So we now come to the more child orientated Doctor Who spin-off starring one of the best of the Doctor's companions, Sarah-Jane Smith (played by the late Elizabeth Sladen) who like with Jack, had her own adventures dealing with alien beings, but she's not alone as she takes on some young companions to help her. Now as nearly all the episodes are split into 2 parts, I'll address each of them as one whole episode so let's begin:
Before we begin, just a side note which I forgot to mention in the schedule post that I'm not doing any reviews of the K-9 animated TV show as I've never seen it and have no intention of seeing it, but I may review it at a later time if requested.
The Invasion of Bane
In the pilot episode of this series (and also the only episode to be one whole episode), it begins by introducing us to a girl named Maria Jackson (played by Yasmin Paige) who is moving into a house with her divorced father Alan (played by Joesph Millson), which is opposite to Sarah-Jane's house. The following day, Maria joins a newly found friend of hers (who only ever appears in this episode) and goes on a tour of a factory that produce a drink known as "Bubble Shock!". Sarah-Jane overhears this and goes to the factory as well to interview the boss, Mrs Wormwood (played by Samantha Bond) as she suspects something is up and the episode basically from there is just stopping the production of the drink before it, you guessed it, takes over the world, with some new found friends along the way. As a pilot episode, I thought it managed to establish the characters very well and had a pretty good story as well. Its not the best story in the world, or even the most creative, but its still pretty good. 7/10
Revenge of the Slitheen
As the name suggests, we get to see an old enemy of the Doctor's (but not too old), the Slitheen from a planet that has a long name that I can't be bothered to read (Its their family name and while they don't have an official name, the majority of us would just call them Slitheen). On their first day of school, Maria and Sarah-Jane's newly adopted son Luke (played by Tommy Knight) notice that the staff are acting very strangly and with the help of Sarah-Jane and their new friend Clyde Langer (played by Daniel Anthony) quickly identify them as Slitheen who as with before are wanting to destroy the world for profit using the sun. Can they be stopped, again? Watch to find out. Now to begin with, I don't really see the point of having all the episodes split into 2 halves. What's wrong with just a whole hour? But anyway, this is a nice comeback for the Slitheen because after their success in Doctor Who, they would be better off here in this show and for their first appearance in the show, it's actually very good, but some of the time, it can get predictable on what happens in it. 8/10
Eye of the Gorgon
Sarah-Jane and Co, head for a place called Lavender Lawns as they have been hearing claims of a ghostly nun. They discover that a group of nuns are using a monster called the Gorgon who will turn anything that it sees into stone. Can this group of nuns be stopped and what hope do the old folks at Lavender Lawns have because of this? As always, watch to find out. I was actually liking this story up until the point where we find out what the Gorgon is and well, its just a monster that is based on I think, Greek mythology and it's not really a creative monster, if you think about it. 7/10
Warriors of Kudlak
A new laser tag centre called Combat 3000 opens near the area which Sarah-Jane lives in which for some odd reason, people go in, but no one comes out. Clyde tries to teach Luke the ways of becoming a humouros person, but fails. It turns out that Luke also doesn't understand games and so Clyde takes him to Combat 3000, not knowing of the kidnapping. What really is this Combat 3000 and can Clyde and Luke escape? I won't say it anymore because I know it gets annoying so yeah. This episode was more action packed than before which is a good thing and its also great to see some character development going on as well. 8/10
Whatever Happened to Sarah-Jane?
This episode explores the idea of a world without Sarah-Jane and that's basically what it is. Sarah-Jane comes across a puzzle box which she bought from a visiting alien who gives her the instruction to remember. She passes it onto Maria and after a meteor crash comes about (which Sarah-Jane was supposed to use a forcefield for), Maria wakes up to a world where nobody has heard of a Sarah-Jane Smith or her son Luke Smith with a woman by the name Andrea Yates (played by Jane Asher) taking her place. Can Maria find and bring back Sarah-Jane before its too late? This again is not that creative as its very predictable. You know she comes back because there will be no show without her, but I do give the episode credit for giving us a character development fest which works well. 8/10
The Lost Boy
After what happened in the last episode, Alan Jackson (Maria's father) decides that he now wants to be a part of the stuff that Maria and Sarah-Jane do which Maria reluctantly allows him to do. Meanwhile, there is a news report on a lost boy and what a shock, it turns out that the boy is actually Luke, but under the name Ashley. Chrissie (who is Alan's former wife, making her Maria's mum and is played by Juliet Cowan) calls the police to have her arrested and hand Luke over to his real parents. However as Sarah-Jane is an ally of UNIT, she gets released almost immediately. Things seem to be normal from there, but does Luke even have real parents or was he solely made by the Bane? I think the above picture might give it away so I do apologise about that. This was more of a hatful episode which shows absolutely no love towards any of the characters. Its just anger and bossiness all around. However, as the second half kicked in, it was better in that it was back to what the show is all about and I thought it was a good finish to the first series. 8/10
So for the series as a whole, it won't be everybody's cup of tea, but at least it shows us what Sarah-Jane gets up to while The Doctor is on his adventures in time and space (and don't worry, he does appear in 2 episodes of this show later on). As for me personally, its not bad, but its not as great as people would expect it to be. 8/10
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