''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by

BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

for

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

, created by Russell T Davies, and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

science fiction programme ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' and is aimed at a younger audience than ''Doctor Who''. It focuses on the adventures of Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist living in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

, London, who, as a young woman, had numerous adventures across time and space with

the Doctor The Doctor, sometimes known as Doctor Who, is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called th ...

. Following Sladen's death in 2011, the

confirmed that the show would not return for a sixth series. The series debuted on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

with a 60-minute special, " Invasion of the Bane", on 1 January 2007, and broadcast until Sladen's death in 2011. It was nominated for a British Academy Children's Award in 2008 in the Drama category, and for a BAFTA Cymru in 2009 in the Children's Drama category. The programme won a

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

2010 award for Best Children's Drama. As of 2024, all episodes are on

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

in the United Kingdom and

HBO Max Max (known in other countries as, and soon to be reverted globally to HBO Max) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It is a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming on behalf of Home Box Of ...

in the United States.

Series

A full series of ten 25-minute episodes began on 24 September 2007. The first series consisted of five two-part stories, and a second series, comprising six two-part stories, began airing on 29 September 2008. A third series, of six two-part stories (with Russell T Davies serving as executive producer) aired from 15 October - 20 November 2009. The fourth series was aired from 11 October 2010. An episode of another spin-off series, '' Sarah Jane's Alien Files'', was shown immediately after each of the first episodes of the stories. Filming for three of six two-part serials planned for the fifth series was completed prior to Elisabeth Sladen's death on 19 April 2011. The BBC stated that no further episodes would be produced. This final series was broadcast between 3 - 18 October 2011 on Mondays and Tuesdays.

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 The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel technology and their non-linear perception of t ...

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. The character of Sarah Jane Smith, played by Sladen, appeared in ''Doctor Who'' from 1973 to 1976, alongside both

Jon Pertwee John Devon Roland Pertwee (; 7 July 1919 – 20 May 1996), known professionally as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Born into a theatrical family, he became known as a comedy actor, playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee (and three other roles) in ...

as the

Third Doctor The Third Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee. Within the series' ...

and

Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the Fourth Doctor, fourth and longest-serving incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction television ...

as the Fourth Doctor. A pilot episode for another ''Doctor Who'' spin-off series, '' K-9 and Company'', made in 1981, featured Sarah Jane and the robot dog K9; a full series was never commissioned. Sarah Jane and K9 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 episodes " School Reunion" (2006), " The Stolen Earth" / " Journey's End" (2008) and " The End of Time" (2010). Sarah Jane is frequently voted the most popular ''Doctor Who'' companion by both ''Doctor Who'' fans and members of the general public. That a Sarah Jane series was being developed was first confirmed in the BBC's in-house newsletter, ''Ariel'', in early August 2006. These early rumours were associated with the working title ''Sarah Jane Investigates''. K9's only appearances in the show's first two series were a cameo in the special and an appearance in the last episode of the first series. This was due to the concurrent development of the independently produced children's series, '' K9'', which features a remodelled version of K9 with only indirect nods to ''Doctor Who''. In 2009, K9 appeared with ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' cast in a sketch for ''

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

'', and K9 appeared in six episodes of the third series, followed by two more appearances in the fourth series. He did not appear at all in Series 5.

Production

Production on the full series began in April 2007. 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.

Tenth anniversary

For the tenth anniversary of the show, an event was held 29 July 2017 at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

Students' Union, with proceeds going to Ty Hafan Hospice for Children. A total of £6643.35 was raised by the sale of tickets to the event and merchandise. Members of the cast and crew that took part in the event were Tommy Knight,

Anjli Mohindra Anjli Mohindra () is an English stage, screen and voice-over actress and writer. She is best known for her television roles as Rani Chandra in the ''Doctor Who'' spin-off '' The Sarah Jane Adventures'' (2008–2011) and would-be suicide bomber ...

, Yasmin Paige, Sinead Michael, Mina Anwar, Katy Manning, Paul Marc Davis, Phil Ford, Gary Russell, Joe Lidster, Sam Watts, Richard Wisker, Cheryl Rowlands, Scott Handcock, Brian Miller, John Leeson, Mat Irvine and Chris Johnson. The event was recorded and was released onto DVD and Blu-ray and could be bought exclusively through the event's website.

