The Sarah Jane Adventures - season 4 overview

I think this has been quite an even season.

I haven't found any of the stories to be particularly good this year, however the really bad plots have at least had some redeeming features to them. Death Of The Doctor was a pig of a story, but great fun. Lost In Time made no effort over plotting, and had little else going for it, but at least its other aspects weren't as bad.

There has, at long last, been a move away from zombie-led stories this season. Hopefully next series this trend will continue, and some of the incessant music will go too.

The final story - Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith - suffers from the same problem that last year's Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith did, specifically that Ruby needed to have been introduced a few stories earlier for her reveal to mean anything. It's a missed opportunity that the absence of Luke (and K9) this series have actually left a spare role for another character to fill, which could have been ideal for Ruby. Mind you, I've also found the trio of Sarah, Clyde and Rani to make the show more focussed too.

Individual episode reviews:

The Nightmare Man
The Vault Of Secrets
Death Of The Doctor
The Empty Planet
Lost In Time
Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith