106-435: The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC , created by Russell T Davies , and starring Elisabeth Sladen . The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who and is aimed at a younger audience than Doctor Who . It focuses on the adventures of Sarah Jane Smith , an investigative journalist who, as
212-553: A 26-part series, then titled K9 Adventures and set in space. This announcement, timed to coincide with K9's return to Doctor Who in the episode " School Reunion ", was picked up in the British media and Doctor Who fan press. In 2007, Park Entertainment revealed that the main setting for the series (by then retitled K-9 ) would be the Platte , "an old Prairie-class spacecraft" once used for asteroid colonization. In addition to K9,
318-533: A 35-minute adapted extract of the play R.U.R. , written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek , was broadcast live from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios. Concerning a future world in which robots rise up against their human masters, it was the only piece of science fiction to be produced before the television service was suspended for the duration of the war. Only a few on-set publicity photographs survive. R.U.R.
424-459: A MP3 audio track was available to download of the comics. An online version of The Silver Bullet , presented, in full, a comic written and drawn by Clyde and briefly seen in, the episode The Curse of Clyde Langer . The Sarah Jane Adventures merchandising revived the concept of the novelisation, which had been part of the Doctor Who franchise from the 1970s to the 1990s (principally under
530-482: A Professor Gryffen, who is experimenting with a Space-Time Manipulator, and 15-year-old Darius who runs errands for Gryffen. K9 Mark I follows the villainous reptilian warrior Jixen who came through a space-time portal created by the professor's experiments and saves the Londoners. While protecting them, K9 is forced to self-destruct, but is able to give Starkey instructions to rebuild him in a more advanced form. K9 and
636-504: A four-part pilot series provisionally called The Adventures of K9 . The magazine stated that the pilot would be filmed that year "on a 'seven-figure' budget", and that the BBC had expressed interest in purchasing the broadcast rights. However, funding proved elusive, and despite persistent rumours, the series remained in " development hell " for many years. In 2006, Jetix Europe announced that they were "teaming up" with Baker, Tams, and London-based distributor Park Entertainment to develop
742-526: A new main character named Sky, played by Sinead Michael. The episode that introduced Sky also featured a return appearance by the Shopkeeper, but the fact that the second half of the series was never produced left his story arc, as well as other ongoing plot points, unresolved. A special edition of Doctor Who Magazine , The Sarah Jane Companion Volume 3 , published in August 2012, detailed the plotlines of
848-502: A profile reminiscent of the earlier series at its peak. Perhaps the most high-profile of those behind the movement to return Doctor Who to the screens was writer Russell T Davies , who worked in the BBC children's department earlier in his career and contributed to British TV science fiction there. Davies' first sci-fi serial was the six-part Dark Season (1991), which co-starred a young Kate Winslet as well as former Blake's 7 star Jacqueline Pearce . Two years later, Davies wrote
954-508: A protracted production deal before bringing back the series in a reboot titled K9 Adventures . In April 2016, Bob Baker stated in an interview posted on K9 OFFICIAL PAGE on Facebook that the TV series will not continue and they will for now just focus on the TimeQuake film. On 24 October 2015, Bob Baker and Paul Tams announced the film K9: TimeQuake which was destined for cinemas in 2017 and
1060-626: A science-fiction adventure series focusing on the adventures of the robot dog K9 from the television show Doctor Who , achieved by mixing computer animation and live action. It is aimed at an audience of 11- to 15-year-olds. A single series of the programme was made in Brisbane, Australia , with co-production funding from Australia and the United Kingdom. It aired in 2009 and 2010 on Network Ten in Australia, and on Disney XD in
1166-466: A second series was in development. A new design of K9 for series 2 was scheduled to be unveiled by Bob Baker and Paul Tams at the Who Shop on 27 July 2013. Bob Baker told an interviewer in 2014, "Paul and I are in process of getting another series going. Hope it doesn’t take another eleven years!". Paul Tams revealed on a Kickstarter page for his proposed Marti series that he and Baker are sitting out
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#17327913925131272-536: A second, much more complex serial called Century Falls (1993). ITV contributed a new version of The Tomorrow People (1992–1994) made as an international co-production with US and Australian companies, and there were various other child-oriented sci-fi type series such as ITV's Mike & Angelo (1989–1999) and the BBC's Watt on Earth (1991), although these lacked the crossover adult appeal that Davies' shows had possessed. Interest in making British TV science fiction seemed to return to broadcasters towards
1378-424: A secondary element. The industry's shift to drama productions being entirely mounted on film rather than using the film/video "hybrid" form, with increased costs, edged out genre's thought marginal. Perhaps the last original series of its kind in the multi-camera era of BBC science fiction was Star Cops (1987), which ran for only nine episodes to poor viewing figures on the corporation's second channel, BBC2 . It
1484-494: A sequel boxset set to release in January 2024 titled The Revenge of Wormwood with Mrs Wormwood ( Samantha Bond ) to reprise her role as the villain from the television series. The second boxset will also feature the return of Luke Smith ( Tommy Knight ). The Sarah Jane Adventures has been generally well received by critics and the viewing public. At the end of the first series, Abi Grant of The Daily Telegraph wrote: "With
