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!

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series 1, Episodes 7-8 – “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?” (2007)

New Who has sometimes struggled to hit the right notes with their Doctor- and/or companion-lite episodes. Some of them are absolute bangers, while others fall pretty flat. Hats off to The Sarah Jane Adventures, because the Sarah Jane-lite story in every season is really good. I’m sure it helps to have an ensemble cast instead of just a main duo or trio, so there are more characters to work with when the star has limited screentime. But all these stories are excellent, starting with this one back in series 1.

Overnight, the world changes. Sarah Jane Smith has disappeared from time, and Maria is the only one who remembers her. She’s unsettled by Andrea, the new neighbor living in Sarah Jane’s house that everyone seems to know. Luke is gone, and she and Clyde aren’t friends anymore. This is devastating enough on a personal level, but Maria also knows the world won’t survive long without Sarah Jane there to protect it. So it’s up to her to figure out what happened and find a way to bring Sarah Jane back.

“What would the world be like if this person wasn’t in it?” is a popular storytelling trope. You have your classics, like It’s a Wonderful Life, and new Who does its own take on this story in “Turn Left.” It’s good multiverse fodder, seeing what happens to the fabric of the universe when a single thread is pulled out of the tapestry. This is an interesting version of that story, because it’s not just the removal of Sarah Jane—it’s the addition of Andrea, which deepens the mystery.

Although I cited The Sarah Jane Adventures’ ensemble as an asset that helps the show navigate its Sarah Jane-lite stories, this one is especially Maria-centric. One of the most immediate effects of Sarah Jane’s removal is how it shrinks Maria’s circle of close friends. Sarah Jane wasn’t there to rescue Luke from the Bane, so he’s gone too, and there were no adventures to bring Maria and Clyde together. Clyde still appears in this story, but it’s as a distant acquaintance, a classmate and nothing more—Maria is largely on her own. Even her relationship with her parents is strained here, because her frantic insistence about a non-existent neighbor no one can remember has Alan worried about her mental health. Maria is really isolated, forced to dig deep to solve the mystery and figure out how to fix the world.

Both Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures add some really excellent characters to the larger Whoniverse, but I think the Trickster might be my favorite baddie who’s introduced in the spin-off shows. He’s since been referenced on Torchwood and Doctor Who—there were moments during Fifteen’s first season when I wondered if we were somehow leading up to a Trickster Big Bad reveal, and I was definitely here for it! This is his first appearance in the franchise, and the story does a nice job introducing him and showing us what he’s about.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series 4, Episodes 1-2 – “The Nightmare Man” (2010)

*Serial premise spoilers.*

The series 4 premiere serial is a banger, equal parts creepy and character-driven. Love it!

Thanks to Luke’s “superbrain” (trademark Clyde,) he was able to take his A-levels early, which means he’s going to be headed to university before his friends. His departure for Oxford is now a week away, and he’s worried about leaving home. This fear makes him an appetizing target for the Nightmare Man, a cruel being who feeds on those fears. If he can gain enough power, the Nightmare Man will manifest himself in the real world, trapping people inside eternal bad dreams.

For starters, I need to mention Julian Bleach. He’s an actor who’s achieved the rare Whoniverse hat trick, appearing on Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures. After playing Davros on Doctor Who and a ghostly carnival barker on Torchwood, he’s featured here as the Nightmare Man. He holds nothing back, bringing a super creepy physicality and presence to the story.

One of the classic tried-and-true genre episodes is the ol’ I’m Trapped in My Nightmares/My Nightmares Are Coming to Life story. If done well, it always makes for a high-quality episode. It allows for creative visuals and plenty of spookiness, and what’s more, it’s always interesting to learn what the characters’ worst fears are.

This is very much a Luke-centric story, which is fitting. It’s Tommy Knight’s last regular appearance on the show, so of course they’d want to give him a good sendoff. Luke is a character who’s driven by logic and reason, and over the years, he hasn’t always had a good handle on human emotions. Here, he’s forced to confront a fanciful, illogical horror, something that he can’t work through like a math problem. It doesn’t help that the Nightmare Man gives him his first dreams ever—he’s really thrown into the deep end! At a time when Luke is feeling scared and preemptively homesick, the Nightmare Man plays on those fears and seeks to isolate him even more.

However, while the story gives plenty of focus and attention to Luke, it’s a strong showcase for all the characters. Everyone is dealing with their feelings about Luke leaving, and each of them handles that in a different way. And Luke’s nightmares aren’t the only ones we see—we’re treated to Rani and Clyde’s worst fears as well. I think the show does a really good job of exploring grounded, character-driven fears for them. Rather than easy scares like monsters, spiders, or body horror, their bad dreams are rooted in their personal insecurities and sense of self. But the show still brings those nightmares to life in a way that’s genuinely creepy and unnerving. Very nicely done!