autons - as the circus where the Master was based was just outside that town. The Harold Saxon website created by the BBC for The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords stated that Lucy Saxon's father had been Lord Cole of Tarminster.
- Mind control, and characters being compelled to forget their friends, is becoming a bit of a theme for this series. Mind control of some kind has featured in all of the stories of this season so far, and the Trickster had previously caused people to forget others when he interfered with their timelines.
- Sarah's musings on her long dead parents prefigure events in the next story, where she'll get to meet them and learn what happened to them on the day they died.
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