YMMV / The Sarah Jane Adventures S1 E9-10 "The Lost Boy"

• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Slitheen; removing the Toilet Humour and the necessity for their human disguises to be fat people goes a long way to making them more credible as villains.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Alan gets to play mentor to the kids and turns out to have "unorthodox contacts" as well as some incredible computer skills. It would have been fascinating to see him continue to be part of the team, especially since neither Clyde nor Luke has a father figure, and there were some hints of Ship Tease between him and Sarah Jane. However, when Yasmin Paige (Maria) had to bow out of the show, Alan understandably had to go with her. He does, however, get to play an important role in "The Mark of the Berserker".

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