1590-431: A serial form), was Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982). The tale of two "time detectives" played by David McCallum and Joanna Lumley , Sapphire & Steel was an atmospheric piece of television, although its production run was often hampered by the unavailability of its two leads. Longer-running science-fiction series became few and far between. Although Doctor Who was still running, in terms of audience, it
1696-401: A time travel drama Life on Mars (BBC 2006–2007), Eleventh Hour (ITV 2008–2009), Primeval (ITV 2007–2011), and in 2009 a new story for Red Dwarf , now shown exclusively on Dave rather than the BBC, followed by Red Dwarf X in 2012. A short-lived but lively show, Dirk Gently , was adapted from Douglas Adams' book in 2010. K9 (TV series) K9 is
1802-533: A total of twelve episodes, with Russell T Davies serving as executive producer, aired from 15 October 2009 to 20 November 2009. The fourth series was aired from 11 October 2010. An episode of another spin-off series, Sarah Jane's Alien Files , was shown immediately after each of the first episodes of the stories. Filming for three of six two-part serials planned for the fifth series was completed prior to Elisabeth Sladen 's death on 19 April 2011. The BBC stated that no further episodes would be filmed. The fifth series
1908-536: A tribute to Elisabeth Sladen . During this story, it was implied that Sarah Jane had been killed while preventing an alien invasion. As such, a memorial service was held, attended by Luke, Clyde, Rani, Sky and Maria, accompanied by their friends and families (among them several of the Doctor's former companions). Apart from an interruption from, and final confrontation with, the Trickster, the memorial went smoothly, and
2014-482: A tribute to Elisabeth Sladen in the form of a video montage of scenes from the series and a couple of episodes of Doctor Who and the ending text "And the story goes on... forever." The script of the unfilmed Sarah Jane Adventures episode "The Thirteenth Floor" was rewritten and broadcast as an episode of Wizards vs Aliens . On 19 April 2020 a special 13-minute webcast mini episode entitled Farewell, Sarah Jane aired on Doctor Who 's social media channels as
2120-501: A young woman, had numerous adventures across time and space with the Doctor . Following Sladen's death in 2011, the BBC confirmed that the show would not return for a sixth series. The series debuted on BBC One with a 60-minute special, " Invasion of the Bane ", on 1 January 2007, and broadcast until Sladen's death in 2011. It was nominated for a British Academy Children's Award in 2008 in
2226-462: Is 14-year-old Clyde Langer, played by Daniel Anthony , who is introduced in the first episode of the full series. Actress Porsha Lawrence Mavour briefly played Maria's friend, Kelsey Hooper , in the 2007 New Year's Day special Invasion of the Bane which was created before the start of the series. Maria and her family are written out of the series in the first story of the second series, The Last Sontaran , but Maria and her father return briefly in
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#17327913925132332-449: Is also the first piece of British television science fiction to partially survive, albeit only in the form of poor-quality telerecordings of its first two episodes. The second serial Quatermass II (1955) is the earliest BBC science fiction production to exist in its entirety. Kneale could not rely on sophisticated special effects to convey his narratives. Instead, he based his stories around characterization and characters' reactions to
2438-629: Is being overseen by Baker; the television series concept was developed by Australian writers Shane Krause and Shayne Armstrong, in association with Baker and Paul Tams. Krause and Armstrong are the primary writers for the series; four episodes were written by Queensland writer Jim Noble. The series is produced by Penny Wall and Richard Stewart of Stewart & Wall Entertainment Pty Ltd, and Simon Barnes of Park Entertainment. Grant Bradley of Daybreak Pacific and Jim Howell serve as executive producers. Michael Carrington, head of animation and programme acquisitions for BBC Children's, told Broadcast that
2544-484: Is played by Canadian character actor Robert Moloney . Recurring cast members include Robyn Moore as Jorjie's mother June Turner, and Connor Van Vuuren as Inspector Drake, later replaced by Jared Robinsen as Inspector Thorne. The first episode aired as a sneak preview of the series on Halloween 2009 on satellite channel Disney XD in the UK & Ireland. The full series later aired on Network Ten in Australia, Disney XD in
2650-672: Is the only series broadcast on American television as of Summer 2010, though later series have continued to be released on DVD in America without a prior television broadcast. In Australia, The Sarah Jane Adventures started on 31 October 2008 on Nickelodeon Australia . In Brazil, the show started airing on 19 November 2012 on TV Cultura , right after their broadcast of Doctor Who series 6 ended. It also screens in New Zealand on Nickelodeon New Zealand, and in Belgium on Ketnet . In 2013
2756-500: The Adventurer The Sarah Jane Adventures cards saw the series expanded once more by the inclusion of this popular spin-off series which frequently crossed-over to the parent series. The Adventurer series consisted of 10 individual Common cards referenced by the prefix SJA, cards also showed their individual series number 01-10 Ten audiobooks have been released on CD, all but the last two read by
2862-597: The Cheetah People of Survival in that each humanoid species looks superficially like a non-humanoid terrestrial mammal ( rhinoceros and cheetah , respectively). The series format was based upon the short "alien files" clips previously produced for the CBBC's The Sarah Jane Adventures website. The series is similar to the Doctor Who spin-off Monster Files . British television science fiction British television science fiction refers to programmes in