Cast and crew

In addition to Sladen, the first series of the programme stars Yasmin Paige as Maria Jackson, Sarah Jane's 13-year-old neighbour in

, west London, and Tommy Knight as a boy named Luke, who is adopted by Sarah Jane at the conclusion of the introductory story. The third member of Sarah Jane's young entourage is 14-year-old Clyde Langer, played by Daniel Anthony, who is introduced in the first episode of the full series. Actress Porsha Lawrence Mavour briefly played Maria's friend, Kelsey Hooper, in the 2007 New Year's Day special '' Invasion of the Bane'' which was created before the start of the series. Maria and her family are written out of the series in the first story of the second series, '' The Last Sontaran'', but Maria and her father return briefly in the second part of '' The Mark of the Berserker''. In the second story of that series, '' The Day of the Clown'', several new regular cast members are introduced:

Rani Chandra Rani Chandra (2 June 1949 – 12 October 1976) was an Indian actress and model, a winner of Miss Kerala. She died when Indian Airlines Flight 171 crashed in Bombay in 1976. She acted in several landmark films such as '' Nellu'' (Malayalam, ...

and her parents, Haresh, and

Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Indian religious thought, ...

(played by

, Ace Bhatti, and Mina Anwar, respectively). This happened as the character Alan Jackson ( Joseph Millson) left the series, along with Chrissie ( Juliet Cowan) and Maria Jackson ( Yasmin Paige). Joseph Millson appears throughout the first series as Maria's recently separated father, Alan, with Chrissie Jackson, Maria's mother, played by Juliet Cowan. One other regular is

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter, singer and farmer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', and is a weekday morning-show presenter on C ...

of comedy duo

Armstrong and Miller Armstrong and Miller are an English comedy double act consisting of the actor-comedians Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. They have performed in two eponymous television sketch shows, the satirical ''Timeghost'' podcast, and many individu ...

, who provides the voice of Mr Smith, an extraterrestrial computer in Sarah Jane's attic. The 2007 special featured Samantha Bond as the scheming villain Mrs Wormwood and Jamie Davis as her PR agent Davey. The first series included among its guest cast

Jane Asher Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)''The International Who's Who of Women'', 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and through her associatio ...

as Sarah Jane's childhood friend Andrea Yates,

Floella Benjamin Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin (born 23 September 1949), is a Trinidadian-British actress, singer, presenter, author and politician. She is known as presenter of children's programmes such as ''Play School (British TV series), ...

as Professor Rivers, who returned in Series 2, Series 3 and Series 5, and Phyllida Law as Bea Nelson-Stanley. The second series guest starred Bradley Walsh as an evil alien clown in the story '' The Day of the Clown'' and Russ Abbot as a sinister astrologer in '' Secrets of the Stars''. Also appearing in the second series were Gary Beadle and Jocelyn Jee Esien, who portrayed Clyde's parents Paul and Carla in '' The Mark of the Berserker''; Esien reprised her role briefly in Series 4 and more prominently in series 5. Samantha Bond returned as Wormwood in '' Enemy of the Bane''. The original executive producers for ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' were Phil Collinson, Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner. Susie Liggat produced the pilot, but Matthew Bouch worked 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." Sue Nott was the executive producer of the second series for

. In December 2007, the BBC released a statement that Julie Gardner would be replaced by Piers Wenger as executive producer for ''Doctor Who'' in January 2009, but that she would continue to executive-produce '' Torchwood'' and ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' through 2008. The fourth series in 2010 was executive produced by Russell T Davies and Nikki Wilson, and the producers were Brian Minchin and frequent writer Phil Ford. During this series, Cyril Nri was introduced as a new recurring character called The Shopkeeper. The production team remained in place for the completed episodes of Series 5, which were shot concurrently with Series 4. The show's abbreviated fifth and final series introduced a new main character named Sky, played by Sinead Michael. The episode that introduced Sky also featured a return appearance by the Shopkeeper, but the fact that the second half of the series was never produced left his story arc, as well as other ongoing plot points, unresolved. A special edition of ''

Doctor Who Magazine ''Doctor Who Magazine'' (abbreviated as ''DWM'') is a magazine devoted to the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Launched in 1979 as ''Doctor Who Weekly'', the magazine became a monthly publication the following year. In ...

'', ''The Sarah Jane Companion Volume 3'', published in August 2012, detailed the plotlines of the three unfilmed stories.

''Doctor Who'' characters

As well as Sarah Jane, some characters from the past or current run of ''Doctor Who'' appear in ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. K9, voiced by John Leeson, guest stars in the New Year's special as well as the series 1 finale, appears regularly in the third series, and makes two further appearances in series 4.

