The Sarah Jane Adventures: The White Wolf

Sarah Jane Adventures Audiobook #5

by Gary Russell, Elisabeth Sladen (Narrator)

When Sarah Jane receives a strange letter from Eddison Clough, her curiosity is aroused. For Eddison possesses a photograph proving he was once close friends with her Aunt Lavinia - but he has no memory of ever having met her.

Intrigued, Sarah Jane and Luke go to visit him and, with Clyde and Rani, they explore the village of Wolfenden. The locals seem strange and secretive - especially the Hendricks, a deathly pale family with white hair and white eyes.


Elisabeth Sladen, who stars as Sarah Jane in the CBBC TV series, reads this exclusive audio story which has been written by series script editor Gary Russell.

Genres: Doctor Who, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Gary Russell is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media. As an actor, he is best known for playing Dick Kirrin in the British 1978 television series The Famous Five.

Reviews

[Luke]

This was hands down tbe
I best adventure story in this collection so, this story harkens back to classic who and i could see sarah solving this issue with 3rd and 4th doctors both would work perfectly here 🤗 but what we get is just as perfect of a team, i just wish it was longer and little more flushed out, but then again im asking for more when i know that these where made to be short, and sweet for kids as an introduction, which again i know, BUT this had the potential to go just that bit further but alas what we got was great! 🤗

[Seb Hasi]

Much like most of the Sarah Jane Adventure audios, this story has one half that is incredibly entertaining and one half that is dull and joyless. In the case of The White Wolf, the boring side takes charge and there is scene after scene of Sarah Jane and Luke having mundane conversations with people in a village. As much as they are essential to the set up of the plot, there is just so little there to enjoy and peak your interest, and without that joy leaves you just half focusing on the story and daydreaming. What saves this story from being considered complete crud is the side of the story where Rani and Clyde join Sarah Jane and Luke in the village and go exploring the caverns. Clyde’s natural wit and Luke’s plain logic make for very fun sparky dialogue and even though what they discover is quite predictable, it does lead to quite a nice climax/confrontation in the story. That final part is actually really neat as, even though it is an idea that had been done quite often in the Dr Who universe, it’s done in a way that is very fitting to the childish tone of the Sarah Jane Adventures. It also wraps up the story neatly and gets all the elements of the plot tied up together very quickly. Overall, not a great or highly original story but does have one or two redeeming features.

[Emilija]

I think, plot wise, this was probably the one that held my attention the most. I thought it was quite interesting. Character wise, each character got their time in the spotlight, and it was quite lovely to hear Luke and Clyde interacting and seeing how they've grown.

Much like the rest of these stories, the ending is quite rushed and boring and kind of ruins it. I feel like these stories needed a little bit longer than an hour.

[Gabriel Mero]

This one did not hold my interest as well as the others did, but I did like that Clyde got to be a hero once again in this one.

[Rhys Causon]

Another story that I thought was going to delve into some folklore of the world but no. But the story is good for one listen, probably wouldn’t go back to this one repeatedly.

[Wendy]

I think this might be my favorite of the Sarah Jane Adventures audios yet. Largely because it pulls together a bunch of disparate elements: a strange rural English village with a chalk figure of a wolf carved into the hill side nearby, tales of alien abductions, and missing memories. The first half of the story really keeps you guessing. Plus Luke, Clyde, and Rani all get their moments to shine - Russell just seems very good at capturing the way these characters act and talk.

It does fall down a bit at the conclusion, just by becoming more predictable - I found myself uttering the line, "It's a prison ship" a few moments before one of the characters got to say it. Crashed alien prison ships are becoming a bit of a standby in both TV and audio Sarah Jane Adventures. There are lots of good reasons for this: It ensures that the alien threat is of a size to be manageable by our heroes, and allows everything to be tidied up at the end, for one. It works, but I do think it's in danger of becoming a cliche.

A second minor niggle is really just a personal peeve of mine: The aliens need a chemical that's produced in human brains and is involved in the formation of memories. So, fair enough, they spend decades hanging around this English rural village, extracting the chemical from people's brains. But when humans start developing advanced biotechnology, do they ever think about contacting a biochemist and seeing if they can synthesize the stuff, potentially giving them access to huge supplies at much less risk? Nope, they prefer to keep doing the brain drain. I'll grant that we're probably talking about a neuropeptide here, and it's probably not trivial to synthesize. But I'd feel so much better if I'd just been told that they tried.

[Jenette]

If there is one way to describe these audiobooks its easy. They're all a nice and simple read (or listen) that helps pass the time in a way better than silence. There isn't any need to over think things and the endings always wrap up nicely with the bad guy locked away and the world just that little bit safer. As a kids series it works really well, this one just as much so. The story was engaging and full of little moments that made the characters just as real and three dimensional as they'd seemed in the show. I do love Clyde's humour and the way he throws himself into the adventures. Although the aliens were a little on the obvious side it still worked for this story.

[Mariah]

While I admit that I wasn't fond of the over all plot of the audio - one of my favorite parts was the authors characterization of the characters. Not just of Sarah-Jane, but of Luke, Clyde and Rani as well. Each character got his (or her) moment to add to the plot. I didn't LOVE the ending, it just felt like the author ran out of time.

[Donna]

I think Gary Russell did a wonderful job of transferring The Sarah Jane Adventures to the medium of audiobook. His characterizations were spot on and he wrote some very exciting action scenes. All in all, a very enjoyable listen. It was also lovely to listen to Elisabeth's Sladen's voice so soon after her passing.

[Terri Pray]

Fun, fast listen narrated by Sarah Jane herself, Elisabeth Sladen. I was saddened when Ms. Sladen passed away, so being able to listen to her as a narrator is both a sorrow and a joy.

The Sarah Jane Adventures are YA stories, based on the character that first appeared opposite Tom Baker's Doctor Who, and these short audio books are a wonderful addition to the Doctor Who setting.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1891712...

[Lizzy]

Our journey flew by. I was a little unclear as to who everyone was At first, so might be a good idea to do these books in order? Good varied story.

[AJ Foiret]

An enjoyable adventure and well read by the late, great Lis Sladen. She really captures the voices and mannerisms of the other characters. These audiobooks are a great supplement to the TV series and they are standalone stories so you don't have start with any particular one or follow an ongoing plot arc. It's so nice to have more to explore when you miss the show.