2968-559: The Dalek race for Doctor Who in 1963, assuring much of its early popularity. For the rest of the 1960s, Nation concentrated on writing for ITV film series, but in the early 1970s he returned to science fiction, contributing Dalek stories to Doctor Who again from 1973 to 1975 and in 1975 creating his own science-fiction series, Survivors (1975–1977). It ran for three seasons and was generally well received. Nation followed Survivors with Blake's 7 (1978–1981). Pitched by him as "
3074-553: The Dave Hollins: Space Cadet sketches introduced on Grant and Naylor's 1984 BBC Radio 4 show Son of Cliché . The original version of Doctor Who lasted until 1989. Apart from a television movie in 1996, Doctor Who did not re-emerge in a bigger-budget version until 2005. Affected by rights issues for some years, many of those behind the new series were fans of the show when they were younger. Doctor Who returned to television screens on 26 March 2005, gaining
3180-616: The Doctor Who Magazine , focused on the Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as regular mentions in the standard editions of Doctor Who Magazine . Sarah Jane's Alien Files is a BBC series based on The Sarah Jane Adventures . It features the characters Sarah Jane Smith , Luke Smith , Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra entering data on aliens they have encountered during their adventures into Mr Smith , Sarah Jane's extraterrestrial computer, to benefit humanity in
3286-508: The Quatermass tradition of allegorical storytelling ( Nigel Kneale was invited, but declined to contribute scripts to the programme), it used its science-fiction basis to try to convey real warnings about the state of the world, as well as telling tense, dramatic stories and not being afraid of shocking its audience, such as in the killing off of popular lead character Toby Wren (played by Robert Powell ). Writer Terry Nation had created
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3392-643: The Australian Writers Guild AWGIEs for their script for the episode "The Fall of the House of Gryffen". The episode was also a nominee in the category for Best Children's Television in that year. In 2009, Shayne Armstrong and SP Krause were also nominated as finalists in the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for Best Television Script for the episode "Regeneration". In 2010, Tony O'Loughlan, director of photography for
3498-499: The BBC had declined the opportunity to be involved in the production of a K9 series, saying, "As the BBC is already committed to a number of spin-off projects, we concluded that a K9 series may simply be an extension too far." BBC-owned characters like the Doctor will not appear in the series, due to rights considerations. In July 2007, the Australian Film Finance Corporation approved funding for
3604-461: The Bane " on 13 January 2008, airing the rest of the series back-to-back on Sundays thereafter. The South African channel SABC 2 started airing the series beginning on 9 February 2008. The Hong Kong channel ATV World , which has also aired Doctor Who and Torchwood , aired this series starting 17 February 2008. The first series began airing on Sci Fi in the USA beginning on 11 April 2008, but this
3710-590: The Bane" simply as the "first episode". The story focused on Sarah Jane's investigation of a popular and addictive soft drink called Bubble Shock! Series one of the show aired in September of that year, consisting of five two-part half-hour stories. Individual half-hour episodes aired once a week on BBC One , with episodes airing a week ahead on children's digital channel CBBC . The final part aired in November 2007. The second series started in September 2008 using
3816-406: The Bane" was not a pilot, although the story does contains many conventional introductory elements common to pilots. Creator Russell T Davies has commented upon the exceptional broadcast situation, saying " Sarah Jane Adventures is slightly unusual in that it was commissioned before we'd written the script. If we'd written a load of rubbish, they'd still have had to make it." He refers to "Invasion of
3922-515: The Dirty Dozen in space," Blake's 7 originally revolved around righteous freedom fighter Roj Blake, his battle with a corrupt Galactic Federation, and the ragtag group of pirates, criminals, and smugglers who are reluctantly forced to work with him after an escape from a prison ship. Running for four seasons, the early evening series had a hard edge. The moral ambiguity of the leading characters made them interesting, and as with Doomwatch , it
4028-543: The Doctor (2010). The latter episode also guest stars Katy Manning as Jo Jones (née Grant) , reprising the role she played alongside the Third Doctor ( Jon Pertwee ) between 1971 and 1973. The episode Sky was originally to have featured Smith, but scheduling prevented his appearance. Nicholas Courtney appears as Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in Enemy of the Bane (2008), his final appearance as
4134-704: The Drama category, and for a BAFTA Cymru in 2009 in the Children's Drama category. The programme won a Royal Television Society 2010 award for Best Children's Drama. As of 2024, all of the series are on BBC iPlayer and also Max (streaming service) in the US. A full series of ten 25-minute episodes began on 24 September 2007. The first series consisted of five two-part stories, and a second series, comprising six two-part stories, began airing on 29 September 2008. A third series, once again comprising six two-part stories to make
4240-485: The Mysterons (1967–1968), and Joe 90 (1968–1969). Their success led his backers ITC to finance the live-action shows Anderson most wanted to develop. The first of these was UFO (1970–1971), which featured American actor Ed Bishop as the head of an undercover military organization with responsibility for combating aliens who came to Earth in the eponymous spacecraft. A planned second season
4346-538: The UK & Ireland, Scandinavia, Poland, Italy and The Netherlands; and Disney Channel CEE in Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. It was subsequently syndicated around the globe, including on Channel 5 in the UK and on Cartoon Network in New Zealand. In the UK, Channel 5 broadcast the first series between December 2010 and April 2011. The US cable channel Syfy began airing
