The Sarah Jane Adventures, CBBC’s delightfully fun take on the ‘new’ Doctor Who universe, is getting a bit of a reputation for referencing ‘old’ Doctor Who in each story. In the first part of the story Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? our journalist heroine is seen taking a copy of her own book, entitled UNIT: Fighting For Humankind, off a book shelf.

It is a real “blink and you’ll miss it” moment but if you don’t get distracted by the foreground book you will see that on her bookcase there is a copy of the ninth Dan Dare book, Terra Nova Trilogy, published by Hawk Books back in 1994. I wonder who the Dan Dare fan is on The Sarah Jane Adventures team?

Down The Tubes would like to apologise that there is no link to Amazon for you to purchase UNIT: Fighting For Humankind by Sarah Jane Smith, however considering the amount of Who related merchandise in the shops at the moment surely it will only be a matter of time before you will be able to buy it.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: Doctor Who, Television