Doctor Who: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

Since the broadcast of Voyage of the Damned, I've been sticking a review of every Doctor Who story after the broadcast on this blog. The past couple of days have seen the broadcast of another adventure involving the Doctor - albeit his first ever appearance in a spin-off rather than his own series. In this case, The Sarah Jane Adventures. But whilst the Doctor wasn't the headlining act in this story, I think most people will remember it for the Doctor's appearance.

And there was a definite joy in this Doctor-lite year of seeing David Tennant doing his now very familiar but still ever watchable Doctor routine. He instantly commands attention and dominates any scene he is in - you could probably dump him in the middle of Coronation Street and he would still be able to make his Doctor at the heart of the show within moments of his arrival. He made this into a Doctor Who story even though his Doctor was not at the centre of the action for about 50% of the story and the resolution of the story had little to do with the behaviour of the Doctor. Tennant's performance as the Doctor is effortlessly charismatic - which means that this is the perfect time for him to move on, before that performance becomes cliched and tired through over use.

The final scenes in the TARDIS were also affecting, particularly as the doors closed on the Doctor. Given this was probably the last filming he did as the Doctor, the final scenes really bring home that this is the end of the Tennant era and whilst there may be three episodes to come before the Doctor regenerates, production schedules mean that we probably see Tennant's last actual performance as the Doctor in this story. The end of an era feeling was not a dominate factor in the production, but it is there to see if the viewer is so inclined.

Yet the real emotional heart of this story had very little to do with the Doctor. At its core, this was a story about Sarah Jane Smith falling in love. And the person she loved did not turn out to be the villain (unlike Donna Noble's suitor in The Runaway Bride) - whilst he was manipulated by the villain in the background, all he wanted to do was to be with his love. Of course, it was impossible, but in order to save herself and the world, Sarah Jane not only had to turn her back on her love, but consign him to the death the Trickster saved him from. Her sacrifice was brought into sharp relief by the scene showing her standing by herself in front of the desk in the registry office; alone, and humiliated - with only her teenage pals knowing what had actually happened.

Of course, as with most things, the story was far from perfect. In fact, it wasn't as strong as some of the other installments of the same series. It felt heavily padded - the first episode in particular. And the decision to have the Doctor arriving at the end of the first episode made sense for the purposes of the cliffhanger, but did leave geeks like me (and such geeks probably make up a substantial share of the potential audience for this sort of thing) just waiting for the entrance of the guest star. Furthermore, the resolution to the whole story was pretty obvious from the outset, especially for anyone with an awareness of the MO of the antagonist. As a result any events leading up to the denouement would have felt like an intentional distraction from the inevitable, but by focussing more on the relationship between Sarah Jane and her suitor, the eventual choice could have been made even more heartbreaking.

Flaws aside, this story was well-worth watching and it was great to see the Doctor in action again after quite a quiet year for him. It neatly whet the appetitie for the coming The Waters of Mars (November 15th, fact fans), as well as hopefully directing more viewers towards the Sarah Jane Adventures - which deserves a much higher profile than it currently has.