The Doctor The Doctor, sometimes known as Doctor Who, is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called th ...

appears twice in the series, with

David Tennant David John Tennant (; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the Tenth Doctor, tenth and Fourteenth Doctor, fourteenth incarnations of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction series ''Docto ...

featuring in '' The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith'' (2009), and his successor

Matt Smith Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is known for playing the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Prince Philip in Netflix's historical series ''The Crown ( ...

in '' Death of the Doctor'' (2010). The latter episode also guest stars Katy Manning as Jo Jones (née Grant), reprising the role she played alongside the

(

) between 1971 and 1973. The episode ''Sky'' was originally to have featured Smith, but scheduling prevented his appearance. Nicholas Courtney appears as Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in '' Enemy of the Bane'' (2008), his final appearance as the character prior to his death in 2011. Various newsreader characters who appear across Davies' tenure as ''Doctor Who'' showrunner also appear in ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'', namely Lachele Carl and Trinity Wells, Jason Mohammad and Anthony Debaeck. Numerous others have been referenced in dialogue. Several former companions of the Doctor are referenced in the story ''Death of the Doctor'', and the episode also includes brief on-screen flashbacks showing the Third, Fourth and Tenth Doctors. Companion Harry Sullivan is referenced separately in dialogue on several occasions and a photograph of the character is visible in one episode. In an issue of ''Doctor Who Magazine'', Sophie Aldred was read an email from Russell T. Davies, in which he declared his plans to bring Ace into a story had the show continued, and she was alluded to at the end of ''The Death of the Doctor'' when the fates of Harry Sullivan, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Ben Jackson, Polly, Tegan Jovanka, and Ace are revealed.

Episodes

''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' was first seen by its original British audience in the form of a 60-minute New Year's Day special in 2007, titled " Invasion of the Bane", which was co-written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts. "Invasion of the Bane" was not a pilot, although the story does contains 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". The story focused on Sarah Jane's investigation of a popular and addictive soft drink called ''Bubble Shock!'' Series one of the show aired in September of that year, consisting of five two-part half-hour stories. Individual half-hour episodes aired once a week on

, with episodes airing a week ahead on children's digital channel

. The final part aired in November 2007. The second series started in September 2008 using the same format, with six stories instead of five, ending the series in December. The third series started 15 October 2009, twice weekly (Thursdays and Fridays) on BBC One from 15 October to 20 November. The fourth series aired from 11 October 2010. The first of each story pair was accompanied by an episode of '' Sarah Jane's Alien Files'', a set of 25-minute episodes in which a member of the cast updates Mr Smith's database about certain aliens. It accompanied series 4 of the programme. Due to the illness of Elisabeth Sladen, and her death on 19 April 2011, filming for the second half of the fifth series, which was due to air in the autumn of 2011, was postponed and later cancelled. Filming for three stories of the fifth series had been finished, and thus post-production on these stories was completed. The final series was aired from 3 to 18 October 2011 on CBBC and ended with a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen in the form of a video montage of scenes from the series and a couple of episodes of ''Doctor Who'' and the ending text "And the story goes on... forever." The script of the unfilmed ''Sarah Jane Adventures'' episode "The Thirteenth Floor" was rewritten and broadcast as an episode of '' Wizards vs Aliens''.

"Farewell, Sarah Jane"

On 19 April 2020, a special 13-minute webcast mini episode entitled " Farewell, Sarah Jane" aired on ''Doctor Who'' social media channels as a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen. During this story, a memorial service is held for Sarah Jane, attended by Luke, Clyde, Rani, Sky and Maria, and accompanied by their friends and families (among them several of the Doctor's former companions). Apart from a small interruption from the Trickster, the memorial goes smoothly, and after the guests say goodbye, Luke, Clyde and Rani revisit 13 Bannerman Road. Rani stays behind to have a final conversation with Mr Smith, expressing her belief that Sarah Jane is once again travelling with the Doctor (whose absence Jo Grant commented on, speculating that both of the Doctor's hearts would break to be there). It was written by Russell T Davies. The story acts as an epilogue to the series, narrated by Jacob Dudman and featuring Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony,

, Katy Manning, Mina Anwar all in their respective roles from the series. It also includes Sophie Aldred, who portrayed Ace, a companion to the

Seventh Doctor The Seventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-o ...

