- Title: Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre
- Series: Sarah Jane Smith
- Discs: 1 CD
- Author: Peter Anghelides
- Director: Gary Russell
- Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Josh Townsend, Natalie Redfern, Wendy Jennings, Miss Winters
- Cast: Elisabeth Sladen, Jeremy James, Sadie Miller, Louise Faulkner, Patricia Maynard
- Date Reviewed on GoodReads: 06/20/2018
**Spoiler Alert** Big Finish’s Sarah Jane Smith audio play, Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre picks up from where the previous audio, Ghost Town left off. Sarah is now on some islands off the coast of India, trying to interview local fisherman about a disastrous biological warfare experiment that went wrong in the 1940s. Her interview with the local fisherman is not going well when she’s approached by another former Planet 3 reporter, Wendy Jennings. No sooner than they start to talk when Wendy tells Sarah she’s being watched, and leaves her, leaving her a card with a time and place for a second meeting written on it. Sarah meets Wendy at the restaurant and they start to chat, only to have Wendy again insist they are being watched. Next, they meet on the beach – and are nearly run over by a Jeep.
Bit by bit, Wendy and Sarah do get to “compare notes”, as not only are they investigating the same story from the 1940s, which will be released to the public in a week’s time anyway as the result of the Official Secrets Act Statue of Limitations (basically) running out, but Sarah and Wendy suspect that a British biological research company with offices in the UK and India is intent on reviving the project. Wendy takes Sarah to meet the scientist from the original project, but a police officer shows up and kills the scientist.
This is part one, essentially, of the story – although this audio play is not officially broken-up into episodes, like many Big Finish Productions, and it is a single disc story. Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre is framed with voicemail messages at Planet 3. Sarah, also a little paranoid (but with good reason), is using the Planet 3 voicemail system to keep in touch with Natalie and Josh. Natalie has apparently recovered from her sense of betrayal as a result of the events of Test of Nerve. Back home in the UK, while Natalie researches Scarla, the British bio-weapons firm, and checks on Wendy Jennings’ background, Josh is unpacking and setting-up Sarah’s household in yet another new flat, this one Claudia’s old apartment.
Back in India, after the scientist is murdered, Sarah is much more sympathetic to Wendy’s stories. The two head to Scarla’s Indian headquarters. There, Wendy claims she’s used her Planet 3 credentials to get an interview with the CEO – really she is on a fact-finding mission and a distraction, while Sarah looks for proof. Sarah investigates in the records room and discovers that Scarla plans to use a much more virulent and deadly version of the 1940s virus to poison the Parambikulam-Aliyar project – a huge project of interconnected dams, tunnels, and viaducts, that will bring clean water for drinking, agriculture, and power to most of India by damming and connecting seven rivers. But Sarah is captured.
Taken to the CEO office, Sarah is confronted by Miss Winters and Mr. Harris. Harris had been after her throughout the entire series, since Comeback, and Sarah discovers it was Winters who set her up for the fall at Planet 3. Not only that but Wendy Jennings is actually Wendy Jellicoe, the daughter of Professor Jellicoe. Everything Sarah’s been through, being set up for publishing a “fake” story, losing her career, being constantly pursued, the loss of her reputation, even the death of her friend, Claudia, is all due to Winters, Harris, and Wendy wanting revenge on Sarah. This leads back to events in the aired story, Robot, and Think Tank and the Scientific Reform Society. Furthermore, the three plan on poisoning the Parambikulam-Aliyar project, which will result in the deaths of millions and the destruction of hundreds of acres of land. Sarah ends-up rescuing Wendy, whom Winters and Harris plan on sacrificing in a car crash, with help from Josh. Josh had gone to India to speak with Sarah personally since she wasn’t really answering the frantic voicemails he and Natalie had left – and when she did phone them she seemed off. Meanwhile, Natalie had called in a tip to the Indian authorities claiming Tamil rebels were going to attack the Parambikulam-Aliyar project. Sarah returns to the UK with Josh and meets up with Natalie, knowing now, just who set her up and why.
I enjoyed this audio play. As with all the Sarah Jane Smith audios, it moves very fast. So fast, in fact, that on the first listen I was really confused when Sarah and Wendy arrive at the Indian headquarters of Scarla, and everything changes. I liked Wendy, and I thought another reporter made a good companion for Sarah. However, tying everything that’s happened so far into an aired episode of Doctor Who was clever – as was casting the same actress to play an older Miss Winters. And Sarah saved Wendy from drowning so she may turn out to be an ally. Winters and Harris’ plot was also significantly horrifying (and realistic) and gave the audio much relevance. I have been very pleased with all the Sarah Jane audios I’ve heard so far, and highly recommend this audio and the series.
Find out more about Big Finish audios at their website: www.bigfinish.com.
To order Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre on CD or Download follow the link.
Note: No promotional consideration was paid for this review. I review because I enjoy it!
Bitch with Wi-fi 