The Sarah Jane Adventures
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Sarah Jane Adventures | |
|---|---|
 The Sarah Jane Adventures title sequence |
|
| Format | Science Fiction Drama |
| Created by | Russell T. Davies |
| Starring | Elisabeth Sladen Yasmin Paige Thomas Knight Daniel Anthony |
| Theme music composer | Murray Gold |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 11 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Phil Collinson Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner |
| Producer(s) | Matthew Bouch |
| Running time | 60 min (special) 25 min (series) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One CBBC Channel |
| Picture format | PAL (576i) |
| Original run | 1 January 2007 – Present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | K-9 and Company |
| Related shows | Doctor Who Torchwood |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British television series, produced by BBC Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T. Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who and focuses on the adventures of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. The series debuted on BBC One with a 60-minute special, entitled "Invasion of the Bane", on 1 January 2007. A full series of ten[1] 25-minute episodes followed, beginning on 24 September 2007.[2] The series consists of five two-part stories[3] and is set in Ealing, London.
A second, 12-part series has been announced by the BBC Press Office.[4] In December 2007, they released a statement saying that Julie Gardner will be replaced by Piers Wenger as Executive Producer for Doctor Who in January 2009, but that she will continue to executive produce Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures through 2008.[5] Elisabeth Sladen has also said she will be filming 24 episodes, beginning sometime in March 2008,[6] meaning that two series would be produced. But Russell T. Davies later announced they were no longer producing two series back-to back.[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Background and development
In 2006, Children's BBC expressed an interest in producing a Doctor Who spin-off. Their initial idea was "a drama based on the idea of a young Doctor Who", but Russell T. Davies vetoed this. "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," said Davies. He suggested instead a series based on the Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith.[7]
The character of Sarah Jane, played by Sladen, appeared in Doctor Who from 1973 to 1976, alongside Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and later Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. A pilot for another Doctor Who spin-off series, K-9 and Company, made in 1981, featured Sarah Jane and the robot dog K-9; however, the option to make a series was not picked up. Sarah Jane and K-9 returned to Doctor Who in various media many times over the years, most notably in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors (1983) and in the 2006 episode "School Reunion".
Sarah Jane is frequently voted the most popular Doctor Who companion by both Doctor Who fans and members of the general public.[8] The prospect of a new television series focusing on Sarah Jane was first rumoured in The Sun in March 2006, prior to the airing of "School Reunion"; the report at that time suggested that Sarah Jane and K-9 would both appear in the series.[9] The fact that a Sarah Jane series was being developed was first confirmed in the BBC's in-house newsletter, Ariel, in early August 2006.[10][11][12] These early rumours were associated with the working title Sarah Jane Investigates.[10]
K-9's only appearances on the show were a cameo in the special and an appearance in the last episode of the series.[13] This is due to the concurrent development of K-9, which is not associated with the BBC and will not feature any Doctor Who connections beyond K-9 himself.[14] However, on the launch of the series on September 24, 2007, Elisabeth Sladen confirmed in an interview on the CBBC channel that K-9 would make a small appearance in the show.[15]
[edit] Production
Production on the full series began in April 2007.[16] Two of the five two-part stories were scripted by the special's co-writer Gareth Roberts. Bad Girls and New Captain Scarlet writer Phil Ford wrote two stories and Phil Gladwin wrote one. Creator and executive producer Russell T. Davies was going to write one story but was forced to drop out due to other work commitments.[17]
[edit] International Broadcast
The Canadian channel BBC Kids began broadcasting The Sarah Jane Adventures with "Invasion of the Bane" on 2008-01-13, airing the rest of the series back-to-back on Sundays thereafter.[18] The South African channel SABC 2 started airing the series beginning 2008-02-09.[19] The Hong Kong's channel ATV World, which has also aired Doctor Who and Torchwood, aired this series starting from 2008-02-17.[20] The series also began airing on Sci Fi in the USA beginning on April 11, 2008.[21]
[edit] Merchandising
Character Options have been awarded a licence to produce Sarah Jane Adventure play sets, action figures, and a 'Sonic Lipstick' toy. They have confirmed this and so far, 4 2-figure sets have been released which are: Sarah Jane and star poet; Sarah Jane and Kudlak; Sarah Jane and baby Slitheen and Sarah Jane and Graske. Also released are Sarah Jane sonic lipstick, scanner watch and alien reader.[22]
