From Raxicoricofallapatorius with Love

"Whatever next, the bionic blusher?"

Writers: Gareth Roberts & Clayton Hickman

Format: TV

Broadcast: 13th March 2009

Series: 2009 Comic Relief Special

Featuring: Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde, Rani, K9

Synopsis 

When Sarah Jane and her young friends are gathered in the attic and carrying out maintenance on Mr Smith, they get a visit from the most unexpected of visitors...

Verdict 

From Raxicoricofallapatorius with Love was a terrific little minisode. Just when I thought my viewing of the Sarah Jane Adventures was over for a while, I go sky discover this little gem on the DVD boxset of the second series. However, it's not as easy to access as you might expect from a DVD! I mean, it's not really that difficult to get around to finding and watching it but once you access the not so well hidden secret files, there is a quiz section had to access the minisode you have to answer five questions in a row correctly. Obviously, they're all about the series that this is the boxset of but I actually started off with an incorrect answer as I couldn't recall what Rani's star sign was from Secrets of the Stars. However, the fifth and final question that I did answer correctly was the star sign of Sarah Jane so after working for it, I was able to sit back and enjoy the little special. I think it's great that a spinoff of Doctor Who got to do a minisode for a charity appeal and Comic Relief is obviously a good cause and I liked how similarly to a Christmas special, the running theme of the charity night was heavily present in the story. We had Ronnie Corbett appearing which is brilliant enough in itself but the fact that he was a child Slitheen was just magnificent! It really was quite a humorous five minutes or so and I liked the Slitheen's disguise of being a galactic ambassador that had come to reward Sarah Jane and her young friends for all the hard work they had been doing recently in battling aliens and defeating evil. She initially felt honoured but once the new arrival started shedding gas, the disguise was up and everybody knew that he was actually a Slitheen. It was quite intriguing that his name was shortened to Rani and with that name already being synonymous with Doctor Who, it was strange to have two characters named that here without either being an evil Time Lady. There was a great deal of comedy fitted into five minutes which was good and while the plot of the story wasn't exactly thrilling, it really didn't matter. This was purely meant to get laughs and that's exactly what it achieved. Mr Smith analysing the Slitheen and even the reemergence of K9 confirming his alien identity was brilliant because the Slitheen still continued to deny that he was one of them! Rarely does a story physically make me laugh but that did occur here with Ronnie Corbett so it definitely did something right. The comments about the sonic lipstick were excellent and the use of red nose antlers and even one appearing on K9 was a good and funny way to end the minisode. Overall, a lot of fun!

Rating: 8/10