Enemy of the Bane

[matthewsee]

Final story of season 2.
This is the sequel to the first episode Invasion of the Bane as it sees the return of Samantha Bond as Mrs Wormwood.
It also saw the return of a very old friend.
Some very good scenes between Mrs Wormwood and Luke.
The first episode was very good especially who turns up at the end but the concluding episode less so but still passable.

[matthewsee]

Whilst Nick Courtney did return to play the Brigadier in Enemy of the Bane, the credit for the Brigadier did not. For this story the character is listed as simply Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart.
Apart from the character’s introductory story Web of Fear when he was a colonel, the credit for the Lethbridge-Stewart character for Enemy of the Bane is the first time the character has been credited without his Brigadier rank despite the fact the character is more commonly refer to by this rank than by his actual name.

[matthewsee]

Nicholas Courtney made his final televised appearance as the Brigadier in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Enemy of the Bane but it is revealed in Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale –The Final Chapter that the Brigadier wasn’t originally written in for that story.
Russell T Davies had wanted Freema Agyeman as Martha to appear in that story and she indeed had been scheduled to be in it. However she had to pull out when she signed onto Law & Order: UK which also saw her unavailability for Torchwood: Children of Earth.

With Martha unable to be used in Enemy of the Bane due to Freema Agyeman’s unavailability, Davies then came upon the idea to use the Brigadier instead.
If Freema Agyeman had been able to appear in Enemy of the Bane she would have been the only “new” series companion to have appeared in SJA and someone has pointed out to me that she would have been the only one to have done the hat trick of playing the same character for Doctor Who, Torchwood and SJA.
In fact SJA seemed to be more of an avenue for the return of “classic” series companions than the use of “new” series companions because subsequent to the Brigadier in Enemy of the Bane, Katy Manning made her televised return as Jo in Death of the Doctor and if weren’t for the passing of Lis Sladen, Sophie Aldred would also have made her televised return as Ace in SJA.