The Sarah Jane Adventures, a Doctor Who spin-off where one of the Doctor's former companions leads a group of people who frequently defend the Earth against aliens. This time most of the group are in their early teens. It's set in Ealing.
Core Cast
- Beware the Nice Ones: All of them are kind. All of them are genuinely good people. All of them have years of experience fighting aliens, and are smart, savvy, and cool under pressure.
- Deadpan Snarker: While Clyde is the uncontested king of snark in the group, they all have their share of dry quips.
- Dude in Distress: In this show, the boys tend to get captured more often than the girls, though they usually have the wits to get themselves out of trouble.
- Nice Guy/Nice Girl: All of them are genuinely compassionate and caring people, though it's revealed in an alternate universe that Clyde wouldn't have been this way without Sarah Jane's influence.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Clyde and Rani do have distinct talents, however. Clyde's a splendid sketch artist and Rani has great journalism skills. Maria is more the average protagonist until actor Yasmin Paige's own academic life persuaded her to leave the show. Kelsey was just a pilot-only character who got a Second Episode Substitute in the form of Clyde because there were too many females in the cast, and she was more than a bit bratty, too. Luke and Sky don't fit this trope because they were created to be extraordinary. In fact, Luke gets into college early thanks to his naturally high intelligence.
- True Companions: Bicker and argue they might, but all of them are incredibly devoted to each other and Sarah Jane.
- Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: The kids balance schoolwork with saving the world, albeit with some difficulty.
- The Watson: The kids tend to play this role to the wiser and more experienced Sarah Jane, who effectively acts as a substitute for the Doctor in terms of her near-encyclopaedic knowledge of aliens.

- Action Mom: She's Sky and Luke's adoptive mother and saves the world just like the Doctor did.
- All-Loving Hero: Granted, she doesn't start out as an especially warm and rosy figure in the pilot episode, but she gradually grows into an unfailingly compassionate hero like the Doctor.
- Badass Normal: She confronts aliens and monsters without Time Lord biology, immortality, or even a secret agent infrastructure.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Just a kind woman who lives down the road, and is genuinely glad to help and befriend the odd alien who isn't trying to invade. But you come to her planet looking for trouble, then you don't stand a chance.
- Brainy Brunette: Brown hair and smart as a whip. Good enough to outsmart Sufficiently Advanced Aliens that think they're better than her.
- Character Development: Over the course of the series, she goes from being a frosty, reclusive and antisocial neighbour — the result of years of fighting earthbound aliens in the Doctor's absence and secretly pining for his return — to a kind, friendly and motherly figure to the Bannerman Road kids. Taking Luke as her adopted son was definitely one of the major turning points that led her to become more human again. Her character development also extends to her original stint as a companion in Doctor Who, where she had her share of immature and damsel-y moments.
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Character Outlives Actor: Its unclear when Sarah Jane passes away, the actress dying of cancer in 2011. In a comic published by IDW, the Doctor claims she is still alive in 2013. "Farewell Sarah Jane", a webcast produced in 2020 as part of the Doctor Who: Lockdown event, is set around her funeral, by which time her friends are all well into their careers and Luke has been married for five years, indicating that this takes place some time after the series ended.
- Cool Old Lady: What did you expect? Older than she looks, Sarah Jane spends her time being generally awesome.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Her parents' death is a fixed point in time, and they died to preserve the timeline.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: At the start of the series, Sarah Jane is distant and solitary towards both her neighbours and the kids trying to tag along on her adventures, believing that they'll all endanger themselves if they get involved with her, but she gradually comes out of her shell around them. While motherhood was certainly not on her agenda, she takes to it very well when she adopts Luke and acts as a maternal figure to the rest of the Bannerman Road Gang.
- Distaff Counterpart: Had started acting completely like the Doctor in terms of being a Socially Awkward Hero. In the first episode, suddenly having a child to take care of snaps her out of it, and she gradually becomes much more human again. This actually leads to her becoming more like the Doctor, as she recruits, mentors, and leads a group of brave individuals much younger than her against a barrage of alien threats, using only her wits, courage, and trusty sonic (and K9).
- Doesn't Like Guns: Something she picked up from the Doctor. It also serves as a convenient reason why she doesn't associate with Torchwood.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: In "The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith", she gives into the Trickster's manipulations and, against her better judgement, decides to save her parents' lives in spite of the consequences it will surely have for the timeline, selfishly justifying that she deserves a personal reward after her many years of hard work in protecting the planet (and pointing out, accurately, that time can be rewritten and it isn't always a bad thing). Of course, the Trickster counted on this and his entire plan hinged on Sarah having only a single moment of weakness. Fortunately, Sarah Jane's parents were stronger and braver than anyone expected.
- Fantastic Racism: Averted; unlike certain members of Torchwood and UNIT, she always approached aliens with a kind and compassionate hand, unless they make their hostile intentions known.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: In "The Eternity Trap", she adamantly refuses to accept that the hauntings are ghostly in origin. Unnatural, perhaps, but not supernatural. After all, many of her adventures with the Doctor involved aliens pretending to be supernatural beings and, of course, her instincts prove to be correct.
- Immune to Mind Control: As a result of having this done to her a lot back when she was a companion, she's learned how to prevent herself from being hypnotized. This comes in handy in the final story, when she has an interview with a man who is actually a hologram, controlled by aliens, who try to use it to hypnotize her.
- Intrepid Reporter: Her day job is writing articles for a newspaper, which she uses as a cover for investigating potential alien plots. She's also highly respected among the journalistic community.
- Lady of Adventure: A surprising amount of adventure happens around town and she'll be the first to jump in and help.
- Lethal Chef: While there's no indication that her cooking's particularly bad, Sarah Jane has been known to set the kitchen on fire while making scrambled eggs.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Although Luke is officially her adopted son, Sarah Jane acts just as maternally towards Maria and provides a strong female role model to look up to in the absence of her biological mother. Maria's departure at the beginning of Series 2 is especially painful for both of them.