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4452-493: The UK, as well as being broadcast on other Disney XD channels in Europe. K9's co-creator Bob Baker (like several 20th century Doctor Who creators) had contractually retained particular IP rights from the TV episode scripts co-written with Dave Martin and had long sought to produce a television series starring the character. Indeed, in 1997 Doctor Who Magazine announced that Baker and producer Paul Tams were producing
4558-854: The Unknown (1965–1971), which ran for four seasons. Some of the ITV companies were imitating American styles of production, shooting some of their series on film rather than in the multi-camera electronic studio, for lucrative sales in the "international" market. One producer who was keen to make science fiction for the commercial network was Gerry Anderson , who initially used puppets for his shows. His science fiction shows in Supermarionation include Supercar (1961–1962), Fireball XL5 (1962–1963), Stingray (1964–1965), Thunderbirds (1965–1966), Captain Scarlet and
4664-481: The character prior to his death in 2011. Various newsreader characters who appear across Davies' tenure as Doctor Who showrunner also appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures , namely Lachele Carl and Trinity Wells , Jason Mohammad and Anthony Debaeck. Numerous others have been referenced in dialogue. Several former companions of the Doctor are referenced in the story Death of the Doctor , and
4770-462: The characters would include Slocum, a thirty-something "space gypsy", and Djinn, "an overactive computer module in the shape of an attractive young woman". This early premise was abandoned before production began in Australia. Each episode of K-9 is approximately 25 minutes long, made for Disney XD (formerly Jetix) and Network Ten by Stewart & Wall Entertainment, in association with London-based distribution company Park Entertainment. The project
4876-464: The debate about the future of children's TV still rumbling on, this is what the BBC does best, and despite lacking the production values of Doctor Who , it's still top tea-time programming." Daniel Martin of The Guardian described the show as looking very promising and more convincing than another Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood . Review website DVD Talk called the series "wonderful", "thoughtful" and "imaginative children's entertainment" that
4982-589: The early 1960s. A proponent for such experimentation was Canadian-born producer Sydney Newman , who had become Head of Drama at ABC . He produced the science-fiction serial Pathfinders in Space (1960) and its sequels Pathfinders to Mars (1960) and Pathfinders to Venus (1961) and oversaw the science-fiction anthology series Out of This World (1962), the first of its kind in the UK. ITV also made an attempt at children's science fiction, with its short-lived programme Emerald Soup (1963), which coincidentally aired
5088-605: The early part of the decade there were several serials produced, albeit mainly by the BBC; the bought-in series mainly aired on ITV. Adaptations of novels such as The Day of the Triffids (1981), The Invisible Man (1984), and The Nightmare Man (1981, from the novel Child of the Vodyanoi ) were produced, and the BBC began an adaptation of The White Mountains novels under the name The Tripods (1984–1985). The Tripods had run for two of its planned three series when it
5194-447: The editorship of author and former Who script editor Terrance Dicks). The first series and most of the second were adapted in this way, but later series saw only a few releases and a transition from print to e-books. In September 2010, Pearson Education published four simplified novelisations based on stories from the third series: Although there has never been a Sarah Jane Adventures magazine there have been three special editions of
5300-455: The episode also includes brief on-screen flashbacks showing the Third , Fourth and Tenth Doctors. Companion Harry Sullivan is referenced separately in dialogue on several occasions and a photograph of the character is visible in one episode. In an issue of Doctor Who Magazine , Sophie Aldred was read an email from Russell T. Davies, in which he declared his plans to bring Ace into a story had
5406-584: The event that Sarah Jane is no longer capable of defending the Earth against alien threats. Each episode is a clip show summarising the events of episodes in which the featured aliens appeared. The only new footage is the framing and narration, shot entirely on the series' standing attic set. Occasionally, brief clips from Doctor Who are included for context, such as in Episode 6 when the Judoon are compared to
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#17327913925135512-552: The final series were sympathetic for the series' end and the unavoidably incomplete nature of the series (following the death of Elisabeth Sladen) and its story arcs. Stephen Kelly from The Guardian said that it was "a fitting tribute to Elisabeth Sladen" and has occupied a "unique place in the Whoniverse ". BBC Worldwide's children's channel in Canada, BBC Kids , began broadcasting The Sarah Jane Adventures with " Invasion of
5618-476: The first episode, the robot dog is damaged and undergoes a " regeneration " into a new, more advanced form capable of flight. He then explains that most of his memory was damaged, so he cannot remember anything about himself or his past. The decision to launch the show in Australia on 3 April, the launch date for Doctor Who' s " The Eleventh Hour ", which introduced Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor ,
