Written by Phil Gladwin
Directed by Charles Martin
An odd but exciting outing for The Sarah Jane Adventures – one that smacks of old school Doctor Who, but is mixed together with modern sensibilities.
The old school comes with the final act. First, we have some heavy-handed moralizing about war from Sarah Jane herself…to such an extent that it brings back fond memories of the little homilies that Jon Pertwee (the 3rd Doctor) used to give with such wonderful gravitas. Yes, it’s knocking the pin-head of a message with a sledgehammer, but it does it honestly, sincerely, and with just enough emphasis to reach the children in the audience without alienating them.
Secondly, we get an overly-cute final scene between Sarah and the kids. It’s all about “getting” jokes and wondering about the mystery of girls, and it verges on the sickly and saccharine…but it reigns itself in just enough to leave the adults shaking their heads but smiling nonetheless. In this case, it’s very old school Star Trek. 
But such scenes are eminently forgivable, because they form only a small part of a story that takes gleeful pride in the high concept of “evil laser tag meets mini/pseudo-Starship Troopers”. We get lots of exciting direction, solid acting in scenes where the only characters are pre-teens and an actor buried under alien prosthetics, some lovely effects work, a great Doctor-style lash up of a machine built by Sarah herself, and a climax that gives the chief alien a chance to show some decent character development. Kudos go to the effects and costume designers for turning in such a lovely, chunky alien costume…one worthy of appearing in Doctor Who itself.
I was also impressed with the inclusion of modern issues such as the fallout from the Iraq war. It was handled sensitively, and framed by lovely musings on the positives and negatives of humour and trying to fit in. Once again, Sarah Jane Adventures manages to deal with real-word events far more deftly than many adult dramas.
Warriors of Kudlak is the Sarah Jane Adventures equivalent of a big-budget action film…but it holds a lot of surprises, many delights, and cheesiness that turns out to be perfectly welcome. What more can anyone ask for? 
