The Sarah Jane Adventures: celebrating the sharp-witted, sonic lipstick-wielding journalist 10 years on.
It’s been an entire decade since her adventures first aired on our screens, but Sarah Jane’s titular escapades have firmly and fondly stuck with us through time and space (without the Doctor, thank-you very much.)
There’s something about Sarah.
Specifically, the late and great Elisabeth Sladen’s portrayal of the brainy, warm and painfully nosy journalist with a supercomputer in her attic and a robotic dog called K-9. Before Jodie Whittaker was announced as the first female Doctor earlier this year, Sarah Jane was probably the closest we came to having a Timelord for a ‘regeneration’ (aside from the Doctor’s actual grand-daughter and a smattering of ladies across space.)
With her sonic lipstick and a CV that credited extensive travelling through time and space, for the thousands of children that tuned in (and hundreds of faithful adults in the Whoniverse) her show became staple tea-time viewing.
Obviously, everyone has their own memories and associations with their nostalgic favourites. I was one of the children of the ‘Doctor Who renaissance’ in 2005, with a love of the program passed down from my parents: one of whose childhood households birthed a serious superfan (my Uncle.) Their generation was that of the Third and then Fourth Doctor, where Sladen’s character made a firm impression on both Timelords.
While her run didn’t necessarily break records, numerous re-appearances in Doctor Who anniversary specials and later full cameos in three episodes in 2006, 2008 and 2010 did, bagging her the award for the longest time between first and last time on screen for a companion.
Introduced to a new generation of Who-watchers in the episode fittingly named “School Reunion,” David Tennant’s Doctor first meets her trying to break into a school ran by The Krillitanes (which are killer aliens, obviously.) We learn that she is a freelance journalist who also moonlights as the extra-terrestrial version of a ghostbuster and has still kept K-9, the talking metal dog the Doctor gifted her many years ago.
Old and new fans loved her nostalgic presence and kids (including myself) loved the dog. It was only a matter of time before this character got some well-deserved exploration.
The Sarah Jane Adventures first aired on CBBC in late September of 2007 as the glorious brainchild of Russell T Davies, the writer behind the huge ‘Doctor Who’ revival two years earlier. Stemming from Children’s BBC desperately wanting a slice of the sci-fi pie, writers got together and started on trying to successfully launch a spin-off show. Originally, they wanted to further explore the Doctor’s past on Gallifrey but Davies firmly vetoed the idea:
“Somehow, the idea of a fourteen year old Doctor, on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers, takes away from the mystery and intrigue of who he is and where he came from.”
He then instead settled on bringing back the Doctor’s former companion, Sarah Jane Smith and set about on continuing her adventures.
The premise of the new program followed the events of School Reunion, with the meeting of the Timelord himself having reignited that age-old fire of genuine nosiness for the strange and unusual. Now working out of her home on Bannerman Road as a journo by day, Mulder by night with the aid of a huge supercomputer called Mr Smith built into the attic. We also follow teenagers Clyde, Maria, Rani, Luke (Sarah’s adoptive alien-borne son) and then later Sky (her other adoptive child) who end up accidentally being recruited along the way, as they navigate life on the only road in Britain that seemingly siphons all weird activity in the country.
It would have been very easy to follow the Doctor Who writing-formulae step by step. And that’s not to say that SJA doesn’t at times, with episodes centring around an extraterrestrial foe that Sarah and the Crew need to vanquish before heading back to the attic for some reflection and a cup of tea. But Sarah Jane’s content does differ. Where Doctor Who takes us through space and time, her adventures stay firmly on Earth, usually in the same vicinity of London.
We see killer clowns (no, not Pennywise) taking over a local theatre, Slitheen operating from down the road and the TARDIS does eventually turn up in Sarah’s back-yard. Although the gang and viewer are firmly grounded in Bannerman Road, it’s no less enjoyable than the show’s bigger, badder parent — and actually provides more opportunity for heart and topics that are literally closer to home.
