Russell T Davies returns to kids' TV with Aliens vs Wizards

Colour us officially excited. The team that originally brought us The Sarah Jane Adventures is back together as Russell T Davies and Phil Ford work on Aliens vs Wizards, a production for CBBC, where The Sarah Jane Adventures found so much success. Russell T earned our love for bringing back DOCTOR WHO and then our undying worship for bringing back Sarah Jane Smith (the much missed Elisabeth Sladen) and giving her a show all of her own. Phil Ford worked on that show and made it almost as great as its parent show.

The idea of them getting back to work on this new outing, in which two young boys use magic and science to defeat alien machinations, is the kind of thing that will be getting us sitting down with our broods to see the results with extreme excitement. Unfortunately, those results won't be out until the Autumn.

Please lads, work fast.

It's time to say GOODBYE SARAH JANE

Whilst there was a bittersweet rightness to the fact that the last story of THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES shown before Elisabeth Sladen's death was entitled 'Goodbye Sarah Jane', the fact that there were stories already filmed and unshown means that the final season of the show will be airing from October 3rd on CBBC.

For all die-hard Sarah Jane Smith devotees it's going to be a hard thing to watch, but as these are the last new appearances there will ever be they are a thing to be savoured. A fitting chance, perhaps, to say Goodbye Sarah Jane.


BBC press release

"Investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith and her gang of young sidekicks are back, as the final ever episodes of the award-winning The Sarah Jane Adventures are broadcast on CBBC from Monday 3 October.

The six episodes making up the fifth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures were all filmed before the sad death of much-loved actress Elisabeth Sladen earlier this year.
Lis first appeared as Sarah Jane in Doctor Who in 1973 and remained on the iconic programme for three-and-a-half series alongside the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. She returned to the role in 2007 in her own spin-off series on CBBC.
The Sarah Jane Adventures brought Lis to a whole new generation of fans who grew to love her alien-busting adventures.

Created by Russell T Davies, this new series of the hugely successful Doctor Who spin-off features new aliens, surprising arrivals, and the usual mix of thrills, scares and fun. Sarah Jane and her gang are thrown into the middle of a war between two deadly aliens, Fleshkind and Metalkind, Clyde finds himself out on the streets when an alien curse turns his friends against him, and Sarah Jane confronts the mysterious Mr Serf and discovers the secret of his success – he has alien slaves in his basement!

Elisabeth Sladen plays Sarah Jane Smith alongside young stars Tommy Knight as Luke, Daniel Anthony as Clyde and Anjli Mohindra as Rani. This series introduces a brand new member of the gang, Sky, played by Sinead Michael. The series also features Ace Bhatti and Mina Anwar as Rani's parents, Jocelyn Jee Esien as Clyde's mum, and guest appearances from Floella Benjamin as Professor Rivers, James Dreyfuss as Harrison, Peter Bowles as Lionel Carson, Christine Stephen-Daly as Miss Myers and Lily Loveless as Ellie.
The Sarah Jane Adventures is executive produced by Russell T Davies and Nikki Wilson and is produced by Brian Minchin. Writers include Phil Ford and Gareth Roberts.

The Sarah Jane Adventures will air on Monday and Tuesdays on CBBC.

The Sarah Jane Adventures is a BBC Cymru Wales/CBBC production. "

Genre Icons We Love - Elisabeth Sladen RIP

I was in the land of no internet access when I heard the news that Elisabeth Sladen had died on April 19th and so this planned icon piece has become an epitaph.

I had the fortune of meeting this lady twice and lady is the only word that can adequately express the manner in which she treated not only myself, but others that shared the experience. The first time was at a time when the classic series of DOCTOR WHO was over and the new series that now rules the airwaves wasn't even a twinkle in Russell T Davies' eye. An artist who had painted an image of her from the classic show's story THE SEEDS OF DOOM (now out on DVD) was trying to shift them at a genre show and she had turned up without billing or pre-notification to help him out. She was approachable and chatted for simply ages. Had I not already been smitten by her from an early age then I certainly would have been after this encounter.

