Skip to main content

Sarah Jane Who?: Checking out "Doctor Who" Spin-off "The Sarah Jane Adventures"

If there's one word for Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, it's... cute.

The Sarah Jane Adventures launched Friday night on Sci Fi with a 90-minute installment and I was curious to see how the Doctor Who formula (alien plots are counteracted by human or human-and-Time Lord pairs) would be applied to this new series.

After all, Torchwood modified the familiar Doctor Who story by injecting it with heaps of darkness and sexuality. In Torchwood, there are never any happy endings, no one ever gets a day off or a holiday to the other side of the universe, and the would-be saviors of humanity are forced to focus on work rather than the significant relationships in their lives.

The Sarah Jane Adventures takes the opposite tack, bringing a lightness and youth to the war against alien invaders and simplifying the plots significantly. I realize that I am not within the ideal demographic for this British series but I can't help but shake my head at Sci Fi's decision to program this at 8 pm on a Friday evening. Yes, it's perhaps a fitting lead in to Doctor Who (which launches this week with "Voyage of the Damned"), but it seems more suitable for an early Saturday morning slot.

The Sarah Jane Adventures stars Elisabeth Sladen (Doctor Who) as the titular Sarah Jane, a headstrong former companion of The Doctor who has kept up her war against the aliens as an investigative journalist, using some high-tech gadgetry (i.e., her sonic lipstick and a wristwatch that detects alien life) and her wits to stem the tide of invasion. She's also desperately lonely; after her love affair with The Doctor, she realized that no man would ever compare and she's left to her own devices in a big, creepy house that she shares with robotic dog K-9.

Her solitude is interrupted, in the first episode "Invasion of the Bane," when plucky teen Maria Jackson (Yasmin Paige) and her father move into the house next door. Soon enough, Maria catches Sarah Jane communing with an alien being. What starts off as innocent curiosity turns into something bigger as Maria finds herself enmeshed in an alien plot to control the Earth's population via an orange soda called Bubble Shock and Sarah Jane comes face to face with a young boy called the Archetype (Tommy Knight), a blank slate created by the Bane to test the soda factory's visitors and absorb their essences.

Naturally, following the destruction of the factory, Sarah Jane is forced to adopt the Archetype--whom she and Maria name Luke--and Sarah Jane mocks up some forged adoption documents with the help of her computer Mr. Smith. A bond is formed between Sarah Jane, Maria, and Luke and these three join forces to investigate all manner of alien threats in the future... as long as Maria is back before curfew.

The result is all really endearing and charming, if a little cutesy for anyone old enough to drive. Still, other than the irritatingly shrill Kelsey (Maria's chavvy school chum who, fortunately, won't be appearing in the series again), it's still pretty harmless fun. It may lack the moral complexity of Torchwood or the narrative skill of Doctor Who, but it's an agreeable addition to the Doctor Who oeuvre, aided by Elisabeth Sladen, who wins you over with her innate charm and adorable smile, and teen actors/adorable moppets Paige and Knight.

If I had any wee ones at home, The Sarah Jane Adventures is a series I'd happily watch with them. But, if you're not enchanted by the series' educational charms, you might be under the influence of the Bane... or just old enough to want a little more grit and less soda bubbles in your storytelling.

The Sarah Jane Adventures airs on Friday evenings at 8 pm on Sci Fi.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC; 8-10 pm); Gossip Girl (CW); Dancing With the Stars (ABC; 8-9:30 pm); House (FOX)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/Rules of Engagement (CBS); One Tree Hill (CW); Samantha Who? (ABC; 9:30-10 pm); New Amsterdam (FOX);

10 pm: CSI Miami (CBS); Medium (NBC); The Bachelor: London Calling (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gossip Girl.

It's another chance to catch up on the teen soap. On tonight's repeat episode ("A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate"), Serena is spied buying a home pregnancy test and Gossip Girl reports this scoop before all of the facts are checked. Oops.

8 pm: Bones.

Support scripted television! FOX's procedural series Bones returns tonight with new episodes. On tonight's installment ("Man in the Mud"), Brennan and Booth are on the trail of a killer after a motorcycle racer's remains are discovered in a national park.

Comments

joy said…
I would agree with the overall cuteness of the show. Granted, I’m not the demo either, but since I’ve been known to sit through hours of Disney Channel, I would have thought SJA would have appealed more.

Obviously, I’ll still watch it, if only in hopes that a crossover is somewhere in the offing. Obvi, Sarah Jane and I are of like minds.
If I were 12 this would be my favorite show. While a little too simple for adult Doctor Who fans, it does not talk down to the younger set and makes for an excellent diversion for anyone under 15.

The whimsical storylines may have me tuning in once in awhile but, for now, I think I'll stick with the darker forces of Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Karin L. said…
I'm one of those crazy "Doctor Who" fans who's been watching the show for 20 years. Of the current "Doctor Who" offerings, "The Sarah Jane Adventures" is by far my favorite! The tone and pacing reminds me more of the original "Doctor Who" series. I am so thrilled that Sci-Fi picked it up.
Anonymous said…
In UK, "Invasion of the Bane" aired at the very beginning of last of year as a one of special and then the series followed at the end of September. For this reason, the special is a bit of a hazy memory for those us that watched it as it aired. My memory is that I was reasonably pleased after the special but it was the series that really won my round.

Dropping Kelsey certainly helped (and her replacement is much better); but, also, Luke establishes himself properly as a character and Maria and her parents grow into their roles as well. Also, the 30 minute episodic format (2 episodes per story) tightens up the plotting and gives more focus to the stories. There's also a bit more darkness in the series than there was in the special.

I'd say it's worth giving the show a chance, even if you're not sure at the moment. It's only on for 6 weeks and is a direct lead-in to Doctor Who, so it shouldn't be too hard to add it to your Friday night viewing.

If I was to recommend one story it would be "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane", the penultimate story (ie episodes 7 and 8).

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns