The Sarah Jane Adventures Appreciation

Recently I have been watching all of The Sarah Jane Adventures and I thought I’d write a blog post sharing some appreciation for this wonderful series.

If you didn’t already know The Sarah Jane Adventures is a Doctor Who spin off series that follows the adventures on Earth of former companion Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen). In the first episode – Invasion of the Bane - Sarah Jane adopts Luke. Sarah Jane, her son and their friends Maria, Clyde and Rani then save the world from various alien threats on a weekly basis. The series ran for 5 seasons from 2007 to 2011, it came to an end in 2011 because of Elisabeth Sladen’s death.

It was definitely a part of the wider Doctor Who universe. There are monsters that are familiar from Doctor Who – like the Slitheen, the Sontarans and the Judoon – who appear. There’s also appearances from former Doctor Who companions K9, Jo Grant and the Brigadier. The Doctor himself even appears in two different stories. There’s no doubt that The Sarah Jane Adventures is connected to Doctor Who. And yet The Sarah Jane Adventures also managed to be its own unique thing. The stories are usually self-contained and whatever the situation is it never really feels like the Doctor’s presence is missed.

Undoubtedly at the heart of the series was Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. Her warmth, humour and friendship shone throughout. She was more than capable of carrying the series and was a very likeable protagonist. When I first watched The Sarah Jane Adventures I didn’t really appreciate just how good (and rare) it was to see an older woman being presented as a capable and competent hero. Capable and competent is definitely a good phrase to describe Sarah Jane, she knows what’s up and she knows how to handle the situation.

Throughout its run The Sarah Jane Adventures was regularly willing to tackle themes of tolerance, prejudice and acceptance. These were some of the key themes and something which played into multiple stories. In terms of tolerance the show also practised what it preached with an ethnically diverse cast of characters and a good mix of male and female characters. They were even going to have Luke come out as gay had the series continued!

The storylines within The Sarah Jane Adventures worked well for the series. Unlike Doctor Who it never got bogged down with big, dramatic, overblown arcs. Most of the stories are just standalone adventures with some connections from week to week. The stories mainly follow a villain-of-the-week format but the talent of the writers meant that it doesn’t feel repetitive. The tone varies throughout the stories, some of them - usually anything involving the Slitheen – are silly and lighter hearted and there’s nothing wrong with having a bit of fun sometimes. Then there’s the more serious stories.

The Sarah Jane Adventures was a very emotionally intelligent series. The characters are allowed to be emotionally complex. Everyone in the main team ends up growing a lot throughout the series as they either deal with situations that have a significant personal resonance or we learn more about who they are. The series doesn’t speak down for its younger target demographic. Indeed there are several episodes – such as The Mark of the Berserker, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and The Curse of Clyde Langer – which are incredibly moving and poignant drama.

Everything about The Sarah Jane Adventures just worked well. It had likeable characters, interesting storylines and it’s very entertaining. So if you’re a Doctor Who fan who has never seen The Sarah Jane Adventures then I would firmly recommend it. If (like me) you grew up with the series and haven’t watched it since then I would definitely say that it’s one worth revisiting.