The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith

After the slightly underwhelming Mad Woman In The Attic last week, there was a very slight, nagging doubt at the back of my mind that maybe The Sarah Jane Adventures - perhaps finally overwhelmed by the availability of great special effects and the almost unlimited potential of CGI - was on the verge of jumping the shark.

Of course, that was a fatuous fear given that this week's much-publicised story would see the reteaming of Sarah Jane with The Doctor, for the first time in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

And the moment Gareth Roberts' script for The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith began to unfold on screen, I knew we were in safe hands.

We were thrown in in media res; Sarah Jane had been sneaking off over the past month, using pretty feeble excuses to explain her absence, and her Scoobie Gang of young assistants were getting suspicious. However, when they followed her they discover she wasn't fighting aliens... but actually seeing a dashing lawyer named Peter Dalton (Nigel Havers).

Luke took to him immediately, as a potential 'father figure', but Clyde (who has issues with his own father) was a bit suspicious about the haste with which things were moving; just after he and Rani discover that Peter's house is in fact empty and unlived in, Sarah Jane declares that she and Peter are getting married.

This further heightens Clyde's belief that "something is going on", especially when Sarah Jane says she's turning her back on her old life and deactivates Mr Smith the supercomputer.

Rani and Luke become involved in the hasty wedding planning, while Clyde - who is given K9 to look after - continues to express his doubts at every opportunity, but only gets his chance to be proved right at the ceremony when The Doctor himself (David Tennant) bursts in, demanding the event be halted.

His arrival co-incides with the materialisation of The Trickster (Paul Marc Davis), a regular foe of Sarah Jane's - from Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane and The Temptation Of Sarah Jane, as well as getting a namecheck in The Doctor's own Turn Left - and the revelation that (surprise, surprise) the whole thing has been an evil scheme orchestrated by the demonic alien.

The Trickster is revealed as a godlike member of the Pantheon Of Discord, which The Doctor has heard legends of since he was a child, and he has his own piece of foreshadowing for The Doctor when he tells him "the gate" is waiting for him.

Before The Doctor's actual appearance, during the run of the first episode, we heard the wheezing-groan of the TARDIS three times before it actually materialised outside the room where the wedding was being held.

I wonder if this "four times" is significant, if it has any bearing on the "knock four times" prophecy from Planet Of The Dead; perhaps an echo or further foreshadowing of impending doom?

The Trickster's scheme sees Sarah Jane and her beau trapped in one second of time, while her friends (Clyde, Luke, Rani and The Doctor) are held hostage in another second - and the rest of the wedding party continue on as normal.

Sarah Jane is then given the ultimatum of saying "I do" to Peter, which will mean forgetting her old life and leaving the Earth open to alien attack and general chaos, or staying trapped forever in a bubble of time.

Once we learned Peter's true story, the resolution to The Trickster's conundrum was genuinely heartbreaking and it took the sheer joy on the youngsters' faces, when they finally got to look round the control room of the TARDIS at the end of the story, to put a smile back on both my face and Sarah Janes'.

The Doctor's cameo in this story was perfectly crafted by Gareth Roberts, as the real heroes of the piece turned out to be Peter and Clyde, with The Doctor - as ever - and Sarah Jane just being the enablers.

It also wouldn't be fair to Sarah Jane for The Doctor to pop up on her programme and solve her catastrophe-of-the-week.

Everyone involved in this two-parter deserves an award for its incredible emotional impact, tight scriptwriting (including several nice references to Whoniverse continuity), spot-on direction and cracking soundtrack.

Without a doubt this was the strongest story to date from The Sarah Jane Adventures, and not just because of The Doctor's presence.

Next week: The Eternity Trap.