Farewell, Sarah Jane (webcast)

Farewell, Sarah Jane was a webcast that was made specifically for the Doctor Who: Lockdown! event to coincide with the anniversary of Elisabeth Sladen's passing. Billed as the final Sarah Jane Adventure,https://twitter.com/russelldavies63/status/1251465497151000581 it confirmed the in-universe death of Sarah Jane Smith at some point into the 21st century.
In contrast to other Lockdown webcasts, this was unique in being uploaded to the official Doctor Who YouTube channel, rather than the Doctor Who Lockdown channel which had been created specifically for the event.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8sU45ax2Hs
It was hybrid in its format: while most of the story was read aloud by narrator Jacob Dudman, filmed in his recording booth, some scenes, such as Jo Jones's exit and other characters' contributions, were fully acted, with the clips inserted into the narrative.
== Plot ==
Sarah Jane Smith has passed away and many of the Doctor's allies from throughout history have come together to attend her funeral. As everyone begins to catch up with one another and celebrate their time together, the Trickster reveals himself in an attempt to replace Earth with a sinister duplicate, but is swiftly defeated when he is shrunken "to the size of a doll and [locked] in a treasure chest at the bottom of the Atlantic for the next thousand years".
Everyone resumes the commemoration before leaving one by one. Jo Grant tells everyone that it would not be right for the Doctor to attend the funeral. "He's got two hearts, imagine them both breaking." Gita Chandra admits that she was jealous of Sarah Jane because she thought her husband, Haresh, had fancied her. She ultimately accepted her as a close friend. Dorothy McShane reveals that out of all the people the Doctor missed, Sarah Jane was the one he missed the most. Upon meeting her, she saw why. She leaves, taking K9 with her.
Luke Smith, Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra are the only ones left with Clyde saying that Sarah Jane was "alright" before emotionally reminiscing on how she saw that there was more to him and made something of him. They head down to 13 Bannerman Road where the three remember that they were all out of the country when they heard the news that Sarah Jane had passed away. "It felt like Sarah Jane had waited until they were out of sight to save them any pain."
The gang head inside the house to reminisce some more before awakening Mr Smith who is also emotional about Sarah Jane's passing. As part of Sarah Jane's instructions, they are to leave the house vacant until the day someone else comes to continue what they started. Luke finally expresses how happy he was to have her as a mother and how she helped him pursue a relationship with Sanjay, to whom he is now married.
Luke and Clyde leave the attic, but Rani remains to talk to Mr Smith one final time. She states that she believes in her heart that Sarah Jane did not die, but was instead invited by the Doctor to explore time and space once again, forever. Mr Smith agrees with the sentiment as the trio leave the now-vacant house.
== Cast ==
: Narrated by Jacob Dudman
* Jo Jones - Katy Manning
* Dorothy 'Ace' McShane - Sophie Aldred
* Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar
* Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
* Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
* Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
: Mr Smith voiced by Jacob Dudman
== Characters ==
* Luke Smith
* Rani Chandra
* Clyde Langer
* Jo Jones
* Dorothy McShane
* Gita Chandra
* Mr Smith
* Kate Stewart
* Tegan Jovanka
* Nyssa
* Ben Jackson
* Polly Wright
* Ian Chesterton
* Barbara Wright
* Martha Jones
* Mickey Smith
* August
* Dodo Chaplet
* Grace Holloway
* Liz Shaw
* Victoria Waterfield
* Sky Smith
* Jack Harkness
* Maria Jackson
* Alan Jackson
* K9 Mark IV
* The Trickster
== Crew ==
* Written by Russell T Davies
* Music by Sam Watts
* Music mixed by Dan Watts
* Artwork by Sophie Cowdrey
* With thanks to Samantha Cook, Sacha Dhawan, Nicole Gordon, Scott Handcock, William Henderson, Stuart Humphreys
* Special thanks and love to the original Sarah Jane Adventures team
* Produced by Emily Cook
* In loving memory of Elisabeth Sladen, our Sarah Jane.
== Worldbuilding ==
* Tegan Jovanka and Nyssa are a couple and now live in Australia.
* Maria and Alan missed the service because they missed their plane while stopping a Bandril.
* Martha and Mickey have a child named August.
* Jo has a granddaughter called Rio de Janeiro.
* Ace and Sarah Jane had an adventure with the Diamond Wolf Clan.
* The day Sarah Jane died, Luke was with UNIT in Geneva, Clyde was attending New York Comic-Con as a special guest of honour, and Rani was in the North Pole reporting to Project Refreeze.
* Clyde has a meeting about his Silver Bullet movie.
* Luke has been married to Sanjay for five years.
* Jo believes the Doctor didn't attend Sarah Jane's funeral in fear of having both his hearts broken.
* Items seen behind Luke includes a Cyberman's helmet and a photograph of him and Sarah Jane.
* Ace and the Seventh Doctor were once captured on a prison planet run by giant mechanical prawns.
== Story notes ==
* This story was released exactly 9 years after the passing of Elisabeth Sladen. (Sladen passed on April 19 2011, this story was released on April 19 2020)
* Sky Smith's fate in the story is similar to that of the intended final story for series 5, The Battle of Bannerman Road, with her having left the Bannerman Road gang and manifesting into something other than human.
* Luke Smith is revealed to be married to his former Oxford roommate Sanjay. This lines up with Russell T. Davies' original intention to have Luke turn out to be gay and subsequently enter into a relationship with Sanjay had the The Sarah Jane Adventures continued.
* Sarah Jane's death occurs before 2028, as Jo Jones is still alive, and her date of death was given as 2028 in /Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet.
* With Dodo attending Sarah Jane's funeral, this contradicted her fate in Who Killed Kennedy. It does, however, fit with the 20th Anniversary Edition of the novel. The character's original actress, Jackie Lane, does not appear and would pass away a little over a year later.
* Anjli Mohindra's footage was filmed by her boyfriend, Sacha Dhawan, who played Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Space and Time and in Doctor Who, opposite the Thirteenth Doctor.
* The prison planet run by mechanical prawns appears to be a reference to Brandon Sanderson's Skyward series, which Sophie Aldred narrated the audiobooks of.
* Uniquely among Lockdown!-produced content, this was released on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel, unlike all other content produced by Emily Cook, which was released independently or on the official Doctor Who: Lockdown! YouTube channel.
=== Production errors ===
* This story is told from the point of view that the events in The Battle of Bannerman Road still happened, with Sky guarding the Trickster's prison, but manifesting briefly. However, this story features the Trickster outside of prison, mentioning the guests "[shrinking] the Trickster into the size of a doll and [locking] him in a treasure chest at the bottom of the Atlantic for the next thousand years." This could, however, be due to Sky's brief absence.
== Continuity ==
* Luke recalls how he was created by the Bane, but adopted by Sarah Jane. (TV: Invasion of the Bane)
* Luke has married Sanjay, his former roommate at Oxford. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
* Clyde is involved in adapting his Silver Bullet comic into a movie. (TV: The Curse of Clyde Langer)
* Many of the companions mentioned are not known to have encountered Sarah Jane in any previous televised episode, novel or audio drama. Aside from Dorothy mentioning an unchronicled meeting with her, however, UNIT's Black Archive contains photographs of companions not known to have worked together sharing adventures. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
* The gang was instructed by Sarah Jane to leave the house vacant until someone comes to continue what they started. Sometime later, Rani would end up living at 13 Bannerman Road. (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
== Footnotes ==
Category:SJA webcasts
Category:2020 webcasts
Category:UNIT webcasts
Category:Stories set in Ealing
Category:Stories set in the 21st century
Category:K9 webcasts