Are the Sarah Jane Adventures decent?

Discuss!

Not really. The first season was okay in a kiddy kind of way, but I lost interest during season 2 and didn't watch anything afterwards.

That's more than I saw of Torchwood or Class, mind, to be fair.

Despite my fondness for Liz Sladen, my high expectations and the good intentions of the show, I found The Sarah Jane Adventures just a little too twee and touchy-feely.  It was also the product of the same NuWho universe as the rebooted parent show and Torchwood and later still, Class, none of which I actually like. I know it was aimed at a young audience and it became very popular and won awards, but I'm pretty sure I would have disliked it as a kid - it was just a bit too soapy, weepy and soft-centered.  Stuff I enjoyed as a nipper  - UFO, The Tomorrow People, Ace Of Wands, Catweazle, etc, simply didn't have the same kind of in-your-face emotional content/sentimentality that modern genre telly has.

However, in its defense, The Sarah Jane Adventures still had more charm and imagination that Chibnall's Who.

Call me silly but I actually prefer K9 and Co "A Girl's Best Friend".

I'd agree with Kaijuko that they were a bit too twee and insipid. Though they were at least more tasteful than RTD's main show, since they seemed to at least know the tone and audience they were going for. And they were occasionally elevated by Liz Sladen's performance and writers like Gareth Roberts.

Overall I think the best episodes were The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and The Curse of Clyde Langer.

Tanmann wrote:I'd agree with Kaijuko that they were a bit too twee and insipid. Though they were at least more tasteful than RTD's main show, since they seemed to at least know the tone and audience they were going for. And they were occasionally elevated by Liz Sladen's performance and writers like Gareth Roberts.

Overall I think the best episodes were The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and The Curse of Clyde Langer.

Yes, I didn't mind the wedding episodes so much, mostly because of the presence of good old Nigel Havers and Zienia Merton (Ping-Cho from Marco Polo and Sandra Benes in Space 1999).

I thought SJA was splendid. It had the traditional 25 minute/serialised formula, though they rarely branched away from their usual fare (say, a three parter, or a five), it also had more connective tissue to the modern show than Torchwood really bothered with. The kids were all good actors too...and should have graduated to modern series assistants.

.I remember how much of an uproar a version of this place had when RTD added 907 regenerations to the Doctor in a throwaway line in one story. To think back then it was easy to get riled up at the least complicated things compared to the more pressing matters now

Zarius wrote:I remember how much of an uproar a version of this place had when RTD added 907 regenerations to the Doctor in a throwaway line in one story. To think back then it was easy to get riled up at the least complicated things compared to the more pressing matters now

It was still a bloody stupid line, and Russell was a complete clown to put it in.

Worse, it cheapened even bits of his own era. When in Rise of the Cybermen, Tennant's Doctor sacrifices 20 years of his life energy to repower the Tardis, that seemed like a big deal, and conjured the idea that the Doctor was still mortal. The 507 line made it sound like it was nothing and that he might as well be immortal.

I concur with Kaijuko. (Who has now made me want to watch The Tomorrow People!)
That Eye of the Gorgon episode wasn't bad though. Pity it was swathed in all the usual modern TV emo crap.

To be honest, at the time at least compared to RTD'S Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures first season felt at least closer in spirit to the original series and Liz Sladen was excellent and elevated some of the shitty material to a higher standard. Only during the later seasons did it feel like the RTDisms got heavier and more in your face.

Personally, I think that it's absolutely marvellous, and feels far more of a successor to Classic Who, than NewWho could have been. The serialised format allows for each story to actually have time to flesh out the world and characters in one part, and then have fine conclusions in the next, Sarah Jane is the best that she had ever been, and I'm including Classic Who, when I say that. The companions are all marvellous, with Clyde being up there as one of my favourite Who characters of all time. And the stories are all imaginative, and charming, with stories like Warriors of Kudlak, Mark of the Beserker, Eternity Trap, The Empty Planet and Curse of Clyde Langer being stories that I'm always delighted to watch again. Absolutely love it, and I have no qualms calling it the best Who TV spin-off, and it's miles more entertaining and cohesive than Torchwood, Class or K-9 and Company.

Thanks for these responses. Consensus overall is that it seems to have hit a middle ground between the old show and the new one, and been pretty good - perhaps I'll check it out from the start and see if I go for it.

Funny how the 'adult Nu Who' Torchwood, which I've seen in its entirety, seems to be regarded as more infantile than The SJA (with the exception of Children Of Earth). Just goes to show how the franchise does everything backwards!

Indrid Mercury wrote:Only during the later seasons did it feel like the RTDisms got heavier and more in your face.

