THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES

'''The Sarah Jane Adventures''' is a British television series, produced by BBC Wales for CBBC, starring Elisabeth Sladen and created by Russell T. Davies. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC science fiction programme ''Doctor Who'', and focuses on the adventures of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. The series debuted on BBC One with a 60-minute special, entitled "Invasion of the Bane", on 1 January 2007. A full series of ten 30-minute episodes^[1] will be broadcast beginning on 24 September 2007.^[2] The series will be made up of five two-part stories^[3] and is approximately set in contemporary West London.

Contents

Cast and crew

Background and development

Merchandising

Story connections to the ''Doctor Who'' universe

New Year special

Production

References

External links

Cast and crew

In addition to Sladen, the programme stars Yasmin Paige as Sarah Jane's 13-year-old neighbour Maria Jackson and Thomas Knight as a boy named Luke, who was adopted by Sarah Jane at the conclusion of the introductory story. Porsha Lawrence Mavour played Maria's friend, Kelsey Harper, in the special but has since been dropped from the show. A 14-year-old called Clyde Langer, played by Daniel Anthony, will be introduced in the first episode of the forthcoming series as her replacement.^[4][5]
The 2007 special also featured Samantha Bond as the scheming villain Mrs Wormwood and Jamie Davis as her PR agent Davey. Joseph Millson appeared as Maria's father.
The executive producers for ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' are Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner while Phil Collinson will act as series producer. Susie Liggat produced the pilot, but Matthew Bouch will work as producer of the series.
Co-writer 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."^[6]

Background and 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. Doctor Who:The Inside Story, , Gary, Russell, BBC Books, 2006, ISBN 0-563-48649-X
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".
Sarah Jane is frequently voted the most popular ''Doctor Who'' companion by both ''Doctor Who'' fans and members of the general public.^[7]
The prospect of a new television series focusing on Sarah Jane was first rumoured in ''The Sun'' in March 2006, prior to the airing of "School Reunion"; the report at that time suggested that Sarah Jane and K-9 would both appear in the series.^[8] The fact that a Sarah Jane series was being developed was first confirmed in the BBC's in-house newsletter, ''Ariel'', in early August 2006. Sarah Jane Investigates Lyon, Shaun With apologies... ^[9] These early rumours were associated with the working title ''Sarah Jane Investigates''.
K-9 briefly appeared in the special, but will not be in the series.^[10] This is due to the concurrent development of ''K-9'', which is not associated with the BBC and will not feature any ''Doctor Who'' connections beyond K-9 himself.^[11]

Merchandising

Character Options have been awarded a license to produce ''Sarah Jane Adventure'' play sets, action figures, and a 'Sonic Lipstick' toy.^[12]

Story connections to the ''Doctor Who'' universe

Sarah Jane has her own sonic screwdriver, disguised as a lipstick, which she refers to as "sonic lipstick". The official website notes that the Doctor left the lipstick, along with a "watch that scans for alien life" for Sarah Jane hidden inside K-9 Mark IV.^[13] The watch is capable of identifying alien species and their home planets,^[14] and the sonic lipstick is apparently "useless as a lipstick".^[15]
Sarah Jane explains in "Invasion of the Bane" that the programme is set at least a year and a half after the events of "School Reunion".
A clip on the BBC website shows that Sarah reported on various incidents from ''Doctor Who'', including the events of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs", which were later "revealed" to be mass hallucinations caused by contaminants in the water supply, a reference to ''Torchwood'' character Rhys's explanation for the perceived Cybermen invasion. In the holiday special,'"Invasion of the Bane", Maria's father attributed zombie-like behaviour to a chemical leak at the ''Bubble Shock!'' factory, triggering hallucinations.
"Invasion of the Bane" featured a "star poet" from the planet Archatine 5, of the same race as ''Torchwood's "Mary" from "Greeks Bearing Gifts".
''Doctor Who'' monsters the Slitheen appear in episodes one and two of Series 1 of ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. ^[16] They are out for revenge after the events that took place in Aliens of London / World War Three. ^[17]

New Year special

''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' was first seen by its original British audience in the form of a 60-minute New Year's Day 2007 special, titled "Invasion of the Bane", which was co-written by Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts.⁹
Though it may have appeared so to the viewing audience, "Bane" was not a pilot. Instead, it was a holiday special. Nevertheless, because of the atypical broadcast order - holiday specials in Britain typically air after the regular run of the series to which they're attached - the story had many conventional introductory elements common to pilots. Creator Russell T. Davies has commented upon the exceptional broadcast situation, saying "''Sarah Jane Adventures" is slightly unusual in that it was commissioned before we'd written the script. If we'd written a load of rubbish, they'd still have had to make it.'' He refers to "Invasion of the Bane" simply as the "first episode"^[18].
The story focused on Sarah Jane's investigation of a popular and addictive soft drink called ''Bubble Shock!''.

Production

Production on the full series began in April 2007.^[19] Two of the five two-part stories were scripted by the special's co-writer Gareth Roberts. ''Bad Girls'' and ''New Captain Scarlet'' writer Phil Ford wrote two stories and Phil Gladwin wrote one. Creator and executive producer Russell T. Davies was going to write one story but was forced to drop out due to other work commitments^[20].
According to Doctor Who Magazine Issue 385, the titles of the episodes of Series 1 are as follows:

★ Episodes 1/2 — ''Revenge of the Slitheen''

★ Episodes 3/4 — ''Eye of the Gorgon''

★ Episodes 5/6 — ''Warriors of the Kudlak''

★ Episodes 7/8 — ''Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?''

★ Episodes 9/10 — ''The Lost Boy''

References

1. Sarah's Adventures, , , , Doctor Who Magazine,
2.
3. TV Preview: The Sarah Jane Adventures, , Benjamin, Cook, Doctor Who Magazine,
4. Sarah Jane's new companion
5. News Bites — Sarah's New Friend, , , , Doctor Who Magazine,
6. Production Notes, , Gareth, Roberts, Doctor Who Magazine,
7. Doctor Who: Elisabeth Sladen talks
8. Dr Who's K9 gets a lead Sara Nathan
9. SARAH JANE INVESTIGATES!, , , , Doctor Who Magazine,
10.
11. ''Who'''s Sarah Jane Gets Own Show Joe Nazzaro
12.
13. The Sarah Jane Adventures: Tour
14. BBC - Mr Smith Video Console - Scanner Watch
15. BBC - Mr Smith Video Console - Sonic lipstick
16. Setchfield, Nick. "Companion Piece", ''SFX'', Issue 161, October 2007, Page 50.
17. Slitheen For Sarah Jane
18. Doing It for the Kids, , Benjamin, Cook, Doctor Who Magazine,
19. Writing Sarah, , Clayton, Hickman, Doctor Who Magazine,
20. Sarah Jane Update

External links

★ Official site; UK-only access

★ BBC Norfolk webTV: Elisabeth Sladen previews the Sarah Jane Adventures

★ A Brief History of Time (Travel): The Sarah Jane Adventures - News and information page concerning the new series

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