5724-912: The first series as Maria's recently separated father, Alan, with Chrissie Jackson , Maria's mother, played by Juliet Cowan . One other regular is Alexander Armstrong of comedy duo Armstrong and Miller , who provides the voice of Mr Smith , an extraterrestrial computer in Sarah Jane's attic. The 2007 special featured Samantha Bond as the scheming villain Mrs Wormwood and Jamie Davis as her PR agent Davey . The first series included among its guest cast Jane Asher as Sarah Jane's childhood friend Andrea Yates , Floella Benjamin as Professor Rivers , who returned in Series 2, Series 3 and Series 5, and Phyllida Law as Bea Nelson-Stanley . The second series guest starred Bradley Walsh as an evil alien clown in
5830-518: The five two-part stories were scripted by the special's co-writer Gareth Roberts. Bad Girls and New Captain Scarlet writer Phil Ford wrote two stories and Phil Gladwin wrote one. Creator and executive producer Russell T Davies was going to write one story but was forced to drop out due to other work commitments. For the tenth anniversary of the show, an event was held 29 July 2017 at Cardiff University Students' Union, with proceeds going to Ty Hafan Hospice for Children . A total of £6643.35
5936-423: The general public. That a Sarah Jane series was being developed was first confirmed in the BBC's in-house newsletter, Ariel , in early August 2006. These early rumours were associated with the working title Sarah Jane Investigates . K9's only appearances in the show's first two series were a cameo in the special and an appearance in the last episode of the first series. This was due to the concurrent development of
6042-519: The genre that have been produced by both the BBC and Britain's largest commercial channel, ITV . BBC's Doctor Who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world, and has been called the "most successful" science fiction series of all time. The first known science fiction television programme was produced by the BBC 's pre-war television service. On 11 February 1938,
6148-546: The group prepare to leave 13 Bannerman Road once more. Rani, however, stays behind, and, in her final conversation with Mr. Smith, expresses her hopes that Sarah Jane is travelling with the Doctor (who was absent, since her death would have broken both his (or her) hearts, according to Jo Grant) once again. It was written by Russell T Davies. The story acted as an epilogue to the series narrated by Jacob Dudman and featured Tommy Knight , Daniel Anthony , Anjli Mohindra , Katy Manning , Mina Anwar all in their respective roles from
6254-658: The highest television ratings since the coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. It was so controversial that it was debated in Parliament, and campaigners tried to have the second performance the following Thursday banned. The BBC's Head of Drama, Michael Barry , refused to concede. Science fiction productions were rare and almost always one-offs. A for Andromeda (1961, starring a young Julie Christie ) and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough (1962) were exceptions. ITV , Britain's first commercial television network, explored science fiction for programming purposes in
6360-453: The humans then form the front line defence against alien menaces from outer space and other times. The Brisbane Times reports that the series is set in London in the year 2050 and Professor Gryffen is employed by a clandestine government agency, "The Department". The design of K9 is noticeably different from that seen in Doctor Who because although Bob Baker owns the character rights to K9,
6466-489: The independently produced children's series, K9 , which features a remodelled version of K9 with only indirect nods to Doctor Who . In 2009, K9 appeared with The Sarah Jane Adventures cast in a sketch for Comic Relief , and K9 appeared in six episodes of the third series, followed by two more appearances in the fourth series. He did not appear at all in Series 5. Production on the full series began in April 2007. Two of
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#17327913925136572-465: The late 1990s to mid-2000s. For example, Aquila (1997–1998 ), based on the novel by Andrew Norriss , and Jeopardy (2002–2004), which won the 2002 BAFTA for Best Children's Drama. A "live" remake of The Quatermass Experiment was broadcast on BBC Four on 2 April 2005. Various series have followed the new success of Doctor Who , including two spin-offs entitled Torchwood (2006–2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011),
6678-658: The middle of the 1990s, as companies began to see the possibility of lucrative overseas sales and tie-in products that other genres could not match. In the mid-1990s, the BBC screened four seasons of the glossy sci-fi action-adventure series Bugs (1995–1998), made by independent company Carnival. They co-produced the six-part serial Invasion: Earth (1998) with the US Sci-Fi Channel , and ITV began to market British sci-fi again with serials such as The Uninvited (1997) and The Last Train (1999). The BBC also produced several children's science fiction shows in
6784-533: The mystery and intrigue of who he is and where he came from," said Davies. He suggested instead a series based on the Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith. The character of Sarah Jane Smith, played by Sladen, appeared in Doctor Who from 1973 to 1976, alongside both Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor . A pilot episode for another Doctor Who spin-off series, K-9 and Company , made in 1981, featured Sarah Jane and
6890-437: The original The Tomorrow People (1973–1979). Although it presented some intriguing (if bizarre) storylines, it never rivaled Doctor Who , possibly because, unlike the BBC programme, it attempted to identify with children by featuring children, thus making the crossover appeal to an adult audience much more difficult. A more respected show, produced by ATV in a similar manner to Doctor Who (i.e., on videotape using
6996-420: The original character design is owned by the BBC. As this was not a BBC production, direct references to Doctor Who were not legally allowed for rights reasons. However, Baker and Tams have confirmed that this K9 is the original K9 Mark I, who appeared in Doctor Who from The Invisible Enemy (1977) to The Invasion of Time (1978). This model was last seen in the possession of Leela on Gallifrey ; in
