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[1]) 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. During 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
The original version of the series was The Alien Files, a series of five webcasts presented by Mr Smith with Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra. The webisodes, each under three minutes in length, featured Rani, Clyde, or both accessing Mr Smith's video vaults to review aliens they had encountered previously.
The webisodes were streamed via the official The Sarah Jane Adventures website. As with other video content on BBC websites, the webisodes were "geofenced" due to licensing and are technically not viewable 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
- Presenters: Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra
- Mona Lisa's Revenge: Mona Lisa Alien File
- Presenters: Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra
- The Gift: Blathereen Alien File
- Presenter: Clyde Langer
Television version
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."[2] 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
- Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 5: The Berserkers and the Mona Lisa
- Presenter: Clyde Langer
- Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 6: The Judoon, Mister Dread and Androvax
- Presenter: Luke Smith
Canonicity
Unlike other tie-in content originating from the Sarah Jane Adventues website, the canonicity of Sarah Jane's Alien Files is clear. The only adventures recounted are from the main series, and no information contradicts it. The TV edition also features new material taking place within and referring to 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.
Footnotes
- ↑ The programme's title is listed as "Sarah Jane's Alien Files" in BBC websites, programme guides, and the iPlayer. As displayed in the logo on-screen, however, the title reads "SJA Alien Files." The former title is in more general use. The programme is an expanded version of what was originally a feature on the official The Sarah Jane Adventures website called "The Alien Files."
- ↑ [1]