- Little Old Lady Investigates: Not that old, but still investigating. A Running Gag throughout the series involves younger characters mocking Sarah Jane for her age, only for her to quickly humiliate them for their condescension.
- Makeup Weapon: Her signature tool is "sonic lipstick," which can open locks and override machinery (though not, apparently, actually apply makeup).
- Mama Bear: Do you want to harm Luke or Sky Smith? The correct answer is - no, you do not. Their mother - a former Companion, and not of the screaming type either - will stop at nothing to save them. No, seriously. There's no power in the universe that can save you from her wrath. Particularly explicitly in "The Gift", where she essentially declares, "Screw the world. I'm saving my son." In "Sky," she goes head to head with Mrs. Myers, declaring that Sky is a child, not a weapon.
- While she's not quite as protective of Clyde, Maria, or Rani - mainly because they can protect themselves and Luke is just socially inept - she's still very much willing to protect them from anyone or anything that tries to hurt them.
- Never Mess with Granny: She fits this trope particularly in that episode where she goes undercover in the Pharos Institute and stops an escaping biker with her sonic lipstick, and blows into it as if it were a gun that she fired.
- Older and Wiser: When she was younger she was a companion to the Doctor and was quite a bit more lively. She's not lost her edge since, but is more mature.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lampshaded by Clyde and Maria, when her reaction to a Sontaran spaceship is to call UNIT. As they note, she almost never considers asking them for help, but she has a (very justified) terror of what the Sontarans are capable of.
- Parental Abandonment: Sarah Jane was an orphan raised by her Aunt Lavinia, a plot point carried over from the much less successful spin-off attempt K-9 and Company that becomes very relevant when Sarah Jane encounters her parents shortly before their untimely deaths in the 1950s.
- Parental Substitute: There's no denying that Maria and her mother love each other dearly, but Chrissie is, to put it bluntly, a massive flake. Sarah Jane winds up picking up the slack and becomes the mother-figure Maria needs.
- Played With for Clyde; he already has a loving mother, but it's very clearly shown that SJ is a second parental figure to him. He respects her immensely and (almost) always listens to her advice, while she is very protective and encouraging of him. Perhaps most notable at the end of "Mark of the Berserker," where she creates a safe space for him to open up and express his fears and vulnerabilities, and she counsels him.
- Rule #1: "I don't put anyone else in danger." Despite this, she picked up some companions of her own.
- Sealed Good in a Can: The Tenth Doctor implies that he never came back for Sarah Jane after he left her on Earth because she didn't need him anymore. Given how many alien threats she's managed to defeat on her own, he's probably right.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Justified. She never gets involved in Captain Jack's adventures (or vice versa), because she Doesn't Like Guns and Torchwood's first response is generally to go in guns blazing. Similarly, though she will often call in UNIT to clean up her messes and occasionally lean on their authority to open closed doors, she keeps her distance from them. Meanwhile, the Doctor usually stays away, simply because he knows that she can handle most things without his help.
- Team Mom: To Luke, Clyde, Sky, Maria and Rani.
- Technical Pacifist: She inherited this trope from the Doctor by the time of The Sarah Jane Adventures. In The Last Sontaran, she not only lets Commander Kaagh go scot-free after trying to destroy the world, she leaves his ship intact. Of course, he comes back and tries to destroy the world again.
- Too Dumb to Live: She has a habit of marching into villains' offices and telling them she knows what they're up to, and it never goes well. However, she always manages to get away in the end and thus she avoid the business end of this trope.
- Who else has a habit of doing this? The Doctor, her mentor and role model, from whom she probably picked up the habit.
- Credit to her, it hasn't killed her yet!
- Who else has a habit of doing this? The Doctor, her mentor and role model, from whom she probably picked up the habit.
- Weirdness Magnet: Lots of alien invasions target London, as per the norm for Doctor Who. Sarah Jane lives in one of its suburbs, so she's always on hand to thwart them when the Doctor isn't around.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sarah Jane is terrified of clowns.

New girl to the area, sees Sarah Jane communicating with an alien and after helping foil an alien scheme she joins Sarah Jane in her adventures.
- And the Adventure Continues: We hear that she (and presumably Alan) are working to hide aliens from the US government while she's living in the States.
- Audience Surrogate: She's a normal teenaged girl who serves as the audiences guide into Sarah Jane's world.
- Commuting on a Bus: Even after moving to America, she retained a closeness with Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde that sparked a degree of jealousy in Rani.
- Deadpan Snarker: She tries, bless her, but she can never quite match the dry wit of Clyde and her occasional attempts at snarky jokes tend to fall flat.
- Kid Sidekick: All of Sarah Jane's teen companions qualify, but Maria is the one who works most closely with her.
- The Lancer: For the relatively short time she was part of the main cast, she was perhaps the closest thing to a "companion's companion" for Sarah Jane in the series, always shadowing her closely in every adventure they shared.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Maria was the daughter that Sarah Jane had always wanted.
- Little Miss Badass: Shows shades of this after leaving for America. In an email, she says she's helping aliens hide from the United States government.
- Nice Girl: She's one of the sweetest characters in the cast.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Just because she's no longer part of the gang doesn't mean she's sitting around doing nothing.
- Plucky Girl: She may be sweet, but she's also determined to get to the bottom of the mystery du jour.
- Put on a Bus: In "The Last Sontaran", she goes with her dad to live in the USA. She gets to appear in one more episode as a guest, "The Mark of the Berserker", and the occasional mention in emails thereafter.

The boy Sarah Jane adopts in the first episode. He was grown in a lab by aliens, so he knows nothing about socializing at all. Very intelligent, but seems simple.
- Artificial Human: He was grown by the Bane, has a body that rejuvenates itself with little upkeep necessary, and isn't affected by some things natural humans are susceptible to.
