Doctor Who Review – Sarah Jane Adventures – Series 1-2

In my reviews from the modern era of Doctor Who so far, I’ve completed all of the series from Russell T Davies’ original tenure as showrunner, as well as the 60th anniversary specials and Season 1 we’ve had since his return. So before I move on to Matt Smith’s era under Steven Moffat, and to add a bit of variety, I want to watch and review the two spin-offs that began during Russell’s first period on the show as well.

So I’m going to start with The Sarah Jane Adventures, a children’s programme starring the late, great Elisabeth Sladen as investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. It’s available on BBC iPlayer, but I’ve got the complete DVD boxset which I’ll be going through here. I didn’t see much of it when it originally aired, having dismissed it as a kids show in favour of the more adult Torchwood (which I plan to review after this), but watching it properly now, it really does hold up well. Many of the scenarios could easily have become Doctor Who stories.

Sarah Jane was one of the most beloved companions of the Doctor, because she was so warm, friendly, clever and fun, reflective of actress Elisabeth herself, so it was lovely that she was given her own series. She has a wonderful family around her, with her child companions, supercomputer Mr Smith and robot dog K9 all helping her to save the world. There’s also lots of exciting action, impressive special effects, good humour and an admirable roster of guest stars (including the Doctor on a couple of occasions).

In this post, therefore, I’ll be reviewing the first two series, including the relevant extras in the DVD set, plus some earlier programmes that add further context and a few other things I’ve seen online. Then in the next post I’ll look at Series 3-5. And I’ve also put together a big playlist of clips relating to Sarah Jane in Doctor Who and Series 1-2 of her spin-off series. So let’s dive in, and I hope you enjoy!

Contents

• Introduction
  • Sarah Jane’s Old Adventures
  • Russell T Davies’ Early Dramas
  • Sarah Jane’s Return
  • Sarah Jane Adventures Overview
• Series 1
  • Special: Invasion Of The Bane
  • 1: Revenge Of The Slitheen
  • 2: Eye Of The Gorgon
  • 3: Warriors Of Kudlak
  • 4: Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?
  • 5: The Lost Boy
• Series 2
  • 1: The Last Sontaran
  • 2: The Day Of The Clown
  • 3: Secrets Of The Stars
  • 4: The Mark Of The Berserker
  • 5: The Temptation Of Sarah Jane Smith
  • 6: Enemy Of The Bane
  • Comic Relief Special
• DVD Extras
  • Menus
  • Mr Smith
  • Other Extras

Introduction

Sarah Jane’s Old Adventures

Prior to the modern era of Doctor Who, Elisabeth Sladen had already played Sarah Jane extensively, as illustrated by the early set of clips in my Sarah Jane Adventures playlist for Series 1 & 2, including:

• Seasons 11-14 of Doctor Who (1973-1976) – Sarah Jane appeared with Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee‘s Doctors during this period. However, the only story I’ve seen from that era is Pyramids Of Mars from 1975. I saw the Tales Of The Tardis edition first of all earlier this year, to mark the return of Sutekh in the latest series, and now I have the original version as an extra in the Sarah Jane Adventures DVD set, which I’ll mention in my next post. There were also a few audio dramas made as well, with Sarah Jane alongside Tom Baker in the 1970s and Jon Pertwee in the 1990s, which can be found on Audible.

• K9 & Company: A Girl’s Best Friend (1981) – This was a 50-minute pilot for a spin-off series that never got commissioned. It’s available on BBC iPlayer with audio description and sign language as part of the Whoniverse collection, plus it’s been released on DVD and Blu-ray, and there’s also a novelisation with an audiobook read by John Leeson. So I watched it for the first time online recently as part of my review for this post, and it’s alright, but I can see why it didn’t go any further. It’s only real significance is that it’s the first time that Sarah Jane and K9 appear together on screen, because she receives the robot dog as a gift from the Doctor, and the two of them do form a good chemistry. But beyond that there’s an awful electronic theme tune that sounds typically 80s, and several of the characters aren’t very interesting or can even be a bit irritating – particularly Brendan (Ian Sears), a young man that Sarah Jane is looking after, who is a boring know-it-all sometimes. The plot isn’t thrilling either, with Sarah Jane investigating her aunt’s disappearance, only to then have to rescue Brendan from a coven of ritualistic worshippers with K9’s help. All that said however, while it is very different to Doctor Who and not as exciting, it is still worth a watch for the sake of curiosity and completeness, especially because it establishes how K9 and Sarah Jane met. It’s just not something I’d watch again particularly.

• The Five Doctors (1983) – Sarah Jane returned to Doctor Who for this multi-Doctor special to mark the 20th anniversary. I’ve never watched it, but will do so one day, along with her other adventures, if and when I eventually get around to watching the Classic era in the future. I don’t need to see it right now, and I suspect it’ll make more sense to watch it in the context of the series rather than in isolation to get the most from it.
• Dimensions in Time (1993) – This was a spoof adventure for Children In Need to mark the 30th anniversary of Doctor Who, with the characters meeting the stars of Eastenders. I saw this when it originally aired, but also watched it again last year as part of my review of Series 1 of the modern revival.

• Downtime (1995) – This was an independent, unofficial, straight-to-video spin-off from Doctor Who, which can currently be seen on Youtube along with extra material including behind the scenes and post production features. As well as Sarah Jane Smith, it also starred Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield and Jack Watling as Professor Edward Travers, and negotiations had to be made with the BBC to allow the use of those characters. Despite not being strictly canon, it is a sequel to some older stories, being all about a new plan to take over the world by the Great Intelligence, plus it introduces the character of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Beverley Cressman), who was later played by Jemma Redgrave in the modern series. Ultimately though, it is an amateur fan production, and you can tell that when you watch it. So I only watched some of it recently out of curiosity, to see a bit of Sarah Jane in action, but I didn’t feel like watching the whole thing. There was a sequel called Dæmos Rising in 2004, but Sarah Jane wasn’t in it and it’s not readily available online, so I’ve got no real interest in seeing it.

