The Sarah Jane Adventures

The Sarah Jane Adventures is a spin-off series, produced by BBC Wales for CBBC, starring Elisabeth Sladen and created by Russell T Davies. The programme focuses on the adventures of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. The series debuted on BBC One with a 60-minute special on 1st January 2007. A full series of ten 30-minute episodes followed later in the year. A second season aired in the fall of 2008, followed by a third in late 2009. A mini-episode for charity also aired in early 2009.

Premise

The series is set in present-day West London and features the adventures of Sarah Jane and adopted son Luke, with friends Maria Jackson (Series One), Clyde Langer, and Rani Chandra (Series Two and Three), assisted by the super Computer Mr Smith (which is also a Xylok), as well as sometimes K-9 (The Doctor's Robot Dog).

Background

Production team

The executive producers for The Sarah Jane Adventures are Davies and Julie Gardner. Susie Liggat produced Invasion of the Bane, but Matthew Bouch produced the series; Phil Collinson held the title of Series Producer. 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."

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.

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 for another Doctor Who spin-off series, K-9 and Company, made in 1981, featured Sarah Jane and the robot dog K-9; however, the option to make a series was not picked up. 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 -- both of which acknowledged the existence of K-9 and Company within the canon of the Whoniverse by showing Sarah Jane in possession of K-9 as established in the 1981 pilot episode. Reports of a spin-off series first appeared around the time of School Reunion's original airing, with the series having the working title of Sarah Jane Investigates.

K-9 — now K-9 Mark IV — appeared only twice in the first season: during the pilot episode, and again briefly during the season finale, The Lost Boy (as well as a brief appearance in DW: Journey's End). The decision not to feature K-9 was due to the concurrent development of the television series K-9, which is not associated with the BBC and will not feature any Doctor Who connections beyond K-9 himself. However it has been announced that, despite the competing spinoff scheduled to debut in 2009, K-9 will appear in the upcoming third season.

In February 2009 the BBC announced that a mini-episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures would air on 13 March 2009 as part of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day appeal. This makes SJA the first of the franchise spin-offs to spawn a mini-episode; to date there have been three produced for Doctor Who itself.

In a speech to members of BAFTA in March 2009, Davies revealed that production of Series 3 had nearly been cancelled on three occasions due to budget cuts to children's programming at the BBC.[1]

Series 3 debuted on 15 October 2009[2], and aired over a period of six weeks (due to the BBC deciding to air two episodes a week). The series received a major ratings boost with a guest appearance by David Tennant as the Doctor, and maintained its momentum throughout the season, consistently scoring higher-than-average viewership for the time period and also scoring high Appreciation Index numbers.

According to Doctor Who Magazine #412, a fourth season is in pre-production as of August 2009, but has yet to be officially commissioned.

Cast

Main Cast

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

Regular Cast

• Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar
  
• Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti
  
• K-9 Mark IV - John Leeson
  

Former Cast

• Maria Jackson - Yasmin Paige (Invasion of the Bane to The Mark of the Berserker)
• Alan Jackson - Joseph Millson (Invasion of the Bane to The Mark of the Berserker)
  
• Chrissie Jackson - Juliet Cowan (Invasion of the Bane to The Last Sontaran)

List of stories

Specials

• Invasion of the Bane New Year's - 2007
• From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love Red Nose Day - 2009

Series 1 - 2007

Main article: Series 1 (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Series 2 - 2008

Main article: Series 2 (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Series 3 - 2009

Main article: Series 3 (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Continuity