- Belly Buttonless: He lacks a navel, due to being created by the Bane rather than born like a normal human.
- The Cameo: The only original (human) character from SJA to crossover into Doctor Who — not once, but twice. However, his appearances in the episodes "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" and "The End of Time" were brief compared to the Series/Torchwood cast's larger role.
- That said, his suggestion to use Mr. Smith to create a beacon out of all telephones on Earth was crucial in allowing the Doctor to tow Earth back to the Solar System with the TARDIS. The Doctor and Jack Harkness both commend Luke's ingenuity.
- Cannot Dream: Meeting the Nightmare Man in his dreams especially disturbed him since, until that point, he had never dreamed.
- Commuting on a Bus: Luke left for Oxford after "The Nightmare Man" but appeared in several episodes afterward.
- Demoted to Extra: Throughout Series 3, he became more of a minor presence in the show while Rani and Clyde were given much more screentime. This culminated in his Commuting on a Bus situation seen above. However, he was given a full Day in the Limelight before his exit in "The Nightmare Man".
- Gayngst: After Luke heads off to college, he begins to question his sexuality. He starts wearing effeminate clothing like a long flamboyant scarf, and develops a crush on a boy named Sanjay. Had the show continued, it would have shown Luke hooking up with Sanjay. When he comes to Sarah Jane's funeral, he has been married to Sanjay for five years.
- Happily Adopted: Sarah Jane takes in Luke as her first adopted child and gives him his name, since it would be hard to find a better place for an alien-grown human teenager to grow up than her home.
- Happily Married: In "Farewell Sarah Jane" it is revealed by the time of his mother's death he has been married to Sanjay for five years.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: To an extent, he does just want to fit into human society as an ordinary teenager, but being a hyper-intelligent test-tube prodigy designed by aliens does have its perks, as he is occasionally willing to acknowledge (see the folder quote).
- Mix-and-Match Man: He has the combined intelligence and genetic information culled from thousands of human specimens.
- Momma's Boy: Not portrayed as a bad thing at all.
- Nice Guy: Very quickly becomes this. Then again, having Sarah Jane as a mother will do that to you.
- No Social Skills: He's at a loss in social situations. Thankfully he becomes more sophisticated so as time goes on. After all, he's being raised in a "normal" high school environment and is a quick learner due to both his age and his genes. He was grown by aliens: human but created to be a "Human Archetype" so that they could do tests on him. He has the absorbed intelligence of the thousands of people but not their social skills.
- Oblivious to Love: Kelsey Hooper had a crush on him but he seemed entirely oblivious to this development.
- Photographic Memory: Luke rarely forgets any detail he learns, even before he was activated.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: "Clani" in ''The Man Who Never Was.
- Put on a Bus: In "The Nightmare Man", he leaves to attend university in Oxford. As with Mariah's departure, this was due to Tommy Knight being busy with school.
- The Smart Guy: He is extremely gifted in every academic subject thanks to his augmentations, but he critically lacks social awareness until Clyde coaches him.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Much more so in Series 1, when he's still getting used to human norms, and has at first the innocence of a child (since he actually is one).
- Super Reflexes: His reactions are much better than a normal human's.
- Teen Genius: He appears to be this. Subverted in that he was created with a body on the onset of puberty.
- The Watson: For the first couple of series, Luke is clueless to popular culture and some basic concepts in spite of his super intelligence, prompting him to often ask obvious questions. However, he's very quick to pick things up. He learns how to read English by skimming through a single book.
- Younger Than They Look: Was effectively "born" in the middle of the first episode, yet appears 14. As of "Secrets of the Stars", this no longer applies, as he now considers himself to be born in 1994 rather than 2008.

Cool kid, or at least likes to think of himself as such. Starts of as a bit of a jerk but slowly softens. Smarter (and more compassionate) than he'd like to admit.
- AM/FM Characterization: He was a fan of Kasabian and Arctic Monkeys.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Clyde may joke around and act "cool," but he's a member of Sarah Jane's gang, with the smarts and skills to show for it.
- Breakout Character: As the series goes on, he takes a leading role in an increasing number of episodes and even narrates the opening credits from Series 3 onwards.
- Butt-Monkey: He gets slimed more frequently than anyone else, even Tempting Fate and suffering for it. And in "The Curse of Clyde Langer", his bad luck gets Played for Drama.
- Casanova Wannabe: He showed an interest in girls of his age group. He had a particular interest in Rani and seemed the closest to her in the gang. He formed a strong bond with Ellie Faber when he was cut off from his friends, to the point that she kissed him, but they were separated when Clyde had to join his friends to defeat their enemy.
- Deadpan Snarker: A wisecracker and a major fan of Puns.
- Disappeared Dad: His father left his mother during Clyde's childhood, but one day came back for him out of the blue. It did not go so well. It got worse when an alien artefact made him very possessive of Clyde.
- Excellent Judge of Character: He had a gift of finding out about the bad guys acting like good guys before anyone else, and people he initially did not trust often turned out to be malicious in the end.
- Fan Boy: He regularly makes references to Star Wars and other pop culture properties. However, he generally maintains a cool jock image.
- Former Teen Rebel: His life took a downward spiral after his dad left. His delinquency got him expelled from several schools, which he's not proud of.
- Hidden Depths: Though he initially kept them secret, he has talents for drawing and cooking. He is, in general, much smarter and kinder than he often appears.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: He's got an eye for the ladies, flirting with Rani and Ellie, and expressing a bit of jealousy when Luke gets a kiss on the cheek from a girl in Series 1.
- Parental Abandonment: We don't get to meet Clyde's family till series two (The Mark of the Berseker), though it is established early on that he lives with his mother after his father ran off with his mother's sister.
- Pop-Cultured Badass: An avowed fan of Star Wars.
- Pungeon Master: This sometimes grates on the others' nerves. It actually gets weaponized in Season 2.
