Cast
• Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
• Maria Jackson — Yasmin Paige
• Luke Smith — Tommy Knight
• Clyde Langer — Daniel Anthony
• Alan Jackson — Joseph Millson
• Chrissie Jackson — Juliet Cowan
• Mr Smith — Alexander Armstrong
• Mr. Blakeman — Martyn Ellis
• Mr. Jeffrey — Ian Midlane
• Wendy — Pamela Merrick
• Janine — Imogen Bain
• Carl — Anton Thompson McCormick
• Mal Loup — Lachele Carl
• Child Slitheen — Jimmy Vee
• Adult Slitheen — Paul Kasey

Plot outline from Wikipedia

Maria and Luke start their new school but find all is not as it seems. Aided by Sarah Jane and their new friend Clyde, they find the Slitheen, old enemies of the Doctor, this time disguised as teachers, have taken control of the technology block and are trying to switch off the sun. Luke unknowingly gives the Slitheen the code to start the machine, and they start to absorb the power of the sun. Sarah Jane investigates the company controlling the science block, and Maria, Luke and Clyde investigate the school. Sarah Jane is attacked by a female Slitheen who disguised herself as the school secretary, Janine, Luke finds a secret room and is confronted by the Slitheen commander, his headmaster Blakeman, whilst Maria and Clyde are chased first by their Slitheen Science teacher, Mr. Jeffrey and then the school genius, Carl, unzips in front of them to reveal a child Slitheen.

However, they all manage to escape and head back to Sarah Jane's house. Clyde figures out that the Slitheen are allergic to vinegar, and the team head off back to the school with squirty bottles of vinegar. After Maria uses the vinegar to blow up the Slitheen commander Blakeman, they head over to the secret room in the block and Luke tricks the Slitheen by telling them the machine won't take the power of the sun. He turns the machine off and uses the Sonic Lipstick to cause the machine to malfunction. As the room explodes, the continental Slitheen, still disguised, escape whilst Janine explodes and Jeffry and Carl are trapped. They beg for Sarah's help, and she tries to open the door, but Jeffry is killed when the technology explodes. However, at the same time, Carl escapes. Sarah Jane is highly affected by this, as she thinks Carl is dead, and afterwards shares a long hug with Luke, before telling Clyde about her travels with the Doctor, and then accepts him into the team.

Analysis by Leather_Tuscadero

Sarah Jane Smith is back…. again! This time with adopted son Luke, neighbour Maria and new kid Clyde in tow, back for a full series of new adventures starting with a return of a familiar villain The Slitheen.

It had to be the Slitheen didn’t it, I had hoped that when I heard the Slitheen were going to return it was just rumours, I’ve never liked the Slitheen, ever since they first appeared in Doctor Who I found them juvenile, fart jokes can get old very quickly and I think I’m above the age now where I find stuff like that funny, but that aside I also find the Slitheen race to be a bit grisly, they kill people in order to steal their skins and then masquerade around in them in order to blend in, I just don’t like that at all, I think it’s the whole killing of innocent people that gets me, even more so in this episode since a child was clearly killed to provide the skin suit for “Carl”, I think maybe if the Slitheen just looked like big green aliens all the time they might be a bit easier to take in.

Still having said that I did think the kiddie Slitheen was kinda cute, “Daddy I want my hunt!” but I think the adults were too over the top and camp, the headmaster reminded me of a fat Kenneth Williams to be honest, I think it was a tad overplayed.

The story in itself I think worked fine, was just like any Doctor Who story to be honest, weird things are happening so our hero goes to investigate, except we replace The Doctor with Sarah Jane in this, I did find the idea of something strange happening in a school to sound a bit like School Reunion but I think this worked just as well as that episode, at the end of it I even had a bit of sympathy for the Slitheen especially the child slitheen, I think it was a tough decision for Sarah to let them go or not but at least the child got out in time if not the adult, it really showed on Sarahs face how hard that decision was and I don’t think she realised that the child did get away.

Sarah Jane as always is brilliantly played by Elisabeth Sladen, she lights up the screen every time she appears, the only problem is I don’t think she’s in it enough! I like the kids as well but the programme is called The Sarah Jane Adventures isn’t it?

I loved all the scenes with Sarah and Luke, the two of them work so brilliantly, it’s so hard for both of them trying to cope with this new lifestyle they have, Luke in trying to adapt to a normal life having only been born a week ago and Sarah trying to adapt to life as a new mum having been alone for so long, I thought they both brought so much life to their characters in this episode as it felt so real.

I think Luke is adorable, I just want to take him home and make him his tea! He’s a great character and played brilliantly by Tommy Knight, I feel for him so much, it’s hard enough starting a new school without being born a week ago, I think he speaks for a whole lot of children who are stepping out into the world for the first time.

Maria again is excellent, and so is her dad, both actors play their parts brilliantly, I only wish the same could be said for Marias mum, I just want to slap that woman silly, not only is she self absorbed [who forgets their kids first day at school?] but she’s a bloody bitch as well, I wish she’d stop giving Alan a hard time, he’s trying his best and from what I can tell it seems like SHE was the one who left so she has no right to say anything!

Still, I think Marias character takes on everything like a pro, she even gets her first kill in this episode which I think she handled very well, if she were a bit older I think she’d be a perfect Doctor Who Companion.

New boy Clyde is a definite improvement on Kelsey, he started out as a bit of a prick but by the end of the episode he definitely felt like one of the gang, he reminds me a little bit of Mickey, only not as dumb, I think he coped with aliens far better though, he was right too it was him that figured out how to stop the Slitheen, vinegar! I still say a bottle of Cillit Bang would do the job too, that dissolves calcium doesn’t it.

I do have to nitpick some things from the episode, why did they Sarah and the gang give up so easily just because the sonic lipstick wasn’t working? Couldn’t some other kind of cutting device work just as well to destroy the Slitheens machine?, it seemed to me like they gave up to easily there, shouldn’t there have been a delay between the slitheen switching off the sun and it being seen from earth? oh and how did the word Raxacoricofallapatorious fit onto Sarahs tiny watch screen?

Apart from that I have to say I liked this episode, I think Part 2 was better than Part 1 but that’s mainly because more of the action took place in part 2.

My only real problem with the whole thing is that it’s to short, the whole two episodes just felt a bit rushed, this is where I really think the programme deserves a better time slot, it’s wasted on a kids audience, I’d have liked it to have gotten an hour slot on a Sunday tea time or something like that, I remember kids shows being on at that time when I was a kid, this would have been perfect for that.

Review by Brandon Tempany/Leather Tuscadero