Invasion of the Bane
by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts
I promise, I am not going to review every episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures. Nonetheless, I will at least go over my reactions to the premiere “teaser†episode which aired at New Year.
Overview
Sarah Jane Smith, former companion of the Doctor and owner of K9 (Marks III and IV) is now a loner, investigating alien visitors to Earth. Just as she investigates the Bane invasion (by way of soda pop) of Earth, she encounters her new teenage neighbor, Maria, who becomes embroiled in the mystery and “Luke†an artificial human boy who Sarah Jane later adopts.
Analysis
It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
We meet up with Sarah Jane after she’s met David Tennant’s Doctor. She’s lead an “ordinary†life since the Doctor left her on Earth, but her meeting with Doctor #10 reinvigorates her and she begins investigating aliens. She knows about the secret organizations who deal with aliens, but she feels there’s a better way, without the guns blazing, and so she sets about operating freelance in the alien contact field. (How little she apparently learned while traveling with the Doctor.)
The show is clearly aimed at a younger crowd, but, atypically, Maria doesn’t seem to be that annoying. Her incredibly annoying friend Kelsey is, though. Hopefully, she’s just in it for the pilot. Luke is a bit of a non-entity, but then he is only a few hours old.
K9 is, if you hadn’t heard, going to be in his own animated series, which (along with rights issues) presented a problem for the show which was easy to solve: They got rid of K9 by sending him to a black hole. Problem solved. To compensate, Sarah Jane has got an attic full of alien technology, including a vaguely Time Lord looking computer called “Mr. Smith†and a sonic screwdriver concealed in lipstick.
That does sound pretty bad, doesn’t it? Really, it wasn’t as bad as that.
The story wasn’t too complicated, nifty looking CGI aliens come to Earth, take over 98% of the population using soda and slick advertising and are defeated in a typical Russell T Davies deus ex machina fashion with a convenient intergalactic cell phone. Nothing new to see here.
While I’m not crazy about the inclusion of kids, I do appreciate what they did for the character of Sarah Jane. At the end of School Reunion, it seemed that Sarah Jane’s life had really been ruined by the Doctor. She seemed sad and rather unfortunate. Of course, the goal was to give something for Rose to think about but it left Sarah Jane in a darker place than perhaps seemed fitting for such a beloved companion.
At the beginning of this story, she is still the same person, but she’s given herself a new sense of purpose. The adoption of Luke and friendship with Maria brings her to a place in life where she’s obtained some of the things she thought she’d forever lost her chance for.
If the Sarah Jane Adventures are remembered for nothing else, at least we won’t think of the aging Sarah Jane as a little old lady living along with 30 cats. That can’t be a bad thing.
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