Connections with Doctor Who

• As noted above, Sarah Jane Smith has a long history with the parent series, having travelled with the Third Doctor and Fourth Doctor from 1973 to 1976, and having made reunion appearances in The Five Doctors, and School Reunion (the latter leading to this spin-off series). She also appeared in A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot episode for a aborted 1980s spin-off, K-9 and Company.
• K-9 also has a long history with Doctor Who, although strictly speaking the model seen in this series was only introduced in School Reunion.
• The family Slitheen (from DW: Aliens of London et al), a Star Poet similar to Mary from the Torchwood episode "Greeks Bearing Gifts", Slabs (from DW: Smith and Jones and a Graske (from DW: Attack of the Graske) appeared.
• Sarah Jane's sonic lipstick is a similar device to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and was in fact given to her by him.
• The Sontarans are referenced in Eye of the Gorgon.
• K-9 Mark IV makes cameo appearances in Invasion of the Bane and The Lost Boy. In The Mad Woman in the Attic he is able to leave his "safe" permanently.
• UNIT are referenced a lot, including when Sarah Jane is on the phone, she says "love to the Brig" Also, a picture of Brig is pinned onto Sarah Jane's attic wall. (Invasion of the Bane)(Revenge of the Slitheen), a book called UNIT in Sarah Jane's attic (Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?) and a police officer says "you have some very powerful friends" to Sarah Jane when she is in custody. (The Lost Boy)
• The Brigadier and the Sontarans appeared in Series Two in 2008.
• Sarah Jane Smith made an appearance with Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Donna Noble, Captain Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, Jackie Tyler, the Doctor and the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who Series 4 The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. K-9 also appears in Journey's End.
• Luke Smith also made an appearance in The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.
• The Tenth Doctor appears in flashback footage in Secrets of the Stars, and in a flash-forward in The Mad Woman in the Attic.
• Martin Trueman was thought to have a bio damper in Secrets of the Stars, which was also seen in The Runaway Bride.
• The Brigadier mentions fighting Daleks, Cybermen, Autons, and Zygons in Enemy of the Bane.
• UNIT makes their first on-screen SJA apperance in Enemy of the Bane.
• David Tennant guest starred as the Doctor in Series Three's two-part The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.
• Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee appeared in flashbacks during The Mad Woman in the Attic

Novelisations

Although the BBC has so far (as of 2008) refrained from commissioning novelisations based upon episodes of the revived Doctor Who or Torchwood, all of the serials from the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures have been adapted as novels by Penguin Character Books, including volumes written by stalwarts Terrance Dicks and Gary Russell, marking the most intense period of episode novelisations since the end of the Target Books era in the early 1990s. As of spring 2009 two novelisations based upon Series 2 stories have been published, with no announcement as to whether more novelisations or original novels are planned.

Audiobooks

Two audio stories were released by BBC Audiobooks in November 2007 The Glittering Storm by Stephen Cole and The Thirteenth Stone by Justin Richards. Excerpts from both stories are included in the Series 1 DVD release. Two more audio stories The Time Capsule by Peter Anghelides and The Ghost House by Stephen Cole were released in November 2008. All stories were read by Elisabeth Sladen. Two new stories The White Wolf by Gary Russell and The Shadow People by Scott Handcock are scheduled to be released in September 2009.

DVD release

Unusually, the first series of Sarah Jane Adventures saw release to DVD in Region 1 (North America) a full month prior to the announced release in the UK. The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season was released in Region 1 on 7 October 2008; Region 2 (UK) was released on the 10th November 2008.

Special features in the four-disc set include:

• Outtakes (accessible after completing a quiz)
• Audio clips from The Glittering Storm and The Thirteenth Stone
• Behind the scenes photo gallery
• A 30-minute retrospective of Sarah Jane's life and career, featuring clips dating back to DW: The Time Warrior in 1973.
• Character, alien and gadget files.
• Interviews
• Blue Peter set visits.

BBC Video released Series 2 to DVD in the UK on 9th November 2009, followed by a Region 1/North American release on 10th November. Extra features include:

• Cast and crew interviews
• Season synopses
• Investigating Tools – a gadget glossary
• Another quiz with a "special footage prize
• Character and alien profiles
• Photo gallery
• Audio clips
• UK TV spots
• Trailers

The North American DVD release of Series 2 occurred without it having first been broadcast in either Canada or the US; this is the first time a complete season of a Doctor Who-franchise programme has been made available on DVD without prior broadcast.

Doctor Who: Battles in Time (Trading Cards)

In Issue 62 of the fortnightly magazine Doctor Who: Battles in Time from GE Fabbri Ltd a bonus set of 10 Sarah Jane Adventures, Adventurer trading cards was given away to subscribers.

International broadcasts

Series 1 aired on Sci Fi Channel in the US and BBC Kids in Canada in 2007. As of November 2009 neither Series 2 nor 3 has been broadcast in North America (and as noted above, DVD release of Series 2 occurred in North America without it having been aired there).

External Links

• Watch Elisabeth Sladen interview - October 2006
• The Sarah Jane Adventures Official BBC site Videos available UK users only.
• A Brief History of Time (Travel): The Sarah Jane Adventures - News and information page concerning the new series
• sarahjane.tv: The Sarah Jane Adventures - blog focusing on the new Sarah Jane Smith series