And this year, it was the return of those favourite monsters, the Slitheen.  While their appearances in the parent show have always been controversial (I like them, but even I’ll happily admit that Aliens in London was a mess and the fart gags were too much), they seem to have found a much happier home here, and its really nice to see new monsters returning and being a big deal rather than just the classics like Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans etc (I feel similar about seeing the Judoon turn up again in the Stolen Earth, and here in the series opener).

Of course, it wasn’t just the Slitheen who turned up, but another family from Raxacoricofallapatorius, the Blathereen, who were more than happy to help Sarah Jane and co deal with the Slitheen, and then offered them the hand (claw?) of friendship in the form of a plant that could end world hunger.

Needless to say, the plant isn’t what it seems, and it doesn’t take long before its spores are infecting all of London and Luke is ill from exposure to them.

The nice thing is that pretty much everyone gets the chance to shine in this finale.  Well, ok Luke ends up ill, but he still appears more than he did in half the stories in this series, and I’m willing to put his illness down to Tommy Knight’s exams again (he may have been present, but it cut down on the number of lines he’d have had to learn at least).   Separating Clyde and Rani to deal with events at the school with K9′s help, while Sarah Jane and Mister Smith deal with the Blathereen worked really well.

All in all, I think Sarah Jane Adventures continues to improve with each series.  I can’t think of a single duff story this year, and its interesting how some of the less publicised stories (specifically the Haunted House one) actually emerged as some of the strongest this year.  From a rights point of view, it’ll be interesting to see if they manage to keep K9 around for series 4, and I certainly hope they do, as his snarky relationship with Mister Smith has been great fun, and I’d love to see more of it.

A great series.  Roll on series 4

That said, I’m not entirely sure it worked. I didn’t entirely buy his falling out with Sarah Jane although the idea of Luke becoming more like a normal teenager is an interesting one that deserves a bit more focus I think. And the way he finally saved the day by tricking the Mona Lisa into summoning K9 was quite clever I thought.

There’s been a lot of chatter online rotating around the main aspect of this story. The Mona Lisa. Be it the painting itself, and whether or not the story contradicts City of Death, or the portrayal of Mona Lisa the episodes attracted a fair amount of discussion.

For the first, I don’t see that it did contradict City of Death. We know that Leonardo painted seven copies of the painting for Count Scarlioni. There’s nothing to say that all seven weren’t painted with the tainted paints and wouldn’t have reacted in the same way once they got close to the Abomination. We never saw the blank canvas of the painting either, so its quite possible “This is a fake” was still written underneath.

I loved Suranne Jones as the Mona Lisa. Personally I loved that they played the character completely against expectation.  It was a great laugh and very entertaining  I also liked the visual of the characters trapped in the paintings.  It was similar to what was done in Fear Her, although I think here the idea was a bit more successful, and removing Sarah Jane from events to allow the kids to shine made for a nice change of pace.

With a really solid story apparently.

This was a pretty standard haunted house affair.  Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani head out to help Professor Rivers investigate a haunted Manor where people have seen ghosts and disappeared for years.  It soon emerges that at the centre of things is Erasmus Darkening, an Alchemist from the 17th century.

This was a really nicely done story for one thing in particular.  Its atmosphere.  The production team weren’t afraid to really build up a creepy atmosphere in the house as they piled on the mysteries of who (or what) Erasmus Darkening was, why do the ghosts keep appearing, and what is prowling around the grounds of the Manor?  The whole production really relished the haunted house aspect of the story, and was all the more enjoyable for it.

Noticeably absent though was Luke.  I’ve noticed him getting sidelined quite frequently throughout this series (especially noticeable during the Mad Woman in the Attic) and its down to the real life issues of Tommy Knight having to sit his GCSE’s.  With the actors playing Clyde and Rani being a bit older, exams aren’t an issue for them, but it does still leave a slightly strange feeling to a story, when Sarah Jane is heading out on adventures and leaving her son behind.

Fortunately it didn’t detract too much from this story though.  There was a great supporting cast (with the possible exception of the Professor’s assistant, a character I didn’t think worked well at all and felt out of place in this production), and it was nice to see Smallville’s Major Zod, Callum Blue in his guest role as Lord Marchford, the restless ghost working against Darkening and longing to be reunited with his children.

Another great story in this series of Sarah Jane Adventures.  And I can’t finish off the review without mentioning the nice little nod to the upcoming Dr Who specials, when Clyde and Rani are trapped in the shed, and the creature knocks on the door four times

I’d already been warned about the Doctor not appearing till the very end of the first episode, and with the whole wedding obviously a setup, I was intrigued to see how it played out over the 20-or-so minutes.  I was pleasantly surprised how genuinely it was done and how successfully over such a short space of time.  You really got a good look at the growing relationship between Sarah and Peter and it all felt quite genuine.   It was only once Sarah put on the engagement ring that things got forced, but up until then I was really impressed that the script had done such a good job on a relationship that was obviously being manipulated from the get-go.

