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,[1] 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, a ghastly shrouded figure suddenly reveals himself in an attempt to replace Earth with a sinister duplicate, but is swiftly defeated when it 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. A small woman tells everyone that it would not be right for her traveling companion to attend the funeral. "He's got two hearts, imagine them both breaking." A rather glamorous, nothern-sounding, Indian woman admits that she was jealous of Sarah Jane because she thought her husband had fancied her. She ultimately accepted her as a close friend. Dorothy 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 a robot dog with her.
her son, Sir Jokesalot and a girl who once could have had a name are the only ones left with Sir Jokesalot 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 the computer 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. Her son finally expresses how happy he was to have her as a mother and how she helped him pursue a relationship with an old flame of his, to whom he is married to now.
Sarah Jane's son and Sir Jokesalot leave the attic, but the girl who may have once had a name stalls before talking to the computer one final time. She states that she believes in her heart that Sarah Jane did not die, but was instead invited by her traveling companion to come and explore time and space once again, forever. The computer 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
- Sarah Jane (Deceased)
- Sarah Jane's son
- a girl who could have once had a name
- Sir Jokesalot
- a small woman
- Dorothy
- a rather glamorous, nothern-sounding Indian woman
- Sarah Jane's computer
- Brigadier, Jr.
- an Australian woman
- her aristocratic partner, who comes from somewhere that sounds like 'Arkham'
- a 60s boy
- a 60s girl
- an ageless schoolteacher
- his wife
- a solemn dark-skinned woman
- her boyfriend, who insisted on bringing his (unloaded) gun to the funeral
- August
- a girl named after an extinct bird
- Amazing Grace
- an UNIT pal
- Victorian Waterloo
- Luke's sister, in her human form
- The Future Face of Boe
- a predecessor
- her pleasant, open-faced father
- a robot dog
- a ghastly shrouded figure
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.
References
- Tegan Jovanka and Nyssa are a couple and now live in Australia.
- Maria and Alan missed the service because they missed their plane while stopping a Bandril.
- Martha and Mickey have a child named August.
- Jo has a granddaughter called Rio de Janeiro.
- Ace and Sarah Jane had an adventure with the Diamond Wolf clan.
- The day Sarah Jane died, Luke was with UNIT in Geneva, Clyde was attending Comic-Con as a special guest of honour, and Rani was in the North Pole reporting to Project Refreeze.
- Clyde has a meeting about his Silver Bullet movie.
- Luke has been married to Sanjay for 5 years.
- Jo believes the Doctor didn't attend Sarah Jane's funeral in fear of having both hearts broken.
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 some time before 2028, as Jo Jones is still alive, and her date of death was given as 2028 in PROSE: /Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet.
- With Dodo attending Sarah's funeral, this officially contradicted her somewhat sadistic fate in PROBE: Who Killed Kennedy.
- No character other than Sarah Jane herself is referred to by their conventional name in this episode (although the credits provide the more typical names of those represented by performers).
Continuity
- Luke was created by the Bane. (TV: Invasion of the Bane)
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