The Sarah-Jane Adventures

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3 x 12 - The Gift Part 2:
822nd Whoniverse episode and the story overall is the 248th Whoniverse story.
As good as Part 1, Part 2 is slightly better.
Sarah with a big gun brings a reminder Rose with a big gun in The Stolen Earth.
So there is a major plot reason for Clyde bringing K9 to school with them being trapped in the school.
Ace's old home town of Perivale gets a mention here.
Clyde and Rani were literally saved by the bell.
The exploding Blathereen with the remains on Sarah, Luke, Clyde, Rani, K9 and Mr Smith is certainly a fun way to end things for this season.
Amusing Mr Smith's "You don't say" line.
If this turns out to be the series finale then the last shot of Earth would be a fitting end to the series.

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Confirmation from Russell T. Davies that a fourth season of The Sarah-Jane Adventures has been greenlit by the Beeb;

news.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/sarah-jane-adventures-series-4-commissioned/

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Prisoner of the Judoon was directed by Joss Agnew and featured in the cast Terence Maynard. Agnew had previously directed Maynard in Maynard's regular role as Van Helsing in Young Dracula.

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The Mad Woman In The Attic:
The future that was presented here took place in 2059, the same year the Doctor encountered The Waters of Mars.

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The BBC has not only confirmed a fourth season of The Sarah Jane Adventures but a fifth season as well. Like the previous two seasons, the two new seasons will each consist of 12 half hour episodes.

With plot details:
www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/03_march/04/sarah_jane.shtml

Writers for the season 4 includes co-producer Phil Ford, Joseph Lidster, Rupert Laight, Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman.

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The BBC Press Office has announced that a story for the upcoming season four of The Sarah Jane Adventures will feature both Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and the return of Katy Manning as the Doctor's former companion Jo Grant. Notwithstanding her appearances in the Big Finish audio dramas, this marks the first time that Katy will be playing Jo since leaving Doctor Who in 1973.

www.doctorwhoworld.org.uk/sjas4news.html

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The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine has revealed the titles for season 4:
1: The Nightmare Man by Joseph Lidster
2: The Vault of Secrets by Phil Ford
3: Death of the Doctor by Russell T Davies
4: The Empty Planet by Gareth Roberts
5: Lost in Time by Rupert Laight
6: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman

Since SJA has already been confirmed for a fifth season Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith is not the final story of the series.

Guest stars in this season includes Julian Bleach (Davros), who is playing the Nightmare Man, Cheryl Campbell, Cyril Nri, Julie Graham (formerly the lead actor of the remake series of Terry Nation's Survivors and a co-star of Peter Davison in At Home With The Braithwaites; she has finally made it to the Whoniverse) and of course Matt Smith and Katy Manning as the Eleventh Doctor and Jo Grant respectively.

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Season 4 trailer:
planetgallifrey.blogspot.com/2010/09/sja-series-4-trailer.html

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Found out that season 4 will make its world debut in the UK with both episodes of a story to be shown on a weekly basis on Mondays and Tuesdays from Monday October 11.

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From DoctorWhoNews.com:
The BBC has announced a series of special shows that would accompany season 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Entitled Sarah Jane's Alien Files, it will have Sarah Jane and friends recounting their adventures each week.

Previously unmentioned guest stars in this season are Laila Rouass (Primeval), Lucie Jones, Doon Mackichan and David Bradley.

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4.1 The Nightmare Man Part 1:
Written by Joseph Lidster.
A very solid start to the fourth season.
The story starts off with a flashforward with Luke recording a video message about the end of the world and that it was his fault.
Then we flashback to when Luke tells Sarah that Rani’s father Mr Chandra said that Luke is able to graduate early from school and go to Oxford.
Luke of course does graduate early and in the lead-up to him going to Oxford he is having nightmares manifested by a being called The Nightmare Man (played by one-time Davros actor Julian Bleach).
The nightmares have been done eerily well and the story felt akin to The Nightmare of Elm Street. I also made the Nightmare of Elm Street allusion in my remarks about the similarly themed K9 episode Dream-Eaters.
A very good first cliffhanger for this season with The Nightmare Man coming into the real world and Luke trapped in the nightmare world.

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4.2 The Nightmare Man Part 2:
A well done conclusion to the story.
It is now Rani and Clyde’s turn to have nightmares with Clyde’s featuring a horrifying appearance of Sarah as a senile old lady.
In Rani’s nightmare she is a news co-anchor and she announced that she was quitting by saying breaking news. Wonder if any real-life journalist ever chose this method of resignation.
The Nightmare Man says to Sarah Jane that it was good to finally meet her. Lis Sladen and Julian Bleach have met before in Journey’s End when Sarah had a little reunion with Davros played by Julian Bleach.
While the Nightmare Man wasn’t a Sarah Jane-lite story as she does have a substantial appearance in it. She however has very little to do here. Instead this is Luke’s story in what appears to be his swansong story at least on a regular basis.
Luke was very impressive when he said that he, Clyde and Rani make for an unbeatable force. This ultimately defeats the Nightmare Man leading him to experience his own nightmare.
Wasn’t expecting Luke to leave but a further surprise was Sarah sending K9 to be with Luke at Oxford.
Prior to season 3, K9 was mostly absent from SJA due to the K9 series being in development. The decision to write K9 out now is obviously due to the K9 series having since becoming a reality with the 26 episodes of the first season already aired and a second season may or may not be forthcoming.
Having been presented as rivals before, it was quite touching when Mr Smith showed concern for K9 and expressing the feeling that he will miss him as K9 goes to Oxford with Luke.
The season 2 opener The Last Sontaran had ended with Maria and Alan leaving Bannerman Road. Now in this the season 4 opener it’s Luke and K9’s turn and I think this farewell was done much better than Maria and Alan’s.
With Luke and K9 gone, the team is now made up of Sarah, Clyde and Rani along with assistance from Mr Smith. Be interesting to see how this new dynamic will work in the adventures to come.

