An object that’s been moving fast enough to cross the entire solar system in 45 minutes screams into Earth’s atmosphere and crashes not far from where Sarah lives. Mr. Smith warns that the crash site is already under the control of UNIT, but that UNIT isn’t aware of the ejection and subsequent crash of one of the ship’s life pods. Sarah, Luke, Clyde and Rani track the pod to a condemned building, finding a lone Judoon trooper there. The Judoon regards Sarah and the others as an annoyance, as it is tracking far more important quarry: Androvax the Annihilator, a war criminal responsible for the destruction of a dozen worlds, is now at large on Earth.

Season 3 Regular Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Tommy Knight (Luke), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra)

written by Phil Ford
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts and Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Terence Maynard (Madison Yorke), Robert Curtis (Security Man), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Paul Kasey (Captain Tybo), Nicholas Briggs (voice of Captain Tybo), Mark Goldthorp (Androvax), Scarlett Murphy (Julie)

Notes: The Judoon made their first TV appearance in the Doctor Who third season opener Smith And Jones, though Sarah Jane’s detailed knowledge of both the Judoon and the Shadow Proclamation (both of which were also seen in The Stolen Earth) would seem to indicate that she might have met the Judoon during her travels with the third or fourth Doctor. Nicholas Briggs once again provides the guttural voices of the Judoon in this episode, and in so doing completes his modern Doctor Who trifecta: he has voiced numerous aliens in both Doctor Who and now The Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as having appeared on screen in Torchwood: Children Of Earth: Day Four.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Under the control of Androvax the Annihilator, Sarah has returned to a genetic engineering lab that she’s been investigating, and sets the lab’s wealth of nanoforms to the task of rebuilding Androvax’s ship… and then to the destruction of Earth. Judoon Captain Tybo and the kids arrive at the same lab, pursuing Androvax – and the rest of his Judoon platoon will arrive on Earth at any moment. If they can’t come up with a way to get Androvax out of Sarah’s body, the race is on to see who will destroy Earth first: Androvax or the Judoon, who will let nothing and no one keep them from their quarry.

written by Phil Ford
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts and Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Terence Maynard (Madison Yorke), Robert Curtis (Security Man), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Paul Kasey (Captain Tybo), Nicholas Briggs (voice of Captain Tybo), Mark Goldthorp (Androvax)

Notes: This episode offers the Doctor Who universe explanation of the 1947 Roswell incident, and mentions the “Dreamland base,” tying into a CG-animated Doctor Who adventure, Dreamland, broadcast toward the end of the third season of The Sarah Jane Adventures. The new Doctor Who series had previously mentioned Roswell, with the ninth Doctor encountering the “mileometer from the Roswell spacecraft” in Henry Van Statten’s underground museum in the 2005 episode Dalek. Being taken over is practically a hobby for Sarah Jane: she fell under the thrall of the giant spiders of Metebelis 3 (a.k.a. Planet Of The Spiders), and by Eldrad of Kastria in her final story as a Doctor Who regular, The Hand Of Fear. And speaking of the Pertwee years, the Judoon sentence Luke, Rani and Clyde (and possible Sarah) to exile on Earth; the good news is that they seldom leave it anyway, so they probably won’t be sitting around in a lab trying to fix a dematerialization circuit for years on end…

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A boy wanders into a vacant house on Bannerman Road in 2059, finding an old woman living a hermit-like existence. She says her name is Rani Chandra, and begins to tell the boy of the adventures she had 50 years ago with her friends Luke, Clyde and Sarah Jane Smith. She also recounts the tale of how she came to be the hermit she is now – the tale of a demon living in an abandoned amusement park, the one monster from whom her friends couldn’t save her.

written by Joseph Lidster
directed by Alice Troughton
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Souad Faress (Old Rani), Gregg Sulkin (Adam), Brian Miller (Harry), Toby Parkes (Sam), Eleanor Tomlinson (Eve), Kate Fleetwood (Ship)

Notes: Brian Miller, appearing as the somewhat suspicious amusement park proprietor, is the husband of Elisabeth Sladen; this is far from his first appearance in the Doctor Who universe, as he provided Dalek voices in Resurrection Of The Daleks (1984) and Remembrance Of The Daleks (1988), and appeared “in the flesh” in 1982’s Snakedance. Souad Faress previously appeared in the 1979 Blake’s 7 episode Horizon – in which Brian Miller also appeared.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A face in the mirror – the artificial intelligence at the heart of Eve’s stranded spacecraft – peers into the minds of Sarah, Luke and Rani, picking out their past and predicting their futures. In Sarah’s future, she sees the return of the TARDIS, but for Rani’s future, she sees nothing except the life of a hermit in what was once Sarah’s attic – a future that seems inescapable. Sarah and Clyde find Rani and meet Eve, and Rani tries to convince her friends that Eve isn’t a force of evil, but simply needs their help. Even if she convinces everyone that this is true, is she right?

written by Joseph Lidster
directed by Alice Troughton
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Souad Faress (Old Rani), Gregg Sulkin (Adam), Brian Miller (Harry), Toby Parkes (Sam), Eleanor Tomlinson (Eve), Kate Fleetwood (Ship), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Jai Rajani (Shuresh)

