Sarah Jane's Alien Files

This article refers to the webisode and television series. For the in-universe Alien Files, see Alien Files.

Sarah Jane's Alien Files (also known as SJA Alien Files, formerly The Alien Files) is a series spun off from The Sarah Jane Adventures. It started during the programme's third series as a series of webisodes on the programme's website, similar to the Monster Files. At the start of Series 4, it became a half-hour spin-off show featuring more thorough detail of past Sarah Jane Adventures aliens and clips from the episodes in which they appeared.

Online version

Format

The original version of the series was The Alien Files, a series of four short webcasts presented by Mr Smith with Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra. The webisodes featured Clyde and Rani accessing Mr Smith's video vaults to review previous aliens they had encountered.

The webisodes were streamed via the official The Sarah Jane Adventures website. As with other video content on BBC websites, the webisodes are "geofenced" due to licensing and are technically not allowed to be viewed outside of the UK.

Webisodes

• Prisoner of the Judoon: Androvax Alien File
  • Presenter: Rani Chandra
• The Mad Woman in the Attic: Eve Alien File
  • Presenter: Clyde Langer
• The Eternity Trap: Erasmus Darkening Alien File
  • Presenter: Clyde Langer
• Mona Lisa's Revenge: Mona Lisa Alien File
  • Presenters: Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra
• The Gift: Blathereen Alien File
  • Presenter: Clyde Langer

Television version

Format

Beginning with Series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Alien Files was expanded to a weekly television series to complement the Sarah Jane Adventures series proper and recap its previous series. Now known as Sarah Jane's Alien Files, the series was presented by the BBC as "the ultimate guide of everything you could possibly need to know when facing hostile aliens." The series is broadcast on CBBC Monday evenings, immediately following part one of that week's two-part The Sarah Jane Adventures story.

The series portrays the Alien Files as a database started by Sarah Jane Smith and Mr Smith, collecting what she and her companions have learned about the aliens they've dealt with, in order to serve as a permanent record of their knowledge for future generations. Each episode features Sarah Jane or one of her gang in the attic of 13 Bannerman Road, recounting their past adventures and the aliens involved to Mr Smith. Mr Smith uploads the resulting data about the aliens into the Alien Files. Their narration is illustrated by clips from the relevant episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures. While the original Alien Files webisodes each focused on events from a single Sarah Jane Adventures story, the episodes of Sarah Jane's Alien Files feature material from and references to multiple stories in which the aliens being discussed appeared.

Episodes

• Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 1: The Trickster and Krislok the Graske
  • Presenter: Sarah Jane Smith
• Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 2: Pied Piper, Ship and Eve
  • Presenter: Rani Chandra
• Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 3: Sontarans, Wormwood and the Bane Mother
  • Presenter: Luke Smith
• Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 4: Slitheen, Blathereen and Rakweed
  • Presenter: Sarah Jane Smith

Canonicity

Unlike the Monster Files and other web-originated content, the canonicity of Sarah Jane's Alien Files is certain. The only aliens mentioned are those which the children had encountered before on-screen, and no information contradicts the main series. The TV edition also features new material taking place within Sarah Jane Adventures continuity, and establishes the Alien Files as an in-universe database created and maintained by the characters.

Timeline

The exact time-placement of Sarah Jane's Alien Files episodes in continuity is unclear; due to being broadcast between parts of two-part The Sarah Jane Adventures stories they cannot be placed alongside that series in strict airing order. Based upon references made to events in Series 4 preceding their airing, Sarah Jane's Alien Files episodes can generally be assumed to take place sometime near airing order, either before or after the Sarah Jane Adventures story in progress.