The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

"We are here today to witness the marriage of Sarah Jane Smith..."

Writer: Gareth Roberts

Format: TV

Broadcast: 29th-30th October 2009

Series: SJA 3.03

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

Synopsis

After Sarah Jane starts acting suspiciously, Luke, Clyde and Rani investigate. They discover she has a boyfriend, Peter Dalton, and they are going to get married. Clyde suspects Peter may be an alien and at the wedding, an old enemy returns, As the gang find themselves trapped in a time trap, can a very special friend from Sarah Jane's past save her and her friends, as well as the entire planet from the wrath of the Trickster?

Verdict

The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith is a superb story in the third series of the Sarah Jane Adventures and not only does it finally see the Doctor star in one of the spinoff shows, but it was just all round brilliant! It was easily the best of this series so far and that's not just because the Tenth Doctor made an appearance. The events of this story were foreshadowed in The Mad Women in the Attic and they came true here. The idea of Sarah Jane falling in love was excellent and it's not something that has even been hinted at during the spinoff show's existence up to this point so for her to not only fall in love but to agree to get married, all in part one, was quite a shock I must say! Everything was just so quick and I was surprised that she wasn't even a little bit suspicious but I really enjoyed how Clyde was remaining sceptical. He even brought K9 to the wedding! I think it's terrific that the infamous robot dog is back as a regular character in the series and I'm already loving the competition between him and Mr Smith. That humour is surely going to be a running theme which I think is great. Peter seemed like a decent guy and Sarah Jane could be forgiven for not suspecting anything about him. She'd even scanned him so that would just confirm that he wasn't hostile. Sarah Jane was admittedly getting old and didn't want to waste her time which I could understand but I was a little shocked that she kept her endeavours a secret from the rest of the gang. Them using Mr Smith to track her was good but the way their cover was blown was hilarious. Things escalated quickly and we were soon at a wedding where everything seemed normal. That remained the case until about one minute before the closing titles hit where an incredible cliffhanger occurred. I think it's my favourite SJA cliffhanger yet as not only did the Trickster return but the Doctor emerged! It was just pulsating and what was a relatively calm story was immediately thrown into action. It was just terrific to see David Tennant starring as the Tenth Doctor in something other than Doctor Who and I think it just added credit to the spinoff show as a whole. He formally got to meet Luke after their brier glimpse in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End and I also liked his rushed hellos to Rani and Clyde. The former looked dazzling while the latter wasn't too impressed by the police box but Luke had full trust in the Doctor to fix things which I thought was excellent. Seeing the Trickster in white really was quite contrasting and the way it'd tricked Peter by pretending to be an angel was interesting. The face to face conversation between the Doctor and the Trickster was superb and I loved how The Armageddon Factor was referenced in mentioning the Key to Time. The story also had good references to Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and Prisoner of the Judoon. Foreshadowing future stories isn't a new thing but the referral to The End of Time was very good indeed. The idea of a time trap was terrific and I liked how although the Doctor featured, it was actually Sarah Jane who saved the day thanks to his pointing her in the right direction. Peter did love Sarah Jane and broke off his agreement with the Trickster which reverted things to normal but one of the highlights of the story for me was the gang getting to see inside the TARDIS and the brief goodbye between the Doctor and Sarah Jane. It mirrored The Hand of Fear with a role reversal which was just beautiful. Overall, a simply brilliant story!

Rating: 10/10