Due to its nature as a ‘children’s show’, SJA tackles issues of divorce, moving, friendships, school, adoption and death — but handles them all with a delicacy that never feels cloying. One arc that sticks out is how Luke, Sarah’s adoptive son, tries to learn how to fit in with humanity itself and how he struggles with an identity that looks human but is biologically alien. It may not perfectly translate to a viewer’s personal experience, but it certainly complements the idea that kids can often feel ‘alienated’ from their peers.
Historically in children’s programming, it can often seem like the writers will clumsily shove neon signs and klaxons around them whilst stage-whispering: “THERE IS AN IMPORTANT LESSON TO LEARN HERE, KIDS.”
But luckily with Davies at the helm, there is enough room for warmth inside each moral message where others have stumbled (if you caught his adaptation of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ you’ll know exactly what I mean.) These characters are vulnerable and are allowed to be — with Sarah Jane being a great example.
She’s an adult. In fact, the only adult on the show with a lick of sense compared to the gang’s parents and numerous negligent side-characters. Despite this, Sarah Jane still has flaws and fears that often get expressed and shown throughout the series. She worries about the continuation of the human race, sure, but that comes with the territory of becoming a freelance defender of Earth. She’s also human, fearing rejection from those she loves and often wonders how her double-life could hurt and affect them.
But most notably, we learn that for a long time she resented the Doctor for leaving her on Earth to wallow in its mundanity after confronting him in ‘School Reunion:’
Sarah Jane: You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next. No, with what doesn’t happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?
The Doctor: All those things you saw, you want me to apologize for that?
Sarah Jane: No! But we get a taste of that splendor and then we have to go back.
The Doctor: Look at you, you’re investigating. You found that school. You’re doing what we always did.
Sarah Jane: You could have come back.
The Doctor: I couldn’t.
Sarah Jane: …Why not?
Here is proof of a flawed, adult and painfully human character that is still changing and striving to be better. When Sarah addresses her anger and frustration that has been stewing for decades, it does result in viewers seeing her grow even more as a person by the end of the episode. There is this next beautiful quote, which comes from a place that has reconciled that those times of adventure are over, but that’s OK. It is healthy and normal.
The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world or a relationship, everything has it’s time. Everything ends.
Of course, she does end up getting into more trouble, enough to create a whole new spin-off series — but it was quiet while it lasted.
In a nutshell, the allure of Sarah Jane and her adventures was that it highlighted the beauty of being human in a Timelord’s World. It noted that strange things truly can happen around the corner, but that you should also value the mundane. Something that Sarah Jane herself learnt and had to come to terms with.
On a personal note, her character has stuck with me as I navigated my own adolescence. Originally, I was more drawn to the chance to dip back into the world that was the Doctor’s (because what fan doesn’t jump at the chance of world-building?) — but in the end, I was tuning in to be with her instead.
Sarah Jane was cool, calm and collected. And on a material note, she had a gorgeous mint Nissan Figaro car called “KAE” and serious home-goals. Yet upon reflection, she is admittedly one of the reasons I became a journalist; despite now learning that having a press-pass does not mean you get all-access entry to anywhere.
Without trying to sound overly twee, Sarah Jane was my own personal role model. Strong-willed, smart and incredibly resilient, but also had heart and a strangely maternal presence (which was mainly down to Elisabeth Sladen herself) and that made viewers including myself feel safe.
There were monsters and aliens and sometimes terrible people in your local town and sometimes even in your home, but Sarah Jane Smith would get the job done. She’d leave the door open for you to pop by and have a cup of tea and might even tell you about the time she fought the Daleks. If you ask really nicely, you could even be the one to summon Mr Smith from the attic wall and see those pyrotechnics.
Even a decade on, Sarah Jane Smith’s excited voice still rings in my brain:
I saw amazing things, out there in space — but there is strangeness to be found, wherever you turn. Life on Earth can be an adventure too. You just need to know where to look…
No truer words have been spoken, SJ. Your adventures are still being lived and loved — proof that you don’t need to be a Timelord to be timeless.