• Sarah Jane Smith – Series 1 & 2 (2002-2006) – Elisabeth reprised her role as Sarah Jane for 2 audio series produced by Big Finish, consisting of 9 episodes in total, looking at what happened to the character after she had been left on Earth by the Doctor. And the final story was released just a matter of weeks before she returned to Doctor Who. I’ve not heard these or any other Big Finish titles yet, as I don’t listen to audiobooks very often, but it’s something I hope to do in the future. Indeed, there have also been other audio titles directly related to The Sarah Jane Adventures as well, but I’ll briefly mention those in my next post.

Russell T Davies’ Early Dramas

The Sarah Jane Adventures is actually the third sci-fi series written for children by Russell T Davies, because his very first dramas back in the 90s, both shown on Children’s BBC, were also in that vein. They don’t have any direct connection with Doctor Who, but they’re still worth knowing about and are quite interesting to watch for a bit of additional context. So I’ve also included some of them them near the start of my Youtube playlist for completion.

The first of these is Dark Season from 1991, wiand it does feel a little bit like Doctor Who in some ways. In recent years it had become available on Britbox until the streaming service closed, and it was also released on DVD (which I don’t feel the need to buy). I was at least able to watch it on Youtube to write about it for this post before it got deleted.

Set in a school, the series is made up of six 25-minute episodes, which form two 3-part stories. The central character is a girl called Marcie, who is much more observant, suspicious and intelligent than her peers and her teachers, who tend to see her as a bit crazy and paranoid. So she takes it upon herself to investigate when a consignment of new computers is donated to the school by a mystery benefactor, and when the sports field is dug up to look for a tomb.

She therefore comes across as a Doctor-like figure, even to the point of having two companions who try to help her out – her school friends Thomas and Reet, and the latter uses a yo-yo to test gravity at one point, a deliberate nod to the Doctor Who story The Ark In Space. Plus the opening and closing titles have a slightly vortex-like appearance. And even the name of the actress playing Marcie – Victoria Lambert – evokes thoughts of Verity Lambert, the founding producer of Doctor Who.

Incidentally, while the actors playing Marcie and Thomas (Victoria Lambert and Ben Chandler) didn’t take up any other roles after the series, Reet was played very well by 15-year-old Kate Winslet, in her first major TV role before she became a huge Hollywood star. So that adds further significance to the series.

Meanwhile some of the adults were played by more established names, including Brigit Forsyth from Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? as frustrated teacher Miss Maitland, and Jacqueline Pearce from Blake’s 7 as Miss Pendragon. The main villain of the series – the imposing Mr Eldritch, who feels a bit like The Demon Headmaster – was played by Grant Parsons, who has had guest roles in several shows over the years.

And altogether it’s not a bad show to be fair. A lot of Russell’s later work is better, of course, but this holds up quite well. The stories are good enough to hold your interest, with Russell showing a flair for exciting cliffhangers even back then. The music by David Ferguson is suitably atmospheric, with a punchy theme tune that gets stuck in your head. And they had a big enough budget to spend on proper sets and decent special effects for the time, not least because the show was filling the gap vacated by Maid Marian & Her Merry Men while Tony Robinson was taking a break. The return of that series explains why Dark Season was never recommissioned, as there was no room for it in the schedule after that.

Dark Season was never completely forgotten though. Russell has since made occasional callbacks in Doctor Who, by mentioning Marcie in the 1996 novel Damaged Goods, having Rose Tyler repeat Reet’s line “Where am I gonna go, Ipswich?” when trapped behind a door in The End Of The World, evoking memories of the first Dark Season story with the setting of School Reunion (where computers at a school hook into the minds of children for nefarious purposes), and basing The CyberKing in the 2008 Christmas special The Next Doctor on the Behemoth.

And then, more recently, Dark Season has made a surprise return in a couple of Big Finish audiobooks, again written by Russell. A novelisation of the original TV series, read by Victoria Lambert, was released in 2021 to mark its 30th anniversary. And then a dramatisation of a brand new story called Legacy Rising was published in 2023, with all of the major cast members from the show reprising their roles, including Kate Winslet. As mentioned earlier, I haven’t got around to listening to any Big Finish titles due to my limited time, but one day I’ll hopefully get around to these. For now though I’m happy enough to have seen the TV series out of curiosity.

Back to the 90s though, and Russell’s second TV drama for the BBC was Century Falls in 1993, again consisting of six 25-minute episodes. It also got a DVD release, which again I’m not concerned about buying, but you can see it on Youtube as I write this.

This time there’s a single story that plays out across the entire series. A teenager called Tess Hunter (Catherine Sanderson) has moved with her mother Mrs Hunter (Heather Baskerville) to Century Falls, a mysterious backwater village where the residents have psychic bonds and strange rituals, and view outsiders with heavy suspicion. And Tess soon meets a boy called Ben (Simon Fenton), who has rather unusual and sinister powers that remind me a bit of Eleven from Stranger Things, given how the effort can sometimes give him nosebleeds, and he’s accompanied by his sister Carey (Emma Jane Lavin). But apart from them, there are no other children around due to a horrific tragedy 40 years earlier. So when the villagers discover that Tess’ mother is pregnant, it causes grave concern, as if they didn’t have enough to worry about with the entity that Ben seems intent on raising from the local waterfall.

I won’t say any more than that, as there’s plenty of mystery, tension and surprising twists as the plot develops. It can feel a bit slow sometimes, given how the story is spread over 6 episodes, so I personally prefer Dark Season if I’m honest. But it’s nevertheless another well-made series for its time. And some of the cast members also have Doctor Who connections, including Eileen Way (who was in the very first story An Unearthly Child as Old Mother) and Mary Wimbush (who was Aunt Lavinia in K9 & Company), as well as Bernard Kay and Robert James (who played a variety of guest characters between them).

After Dark Season and Century Falls, Russell turned his attention to adult TV dramas instead, becoming one of Britain’s most successful writers in the genre with shows like Queer As Folk, Bob & Rose and The Second Coming (the latter starring Christopher Eccleston). But that work was mainly with ITV and Channel 4, and it wasn’t until 2005 that he created shows again for the BBC, with Casanova (starring David Tennant) and the return of Doctor Who (with Christopher and David).

