Death of the Doctor - SJA 4.3

In which Sarah Jane Smith gets a visit from UNIT. Colonel Karim has come to inform her in person of the death of her friend, the Doctor. Sarah refuses to believe he can be dead, as she always thought that she would somehow know if this happened, but agrees to travel to Wales with Karim for his funeral service. Rani and Clyde agree to go with her, worried that she is in denial. They are taken to UNIT's base built into the foot of Mount Snowdon. Karim explains that the Doctor's body was found by the alien Shansheeth - huge vulture-like creatures which act as undertakers. They scour battle fields for bodies in order to give them a proper burial. The TARDIS was not found with the Doctor. It is planned that his body will be fired into space in a UNIT rocket. Rani and Clyde are alarmed to find what they think are Graske working in the HQ. However, these are their blue-skinned cousins called Groske, who are not as troublesome. One of the creatures comments that Clyde smells strangely, and he notices a trace of Artron energy on his hand. Most of the Doctor's old acquaintances are unable to attend the funeral service. Liz Shaw is currently working at UNIT's moonbase, whilst the Brigadier is stuck in Peru. However, the Doctor's companion who immediately predated Sarah has been able to attend - Jo Grant.

Now a grandmother, she is still married to Cliff Jones, and has a huge family. She spends her time travelling the globe taking part in environmental protests. With her is one of her grandsons, Santiago. Sarah is overjoyed to meet her, having heard so much about her - and Jo tells her that she has heard all about Sarah too.
Later, in their quarters, Jo admits that she also has doubts about the Doctor's death - feeling that she too would have felt it. The Shansheeth, meanwhile are using a harp-like instrument which they played at the service to examine the memories of those who took part - agreeing that these are strongest with Sarah and Jo. Clyde, Rani and Santiago follow the Groske into some ventilation tunnels and come to his den. They hear the harp music playing, which is putting Sarah and Jo into a trance. They then overhear the Shansheeth plotting with Colonel Karim to create a memory weave - stealing Jo and Sarah's memories, which will kill them. Clyde suffers another attack of Artron energy, which attracts the attention of the aliens. Escaping into the corridor, Clyde suddenly starts talking with a different voice - that of the Doctor - and notices that his hand looks like it belongs to another person. Clyde suddenly vanishes and is replaced by the Doctor. Clyde finds himself transported to an alien planet, bathed by a red sun. The Shansheeth arrive in the corridor but when the Doctor challenges them they fire energy bolts at him from their claws...

The Doctor vanishes, but is replaced with Clyde. They swap bodies a couple more times then run off with their friends. The Doctor takes Sarah and Jo by the hand and all three are transported to the alien planet, leaving Clyde back at the UNIT base with Rani and Santiago. They retreat back into the ventilation shafts to avoid Karim and the Shansheeth - taking refuge once more in the Groske's den. On the planet, the Doctor explains that he has become separated from his TARDIS by the Shansheeth. he has built a device which should get him back to Earth but he needs help with it, to prevent Clyde being transported back here permanently. Jo is upset to have learned that Sarah has had some recent encounters with the Doctor, feeling that she wasn't good enough for him to have come and found her. He surprises her by revealing he knows all about her life since leaving UNIT. He has been keeping a discreet watch on all of his old companions, and went to see them all just before his last regeneration.
They operate the Doctor's device and return to UNIT's HQ complex. The Doctor must rescue the youngsters, as Karim turns up the heating in the ventilation shafts to danger levels, whilst the Shansheeth abduct Jo and Sarah and take them to the funeral chamber where the TARDIS is waiting.

They are strapped to the memory weave equipment, which begins to absorb their memories of travelling in the TARDIS. The Shansheeth do not have the ship's key, but a replacement can be made from these memories. They recall all of their initial adventures with the Doctor, and the key begins to form. The Doctor cannot get into the room, but he tells them that they should remember everything - including their lives since leaving him. The memory weave begins to overload and threatens to explode. Sarah and Jo break free and clamber into the lead-lined casket which was supposed to have been the Doctor's coffin - just as the memory weave explodes. Karim and the Shansheeth are killed in the blast.
The Doctor takes everyone back to Bannerman Road in the TARDIS, telling Jo and Sarah how proud he is of them before leaving to catch up with Amy and Rory, who are on honeymoon. When it is time for Jo and Santiago to depart, Sarah tells her of some of the other companions she has researched - teachers Ian and Barbara, who are academics at Cambridge, Ben and Polly who run an orphanage in India, Tegan Jovanka, who works with Aboriginal peoples in her native Australia, and a woman named Dorothy, who runs the 'A Charitable Earth' Foundation...