Appearing in footage from Planet Of The Spiders: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor)

Appearing in footage from The Hand Of Fear: Tom Baker (The Doctor)

Notes: For the first time in The Sarah Jane Adventures, footage from Sarah’s travels in the classic Doctor Who series is shown, namely her introduction to the third Doctor in The Time Warrior, the possessed Sarah attacking the third Doctor in Planet Of The Spiders (his final story), and Sarah’s farewell to the fourth Doctor in The Hand Of Fear. This is only the second time that classic Doctor Who footage has been incorporated into a modern episode from the Doctor Who universe (the first being a brief sequence in the Doctor Who Christmas special The Next Doctor).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

After placing copies of their human models in strategic positions around the twelve colonies, the Cylons put their plan to overthrow their human creators into action. The colonies are wiped out almost completely, though a few of the human Cylon models who were expected to die and resurrect aboard the Cylons’ ships survive the holocaust. Those Cylons are trapped by humans, but also living as humans, some of them with no awareness of their true nature. Brother Cavil, who has taken control of the Cylon agenda in the absence of the Cylon known to the humans as Ellen Tigh, is furious that any of the colonials escaped and sets out to destroy them any way he can. From all-out frontal attacks, ambushes to guerilla warfare from within the colonial ranks, Cavil will settle for nothing less than the total, permanent extinction of humanity. He’s frustrated when he notices that some of his fellow Cylon operatives are faltering, failing to complete sabotage and assassination assignments that they are given, and failing to show the ferocity of Cavil’s absolute conviction that humanity must be wiped out. He doesn’t realize, until too late, that he has only succeeded in planting the seeds of his own people’s extinction.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Edward James Olmos
music by Bear McCreary
additional music by Aaron Roethe and Brandon Roberts

Cast: Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavil), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Grace Park (Sharon “Boomer” Valerii), Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rick Worthy (Simon), Lymari Nadal (Giana), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Alisen Down (Jean Barolay), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Hybrid), Alonso Oyarzun (Specialist Socinus), Colin Corrigan (Marine Alan Nowart), Diego Diablo Del Mar (Hilard), Bruce Dawson (Coach), Lawrence Hagert (Wheeler), Tommy Europe (Rally), Maya Washington (Sue-Shaun), Luvia Petersen (Kai), Richard Yearwood (Marine), Alex Ferris (Boy), Gina Vultaggio (Jemmy)

Notes: Many of the scenes which, technically, take place during earlier episodes (and even the pilot miniseries) were reshot at least in part for this movie; a good rule of thumb for spotting clips from earlier episodes is that the reused material features actors not specifically credited above, such as Jamie Bamber and Lucy Lawless. The Plan revisits, and expands upon, events from the miniseries, 33, Water, Litmus, Kobol’s Last Gleaming Part 2, Resistance, The Farm, and Lay Down Your Burdens Parts 1 and 2. The premiere date for this movie indicates the release date of the unrated DVD version; a shortened, edited broadcast edition would air in 2010.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Luke, Rani and Clyde are growing suspicious: Sarah has been increasingly secretive about a number of recent evening excursions. Luke places a tracking device on Sarah’s car and instructs Mr. Smith to pinpoint where Sarah is going. It turns out that it’s nothing more suspicious than a date, and while Luke tries to cope with some confused and very human feelings, Clyde and Rani do some investigating of their own, looking into the background of Sarah’s new boyfriend. Finally, Rani is convinced that nothing is amiss, but Clyde remains suspicious. When Sarah abruptly announces that she’s getting married, and just as abruptly deactivates Mr. Smith, it seems that Clyde’s fears may be founded. But even Clyde isn’t ready for a surprise guest who appears on the big day: a guest who doesn’t have an invitation, but does have a TARDIS.

written by Gareth Roberts
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts & Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Nigel Havers (Peter Dalton), Mina Anwar (Gita), Ace Bhatti (Haresh), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Paul Marc Davis (Trickster), Zienia Merton (Registrar)

Notes: Nigel Havers was one of the stars of the UK series Manchild, a sort of all-male version of Sex And The City, in which his co-stars included Anthony Stewart Head (of Buffy fame and the villain of Doctor Who stories such as School Reunion and the Big Finish Excelis audio series) and Don Warrington (the ill-fated President from Rise Of The Cybermen, and the voice of Big Finish’s Rassilon). Appearing very briefly as the officiant at Sarah’s wedding is Zienia Merton, best known to SFTV fans as Sandra Benes from Space: 1999, but also a guest-star in the fourth-ever Doctor Who serial, Marco Polo, which starred William Hartnell as the Doctor in 1964. K-9 mentions a “stair navigation” hover mode, never before seen; this episode aired just two days before the K-9 spinoff series brought viewers a new-style K-9 who spends almost all of his time hovering!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The trap has been sprung: the new man in Sarah’s life is a pawn of the Trickster, who still wants revenge against Sarah, and the trap is almost perfect. If Sarah calls the wedding off, Earth will suffer the consequences, and if she goes through with it, she belongs to the Trickster and his torments forever. Luke, Clyde, Rani and K-9 join forces with the Doctor, but the Trickster has trapped them in one second of recurring time, a temporal schism that leaves the TARDIS powerless to help. The Doctor isn’t giving up on Sarah yet, but the Time Lord doesn’t hold the key to ending this siege: Sarah’s fate lies in the hands of Clyde… and the man she was going to marry.