7102-636: The pilot, but Matthew Bouch worked as producer of the series. Co-writer Gareth Roberts , writing in Doctor Who Magazine , said, "We're all determined that this will be a big, full-blooded drama; that nobody should ever think of it as 'just' a children's programme." Sue Nott was the executive producer of the second series for CBBC . In December 2007, the BBC released a statement that Julie Gardner would be replaced by Piers Wenger as executive producer for Doctor Who in January 2009, but that she would continue to executive-produce Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures through 2008. The fourth series in 2010
7208-414: The programme. Due to the illness of Elisabeth Sladen, and her death on 19 April 2011, filming for the second half of the fifth series, which was due to air in the autumn of 2011, was postponed and later cancelled. Filming for three stories of the fifth series had been finished, and thus post-production on these stories was completed. The final series was aired from 3 to 18 October 2011 on CBBC and ended with
7314-416: The public consciousness. Various Doctor Who alumni had moved on to produce their own acclaimed genre programmes. The series' former scientific adviser Kit Pedler and former script editor Gerry Davis collaborated to create Doomwatch (1970–1972), a series that recounted the story of a governmental scientific group formed to investigate and combat ecological and scientific threats to humankind. In
7420-530: The range due to lack of customer interest. The Adventurer The Sarah Jane Adventures series of Doctor Who: Battles in Time trading cards was a bonus set of 10 limited edition, additional cards (plus one cover card) released exclusively with Issue 62 and packaged in a clear plastic wrap. With the Doctor Who: Battles in Time (magazine) being extended beyond its original number of proposed issues,
7526-455: The robot dog K9 ; a full series was never commissioned. Sarah Jane and K9 returned to Doctor Who in various media many times over the years, most notably in the 20th anniversary special " The Five Doctors " (1983), and in episodes " School Reunion " (2006), " The Stolen Earth " / " Journey's End " (2008) and " The End of Time " (2010). Sarah Jane is frequently voted the most popular Doctor Who companion by both Doctor Who fans and members of
7632-533: The same format, with six stories instead of five, ending the series in December. The third series started 15 October 2009, twice weekly (Thursdays and Fridays) on BBC One from 15 October to 20 November. The fourth series aired from 11 October 2010. The first of each story pair was accompanied by an episode of Sarah Jane's Alien Files , a set of 25-minute episodes in which a member of the cast updates Mr. Smith's database about certain aliens. It accompanied series 4 of
7738-473: The same night that Doctor Who premiered. Two important events for the future of British television science fiction occurred in 1962. The first was that the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, Eric Maschwitz , commissioned Head of the Script Department, Donald Wilson , to prepare a report on the viability of producing a new science-fiction series for television. The second was that Sydney Newman
7844-438: The schedules is going to be keenly felt." — David Brown of Radio Times on the last series. At Metacritic , the first series received a generally favourable score of 66 out of 100 based on five critics. As the series progressed reviews became slightly more positive with DVD Talk reviewer David Cornelius saying that the "second series is even better than the first." However Eric Profancik from DVD Verdict stated that
7950-647: The second part of The Mark of the Berserker . In the second story of that series, The Day of the Clown , several new regular cast members are introduced: Rani Chandra and her parents, Haresh , and Gita (played by Anjli Mohindra , Ace Bhatti , and Mina Anwar , respectively). This happened as the character Alan Jackson ( Joseph Millson ) left the series, along with Chrissie ( Juliet Cowan ) and Maria Jackson ( Yasmin Paige ). Joseph Millson appears throughout
8056-428: The second series suffered from "poor scripts and horrible acting", criticising it for having "simple plots, too many conveniences and having corny humour." Series three is described by Guy Clapperton of review site ScreenJabber.com as being slightly braver than its predecessors, while Bullz-eye.com described it as "a sweet, fun little show, with some neat ideas" with "its heart very much in the right place." Reviews for
8162-648: The series and also included Sophie Aldred , who portrayed Ace, a companion to the Seventh Doctor . On 19 July 2022, it was announced that Big Finish Productions would produce an audio spin-off of The Sarah Jane Adventures set to release in April 2023, which features Rani Chandra ( Anjli Mohindra ) as the protagonist. The audio spin-off is set 15 years after the events of the series with the first three stories featuring Clyde Langer ( Daniel Anthony ) as well as Gita Chandra ( Mina Anwar ), Rani's mother. On 28 March 2023, Big Finish Productions additionally announced
8268-500: The series lead, Elisabeth Sladen, who read them in the first person in character as Sarah Jane. The final two books, released in November 2011 after Sladen's death, were read by Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra, respectively, though not as their characters. The first two were the first time that BBC Audiobooks had commissioned new content for exclusive release on audio. A 20-minute mini-episode in two parts called "The Monster Hunt" written by Trevor Baxendale and read by Anjli Mohindra
8374-493: The series on 25 December 2012, initially by broadcasting the entire first series in an all-day marathon. K9 Mark 2 figurines were sold on the official K9 website. Tie-in books titled The Complete Book of K9 and The K9 Storybook were announced on the official website but went unreleased. The Essential Book of K9 , a hardback book that follows the story of K9 through all four models, crossing over from Doctor Who , K-9 & Company , The Sarah Jane Adventures , and K9,