Sarah Jane’s Return

My introduction to Sarah Jane Smith was when she returned with K9 in the modern series of Doctor Who, alongside David Tennant’s 10th Doctor in Series 2’s School Reunion. I was already aware of who she was by then, obviously, but it was the first time I’d seen her in action, and I instantly loved her – as did the audience at large, because it was the success of that episode that led to her own series. In Doctor Who she later appeared again (along with her adopted son Luke) in the Series 4 finale and briefly in the regeneration farewell montage during the 10th Doctor’s final episode. All the links in this paragraph take you to the reviews I’ve written of those episodes in earlier posts, so I don’t need to write about them here.

Sarah Jane Adventures Overview

The Sarah Jane Adventures ran for 5 series from 2007-2011. With the exception of the hour-long special that launched the show, every story was split into two episodes of just under half an hour each, often with great cliffhangers in the middle. There were 5 two-parters in Series 1, then 6 in each of Series 2 to 4, and finally just 3 in the final series because of Elisabeth’s untimely death. Several stories were adapted into novels as well.

The main cast members were:

• Sarah Jane Smith – Elisabeth Sladen
• Mr Smith – Alexander Armstrong
• Luke Smith – Tommy Knight
• Clyde Langer – Daniel Anthony
• Maria Jackson – Yasmin Paige (All of Series 1, two episodes in Series 2)
• Rani Chandra – Anjli Mohindra (Replaced Maria from Series 2 onwards)
• Sky Smith – Sinead Michael (Series 5 only)
• K9 – John Leeson (Appeared in Series 1-4 to varying degrees)

The parents of the non-Smith children feature in some stories as well:

• Maria’s parents Alan & Chrissie – Joseph Millson & Juliet Cowan
• Rani’s parents Haresh & Gita – Ace Bhatti & Mina Anwar
• Clyde’s parents Carla & Paul – Jocelyn Jee Esien & Gary Beadle

There are also a lot of wonderful guest stars, including some names that will be very familiar to parents who see the show as well as their children. Some of them came as a lovely surprise to me, as I deliberately didn’t check out the cast lists for each episode before I saw them.

Perhaps surprisingly, however, despite enjoying Sarah Jane in Doctor Who, this review marks the first time I’ve ever watched this spin-off in its entirety. I know I watched the first series online many years ago, but I didn’t remember at all when watching it for this review, which shows how far back it was! That also made it fun to watch though, because it felt new. I am, however, familiar with the episodes featuring David Tennant and Matt Smith, because I’ve deliberately watched them as a big fan of the parent show.

So I never really gave the series the attention it deserved at the time and let it fall by the wayside, because it wasn’t fully available and I couldn’t be bothered to record it, as I had unfairly dismissed it as being a children’s show while focusing on Torchwood as the more adult of the spin-offs, as that was more aimed at my demographic. Hence I didn’t bother buying the box set for a kids programme I’d never fully watched.

However, to mark Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary, and with a more open mind now that I wasn’t the relative newbie to the ‘Whoniverse’ that I was back in the early years of the modern era, I finally bought the DVD boxset of Series 1-5 last year and had kept it aside until I was ready to do this post. The complete series was released on BBC iPlayer last year as well, but I thought I’d take the plunge and get the box set after all, which comes with a variety of extra features. The last 2 series were also released on Blu-ray, but I would only consider upgrading if they released all 5 series that way. As it is, I’m perfectly happy with the DVDs anyway.

And all credit where it’s due, it is a fantastic series. I wasn’t sure how focused on children it would be in design, but the stories wouldn’t be out of place in Doctor Who itself really, perhaps with just little tweaks here and there. The show is a lot of fun, with great special effects and enjoyable humour, but it also touches on more serious and dark topics throughout, incorporating them in a thought-provoking way that brings realism to the show without dragging it down and making it too heavy.

The episodes and extras are spread across 12 discs, with 4 for Series 1, then 3 for Series 2, followed by 2 each for Series 3 & 4, and just 1 for Series 5. Audio navigation and audio description is only available for Series 4 & 5, which are also the only series to have had Blu-ray releases so far. However, audio description is available for every episode on BBC iPlayer apart from the pilot. Subtitles are available for all episodes on the DVD and online.

The theme tune was composed by Murray Gold, who wrote the music for Doctor Who, and there are obvious nods to the Doctor Who theme to make the connection. But all of the incidental music, which is also very nice, was written by Sam Watts & Dan Watts. There have been no soundtrack releases though, sadly, and probably never will be. Sam & Dan did post some of their music online for showreel purposes to get further work, but they took most of it down when they saw that fans were bootlegging it, so all we have officially now are a few tracks on Dan’s Soundcloud. There is a long unofficial playlist on Youtube posted by a fan, and a few other users have posted tracks too, but it’s always possible they could get taken down one day.

---

Series 1

• First Broadcast: 1 January, then 24 September – 19 November 2007
• Links: BBC (Special) / BBC (Series 1) / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
• DVDs: Disc 1 contains the special, while Disc 2 has stories 1 & 2, Disc 3 has stories 3 & 4, and Disc 4 has the final serial.

Special: Invasion Of The Bane

The hour-long New Year special is a great opening to the series. Just like Doctor Who introduces you to the Doctor through the eyes of the companion, to ground it in the real world and make it relatable, this episode takes the same approach.

We start off by meeting Maria, a young girl who has moved into Bannerman Road in Ealing. Her parents are getting divorced, so she’s living with her father Alan, who she has a great chemistry with, while her mum Chrissie does visit in this episode and during the series. The impact of the divorce on Maria is a subplot that continues through the series, one of several examples where the show isn’t afraid to incorporate and confront darker topics, crediting its young audience with intelligence and maturity, especially as many of them will be able to relate to her situation. It’s not distracting or too heavy-going, but it does add an extra dynamic to Maria’s character, and it’s a credit to actress Yasmin Paige that she plays the situation and her character in general so well.

Maria soon discovers that her neighbour Sarah Jane Smith is having encounters with aliens. While Sarah Jane attempts to keep Maria away for her safety, they’re drawn together through events at the Bubbleshock factory, which is giving away addictive bottles of pop that contain elements of the Bane, through which it can take over the human race. Maria is taken to the factory by a new friend called Kelsey – who we never see again in the series, and it’s been Porsha Lawrence-Mavour’s only acting credit.

