The Guardian of the Solar System by: Simon Guerrier directed by: Lisa Bowerman: The Old Men Inside the Clock

The Guardian of the Solar System is performed by Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom with Niall McGregor as Robert.  It was written by Simon Guerrier, directed by Lisa Bowerman and released in July 2010 by Big Finish Productions.

 

Ending the Sara Kingdom trilogy had to be done on a high note especially after how well Home Truths worked out and what The Drowned World did at the very end.  Like my review of The Drowned World this review will include spoilers for the whole trilogy.  The Guardian of the Solar System is a story of two plots with one plot concerning Sara Kingdom coming to terms with the death of her brother and the betrayal of Mavic Chen to the Daleks.  The second plot concerns the ending of the House with Robert wishing to die after living quite a long time after his daughter has left him and Sara in the House to her own devices.  Unlike The Drowned World Simon Guerrier is able to balance the two plots equally with enough done in the past and present to give us the completed plot.  The first plot sees the Doctor, Sara, and Steven arrive long before the events of The Daleks’ Master Plan in a planet sized clock where slaves are trying to keep the universe and power in balance, and Mavic Chen is trying to find the terrarium to power the Time Destructor.  The plot does the smart thing and has the Doctor and Steven locked up while Sara tries to negate the timeline so her brother survives and Mavic Chen is found out.  The atmosphere this creates is one of total despair as throughout her efforts Sara is unable to change a thing and the events only make her more responsible for the events of The Daleks’ Master Plan.  This really allows Sara to grow as a character through one story as she goes through the five stages of grief and almost becomes satisfied with what her life has become.  She is ready to defeat the Daleks and make the universe a better place.

 

The plot with the House and Robert does an interesting little two act structure as the first half has Robert manipulate the ghost of Sara into letting him take over so she can leave.  It shows a different side of Robert as age has made him cynical as his daughter has left them both to save the world.  Sara still won’t let him leave and he is now at the end of his rope and seeing his reaction to Sara coming back to life and him taking on the duties of the House.  The second has Sara trying to leave the House, but the only boat was taken years ago by Robert’s daughter.  So she goes back to the house and tells Robert the rest of her story of coming to terms with her death over dinner.  The biggest twist however comes at the very end when Robert fulfills Sara’s wish and summons the TARDIS to the House.  The Doctor has died of course and is now in a future incarnation, but Sara has the chance to make up and then the story ends.  Yes this is one of those instances when less of a story means more.  The dialogue will make you have a lot of interesting little ideas to follow with its own continuation.  The performances from Jean Marsh and Niall MacGregor are probably their best as this is the ending for the story which has to be the one that makes them really feel like they’re time is ending.

 

To summarize, The Guardian of the Solar System is the final story that gives us development to the character of Sara Kingdom.  We have an expansion to the motivation of The Daleks’ Master Plan, a story about morality gone wrong, betrayal, and what can happen when you try to change events of the future.  The performances are excellent and the story is miles above the previous installment in the trilogy, The Drowned World, with the only real problem that I could have with the story is that some of it does drag on just a bit while the direction is nothing to write home about.  95/100.