The Sarah Jane Adventures - Series 4 [DVD]

The great work done by Russell T Davies and the crew down at BBC Wales, has allowed this CBBC PRODUCTION, to be a success. The DVD is a great way of allowing us to watch our favourite episodes again, mine being the Death of the Doctor. It is fantastic that they managed to get Matt Smith in before Liz passed on and their on screen chemistry is superb.

The Sarah Jane Adventures has been one of the finest series on CBBC ever and gave both Elizabeth Sladen and Sarah Jane Smith to continue their time in the Doctor Who world of aliens and enemies, monsters and villains, the wonders of the universe and protecting the Earth. The fourth series massively improves on the third with strong stories and more realistic enemies and stories. It's the strongest one yet with better CGI, more developement in the overall story of Sarah Jane's World, and monsters more terrifying and sinister than ever before.

The Nightmare Man 9/10 - the darkest episode of the series so far, which looks at the innermost fears of Luke, Clyde and Rani as they battle probably their most sinister foe who preys on their nightmares and fears. Well rounded, very atmospheric episode and midway turns into a full pshychological thriller, this story sees the goodbye of Luke as a regular defender of the Earth as he goes off to University, waving a fond and quite sad farewell. This is probably also one of the most human stories of the series as it sees Sarah Jane adjust to letting him go into the world on his own.

Vault of Secrets 7/10 - sees the return of Androvax, the alien able to hide in other's bodies from Series 3. The episode also sees a returning enemy from Doctor Who: Dreamland, in the form of Mr Dread, who brings a kind of Matrix kind of feel to the episode. The story follows the trio helping Androvax to open a mysterious vault. The episode is probably the lightest and features Gita meeting with a UFO spotting group, who's name has the abbreivation of BURPS.

Death of the Doctor 9/10 - The Doctor is back again alongside Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Grant, the Doctor's companion prior to her. It's an epic story with blue Graske, Laila Rouass as a sinister UNIT officer and the enemy - gigantic birds as funeral organisers. Any adventure where the Doctor is around is a brilliant story, although the story gets a little far-fetched at the end.

The Empty Planet 5/10 - Easily the weakest story of the season, the premise is that Clyde and Rani find the world empty one day and it's a hunt to find out why. The first episode moves at a very slow pace, with the two trying to work out why the Earth's population has gone missing. They then meet a teenager called Gavin with an inconsistent past - and then the robots enter. Whilst it has a good starting concept of being alone in a truly empty world, it lacks tension and the final part of the plot is somewhat ludicrous.

Lost in Time 10/10 - Another dark and strong episode of the series, Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani have to collect three items that can change the course of history if they are used in three different time periods. Rani is sent to the 16th century, mistaken for Lady Jane Grey's maid, Clyde ends up in Britain, World War II with nazis on the beach and Sarah Jane in a mysterious house where a tragedy is heard in the voices of ghosts. Probably the best thing about this episode is that its convincing and human (no aliens) - Rani and Lady Jane Grey have probably one of the best scenes in the series as the Tudor Monarch faces her impending and inevitable death, Clyde has to prevent an invasion of Nazis on British soil, and Sarah Jane's mystery is a brilliantly presented one of past, present and future in a house in the 18th century. Epic, beautifully paced, sinister, action-packed and ambiguous.

Goodbye Sarah Jane 8/10 - The Sarah Jane Adventures has often faultered in its series finales as they don't often measure up to the standards of the rest of the series set, Series 1, OK, Series 2, emotional but overambitious, Series 3, weak and somewhat predictable, Series 4, the best ending, and a foreshadwoing of tragic events yet to come. The premise is that anoher protector of the Earth, Ruby has dropped by and Sarah Jane is seemingly losing memory, to the point where she hands over responsibility to Ruby. Big Mistake. What follows is a well structured story, dark moments and a brilliant resolution to the series with the return of Luke.

48/60 - Overall, the strongest, darkest, boldest and overall best series of Sarah Jane. RIP Elizabeth Sladen and thank you for your time on Doctor Who and Sarah Jane Adventures. Roll on the remainder of Series 5 - and thank you Elizabeth Sladen and Russell T Davies for the best series that CBBC has shown.

Series four of the massively popular Doctor Who spin-off is the best of the bunch. This time the series is slightly more grown-up and the stories become a little more ambitious and best of all there's not a huge reliance on returning monsters which has often been the case in previous series (presumably due to budget issues).

The two disc set includes the following two-part stories:

The Nightmare Man - This story sees Luke moving away from Bannerman Road however his encounter with The Nightmare Man may well mean the end of the world. This is a strong opener and probably one of the darkest Sarah Jane stories of the entire series.

The Vault of Secrets - Sarah Jane and the gang find themselves crossing paths once again with Androvax, the Veil from last series' opening story. This time Rani's mother Gita finds herself in on the action and there's an appearance from the Men in Black from Doctor Who - Dreamland [DVD]. A good story with some great special effects in part two.

The Death of the Doctor - This is a brilliant Doctor Who cross-over episode which sees the return of classic companion Jo Grant (now Jo Jones) as well as the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) who finds himself in on the action when a race of vulture like aliens known as the Shansheeth fake his death. This story is a lot of fun and it's great seeing Matt and Elisabeth interacting on screen for what was sadly the only time.

The Empty Planet - This story sees Rani and Clyde finding that they are the only remaining members of the human race left on earth. This is actually a really good story despite the lack of Sarah Jane and is a much better outing for the gang than last series' Sarah Jane-lite episode The Mona Lisa's Revenge.

Lost in Time - This is one of my all time favourite Sarah Jane Adventures episodes. It's clever, fun, dark, surprising and deals with some adult themes, particularly WWII which was handled very well considering SJA airs on CBBC. I particularly liked the Shopkeeper character who made another appearence in the series five opening story Sky.

Goodbye Sarah Jane - This has to be the best series final of the show since series' one The Lost Boy. Again this is a friarly dark story which deals with grown up themes, even touching slightly on dementia. Also this is one of the saddest episodes, even more so now since the passing of Elisabeth Sladen, as it deals with the fact that Sarah Jane can't protect the earth from aliens forever.

Also included in this set is the classic Doctor Who episode The Pyramids of Mars as a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen which is a nice bonus, especially for younger fans who may not be familiar with classic Who.

The series is presented in a standard amary case (the same style that was used for The Sarah Jane Adventures - The Complete Series 3 Box Set [DVD]) and comes housed in a very nice cardboard sleeve. It's nice to see how much the cover art for the boxsets has improved since the release of The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Series [DVD].

All in all this is Sarah Jane's best series, at times it's very dark and grown up but it never looses its sense of adventure and wonder which is what I think (aside from the ease of which Elisabeth Sladen slips into the role of Sarah Jane) makes this series the success it was. Highly recommended.