N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Much of the fun in Prisoner of the Judoon comes from titular intergalactic space copper Captain Tybo’s literal interpretation of human security signage (such as taking ‘No unauthorised access’ messages as verbatim — or should that be verboten –instruction), or from Rani’s Mum and Dad Gita and Haresh running around the Genetec offices encountering aliens while attempting to bolster Bloomin’ Lovely‘s “corporate floristry” portfolio, or from Elisabeth Sladen’s obvious glee in the role while Sarah Jane Smith is in effect possessed by Androvax.

“You pay, you display!”

Captain Tybo, Prisoner of the Judoon, Part Two

With the Shadow Proclamation’s muscle present, there’s the expected amount of stomping around and, despite our knowing the Judoon are almost brutally trigger-happy when it comes to dispensing justice, a fair degree of levity. Their not exactly ‘softly, softly’ approach would have me worried far more than Luke, Clyde and Rani appear to be.

Overall though, Prisoner of the Judoon is a fairly light-hearted opener to the third series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It quickly re-establishes the setup — with new intros from Sarah Jane and Clyde — gives us more of Rani’s parents (not a bad thing) and brings back a familiar alien from the parent show. In addition we get cowardly coppers, cowardly security guards and in Genetecs’ nano-forms, seemingly the future of 3D printing.

Pity they still haven’t gotten shot of the bloody fanfare and dry ice that accompanies every occurrence of Sarah Jane booting up Mr Smith, though.