2.5-6 Death Of The Doctor Though not up to the standard of Pixar’s most recent crowning achievement (what is?), Death Of The Doctor certainly paddles in the same waters in its attempts to use our own memories of the broader Who mythos to create a stirring and moving piece of drama in its wn right. Despite its undoubted success, SJA has always existed, unlike Torchwood, as more of an adjunct to the main series than a full-blown ‘stand on its own two feet’ spin-off. In part, that’s down to the constant re-use of Who monsters on the show, but also it reflects Sarah Jane’s rather more storied history as a part of the Doctor Who family. Surprisingly, the answer is somewhere wonderful and it’s a place that has its roots in that touching, fleeting and ambiguous final meeting between Sarah Jane and the Tenth Doctor during the closing minutes of The End Of Time. We pick up the story with UNIT, led by the suspiciously glamorous Colonel Karim (Laila Rouass), turning up on Bannerman Road to inform Sarah Jane of the recent death of the Doctor. Refusing to believe them, Sarah Jane is shown a video clip of the Vulture-like Shansheeth, the universe’s coffin bearers, who claim that the Doctor has been killed in space and that they’re bringing his body ‘home’ to Earth for immediate burial. Even after seeing this transmission, Sarah Jane’s sceptical. She claims that if the Doctor was dead she’d know and the last time she saw him, well, she was convinced he was about to regenerate. It’s a great re-introduction scene for Jo who, though obviously much older than when we last saw her, is still the same bubbly and slightly scatty character we fell in love with back in the early 1970s. Of course, bringing two eras of a show together is always a risk, but thankfully, this is more than just an empty exercise in fan fiction and it’s a real testament to Russell T Davies’ skill as a writer that he uses Jo’s reappearance, not just as a chance to catch up with the former Miss Grant, but as a counterpoint to Sarah Jane’s own life. Now, some fans argue that Davies has reshaped and remoulded the Classic Who canon to fit his own whims, but I’d disagree. One of the great successes of Davies time in charge of Who was the way he made explicit and literal many of the things that were implicit and underdeveloped in the old series. As with Sarah Jane before her, Davies applies this same principle to the revived life of Jo Grant (now Jo Jones and a grandmother of 13!) and it works a similar treat. As you’d expect, the scenes with Jo and Sarah Jane are great fun and take centre stage in the story and the knock-on from that is the relegation of series regulars Clyde and Rani (along with Jo’s grandson, Santiago) to the role of supporting players. Despite this, Rani manages to get one very good scene with her dad, while Clyde has a couple of sparky moments with everyone’s favourite Time Lord, including a very revealing chat about the concept of regeneration! Which brings us to the titular hero of the title. While Jo and Sarah Jane’s meeting is enjoyable and quite moving in its own right, it’s only when the Doctor appears, roughly halfway into the story, that the show is elevated into the realms of the really rather special. Exploding onto our screen through the power of an Artron energy transfer (who knew!), Matt Smith gives possibly his best performance as the Doctor to date. There are obvious parallels to be drawn with David Tennant’s performance in School Reunion, but Smith manages to avoid going over old ground, mainly because he and Tennant are such vastly different actors. However, despite all the fan pleasing elements and some gorgeously judged character moments (Jo’s observation that the TARDIS ‘smells the same’ is a personal favourite) what we also get, as with all Russell T Davies’ stories, is a rattling good adventure yarn. This is helped no end by the fact that the Shansheeth are probably the best alien race Davies has created since the Ood. Brilliantly voiced and executed, there’s something quite haunting and melancholic about the Shansheeth that belies their rather goofy appearance. They’re the biggest surprise in the episode and are a monster that I hope makes a return to the show(s)in some shape or form further down the line. Tired of delivering death to the universe, these vultures of the intergalactic battlefields, want to use the TARDIS to bring life instead. It’s a familiar RTD theme, the desire to hold back the natural order of things, but it works far better here than it did with the criminally underwritten Naismith character in The End Of Time. All in all, this is as ambitious a piece of storytelling as The Sarah Jane Adventures has delivered and this story comfortably sits alongside Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? as the show’s crowning achievement. More than anything else it acts as a perfect coda to Russell T Davies’ time on Doctor Who and in many ways is a far more fitting note for him to end on than the somewhat excessive The End Of Time. As always with Davies, the warmth and fun comes at a price, and when Sarah Jane recites the names and current occupations of a whole host of former companions at the end of the episode, you get the feeling that it’s Davies tying up loose ends rather than planting seeds for anything new. Read our review of the prior episodes, The Vault Of Secrets, here.