- Second Episode Substitute: For Kelsey Hooper, the original streetwise snarker kid from the pilot episode.
- Shock and Awe: In "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith", he was electrocuted by the TARDIS when the Doctor tried to drag himself in, but the doors were shut. This helped out when the Doctor was stuck in a different planet and used Clyde's powers to teleport back and forth. Clyde even weaponises this against the Trickster in possibly his coolest moment.
- Shout-Out: His name, to the British record producer and musician Clive Langer. He also loves making references to Star Wars.
- UST: A mild case of this with Rani. He mentions a couple of times in "The Empty Planet" they may have to Adam and Eve the planet again, possibly seriously. They also kiss one another on the cheek a couple of times. This is also a literal case of UST, since the show got cancelled before their relationship could go anywhere romantic.

Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Maria from series 2, another new girl and the daughter of the Park Vale Comprehensive School's new Sadist Teacher Headmaster. Wants to be a journalist.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: She could be sceptical as she did not believe the Doctor was himself with a new face and needed a few moments to get used to the concept.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Like the rest of Sarah Jane's gang, just because she's nice does not mean she's a pushover.
- Celebrity Crush: She thought that Zac Efron was attractive.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: She filled Maria's role in the group, though she was Indian and her parents were together. She was also a lot more grounded and snarky.
- Cool Big Sis: She was a pseudo-big sister to Sky, teaching her many things as Clyde had done for Luke when he was recently created.
- Deadpan Snarker: Gets especially fed up with Clyde's shenanigans. They occasionally engage in Snark-to-Snark Combat.
- Intrepid Reporter: In the making, which is one reason why she gets on so well with Sarah Jane.
- Like Brother and Sister: With Luke.
- Nice Girl: Feisty, independent, intelligent, optimistic, selfless, and confident with a kind heart and a sense of humour.
- One-Steve Limit: A recurring female Time Lord villain in Doctor Who was named the Rani, though this is never brought up in-universe. And that Slitheen posing as Rahnius (actor Ronnie Corbett) who makes a joke about there being "two Ranis" in "From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love".
- Overshadowed by Awesome: She initially thought of herself as a "hanger on" in Sarah Jane's gang and was once jealous of Maria, but Clyde helped to prove to her that they were both valuable team members.
- UST: Shades of this with Clyde pop up, mostly in seasons 4 and 5, especially when Luke mentions the idea of "Clani".
Sarah Jane's alien computer, who is actually a sentient creature known as a Xylok.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted. Even in The Lost Boy when he's against Sarah Jane, it's intentional on his part and he's actually playing both sides.
- Aliens Speaking English: Mr Smith is actually an alien hooked up to a computer, and used his access to the internet to learn English.
- Badass Baritone: He has the voice of Alexander Armstrong, a classically trained baritone singer.
- The Chessmaster: He plays both sides very effectively in The Lost Boy.
- Colony Drop: He attempted to do this with the Moon in order to free the other Xylok trapped in the Earth's crust, wiping out humanity in the process.
- Declaration of Protection: He solemnly vows to protect Luke from the Daleks when they invade.
- Evil All Along: The Series 1 finale revealed he had been working against Sarah Jane from the very beginning, though there was a fair amount of foreshadowing.
- Evil Costume Switch: His shifting screensaver image turns into a more chaotic green-hued pattern after he reveals himself as a traitor. His angular crystalline screensaver image turns into a friendlier-looking amorphous blob from Series 2 onwards, signifying his genuine Heel–Face Turn.
- Good Feels Good: After his reprogramming, he begins to develop a sense of humour alongside a proper moral compass.
- Heel–Face Turn: After feigning allegiance to Sarah Jane in Series 1, he is reprogrammed to undergo a genuine face-turn following his attempt to crash the Moon into Earth.
- Left the Background Music On: He has a bombastic, orchestral fanfare whenever he reveals himself from the fireplace column. Funnily enough, it wasn't until his crossover appearance in Doctor Who that we learn that this music is actually diegetic when Sarah Jane expresses exasperation with it (possibly crossed with Leaning on the Fourth Wall). Later episodes of SJA reveal that he can be activated "quickly and quietly" without the usual fanfare.
- Magical Computer: He can do pretty much anything he needs to by virtue of being a Sufficiently Advanced Alien.
- Mr. Smith: Averted, his name actually is Mr. Smith.
- Mundane Utility: He uses his ventilation fans to suck in the deadly Rakweed spores in "The Gift".
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: While his computing capabilities were never in doubt, "The Lost Boy" reveals that Mr Smith has hidden weaponry built into his mainframe, including a laser blaster and a shrinking ray, for use when he needs to take care of someone personally.
- Phrase Catcher: "Mr. Smith, I need you!"
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The race of supercomputers that he belongs to. Averted post-reprogramming, as he is now genuinely on the side of Sarah Jane.
- Silicon-Based Life: His natural form is a glowing alien crystal.
- The Smart Guy: Usually provides information on whatever alien menace the gang are facing this time.
- The Spock: He's unfailingly logical, befitting a computer. He learns a broader range of human emotions following his reprogramming.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: He and K9 snark incessantly at each other, but when push comes to shove, they work together with no hesitation to protect their human friends.
- Wetware CPU: He's a living crystalline being, a Xylok to be exact, hooked up to a giant computer monitor.
Alien girl who joins the cast in Series 5. Left on Sarah Jane's doorstep as a baby and rapidly ages.
- Cheerful Child: Sky is almost always bubbly and upbeat.
- Constantly Curious: She is constantly asking questions, due to only being a few weeks old.
- Cousin Oliver: The addition of Sky in the fifth season threatened to be this, but ultimately ended up averting the trope because the character ending up not being annoying and she never really got to replace any cast member in the long term because the series ended only six episodes after she joined. Not her fault, either.
- Cuddle Bug: Sky has the habit of clinging onto those she's fond of, particularly her adoptive family, Sarah Jane and, later, Luke.
- Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: An almost literal case, as she was built to be a bomb before Sarah Jane met her.
- Happily Adopted: The second child adopted by Sarah Jane, mainly because Sky's real mother was an unsympathetic monster who bred a daughter merely to be a war weapon.
- Human Alien: Downplayed after the first story of the fifth season, but this may be why she was unaffected by the curse on Clyde's name
- And, in the plan for Battle for Bannerman Road, she was going to be revealed to be part TRICKSTER.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: She is born as a Fleshkind baby, but when her mother activates her genetic programming, Sky rapidly ages into a pre-teen. Technically, she was added to the cast because the others were growing up and some were even
Dawson Casting.
- The Pollyanna: Lampshaded, deconstructed, and invoked. Sky sees everything in the world as fresh and new with the innocence of the baby she once was, even remembering when she was a baby for that brief period before being aged up. She gets called out as a Pollyanna in The Man Who Never Was.
- Shock and Awe: The end of "Sky" suggests that her electric powers haven't totally gone away. In the final story, she mentions being sensitive to electrical fluctuations.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Luke. She is a teenager with No Social Skills who is Younger Than They Look and is adopted by Sarah Jane, and was grown by a woman (really an alien) as a weapon, and said woman refers to herself as the real mother. This is heavily lampshaded in Series 5, episode 2 when Clyde says that having her around is like "deja vu" and Sarah Jane lets her wear Luke's old clothes.
- And again when they meet in Episode 5, Clyde calls Luke "[his] biggest success - Frankenbane, now a normal teenager", and they eventually form a Brother–Sister Team.
- Tyke Bomb: Built as a bomb against the Metalkind.
- Walking Techbane: When she's a baby her cries short out anything electrical. When she is aged up she has slightly more control, but Mr. Smith is still nervous around her.
- Wrench Wench: An entirely non-fanservice example in the audiobooks.
Other Important Cast Members
Maria's long suffering, kind-hearted father. Divorcee, Maria lives with him because the schools in the area are better and, well, Maria's mum is a bit... flaky.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: To Maria, sometimes.
- Amicable Exes: With Chrissie, though the "amicable" part sometimes comes under strain due to how ditzy she can be.
- Character Tics: Chrissie can tell when he's lying - the side of his mouth curls.
- Chekhov's Skill: Think Alan's hastily-introduced skateboarding skills will be turn out to be important in the episode's resolution?
- Having an expert computer hacker around is also pretty useful if you have, say, an evil supercomputer in your attic at the end of Season 1.
- Good Parents: One of the best.
- Hollywood Hacking: As Luke says, "You can hack into any computer can't you, Mr. Jackson?"
- Nice Guy: Unless you're stupid enough to mess with his daughter, he's generally a pretty nice guy.
- Papa Wolf: Mess with his daughter, and he will do everything in his power to stop you.
- Parental Obliviousness: Until Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
- Parental Substitute: In his last few episodes, he starts becoming something of a father figure to Luke and Clyde (as well as, obviously, to Maria).
Maria's somewhat flakey mother. She loves her daughter but she's irresponsible and undependable. She doesn't like Sarah Jane as she is jealous of the bond she and Maria have forged.
- Accidental Misnaming: She dismissively calls Sarah Jane a variety of incorrect ones.
- Amicable Exes: With Alan.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Mostly a case of Beware the Nice Ones, and getting really lucky with a slap, but the record still stands... she took out a freakin' SONTARAN!!!
- Drop-In Character: Has a habit of just bursting into Alan and Maria's house unannounced.
- Improbable Weapon User: She took out a Sontaran... with a high-heeled shoe.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Self-observed, nosey and over-bearing, but she does love her family.
- Mama Bear: She insists on helping Alan finding Maria when she's in trouble and winds up saving the day by taking out a Sontaran with her stiletto.
- Parental Obliviousness: Until "The Last Sontaran".
- Took a Level in Kindness: She acts dismissive of Sarah Jane and constantly misnames her. When she learns the truth about aliens, she's a lot more accepting.
The headmaster of Park Vale High School and Rani's father. Doesn't get along with Clyde and is annoyed Rani is friends with him; by the same token, he encourages Rani's friendship with Luke, an excellent student.
- Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: He appears to be quite nasty and authoritarian upon his introduction, but it's later revealed to be mostly an act. To a certain extent, this is Truth in Television — many teachers often project a stern image, then relax a little once they've asserted their authority.
- Commuting on a Bus: Around the time the unfinished final season was in production, Ace Bhatti landed a regular role on Eastenders.
Word of God was that he would’ve only appeared when they could negotiate a break in that show’s filming schedule, before being Put on a Bus at the end of the season.
- Flanderization: He, for the most part, turns into a clueless comic foil.
- Good Parent: Despite being Locked Out of the Loop, he genuinely cares for Rani and always tries to be there.
- Hidden Depths: Despite his usual switch between Stern Teacher and Henpecked Husband, he's on many occasions shown himself to be a very caring father to Rani, such as after the Doctor's "death" in Series 4.
- Parental Obliviousness: Remains unaware of the strange happenings in his daughter’s life.
- Stern Teacher: He's very strict, but not unfair.
Rani's mother, who runs a flower shop called Bloomin' Lovely. Wants to be friends with Sarah Jane, but Sarah Jane seems to find her mildly annoying.
- Accidental Misnaming: Keeps calling Sarah Jane "Sarah". Only the Doctor calls her that without complaint, but after so long Sarah Jane stops bothering to correct her.
- Catchphrase: "Bloomin' Lovely". (Hands out card for her flower shop.)
- Parental Obliviousness: Starts to crumble as of Series 4, when she's sure something's going on.