[edit] Cast and crew
In addition to Sladen, the programme stars Yasmin Paige as Sarah Jane's 13-year-old neighbour Maria Jackson and Thomas Knight as a boy named Luke, who was adopted by Sarah Jane at the conclusion of the introductory story. Porsha Lawrence Mavour played Maria's friend, Kelsey Harper, in the special but has since been dropped from the show. A 14-year-old called Clyde Langer, played by Daniel Anthony, was introduced in the first episode of the series as her replacement.[23][24] The second series will introduce several new regular cast members.[25] They will be Rani Chandra and her parents, Haresh, and Gita;[25] to be played by Anjli Mohindra, Ace Bhatti, and Mina Anwar respectively.[25]
The 2007 special also featured Samantha Bond as the scheming villain Mrs Wormwood and Jamie Davis as her PR agent Davey. Joseph Millson appeared as Maria's father. The executive producers for The Sarah Jane Adventures are Phil Collinson, Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner. Susie Liggat produced the pilot, but Matthew Bouch worked as producer of the series. Co-writer Gareth Roberts, writing in Doctor Who Magazine, said, "We're all determined that this will be a big, full-blooded drama; that nobody should ever think of it as 'just' a children's programme."[26] The second series will star Bradley Walsh in two episodes which are to be written by Phil Ford,[25] it will also star Russ Abbot in a pair of episodes written by Gareth Roberts.[25]
[edit] Episodes
[edit] New Year special
The Sarah Jane Adventures was first seen by its original British audience in the form of a 60-minute New Year's Day 2007 special, titled "Invasion of the Bane", which was co-written by Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts.[12]
Though it may have appeared so to the viewing audience, "Bane" was not a pilot. Instead, it was a holiday special. Nevertheless, because of the atypical broadcast order - holiday specials in Britain typically air after the regular run of the series to which they're attached - the story had many conventional introductory elements common to pilots. Creator Russell T. Davies has commented upon the exceptional broadcast situation, saying 'Sarah Jane Adventures is slightly unusual in that it was commissioned before we'd written the script. If we'd written a load of rubbish, they'd still have had to make it.' He refers to "Invasion of the Bane" simply as the "first episode"[16].
The story focused on Sarah Jane's investigation of a popular and addictive soft drink called Bubble Shock!.
[edit] Story connections to the Doctor Who universe
Sarah Jane has her own sonic screwdriver, disguised as a lipstick, which she refers to as "sonic lipstick". The official website notes that the Doctor left the lipstick, along with a "watch that scans for alien life" for Sarah Jane hidden inside K-9 Mark IV.[27] The watch is capable of identifying alien species and their home planets,[28] and the sonic lipstick is apparently "useless as a lipstick".[29]
Sarah Jane explains in "Invasion of the Bane" that the programme is set at least a year and a half after the events of "School Reunion".
A clip on BBC website shows that Sarah reported on various incidents from Doctor Who, including the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which were later "revealed" to be mass hallucinations caused by contaminants in the water supply, a reference to Torchwood character Rhys's explanation for the perceived Cybermen invasion. In the New Year special,'"Invasion of the Bane", Maria's father attributed zombie-like behaviour to a chemical leak at the Bubble Shock! factory, triggering hallucinations.
"Invasion of the Bane" featured a "star poet" from the planet Archatine 5, of the same race as Torchwood's "Mary" from "Greeks Bearing Gifts". In the same episode, an engineering drawing of a Tardis is seen on the wall of Sarah Jane's attic.
Doctor Who monsters the Slitheen appear in stories Revenge of the Slitheen (episodes one and two) and The Lost Boy (episodes nine and ten of Series 1 of The Sarah Jane Adventures).[30] They are out for revenge after the events that took place in "Aliens of London" / "World War Three".[31] The Revenge of the Slitheen also has Sarah Jane, in a cellphone conversation with someone from UNIT, say "Give my love to the Brig." a reference to recurring Doctor Who character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. A picture of the Brigadier is also seen in Sarah Jane's Attic in The Invasion of the Bane.
Eye of the Gorgon features references to the Sontarans and Maria's quoting the phrase 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry'. The Graske, featured in the interactive Doctor Who episode, "Attack of the Graske", appeared in the story Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?[32] In the episode Eye of the Gorgon, an advertisement for Henriks department store is seen on the door of the cab in which Chrissie is leaving. Henriks was the shop where Rose Tyler worked and which gets blown up during the events of "Rose". Maria's speech near the end of the first part of Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? bears resemblance to the Doctor's speech from "Bad Wolf". In the story The Lost Boy reference is made to Sarah Jane Smith's association with U.N.I.T.
