The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series 4, Episodes 9-10 – “Lost in Time”

This is a really neat serial—while it scatters Team Sarah Jane across time, each of the storylines is interesting and engaging in a different way, giving us some nice character stuff for our heroes.

Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Rani meet a mysterious figure known only as the Shopkeeper. He sends them on a mission through time to recover objects made of chronosteel, which have the power to alter the past. But finding the objects is easier said than done. Each of our heroes is thrown into a different period where history hangs in the balance.

I enjoy all three of the stories here. While I love watching the team work together, of course, it’s interesting to see each of them operate on their own. In their separate storylines, we get lots of good variety and a nice mix of mystery, suspense, and drama.

Sarah Jane obviously has plenty of time travel experience, but she’s used to traveling by TARDIS. This time around, she’s thrown into the Victorian era, unable to get back until she accomplishes her mission. She meets a young ghost hunter named Emily, and I like how things shake out with the haunted house Sarah Jane and Emily are exploring.

At this point, Rani has only time traveled once, to the 1950s due to some Trickster shenanigans. Here, she’s sent to the 16th century, where she meets Lady Jane Grey. Naturally, dramatic irony is deployed to maximum effect, since Rani knows exactly what’s going to happen to Jane. Even though Rani’s time in this era is brief, there’s a lovely connection forged between the two girls, and Rani finds herself more concerned with offering what comfort she can to Jane than with finding the chronosteel.

Clyde, meanwhile, gets to time travel for the first time here, and he’s thrown right into the deep end! He ends up in the countryside during WWII, where he has to recover the chronosteel and foil a secret German plot, not to mention stare down a literal Nazi who’s racist to him. This is a dangerous time in history for him, for all sorts of reasons, but he buckles down and gets to work.

All three stories are so different: the setting and subject matter, the way each member of Team Sarah Jane responds to their situation, and how the chronosteel is introduced. But all three deliver on the action, the humor, and the emotion. All around, a great story!