The last story in the Sara Kingdom Trilogy. Will it nail the landing?

This one continues right where the last one left off. Sara Kingdom is a house and now has someone living in her (I love this show). That “someone” is called Robert, together with his unnamed daughter. At the start of the story, the daughter leaves. This leaves us alone with our main characters and one last tale to tell.

This story has some good parts and some lacking parts. I wouldn’t call anything it does “bad” though.

Let’s start with the good. Thematically, this one is really strong. In the story, the Doctor, Steven and Sara discover a giant clock run by old men. It turns out to be a massive power source from Sara’s time, a bit before “Daleks’ Master Plan”. The overarching theme this connects to is predestination and one’s role in society. Sara feels like a cog in a giant machine. A chess piece in society, since she has her role as an SSS agent. But also in time, as she has pushed events into place, like killing Bret Vion.

And her part in the history continues now that she’s living it. She comes across a younger version of both Bret Vion and the evil villain Mavick Chen. Especially that last one is interesting. Maybe this meeting could stop his future part in the Daleks’ Master Plan. Maybe this time she can do more.

But of course, she can’t really change the future. The path is set. She isn’t able to make a real difference and loses all hope. It’s futile. And that sentiment has stuck with house Sara. She is never free. Everything was set in stone. Nothing has meaning. It’s really sobering and thematically strong.

But the presentation isn’t perfect. While all this thematic storytelling is done well, the actual connection between the clock landscapes and the themes of futility is quite barebones. At the tail end of the story, it turns out that the clock is being fueled by the hope of the old men, who are actually prisoners. They all hope to one day escape and try with all their might to stop the clock from running. The clock feeds on this hope energy, and even Steven and the Doctor fall prey to it. Only Sara can stop it, because as mentioned, she has lost all hope. That’s why she is able to break down the clock. Both her and we know this will lead to a search for alternative energy sources, like terranium. Resistance to the path is futile.

The problem I have with this setup, is the part where the clock feeds on human hope. This is technically established beforehand, as Bret mentions it in conversation with Sara. But that was 1 vague sentence that becomes extremely relevant 40 minutes later. So you’d better have caught that, or you’re going to be very, very lost near the end.

…Me. I was lost. I had to look it up mid story.

I do think that might be partially on me, but it also could’ve been more established. There’s plenty of room to reinforce it in the conversation with Mavick Chen, for example. Right now, all the information comes at you fast with only one small sentence of warning. It’s like a baseball to the face. Catch it or break your nose. Would be nice if the story had given us a nice glove to catch all the information in. A little bit of prep.

Let’s move to the house side of the story. In the house, Robert is tired of life, so he and Sara make a deal and switch places. It’s unclear if Sara now has Roberts body or a different one, but that doesn’t really matter. House Sara, after years of being alone and forgotten, is finally free.

Sara is, of course, extremely excited about her new freedom. But she’s also apprehensive. What if she just continues on a predestined path? what if she’s still just a cog? Her new lease on life hasn’t changed her attitude. So, Robert the House does her one last kindness. He knows he will be unable to give her life meaning. But he does know someone who could. And he arrives in a blue box. Sara steps inside, and our story ends.

It's an open ending, but it kind of has to be. We don’t know if Sara will have hope after this. Yet if we were to know, would that not continue the predestiny? We don’t know if Sara will have freedom, because knowing would remove that freedom. It’s poetic. The character can only gain freedom by no longer being in a story.

And that’s “The Guardian of the Solar System”. Thematically, I’d argue this is the one that gives us the most insight into Sara. The other stories did that in spades, but this one does it the best. Yet I can’t call it perfect, because the lacking setup of the clock does hinder it. Still, there’s a lot to love and the ending is gold. A great way to end the trilogy.