The second time that I met her was only days after her triumphant return in School Reunion and the queues to her table were miles long. Even so, she took time with each person, especially her new younger fans and treated everyone as thought they were special and not just a means to make some extra cash.

When DOCTOR WHO first returned to our screens, I had two thoughts in my head. They were 'make it good' and 'bring back Sarah Jane'. Sarah Jane Smith was the first female character that impacted on my younger self and her impact was so strong that my daughter's first names are Sarah and Jane (my wife refusing to double barrell it because her surname is already double barrelled). Well it came back and it was better than good and they brought back Sarah Jane Smith.

Not only did they bring her back, but they gave her a spin off series that was way better than the lacklustre TORCHWOOD.

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES gave Elisabeth another chance to shine as an actress and she took the chance with both hands, showing that she was every bit as capable of the modern style of more subtle performance as the older style from the classic series of DOCTOR WHO. There can be no-one who wouldn't want a neighbour like Sarah Jane Smith.

Sarah Jane Smith may be the only role that Elisabeth Sladen will be remembered for by her fans, but it is a character that featured in some of the very best episodes that the show ever produced (GENESIS OF THE DALEKS anyone) and she is, above all, the companion who will be remembered. Amy who?

Elisabeth Sladen is no longer with us, but the pleasure that she brought will remain with us for as long as her shows continue to captivate new audiences. I will always remember her, though, as the charming, warm and thoroughly lovely woman that I was lucky enough to meet twice.

Why Shorter Is Better

The fourth series of THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES has just finished running on the CBBC channel and is just one of a number of science fiction and fantasy shows that are currently having a lot of success in the UK. In the USA, CAPRICA is the latest high profile science fiction casualty. Why is it that UK shows seem to have a much higher chance of success and multiple series than their US counterparts?

The first answer is simple enough - money. In the US ratings are everything and if you don't get the numbers then you don't get a second season no matter how good you are. Keep getting the numbers and you'll go on forever. With the BBC and all its satellite channels, the money isn't quite so critical and so shows don't have the financial burden. They can be slow burn gainers and gradually build up their audience.

The main reason, though, may lie in the difference between a UK and a US 'season'.  THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES  consisted of six stories comprising two half hour stories each. Other shows on the main channels (rather than the children's channels) have seasons that last anywhere between six and twelve episodes and the ones at the higher end of that scale are being targeted at the American market as well as the domestic one. In the USA a season runs to 21-22 episodes. That's a lot of hours of television to fill with quality stories. As a result, concepts that might make excellent UK six part series end up being stretched over three months of shows, with the quality suffering and the dreaded filler episodes bolstering the numbers.

It's much easier to come up with a concept that will enthrall over six episodes than over 22. Thus so many of the genre shows in the US end up with storylines that are generic and familiar and overused and thus start to look like all their peers.

Many of the UK's greatest shows would have failed utterly if they were stretched to fill US schedules. Perhaps that is why the UK will always come up with the quirky and originally leftfield entries like BEING HUMAN and LIFE ON MARS whilst the US will continue to excel at generic episodic shows like MEDIUM or STARGATE UNIVERSE that we've seen before, but are slick and stylish and good at retelling old stories.

Death By Sci Fi TV - and we love it

Way back in July 2008 we bemoaned the lack of anything remotely genre to watch on TV. Well, here we are two years later and it appears that we are going to have to become hermits to watch all of the new stuff that is piping down our teletubes some time soon.

New show HAVEN has just started on Syfy in the UK and joins its stablemates EUREKA and WAREHOUSE 13 as things we're goggling at. Eureka's in its fourth season and WAREHOUSE 13 in its second, but we're still enjoying them both.

BBC1's got MERLIN to fill up our Saturday nights and CBBC is just about to plunge into THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES once again, giving us our weekly dose of the DR WHO universe whilst Matt Smith is off twiddling his thumbs

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is back on ITV4 with another season of toothsome adventures, whilst Sky brings back the third season of FRINGE and the second season of STARGATE UNIVERSE.

And there are more shows slated for the near future as well. How will we cope? We're gonna need a time machine just to keep up.

Happy viewing.