When Lis Sladen passed away a few years ago, it broke the hearts of not only Classic Who fans, but also a whole new generation of young fans who had grown to love journalist Sarah Jane Smith through her own series on CBBC.
The Sarah Jane Adventures was a truly wonderful series, filled with an appealling mix of the low-key innocence and OTT cliffhangers of early-era Classic Who and modern sensibilities and parables (and with its own iconic roster of enemies - foes like The Nightmare Man, who was honestly more frightening than anything the parent series ever delivered). And when Lis died, the fifth season was only partway through production.
But now one of the serials that had yet to be filmed is making its way to screen. The Thirteenth Floor, by Who alumni Phil Ford, has been reworked to serve as the finale to the upcoming second season of Russel T. Davies' Wizards Vs. Aliens.
Little is known about the plot of the episodes, but adapting them for Wizards Vs. Aliens shouldn't be too tricky: the show was commsioned as a straight replacement for Sarah Jane, and many of the characters share traits (there's the "very special boy", the investigative best friend, the elderly female mentor etc.), and the tone of the two shows is very similar. And if RTD's involvement wasn't enough to pique the interest of Who fans, this news may just achieve that: it's a good little show, and well worth dipping into.
It's not just Wizards Vs. Aliens and The Sarah Jane Adventures that have proved to be great crossover series for CBBC, either. The Sparticle Mystery, Wolfblood and the genuinely brilliant Young Dracula have all proved that, surprisingly for a station that is hosted by two (rather scary) puppet dogs with sinister 60-a-day voices and eyes filled with childmurder, CBBC is actually by far and away the best place to go for original British genre television at the moment.
Don't move... A killpuppet's vision is based on movement...
Trust me, if you've been dismissing these shows because they're aimed at a family audience and produced by the children's department of the BBC, you're missing out on a treat. After all, fifty years ago the BBC launched a different children's genre show, and we all know how that turned out...
Wizards Vs. Aliens returns to CBBC on the 28th October
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