Maria and Kelsey then discover Sarah Jane’s incredible attic space with remnants of her adventures and discoveries, hear a bit about the Doctor, meet supercomputer Mr Smith and witness a cameo by K9. Both Alexander Armstrong and John Leeson are fantastic voice actors and suit their roles to a tee in this show, with both characters having great personalities despite being machines. I like the fanfare that plays every time Mr Smith is summoned too.

Sarah Jane and Maria go on to defeat the Bane and Mrs Wormwood (Samantha Bond) with the help of a boy who was grown as an archetype in the factory from the minds and bodies of 10,000 people. Sarah Jane then adopts the boy and names him Luke, and with Maria at their side the initial trio is set up nicely for the series ahead.

1: Revenge Of The Slitheen

Following their defeat at Downing Street in Series 1 of Doctor Who (which does get mentioned here for continuity), the Slitheen are back in pursuit of retribution, complete with their amusing penchant for farting while in their human skins. This time they’re building technology in schools that will drain all the power from the planet and even the sun, so it’s up to Sarah Jane, Maria and Luke to try and save the world.

Along the way they’re joined by new boy Clyde, who unwittingly gets caught up in the chaos, which ultimately leads to him being in Sarah Jane’s house and learning about her life. Sarah Jane doesn’t appreciate yet another person discovering her secret at first, but she warms to him by the end, especially after he comes up with an idea to defeat the Slitheen.

Before all of that danger, Clyde’s initial introduction to the group is through Luke, because of his strange behaviour. The newly-grown boy from the previous story hasn’t been on the standard path through life that normal children have traversed, meaning he has no concept of how to socially interact with other people. So he’s constantly making mistakes and feeling terrible about it, as he really wants to fit in. And it’s a particularly big error this time, as he’s tricked into giving the Slitheen vital information to fulfil their plan.

Clyde therefore takes him under his wing during the series, becoming a mentor for him as well as a close friend, teaching him about many aspects of life and human behaviour that we all take for granted. Maria is also good friends with Luke of course, and Sarah Jane cares for him in the way a loving mother would, so he learns a lot from them too. But there is a special bond between Luke and Clyde, just like all lads who have best mates at school, and the initial seeds of their friendship are sowed in this story.

It’s not just Luke who has difficulty behaving in certain ways either. The final showdown leads to a thought-provoking moment for all of them, when they’re forced to consider the moral dilemma of killing a Slitheen child. Like the Doctor, Sarah Jane hates the idea of killing anyone, regardless of their species, and especially a child, even if it is a necessary evil to save the world. And clearly her young companions aren’t entirely comfortable with it either. So, just like its parent show, this isn’t a series that kills monsters for fun. It considers the reasons and consequences of doing so, letting you make up your own mind without lecturing you on it.

2: Eye Of The Gorgon

I immediately recognised one of the guest stars in this story, because Mrs Randall is played by Doreen Mantle, who was Mrs Warboys in One Foot In The Grave. So while she wasn’t a primary character in this adventure, it was a nice surprise to see her involved. Doreen sadly died last year at the impressive age of 97.

The story involves a care home, where Sarah Jane and her gang investigate reports of a phantom nun scaring the residents. But one of the old ladies called Bea (Phyllida Law) gives Luke an ornate talisman to keep hidden, as there are some actual nuns who are after it, led by Sister Helena (Beth Goddard). They do eventually gain possession of both the talisman and Luke, taking them away to their large monastery. The last surviving Gorgon on Earth needs the precious artefact to open a portal for the rest of their kind to pass through and join them, so they can take over the Earth.

The Gorgon has already taken over a person’s body to give it physical form, and is also controlling the nuns to do its bidding. But it’s most terrifying ability is to turn people to stone just by looking at them – as per the Greek myth it’s based on – and to Maria’s horror it does exactly that to her father Alan, which sharply brings home to her just how dangerous it is to be involved in Sarah Jane’s lifestyle. And this is shortly after Maria has fallen out with her parents about the divorce, so she does go through the emotional wringer in this story. We see a slightly softer side to her mother Chrissie as well, who is worried about Maria’s welfare and has been suspicious of Sarah Jane for a while, but not being the sharpest tool in the box she completely misinterprets the situation when she finds the statue of Alan.

So again there’s a lot at stake going into the second part of the story, and Sarah Jane ends up in real peril towards the end until her life is saved by one of the children. Maria, Luke and Clyde are strong, determined and brave in the face of adversity, as we continue to see throughout the series, and they demonstrate here why Sarah Jane is right to trust them.

3: Warriors Of Kudlak

When children go missing, it isn’t usually due to aliens, and so Sarah Jane doesn’t assume that to be the case when interviewing one distraught parent about her son’s out of character absence. But further investigation reveals that many disappearances have coincided with freak rainfall, and by building a clever machine to trigger it in one of the affected locations, Sarah Jane discovers that some kind of teleportation technology is involved.

Meanwhile, after feeling guilty at naively making a joke that’s potentially offensive, Luke is comforted by Clyde, who takes him to try out the new Combat 3000 laser tag experience to show him why games are fun. Unbeknownst to them, however, it’s run by bug-eyed aliens who are assessing children for their potential warrior skills and teleporting those they deem suitable for actual battle. So because Clyde enjoys games like this, and Luke proves to be a natural at it, they’re both taken, just as Sarah Jane and Maria discover what’s happening in the building as part of their investigation.

Ultimately the gang all end up on a spaceship orbiting the Earth, along with other children who have also been captured, making this the first off-world story of the series. And it’s Luke who saves the day, when he figures out how to hack into the ship’s computer, discovering crucial information that helps bring things to an end.

4: Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?

This is a bit like one of Doctor Who’s “Doctor-lite” episodes, where the title character has much reduced involvement – a “Sarah-lite” episode, if you will. So instead it’s Maria’s story, which actress Yasmin Paige leads brilliantly, and it’s a great adventure with nice twists and turns.

After playing with a strange puzzle box that Sarah Jane has gifted to her, Maria wakes up the next morning to find that Sarah Jane has been erased from her timeline (as has Luke by definition) and nobody else in her life has ever heard of her. Even Maria’s old photos have changed. Instead, the house on the other side of Bannerman Road is inhabited by a lady called Andrea (Jane Asher), and there’s no Mr Smith upstairs – which is rather a problem, because there’s a huge meteor heading for Earth that he was going to deflect before it destroys humanity.

