OK, so it doesn’t have the same theme music (which is a shame, as the one it does have would make Delia Darbyshire cry), but The Sarah Jane Adventures is basically old skool Doctor Who with money thrown at it. Which makes it a very very wonderful thing indeed. 2-part stories so we get a cliffhanger! An older person hero who is brainy and a bit mental! Actual skience! AND I used to walk past her house on the way home from school every day, which makes me practically her companion. (Ahem.)

They have traded in the eggbox spaceships and chromakey in favour of prettier explosions and people who can act, which is a touch radical. And it suffers a little from forelock-tugging to New Who (not to mention prop-borrowing, which is presumably the sole reason for the return of the still-not-at-all-interesting-or-funny Slitheen). But there remains something relentlessly uplifting about the mere existence of a kids’ show which centres on a MILF who saves the world by being quite clever.

When I am a lady of a certain age, I would like to have a big attic full of space junk, a computer for a husband, and to fight crime. I’ll pass on the tin dog, though.

Of course, this is not Sarah Jane’s first foray into spin-off land, so for your delectation here’s the opening credits for K9 and Company (scroll ahead to 3.52, unless you want to sit through an awful lot of diddly-dums). Warning: unintentional hilarity within.

the three Rs:

Philip Reeve’s Larklight. Victorian space pirates ahoy!

Scrabbling around YouTube looking for Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace clips. Can’t imagine what put it into my mind…