The Sarah Jane Adventures

SJA! Yes, it's a kids show, but its the best kids show out there! For four years now (a considerably long run-time for a kids T.V show shown at 5pm) the Adventures of Sarah Jane Smith has entertained children and Doctor Who fans alike. A bit of a waste really, as this show really deserves a prime time slot just like Torchwood and Doctor Who. Torchwood is for grown-ups, Doctor Who is the  family show and SJA is for kiddies, or so we like to think. Unfortunatly, it feels as if kids T.V is trapping this show in its toned down, light hearted chains. Admittedly, if the show had nothing whatsoever to do with the Who-Universe I probably wouldn't watch it as regularly as I do, but seen as every Episode in the Series has at least something who-related this happily isn't the case 
(possibly due to budget reasons, the shows creators realised that they could save money if they re-used old monster costumes from the main Series, which is why the Slitheen, Sontarans, Bane and Judoon feature heavily in the Series. Heck, the Slitheen are used so often now they can almost be dubbed as the "Daleks" of SJA). The story involves past Doctor Who compagnion Sarah Jane Smith and her "Team" of Teenage friends battling countless Monsters and (of course) saving the world every single Episode (Okay, this is the point where I draw the line, does every single alien threat have to provoke the utter destuction and annihilation of the human race every single time? Why can't the aliens be nice for once?). 


The Series is split into twelve short twenty-five minute Episodes,

comprising of six stories split into two parts. So all in all, the Series is the length of about six Doctor Who episodes, which may not seem alot but for a kids T.V show is your standard Series run-time. As with DW, you get your Monster of the Week, which can sometimes vary from your generic Doctor Who bad guy or a new villain created for the Series. The Episodes can be a bit of a hit or miss sometimes, but it's a kids show so I can mostly forgive it. Though there are instances where this show truly becomes pure gold. The Series one Episode  "Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane Smith?" is considered by many who watched the show as a truly "cult classic" that acheives to actually be better than some Doctor Who episodes (I agree). Its a What If? type story where a villainous rogue called "The Trickster" wipes Sarah Jane out of existence (any memory of her is wiped, like being swallowed up by the crack) and replaces her with another woman so that she can't prevent an upcoming disaster and then "feed" off the chaos this disaster creates. Check out this awesome scene from the Ep here by clicking on the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfjFsIWv3K0&feature=related. The Trickster is a great villain, but is a little holded back because of the fairly "light" tone of the Series, but if he was in Doctor Who I think they can truely do something great with him. In fact, he's already met the Doctor in the SJA-DW crossover:     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnqSsw_WgGQ&feature=related (Which by the way, was the last time that David Tennant played the Doctor, you can see it on his face in this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8WpzLLWtvw&feature=related.) New Doctor Who Matt Smith will star with another previous DW compagnion Jo Grant in a special Episode of the show coming in a few Weeks, which will not only be written by previous DW showrunner Russell-T-Davies but is also titled "Death Of A Doctor." If that isn't enough to get me shaking with exitement then I don't know what will! Clearly this show has the possibility to become really good telly, but its confined to your average CBBC slot that it quite simply does not deserve.  

The previous Episodes that aired last Monday to Tuesday titled "The Nightmare Man Part 1 &2" saw Julian Bleach play a deliciously evil Freddy Kreuger/Joker rip-off that planned to make everybody in the world sleep forever while experiencing horrible Nightmares. Sounds pretty cool doesn't it? Except because its a kids show the Nightmares are nothing more than "unconfortable" and all he does is mainly hop around manically shooting out laser bolts without actually slaying anyone in their dreams. Still a great Episode, though you do have to accept that they couldn't really do alot to make him as menacing as he was supposed to be, alot of it seemed toned down (people rarely die in this show, and the ones that do are either the bad guys or the people that sacrifice themselves "for the greater good"). Which is a bit of a shame, as the guy does this laugh that could make even the Joker pee his pants then jump out of a three story high window (he does the laugh shortly after this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKGjUMfoks, and you can see the last nine minutes of the Episode I found on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjX0HW1Xtos&feature=related! In short, The Sarah Jane adventures is a enjoyable show for a kids T.V programme, and one that could benefit from a larger budget and respectable timeslot (although it's still the highest rated Childrens show on Television right now and is attracting some really high ratings). I will continue to watch the show until either the Series finally fades away or Sarah Jane really has become so old that she can't do anything but move along on her crutches!