Two enigmatic self-styled "servants of the universe" who have occasionally press-ganged Sarah and friends into serving their probably benevolent purposes. Their origins and affiliations are unknown. The Shopkeeper appears to be an avuncular dark-skinned man in eccentric early-twentieth-century clothes, and the Captain to be a large red-and-yellow parrot. They were responsible for putting Sky on Sarah Jane's doorstep.
- Aborted Arc: We would probably have learned more about them if not for the unfortunately premature ending of the series.
- Ambiguous Situation:
Word of God is that the Shopkeeper would have turned out to be the Corsair. How he came to be working with the Captain, why he's not allowed to travel in time, how he got his powers, why the Doctor's never noticed him around, and (since the show ended before then) whether or not he is the Corsair at all are all up for debate.
- Doctor Whomage: The Sarah Jane Companion Volume Three in Doctor Who Magazine said it was originally supposed to be the Doctor dropping off baby Sky but The Shopkeeper was used instead when the plan to get Matt Smith on the show fell through.
- Noodle Incident: The Shopkeeper is not allowed to travel in time.
- Obstructive Code of Conduct: They appear to be limited in how much they can actively "interfere".
- Silent Partner: The Captain.
- Trickster Mentor: He has definite shades of this.
- This Is My Human: The Captain is really the one in charge.
Villains
Member of a race called the Bane, who tried to take over Earth with a special soda drink called "Bubble Shock!", but was defeated by Sarah Jane.
- Ambition Is Evil: By her return in "Enemy of the Bane", she has split off from the Bane after the failure of the Bubble Shock plan and has become a wanted fugitive. She now desires to take over the galaxy by awakening Horath, an ancient supercomputer used to crush whole civilisations.
- Big Bad: Debuting in the first episode, she rivals the Trickster as the show's main, overarching antagonist, though the Trickster is more prolific.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: She expresses a disturbing view to Sarah Jane that humans are nothing but mindless consumers (in the literal sense of the word) who do nothing but eat and devour.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: She oversaw Luke's creation during the Bubble Shock! incident. Later says this word-for-word (swapped out with "mother", of course).
- Meaningful Name: When she meets her, Sarah Jane comments that Wormwood was mentioned in Revelations, as a star that fell to Earth and poisoned the rivers.
- Tentacled Terror: Her true form is a giant, one eyed squiddy-thing. How she manages to maintain a human disguise so easily while the Slitheen routinely fail is never explained.
- We Can Rule Together: She tries this with Luke in Enemy Of The Bane. After spending some quality time together, Luke does start to become more accepting and sympathetic towards Wormwood, but her ruthless and power-hungry nature alienates him.
- We Will Meet Again: Says this to Sarah Jane in Invasion Of The Bane, and does as such in Enemy Of The Bane.
See the Doctor Who Slitheen page.
A General of the Uvodni military, Kudlak creates a laser tag combat game company designed to test human children for their aptitude for real warfare, recruiting the best players to his ship. He loyally serves a holographic interface on his ship, the Mistress.
- Absurdly Dedicated Worker: He's been ignorantly fighting a war that ended years ago, similar to the famous story of Hiroo Onoda
, a Japanese soldier who continued operating on a remote island, unaware that World War II was over.
- The Cameo: His CGI mugshot frequently appears on Mr. Smith's monitor whenever he is trying to deduce the identity of an unknown alien race.
- Death Before Dishonor: Upon realising that his Mistress is nothing more than an A.I. program that's been lying to him for decades, Kudlak is so ashamed and dishonoured for his actions that he hands Sarah Jane his gun and demands that she execute him as penance. Of course, she spares him.
- Forever War: The Uvodni are locked in a perpetual conflict against an unseen and apparently far worse race called the Malakh. Subverted in the end as it turns out Kudlak's information is outdated; the war ended over a decade ago and his mission has been pointless.
- Girly Run: In one scene, he chases Sarah Jane and Maria with a bizarre prancing gait.
- Heel–Face Turn: He turns over a new leaf after he realises that his Mistress was nothing more than a shadow on the wall, feeding him lies about the Malakh for over a decade.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He kidnaps human children to serve in the Uvodni military and use their combat skills against the Malakh, acting on the orders of his Mistress that it is necessary for them to end the war. However, as soon as he discovers the truth, he doesn't hesitate to stop, proving that he was genuine in his cause.
Leader of the Trickster's Brigade and member of the Pantheon of Discord, an extra-dimensional entity that messes with timelines and creates chaos. The main recurring singular villain in the series, out to take down Sarah Jane, and later the Doctor himself. His main tactic is to "save" someone's life in a way that alters the timeline to his benefit — the only real way to stop him once this happens is for the person he saved to renounce the deal and make a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Arch-Enemy: While Wormwood works as a good villainous Foil for Sarah Jane, no individual villain has had more of a personal impact on her life than the Trickster.
- Big Bad: The main bad guy of the show, his goal is to alter the timeline and cause chaos, which he hopes to do by removing the Doctor and his allies from it.
- Chaos Is Evil: He's a malevolent extradimensional member of the Pantheon of Discord, described by the Doctor as an "eternal exile who exists to wreak havoc" on the timeline. His crimes throughout the series generally consist of engineering Alternate Timelines where Earth is either directly destroyed or is undefended by Sarah Jane against other threats, and when he starts Chewing the Scenery, he loves talking about chaos.
- The Chessmaster: He always has a new grand, manipulative scheme to ruin someone's life, usually Sarah Jane's.
- Chewing the Scenery: Less so in his initial appearance, but later episodes demonstrate his talents for theatrics.
- Deal with the Devil: His MO; he gives someone who's desperate a chance to change history...and in doing so, lets him in.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "The Trickster" was a nickname given to him by Alan Jackson. Later writers, and even his creator, seem to forget this as he is later called the Trickster by the Doctor, Jack Harkness and even the Trickster himself.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is consistently thwarted by acts of love, compassion and self-sacrifice, traits that he refuses to understand.