Spin-offs

''Rani Takes on the World''

On 19 July 2022, it was announced that

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...

would produce an audio spin-off of ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' set to release in April 2023, which features Rani Chandra (

) as the protagonist. The audio spin-off is set 15 years after the events of the series with the first three stories featuring Clyde Langer ( Daniel Anthony) as well as Gita Chandra ( Mina Anwar), Rani's mother. On 28 March 2023, Big Finish Productions additionally announced a sequel boxset set to release in January 2024 titled ''The Revenge of Wormwood'' with Mrs Wormwood ( Samantha Bond) to reprise her role as the villain from the television series. The second boxset will also feature the return of Luke Smith ( Tommy Knight).

Critical response

''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' has been generally well received by critics and the viewing public. At the end of the first series, Abi Grant of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' wrote: "With the debate about the future of children's TV still rumbling on, this is what the

does best, and despite lacking the production values of ''

'', it's still top tea-time programming." Daniel Martin of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described the show as looking very promising and more convincing than another ''Doctor Who'' spinoff '' Torchwood''. Review website ''

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' called the series "wonderful", "thoughtful" and "imaginative children's entertainment" that was highly recommended. The series also received praise for its willingness to tackle "darker themes

uch as Uch (; ), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf (; ; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the Pakistan's Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexander the Great during I ...

Alzheimer's, homelessness and loss." At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the first series received a generally favourable score of 66 out of 100 based on five critics. As the series progressed reviews became slightly more positive with ''

'' reviewer David Cornelius saying that the "second series is even better than the first." However Eric Profancik from ''DVD Verdict'' stated that the second series suffered from "poor scripts and horrible acting", criticising it for having "simple plots, too many conveniences and having corny humour." Series three is described by Guy Clapperton of review site ''ScreenJabber.com'' as being slightly braver than its predecessors, while ''Bullz-eye.com'' described it as "a sweet, fun little show, with some neat ideas" with "its heart very much in the right place." Reviews for the final series were sympathetic for the series' end and the unavoidably incomplete nature of the series (following the death of Elisabeth Sladen) and its story arcs. Stephen Kelly from ''

'' said that it was "a fitting tribute to Elisabeth Sladen" and has occupied a "unique place in the Whoniverse".

Awards and nominations

International broadcast

BBC Worldwide's children's channel in Canada, BBC Kids, began broadcasting ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' with " Invasion of the Bane" on 13 January 2008, airing the rest of the series back-to-back on Sundays thereafter. The South African channel

SABC 2 SABC 2 is a South African free-to-air television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). The channel was createdin its current form on 4 February 1996, due to the restructuring of the three national SABC networks. As ...

started airing the series beginning on 9 February 2008. The Hong Kong channel ATV World, which has also aired ''

'' and '' Torchwood'', aired this series starting 17 February 2008. The first series began airing on Sci Fi in the USA beginning on 11 April 2008, but this is the only series broadcast on American television as of Summer 2010, though later series have continued to be released on DVD in America without a prior television broadcast. In Australia, ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' started on 31 October 2008 on

Nickelodeon Australia Nick or Nickelodeon is an Australian and New Zealand children's pay television channel owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. It is based on the Nickelodeon, namesake American television channel. Since 1 December 2010 the Australian and N ...

. In Brazil, the show started airing on 19 November 2012 on

TV Cultura TV Cultura, or simply Cultura, is a free Brazilian non-commercial public television network headquartered in São Paulo and a part of Father Anchieta Foundation, a non-profit foundation funded by the São Paulo State Government. It focuses on ...

, right after their broadcast of '' Doctor Who series 6'' ended. It also screens in New Zealand on Nickelodeon New Zealand, and in Belgium on

Ketnet Ketnet is a Flemish public children's television channel in Belgium owned and operated by the Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie, VRT, Flemish public broadcaster. It broadcasts a mix of locally produced and imported productions on the VR ...

. In 2013 the show started airing on JeemTV in Arabic. Various seasons of the series has also been broadcast multiple times on the Swedish children's Channel 'Barnkanalen' in Swedish.

Merchandising

Toys

Character Options have been awarded a licence to produce ''The Sarah Jane Adventure'' play sets,

action figure An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These figures are usually ...

s, and a 'Sonic Lipstick' toy. Four 2-figure sets have been released: Sarah Jane and Star Poet; Sarah Jane and General Kudlak; Sarah Jane and Child Slitheen and Sarah Jane and Graske. Also released are Sarah Jane's Sonic Lipstick with Watch Scanner and Alien Communicator. Character Options have now discontinued the range due to lack of customer interest.

