'Mona Lisa's Revenge' (Part 2) by Phil Ford

When Lisa laughs at Luke’s demands that she release Sarah, Luke pushes her off her feet, grabs the painting his mum is trapped inside and then legs it from the room, Rani and Clyde close behind him. Unperturbed, Lisa sends a highwayman from a nearby painting, ‘The Dark Rider’, in pursuit of the kids. As the masked robber fires his flintlocks after the fleeing trio Clyde splits off to lead the highwayman away from his friends. Mr Harding objects to Lisa’s treatment of the children, but she quickly reminds him who the boss is, and then resumes her search for her lost brother. Elsewhere, inside a huge wooden box chained up in an underground room, something large and frightening roars in anger… Passing a window, Lisa becomes sad for the world she has never seen; however, when she reaches outside her arm starts to revert into solid paint, and she becomes enraged at the prospect of being trapped indoors forever. While, Luke and Rani grab a rest in the gallery’s gift shop, Luke wishing that he never argued with his mother, Clyde sneaks up on Lisa and Mr Harding to try and overhear their conversation, only to be captured by the highwayman. Lisa explains that her brother is so awful, as soon as he was made his creator locked him away so that no one would ever see him; Mr Harding is horrified, as he always believed the legend of ‘The Abomination’ to be just a story his staff told to scare each other at night. As Lisa’s story unfolds, Rani and Luke read the tale in a guidebook: Giuseppe di Cattivo was an artist who specialised in painting nightmares, and ‘The Abomination’ was his masterpiece; appalled at his creation, di Cattivo sealed it inside a special case made from the wood of a hangman’s gallows, secured with a complex Chinese puzzle lock; the next day, di Cattivo was found, now completely insane. The International gallery took possession of a number of di Cattivo’s works during Victorian times, and ‘The Abomination’ was locked away in the basement – in the same storeroom to which Mr Harding has now led Lisa, Clyde and the highwayman. Leaving Sarah’s painting in the gift shop for safety, Luke hypothesises on how Lisa became real: what if the minerals in her paint came from a meteor that fell from space, and what if their close proximity in the Gallery now made them come to life..? Meanwhile, Mr Harding watches with mounting terror has the highwayman clears away old paintings and boxes to reveal the violently shaking wooden crate containing ‘The Abomination’. Using her Sontaran blaster to zap open the metal gates, Lisa is frustrated to discover that the Chinese puzzle lock on the crate is missing. Upstairs, Luke recalls seeing a Chinese puzzle lock earlier in the museum, and he swiftly takes Rani to where the wooden box is sitting on innocuously on display. At that moment Lisa arrives and demands the box in exchange for Clyde’s life. Luke and Rani realise they have no choice, but as Mr Harding steps in and takes the puzzle from them, instead of handing it over he demands that Lisa release her prisoner or else he will destroy it. Lisa tries calling the curator’s bluff by shooting at some paintings, but Mr Harding is resolute – he has seen the error of his ways, and he promptly smashes the box to pieces with his foot. Lisa is furious, and is just about to shoot Harding when she is stopped by Luke – who to everyone’s amazement offers to help her… Luke and Rani join Clyde in the vault; Luke instructs his friend to sketch the puzzle box in his pad, copying it from the photograph in the guidebook; Clyde and Rani object strongly, but Luke reassures them that he knows what he is doing. As Clyde begins drawing, Lisa looks forward to destroying the world with her brother, reducing the planet to a rage of flames at their feet. After transforming Clyde’s picture into a solid object Lisa solves the puzzle and then places it on ‘The Abomination’s crate – the box opens, and in a blaze of red light, a horrifying, huge, horned monster begins to emerge… At the same time Luke’s plan kicks in: the red energy spills over Clyde’s notepad, bringing to life another of his sketches: K-9! The robot dog immediately opens fire at the threat to his friends, making swift work of ‘The Abomination’. With the creature destroyed its energy fades, sending the highwayman and Lisa’s gun back to their respective paintings. Lisa pleads with Mr Harding to let her stay, but it is too late: the life drains from her body and she reverts to paint, before reappearing back in her frame in the display room. With the copy of K-9 gone too, Luke, Clyde and Rani head off to find Sarah, who has returned to life in the main hall along with the rest of the policemen and gallery staff. Finding Miss Trupp alive and well, Mr Harding declares his love for her, but his assistant is still angry at his fawning over Lisa, and she storms off. Reunited with her son and friends, Sarah reflects that she almost feels sorry for the ‘Mona Lisa’ – after all, nobody’s perfect…

Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Thomas Knight (Luke), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra), John Leeson (Voice of K-9), Suranne Jones (Mona Lisa), Jeff Rawle (Mr Lionel Harding), Liza Sadovy (Miss Trupp), Paul Kasey (The Highwayman)

Directed by Joss Agnew
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Piers Wenger
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC HD):
13th November 2009 @ 4.35 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Sarah Jane Smith, Luke, Clyde, Rani and K-9 Mk IV