Author Jason Arnopp aims for variety with his depiction of the first two victims of his deadly download: an elderly lady and a ten-year-old football fan. Neither of these falls into the popular notion of the typical internet user, which in reality is all sorts of people, but in cliché tends to be young men, who should get out more, looking at porn. That, of course, would never do in the family-friendly world of "The Sarah Jane Adventures", though Arnopp does manage to work in some moral guidance (not too heavy-handed) about the dangers of meeting strangers in online chat rooms and downloading files from unverified sources.
More stereotypical is the characterisation of local IT manager Ian Webster, an overweight, embittered sci-fi nerd, whose desk is littered with empty fast-food cartons and wrappers. Think Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons" and you get the general idea.
Fortunately, this adventure is far from being the "worst episode ever", though the number of scenes that are written outside of Sarah Jane's point of view as the first-person narrator lead to a few clunky instances of: "as x and/or y later told me..."
This and
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Wraith World were the final two audio books recorded by Elisabeth Sladen before her untimely death. Hearing them for the first time now, I couldn't help noticing the joie de vivre evident in her voice. You can practically hear her smile as she speaks the words, and her enjoyment as she plays the various characters, especially the eccentric Webster.
There's plenty to enjoy in this audio book, whether you listen to it on disc or as a not-so-deadly download.
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