Series 2 (SJA)

Series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures ran between 29 September 2008 and 8 December 2008. It starred Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Tommy Knight as Luke Smith, Daniel Anthony as Clyde Langer, Anjli Mohindra as Rani Chandra, Alexander Armstrong as Mr Smith and Yasmin Paige as Maria Jackson. The series opened with The Last Sontaran and concluded with Enemy of the Bane.

Overview
It consisted of six stories and twelve episodes. It was broadcast in the UK between 29 September 2008 and 8 December 2008. The season began with all of the first-series cast (except for John Leeson's K9, who did not appear in any regular episodes). A major cast change occurred after the first two-part story. Yasmin Paige left the series and was replaced by Anjli Mohindra as Rani Chandra. References to Maria, including flashback footage and photos, were incorporated into the other stories. Paige herself returned for a guest appearance in The Mark of the Berserker.

The season was notable for the return of Nicholas Courtney as Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. This was his first appearance (on screen) since the independent film HOMEVID: Downtime in 1995 and the first time in a BBC production since TV: Battlefield in 1989. UNIT also made its first on-screen appearance in the spin-off.

Returning villains include the Bane and The Trickster and Krislok, who is revealed to have been saved from death in exchange for serving the Trickster, and later freed from his servitude to the Trickster. The Sontarans appear for the first time in the spin-off in an episode that is a direct sequel to the Doctor Who two-parter The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky.

Several months after the season ended, the cast -- including K9 in his only series 2 appearance -- reunited in From Raxacoricofallapatorius, a mini-episode produced for the 2009 Comic Relief Red Nose Day appeal.

Interestingly, in the promotional wallpaper featuring the series 2 cast, this would be the only time that Mr. Smith would get some type of his own promotional image as a primary cast member.

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
 * Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong (voice)
 * Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti
 * Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar

Recurring

 * Maria Jackson - Yasmin Paige
 * Alan Jackson - Joseph Millson
 * Chrissie Jackson - Juliet Cowan
 * Mrs Wormwood - Samantha Bond
 * Celeste Rivers - Floella Benjamin
 * Carla Langer - Jocelyn Jee Esien
 * K9 Mark IV - John Leeson (voice)
 * The Trickster - Paul Marc Davis
 * Krislok - Jimmy Vee, Philip Hurd-Wood
 * Steve Wallace - Elijah Baker
 * Mr Cunningham - Huw Higginson

Guest

 * Nicholas Skinner - Ronan Vibert
 * Lucy Skinner - Clare Thomas
 * Pied Piper - Bradley Walsh
 * Paul Langer - Gary Beadle
 * Barbara Smith - Rosanna Lavelle
 * Eddie Smith - Christopher Pizzey
 * The Brigadier - Nicholas Courtney

Aliens and enemies

 * Kaagh
 * Pied Piper
 * Martin Trueman
 * Ancient Lights
 * Paul Langer
 * Travast Polong
 * The Trickster
 * Graske
 * Mrs Wormwood
 * Cal Kilburne
 * Bane
 * Slitheen

Novels
To date, two stories have been adapted as novelisations by Penguin Character Books. Both were published in November 2008. It has not yet been announced whether any other Series 2 episodes will be adapted, although a series 3 story has been novelised.


 * The Last Sontaran
 * Day of the Clown

Audiobooks

 * The Time Capsule
 * The Ghost House

International broadcast
Unlike series 1, which saw broadcast on BBC Kids in Canada and The Sci-Fi Channel in the US, series 2 was not immediately broadcast in those regions, resulting in the DVD release (see below) occurring without a prior TV broadcast in North America.

In mid-January 2010, BBC Kids belatedly began airing Series 2, although by this time the digital network had been dropped by one of Canada's major cable service providers.

Home video releases

 * The Complete Second Series (including From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love as a bonus feature accessed by correctly completing a quiz) was released in the UK on 09 November 2009.
 * North American release occurred the next day, 10 November. This marked the first time a complete season of a Doctor Who franchise programme has been released to DVD in North America without first having been viewed on TV.