Sunday, November 27, 2016

Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Maria Jackson (The Sarah Jane Adventures)



No matter the configuration, I’ll always love the Sarah Jane crew.  Brave, devoted Maria, asker of Excellent Questions, won me over the moment she saw that Arcateenian in Sarah Jane’s garden.  For my money, here are her best moments.


Protecting Luke (“Invasion of the Bane” – Series 1, Episode 0)

When Maria meets Luke, he’s dressed in an odd white shift, majorly not with the program, and clearly repeating everything she says back to her as the first living being he’s encountered, but she doesn’t think twice about immediately helping him.  The image of them running through the Bubble Shock factory together is so iconic for both characters, and I get such a kick out of Maria’s idea to hide in the women’s bathroom because the men chasing them would never go in there.


Learning Bea’s Secret (“Eye of the Gorgon:  Part 2” – Series 1, Episode 4)

Maria’s under a huge amount of pressure here (her dad’s life is on the line,) and she has a herculean task before her (getting Bea to tell her how to save him.)  Because Sarah Jane and the boys are tied up elsewhere, she’s all alone, struggling to figure out how to reach this woman with severe dementia and get through to her.  It’s a massive job with huge stakes, and even though she’s freaked and desperate, Maria does incredibly well under pressure.


Stopping the Gorgon (“Eye of the Gorgon:  Part 2” – Series 1, Episode 4)

Yep, this is a big story for Maria.  It could be argued that this one is a bit of a freebie, since Bea is the one who tells her how to defeat the Gorgon and arms her with what she needs, but you’ve gotta love Maria’s last-second cavalry entrance, using a mirror to save Sarah Jane and destroying the Gorgon by turning her own power against her.


Taking Out Mr. Grantham (“Warriors of Kudlak:  Part 2” – Series 1, Episode 6)

I’m always a fan of “quick thinking in a dangerous pinch” scenarios, and Maria is great here.  As Mr. Grantham menaces Sarah Jane, Maria recalls what Sarah Jane told her in the previous episode about the alien metal in her attic (when touching both pieces simultaneously with one’s bare skin, it completes an electrical circuit that knocks them out for an hour) and uses them to temporarily incapacitate the baddie.  Clear!


Searching for Sarah Jane (“Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?:  Part 1” – Series 1, Episode 7)

If getting info from Bea was a tough situation, this one is all but impossible.  The Trickster has pulled Sarah Jane out of the world, and Maria’s the only one who can remember her.  Despite the evidence of her own eyes and everyone she knows telling her she’s wrong, lying, or crazy, Maria doesn’t give up, fighting to find out the truth behind what made everyone else forget.

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