written by Gareth Roberts
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts & Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Nigel Havers (Peter Dalton), Mina Anwar (Gita), Ace Bhatti (Haresh), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Paul Marc Davis (Trickster), Zienia Merton (Registrar)

Notes: David Tennant filmed these episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures after completing filiming on his final episode, The End Of Time; in a TV interview, Tennant revealed that the last scene he filmed and the last line he delivered as the Doctor was “You two with me, spit spot!” as the Doctor dashes up the stairs. The Doctor mentions a “Pantheon of Discord,” a cabal of powerful beings who are trapped outside of time, trying to wreak chaos; it’s possible that this pantheon may also include such previous enemies as Fenric, the Gods of Ragnarok, Kwundaar, and perhaps even the Black Guardian.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

In a dystopian world, street kids Starkey and Jorjie seek refuge from omnipresent police patrols in the secluded lab of Professor Gryffen, an enigmatic scientist who is trying to retrieve his family from another place in time and space. Spooked by what he’s witnessed, Starkey tries to make his escape… and promptly ruins Gryffen’s experiment. The space-time coordinates of Gryffen’s equipment shift and a group of vicious aliens called the Jixen appears through the portal, followed shortly thereafter by a robot dog who takes on the Jixen single-handedly. Declaring the battle an unwinnable situation with its dwindling power reserves, the dog warns the humans to retreat so it can self-destruct and eliminate the Jixen. In the resulting pile of debris, Starkey finds an electronic “heart” – and it soon begins to hover under its own power, building a new metallic body: a smaller, more mobile version of the metal dog that saved them. Starkey, Jorjie, Professor Gryffen and Gryffen’s cocky lab assistant Darius Pike are too stunned by this to notice that the original K-9’s destruction left one of the Jixen alive… and dangerous. But the authorities are more interested in finding Starkey – also known as Stark Reality, a voice favoring a resistance against the near-totalitarian rulers of London – and once the new K-9 begins exploring the city, he attracts attention as well.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Robert Moloney (Professor Gryffen), Keegan Joyce (Starkey), Philippa Coulthard (Jorjie Turner), Daniel Webber (Darius Pike), John Leeson (voice of K-9)

written by Shayne Armstrong and S.P. Krause
directed by David Caesar & Mark DeFriest
music by Christopher Elves
K9 theme music by Michael Lira

Guest Cast: Robyn Moore (Inspector June Turner)

Notes: Filmed on a soundstage outside Brisbane, Australia (which is also where the cast and crew hail from), K-9 isn’t technically a spinoff of Doctor Who. It utilizes the K-9 character created by the late Dave Martin and executive producer Bob Baker outside of the Doctor Who context. In online pre-publicity, Baker mentioned that this K-9 was the original K-9, which remained on Gallifrey with Leela in the Doctor Who story The Invasion Of Time (1977), though this isn’t ever established in on-screen dialogue, and with the new Doctor Who series’ assertion that Gallifrey was destroyed in a war with the Daleks, begs for an explanation of where that K-9 was during those events. (This also assumes that one overlooks the destruction of Leela’s K-9 in the Big Finish Gallifrey audios.) In any case, the London depicted in this series is clearly not a London that has been seen in Doctor Who, so everything here – including K-9 – may be in a parallel universe handily unencumbered by the still-unfolding Doctor Who mythology. However, taking Baker’s mention of Leela’s K-9 as gospel may explain why the original model has the ability to regenerate (a term actually used numerous times in dialogue) – Leela’s K-9 may well have been upgraded with Time Lord technology. No elements of Doctor Who mythology are mentioned in dialogue at all. Baker’s attempts to create a K-9 spinoff have been in progress for many years, as documented in the 2000 video documentary K-9 Unleashed! (which happened to have been written by series co-creator Paul Tams), featuring a primitive computer-generated flying K-9 not entirely dissimilar to the one which appears in this series. Baker’s attempts to launch K-9 on his own – thanks to a loophole in UK copyright law which allows the creators of characters or situations to control and exploit their creations even after inclusion in a larger franchise like Doctor Who – languished with Doctor Who off the air, but with the new series thriving, Baker finally found parties interested in funding a K-9 spinoff (and allowed one-off Doctor Who appearances of the “original model” in School Reunion, Journey’s End, and the Sarah Jane Adventures series). K-9 had, in fact, been central to the very first attempt to launch a Doctor Who spinoff, 1981’s K-9 & Company. The series airs on Disney XD in the UK and Europe, and the airdate of this episode reflects its world premiere as a “sneak preview” special; the series proper would not begin until 2010. Bob Baker gave permission for the “original model” K-9 to make more appearances than usual in the third season of The Sarah Jane Adventures, perhaps in an attempt to draw additional attention to this spin-off.

LogBook entry by Earl Green