Review: THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES “Revenge of the Slitheen” (S01E02)

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES is what I call a feel-good TV show, and tonight we get two all new episodes. The first one is the conclusion of “Revenge of the Slitheen,” the second one is “Eye of the Gorgon.”

Since I have seen the conclusion from “Revenge of the Slitheen,” I am going to talk about this episode a little bit.

The first episode, which aired last week, sort of set up the new “case” Sarah Jane Smith and her young gang are working on. And for Doctor Who fans, we also got the return of the Slitheen trying to take over Earth,…again.

The conclusion is full of running, fighting, wits, and what you would expect from The Sarah Jane Adventures.

You can sort of guess how it all works out in the end, but of course the fun is in discovering how the gang gets out of these seemingly hopeless situations.

I also would like to mention that the addition of Clyde to the gang is very welcome. Clyde sort of represents us, the audience, as we are trying to grasp this out of this world story, and I think in the future he will prove to be a very good ally.

Even though The Sarah Jane Adventures is no Doctor Who, I think it’s a great and fun show to watch on a Friday night, and the best part is that tonight it is followed by the season 4 premiere of Doctor Who (since last week was really a special Christmas episode). These two shows complement each other perfectly. Plus I am always up for some Alien fighting!

So don’t forget to watch The Sarah Jane Adventures tonight starting at 8pm on Sci-fi, followed by Doctor Who at 9pm.

My Sarah Jane

Back when I was five or six years old, I got to meet Sarah Jane Smith. It was the local summer festival and I got in a queue of kids, with my ten pence in my hand and instructions to give it to her when I got to the head of the queue. When I got there, Sarah Jane was lovely and asked me my name and signed a photo for me. When I looked at it, it said, “To Matthew with love from Liz Sladen,” which was a bit confusing - but, still, I got to meet Sarah Jane Smith!

Sarah Jane Smith remains the longest-running companion to travel with the Doctor in Doctor Who - and, up until the debut of the new version of the show in 2005, she was probably the best loved one as well. Her tenure ran from the first episode of The Time Warrior (on December 15, 1973) to the final episode of The Hand of Fear (on October 23, 1976). The first Doctor Who story I can clearly remember is The Time Warrior (I have vague memories of bits of the season before, but nothing coherent) so Sarah Jane was the first companion I was really aware of. So, just as people tend to refer to the Doctor they grew up with as their Doctor (Tom Baker was my Doctor, even though I caught Jon Pertwee’s last season), Sarah Jane Smith was my companion, my Sarah Jane.

Sarah Jane’s final scene was re-written by the actors, Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, because they didn’t feel the original version was emotional enough. It isn’t the words that make it a beautiful scene, though, it is the way it is played, with what isn’t said being just as important as what is:

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THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES - New on Sci-Fi and Promo

For the Doctor Who fans who can’t get enough adventures, Sci Fi Channel is going to premiere THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES on April 11th.

Why am I talking about it? Well, because The Sarah Jane Adventures is written and produced by the same people behind Doctor Who, including Russell T Davies.

Synopsis: Having traveled the universe with The Doctor, Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) finds life back on Earth is often just as mysterious, exciting and dangerous as exploring time and space in the TARDIS. Together with her new young friends, Maria (Yasmine Paige) and Clyde (David Anthony), and her newly adopted, genetically engineered son, Luke, Sarah Jane comes face to face with a whole host of evil alien monsters with unearthly plans for the human race.

Check out two promos for The Sarah Jane Adventures below.