Maria is naturally freaked out by this, and her father thinks she’s gone mad when she tries to convince him. But some investigation reveals that Sarah Jane and Andrea were childhood friends, and the reason Andrea now exists is because the consequences of a tragic accident have been reversed. And that’s down to a strange being called The Trickster (Paul Marc Davis), who feeds off chaos, and has pulled Sarah Jane out of time into an empty limbo land, so he can destroy the Earth and then force her to give him information about the Doctor.

The Trickster has also employed a mischievous creature called the Graske – who had previously been seen in an interactive adventure in 2005 – which attacks Maria, first sending her back to the 1960s to meet young Sarah Jane and Andrea, before imprisoning her in the Trickster’s white void with the adult Sarah Jane. It then also attempts to attack Alan, after he finds the puzzle box and has his own timeline altered to erase Maria, but he gets the upper hand thanks to his skateboarding skills. So he’s able to confront Andrea and get Maria back, but it’s down to Andrea to make a terrible choice if Sarah Jane is to return and save the planet.

Obviously things work out in the end. But it’s a cleverly written story, by the end of which Alan is fully aware of what his daughter Maria has really been doing, and it’s a lot to take in.

5: The Lost Boy

While Maria persuades her dad not to make them move house, because of what he discovered in the previous story, the central narrative this time is focused on Luke, who is suddenly plastered all over the news as a missing child. And when Mr Smith confirms that Luke is an exact genetic match for him, Sarah Jane reluctantly gives him over to his real parents.

Naturally, however, things aren’t that simple, because it’s all an elaborate trap by the Slitheen, hell bent on revenge yet again after their defeat earlier in the series. It’s a clever reveal, as their new slimline suits mean there’s no farting to give the game away this time. The arrogant child genius in particular is the one that Sarah Jane’s crew were anxious about killing in the earlier story, and in its human form it’s played by Ryan Watson. They hold Luke prisoner, as they hope to harness the exceptional telekinetic energy from his advanced brain, at an institute that Sarah Jane is also investigating thanks to analysis by Mr Smith (where she meets Professor Rivers, played by the former children’s TV presenter Floella Benjamin).

Clyde, meanwhile, manages to obtain a photo from Luke’s new parents while attempting to visit him to see how he is. But he’s convinced it’s fake, and his assumptions are later confirmed – when Mr Smith admits it was him who faked it. It turns out the supercomputer has a mission of its own and has been biding its time, and it’s great to hear Alexander Armstrong playing the bad guy for a change. It’s interesting to learn about Mr Smith’s origins as well.

So the concluding episode of the series becomes quite a tense affair, as Sarah Jane, Maria and Alan have to try and defeat both the Slitheen and Mr Smith to rescue Luke and Clyde, including a little help from K9 in a fun showdown with the supercomputer. It all makes for a great finale that wraps up the series nicely, including references to previous adventures along the way, and ending with the same monologue that started Invasion Of The Bane.

---

Series 2

• First Broadcast: 29 September – 8 December 2008
• Links: BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
• DVDs: The 6 stories are spread out equally, with 2 on each of the 3 discs.

1: The Last Sontaran

This story is a follow-up to The Sontaran Stratagem & The Poison Sky from Series 4 of Doctor Who, and footage is shown from that story when reference is made to it. It marks the first time that clips from the parent show have been used in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

When investigating strange lights in the sky around a radio telescope, Sarah Jane and the gang come across Commander Kaagh (Anthony O’Donnell), the last surviving Sontaran from the battle fleet that the Doctor had defeated by blowing up the mothership. Kaagh had crashed to Earth and then spent time hatching his plan for revenge, which involves controlling the guy who runs the telescope in order to program the world’s satellites to crash into nuclear power plants around the world.

So while Sarah Jane is held captive, and uses her ingenuity to find a way of disrupting the plan, her young friends escape and try to figure out how to help, although Kaagh does his utmost to chase and stop them. Maria’s parents also end up getting involved, when her dad Alan is asked to talk to Mr Smith (who’s got more of a sense of humour since his reboot) and mother Chrissie follows him up to Sarah Jane’s attic, meaning she discovers the truth at last. The two of them then make their way to the telescope, just in time for the final big showdown against Kaagh.

It’s all very scary for everyone involved. But there’s even more on Maria’s mind, as her dad’s been offered a huge job in America, which means she’ll be moving far away from her mum, Sarah Jane, Clyde and Luke. She finds it difficult to raise the subject with her friends, especially as Sarah Jane doesn’t react the way she expects at first, but at the end there is of course an emotional farewell as she departs for her new life.

In reality, actress Yasmin Paige’s role was cut short in this series because of her GCSE exams. She appears once more later on, then that’s the last we ever see of her. It’s a shame, because Maria’s a great character and didn’t get as long in the show as she deserved really. But Yasmin was later reunited with co-star Tommy when they appeared together in the E4 teen drama Glue.

2: The Day Of The Clown

This story introduces us to Rani, a keen and inquisitive girl who dreams of being a journalist, who has moved with her parents into Maria’s old house on Bannerman Road. Rani’s father is the new headmaster at the school, and I recognise Mina Anwar, who plays her mother, as Constable Maggie Habib from the police sitcom The Thin Blue Line, in which the lead star was Rowan Atkinson.

Sarah Jane instructs Clyde and Luke not to let the new neighbours in on their secret but, of course, Rani gets drawn in and becomes part of the team. It naturally takes a bit of adjustment to get used to her new character, for Sarah Jane in the story as well as us, the audience. But she proves herself well and fits in nicely. Maria isn’t forgotten either though. It’s the first time that Luke has lost a friend, so it’s difficult for him to process the emotional consequences, but Clyde and Sarah Jane are as supportive as always.

The villain of the story, meanwhile, is played by future Doctor Who companion and The Chase presenter Bradley Walsh, which was a fun surprise. I didn’t recognise him at first given his costumes and accent, but it dawned me as the first part progressed. He’s very good here as he takes on multiple guises, primarily the malevolent Mr Spellman, who runs a new circus museum, as well as Odd Bob the clown and the supposedly mythical Pied Piper. He’s responsible for the fact that children are disappearing, and by inviting them to his museum he can capture many more all at once.

