The Sarah Jane Adventures

The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television series, produced by BBC Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who and focuses on the adventures of investigative journalist and former companion of The Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith. The series debuted on BBC One with a 60-minute special, entitled "Invasion of the Bane", on 1 January 2007. A full series of ten 25-minute episodes followed, beginning on 24 September 2007.^[1][2] The first series consisted of five two-part stories,^[3] and a second series, comprising six two-part stories, began airing on 29 September 2008.^[4][5] In 2008, The Sarah Jane Adventures was nominated for a British Academy Children's Award (Children's BAFTA) in the Drama category.^[6] A third twelve-episode series, produced by Russell T Davies, will air in Autumn 2009.^[7][8]

Background and development

In 2006, Children's BBC expressed an interest in producing a Doctor Who spin-off. Their initial idea was "a drama based on the idea of a young Doctor Who", but Russell T Davies vetoed this. "Somehow, the idea of a fourteen-year-old Doctor, on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers, takes away from the mystery and intrigue of who he is and where he came from," said Davies. He suggested instead a series based on the Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith.^[9]

The character of Sarah Jane, played by Sladen, appeared in Doctor Who from 1973 to 1976, alongside Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and later Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. A pilot episode for another Doctor Who spin-off series, K-9 and Company, made in 1981, featured Sarah Jane and the robot dog K-9; however, a full series was never commissioned. Sarah Jane and K-9 returned to Doctor Who in various media many times over the years, most notably in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors (1983) and in the 2006 episode "School Reunion".

Sarah Jane is frequently voted the most popular Doctor Who companion by both Doctor Who fans and members of the general public.^[10] The prospect of a new television series focusing on Sarah Jane was first rumoured in The Sun in March 2006, prior to the airing of "School Reunion"; the report at that time suggested that Sarah Jane and K-9 would both appear in the series.^[11] The fact that a Sarah Jane series was being developed was first confirmed in the BBC's in-house newsletter, Ariel, in early August 2006.^[12][13][14] These early rumours were associated with the working title Sarah Jane Investigates.^[12]

K-9's only appearances on the show were a cameo in the special and an appearance in the last episode of the series.^[15] This is due to the concurrent development of K-9, which is not associated with the BBC and will not feature any Doctor Who connections beyond K-9 himself.^[16]

Production

Production on the full series began in April 2007.^[17] Two of the five two-part stories were scripted by the special's co-writer Gareth Roberts. Bad Girls and New Captain Scarlet writer Phil Ford wrote two stories and Phil Gladwin wrote one. Creator and executive producer Russell T Davies was going to write one story but was forced to drop out due to other work commitments.^[18]

International broadcast

The Canadian channel BBC Kids began broadcasting The Sarah Jane Adventures with "Invasion of the Bane" on 13 January 2008, airing the rest of the series back-to-back on Sundays thereafter.^[19] The South African channel SABC 2 started airing the series beginning on 9 February 2008.^[20] The Hong Kong channel ATV World, which has also aired Doctor Who and Torchwood, aired this series starting 17 February 2008.^[21] The series also began airing on Sci Fi in the USA beginning on 11 April 2008.^[22] In Australia, The Sarah Jane Adventures is due to air starting 31 October 2008 on Nickelodeon Australia.

Merchandising

Character Options have been awarded a licence to produce Sarah Jane Adventure play sets, action figures, and a 'Sonic Lipstick' toy.^[23] Four 2-figure sets have been released: Sarah Jane and star poet; Sarah Jane and Kudlak; Sarah Jane and baby Slitheen and Sarah Jane and Graske. Also released are Sarah Jane sonic lipstick, scanner watch and alien reader.

