How was Liz Sladen's death handled on Sarah Jane Adventures?

[Christopher]

I could have imagined a follow up series opening with Clyde talking to camera, saying "Sarah Jane always said there comes a time when you've got to strike out on your own... so that's what I'm doing."
"Not quite on your own" says Rani's voice as she turns the camera round to show it was her filming him.
And they're off, alien-hunting on their own, with Rani working as a trainee newspaper reporter and Clyde as a freelance cartoonist who sometimes works for the paper (that comes from the vague plans that had been laid for season six so the actors could keep appearing as they chose around more adult roles elsewhere).

That would've worked. Maybe they move to another city, to explain why we don't see SJS, and they have some gizmos of their own that Mr. Smith made for them, or that maybe the Doctor left them in an unrecorded visit. But you gotta have K9 -- say SJS asked him to go with them to keep them safe.

Another possibility might've been to have another former companion take over as their mentor. The Martha Jones Adventures, anyone?

 

[Brendan Moody]

Another fan suggestion when it wasn't yet clear what the fate of the series would be was having Jo return and become the group's leader. (There had been plans for Jo and Santiago to appear along with several other heroes from previous SJA stories in "The Battle of Bannerman Road," the unmade series five finale Steve mentioned above.) I think something like that could have worked.

 

[Christopher]

I love Jo, but the version of Jo portrayed in "Death of the Doctor" seemed a little too flighty and dotty to fill Sarah Jane's shoes.

How about a show featuring a team of former companions from different eras of the series getting together, forming an organization to protect the planet when the Doctor isn't around? If anything, I've always found it hard to believe they haven't made more of an effort to seek each other out, at least socially. I mean, who else could they talk to that would understand what they've been through?

 

[Rarewolf]

They were written up in a special edition of Doctor Who Magazine, which I have laying around here but haven't read. One was about Sky ("The Battle of Bannerman Road"), one would have seen Mr. Smith become human, and one is being repurposed as an episode of Wizards vs Aliens ("The Thirteenth Floor").

It's certainly interesting the way they were intenting to take things.

For all the ideas of Clyde and Rani carrying things on, Daniel and Anjli were ready to move on - and probably would have left at the end of that uncompleted season. Sky wouldn't have been around for long either.

The next season could have featured SJ relocated in a new house in the country, essentially a reboot, perhaps with return of Luke.

So its strange that events are held in a sort of time bubble, the team that wasn't intended to last having adventures forever.

 

[Brendan Moody]

I think they could easily have made that flightiness/dottiness into a character trait that distinguished Jo from Sarah Jane without being so extreme as to prevent her from acting as a mentor. But Davies said in an interview that he thought just getting another old companion to replace Sarah would have been "so fake," and I can see his point-- everyone would always be very aware of what had happened and why. And it's not like the show was strangled in the cradle-- four and a half series is a respectable run.

Talking of old companions on SJA, there was also some consideration of doing a story where Sophie Aldred returned as Ace.

 

[diankra]

Of course, one big problem with a direct follow-on would have been that a year or two back the BBC Trust redefined CBBC's 'mission statement' to aim it at a younger audience: 8 to 12s, rather than 8 to 16s as before.
That left SJA a bit too 'adult' for the channel's remit, but as an existing series it was allowed to carry on as was. But if you watch the actual replacement, Wizards Vs Aliens, it's noticeably more childish (a bit too childish to be the proverbial 'Children's series that's good enough for adults). Though having said that, the last episode of season one declaring that they're not playing games any more, implying that the production team want to take it in a more serious direction next year.

 

[Sindatur]

Of course, one big problem with a direct follow-on would have been that a year or two back the BBC Trust redefined CBBC's 'mission statement' to aim it at a younger audience: 8 to 12s, rather than 8 to 16s as before.
That left SJA a bit too 'adult' for the channel's remit, but as an existing series it was allowed to carry on as was. But if you watch the actual replacement, Wizards Vs Aliens, it's noticeably more childish (a bit too childish to be the proverbial 'Children's series that's good enough for adults). Though having said that, the last episode of season one declaring that they're not playing games any more, implying that the production team want to take it in a more serious direction next year.

I just watched Wizards vs Aliens a week ago, and it seems to me, it's maturity level is following SJA very closely. S1 of SJA was no less "childish", IMHO then WvsA S1, and the kids, I believe are older in WvsA (Seem to be 16 yr old Characters, and the star is apparently 21 in real life). And as you mention, the S1 Finale of WvsA seemed to indicate it will grow in maturity in S2, just like SJA did. I look forward to S2, even though S1 was a bit more juvenile than I would've liked

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I mean, who else could they talk to that would understand what they've been through?

A shrink? :P

But it's not like they KNOW they're part of a small but very special club. Even if there's up to a dozen of them potentially still kicking around in the early twenty-first century, not all of them would know that the Doctor would even still be alive. Heck, of the companions whom we know left him while on Earth in the late twentieth or in the new series, most of them would've known him as an elderly man and not know he could renew himself. And even after THAT, most of them seemed okay with NOT having anything to do with aliens and monsters and watching the Doctor defeat 'em.

