Mona Lisa's Revenge - SJA 3.5

In which Luke, Clyde and Rani's class win a trip to the International Gallery in London for a special preview of a forthcoming exhibition. The curator, Lionel Harding, has finally managed to arrange for Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece known as "The Mona Lisa" to be shown in the UK. The reason for Class 11T being chosen is because Clyde had won an art competition. His work will also be on display. Luke is annoyed to see that he has painted three female soldiers in futuristic fashions, one of whom is carrying a Sontaran blaster. Sarah had warned them about never revealing anything about the work they do. Harding's assistant Miss Trupp has always carried a torch for him, but he has only ever had eyes for the painting. Shortly before the class arrives, the painting comes to life and Mona Lisa swaps places with Trupp - so that when Harding unveils the picture everyone sees her image in the frame.
Headmaster Haresh Chandra had earlier confiscated all of the pupils' mobile phones, so Luke is unable to contact his mother and warn her about what has happened. Mona Lisa removes the Sontaran weapon from Clyde's painting. Mr Chandra has evacuated all the pupils from the gallery, but Luke, Clyde and his daughter have managed to remain inside.

They notice that the weapon is missing from Clyde's painting just as Mona Lisa arrives. Harding decides to cooperate with her whilst the others flee into the gallery. She informs him that she is looking for her brother, who is somewhere inside this building. She is happy to have life, but discovers that she cannot leave the gallery without being reduced to lifeless paint flakes.
Mr Smith, meanwhile, alerts Sarah to what has been happening after monitoring the news reports. Sarah heads for the gallery. She cannot find any of the police officers who are supposed to be here, until she notices them hidden within a number of paintings. Sarah confronts Harding and Mona Lisa - only for the latter to trap her inside a nearby painting of a country scene...

Luke and the others beg Mona Lisa to free Sarah but she refuses. When they run off with the Sarah painting, she brings the image of a Highwayman to life and sends him after them. Harding then helps Mona Lisa find her brother - which is really another painting created at the same time that she was. Harding does not know which image this might be, until everyone starts to hear loud growls coming from the basement. Harding then realises that the painting is one known as "The Abomination", which was so disturbing that it was never exhibited. It is locked away in a basement store room. It was painted by an obscure artist who lived near to Leonardo and is said to have gone mad. The painting is in a locked container which cannot be opened. Clyde is taken prisoner and Luke and Rani are forced to surrender. Luke realises that an ornate Chinese puzzle box elsewhere in the gallery is the key for the container. Harding smashes this to prevent the Abomination being released. Mona Lisa is about to shoot him when Luke points out that there is another way to open the container. Clyde had earlier sketched the box - so Mona Lisa can make this image real. This is used to free the Abomination.

However, Clyde had also sketched an image of K9 in the same pad, and this is also brought to life. K9 fires upon the Abomination and destroys it, which causes Mona Lisa and the Highwayman to return to their pictures, and frees those humans who had been trapped.
It transpires that the artist who created the Abomination had used pigments derived from a sentient meteorite, which he had also lent to Leonardo for his portrait. This is how the paintings had come to life and were so interconnected. Harding attempts to woo Miss Trupp, now that his illusions about the Mona Lisa have been shattered, but she had overheard his negative comments about her whilst she had been trapped in the painting. Sarah tells Clyde she will be having words with him about putting alien technology on display to the public.

Mona Lisa's Revenge was written by Phil Ford, and was first broadcast on 12th and 13th November, 2009. The story was originally developed by writer Brian Dooley, but underwent major rewrites by Ford, who was the show's lead writer, and so he ended up gaining the credit. It was Dooley's idea to have a story about paintings coming to life.
The notion of an alien threat having its origins in a sentient meteorite fragment had already been done in the second season story Day of the Clown. The Doctor Who story Fear Her had already featured pictures coming to life.
The main guest artist is Suranne Jones, who plays the living Mona Lisa with a broad Mancunian accent. She first came to fame in Coronation Street, and will later appear as Idris, who becomes host to the TARDIS Matrix in The Doctor's Wife. Lionel Harding is portrayed by Jeff Rawle, who had previously played Plantagenet in the 1984 Doctor Who story Frontios. Miss Trupp is Liza Sadovy, whilst the Highwayman - the Dark Rider - is regular monster performer Paul Kasey. As he has been painted with a mask over the lower part of his face, he cannot speak - never having had any mouth. The Abomination is never actually seen, beyond a glimpse of a clawed hand.

Overall, a story very much played for laughs, in which Lis Sladen features only briefly - so you could call it a Sarah-lite story.
Things you might like to know:

• The International Gallery had featured earlier in the year, when Lady Christina de Souza had stolen the Cup of Athelstan from the venue - which gets a mention from Harding.
• The room where the Mona Lisa is to be displayed is our old friend The Temple of Peace in Cardiff, which has been providing locations ever since The End of the World in 2005.
• Other scenes are shot in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, which also features regularly in Doctor Who and its spin-offs. It is recognisable by the statue of David with the head of Goliath on the marble stairway landing. It played the Musee D'Orsay in Vincent and the Doctor, for example, whilst the statue was boxed up when the venue was used for the W3 Foundation in Dark Water.
• Technically K9 doesn't actually feature in this story, as it is simply Clyde's drawing of him which has been brought to life.
• Clyde's talents as an artist had previously been mentioned in the series two story Mark of the Berserker, when Luke had encouraged him to develop this.
• The Mona Lisa had previously featured prominently in the classic 1979 story City of Death. Then it had been suggested that the surviving copy had been one of the ones upon which the Doctor had written "This is a fake" on the blank canvas.