Cast and crew

In addition to Sladen, the first series of the programme stars Yasmin Paige as Maria Jackson, Sarah Jane's 13-year-old neighbour (in Ealing, London) and Tommy Knight as a boy named Luke, who is adopted by Sarah Jane at the conclusion of the introductory story. The third member of Sarah Jane's young entourage is 14-year-old called Clyde Langer, played by Daniel Anthony, who is introduced in the first episode of the series proper. Porsha Lawrence Mavour plays Maria's friend, Kelsey Harper, in the special, but has not appeared since.^[24][25] Maria and her family are written out of the series in the first story of the second series, The Last Sontaran. In the second story of that series, The Day of the Clown, several new regular cast members are introduced:^[26] Rani Chandra and her parents, Haresh, and Gita;^[26] played by Anjli Mohindra, Ace Bhatti, and Mina Anwar respectively.^[26]

Joseph Millson appears throughout the first series as Maria's recently separated father, Alan, with Chrissie Jackson, Maria's mother, played by Juliet Cowan. One other regular is Alexander Armstrong of comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, who provides the voice of Mr Smith, an extraterrestrial computer in Sarah Jane's attic.

The 2007 special features Samantha Bond as the scheming villain Mrs Wormwood and Jamie Davis as her PR agent Davey. The first series includes among its guest cast Jane Asher as Sarah Jane's childhood friend Andrea Yates, Floella Benjamin as Professor Rivers, and Phyllida Law as Bea Nelson-Stanley. The second series stars Bradley Walsh as an evil alien clown in the story The Day of the Clown and Russ Abbot as a sinister astrologer in Secrets of the Stars.^[26] Also confirmed for the second series are Gary Beadle and Jocelyn Jee Esien, who will be introduced as Clyde's parents Paul and Carla in The Mark of the Berserker. Nicholas Courtney will star in Enemy of the Bane as classic Doctor Who character Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart.^[27]

The executive producers for The Sarah Jane Adventures are Phil Collinson, Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner. Susie Liggat produced the pilot, but Matthew Bouch worked as producer of the series. Co-writer Gareth Roberts, writing in Doctor Who Magazine, said, "We're all determined that this will be a big, full-blooded drama; that nobody should ever think of it as 'just' a children's programme."^[28] Sue Nott is the executive producer of the second series for CBBC.

In December 2007, the BBC released a statement saying that Julie Gardner will be replaced by Piers Wenger as Executive Producer for Doctor Who in January 2009, but that she will continue to executive produce Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures through 2008.^[29]

Cast

Episodes

Main article: List of The Sarah Jane Adventures serials

New Year's Day special

The Sarah Jane Adventures was first seen by its original British audience in the form of a 60-minute New Year's Day special, titled "Invasion of the Bane", which was co-written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts.^[14]

Though it may have appeared so to the viewing audience, "Bane" was not a pilot. Instead, it was a holiday special. Nevertheless, because of the atypical broadcast order - holiday specials in Britain typically air after the regular run of the series to which they're attached - the story had many conventional introductory elements common to pilots. Creator Russell T Davies has commented upon the exceptional broadcast situation, saying "Sarah Jane Adventures is slightly unusual in that it was commissioned before we'd written the script. If we'd written a load of rubbish, they'd still have had to make it." He refers to "Invasion of the Bane" simply as the "first episode".^[30]

The story focused on Sarah Jane's investigation of a popular and addictive soft drink called Bubble Shock!.

Story connections to the Doctor Who universe

Sarah Jane has her own sonic screwdriver, disguised as a lipstick, which she refers to as "sonic lipstick". The official website notes that the Doctor left the lipstick, along with a "watch that scans for alien life" for Sarah Jane hidden inside K-9 Mark IV.^[31] The watch is capable of identifying alien species and their home planets,^[32] and the sonic lipstick is apparently "useless as a lipstick".^[33]

Sarah Jane explains in "Invasion of the Bane" that the programme is set at least a year and a half after the events of "School Reunion".

A clip on BBC website shows that Sarah reported on various incidents from Doctor Who, including the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which were later "revealed" to be mass hallucinations caused by contaminants in the water supply, a reference to Torchwood character Rhys's explanation for the perceived Cybermen invasion. In the New Year special,'"Invasion of the Bane", Maria's father attributed zombie-like behaviour to a chemical leak at the Bubble Shock! factory, triggering hallucinations.

