First of all, I agree with everyone who says these have been excellent. The average quality of each of the five stories has been at least on a par with New Who, taken as a whole. I felt that the weakest story was the first, Revenge of the Slitheen, with the strongest probably the fourth, Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane (both, as it happens, written by Gareth Roberts). But all were well worth watching, especially in the company of an excited eight-year-old who had already seen them and was bursting to tell me what happened next. (“Do you know who he REALLY is, Dad?” “NO, and I DON’T WANT TO!”)

I rate Revenge of the Slitheen as the weakest of the five stories because it had essentially the same plot as School Reunion. Apart from that, I thought it did the job OK, re-introducing the main cast (and introducing Clyde as substitute for Kelsey from Invasion of the Bane, who to be honest was a bit full of herself).

Eye of the Gorgon, on the other hand, was really very good – the presence of Phyllida Law, the sinister nuns, the comedy element of distracting Alan, and yet the very scary bits of Alan being turned to stone and Sarah Jane herself nearly going the same way, as well as the very serious sub-theme of dealing with Alzheimer’s. Only the rather “with a bound, Maria’s mirror set them free” ending keeps this from the top spot in my list.

I saw the second episode of Warriors of Kudlak first, and wasn’t overwhelmed. The first episode is actually much better, with smart nods to Ender’s Game, various other sf classics, and most spectacularly Kate Bush’s “Cloudbursting” (see author’s note). But as with Eye of the Gorgon, I felt the ending was a bit rushed, and I regret that we won’t see more of Nadiyah Davis as Jen.

Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane is, frankly, Hugo-worthy. As their loved ones are torn away from them, Maria and Alan successively have their world fall apart, and Jane Asher (who previously played the Doctor’s grandduaghter in the radio play “Whatever happened to Susan”) is superb as Sarah Jane’s alter ego Andrea. (F asked me, “So does that mean that Andrea had all those adventures with the Doctor instead?” I suppose so – fan-fic writers, get to it!) A really brilliant fifty minutes of television, the only puzzling thing for me being the role of the Graske. Not surprised to see that Graeme Harper directed it.

The Lost Boy was also pretty good, though it critically depended on Thomas Knight as Luke, who is the weakest of the core cast and only just about carries it off (his nemesis, played by Ryan Watson, bears a startling resemblance to my nine-year-old nephew), and is rather similar in some ways to its immediate predecessor (playing with the core characters’ identities, cosmic disaster). Of all of the stories, it was the one which veered closest to the worst excesses of New Who, with the moon crashing into the earth, return of old enemies at the end of part 1 (though I admit I didn’t see it coming) and of an old friend at the end of part 2 (though I admit I didn’t see that coming either).

So, in summary, this was generally excellent television. The fact that the format allowed for cliff-hangers every second week certainly made a difference. Elisabeth Sladen is still brilliant as Sarah, and Yasmin Paige as her main sidekick Maria is also excellent. Of the supporting male cast, Daniel Anthony (Clyde) and Joseph Millson (Alan, Maria’s father) are also well up to it, though as noted above Thomas Knight (Luke) is still maturing. (And I see that Juliet Cowan, who plays Maria’s mother Chrissie, was in This Life playing a character called Nicki – can anyone remind me which one that was?) I hope there will be more.