Of course, everyone was waiting on David Tennant’s appearance, and he certainly didn’t disappoint.  We’ve not had any new Doctor Who since Planet of the Dead, and here he really was firing on all cylanders, however cleverly the script didn’t let the Doctor dominate the proceedings too much.

It would’ve been the easiest thing in the world to have the Doctor waltz in and save the day, however the script walked that fine line brilliantly, by having the Doctor team up with the kids, and putting them (or specifically Clyde) into the position of saving the day.  While the Doctor is still a force to be reckoned with, the show didn’t forget that he was just a guest star.   In many ways, the 10th Doctor found himself very much in the position of the 9th, empowering others to take action, rather than sorting things out himself.

There were a couple of really nice little stand out moments for me . Firstly was probably the near-delight in K9′s voice when the Doctor disrupts the wedding.  That was quite a sweet moment.  But mainly, there was Luke, Clyde and Rani getting to see around the TARDIS console room.  It was a brilliant wish-fulfillment moment and also gave us a great look around the console room.  A moment that I can’t help but find especially powerful knowing that that particular console room will shortly be on its way out.  Since we know this story was the final thing filmed by David Tennant, it also felt like a last-hurrah for the console room as well, and a nice little tribute to it.

It has to be said that this series of Sarah Jane Adventures is really at the top of its game.  With the gap year leaving us without a regular series of the parent show this year, its great to see the spin-offs doing so well.  Its perhaps just a pity Sarah Jane Adventures wasn’t shown earlier to avoid the shadow of Waters of Mars hanging over it.

I found this an overall enjoyable story.  The funfair was well used, and I liked the idea that the alien wasn’t actually evil, just unable to control its own power, having been separated from its ship which was itself attempting to self-repair having crashed many years ago.

Less successful I thought was the framing device set in the future.  While effective in part 1, towards the end, the resolution of the plot, whereby an errant comment from Rani results in Sarah Jane and co vanishing from her life, I thought felt a bit tacked on.  It would’ve been nice if there had been a bit more build up to it in the present day sequences I think.

It was nice though, having an episode that focused on Rani.  The fact she feels like she’s just a standin for Maria was well done, and nicely contrasted with her best friend from her old home, who similarly feels abandoned, only by Rani who’s told him all the stories of her adventures with Sarah Jane, while he’s been left behind.

There were some nice treats in this story as well, as we’re teased with the Doctor’s appearance in the next story, but we also get a couple of quick clips of the third and fourth Doctors as the ship views Sarah Jane’s timeline.

I also liked the twist concerning “the darkness”.  Throughout Doctor Who and Torchwood over the last three/four years, whenever something ominous is happening, there’s always characters standing around saying “the darkness is coming!!!!”.   It was effective the first couple of times, but now (for me at least) its played out, so I was groaning when the ship started talking about the darkness in Sarah Jane’s mind.

So when it was turned on its head, and revealed that the darkness was the black hole, which the ship needed to power its systems, I was happily surprised.  A nice misdirection there, and also it meant that K9 was coming back full time.  It was great to see him come back to the attic, and the snippiness towards him from Mr Smith was fun.  Of course, both characters fullfill basically the same role, so it’ll be interesting to see how K9 and Mr Smith are used over the coming episodes.

I quite like the strategy they’re using this year, giving us two episodes of Sarah Jane a week.  As SJA stories are all two-parters it makes a lot of sense, and since we’ll shortly be getting Dreamland and the final specials for the tenth Doctor not dragging out the run of Sarah Jane Adventures makes a degree of sense.

For this series opener itself, I thought it was a great start.  Borrowing from the previous formula, the show brings back a prominent alien from Doctor Who to help kickstart things.  With the Slitheen and the Sontarans in previous series, this year it was the turn of the Judoon, which was great for me as they’re a favourite of mine.

The writers had a lot of fun with the Judoon.  They built on their previous appearances by making them absolute sticklers for the letter of the law, even those local laws (whereas previously they weren’t too concerned about local laws, and came across more as hired thugs in some regards).  Having the Judoon refusing to leave the car behind until the gang had paid and displayed for example, I thought was a great laugh.   Similarly, there was a nice visual gag with the Judoon driving around in a Police car.  We also had the return of the Judoon’s bureaucracy, with the Judoon handing over official paperwork for commandeering the car.

Less successful was possibly the comedy stuff with Rani’s parents.  I like them, but they felt a little forced in in the second episode.  Especially with all the funny aspects to the Judoon’s role, it seemed a bit redundant to also have Rani’s parents also having comedy adventures at the same time.

However, that’s a deeply minor niggle.  We also had a really nice spaceship design in the second part, an interesting villain, and Liz Sladen clearly enjoying the chance to play Sarah as possessed by said villain.