"Invasion of the Bane" featured a "star poet" from the planet Arcateen 5, of the same race as Torchwood's "Mary" from "Greeks Bearing Gifts". In the same episode, an engineering drawing of a TARDIS is seen on the wall of Sarah Jane's attic.

Doctor Who monsters the Slitheen appear in stories Revenge of the Slitheen and The Lost Boy.^[34] They are seeking revenge after the events depicted in "Aliens of London" and "World War Three".^[35] Revenge of the Slitheen also has Sarah Jane, in a mobile phone conversation with someone from UNIT, say "Give my love to the Brig," a reference to recurring Doctor Who character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. A picture of the Brigadier is also seen in Sarah Jane's attic in The Invasion of the Bane. The Brigadier is to appear in the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.^[27]

In Eye of the Gorgon, Bea Nelson-Stanley and Sarah Jane discuss the Sontarans, and Maria says "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry", a catchphrase associated with the Tenth Doctor. In the same story, an advertisement for Henriks department store is seen on the door of the cab in which Chrissie is leaving. Henriks was the shop where Rose Tyler worked and which gets blown up during the events of "Rose". The Graske, featured in the interactive Doctor Who episode "Attack of the Graske", appeared in the story Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?^[36] Maria's speech near the end of the first part of Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? resembles the Doctor's speech from "Bad Wolf". A book about UNIT is shown while Sarah Jane is looking for a cube that plays a major part in the same episode. In The Lost Boy reference is made to Sarah Jane Smith's association with UNIT. In each episode, diagrams of Cybermen and the Jagaroth spacecraft can be seen on the wall of the attic.

Sarah Jane, Luke and Mr Smith appear in the final two episodes of series four of Doctor Who, "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End". They join forces with former Doctor Who companions Martha Jones and Captain Jack Harkness, as well as Donna Noble and Jack's team from Torchwood to fight a major Dalek invasion. Sarah Jane eventually joins the Doctor's "secret army" of companions and is reunited with Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith, while Luke meets the Doctor himself through a communications broadcast. Sarah Jane also summons K-9 from the black hole to provide a last-minute piece of crucial information.

In the Series 2 premiere story The Last Sontaran, a Sontaran has survived the destruction of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet from the Doctor Who episodes "The Sontaran Strategem" and "The Poison Sky", and wants to destroy the Earth by making all the satellites in the sky fall to Earth. After Sarah Jane reveals that she knows the Doctor, the Sontaran wants to take her back to Sontar to pay for the Doctor's crimes.

Critical response

The Sarah Jane Adventures has been generally well received by critics and the viewing public.^[37][38] At the end of the first series, a reviewer for The Daily Telegraph wrote: "With the debate about the future of children’s TV still rumbling on, this is what the BBC does best, and despite lacking the production values of Doctor Who, it’s still top tea-time programming."^[39]

In 2008, The Sarah Jane Adventures was nominated for a British Academy Children's Award (Children's BAFTA) in the Drama category.^[6]

Audio adventures

Two audio stories were released in November 2007 on CD: The Glittering Storm by Stephen Cole and The Thirteenth Stone by Justin Richards, with both stories read by series star Elisabeth Sladen. This is the first time that BBC Audiobooks have commissioned new content for exclusive release on audio. Two new audio stories ("Ghost House" and "Time Capsule") are slated for release in November 2008.^[40].

DVD releases

Story title(s)	Country of release	Region	Date of release	DVD company
Invasion of the Bane	United Kingdom	2	29 October 2007	BBC Children's DVD
The Complete First Season[41]	United States  Canada	1	7 October 2008	BBC Video
The Complete First Series	United Kingdom	2	10 November 2008	BBC Children's DVD
The Complete First Series	Australia	4	February 2009	Roadshow / 2 Entertain

References

External links

• The Sarah Jane Adventures at BBC Online
• BBC Norfolk webTV: Elisabeth Sladen previews the Sarah Jane Adventures
• A Brief History of Time (Travel): The Sarah Jane Adventures - News and information page concerning the new series
• The Sarah Jane Adventures at the Internet Movie Database