Battles in Time Trading Cards Adventurer Set

The ''Adventurer The Sarah Jane Adventures'' series of ''Doctor Who: Battles in Time'' trading cards was a bonus set of 10 limited edition, additional cards (plus one cover card) released exclusively with Issue 62 and packaged in a clear plastic wrap. With the ''Doctor Who: Battles in Time'' (magazine) being extended beyond its original number of proposed issues, the ''Adventurer The Sarah Jane Adventures'' cards saw the series expanded once more by the inclusion of this popular spin-off series which frequently crossed-over to the parent series. The Adventurer series consisted of 10 individual Common cards referenced by the prefix SJA, cards also showed their individual series number 01-10

Audio adventures

Ten audiobooks have been released on CD, all but the last two read by the series lead, Elisabeth Sladen, who read them in the first person in character as Sarah Jane. The final two books, released in November 2011 after Sladen's death, were read by Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra, respectively, though not as their characters. The first two were the first time that BBC Audiobooks had commissioned new content for exclusive release on audio. A 20-minute mini-episode in two parts called "The Monster Hunt" written by Trevor Baxendale and read by

was made especially for the Monster Hunt game on the ''Sarah Jane Adventures'' website. Two more comics were released "Return of the Krulius" and "Defending Bannerman Road". All comics were available as a pdf and a free mp3 download on the official Sarah Jane Adventures website.

Comics

Five ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' comics were released on the official ''Sarah Jane Adventures'' website. Four of them were comic adventures with audio narration by

. A pdf document and a MP3 audio track was available to download of the comics. An online version of ''The Silver Bullet'', presented, in full, a comic written and drawn by Clyde and briefly seen in, the episode '' The Curse of Clyde Langer''.

Novelisations

''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' merchandising revived the concept of the novelisation, which had been part of the ''Doctor Who'' franchise from the 1970s to the 1990s (principally under the editorship of author and former ''Who'' script editor Terrance Dicks). The first series and most of the second were adapted in this way, but later series saw only a few releases and a transition from print to e-books. In September 2010,

Pearson Education Pearson Education, known since 2011 as simply Pearson, is the educational publishing and services subsidiary of the international corporation Pearson plc. The subsidiary was formed in 1998, when Pearson plc acquired Simon & Schuster's educatio ...

published four simplified novelisations based on stories from the third series:

Magazines and Books

Although there has never been a Sarah Jane Adventures magazine there have been three special editions of the

, focused on the Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as regular mentions in the standard editions of

Home media

DVD

Blu-ray

''Sarah Jane's Alien Files''

''Sarah Jane's Alien Files'' is a BBC series based on ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. It features the characters Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Clyde Langer and

entering data on aliens they have encountered during their adventures into Mr Smith, Sarah Jane's extraterrestrial computer, to benefit humanity in the event that Sarah Jane is no longer capable of defending the Earth against alien threats. Each episode is a

clip show A clip show is an episode of a Television program, television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows include a frame story in which cast members recall events from past installments of the show, depicte ...

summarising the events of episodes in which the featured aliens appeared. The only new footage is the framing and narration, shot entirely on the series' standing attic set. Occasionally, brief clips from ''

'' are included for context, such as in Episode 6 when the Judoon are compared to the Cheetah People of ''

Survival Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...

'' in that each humanoid species looks superficially like a non-humanoid terrestrial mammal (

rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

and cheetah, respectively). The series format was based upon the short "alien files" clips previously produced for the CBBC's ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' website. The series is similar to the ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ''Monster Files''.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

* *
BBC ''Sarah Jane Adventures'' Merchandise
*
BBC Norfolk webTV Elisabeth Sladen previews ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''
*

Past official BBC websites

''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' Series 2,3,4
via Internet Archive
''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' Series 1
via Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarah Jane Adventures, The The Sarah Jane Adventures, 2000s British science fiction television series 2010s British science fiction television series 2007 British television series debuts 2011 British television series endings BBC children's television shows British science fiction television shows Doctor Who spinoffs British English-language television shows Television shows set in London British television spinoffs CBBC original programming BBC Cymru Wales television shows Television series about extraterrestrial life British television series about teenagers Television series by BBC Studios Television series created by Russell T Davies British time travel television series