Take a letter, Miss Smith

Introduction

If you grew up with Tom Baker's legendary portrayal of Doctor Who (like me) or even the final season of Jon Pertwee (The Time Warrior, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon and Planet of the Spiders) then you will know "investigative journalist" Sarah-Jane Smith who travelled with the Doctor for 18 stories meeting Sontarans (The Sontaran Experiment), Daleks (in one of the greatest ever stories, Genesis of the Daleks), Cybermen (Revenge of the Cybermen), mad Egyptian gods (Pyramids of Mars) and deranged Time Lords (The Brain of Morbius).

In Russell T. Davies' latest version of the show, Sarah-Jane meets up with the Doctor in his latest incarnation, which stirs up all those old feelings, and brought about the idea of a spin off show (we'll gloss over K-9 and Company)...



So Sarah-Jane is still poking her nose in to things in present day London, which leads to the following stories that make up the first season (the next one is coming to BBC One in a few weeks).

The Invasion of the Bane

Maria Jackson and her father, Alan have moved into a new house opposite journalist Sarah-Jane Smith. On their first night, Maria is awoken by a strange light coming from Sarah-Jane's house. To her shock and amazement, Sarah is interacting with a butterfly-like alien species. Is there more to Sarah-Jane than meets the eye?

The next day, Maria meets with Kelsey who befriends her and suggests that they go on the free Bubbleshock bus for a tour around the factory and some free drinks. Sarah-Jane overhears the girls plans and decides to go and do some investigating herself. What is the mystery surrounding Mrs Wormwood and what is the secret behind the unique ingredient of the drink 'Bane'?

Revenge of the Slitheen

On their first day at their new school, Maria and Luke meet Clyde. Together the three of them discover something weird going on at the school involving their headmaster and science teacher. Along with Sarah-Jane, they discover that the school, like a number of other new buildings around the world has been infiltrated by members of the Family Slitheen, as part of their master plan to drain power from Earth in order to sell it on the black market.



Eye of the Gorgon

At an old people's care home, Luke is given a trinket by a sweet but apparently deluded old lady who seems to know about aliens. Meanwhile nuns, who run a nearby Abbey, are seeking the key to open a portal to the homeworld of the alien Gorgath, whose Medusa like powers have already turned a number of unfortunate victims to stone.

Warriors of Kudlak

A Carcaroth has arrived on Earth, seeking soldiers to help fight his war back home. Using a local laser-tag arena to sift out the best, most aggressive and instinctive fighters he then transports them to his spaceship - awaiting transfer to the war. Clyde and Luke find themselves amongst the "warriors" while Sarah-Jane and Maria must infiltrate the alien headquarters and bring him down from inside.



Whatever Happened to Sarah-Jane?

Maria wakes up to discover that everyone apart from her has forgotten Sarah-Jane Smith ever existed, even Luke. In reality, an alien being has found a moment in time where a teenage Sarah-Jane lost a friend in an accident, but has swapped them around, imprisoning Sarah-Jane in some kind of limbo. Now Angela survives, and because Sarah-Jane never existed, the world is on the brink of nuclear annihilation. After Maria herself is stolen from time and erased from everyone's memories, it's up to her dad, Alan, to rescue Sarah-Jane and Maria so they can set time back on the right course…

The Lost Boy

The gang are shocked to see an appeal on TV by the distraught parents of a missing boy named Ashley - he is the exact visual and genetic double of Luke. Sarah-Jane is forced to return Luke to the "parents", but whilst she investigates the Pharos Institute (a nice nod to Tom Baker's final story Logopolis) which has been experimenting with alien technology, Luke discovers his new family are actually Slitheen and he is reunited with a child prodigy that he once knew…

Video

An excellent 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, as first broadcast, and as good as you would expect from a modern BBC show. Nothing to complain about.

And an excellent budget for what is essentially children's TV (even more so than the original Doctor Who) brings a lot of good special effects to the screen and a lot of good action shots.

Audio

And a very good DD2.0 soundtrack, again as first broadcast, and again as good as you would expect from a modern BBC show. Nothing to complain about.

The budget also stretches to good sound effects and a good score, although the theme tune is a rather pale imitation of Who...

Extra Features

I'm slightly torn here. There are some good extras here (Elisabeth Sladen interviews, a quiz with outtakes as rewards, a set visit broadcast on Blue Peter and audio clips from Glittering Storm & The Thirteenth Stone, both BBC Audiobooks). And there's also a timeline to chart Sarah-Jane's journey as well as trailers, a gallery as well as profiles of the characters and items featured in the stories).

But these are almost all extras for the younger viewer, and there's not much for the older viewer (be they parent of that younger viewer, or just someone with an interest in all things Doctor Who). Some more "adult" extras would have made this a more rounded package.

Conclusion

My previous sentences kind of sum this up. You may have seen this on the BBC whilst watching with your children, or you may have seen it because you set your PVR (Sky+, DVD Recorder or whatever) to record it while you were at work. And you might not have any children. Or you may not have seen it before.

It is a worthy spin-off of Doctor Who (much better than the risible "The truth is by there" Torchwood). Yes it is really a show aimed at children (but that's what Doctor Who was and still partially is), but even with three leads being children there are still some interesting stories to be told and they are largely well told. Some of the ideas would not be out of place on the "main" show. And there are also an excellent selection of guest stars who complement the strong cast very well.

As ever with Russell T. Davies, there's some unnecessary soap opera involved, in this case Maria's shallow and annoying mother (it's no wonder Alan divorced this one-dimensional annoyance), but it doesn't overwhelm as much as it has done with his obsession with the families of recent companions (Rose's mum in particular).

This DVD set is a very good effort. It would have been nice to see more adult themed extras to give this package a wider appeal, but if you're buying it for children then there's plenty there. And it's still a good set of stories from the wider Doctor Who universe, so there will be something there for fans of the show, probably the longer term fans mostly.

A good effort from the BBC, keep this up!