The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Phil Ford served as the show's head writer. It is a spin-off of the long-running television production Doctor Who. Compared to Doctor Who's family-oriented viewership, The Sarah Jane Adventures is targeted towards a younger audience. The show centres around its titular character, Sarah Jane Smith (portrayed by Elisabeth Sladen), an investigative journalist and former time-travelling companion of the Doctor.
Sladen starred in Doctor Who from 1973–1976 and returned to the programme several times prior to the spin-off. In 2006, she made her first appearance in the revived era of Doctor Who by guest starring in the second series episode "School Reunion", which was retroactively viewed as a backdoor pilot. The Sarah Jane Adventures was the second attempt at a spin-off featuring Sladen, the first being K-9 and Company which never made it past the pilot stage in 1981. Now, living in modern-day Ealing, London, Smith investigates extraterrestrial matters and protects Earth against alien threats with a group of teenage accomplices: her adopted son Luke Smith, neighbour Maria Jackson, and friend Clyde Langer. New neighbour Rani Chandra and adopted daughter Sky Smith later join the cast. Additionally, the group is aided by Mr Smith, a sentient extraterrestrial computer, and K9, a dog-shaped robot gifted to Sarah Jane by the Doctor.
The Sarah Jane Adventures was introduced in a 60-minute special episode broadcast on New Year's Day in 2007 on BBC One. It was followed later in the year by a 10-part series, made up of five half-hour two-part serials which aired weekly from 24 September to 19 November 2007. The first serial, Revenge of the Slitheen, premiered its first part on BBC One and the second part immediately after on CBBC. For the remainder of the series, each episode first aired on CBBC and was followed by a BBC One repeat broadcast one week later. The second series, which began a trend of each series consisting of 12 episodes split across six two-part serials, had an identical release schedule with transmission occurring between 29 September and 8 December 2008. An additional special mini-episode, "From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love", was produced in support of Comic Relief, an annual telethon used to raise funds for charity, on 13 March 2009.
