Sarah Jane Smith (audio series)

Sarah Jane Smith was an audio series produced by Big Finish Productions which explored the life of Sarah Jane Smith in the years after she was left on Earth by the Doctor.

The series took place in the present day, and apparently after the events of the television story A Girl's Best Friend. K9 Mark III did not appear in these stories, as he had broken down and was in a box in Sarah Jane's attic; he was dismantled by Hilda Winters when she found the box. It was also intended to follow on from the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Interference, at the end of which Sarah was joined by the Eighth Doctor's companion Sam Jones. However, due to Elisabeth Sladen objecting to sharing the spotlight with another former companion in what was supposed to be a Sarah Jane-centric series, Sam's part was hastily rewritten into an original, very similar character, Ellie Martin.

The final episode of the series, Dreamland, was released only a few weeks before Sladen returned to Doctor Who as Sarah Jane in School Reunion. This return to Doctor Who led to the commissioning of a new TV spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures, which in turn resulted in the audio series being cancelled after nine stories, with Dreamland unavoidably ending on a cliffhanger.

The revived series and the TV spin-off both make reference to the events of the dramas, with School Reunion displaying that K9 had been non-functional for some time and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith referring to Aunt Lavinia leaving Sarah the house.

In January 2020, Big Finish released a special boxset collecting all nine stories from the series.

Stories

Series one

Main article: Series 1 (SJS)

#	Title	Author	Featuring	Released
1.1	Comeback	Terrance Dicks	Sarah Jane, Josh, Natalie	31 July 2002
1.2	The Tao Connection	Barry Letts		8 August 2002
1.3	Test of Nerve	David Bishop		5 September 2002
1.4	Ghost Town	Rupert Laight	Sarah Jane, Josh	10 October 2002
1.5	Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre	Peter Anghelides	Sarah Jane, Josh, Natalie	7 November 2002

Series two

Main article: Series 2 (SJS)

#	Title	Author	Featuring	Released
2.1	Buried Secrets	David Bishop	Sarah Jane, Josh, Natalie, Will	1 February 2006
2.2	Snow Blind		Sarah Jane, Josh, Will	1 February 2006
2.3	Fatal Consequences		Sarah Jane, Josh, Will	1 March 2006
2.4	Dreamland		Sarah Jane, Josh, Natalie	1 March 2006

Cast

Notes

The character of Ellie was originally intended to be the Eighth Doctor's former companion Sam Jones who had remained behind with Sarah Jane after the novel Interference - Book Two.
Besides Sarah Jane herself, Hilda Winters is the only other character from the classic series to appear in Sarah Jane Smith.
Sarah Jane and Josh are the only characters to appear in all nine audio dramas in the series.