8480-416: The series was launched on 23 November 1963. It ran for 26 seasons in its original form, through which first emerged many of the writers who, until the 1980s, would create most of the genre's successful British shows. One of the few science fiction series to have become part of the popular consciousness, its success led the BBC to produce others in the genre, notably the science fiction anthology series Out of
8586-459: The series was released on 27 February bearing some similarities to the original font seen on the casing of K9. A trailer produced to promote the series at MIPTV was released on 2 April 2009. As it was made early in production, the music, titles, and voice of K9 were not the final ones used in the programme. A second trailer was released on 1 October 2009. K-9 is set in near-future London, with 14-year-old characters Starkey and Jorjie, alongside
8692-461: The series, and the programme was pre-sold to Network Ten . The Pacific Film and Television Commission (PFTC) (subsequently renamed Screen Queensland) also provided additional financing. The first series was shot between 3 December 2008 and 8 May 2009. The series is produced in Brisbane, Australia, shooting on location around the city and on a set built in a South Brisbane warehouse. A logo for
8798-465: The show continued, and she was alluded to at the end of The Death of the Doctor when the fates of Harry Sullivan, Ian Chesterton , Barbara Wright , Ben Jackson , Polly , Tegan Jovanka , and Ace are revealed. The Sarah Jane Adventures was first seen by its original British audience in the form of a 60-minute New Year's Day special in 2007, titled " Invasion of the Bane ", which was co-written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts . "Invasion of
8904-708: The show started airing on JeemTV in Arabic. Various seasons of the series has also been broadcast multiple times on the Swedish children's Channel 'Barnkanalen' in Swedish. Character Options have been awarded a licence to produce The Sarah Jane Adventure play sets, action figures , and a 'Sonic Lipstick' toy. Four 2-figure sets have been released: Sarah Jane and Star Poet; Sarah Jane and General Kudlak; Sarah Jane and Child Slitheen and Sarah Jane and Graske. Also released are Sarah Jane's Sonic Lipstick with Watch Scanner and Alien Communicator. Character Options have now discontinued
9010-608: The show, won two bronze awards at the Queensland and Northern Territory Cinematographer Awards for his work on the episodes Angel of the North and The Eclipse of the Korven . Series VFX Director and Director of four other episodes, David Napier, was nominated for "Best Direction in Children's Television" at the 2010 Australian Directors' Guild Awards (AWGIES) for episode 26, "Eclipse of the Korven". The show's creators stated that
9116-420: The six-part serial The Quatermass Experiment was broadcast live. An adult-themed science-fiction drama specially written for television by BBC staff writer Nigel Kneale , its budget consumed the majority of the finances reserved for drama that year. This successful serial led to three additional Quatermass serials and three feature film adaptations from Hammer Film Productions . The Quatermass Experiment
9222-718: The story The Day of the Clown and Russ Abbot as a sinister astrologer in Secrets of the Stars . Also appearing in the second series were Gary Beadle and Jocelyn Jee Esien , who portrayed Clyde's parents Paul and Carla in The Mark of the Berserker ; Esien reprised her role briefly in Series 4 and more prominently in series 5. Samantha Bond returned as Wormwood in Enemy of the Bane . The original executive producers for The Sarah Jane Adventures were Phil Collinson , Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner . Susie Liggat produced
9328-513: The strange events unfolding around them, using science fiction themes to tell allegorical stories such as paralleling real-life racial tensions with the Martian "infection" of Quatermass and the Pit (1958–1959). On 12 December 1954, a live adaptation of George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four , produced by the Quatermass team of writer Nigel Kneale and director Rudolph Cartier , achieved
9434-404: The subsequent novel. The second was Red Dwarf (1988-1999, 2009-2020), created and originally written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor . It parodies most (if not all) of the subgenres of science fiction but is first and foremost an " odd couple " type comedy (the couple in question being the characters of Rimmer and Lister). Running for more than eight series, the idea was originally developed from
9540-671: The three unfilmed stories. As well as Sarah Jane, some characters from the past or current run of Doctor Who appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures . K9 , voiced by John Leeson , guest stars in the New Year's special as well as the series 1 finale , appears regularly in the third series, and makes two further appearances in series 4. The Doctor appears twice in the series, with David Tennant featuring in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (2009), and his successor Matt Smith in Death of
9646-427: Was broadcast starting 3 October 2011 on Mondays and Tuesdays. It finished just two weeks later on 18 October 2011. In 2006, Children's BBC expressed an interest in producing a Doctor Who spin-off. Their initial idea was "a drama based on the idea of a young Doctor Who ", but Russell T Davies vetoed this. "Somehow, the idea of a fourteen year old Doctor , on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers , takes away from
9752-545: Was cancelled by the Controller of BBC1 , Michael Grade . At the same time, Grade abandoned a whole season of Doctor Who ; the series was on hiatus for eighteen months. It appeared to be generally felt at the BBC that science fiction was more expensive to produce than other types of programmes, but did not return a higher audience for the outlay, or particular critical acclaim. Some BBC popular and critical successes, such as Edge of Darkness (1985), had science fiction as
