Sarah Jane Adventures: Revenge of the Slitheen
(2 episodes, s01e02, 2007)
They’re back, and this time they brought a kid.
Maria Jackson offers a brief recap of the characters and their last adventure as she heads to her first day of school. She meets up with Luke Smith – dropped off by Sarah Jane, who doesn’t want to be called “mum” – and they head toward the newly-built school building. Meanwhile, some familiar-looking aliens with familiar gas problems take over a teacher’s body.
Luke and Maria meet with new student Clyde Langer – Kelsey Hooper has conveniently disappeared, but not for reasons pertaining to this plot – and they join the assembled students for an orientation tour by the Slitheen-assimilated headmaster. Clyde notes that the building smells like metal and batteries, and a later lunch also proves strange.
Luke and Maria get a ride home with Sarah Jane. Alan Jackson and Sarah Jane talk for a moment about parenting and other new construction that smells like metal. While the Slitheen run electrical experiments, Sarah Jane does some research and counsels Luke on how to be a kid. The research reveals a company called Coldfire that has been building schools all across London.
Maria’s mother Chrissie stops by for a visit just as the Slitheen cut power to the entire city, including battery sources, Mr. Smith, and Sarah Jane’s wrist analyzer. Even candles refuse to stay lit. The Slitheen stop their experiment due to a faulty stabilizer and energy is restored, leaving the aliens with one step to go before destroying Earth.
The next morning, Sarah Jane talks to Alan as he gardens. She asks him about the school that he worked on – St. Cheldon’s Comprehensive – and investigates the connection. St. Cheldon’s has a new building just like Park Vale does, along with the same problems with electrical systems and spoiling food. All the while, someone is watching Sarah Jane on the school’s security cameras.
Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde bond over science class and the science-teacher-turned-Slitheen, Mr. Jeffery, wants to recruit Luke to help with the stabilizer problem. Luke unwittingly provides the answer while Sarah Jane asks Maria to snoop around the school while she checks out Coldfire Construction.
Luke and Clyde discover an unaccounted for space in the school while Maria is trapped by the Jeffery Slitheen in a computer lab. Sarah Jane encounters her own problems at Coldfire when the receptionist turns into a Slitheen as well. Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Maria are all hunted as Luke figures out how to enter the extra space behind the walls. There he finds the headmaster and the Slitheen science project.
Sarah Jane escapes by dousing her pursuer in perfume and using the sonic lipstick to open the door. She calls Luke and tells them how to escape. Luckily, Clyde has a can of Wolverine – think Axe body spray – and the kids escape with Sarah Jane just in the nick of time.
The Slitheen question how a human has a sonic device, but they determine that it’s too late to worry. Meanwhile, the kids and Sarah Jane convene at Bannerman Road. Sarah Jane learns about the Slitheen (and recalls something a friend once told her about Slitheen in Downing Street) before meeting Clyde and consulting Mr. Smith about Coldfire’s new constructions around the world. All of the ten cities have underground railways to act as a cooling system for the capacitor systems, and Luke reveals that he has provided the Slitheen with the key equation. The city of Los Angeles has just gone dark followed by China, and Washington, DC is up next.
Clyde also has a fascination with military operations.
Mr. Smith provides a biographical report on the Slitheen, but the city goes dark just before the supercomputer can deliver a weakness. Sarah Jane and her team head for the school, armed with Clyde’s information that the Slitheen were offended by his lunch. It seems that vinegar is the secret weapon. They hit the street as the sun goes dark.
The headmaster drops his human skin and greets the team as they arrive. The vinegar works, prompting the headmaster to explode, and the remaining two Slitheen call in reinforcements just in time to capture Sarah Jane and Luke.
Cue the villain exposition on the evil plan. The Slitheen want revenge against the Ninth Doctor.
Luke explains that the system can’t hold that much power. The rest of the team is captured as Luke makes adjustments, which requires a reset of the system. Sarah Jane and Luke use the newly restored sonic lipstick to break the system and the team escapes. Sarah Jane shows mercy on the younger Slitheen, allowing him to escape with the others who transmatted away.
The team arrives back at Bannerman Road as Sarah Jane informs UNIT of the escaped Slitheen with “love to the Brig.” Maria has a moment with her mother (who is skeptical of the events since Maria moved away) and Sarah Jane explains things to Clyde, including her adventures with the Doctor.
She also swears him to secrecy, and he tells her that she should be Luke’s mother. Sarah Jane has Mr. Smith put a rumor into the world to explain the strange happenings. She tells Luke that she’s proud of him and accepts her role as his mother.
Coming back ten months after the first episode, Sarah Jane returns with minor changes. The largest, of course, is changing Kelsey Hooper for Clyde Langer because the BBC thought that there were too many female characters on the show. That is a frustrating decision.
Otherwise, this story was a serviceable sequel to the Ninth Doctor’s adventures with the Slitheen. It was a good introduction to Clyde and a wonderful chance to grow for Sarah Jane. Motherhood looks good with her.
Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”
UP NEXT – Sarah Jane Adventures: Eye of the Gorgon
The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.
