The $S$ topology on the Skorokhod space was introduced by the author in 1997 and since then it proved to be a useful tool in several areas of the theory of stochastic processes. The paper brings complementary information on the $S$ topology. It is shown that the convergence of sequences in the $S$ topology admits a compact description, exhibiting the locally convex character of the $S$ topology. It is also shown that $S$ is, up to some technicalities, finer than any linear topology which is coarser than Skorokhod's $J_1$ topology. The paper contains also definitions of extensions of the $S$ topology to the Skorokhod space of functions defined on $[0,+\infty)$ and with multidimensional values.