Quick list of potential former companions who could still be around, not counting the passing of the actors who played them:

- Ian and Barbara
- Dodo
- Ben & Polly
- Liz
- Jo
- Sarah-Jane
- Harry
- Teigan
- Ace
- Grace
- Adam
- Jack
- Martha & Mickey
- Donna & Wilf

Narrow that down by people who could potentially want to keep fighting the good fight, and list is actually pretty short...

Mark

 

[Rarewolf]

There's Victoria Waterfield as well. And other members of UNIT like Yates and Benton.

 

[Christopher]

For all the ideas of Clyde and Rani carrying things on, Daniel and Anjli were ready to move on - and probably would have left at the end of that uncompleted season.

Oh. I didn't know that. Well, I was just engaged in wishful thinking anyway, what I would've liked to see, not what I thought would've happened.

And it's not like the show was strangled in the cradle-- four and a half series is a respectable run.

Still, the reason it ended is very sad. I wish it could've gone on longer.

But it's not like they KNOW they're part of a small but very special club. Even if there's up to a dozen of them potentially still kicking around in the early twenty-first century, not all of them would know that the Doctor would even still be alive.

I don't see what the Doctor has to do with it. I'm talking about the companions seeking each other out, becoming friends, comparing notes about their experiences. They're members of one of the most exclusive clubs on the planet, and it feels like a shame that they haven't connected. Sure, some of them might not have realized the Doctor took other human companions, but some would. We know that Sarah Jane tracked down most of the Earth-dwelling ex-companions, so why didn't she communicate with them more?

As for knowing about the Doctor, there have been enough alien invasions and weird events over the decades that they should've at least suspected the Doctor's involvement. And having traveled through time themselves, they wouldn't have forgotten the events that were erased from history by the cracks in time.

And even after THAT, most of them seemed okay with NOT having anything to do with aliens and monsters and watching the Doctor defeat 'em.

Quick list of potential former companions who could still be around, not counting the passing of the actors who played them:

- Ian and Barbara
- Dodo
- Ben & Polly
- Liz
- Jo
- Sarah-Jane
- Harry
- Teigan
- Ace
- Grace
- Adam
- Jack
- Martha & Mickey
- Donna & Wilf

Narrow that down by people who could potentially want to keep fighting the good fight, and list is actually pretty short...

Actually it isn't. we know from "Death of the Doctor" that many of them continued to "save the world" in their ways. Ben & Polly run an orphanage in India, Liz still works for UNIT, Jo's a globetrotting activist and protestor, we know about Sarah Jane, Harry developed life-saving vaccines before his death, Tegan fights for Aboriginal rights, and Ace is presumably the Dorothy who runs A Charitable Earth (A.C.E.). Jack was still with Torchwood last we saw, and Martha and Mickey are freelance world-savers. As for Grace (who wasn't technically a companion any more than, say, Astrid Peth or Lady Christina or Isobel Watkins), presumably she continued to save lives as a medical doctor. (Adam was pretty much a complete failure as a companion, choosing selfishness over altruism, so I wouldn't expect him to be on the list -- and who'd want him to return anyway?) Aside from Ian & Barbara, professors at Cambridge, the only ones unaccounted for are Dodo and Victoria. (And possibly Mel, who was returned to Earth in the Virgin novels.)

 

[Relayer1]

I must admit that I was surprised that the show wasn't relaunched with a new regular or two. Jo's grandson seemed likely to turn up again, and I would've expected Jo to be close behind.

I can see that Sarah Jane is irreplaceable but it seems very sad to have lost all the other characters with her...

 

[Rarewolf]

who'd want him to return anyway?)

Funny enough I though it a shame him or Van Statten couldn't have shown up on Torchwood, on a trail of alien tech. The dates sort of match, just a lack of show for them to show up on!

 

[DWF]

Another possibility might've been to have another former companion take over as their mentor. The Martha Jones Adventures, anyone?

Freema's still a regular on Law&Order:UK.

 

[Brendan Moody]

She's not, actually, having left as of the end of the sixth series, though she was at the time SJA's fate was being decided. At the moment she's a regular in the CBeebies series Old Jack's Boat and the American CW series The Carrie Diaries.

 

[DWF]

Sorry about that, I guess we're still alittle behind on BBCA.

 

[Cutter John]

Of course without Liz Sladen they'd have to change the series name.

 

[Christopher]

Of course without Liz Sladen they'd have to change the series name.

Tell that to the folks who made Blake's 7. Or the Pink Panther series. Or Red Dwarf series 6 & 7. Or....

 

[Captaindemotion]

Or the Bourne Legacy...

 

[Marc]

Of course without Liz Sladen they'd have to change the series name.

Tell that to the folks who made Blake's 7. Or the Pink Panther series. Or Red Dwarf series 6 & 7. Or....

I gather Jacqueline Pearce was once asked what the cast thought about the series keeping the name either than there was no Blake.

Her response, so the story goes, was "nobody gave a fuck as long as they were in it"

 

[Sindatur]

In the case of Blake's 7, I never thought anything was wrong with it, since they were his crew, and following his "Mission". they still counted as his 7 (Orac and Zen/Liberator could be used to round out the quantity to 7)