Review: The Last Sontaran novelisation

The ongoing series of Sarah Jane Adventures novelisations reaches the start of the show's second season with The Last Sontaran. Penned by Gary Russell, who's on writing duties for the second book in a row, the story is adapted from the two-part television script by Phil Ford.

All over Earth, ATMOS devices in cars are pumping out gas, as part of the plans of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet. Luckily, the Doctor and his friends are able to save the day, and the threat seems to have been neutralised. Several months later, however, it emerges that one Sontaran warrior survived, and is out for revenge. This time, the Doctor isn't around to save the day, so that job falls to Sarah Jane and her returning gang of reliable teenage friends. However, Maria Jackson has more pressing things on her mind, because her father has been offered a job in America, which may mean her days of fighting aliens are over.

The story itself is great: a fun runaround with a fair bit of action, tied in with a gentler and more emotional sub-plot. It's a nice traditional romp, which gives a good flavour of the series as a whole, and bounds along at a breezy pace. The threat - although limited, with just the one Sontaran warrior involved - is exciting, and presented in a way that creates a decent amount of tension. Characterisations throughout the story are all strong, with the interactions between the characters (Luke's broken-hearted response to Maria's news, and Sarah Jane's more frosty defense to the same, for example) excelling and making the story something special.
As the start of the show's second season, this adventure is a very good one indeed.

But as usual, the book expands on the episodes, from little tidbits of extra information to entirely new scenes. The opening of the novel, for example, is much more exciting and action-packed than the gentle beginning to the first episode. Gary Russell has adapted the story in a way which accentuates its strengths, and this version of the story has a very polished feel to it. Best of all is the portrayal of Luke Smith: it was clear on screen that Maria's decision to leave affected him greatly, but we get to delve into his emotions a little more here, and his journey throughout the book is made especially engaging by the author.

However, the true highlight of this novel comes towards the end. The final scenes, which see Maria and her family departing Bannerman Road, are absolutely heartbreaking - much more moving than they were on screen. Russell handles the moment sensitively, without diluting the impact of Maria's move on any of the other characters, before deftly switching to a more light-hearted exchange between Chrissie and Sarah Jane, and then ending the book on an upbeat note. The mixture of emotions comes across even stronger on the page than it did on screen, and gives us one of the strongest passages this series of books has produced to date.

In short, The Last Sontaran is another impressive release from a consistently superb series.