For Sarah Jane, investigating this mystery brings up two links to her past. One is a return visit to the Pharos Institute from the closing story of the previous series, where she meets her contact Professor Rivers (Floella Benjamin) again. But more significantly, we find out a bit more about her childhood, as we learn why she has a fear of clowns and discover that her parents died when she was a baby (which is the focus of the Temptation story later in the series). Mr Spellman then takes delight in testing Sarah Jane’s response to fear, pushing her to her limits by capturing Luke. But Rani comes up with a suggestion, encouraging Clyde to use his sense of humour, that saves the day.

So while it’s a silly story, and not one for those with coulrophobia (a fear of clowns), it is a fun watch, especially with Bradley as the big guest star. And it’s a nice way of introducing Rani to the weird world of Sarah Jane – which she’s given the choice to stay away from at the end, but with her love of all things weird and wonderful, and the opportunity to learn more about the universe, it was an easy decision for Rani to make.

3: Secrets Of The Stars

Astrology is nonsense, as many of us know, and this story doesn’t shy away from that fact. But it does imagine what it might be like if it were true in another universe, where our laws of science don’t apply, and what could happen if it strayed into ours. So con artist Martin Trueman – played magnificently by veteran comedian Russ Abbot – is hit by something from the sky, delivered by the so-called Ancient Lights, and not only becomes an expert, but is bestowed with other powers as well, which are so unusual that even Mr Smith doesn’t recognise their existence.

So when Sarah Jane, her companions and Rani’s parents attend one of Martin’s shows, he makes some uncanny observations about people in the audience – even knowing about the Doctor when it comes to Sarah Jane, and telling her she’ll lose her next fight. He seems to be anticipating her every move as well, so much so that he gets hold of Clyde and confers special powers on to him too.

Martin then goes ahead with a very special global TV broadcast, during which he takes control of the population one star sign at a time by putting them under hypnosis, ready for the Ancient Lights to give him ultimate power over the world. It seems impossible to stop him, but he hadn’t bargained on one particular person being immune to his powers, through the clever use of a plot point established back in the first series.

4: The Mark Of The Berserker

With great power comes great responsibility, as the saying goes – and in this case, great danger too. An alien pendant found at the school gives the wearer the ability to command other people to do or think anything, and they will be obeyed without question. But every time they use the pendant, small changes happen within their body, gradually turning them into a member of the violent Berserker race.

Fortunately a child called Jacob is able to fight off the pendant before it can go that far, as is Rani, who has a bit of fun with it before having the self-discipline to take it off and put it in Sarah Jane’s attic for safekeeping, so Sarah Jane can look at it when she gets back.

That’s because this is another “Sarah-lite” story, even more so than Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? in the first series, because she’s absent for most of it. And while last time Maria took centre stage, on this occasion it’s Clyde’s turn to get a big story, one that adds interesting depth to his character as we learn about his family – but Maria does also pop up as well, for the final time.

Clyde is having Luke over to stay with him and his mum Carla (Jocelyn Jee Esien) while Sarah Jane’s away, but their happy hangout together is brought to an abrupt halt by the sudden appearance of Clyde’s dad Paul (Gary Beadle), who had deserted them 5 years earlier. Clyde is naturally angry towards his father – and this serious aspect of the plot is handled well – but he agrees to talk to him, and eventually opens up about what he’s been doing with Sarah Jane, in a bid to impress his dad. That in itself is a risky move, but Clyde then takes him up to Sarah Jane’s attic, whereupon Paul discovers the pendant, tries it on, and becomes addicted to using it.

Before long he’s made Clyde forget who Luke and Rani are, and takes him away travelling. He gets a car dealer to give them a flashy car for nothing, and then they go on a shopping spree to get lots of other freebies, to the soundtrack of See The World by The Kooks (the second contemporary song used in the episode, after Grace Kelly by MIKA when Carla’s making breakfast). And when Clyde gets anxious about what Mum will think of his disappearance, Paul makes him forget about her as well.

With Sarah Jane away, and Mr Smith offline as she shut him down before she left, Luke and Rani call Maria in Washington, so her dad can hack into UNIT and get the information they need to trace Clyde and Paul, with Carla driving them. So Maria doesn’t really get to do much unfortunately, but it’s nice to see her one more time. And there’s not a lot that Luke, Rani and Carla can do when they find their targets, given that Clyde’s forgotten them and Paul has become more of an angry beast than a man. The only person who can stop Paul is Clyde, and it requires the only other person Clyde still recognises and trusts, Sarah Jane, to tell him how to do it.

Once it’s all over, Clyde apologises to Sarah Jane for taking his dad into the attic, but she’s friendly and understanding as usual. She also mentions, for the second time this series, that her parents passed away when she was a baby, and their tragic story comes to the fore in the next story.

5: The Temptation Of Sarah Jane Smith

In the first of 2 stories where previous villains from the series are out for revenge, the Trickster (Paul Marc Davis) lays a trap for Sarah Jane that’s impossible for her to resist, by opening a seemingly innocent fissure in time that takes her back to the exact location and date of her parents’ death. All she knows is that she was abandoned as a baby, and here she has the opportunity to learn why at long last. So, after some resistance, she gives in and goes through the portal to explore, with Luke in tow as he insists on coming to keep her safe. I think most people in her position would make the same choice, how could you not?

It would have been all well and good if she had just remained an observer, and for a while she does stick to that rule. She even has an inkling that it’s a trap and promises Luke that she’ll be careful. She does meet and talk to her parents (Rosanna Lavelle and Christopher Pizzey), but she’s very careful not to give anything away, introducing herself and Luke as Victoria and David Beckham. And she also makes sure that she doesn’t touch herself as a baby, which would cause the same devastating paradox that Rose Tyler triggered in the Doctor Who episode Father’s Day.

However, Sarah Jane’s emotions eventually get the better of her, and she prevents her parents from being able to travel to the scene of their fatal accident, which is entirely understandable. But, just like Rose saving her dad’s life, Sarah Jane’s well-meaning act has terrifying ramifications – in this case, tearing a hole in time that allows the Trickster to physically enter our reality.

