Farewell, Sarah Jane (webcast)

Farewell, Sarah Jane was a webcast that was made specifically for the Doctor Who: Lockdown! event to coincide with the anniversary of Elisabeth Sladen's passing. Billed as the final Sarah Jane Adventure, it confirmed the in-universe death of Sarah Jane Smith at some point into the 21st century.

It was hybrid in its format: while most of the story was read aloud by a narrator filmed in his recording booth, some scenes, such as Jo Jones's exit and other characters' bits, were fully acted, with the clip inserted in the video release.

Plot
Sarah Jane Smith has passed away and many of the Doctor's allies from throughout history have come together to attend her funeral. As everyone begins to catch up with one another and celebrate their time together, the Trickster suddenly reveals himself in an attempt to replace Earth with a sinister duplicate, but is swiftly defeated when he is shrunken "to the size of a doll and [locked] in a treasure chest at the bottom of the Atlantic for the next thousand years".

Everyone resumes the festivities before leaving one by one. Jo Grant tells everyone that it would not be right for the Doctor to attend the funeral. "He's got two hearts, imagine them both breaking." Gita Chandra admits that she was jealous of Sarah Jane because she thought her husband, Haresh, had fancied her. She ultimately accepted her as a close friend. Dorothy McShane reveals that out of all the people the Doctor missed, Sarah Jane was the one he missed the most. Upon meeting her, she saw why. She leaves, taking K9 with her.

Luke Smith, Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra are the only ones left with Clyde saying that Sarah Jane was "alright" before emotionally reminiscing on how she saw that there was more to him and made something of him. They head down to 13 Bannerman Road where the three remember that they were all out of the country when they heard the news that Sarah Jane had passed away. "It felt like Sarah Jane had waited until they were out of sight to save from any pain."

The gang head inside the house to reminisce some more before awakening Mr Smith who is also emotional about Sarah Jane's passing. As part of Sarah Jane's instructions, they are to completely leave the house vacant until the day someone else comes to continue what they started. Luke finally expresses how happy he was to have her as a mother and how she helped him pursue a relationship with Sanjay, to whom he is married to now.

Luke and Clyde leave the attic, but Rani stalls before talking to Mr Smith one final time. She states that she believes in her heart that Sarah Jane did not die, but was instead invited by the Doctor to come and explore time and space once again, forever. Mr Smith agrees with the sentiment as the trio leave the now-vacant house.

Cast

 * Narrated by Jacob Dudman


 * Jo Jones - Katy Manning
 * Dorothy 'Ace' McShane - Sophie Aldred
 * Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
 * Mr Smith voiced by Jacob Dudman

Characters

 * Luke Smith
 * Rani Chandra
 * Clyde Langer
 * Jo Jones
 * Dorothy McShane
 * Gita Chandra
 * Mr Smith
 * Kate Stewart
 * Tegan Jovanka
 * Nyssa
 * Ben Jackson
 * Polly Wright
 * Ian Chesterton
 * Barbara Wright
 * Martha Jones
 * Mickey Smith
 * August
 * Dodo Chaplet
 * Grace Holloway
 * Liz Shaw
 * Victoria Waterfield
 * Sky Smith
 * Jack Harkness
 * Maria Jackson
 * Alan Jackson
 * K9 Mark IV
 * The Trickster

Crew

 * Written by Russell T Davies
 * Music by Sam Watts
 * Music mixed by Dan Watts
 * Artwork by Sophie Cowdrey
 * With thanks to Samantha Cook, Sacha Dhawan, Nicole Gordon, Scott Handcock, William Henderson, Stuart Humphreys
 * Special thanks and love to the original Sarah Jane Adventures team
 * Produced by Emily Cook
 * In loving memory of Elisabeth Sladen, our Sarah Jane.

Story notes

 * Sky Smith's fate in the story is similar to that of the intended final story for series 5, The Battle of Bannerman Road, with her having left the Bannerman Road gang and manifesting into something other than human.
 * Sarah Jane's death occurs before 2028, as Jo Jones is still alive, and her date of death was given as 2028 in /Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet. It is indicated by the aging of Luke, Rani and Clyde that the webcast was set in 2020, the same year it was released.
 * With Dodo attending Sarah Jane's funeral, this contradicted her fate in Who Killed Kennedy. It does however fit with the 20th Anniversary Edition of the novel.
 * Anjli Mohindra's footage was filmed by her boyfriend, Sacha Dhawan, who played original Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Space and Time and in Doctor Who, opposite the Thirteenth Doctor.
 * Uniquely among Lockdown!-produced content, this was released on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel., all other content produced by Emily Cook in this time was released independently.

Continuity

 * Luke was created by the Bane. (TV: Invasion of the Bane)