Death of the Doctor was written by Russell T Davies, and was first broadcast on 25th and 26th October, 2010.
This was the final TV script RTD wrote for the Doctor Who universe (at least to date), and it follows the previous season's The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith in having a guest appearance by the Doctor himself - in this case the new Doctor Matt Smith. That earlier story is referenced, as Clyde is still imbued with Artron energy from having come into contact with the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS.
As well as being a crossover with the parent programme in its current incarnation, Death of the Doctor is most notable for featuring the return of Katy Manning as Jo Grant - one time companion to the Third Doctor, but now grandmother Jo Jones. We learn that she is still married to Prof. Clifford Jones, and has become a fearless eco-warrior.
The story also makes reference to a number of other companions - Liz, the Brigadier, Ian & Barbara, Ben & Polly, Harry, Tegan and Ace. Some of what we hear totally contradicts what has featured in some of the novels and comic strips.
As their memories are accessed, we see a large number of clips from stories of the Classic Era which featured Jo and Sarah, plus SJA clips for Sarah's more recent memories. For Jo's more recent exploits we only get some ransacking of travel programme footage.

The guest cast is not a huge one. David Bradley makes his first appearance in the Doctor Who universe by voicing the Shansheeth leader. he'll be back in Series 7 as the villainous Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, before essaying William Hartnell in the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time, then playing the First Doctor himself in Twice Upon A Time.
Santiago Jones is played by Finn Jones, who became a regular on Game of Thrones as Loras Tyrell.
Colonel Karim is Laila Rouass, who came to fame through Footballers' Wives.
Jimmy Vee is once again hidden under prosthetics as the Groske. Tommy Knight makes another Luke cameo, by appearing in a video call with the gang at the start of the story.

Overall, it's a love letter to Doctor Who of the 1970's, for many its Golden Age.
Things you might like to know:

• The Shansheeth are quite effectively realised, but once you see them tending to only wave one arm around, you quickly spot how they were done.
• RTD had previously considered Death of the Doctor as a title for what became The End of Time Part II.
• This is the second time that UNIT has featured prominently in The Sarah Jane Adventures, and on both occasions the commanding officer turned out to be a villain. Major Kilburne had been a disguised Bane in Enemy of the Bane.
• Torchwood had previously found a spaceship at the foot of Mount Snowdon, yet this is where UNIT Base 5 is located. As the Torchwood organisation was over a century old, they may have obtained it long before UNIT arrived in the area.
• It is said that Ian and Barbara haven't aged since the 1960's. Nothing we saw on screen of their travels with the Doctor might have caused this. They are both professors at Cambridge University, though a couple of years later we find that Ian is Chairman of the Board of Governors of Coal Hill School (The Day of the Doctor).
• Ben and Polly are still together in India, running an orphanage. The location might be a reference to the fact that Anneke Wills resided at an Ashram for a number of years.
• In an earlier SJA story Sarah seemed to indicate that Harry Sullivan was dead. She says "Poor Harry..." when remembering him. Here she mentions his work with viruses but does so in the past tense, confirming that he is no longer with us.
• The novel Eternity Weeps has Liz Shaw working in a moonbase for UNIT, but has her die in the early 2000's.
• The recent trailer for the Season 26 Blu-ray box set also features Ace running the 'A Charitable Earth' Foundation. Whilst that is hardly canon, this story clearly contradicts the comic strip in DWM where she is killed.
• During Tom Baker's time, Nicholas Courtney's absence was usually explained away by having the Brigadier stuck in Geneva. Since 2008, it is Peru where he has got himself stuck - starting with The Sontaran Stratagem. It had been hoped that Courtney could have made a cameo appearance in this story, but he was too ill. He passed away four months after it was broadcast.
• Jo's memories include clips from Carnival of Monsters (one featuring Ian Marter in his earlier guise of Lt. Andrews in that story), The Three Doctors (including glimpses of the First and Second Doctors), The Mutants, The Sea Devils and Frontier in Space (including Roger Delgado's Master).
• Some of Sarah's memories include clips from Masque of Mandragora, Genesis of the Daleks, The Android Invasion, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, The Monster of Peladon, Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear.
• A minor continuity matter is cleared up as we learn that Jo Grant did indeed visit Karfel with the Third Doctor (Timelash refers to this unseen adventure. No mention is made of who the Doctor's other companion was at the time).
• Sarah recalls events from The Five Doctors, yet speaks of Tegan as though she has never met her. This was a problem thrown up by School Reunion, in which, despite having her owning K9 Mark III, she acted as though she hadn't seen the Doctor since The Hand of Fear.