Clyde and Rani, who have remained in the present, see the effects of this when London is reduced to rubble, with the humans enslaved and under orders from the Graske. They haven’t become slaves themselves though, because Sarah Jane’s puzzle box has protected them, just as it had with Maria in the previous series. But in order to understand what’s happened, and travel back to the past to give vital information to Sarah Jane, their only option is to try and do a deal with the Graske.

And once they do, Sarah Jane has an awful choice to make to save the world, much like her friend Andrea had to after their previous encounter with the Trickster. Defeating this particular villain certainly comes at a big emotional cost. But at least Sarah Jane finally has the answers she was looking for about her parents, which gives her closure on that mystery from her past.

So while the underlying concept of the story, about the consequences of changing the past, is hardly original, it’s still explored really well here, with Elisabeth Sladen in particular giving an excellent performance as you’d expect. It’s wonderful to get further background on her character in this way. There’s also an amusing moment where she sees a blue police box and gets all excited that the Doctor will be able to help her – only to discover that, being the 1950s, it is just an actual police box. It’s not quite time for the Doctor to appear in the show just yet…

6: Enemy Of The Bane

Mrs Wormwood (Samantha Bond) from the very first episode is back, getting Sarah Jane’s attention and forcing her to make contact by capturing Rani’s mum and putting her in a trance. But this time it appears Mrs Wormwood needs our hero’s help, as the Bane are after her because of her failure to carry out their invasion plans.

She also explains that the Bane are trying to resurrect an immortal being called Horath, whose body and consciousness were separated at opposite ends of the galaxy after its Dark Empire was defeated. The Bane apparently have the consciousness, so Sarah Jane needs to get hold of the body before they do, in order to keep them separate. But the only way to locate it is to access a scroll hidden deep in UNIT’s highly secure archives.

In order to sneak in and get the artefact, therefore, Sarah Jane makes contact with her old friend the Brigadier – Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, played by Nicholas Courtney. Having previously appeared in 23 stories in Doctor Who’s Classic era, it was a big deal for him to appear here, especially as it became Nicholas’ final appearance in the role before he died just over 2 years later. He wasn’t even meant to be part of this spin-off originally, as Russell T Davies had intended for Martha Jones to appear, given that she also works for UNIT. It would have been a fantastic Doctor Who crossover, as Sarah Jane and Martha had both been in the Series 4 finale of the parent show earlier that year, yet hadn’t had a decent opportunity to interact much. But as actress Freema Agyeman was busy with Law & Order: UK for ITV, Russell had to look elsewhere. It made perfect sense for Sarah Jane to contact the Brigadier though, and he was brilliant, so it worked out perfectly in the end.

Meanwhile, while Rani is helping Sarah Jane at UNIT, Clyde and Luke are back at Sarah Jane’s house, with Mr Smith holding Mrs Wormwood prisoner. But when an angry Bane turns up, Luke releases her and they escape – only for Mrs Wormwood to meet Sontaran Commander Kaagh (Anthony O’Donnell) from the opening episode of this series, who has the Horath consciousness in his possession, just as she had planned. While it was easy to figure out that she wasn’t being entirely honest, bringing back Kaagh as well was a nice twist in the tale.

Mrs Wormwood and Kaagh then force Sarah Jane to give her the scroll, and Luke offers himself up as a hostage to save his friends. He does make a valiant attempt to escape at one point, but is stopped from doing so. Meanwhile an angry soldier from UNIT is on the hunt for the scroll that Sarah Jane stole, and turns up at her house, only to then reveal himself to be a shapeshifting Bane. Fortunately the Brigadier has a neat way of stopping him, enabling Sarah Jane and co to head off after Mrs Wormwood and Luke. Time is of the essence though, as they’re at a rocky burial site a little bit like Stonehenge to open the portal for the Horath. And in the end it’s not Sarah Jane who saves the world, but someone much more unexpected who makes a huge sacrifice.

So it’s another very enjoyable series finale, with the effective return of two enemies, plenty of drama and some nice twists.

Comic Relief Special – From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love

• First Broadcast: 13 March 2009
• Videos: Comic Relief Special / Behind The Scenes
• Other Links: Tardis Wiki

This 5-minute sketch for Comic Relief is a lot of fun, because it features the legendary comedian Ronnie Corbett, and as a result there are several amusing references to The Two Ronnies throughout. He plays a man who visits Sarah Jane and her friends in the attic, claiming to be a member of the Galactic Alliance who wants to honour their incredible work. But the regular breaking of wind gives away the fact that he’s really a Slitheen, and he unzips his human skin to reveal his true self, before freezing the gang to the spot. K9 quickly saves them though and the Slitheen is soon sent back to where they came from.

This sketch was included in the Series 2 DVD boxset, unlocked by answering a quiz – which doesn’t seem to be in the Complete Collection box set I have, even though the packaging mentions it. On Disc 3 where it looks like it’s meant to be within Secret Files, there’s a folder with an empty spine on the shelf next to the others, and there’s no way of selecting it.

However, I’ve also discovered that the sketch is still on the disc, hidden as Title 10 if your player allows you to select it (which my DVD player doesn’t, but VLC Player on my computer does). It even starts with the congratulatory notice from the quiz. So it’s very odd. I don’t know if it’s an authoring error on the disc that the quiz isn’t there, or if they deliberately removed it. But at least I know it’s there. And it’s on Comic Relief’s Youtube channel anyway, complete with a nice little behind the scenes featurette which isn’t on the DVD.

---

DVD Extras

The extra features for this series aren’t as lengthy and in-depth as for the Doctor Who DVDs, given that this is targeted at children, but there are still a few bits and pieces to enjoy here.

Menus

The DVD menus for Series 1 & 2 present the options in a beautifully animated version of Sarah Jane’s attic, flying around to various different parts of it when you go through the sub-menus. It’s very impressive with a lot of attention to detail. A variety of music from the series plays on each menu screen as well.

Each menu screen, and each feature with screens of text to read, has a time limit of either a minute or 30 seconds, so if you don’t do anything within that time it throws you back to the previous menu, or plays a screensaver on Sarah’s PC, or if you’re on the main menu it plays the episodes. That time limit is usually enough, but it would have been preferable to just let each menu loop like most DVDs do.

