Director: Alice Troughton
Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Yasmin Paige (Maria Jackson), Tommy Knight (Luke Smith), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Joseph Millson (Alan Jackson), Juliet Cowan (Chrissie Jackson), Alexander Armstrong (Mr Smith), Martyn Ellis (Blakeman), Ian Midlane (Jeffrey), Pamela Merrick (Wendy), Imogen Bain (Janine), Anton Thompson McCormick (Carl), Lachele Carl (American Newsreader), Jimmy Vee (Carl Slitheen) & Paul Kasey (Jeffrey/Blakeman/Janine Slitheen)
Maria and Luke arrive for their first day at school, only to discover a strange alien plot taking shape in the new technology block…Success breeds imitators and spin-offs, as the revived Doctor Who is proving single-handedly. Lukewarm on the heels of Torchwood, eight months after its introductory episode Invasion Of The Bane, The Sarah Jane Adventures is the latest wheeze designed to milk the Time Lord's appeal for all it's worth...
Elisabeth Sladen reprises her role as 70s Doctor Who companion Sarah Jane Smith, a minor sci-fi icon and pin-up girl for a generation of anoraks. So while dads will be tuning in for saucy Sladen, their kids will remember her from Doctor Who episode School Reunion, which served as her introduction to the current generation.
Sarah Jane has been retooled as an intrepid defender of aliens herself, suddenly equipped with a sonic lipstick, artificially-intelligent computer "Mr Smith" (voiced by comedian Alexander Armstrong) and other high-tech gadgets that help deliver information, paper over cracks in the plot, tie-up any loose ends and get her out of scrapes.
Strangely, Sarah Jane is often a secondary character in this two-part epener, with the emphasis more on the gang of kids who know her secret: neighbour Maria (Yasmin Paige), adopted "son" Luke (Tommy Knight) and, introduced this episode, school friend Clyde (Daniel Anthony).
Revenge Of The Slitheen, written by Gareth Roberts (Who's The Shakespeare Code), utilizes popular aliens the Slitheen -- already familiar to fans of Doctor Who from Christopher Ecclestone's tenure. Well, I say "popular", but they were actually one of season 1's major missteps, being tonally so childish they alienated everyone over the age of 10.
Fortunately, the baby-faced Slitheen fit much better into a sci-fi adventure series designed for young children, with the pantomime-style of acting and fart jokes proving more acceptable in this context.
Of course, when reviewing The Sarah Jane Adventures you have to bare in mind its target audience of youngsters. Personally, I still cringed at the Slitheen's antics, but they do make decent villains for under-10s. It's just a shame Sarah Jane had to blatantly establish itself as from the Who family tree so immediately. I mean, even Torchwood waited a few episodes before dragging up a Cyberwoman for an easy "geekgasm".
Roberts script contains just the right degree of witty banter and light touches for its audience to enjoy, thankfully making the story surprisingly light on its feet. The 25-minute duration is also more suitable to kids, although Revenge Of The Slitheen's full 50-minute storyline never drags.
The kids are also surprisingly likeable and realistic, particularly Yasmin Paige as Maria, while Thomas Knight gives alien-genius Luke an engaging naivety about human interactions. Newcomer Daniel Anthony is also pretty solid as Clyde, replacing the teeth-grating annoyance of Kelsey Harper from the introductory episode.
It's also nice to see the special effects are on a par with Who's, except for a few gooey CGI explosions. The Slitheen creature effects are actually an improvement on their Who debut, without that embarrassing tendency to use CGI versions for any athletic running scenes.
The Sarah Jane Adventures gets off to a promising start, although kids over 14 are unlikely to be that engaged because of the young tone. Elisabeth Sladen is decent enough as the eponymous heroine, but at 59-years-old she's no spring chicken. She also carries the air of an actress whose career stalled post-Who, never recovered, and has subsequntly spent 20 years unable to escape her cult character. While I'm sure Sladen is genuinely glad writer Russell T. Davies came along and resuscitated her career by giving her an unnecessary spin-off show... there's a glazed-over look to her performance at times. You almost get the impression she's trapped in a recurring dream, never to escape Sarah Jane and all this silly alien jargon.
The show will undoubtedly be a success, because kids lap up anything Doctor Who-related these days. The same is true of many adult Who fans, particularly those who can remember Sladen from her days alongside Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. I still think the show is a lazy cash-in, which was true of Torchwood, too – but at least on Torchwood they can tackle provocative and controversial topics Doctor Who can't touch. Well, that was the plan, anyway...
Still, now we have an outlet for the more childish and frivolous storylines that sometimes clog up Doctor Who's seasons. I hope we can kiss goodbye to farting aliens and Abzorbaloff's when the good Doctor returns next year... so, for that at least, I'm grateful Sarah Jane exists.
But isn't this saving the world lark getting crowded now? Between Sarah Jane's gang, UNIT and Torchwood, are The Doctor's services even needed? I hope somebody puts K-9 down before his threatened cartoon series begins to take shape...
24 September 2007
BBC1, 5.00 pm
CBBC, 5:30 pm
