Tuesday 20 August 2013

The Sarah Jane Adventures.


Following on from her successful return to Doctor Who in 2006 for the episode School Reunion.  Elisabeth Sladen was given a second chance at her own Spin-off show.

The Sarah Jane Adventures had its pilot episode air on New Years Day 2007 and it was a hit, unlike K-9 and Company.

With a couple of tweeks a series of 10 episodes began airing in September that year.  A second series of 12 episodes was commissioned and aired from September 2008 this series sadly (in my opinion) saw the departure of Yasmin Paige who played Maria Jackson.

Series 3 containing 12 episodes aired from October 2009, this series had a guest appearance by David Tennant as The Doctor, the first time The Doctor had appeared in a spin-off show.  In October 2010 a 12 episode 4th Series began and this series had a guest appearance of Matt Smith as The Doctor.

A 5th series of 12 episodes was commissioned however sadly Elisabeth Sladen died in April 2011 whilst this series filming was underway.  Due to the way the filming to date had taken place, the first 2 stories along with the final story of the season had been completed.  These were screened in October 2011.

The reason for this article is not just to praise Elisabeth Sladen (although if it were I doubt many would object), it is to announce that The Doctor Who Bar Saturday sessions will be The Sarah Jane Adventures.  This will start this coming Saturday (24th August) with Invasion of the Bane and Revenge of the Slitheen.

We will continue to watch 2 stories (that is 4 episodes) every Saturday until the 16th November.  On that Saturday we will watch the 3 stories (6 episodes) that made up the final series.

I know primarily The Sarah Jane Adventures was children's show but I and I know many other Doctor Who fans enjoyed it.  This is a big step for The Doctor Who Bar to show this spinoff and I want to thank Captain Voidy :) (aka Via_The_Void) a bar founder for his faith and willingness to allow me (SimonGa) to put on and host these sessions.  I hope as many of you as you can will join me for these sessions.  As I would like to remind you that everyone is welcome to join in our sessions, even if you have never joined a session before or if you haven't joined in a session for a while you are welcome to join us.

In closing on behalf of myself as 2nd in command of The Bar and David (Via_The_Void) as a founder of it, thank you for all your support.  We really appreciate it.

2 comments:

  1. I'd like to share my love of the Sarah Jane Adventures as well. Give it a chance - it took me a couple stories to get into it and allow its 'verse to become familiar and real, and I truly loved it. My favorite series was probably Series 3 which saw the near full-time return of K9 which felt very right, sadly he left after the first two epis of S4. The 10th Doctor story is wonderful, esp his teaming with K9 again, as it the S4 11th Doctor story which also features the return of Jo Grant (née Jones!). Great stuff, Elisabeth Sladen is fantastic throughout and the young actors are quite a pleasant surprise as well. Certainly a series all Classic Series fans should see as we get an updated K9 & Company finally after all these years, far better than had the series been the quality (and pace) of the K9 & Co pilot. The Brigadier also makes an appearance in a story, and plenty of other mentions of other companions in the Jo Grant/Death of the Doctor story, so much that Who fans will love throughout the series. Also, every story is 2 episodes and thus has a cliffhanger, again more akin to Classic Who than New Who! Great stuff, and miss it dearly.

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  2. Nice article. I would point out, though, that the stories they completed of SJA Series Five were actually the first, second and third of a planned run of six stories (twelve episodes). 'The Man Who Never Was' was never intended to be the finale. :-)

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