Series 4 (SJA)

Series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures premiered on BBC One and CBBC on the 11th October 2010. According to Doctor Who Magazine, pre-production was under way as early as November 2009. On 4 March 2010, the BBC officially announced that production had been commissioned, with filming expected to begin by the end of March. (The same announcement also confirmed that a 5th series for 2011 had also been commissioned.)

The 4th series began on Monday 11 October 2010 at 5:15pm on the CBBC channel. The season saw the return of all the core cast members for the 12-episode series, plus guest appearances by Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Jones.

For the new series, Brian Minchin joins as producer, with Phil Ford as co-producer. Russell T Davies remains as executive producer along with Nikki Wilson.

Cast

A promotional image for Series 4.

Recurring

• Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
• Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
• Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
• Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
• Mr. Smith - Alexander Armstrong

• K9 Mark IV - John Leeson
• Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar
• Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti

Guest

• Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith
• Jo Jones - Katy Manning
• Nightmare Man - Julian Bleach
• Gemma - Lucie Jones
• Tia Karim - Laila Rouass
• Ocean Waters - Cheryl Campbell
• Mister Dread - Angus Wright
• Gavin - Joe Mason
• The Shopkeeper - Cyril Nri
• Ruby White - Julie Graham
• Santiago Jones - Finn Jones
• Louise Marlowe - Doon Mackichan
• Voice of the Shansheeth - David Bradley
• Voice of the Robots - Jon Glover
• First Doctor (archive footage) - William Hartnell
• Second Doctor (archive footage) - Patrick Troughton
• Third Doctor (archive footage) - Jon Pertwee
• Fourth Doctor (archive footage) - Tom Baker
• Tenth Doctor (archive footage) - David Tennant

Television stories

The titles and writers of this season's episodes were revealed in Doctor Who Magazine. All of Series 4 episodes were in 2 parts.

#	Title	Writer	Director	Notes
1	The Nightmare Man	Joseph Lidster	Joss Agnew	Departure of Luke Smith and K9 Mark IV.
2	The Vault of Secrets	Phil Ford	Joss Agnew	Reappearance of Androvax.
3	Death of the Doctor	Russell T Davies	Ashley Way	Guest appearances of the Eleventh Doctor and Jo Grant.
4	The Empty Planet	Gareth Roberts	Ashley Way
5	Lost in Time	Rupert Laight	Joss Agnew|
6	Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith	Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman	Joss Agnew	Return of Luke Smith and final appearance of K9 Mark IV

Aliens and enemies

• Slitheen
• Nightmare Man
• Androvax
• Groske
• Men in Black (Mister Dread)
• Shansheeth
• Tia Karim
• Automatons
• Dark Horde
• Qetesh (Ruby White)

Novels

As of August 2010 only two stories from this series were announced for adaptation as a novelisation. These were later reported as being cancelled. However the novelisations were later published in e-book format. These were the final novelisations published as none were commissioned in any format for Series 5.

• The Nightmare Man
• Death of the Doctor

Audiobooks

• Wraith World
• Deadly Download

DVD and Blu-ray release

UK release of the series on DVD and, for the first time, Blu-ray occurred on 31 October 2011, followed by North American release on DVD only on 6 December. The UK edition included TV: Pyramids of Mars as a bonus feature (this is not included in the North American release).

A slight alteration to the first episode of the season was made for DVD with the addition of a dedication in memory of Elisabeth Sladen.

Footnotes

Previous series: SJA Series 3

Next series: SJA Series 5