Series 4 (SJA)

It consisted of six stories and twelve episodes. According to Doctor Who Magazine, ^[which?] 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 fifth series for 2011 had also been commissioned.)^[1]^[2]

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 this series, Brian Minchin joined as a producer, with Phil Ford as co-producer. Russell T Davies remained as executive producer along with Nikki Wilson.

Cast

Recurring

Guest

Nightmare Man - Julian Bleach
Gemma - Lucie Jones
Tia Karim - Laila Rouass
Ocean Waters - Cheryl Campbell
Mister Dread - Angus Wright
Gavin - Joe Mason
Ruby White - Julie Graham
Jo Jones - Katy Manning
Santiago Jones - Finn Jones
Louise Marlowe - Doon Mackichan
Voices of the Shansheeth - David Bradley, Jon Glover
Voice of the Robots - Jon Glover

Television stories

The titles and writers were revealed in Doctor Who Magazine. ^[which?] All of series 4's 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. Reappearance of the Slitheen family, of which a unique Raxacoricofallapatorian is briefly seen.
2	The Vault of Secrets	Phil Ford	Joss Agnew	Reappearance of Androvax. Return of the Alliance of Shades, first seen in the Doctor Who 3-D animated story Dreamland.
3	Death of the Doctor	Russell T Davies	Ashley Way	Guest appearances of the Eleventh Doctor and Jo Grant. David Bradley's first time being involved a Doctor Who-related production, as the voice of Azure of the Shansheeth. Introduction of the Groske, an alien species related to the Graske.
4	The Empty Planet	Gareth Roberts	Ashley Way	Most of the story is limited to two characters, Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra.
5	Lost in Time	Rupert Laight	Joss Agnew	First appearance of the Shopkeeper and Captain.
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

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. ^[3]^[4] 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.

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

↑ BBC - Press Office - Sarah Jane returns to CBBC for two further series of adventures accessed 5th October
↑ The Doctor Who News Pafe: Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 (and 5!) commissioned accessed 5th October
↑ Tardis Base - THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES BOOK COVERS accessed 5th October
↑ sarahjane.tv - Pulled accessed 5th October

Previous series:
SJA Series 3

Next series:
SJA Series 5

[1] BBC - Press Office - Sarah Jane returns to CBBC for two further series of adventures accessed 5th October

[2] The Doctor Who News Pafe: Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 (and 5!) commissioned accessed 5th October

[3] Tardis Base - THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES BOOK COVERS accessed 5th October

[4] sarahjane.tv - Pulled accessed 5th October

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