Series 5 (SJA)

Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures began airing on CBBC on 3 October 2011.

On 4 March 2010, the BBC announced that it had officially commissioned both a 4th and 5th series of the spin-off. Part of the series was planned to film in 2010 alongside Series 4 and it was later announced that half the series had been completed as planned. With the death of Elisabeth Sladen in April 2011, the BBC announced that no new episodes will be made. Three stories (six episodes) of Series 5 were completed. The final episodes aired in October 2011.

Main cast



 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Sky Smith - Sinead Michael
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight exc. Curse of Clyde Langer

Guest cast

 * Miss Myers - Christine Stephen-Daly
 * Lionel Carson - Peter Bowles (DWM 429)
 * John Harrison - James Dreyfus (DWM 429)

Stories
The series considered of 3 two-part serials. The series began on the 3 October. Luke Smith made appearances in the first and third stories, but this was the only SJA season in which K9 Mark IV did not appear. A new ongoing character, Sky Smith, was introduced for the season.

Three more stories were planned for the series before Sladen's death. These were:

Rumours

 * The Shopkeeper will return. (DWM 429) This was true. The Shopkeeper reappeared again in Sky.
 * They will introduce a new character into the gang. This is true. Sky joined at the end of the first episode.
 * A Sontaran will appear. This was false. Plark turned out to be a different alien altogether. Though an episode featuring them could have been scripted, but never filmed due to the sudden cancellation of production
 * Clyde and Rani will get married in The Man Who Never Was episode 2. False, they posed as a married couple while undercover.
 * Numerous UK media reports following the death of Elisabeth Sladen indicated the series would continue without her. In response to these erroneous reports the BBC made the official announcement of the series' cancellation.

DVD and Blu-ray releases

 * DVD and Blu-ray release occurred in the UK on 6 February 2012 in a single-disc edition that includes the featurette "Goodbye Bannerman Road: Remembering Elisabeth Sladen". A North American release, on DVD only, occurred on 12th June 2012 with the same bonus feature.