Why Martha Jones cameo in Sarah Jane Adventures never happened

Russell T Davies revealed Martha was originally going to be the companion who was in all the shows – Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

By James Hibbs

Published: Tuesday, 21 March 2023 at 12:00 am

As Russell T Davies returns to Doctor Who and plans the next iteration of spin-offs, he has been reflecting on one of his original creations, The Sarah Jane Adventures.

In doing so, Davies recently recalled why Freema Agyeman, who was at one point set to appear in the show as her character Martha Jones having already crossed over with Torchwood, was unable to appear in the series.

Speaking with this month’s issue of SFX Magazine, Davies said: “She was going to be the companion who was in all the shows – she’d cross over into Torchwood, then The Sarah Jane Adventures. Then Chris Chibnall came along and offered her Law & Order: UK, and you can’t argue with that.”

This meant that the scripts had to be re-written with Nicholas Courtney brought back as the Brigadier to fill Martha’s role in the story.

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The cast of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
BBC

Davies continued: “Because of Nicholas Courtney’s age, he wasn’t in that story very much. Martha would have been sitting in that car with Sarah Jane, driving around solving crimes together.”

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Davies is now in the midst of planning future spin-offs, while also acting as showrunner on Doctor Who once again. One of the spin-offs in development will reportedly centre on UNIT, with Jemma Redgrave reprising her role as the Brigadier’s daughter Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.

However, something which does seem unlikely at this point is a spin-off aimed at children as The Sarah Jane Adventures was, with Davies telling SFX: “It’s an ideal, but we’re coming back to a world in which money in children’s [TV] is in even shorter supply.

“Even with all the good will in the world, we’d find it very hard to do now, unfortunately. There are fantasy shows – they do do stuff. But our stuff is expensive.”