Why do you make that sound like a bad thing you twot?!?! :e:wtf: vil:

Although a kids series, "Sarah Jane Adventures" actually dealt with adult themes in a far more mature manner than the juvenile "Torchwood". It was better scripted, more coherent and had more consistent characterisation too and was better at keeping closer to NuWho & Classic Who continuity than either NuWho or the other spin-offs came close to.

The 25 minute episodic format just works & is more reminiscent in style to the classic series with it's "bite sized chunks" approach which I personally prefer.

A lot of the best aspects for the Sarah Jane Adventures I think can only be laid at the door of one person and that's Phil Ford who I think was script-editor/writer. Apart from set up the foundations of the series RTD didn't have a great deal else to do with it.

The continuity and character development throughout the series is vastly superior to NuWho, Torchwood and Class put together.

I’ve not watched The Sarah Jane Adventures since 2011, and can barely recall much about it at all. I’m considering re-watching it at some stage, but I’m pondering on whether it’ll be worth it or not. The consensus seems fairly mixed around here.

Same goes for Torchwood, which I only ever saw glimpses of. I’m considering watching it at some point too, but I’m fairly certain based on the responses of you guys that I’ll fucking hate it.

I seem to have no way of streaming either series anywhere, and the only means of obtaining them would be to pay for them, and I don’t know if I can be arsed to do that if I’m not likely to enjoy them. Hmm...

Best spinoff of the three attempts.
Wasn't really my cup of tea, but it was harmless enough.

Worth watching for Anjli Mohindra if for nothing else.

Lord Pertwee's Knob wrote:Best spinoff of the three attempts.
Wasn't really my cup of tea, but it was harmless enough.

Worth watching for Anjli Mohindra if for nothing else.

So gorgeous.

I never really bothered with the series.

The first one - Attack of the Bane or sthg - had Samantha Bond in it so that held my interest, but otherwise i felt the series was a bit too kiddy friendly.

I have looked at some clips on You-Tube where Mat Smith makes an appearance but the scene  came across as plain stupid (he jumps into the body of some kid who follows SJS around and Jo Grant was hanging around acting an idiot for some reason).

stengos wrote:I never really bothered with the series.

The first one - Attack of the Bane or sthg - had Samantha Bond in it so that held my interest, but otherwise i felt the series was a bit too kiddy friendly.

I have looked at some clips on You-Tube where Mat Smith makes an appearance but the scene  came across as plain stupid (he jumps into the body of some kid who follows SJS around and Jo Grant was hanging around acting an idiot for some reason).

Yeah- that episode was distinctly awful from what I remember. It’s the only one I’ve watched within the last 8 years due to it being an extra on the Green Death DVD. Smith’s Doctor came across as much more obnoxious and idiotic than he did in series 5, although this was the only instance in 2010 where he was written by RTD which may explain a few things. Jo Grant’s characterisation fucked me off too, and the agonising piety behind her’s and Sarah’s hero worship of the Doctor in that episode was just unbearably twee.

I do recall many other episodes being more enjoyable, though I’ve admittedly not seen it since I myself was a kid. My stance on it may be completely different now.

Yeah it was shit, that one.

Bernard Marx wrote:Smith’s Doctor came across as much more obnoxious and idiotic than he did in series 5, although this was the only instance in 2010 where he was written by RTD which may explain a few things.

RTD wrote for Smith exactly as he did for Tennant.
Wacky, fast talking slapstick and spastic.
The 507 line was pure RTD/Tennant bollocks, that is meant to be amusing and arbitrary but just comes across as wanky.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:
So gorgeous.

She is rather.

So Russel is writing a 'farewell' episode, nine years after the show's ending...guess he finally remembered that "and the story goes on forever" was too poor a form for him when he's known to be a guy who champions the bittersweet reality of mortality.

It drops tomorrow

I loved Series 1 at the time, but I haven't seen some of those episodes for quite a while. I remember losing interest when Maria left although I tuned in for the episodes where The Doctor appeared. I borrowed the novelization of "The Eye of Gordon" from my local library in 2008 and I believe I taped part one of that story as well as the Siltheen opener on their original broadcast. It wasn't CBBC's best show, but I do remember it being the most popular at the time alongside M.I. High, Tracy Beaker and Shaun The Sheep. Chucklevision and Blue Peter were also fun. Helen Skelton was so gorgeous:





I took all this for granted as a kid. The channel appears to have changed so much since then and not in a good way:



Hardly the most imaginative premise. Kids today deserve better than this vacuous crap. I'm sorry, I've gone completely off topic again. I may watch the SJA again in the future although probably only the first series.

I was basically the same. The whole first series was basically seen through Maria's eyes so when she buggered off it seemed to rather lose the point to me.