‘What if astrology is true?’ This is almost entirely built around Russ Abbot’s performance as Martin Trueman, a fraudulent fortune teller given genuine powers by the Ancient Lights. It’s a stock Doctor Who villain role – Heironymous and Lucius Petrus Dextrus are other astrologers gifted with true abilities by powerful aliens – and in many respects this is the first Sarah Jane Adventure I could see working as an episode of the parent show with only minor tweaks (Cheryl would have to be a friend of the companion’s mother, I suppose). But the parent show probably would have got a bigger name than Abbot to play the villain, and there it would have missed a trick.

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‘Today, just for you, Miss Smith, I will chill the blood of a nation. A thousand families will ache with loss.’ A surprisingly contemplative Part Two, with less running around than usual and a correspondingly more significant role for Elisabeth Sladen, who gets to play Sarah Jane’s fear and emotional vulnerability as she recalls her haunted childhood. In one sense this is just setting up a story later in the series, but it comes naturally from the drama here, and leaves this feeling a richer experience than Ford’s previous Sarah Jane Adventures.

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‘I see clowns that don’t exist.’ Stephen King’s IT reimagined for a family audience, but there’s enough to make the parallel undeniable (the children being kidnapped; the sinister floating balloon; the clown’s ability to change shape; the old pictures and woodcuts depicting it through history; its identity as ‘Odd Bob’ which echoes Pennywise’s name Bob Gray; Clyde, as the ‘joker in the pack’ referencing the wolfman – the monster that menaced the similarly jokey Richie).

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‘Try my size fives, Humpty.’ As usual in The Sarah Jane Adventures the pay-off involves a lot more running about than the set-up. For the CBBC audience I think that’s absolutely fair enough, but it does make it a bit more difficult to find things to talk about. Instead, my mind wanders to vague inconsistencies like why Kaagh with his high-gravity musculature can’t force open a door that the kids have just closed (or why he doesn’t just blast it open with the gun he’s just been liberally firing). There is one surprise: Lucy Skinner turns out not to be Maria’s replacement – with her warring parents and her science skills (and Clare Thomas’ CBBC acting credits), it looks like that’s the direction the show is taking.

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‘I met your people a long time ago. And some time off yet.’ What a great idea: pitting Sarah Jane against her first enemy and connecting it to the year’s big Doctor Who UNIT epic, ticking boxes for both old and new series fans. The call backs to The Time Warrior (including the crashed Sontaran sphere that needs to be repaired, and Sarah Jane revealing Kaagh like the third Doctor using his rhondium sensor) are very pleasing. But equally, this makes good use of repurposed footage from The Sontaran Stratagem.

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