- Evil Costume Switch: Inverted. While posing as an angel to Peter Dalton, the Trickster switches out his usual black cloak for a pure white one. Of course, it was all a charade and his motives were as dastardly as ever. The Doctor even lampshades that the Trickster looks better in black.
- Eyeless Face: Nothing there but blank skin.
- Humanoid Abomination: No face, clawed hands, black robes, Voice of the Legion... he definitely qualifies.
- I Am Legion: "I embody multitudes!"
- Knight of Cerebus: Sarah Jane Adventures already has its share of vile villains, but the Trickster's presence is especially foreboding and always indicates a much darker tone than usual.
- Large Ham: He doesn't so much "chew" the scenery as devour it in great massive gulps.
- Once a Season: Always appears in no more than one story per season, all of which have Sarah Jane's name in the title: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? in Series 1, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith in Series 2, and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith in Series 3. Unfortunately, he did not return for the Series 4 finale Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith, breaking the trend.
- He was planned to appear in the Series 5 finale Battle for Bannerman Road, and would have been the Final Boss.
- Reality Warper: Of a very limited sort; he can change or undo deaths, but only with the dying person's consent.
- Red Herring: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith does not include him, nor is he in Season 4 at all.
- He was being saved for the next finale!
- Satanic Archetype: He's an embodiment of forbidden temptation, giving people offers that are definitely too good to be true yet extremely hard to resist. Most often, he bargains with people's lives by giving them chances to survive impossible situations, but he will often be much more emotionally manipulative.
- The Trickster: It's what he's called.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The Sarah Jane Adventures was conceived as a more kid-friendly alternative to Doctor Who, but the Trickster would definitely be at home in the parent series with his intimidating design, time-warping abilities and sadistic plans. Tellingly, the Doctor himself eventually steps in to deal with him in Series 3.
- Villain Respect: Affords a certain amount to the Doctor, who's gone up against his shades and servants before.
A short alien accomplice of the Trickster. Like all of the Trickster's victims, he consented to an "agreement" in exchange for his own life, but in doing so Krislok became eternally bound to his saviour.
- Ascended Extra: In "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane Smith?", he's simply the Trickster's quirky enforcer and his presence in the plot is given no explanation. "The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith" greatly expands his character and explains his connection to the Trickster.
- Heel–Face Turn: He eventually betrays the Trickster in the apocalyptic alternate timeline after spending most of his life as his unwilling slave.
- I Owe You My Life: Unwillingly, he was forced into servitude after the Trickster saved him from his crashing spaceship.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's short yet ferocious, and capable of chasing down full-grown humans with ease.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: A Graske (identical to Krislok due to reuse of the same costume and, considering their shared M.O. of messing around with time, they're probably the same person) originally appeared in the interactive Red Button TV game "Attack of the Graske" and acts as a recurring nuisance to the Tenth Doctor in other exclusive fourth-wall breaking skits.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: "Death of the Doctor" introduces the Groske, who are just blue-skinned, less mischievous Graske who work for UNIT instead of the Trickster. They apparently can't stand their orange-skinned brethren.
Lone survivor of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet, his escape pod crash landed on Earth by accident. He planned on making Earth's satellites crash into nuclear reactors across the world, but was thwarted by Sarah Jane's gang.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Chrissie attacked his probic vent. With her high heels.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Somewhat Parodied, since he's clearly playing second fiddle to Mrs. Wormwood in his second appearance as her glorified enforcer, but he nevertheless demands for his name to be acknowledged in her new era.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a nasty scar across the right side of his face which he sustained from his space pod crashing. It gives him a better resemblance to the craggy-skinned Sontarans of the Classic Doctor Who era.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After learning that Mrs. Wormwood was planning to double-cross him, he grabbed her and threw himself into the portal where Horath was located, sealing it.
- Honor Before Reason: As per usual with Sontarans, he has a strict sense of honor.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: After losing to Sarah-Jane and the gang, he's unable to return to Sontar out of shame ("What sort of a soldier is beaten by a female and half-forms?"). He resorts to doing mercenary work in space, which is how he meets Wormwood.
- Odd Name Out: He's the only major Sontaran introduced since the 2005 revival to not have a name beginning with 'S'.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Naturally. His shattered pride after his first loss to Sarah Jane causes him to exile himself from Sontar.
- Redemption Equals Death: He sacrifices himself to kill Wormwood, regaining his last shred of honour in the process.
- Smoking Barrel Blowout: Saves Mrs. Wormwood in "Enemy of the Bane" by vaporising a Bane from behind and blowing smoke from his the barrel of his blaster.
- Super Soldier: Although he isn't very successful in his efforts, he demonstrates his race's superior aptitude for warfare in his debut episode by giving Sarah Jane a serious Oh, Crap! moment with his mere presence and attempting to gun down the gang during their on-foot chases. He also proves very tactically adept.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Like all Sontarans, his fatal weakness is the probic vent on the back of his neck.
A survivor of the Veil race, he destroyed twelve planets as revenge for his home world freezing to death. He was first encountered as a prisoner under Judoon jurisdiction.
- Anti-Villain: He's a snarling, conniving villain in his debut, but his second appearance portrays him more sympathetically. Although, he's still extremely ruthless and uncaring for any race besides his own.
- Cold Ham: Androvax is usually a Soft-Spoken Sadist, but he has a tendency to lose his composure when possessing the bodies of others, diving into full Evil Is Hammy territory.
- Grand Theft Me: Takes over the bodies of all the main cast over the course of his appearances, giving the actors an opportunity to flex some flamboyant, evil muscles.
- Last of His Kind: At least until he discovered that his race sent a ship of one hundred cryogenically frozen Veils into space shortly before their planet was destroyed.
- Morphic Resonance: He retains his long, snake-like tongue when possessing the bodies of humans.
- Noodle Incident: According to the Eleventh Doctor in "Pond Life", Androvax has an entire conflict named after him, somehow involving the Ood.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In The Vault of Secrets, releasing his people would mean destroying the Earth.
