The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Empty World

In which Sarah Jane Smith goes on holiday.

No, not really – she does put in an appearance at the beginning and end of the episodes to bookend it, but this is one of those Sarah Jane lite episodes.

And amazingly, it doesn’t impact on the quality. The series is lucky to have characters as engaging and as well performed as Rani and Clyde, who can not only carry an adventure on their own, but positively excel at it. In fact, it is almost something of a relief not to have the titular character in it – Sarah Jane’s breathless, often tearful presence grates occasionally.

Of course, the characters are aided by having a great little script. It takes the old sci-fi cliché of people waking up and finding that they are more or less alone in the world. The running around in empty houses and empty streets are spooky, and the tension of the piece escalates when the robots appear (no mean feat given the decision to deck said robots out in primary colours). The story even manages to sustain itself in the second episode, when explanations emerge as to why the world is empty and what the robots are looking for. Admittedly, all the talk of “son and heir” made me think of a certain Smiths song, but there was a certain logic to the whole story which was no means guaranteed by the high-concepts of the opening installment.

Flaws? Few and far between. The exposition about the theoretical abduction of Prince Harry seemed like an attempt to make a cheap political point and thus appeared completely out of place in the programme. Furthermore, the notion that a lost kid who thinks he is nothing being redeemed by an accident of birth seems to be an odd message to send out to kids everywhere who might think they too will never amount to anything.

But overall, this is another great little story for this season of The Sarah Jane Adventures - which is shaping up to be the best so far*.

*Yep, I know that – technically – the series has already ended but, as always, I’m a little behind with the times.