On discs where the only extra is Sarah’s PC, the animation takes you directly there from the main menu. On discs with multiple sections, however, the extras are gathered under an option called Secret Files. This takes you to a set of folders on a shelf, and whichever one you choose takes you somewhere else in the room. The extras are kept short with children in mind, so there’s nothing as in-depth as on the Doctor Who and Torchwood releases, but it’s still nice to have a little look through some of them.

Mr Smith

The most interesting bonus material can be found by accessing the supercomputer Mr Smith. It is a little bit disappointing that the features are presented on his monitor rather than full screen on your own TV, but it’s still large enough to watch comfortably.

• Sarah Jane Smith – From Journalist to Time Traveller and Beyond (Series 1, Disc 1, 28:45):
  • This is an interesting timeline using videos, photos and text to show some examples of Sarah Jane’s previous appearances in Doctor Who.
  • It includes her first encounters with the Doctor and Sontarans in The Time Warrior (1973), her first time seeing the Doctor regenerate in Planet Of The Spiders (1974), her reactions to a robot in Robot (1974), being tested in The Sontaran Experiment (1975), her emotional departure from the Doctor in The Hand Of Fear (1976), meeting the Third Doctor again in The Five Doctors (1983), and meeting the Tenth Doctor in School Reunion (2006). It then finishes with a few clips from Invasion Of The Bane (2007), to bring things up to date with her spin-off series.
  • You can’t pause, fast forward or rewind things here unfortunately, as you’re in another menu system rather than an actual video feature, but you can restart the current year, select a different one or exit at any time, or you can wait a few seconds at the end of each year for it to move on automatically.
• Elisabeth Sladen Interviews – Lovely chats with the actress about playing Sarah Jane:
  • BBC Norfolk webTV (Series 1, Disc 1, 7:20) – Here she promotes the New Year special, talking about how she got her spin-off show, filming the episode and what it’s like playing such an iconic character.
  • BBC Breakfast (Series 1, Disc 4, 8:04) – Talking about her upcoming return to Doctor Who in the School Reunion episode.

• Blue Peter Footage:
  • Behind The Scenes (Series 1, Disc 1, 5:14) – A fun feature filmed on set, Including interviews with actors Elisabeth Sladen and Yasmin Paige.
  • Making A Slitheen Mask (Series 1, Disc 4, 4:27) – The 3 children from the show have a go at making a mask, while the presenters also talk briefly to Elisabeth.
  • Series 2 Promotion (Series 2, Disc 1, 4:35) – The 3 children are interviewed and play an easy little quiz. Not as interesting as the Series 1 clips above.

• Me & My Movie Monday – These are compilations of short clips on Series 2 Disc 2 where Tommy Knight talks about playing Luke (2:56) and sound man Julian Howarth gives us an insight into his job (2:09), accompanied by a bit of behind the scenes footage. It’s all a bit messy really, including regular interruptions by the title screen and CBBC ident, and we don’t learn anything really surprising or interesting. But then it is a mini-feature aimed at children after all.

• Audio Adventures – This presents short preview clips from the audiobook series relating to the show, read by Elisabeth Sladen, namely The Thirteenth Stone & The Glittering Storm (Series 1, Disc 4, 2:54) and The Time Capsule (Series 2, Disc 1, 5:17).
• Photo Galleries – For Series 1 there are galleries with images from the filming of the New Year special (9 photos on Disc 1) and the rest of the series (12 images on Disc 4), which you skip through manually. Then on Series 2 Disc 3 there’s a gallery of 12 images from the series and another with 12 behind the scenes photos, each played as a slideshow lasting about 50 seconds. It’s a shame all of these galleries are so brief, as they’ll obviously have many more photos in their archive. After all, they divided Sarah’s PC into sections for different topics, so they could have done something like that here to share more images.

Other Extras

• Sarah’s PC – This is on every disc for Series 1 & 2, and lets you browse through information about the characters, investigation tools and aliens in the series. It’s presented in the style of a Windows computer, with folders that you enter, and then a photo on the left and text on the right for each item. If you’ve watched the series then you already know everything that’s mentioned here, so it’s hardly essential, but it’s a nice way of summarising things. These files also grow as each series progresses – so Disc 2 copies what was on Disc 1, but adds information relevant to the next 2 episodes, and so on. So the PC on the final disc in each series holds the complete collection of information.
• Telescope – This simply presents a few short trailers, so nothing hugely exciting. For Series 1 there are trailers for Invasion Of The Bane (1:47) and Doctor Who Series 3 Box Set (1:57) on Disc 1, followed by two CBBC trailers (0:22 & 0:44) for the series on Disc 4. Then on Series 2 Disc 3, there’s the cinema trailer for the series (1:32), which is narrated by Clyde, and The Ten Doctors (0:57), a short montage of clips of all the Doctors from Doctor Who over the years, set to the iconic theme tune.

• The Sofa Area – This takes you to a book of synopses for the episodes, and you turn the pages to read through them. It’s rather superfluous when you’ve already seen the series though. The synopses for Series 1 and 2 are on the final disc in each case, but the Series 1 details are also repeated on Disc 1 of Series 2 as a recap.
• Quiz Area – If you answer 5 questions correctly about Series 1 on Disc 4, you’re rewarded with a 4-minute compilation of outtakes, which are very amusing. The questions aren’t too difficult, but they do require you to have paid attention to the names of certain people and places. On Series 2 Disc 3 there is also meant to be a quiz, but it doesn’t seem to be on the menu in my Complete Collection set. Answering all the questions is supposed to unlock the Comic Relief special, which is actually still on the disc, hidden as Title 10 if your player lets you select it.

Conclusion

So that’s the first 2 series of The Sarah Jane Adventures wrapped up, and I really enjoyed watching them for the first time, as they have some fun stories with a great cast. Yes, the show is geared towards a child audience, but there’s a lot for adults to enjoy as well. It’s got a lovely family feel about it, especially with Sarah Jane as the motherly figure at the heart of it. So I hope you enjoyed my review too, and you can see my next post for the remaining 3 series!