9858-402: Was delayed and eventually reformatted as a new show, entitled " Space: 1999 " (1975–1977), which ran for two seasons and was a moderate success. The 1970s is viewed by fans of the genre as a "golden age." Doctor Who was going through its strongest period with first Jon Pertwee (1970–1974) and later Tom Baker (1974–1981) in the leading role, already firmly entrenched in
9964-406: Was executive produced by Russell T Davies and Nikki Wilson, and the producers were Brian Minchin and frequent writer Phil Ford. During this series, Cyril Nri was introduced as a new recurring character called The Shopkeeper. The production team remained in place for the completed episodes of Series 5, which were shot concurrently with Series 4. The show's abbreviated fifth and final series introduced
10070-429: Was highly recommended. The series also received praise for its willingness to tackle "darker themes [such as] Alzheimer's , homelessness and loss." "It's not often that you get a character who appeals across the generations. What SJA gets absolutely right is that Sarah Jane remains immediately recognisable as this tenacious reporter of old, but with an added maternal touch that enchants its target audience. Its absence in
10176-573: Was interpreted by the Gawker Media blog io9 as a way of taking advantage of the latter show's popularity to boost interest in the new show. John Leeson reprises his role as the voice of K9. Sixteen-year-old Brisbane native Philippa Coulthard plays Jorjie Turner, a rebellious 15-year-old whose mother works for the mysterious "Department". 20-year-old Keegan Joyce plays Starkey, a 14-year-old orphan rebel; and 21-year-old Daniel Webber plays Darius Pike, an assistant to Professor Gryffen, who
10282-667: Was made especially for the Monster Hunt game on the Sarah Jane Adventures website. Two more comics were released "Return of the Krulius" and "Defending Bannerman Road". All comics were available as a pdf and a free mp3 download on the official Sarah Jane Adventures website. Five The Sarah Jane Adventures comics were released on the official Sarah Jane Adventures website. Four of them were comic adventures with audio narration by Anjli Mohindra . A pdf document and
10388-430: Was not afraid of shocking the audience by killing off leading characters, climaxing by wiping out the entire crew in its final episode. ITV was continuing to produce science fiction in this era. Keen to catch some of the young audience who followed Doctor Who , some of the ITV companies sought to create their own youth-oriented genre programmes, such as the 1970's cult classic sci-fi drama series Timeslip (1970), and
10494-409: Was produced a second time on 4 March 1948, this time in a full 90-minute live production, adapted for television by the producer Jan Bussell, who had also been responsible for the screening in 1938. The BBC began producing more science fiction, with further literary adaptations such as The Time Machine (1949) and children's serials like Stranger from Space (1951–1952). In the summer of 1953,
10600-423: Was raised by the sale of tickets to the event and merchandise. Members of the cast and crew that took part in the event were Tommy Knight , Anjli Mohindra , Yasmin Paige , Sinead Michael, Mina Anwar , Katy Manning , Paul Marc Davis , Phil Ford , Gary Russell , Joe Lidster , Sam Watts, Richard Wisker , Cheryl Rowlands, Scott Handcock , Brian Miller , John Leeson , Mat Irvine and Chris Johnson . The event
10706-487: Was recorded and was released onto DVD and Blu-ray and could be bought exclusively through the event's website. In addition to Sladen, the first series of the programme stars Yasmin Paige as Maria Jackson, Sarah Jane's 13-year-old neighbour in Ealing , west London, and Tommy Knight as a boy named Luke , who is adopted by Sarah Jane at the conclusion of the introductory story. The third member of Sarah Jane's young entourage
10812-642: Was released in 2015. It also included original short stories and a comic. In 2019, Obverse Books published the third in their Time's Mosaic series of guidebooks to Doctor Who by Finn Clark, in part covering the K9 Television series and associated spin-offs. In 2009, Shayne Armstrong and SP Krause, writers and developers of the series for television, won the John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science-Fiction Writing at
10918-526: Was struggling to compete with US imports in the genre, which began to re-emerge following the box-office success of contemporary films like the Star Wars franchise. For the television channel controllers, these had the benefit of transmission rights having a lower cost than domestic productions. Dr. Who 's place in the Saturday schedule was briefly lost when it was moved to a weekday slot. Nonetheless, in
11024-501: Was tempted away from ABC to accept the position of Head of Drama at the BBC, officially joining the corporation at the beginning of 1963. The BBC developed an idea of Newman's into Britain's first durable science-fiction television series. Taking advantage of the research Wilson's department had completed, Newman initiated the creation of a new series, and along with Wilson and BBC staff writer C. E. Webber oversaw its development; Newman named it " Doctor Who. " After much development work,
11130-454: Was to feature the robot dog facing off against classic Doctor Who villain Omega in deep space. Despite the film not materialising, it was announced on 9 September 2018 that "a new multi million dollar series" was in development under partnership with "a major US/UK company" prior to the release of the feature film. On 20 December 2020 'Megabytes', an anthology featuring K9, was released which
11236-471: Was written by Chris Boucher , who had contributed scripts to Doctor Who and Blake's 7 , and was script editor for the later series' entire run. The 1980s also saw the arrival on the BBC of two science fiction comedy series, both having origins on radio. The first was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) by Douglas Adams , which amalgamated aspects of the original radio series with material from
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