SJA: The Man Who Never Was

That's it. The last ever SJA. Little bit trad, definitely not a downer ending.

Finally we have the great coming together that was foretold in times past, the meeting of... Luke and Sky! And it goes about as predictably as you'd expect. They don't particularly hit it off, feel rather uncomfortable, Sarah Jane seems to show favouritism to one, but eventually they band together and are strong for it. To be honest though, there was hardly any way to deal with that that wouldn't feel cliched on some level.

As for the main plot, there's a lot of padding. Just show the man's a hologram already! We already saw it in the trailer. There is a degree of twist over who the monster is, but once that is revealed, Gareth Roberts really pounds the heartstring tugging moments. A little too much. Fortunately the slapstick stays on just the good side of funny, but Harrison and the security guards fall victim to being forced to be incompetent. (And I'm wondering if a larger arc was planned with the alien slave trade angle.)

However, five main characters are a few too many to service. This cast is split into Clive/Rani and Luke/Sky, and it's clear that some of those pairs would work better as a single person. There's a reason most shows don't have teams that big.

This is the middle rated story of this season, and a typical style of story to end on. Farewell, Sarah Jane Adventures.


Next time: No more. This series has had highs and lows, definitely prefer some episodes to others. It did have some trouble working out just what it wanted to be versus being a 'children's series'. Elisabeth Sladen did good returning to head it up, and the stories will go on... forever.

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