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4.3 The Vault of Secrets Part 1:
Written by Phil Ford.
The animated Doctor Who story Dreamland had featured the mechanical Men In Black and they are featured here in their live action debut.
A very exciting with the Men In Black chasing the girl and it was quite a surprise she was inhabited by the Androvax. In hindsight I should have seen it coming.
Sarah with Mr Smith’s assistance disrupts the Mars probe as she did not want NASA to discover there was an old civilisation. Undoubtedly this was meant to be a reference to the Ice Warriors.
Luke manages to appear briefly here via a video phone on the Internet.
So funny Haresh and Gita being at the BURPES.
Also funny when Clyde said that Ocean and Minty sounded like toothpaste.
A shock when the Androvax when into Rani.
When Sarah decided to help the Androvax out it was only right for Clyde to volunteer for the Androvax to get into him as Sarah and Rani already had their turns.
Very very good cliffhanger of Mr Dread storming into Ocean’s house.

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4.4 The Vault of Secrets Part 2:
Very terrifying when the Androvax went into Gita. One thing that can be said about this is that it was a good opportunity for Mina Anwar (Gita) to deliver a very good dramatic performance.
Amusing when Mr Dread’s car broke down by Sarah. Then the motorist said that Mr Dread should get a new motor, Mr Dread decided to get his. Well the motorist did ask for it.
Sarah gets a little attack from Mr Dread’s severed hand. The attack of the severed hand had happened before in the Whoniverse before to Rose in Rose and Martha in Dead Man Walking.
Amusing when Clyde dons the shades and deliver the line that became well known from Terminator 2.
Like the music in the scene when the Androvax comes back into Sarah.
When Rani, Clyde and Gita meets up with Sarah/Androvax, I would have thought that Rani would have been the one to notice that Sarah did not correct Gita when she called her Sarah instead of Sarah Jane. Perhaps Sarah gave up in correcting Gita about her name.
Impressive on seeing the spaceships in the Vault.
Surprisingly in the end Mr Dread turned not to be a bad a guy as I originally thought.
Not surprised that Gita’s memory of her alien experiences got wiped. Given her enthusiasm, it would have been a nightmare if she had retained her memory of these experiences.
Funny when Clyde called Minty and Ocean, Mulder and Scully in the scene that almost ends this very very enjoyable adventure.

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4.5 Death of the Doctor Part 1:
Written by SJA creator and former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies.
Directed by Ashley Way. Having previously directed on Torchwood & Doctor Who, this marks his SJA debut joining a group of directors to have directed all three current Whoniverse BBC series.
Luke again appears via the computer since leaving home for Oxford.
Sarah is informed by Colonel Karim that the Doctor is dead. Colonel Karim is played by Laila Rouass a former cast member of Primeval which is more like Torchwood than SJA. Laila Rouass is a welcome addition to the Whoniverse.
The Brigadier and surprisingly Liz Shaw gets a mention here. However no mention of Benton and Yates.
Clips of the Third, Fourth (in Pyramids of Mars) and Tenth (including The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith) Doctors are shown here just before finally seeing Katy Manning back as Jo. I have known for a long while how Katy looks like today but her on-screen presence is amazing.
It was during the funerary procession when Sarah and Jo each recount their adventures with the Doctor and Clyde and Rani getting to know Jo’s grandson Santiago that the story has its cheesy moment which brought the quality of this episode to a barely passable mark. To be honest I did not like it that Jo is still married to Cliff. The reason why Jo and Cliff were a couple in The Green Death is because the actors playing them were a couple in real life. Katy and Cliff actor Stewart Bevan have long since parted ways. So by the same token Jo should no longer be married to Cliff. I could say that Russell T Davies wanted to have happy endings in his scripts but this is the same person who came up with Torchwood.
Another fanboy moment was when Jo mentioned Metebelis 3. Jo and Sarah’s stories with the Doctor during the original BBC run mentioned here are the two Peladon stories, Masque of Mandragora, Claws of Axos, Revenge of the Cybermen, Carnival of Monsters, Frontier In Space, Terror of the Zygons and since the Daleks were mentioned by Jo, Day of the Daleks & Planet of the Daleks.
Not really a surprise that there was something dodgy about the Shansheeth.
However a complete surprise hearing the Eleventh Doctor’s voice in Clyde before the two of them switched places.
The cliffhanger was very predictable.