Doctor Who - The Trickster Discourse
While I'm glad everyone is discussing Sarah Jane Adventures after so many years, there's one bit of the discourse around The Trickster that has been bugging me:
Everyone is saying the Trickster was defeated by children. Or by Sarah Jane. And that this makes him a laughable threat. But... he wasn't. And he isn't.
The first time we see him in "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane", it was Andrea Yates -- the 56 year old, not the 13 year old -- rescinding her agreement that banished him.
The second time, it was the Smiths sacrificing themselves in "The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith".
The third time, in "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith", it was Peter rescinding his agreement.
Now the kids were a major help in all of these cases - Maria made her father and Andrea aware of the time discrepancy, Rani was able to inform Sarah Jane how the Trickster took over and let slip her name in front of Mrs. Smith, the kids helped the Doctor close the time loop. And Sarah Jane too was not entirely helpless - she convinced Andrea and Peter not to let the Trickster win, and tried to fix her own mistake in "Temptation".
But the ultimate defeat depended on someone letting themselves die tragically, for the sake of Sarah Jane and the world.
Even if we look back at "Turn Left", which was caused by a member of the Trickster's brigade, that took Alternate Donna's death to fix. The Doctor could do nothing. Only if his SJA Series 5 appearance had gone as planned would a child have been the main instrument of defeat, since Sky would have given up her human form.
So if the Trickster were ever to come into the main series of Doctor Who, that is not a light threat. Because no matter what, someone is doomed to die.
