The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Second Season (2009)

I was surprised to see one of the regular cast members leave in the first two-parter of the second Season. It's not Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen), so the series survives the upheaval, but the relationships that were built up in Season One had a lot more potential depth to them. I'd even begun to try and predict where it would go after the series finale. Happily, the replacement character is a similar shaped peg that fits into the existing format well.

There's nothing that I'd call filler, but most of the stories are weaker than S1. The exception, which was both the highlight and the one that quickly became my favourite episode of all so far, was The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith. It's a powerful story making use of a plot device that won't be new to any fan of sci-fi, but that doesn't lessen it. It packs a potent emotional punch that actually benefits from being simplified for a younger audience. If the melodrama had been piled on too thick it could've easily swamped the narrative and made it much too schmaltzy, but it avoided the pitfalls, so sincere kudos to the writers for that.

The notion of 'family' is a recurring theme throughout the season, and ties everything together. It's shown from different sides: responsibility, self-sacrifice, parental abandonment, etc, but it gives each approach the same level of importance. The surrogate mother role that Sarah Jane filled in the first season is put to the test, and her own upbringing is further explored.

Alongside some rather heavy themes is the affirmation that differences in people should be celebrated, not scorned. It's an important message that everyone watching — not just kids — ought to recognise and take on board.

6 two-part stories (12 episodes), approx 27 minutes each.

3½ "amazing things out there in space" out of 5