Nancy Who

Time and Space are infinite, if you accept this then the odds of a single woman from South Croydon England encountering a Time Lord once is astronomical. Sarah Jane Smith has met multiple versions of the same Time Lord at numerous occasions. The only odds more astronomical then this are the chances of that same character getting a second chance at her own spin off Sci-Fi television show 27 years after her first chance at a spin off was shot down by studio executives.

Sarah Jane Smith first appeared in 1973, when she and the third incarnation of the Doctor foiled a Sontaran warlords plans. Ms. Smith proved to be quite a handful for the adventurous Time Lord, and she became a staple on the television show for two more years. But BBC executives weren’t done with the intrepid investigative reporter, not by a long shot. When Christmas rolled around, Sarah Jane and K-9 the robot dog appeared in K-9 and Company. The first attempt at a Doctor Who spin off series only lasted one episode, as the new studio head at the BBC did not wish to continue the series. Sarah Jane and her robot companion K-9 would only resurface in radio dramas, and Doctor Who Magazine stories.

Well you can’t keep a good reporter from getting her story, especially when she is the focus of the story. Sarah Jane appeared in the second season of Doctor Who, revealing subtle hints of a matured school girl crush on the wild haired Time Lord. This time when the Doctor said good bye to Sarah Jane, he left her a new and updated version of K-9, and the future potential for her own series. But with Torchwood already dealing with alien menaces, Sarah Jane felt that her future lay upon a different path.

Sarah Jane set up shop and went to help in her own fashion, with compassion or with stubborn determination, which ever was needed. Because a hero always needs compatriots to explain the plot to, or to save from certain death, Sarah Jane had to develop some friends. Enter Maria, Thomas, and Luke, two neighborhood kids, and a boy built by an alien race known as The Bane to further their own ends.

The Sarah Jane Adventures recently premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel, in an early 8pm time slot during their Friday night lineup. The series is directed towards elementary school aged Sci-Fi fans, and has more of a light hearted feel to it than its parent series Doctor Who has ever shown. In this era of bleak Sci-Fi focused on genocidal aliens, catastrophic stellar anomalies, and time destroying masterminds I welcome this investigative journalist back to television. The BBC has announced plans to produce 24 new episodes of this series after season one is complete, welcome back to the time war Sarah Jane. Welcome back.