Beyond the TARDIS Revenge of the Slitheen by Andrew Allen

The first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures didn’t actually air until September 2007 – nine months after the pilot episode. In that time, Kelsey has been ditched: less a comment on that character’s annoying traits (although such criticisms would be fair), but more generally a confidence in the ability to tell the stories without the need for laboured exposition. That said, this episode and next are required to re-do the introductions for any further late comers to the series, and it won’t be until The Eye Of The Gorgon (episodes three and four) that The Sarah Jane Adventures is truly able to stand on its own DNA. There’s various repeated references to a mysterious traveller called the Doctor (more often than Sarah would really be comfortable chatting about with relative strangers, if we’re honest), and the return of the farting monsters from Christopher Eccleston’s season of Doctor Who.

Placing the Slitheen as the primary villain of the first story makes a great deal of sense. Largely, these episodes are doing the same work as the New Year’s Day pilot episode, ensuring that everyone is strapped in for a relatively harmless ride as the main cast are put into place. We’ve indicated that SJA doesn’t really kick in until the second story of the first season, partially because it wants all the audience, wherever they’ve come from, to be on the same page. The other factor in the case of Revenge Of The Slitheen, is that the story is having to reintroduce elements previously started – and subsequently abandoned – in the pilot episode: namely, the completion of the supporting cast.

Clyde fills the Kelsey-shaped space as the overly confident, brash and bold outsider who forces themselves into the plot. But whereas Kelsey was required to be annoying, slightly selfish and distracted by hot young tour guides, Clyde instantly becomes an integral part of the cast simply down to significant amounts of charisma brought along by Daniel Anthony, who within ten minutes of screentime, has earned his stripes as a main character.

While the Slitheen-as-human characters are pure CBBC: panto performances offsetting the moments that are genuinely horrifying for younger kids – there’s still space for nuance – Lis Sladen’s expression as she watches Maria and Alan indicates that she sees a healthy parent-child relationship as more alien than any number of Sontarans, and Sarah has a cute line where they discuss the ‘ridiculous’ possibility of something mysterious hidden inside a school – that’s how she got back into this game, after all.

One of the major treats for the more grown up quotient of the audience is something that would remain in place for the rest of The Sarah Jane Adventures: the return of the episode cliffhanger. A staple of Doctor Who in the classic series, now only sparingly seen, it’s perhaps at its most effective here: you get one decent cliffhanger at the twentyfive minute mark: and then, simply the resolution of plot: no need (as arguably may have happened occasionally in the sixties and seventies) to have the story spinning its wheels for the middle section.  Therefore, you have a sharp, zippy story that doesn’t outstay its welcome, and thanks to Gareth Roberts’ deceptively simple script, juggles a large cast supremely well.