Sarah, Rani and Clyde are tempted to investigate a local shopkeeper's report of a massive alien creature, but it turns out they have been lured there because the shopkeeper needs them to complete a quest. Three pieces of chronium, metal forged in the Time Vortex itself, have been spread across Earth's history and now all three are needed to stabilise time and stop Earth from being sucked into the Vortex. Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are then dispatched to separate time zones to complete their quests, and if they fail to do so in time, Earth is doomed.
It's no secret that former BBC One Controller Peter Fincham was impressed with Series One of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and he made Russell T Davies the offer to have it's status bumped up from being a CBBC show to a Saturday evening BBC One programme running in the same timeslot as Dr. Who, Robin Hood and Merlin. Davies declined, believing that Sarah Jane Adventures was perfect for CBBC and that in some way Dr. Who should have a presence on the channel specifically catering to children. I agree wholeheartedly with him, although this series has been surprisingly adult in tone and is dealing with issues and displaying incidents that would never have appeared in Series One. For example the developing romance between Clyde and Rani would never have been developed when these characters were younger. But Lost in Time in particular deals with some very adult themes, such as the execution of The Nine Day Queen, small children dying in a house fire and displaying Nazis running around with automatic guns. One of the strict rules when Sarah Jane Adventures started was "No guns!". How much this little show has grown up along with the characters!
Lost in Time has a tantalising plot which is cleverly resolved, although the main strength is the drama. The scenes with Lady Jane in particular stand out as Rani deal with her inevitible fate although Sarah Jane's storyline in early 20th Century also has a fair bit of dramatic oomph. The nature and identify of The Shopkeeper and his parrott is never explained, and it doesn't need to be. Nevertheless I find the idea that whoever or whatever has stepped in to fill the vacant role as time's guardians are disguising themselves as parrotts to be somewhat bizarre!
The only signficant issue I have with this story is the lack of humour. There were plenty more opportunities for Clyde to have a laugh at the Nazi's expense and although the segments featuring Rani and Sarah Jane were deadly serious a few more gags would have helped break the tension of this unusually serious story.
Even so Lost in Time is a superb story. It's cleverly plotted, dramatic and heartbreaking. Anyone who won't watch this because it's a CBBC programme doesn't know what they're missing.
5/5
