Due to the passing of lead actor Elisabeth Sladen, this season of The Sarah Jane Adventures runs for only six episodes, as that was all that had been filmed prior to her death. That it manages to put together a coherent mini-arc is therefore quite impressive, since the writers' original plans for said arc extended over the full series.
Said arc involves a new alien child in Sarah Jane's life: Sky, who is mysteriously left on her doorstep as a baby but grows through a metamorphosis to become a teenager when her purpose is revealed. She was genetically engineered to be a doomsday weapon in an alien war, you see.
Naturally Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani prevent Skye from being used as a weapon, and she joins the team. Equally naturally this causes a little bit of friction with Sarah's first alien adoptee Luke, who is a mite taken aback to come home from college and discover his room has been taken over by this new 'sister'.
The original plan was that at season's end Sky would have been revealed to have been part of a plan by perennial villain The Trickster, but because of the shortened season they actually bring things to the end with Luke accepting Sky's place in Sarah Jane's life and the theme that "the story continues ... forever". Which is as close to a heart-warming conclusion as you can get in the circumstances, I think.
That the show conducts this little arc while also delivering six episodes that are solid in their own right is a credit to the cast and crew alike. Good stuff.
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