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Doctor Who Review – Sarah Jane Adventures – Series 3-5

Happy Doctor Who Day! To mark the 61st anniversary of this sci-fi institution, here’s the second and final part of my review of the children’s spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, following on from my previous post about Series 1 & 2.

Starring the delightful and dearly missed Elisabeth Sladen in the title role of Sarah Jane Smith, the series is available on BBC iPlayer, but I’m going through the complete DVD boxset here,

Throughout Series 3-5, Sarah Jane continues to be accompanied by Luke Smith (Tommy Knight, whose role was reduced due to his real-life studies), Rani Chandra (Anjli Mohindra) and Clyde Langer (Daniel Anthony), plus Sky (Sinead Michael) in Series 5. Vital assistance is also provided by supercomputer Mr Smith (Alexander Armstrong) and robot dog K9 (John Leeson), who have an amusing rivalry between one another throughout the series. Rani’s parents Haresh & Gita, who live across the road from Sarah Jane, also appear in some stories, played by Ace Bhatti & Mina Anwar, as does Clyde’s mother Carla (Jocelyn Jee Esien). And the Doctor also appears a couple of times, played by David Tennant and Matt Smith.

Clyde gives a generic introduction to every 25-minute episode (30 seconds in Series 3-4, and 45 seconds in Series 5) about what it’s like having adventures with Sarah Jane, with the illustrative clips updated accordingly in each series. This wasn’t a feature of the first two series. It makes sense to have it for the first episode of each series to guide any new viewers in, but it feels repetitive thereafter, so I always fast forward through it.

So let’s jump straight back into the episodes, as all the other introductory stuff was dealt with in the previous post. I’ve also created a Youtube playlist for Series 3-5 (just like I did for Series 1-2) with hundreds of clips, including a lot of videos from the show’s official Youtube channel, if you want to dig through that as well. I hope you enjoy!

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!

Doctor Who Review – Series 1

Doctor Who is one of Britain’s biggest cultural phenomenons and needs no introduction. With stories spanning all of time and space, encountering an infinite variety of locations, species and scenarios, and promoting the universal right and desire for everything to co-exist in peaceful harmony, along with the ability to regenerate the lead character using different actors, the series has a scope and versatility unlike any other. And the adventures, characters, drama, humour, special effects, music and other elements have all come together to make the show continuously exciting to watch.

Of course, everyone has their own favourite (and least favourite) Doctors, companions, enemies, stories, writers, showrunners, etc, even if we don’t all agree on which ones. For many Whovians, the first Doctor they watch becomes their favourite Doctor by default, because you form a special connection with the one who hooks you into the show to begin with. That won’t be the case for every fan, but it certainly is with me.

Christopher Eccleston is therefore my favourite Doctor, with David Tennant a tightly close second, while Billie Piper as Rose Tyler is my favourite companion, and Russell T Davies is my favourite showrunner. But I’ve continued to enjoy the show very much since they all departed, and I’m always happy to give new people a chance. Whilst every change takes a bit of time to bed in and get used to, I like seeing the show evolve with new faces, places and ideas, as it helps to keep it fresh and interesting. After all, it would get boring if it always stayed the same.

But it’s still a joy to see former stars returning too of course. And so this year, for the big 60th anniversary, I’m delighted to see David Tennant is back as the Doctor for a special trilogy. And it’s great to see Russell T Davies as showrunner once again, 18 years after his big revival of the show in 2005.

Therefore, given the special circumstances, and because I’m a huge fan of the modern era of the show, I figured it’s high time I try and do detailed reviews for each of the modern series, which I own on Blu-ray. It’s certainly a good excuse, as if one’s ever needed, to rewatch the episodes and extra features yet again. So for this post I’ll be going through the Series 1 Steelbook Edition Blu-ray, as well as mentioning the music soundtrack and a few relevant items online. I’ll never be able to mention absolutely everything to do with the show, nor would I want to. I just want to pick out the things that stand out to me, of which there are many in this first series.

I won’t complete all the series in time for the 60th anniversary of course, but I want to try and tick off the old Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant episodes by then if I can. And I fully intend to review the other Doctors beyond that as well. So we’ll see how far I get.

This first post is a particularly lengthy one, because I discuss how I got into the series, explore the 13 episodes and the various Blu-ray extras in depth, and express a lot of admiration for Christopher Eccleston as he was my first Doctor. And there’s an associated playlist on my Youtube channel with clips, music, interviews and other things relating to the series. So I hope you enjoy!

[Note: This post was edited in November 2023 to mention the new Whoniverse collection on iPlayer and the Series 1-4 & Specials box set.]

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