This was a really strong start, and I can’t wait for the next story.  Of course, we’ve also got some big events coming up, with K9 returning for a larger role, and the 10th Doctor appearing at the halfway point.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the Judoon again as they’re definitely one of my favourite new monsters of the last few years, and that shot of the Judoon in the Police car got a big laugh.  I can’t wait to see what that’s about

Lots of glimpses of the Doctor as well.  It’ll be really nice to see those episodes after having so little in the way of new Doctor Who this year.  I can’t help but think it would’ve been nice to have this show back sooner in the year to offset the lack of new Doctor Who (although I have no idea as to how practical that would’ve actually been).

Separate to the current Doctor Who productions (as Bob Baker holds the rights to the character), this show will probably end up similar to SJA, with a trio of kids, elder mentor figure and K9 saving the world from alien nasties.

Is there enough room for both shows? Actually, as long as its good, then I don’t see why not. As long as they’re scheduled reasonably apart, this could actually be a perfect year for it to come out, what with no full series of Doctor Who to look forward to.

Of course, the big discussion is rotating around K9′s redesign (which I wonder if that’s partly to do with the BBC owning the rights to the classic design? No idea). To be honest, I quite like it. I can see why people won’t, but it strikes me as a reasonable updating. I’m not sure about the legs at the front, but I quite like the new ears, which look like they could add a lot of expression to the character.   Its still recognisably K9 anyway, just a bit updated, which works for me.

Another nice touch, is from the synopsis they’ve released, this is indeed K9 Mark 1, as he gets pulled through a time rift (or somesuch) in the first episode, damaged and rebuilt.  So that’s another classic Who character who survived the Time War.

The Last Sontaran was a nice follow-up to this year’s Sontaran Stratagem 2-parter in Doctor Who, with Sarah Jane and co stumbling upon the sole survivor of that fleet, determined to take revenge and restore their honour.

I really enjoyed the idea of having one of the spin-offs directly follow on from a Doctor Who story. It was nicely executed as well since you didn’t really need to have seen the Sontaran Stratagem to understand it, but similarly, the Sontaran 2-parter in Doctor Who didn’t require you to watch the Sarah Jane story in order to get the full telling of events. I’d love to see a bit (but not a huge amount) more of this kind of cross-referencing between the shows (similar to the reference to the Trickster in Turn Left). It builds on the feeling that this is a shared universe and as long as it doesn’t start to drag down any of the shows it can be fun for those of us who’re watching everything.

The Day of the Clown was another cracking story. I hadn’t really seen Bradley Walsh as anything other than a presenter (although obviously I was aware he’d been in Coronation Street) so it was really a nice surprise to me just how good he was in the role. Especially in a role that required several different aspects with Spellman, Oddbob and the Pied Piper. Walsh played all of these brilliantly, and I barely recognised him at all as Oddbob.

This story also brought in the new girl to the team. Rani (possibly the most amusing piece of fan-baiting ever, or is it just me?) is a breath of fresh air to me. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Maria character, and at times found the close relationship they gave her and Sarah actually felt like it undermined Sarah’s relationship with Luke. Rani seems a lot more fun, and I enjoyed her tenacity as Sarah Jane desperately tried to keep her from getting sucked into their world of aliens and monsters.

If I had one complaint its that this story brought back up the issue regarding the public’s awareness of aliens. Rani made it clear that if she started talking about them, no one would believe her. For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume that these episodes are taking place prior to The Stolen Earth (although the gap between the two which had Maria settle into her new life in the States may be at odds with this), but there’s at least the issue of the Sycorax spaceship a few Christmases ago, the Racnoss Christmas Star, 5 million Cybermen invading Earth, Daleks wiping out people on Canary Warf (although the Doctor nipped that in the bud quite quickly) and The Toclafane (although that particular Prime Minister was a nutter, so probably not hard to discredit them).

Its a problem with Torchwood as well. Whereas the parent show has moved on to a point where most people know that aliens are out there and have a tendancy to turn up at Christmas and trash London, both spin-offs still have the general public oblivious to aliens (heck, Torchwood also has the whole argument of exactly how secret the organisation is supposed to be – they clearly took a leaf out of the 70s/80s UNIT manual for running a secret organisation). Its something that’s quite jarring when moving between the shows, no more so than in light of the Stolen Earth. If no one in Sarah Jane Adventures will believe Rani about aliens, what exactly were they doing when Earth was moved to the Medusa Cascade and humanity was enslaved by Daleks before being towed back to our usual solar system by a Police Box? The shows may try to be consistent within themselves, but in the larger scheme of things it falls apart horribly.

However that’s a side issue. When I’m just looking at the Sarah Jane Adventures, the simple fact is that I love this show. Yes, its supposed to be for kids, but frankly I’ve always found it incredibly consistent and enjoyable. And season 2′s off to a cracking start. Now I just hope we get a full third season next year. With only the specials from Who, and 5 episodes of Torchwood, it’d be nice if one of the shows got a full run.

Click here to view the embedded video.