A telepathic, crimson-skinned alien girl who takes refuge in a derelict seaside amusement park and later finds close confidence in Rani. She was sent away in a super-advanced spaceship by her parents to escape a destructive conflict that ravaged her home planet.
- A Dog Named "Dog": The A.I. in her ship is simply named Ship.
- Great Offscreen War: It's heavily implied that the mysterious war that destroyed Eve's people was the Last Great Time War. This was confirmed by supplementary media.
- Literal Genie: In a moment of frustration, Rani figuratively wishes for her friends to leave her alone, but Ship interprets this literally and grants it, creating a bad alternate timeline where Rani devolves into a lonely old hermit woman in Sarah Jane's attic. It's only thanks to Eve's half-human son arriving at Bannerman Road decades later that this timeline is revoked.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Driven mad by loneliness, Eve mind-controls several local homeless people to play with her at the amusement park without understanding the negative consequences of her actions. Fortunately, it doesn't take much convincing for Eve to see reason.
- Reality Warper: Eve and her Ship both have impressive reality warping powers related to telepathy and timeline manipulation. To neutralise the threat they potentially posed in the Time War, the Daleks and Time Lords exterminated Eve's people in the crossfire.
Yes, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, brought to life by mysterious alien paint minerals. Stealing a Sontaran blaster from one of Clyde's award-winning paintings, she runs amok in the International Gallery, intent on awakening her "brother", the Abomination.
- Art Attacker: As a work of art herself, she has mild reality warping powers that allow her to animate items depicted in paintings into the real world or trap living people within paintings. This backfires when she accidentally brings a drawing of K9 to life.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She's a Renaissance painting brought to life, so she's bound to be a little strange. Just how strange, nobody could have predicted.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Her "brother", the Abomination, was created with the same alien minerals and it is said to be so indescribably hideous that it drives people mad on sight, prompting an elderly da Vinci to seal it away.
- Large Ham: Nearly as much as the Trickster.
- Unexplained Accent: She inexplicably has a nasally Yorkshire accent, despite her likeness being based on an Italian noblewoman. It's seems to be purely for Rule of Funny.
A Man In Black android, ordered to guard an extra-dimensional vault containing alien artifacts, to keep Earth safe. He has a lifespan of 500 years and a cool gun and bore a strong physical resemblance to Hugo Weaving as Mr. Smith from The Matrix series. The Man In Black robots, including Dread himself had previously appeared, in the animated Doctor Who episode Dreamland.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: He was platinum blonde in the cartoon but has dark hair in his live action appearance.
- Adaptational Heroism: Compared to his animated counterpart who was a straightforward thug working for corrupt leaders and opposed the Doctor throughout, this version is much more human and reasonable.
- The Comically Serious: He's always deadpan, no matter what happens.
- Deadpan Snarker: His dry wit is equal to Clyde's.
- Good is Not Nice: He's severe, sarcastic, and not particularly kind, but he does his best to protect humanity from aliens.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He has hypnotic green eyes that induce this when he removes his sunglasses, similar to the Neuralyzers used in the Men in Black film series.
- The Men in Black: Resembles one (in fact, there are hints that In-Universe, this trope is based off him).
- Redemption Equals Death: He sacrifices most of his lifespan to transmat the Veil ship into space and uses the very last of his power to wipe Gita's memories of alien encounters.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Went from a minor enemy of the Doctor to a frenemy of Sarah Jane.
- Unexplained Recovery: He was destroyed in Dreamland, so it's likely that the version in this show is a new model.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He aims to protect humanity from aliens... by mind-wiping anyone who finds out too much.
A mysterious woman who investigates alien activity just like the Bannerman Road Gang, Ruby White moves over the road to Sarah Jane and quickly begins to steal her thunder.
- Cardboard Prison: She was imprisoned in a tiny spaceship by her people, but was allowed to keep an extremely high-tech games console for entertainment... which she hotwired to take control of the craft and escape at her leisure.
- Colour Motif: Befitting her name, she's heavily associated with the colour red. It also foreshadows the danger she poses with her voracious appetite for emotions.
- Emotion Eater: As a Qetesh, she has a voracious appetite for all "exciting" emotions, especially fear, but her hunger was so uncontrollable that she was banished by her own kind. Observing that life on Bannerman Road is never dull, she decides to take Sarah Jane's place, draining her in the process.
- Evil Counterpart: Introduced as Sarah Jane's younger and more efficient counterpart in alien-fighting, but she is later revealed to be more than she seems.
- Shadow Archetype: In many ways, she reflects what Sarah Jane was like at the beginning of the series: a cold, aloof thrillseeker, free of all personal attachments.
- Younger and Hipper: She has cooler gadgets than Sarah Jane, most notably a portable supercomputer named "Mr. White" (although only after she takes a liking to Mr. Smith's name), which has a distinct Apple product aesthetic. She even has a cooler car.
Appearing in Series 5, she is one of the Fleshkind, an alien race locked in an endless war with the rival Metalkind. She creates Sky as a bomb to end the war.
- Absolute Xenophobe: On top of despising the Metalkind with a passion, she is also predictably condescending towards humans.
- Expy:
- Of Mrs. Wormwood. She creates a teenager with No Social Skills who is Younger Than They Look and refers to herself as their mother, and intends to use them as a weapon until they're adopted by Sarah Jane.
- She also has some significant similarities to Weaver from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Had the series continued, it would have been revealed that the Trickster was truly responsible for Sky's birth as his latest scheme to entrap Sarah Jane, and likely behind Miss Myers' plans by association.
- Pretty in Mink: She's very beautiful and dresses expensively.
- Shock and Awe: Like her "daughter" Sky, she has an affinity for electricity. She can fire electrical bolts from her hands.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She designed Sky as a weapon to bring an end to the war between her people and the Metalkind, but shows no genuine love or compassion for her "daughter".