There is a continuity flaw which I noticed a few years ago but never got the chance to ask before as I've only recently joined this excellent forum !

It's not important, and I don't lose any sleep over it, but I'll ask it anyway, as there are bound to be people on the forum who can solve it

When Sarah Jane met the 10th Doctor in School Reunion she quizzed him about why he had never returned to collect her after leaving her at the end of The Hand of Fear. As I remember it, in The Hand of Fear the 4th Doctor told her he had to return to the Time Lords and couldn't take her with him. Sarah Jane spoke to no 10 as though it was the first time she had seen him since then, and thus it was the first chance she had had to question him about that.

But of course Sarah Jane had already met up with the Doctor (actually several of them !) in between The Hand of Fear and School Reunion, in The Five Doctors. If she had had an issue with him leaving her at the end of The Hand of Fear, wouldn't she have quizzed him then? It was never mentioned in The Five Doctors as far as I can remember.

Anyway, there it is - I have finally got it off my chest

I don't think it's ever been explicitly stated on screen but there seems to be a general consensus that when everyone is returned to their own times and places at the end of The Five Doctors (and also the Two and Three Doctors) then they forget the adventure they've just had and only the 'newest' Doctor will ever remember what's just happened.

As to why Sarah didn't bring up her grievances during the events of the Five Doctors, I suppose she was too busy rolling down a gentle hill and being menaced by an acrobat in a silver bodysuit...

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For not recalling it her memory could have been wiped it's not unheard of for Time Lords to do that.

Maybe during The Five Doctors she thought they were to busy to answer questions like that plus it may have have The 3rd Doctor to much info on his future

At the risk of answering my own question, I should have said that the only solution I came up with was that in The Five Doctors, she never met no 4, and it was no 4 who had left her. But Sarah Jane was fully aware that the Doctor regenerates, so she could still have asked any of the other versions - all of whom are the Doctor

She spent most of her time with Doc 3 though and there would have been no point in talking to him (or Docs 1 and 2) about leaving her as he hadn't done it yet.

I'm not even sure she realised that Peter Davison was a later Doctor than she knew.


As said though the easiest explanation is that her memory of the events were wiped either as a natural effect of the Time Scope or delibirately by the Time Lords.

Yes, I agree with this. In fact, at the end of the Sarah Jane Adventures episode 'Death of the Doctor', Sarah is reeling off the names of a few people she's tracked down over the years that she thinks might be former companions of the Doctor. It goes as follows:

RANI: Do you think there's lots of Jo Grants out there? You know, like the Doctor's old companions?
SARAH JANE: I do a little search sometimes.
CLYDE: What do you google, Tardis?
SARAH JANE: It works. No, I can't be sure, but there's a woman called Tegan in Australia, fighting for Aboriginal rights.

Now, Sarah Jane met Tegan during the Five Doctors. In fact, they're stood there having quite a good chat. So the vague way she talks about 'a woman called Tegan in Australia' does support the view that none of the past Doctors or companions held any memory of those events.

Also, in School Reunion when the 10th Doctor reminds her that he had left her on Earth (at the end of Hand of Fear) because he had to go home to Gallifrey and humans weren't allowed, she didn't mention that she had been to Gallifrey since (the death zone was on Gallifrey). So again, nothing explicit but it all points in the same direction.

I think the plot line of School Reunion retroconned The Hand Of Fear. IIRC Sarah wanted to leave at the end of THOF, the Gallifrey story being a convenient plot device.

Doesn't he technically say that humans weren't allowed then, presumably to avoid raising questions about Leela, The Five Doctors, etc.

But, yes, for whatever reason she clearly doesn't remember The Five Doctors. Whether due to an in-universe reason or not.

Jamie and Zoe's memories were wiped after War Games so it's logical to think it happened to Sarah etc as well
That could be an in universe explanation?

I was about to say Five Doctors pretty much was retconned as The Doctor said he had regenerated half a dozen times since they last met, implying the 4th doctor was the last one she saw. However now we know about the War Doctor (and I know it's unintentional) this is no longer a continuity error.