The Sarah Jane Adventures Season 5

Well this is it, all the Sarah Jane adventures we shall ever have, have been released on DVD. And there are only three episodes left.

It’s always been amazing to me the quality of the writing that comes out of this series that frankly shouldn’t work. I don’t like kids in TV series, I never liked Sarah Jane that much as a character and the main thing that annoys me about New Who is earth bound stories which The Sarah Jane adventures necessarily are. But despite all this there are some good performances and some great imagination, sure not every episode is brilliant but there are more hits than misses.

And so it’s with a heavy heart that we say farewell to this series and it’s star Liz Sladen who was taken away from us too soon. A great pity then that these episodes don’t always represent the best of what makes the Sarah Jane adventures so watchable.

The first episode on this Disc is “Sky” when a mysterious thing falls from the sky (seriously what would series like these be if things didn’t fall from the sky? And an alien baby lands on Sarah Jane’s doorstep there’s clearly a mystery to be solved.  A cursory melding of classic sci-fi tropes this episode borrows heavily from both Doctor Who and Torchwood. A warning about what happens when you try to weaponise a baby, or more accurately give a bomb enough intelligence to question if it should be working for you at all. In the end everything hinges on Clyde being able to operate a Nucular power plant, I feel that it’s somewhat insulting to suggest that its easier than a game of Tetris but it does move the story along.

The second episode is The curse of Clyde Langer

A rain of fish, a strange totem pole in a new museum exhibition and a plot borrowed from a Buffy episode.  Joss Wheadon said that you must put your characters through hell, otherwise it’s not interesting. In this episode Clyde Langer goes though the greatest fear of every 15 year old. Losing all their friends for no reason. The most important thing to do in an episode like this is to make a point about homeless people and to make children cry. And this episode achieves that admirably.

The third episode is The Man who never was.

Then it’s the man who never was, the last episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures ever and it succeeds in being both interesting and surprisingly funny. When Sarah Jane gets invited to a new product launch for the “Serf Board” suspicions are aroused when the CEO of the company “Glitches” whilst giving a presentation. Throw in some Jawas and the return of Luke and this feels like an end of season epp. But much sadder when we realize that the person we have been rooting for, for the last hour is no longer with us. We’ll miss you Sarah Jane.  

Video: Doesn’t everything from the BBC look great these days? I think it does. And this is no exception. Boy they know how to shoot HDTV.

Audio: An inconspicuous 5.1 mix that neither disappoints nor surprises.

Special Features: Only a featureette called “Goodbye Bannerman Road” this is a mix of the great “My Sarah Jane” and some new interviews with Phill Ford and other cast members with extended bits from Matt Smith yet strangely ignores David Tennant who had a lot of nice things to say on “My Sarah Jane” it’s ok but fails to give the closure or emotional punch that you might want.