[edit] Audio adventures
Two audio stories were released in November 2007 on CD: The Glittering Storm by Stephen Cole and The Thirteenth Stone by Justin Richards, with both stories read by series star Elisabeth Sladen. This is the first time that BBC Audiobooks have commissioned new content for exclusive release on audio.[33].
[edit] DVD Releases
| Story title(s) | Country of release | Region | Date of release | DVD company |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invasion of the Bane | United Kingdom |
2 | 29 October 2007 | BBC Children's DVD |
| Revenge of the Slitheen & Eye of the Gorgon | United Kingdom |
2 | 12 January 2009 | BBC Children's DVD |
[edit] References
- ^ "Sarah's Adventures" (2006-11-08 (cover date)). Doctor Who Magazine (375): 4.
- ^ BBC. "Programme Information Network TV Week 39". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-09-07.
- ^ Cook, Benjamin (2007-01-03 (cover date)). "TV Preview: The Sarah Jane Adventures". Doctor Who Magazine (377): 27.
- ^ BBC (2008-02-06). "CBBC unveils new dramas". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ BBC (2007-12-11). "BBC Wales announces new Executive Producer of Doctor Who and Head of Drama". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
- ^ Sarah Jane – The Return. Again. SFX magazine (2008-01-25). Retrieved on 2008-01-25.
- ^ Russell, Gary (2006). Doctor Who:The Inside Story. London: BBC Books, 252. ISBN 0-563-48649-X.
- ^ Doctor Who: Elisabeth Sladen talks. bbc.co.uk (2006-06-07). Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
- ^ Nathan, Sara. "Dr Who's K9 gets a lead", The Sun, 2006-03-04. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
- ^ a b Lyon, Shaun (2006-08-01). Sarah Jane Investigates. Outpost Gallifrey News Page. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
- ^ Wright, Mark (2006-08-02). With apologies.... The Stage. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ a b "SARAH JANE INVESTIGATES!" (2006-09-13 cover date). Doctor Who Magazine (373): 5.
- ^ BBC (2006-09-14). "Russell T Davies creates new series for CBBC, starring Doctor Who's Sarah Jane Smith". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-09-14.
- ^ Nazzaro, Joe. "Who's Sarah Jane Gets Own Show", Sci Fi Wire, Sci Fi Channel, 2006-09-28. Retrieved on 2006-09-28.
- ^ CBBC. Ed Petrie, Elisabeth Sladen. BBC. CBBC Channel, London, England. 2007-09-24.
- ^ a b Hickman, Clayton; Spilsbury, Tom (2007-01-31 cover date). "Writing Sarah". Doctor Who Magazine (378): p. 5.
- ^ Sarah Jane Update.
- ^ Doran, Mike (2007-11-28). Sarah Jane Adventures coming to Canada. The Doctor Who News Page. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
- ^ Elliott, Benjamin F (2008-02-05). SJA on SABC2 South Africa. The Doctor Who News Page. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
- ^ ATV World Schedule. ATV.
- ^ NBC Universal (2008-02-04). "DOCTOR WHO SEASON FOUR AND THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES COMING TO SCI FI CHANNEL IN APRIL". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
- ^ C21 Media (January 30, 2007). "Licensees for Charlie and Lola, Sarah Jane". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-01-30.
- ^ Sarah Jane's new companion. Outpost Gallifrey (2007-05-02). Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
- ^ "News Bites — Sarah's New Friend" (2007-06-27 (cover date)). Doctor Who Magazine (383): 5.
- ^ a b c d e "Untitled section" (28 May 2008 (cover date)). Doctor Who Magazine (395): 12. Panini Comics.
- ^ Roberts, Gareth (2006-11-08 (cover date)). "Production Notes". Doctor Who Magazine (375): 66.
- ^ The Sarah Jane Adventures: Tour.
- ^ BBC - Mr Smith Video Console - Scanner Watch
- ^ BBC - Mr Smith Video Console - Sonic lipstick
- ^ Setchfield, Nick. "Companion Piece", SFX, Issue 161, October 2007, Page 50.
- ^ Slitheen For Sarah Jane. BBC News (2007-09-06). Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
- ^ Arnop, Jason (17 October 2007, released 19 September 2007), Doctor Who Magazine, pp. 18
- ^ The Sarah Jane Audios. BBC Doctor Who website. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
[edit] External links
- The Sarah Jane Adventures at bbc.co.uk
- BBC Norfolk webTV: Elisabeth Sladen previews the Sarah Jane Adventures
- A Brief History of Time (Travel): The Sarah Jane Adventures - News and information page concerning the new series
- The Sarah Jane Adventures at the Internet Movie Database
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