Is There A Future for the SJA?

[Si Hunt]

A daft question to pose here, as almost certainly most fans will say "no" out of respect to Lis. But the BBC must, surely, be looking at it from a business perspective. Let's look at some facts:

- This is a very popular show. It still has an audience.
- I don't know how much notice the BBC had of Lis' illness, but it's not inconceivable that a budget was set aside for another series to be made next year. It seems from trailers as if a new Sarah Jane "kid" was already being introduced in the last episodes
- No-one has stated, have they, that this is the final SJA?
- There are an awful lot of people working on SJA who will be out of work if they end the show; writers, designers, actors...

The bottom line is that they have a successful show, with an established audience and hell, Lis' legacy in a way was that she set up an imaginative, hugely popular childrens drama show on CBBC. Is it absolutely essential that it should end?

Realistically, it would be in bad taste to keep it as "Sarah Jane Adventures", but what about a spin-off for Clyde and Rani? Perhaps some of the other characters in the show, e.g Floella Benjamin's character, could step up as the adult lead?

Do you think there is any chance the SJA could, or should, continue in some form? At the end of the day, we all miss Lis but this show can either continue giving us great adventures, or not. It's hard to see that anything would be "lost" from what we have by making more.

Si.

[Jason Thompson]

Honestly I don't think there is. As excellent as the series is, it was all based on the popularity of the character of Sarah Jane Smith. While there may be potential to develop the other characters more, the absence of Sarah Jane will always be a sort of 'elephant in the room', no matter how well they write her absence into the plot.

From the business perspective, any budget set aside for another series will just be diverted to something else (as will no doubt happen to the budget remaining from the incomplete recording of series 5).

I think Sarah Jane will be missed too much to make any follow on series workable. That doesn't stop, for example, Clyde or Rani or Luke making appearances in Doctor Who itself as companions. After all, from the Doctor's point of view they'd have passed a 'companion test' by all their activities with Sarah Jane...

[Si Hunt]

I really think it would be brilliant if Clyde and Rani were the next Doctor Who companions, for all sorts of reasons.

Si.

[SiHart]

I think that would be the best tribute to the show.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

- No-one has stated, have they, that this is the final SJA?

With the greatest respect as I really don't want to seem like I'm telling off again but the day after one of the tabloids suggested back in April that the series would continue without Lis, Gareth Roberts stated on twitter that it definitely wasn't going to carry on.
Plus I'm fairly sure Russell T made also stated as much as well during a Front Row interview not long afterwards.

I don't know if it would be right to make them series regulars in Who but I would love to see Clyde and Rani appear with the Doctor one last time, as Luke (and obviously K9) has been in Who before it might make sense to have him along for the ride (and if they want to mention Maria and even, if we must, Sky then fine as well).

[Anthony Williams]

If nothing else, I'd like to see novelisations or scripts published online for the remaining stories that they never got to film.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

If nothing else, I'd like to see novelisations or scripts published online for the remaining stories that they never got to film.

Good call, they could even do audio book versions narrated by Danny, Anjli or Tommy.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

It's odd isn't it. Doctor Who didn't end after the death of Hartnell, but keeping is as Sarah Jane Adventures feels wrong.

I agree it'd probably be better having some kind of spin-off show than keep the name.

[Jason Thompson]

It's odd isn't it. Doctor Who didn't end after the death of Hartnell, but keeping is as Sarah Jane Adventures feels wrong.

Why is that odd? It's comparing apples and oranges. Hartnell didn't stop being in Doctor Who because he died, and by the time he did a number of other actors had taken on the role thanks to the alien-ness of the character and his ability to regenerate. The show had shown it could carry on with changes of lead actor.

Elisabeth Sladen died mid-way through production of the series, and she was playing a human character, the lead in a series all about her. That's nothing like the situation with Hartnell and Doctor Who at all.

[davethesailor]

I'm sure it must already be posted elsewhere on here but I just stumbled across this. The heartfelt innocence of it all made me blub!