The Curse of Clyde Langer (TV story)

The Curse of Clyde Langer was the second story of Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Part one
It's raining fish from the skies, and Sarah Jane's investigations lead the gang to the Museum of Culture, where the ancient god Hetocumtek may offer answers. Yet when Clyde acts the fool once too often, family and friends savagely turn against him, and he is thrown out of their lives!

Part two
Clyde is alone and abandoned on the streets of London, living rough, cold and hungry. One person reaches out to him, but as they become friends, he's warned about the legendary Night Dragon. In Bannerman Road, Sky knows something's wrong – why do Sarah Jane and Rani suddenly hate Clyde?

Part One
Clyde shows Rani ‘The Silver Bullet’, a superhero comic strip he has written and illustrated. Rani is impressed with her friend’s latest project, but isn’t quite as taken with his idea for another tale, starring an adventurer named “Susie June Jones”! Meanwhile, Rani’s father, headmaster Haresh Chandra, meets with Sarah Jane and her newly-adopted daughter to discuss Sky’s enrolment at the school. When their conversation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a fish on the window-ledge outside the office, Haresh suspects a student prank. However, when Sarah Jane, Sky and he go outside, they are astonished to find that it is raining fish!

Leaving Haresh and his pupils gazing in amazement at the bizarre, fish-covered school and playground, Sarah Jane, Sky, Clyde and Rani race back to the attic of No.13 Bannerman Road, where Mr Smith is busy monitoring reports of the unusual storm. Sarah explains that previous accounts of such phenomenon have been attributed to tornadoes sucking up fish and depositing them elsewhere. Just to make sure, she asks Mr Smith to carry out a scan for any alien energies that could be to blame. The Xylok computer does not detect anything suspicious. He informs Sarah of a possible link to a new exhibit at the Museum of Culture, where a Mojave Native American totem pole is on display. Legend has it that when this artefact was removed from the cave where it was hidden, a storm of fish fell from the skies.

The gang arrive at the museum; as they race inside, Clyde gives some spare change to a homeless girl begging on the street. Making their way to the Native American display, the four adventurers easily find the totem pole: a tall, wooden post carved with creepy-looking faces. Clyde immediately plays the joker and tickles one of the faces, only to get a nasty splinter in his finger; while he tries to remove it, Sarah, Sky and Rani meet Doctor Samantha Madigan from the anthropology department. She knows of the totem’s legendary powers, but doesn’t attribute the recent storm to Hetocumtek, the vicious warrior supposedly imprisoned inside the artefact by Native American Medicine Men. As Sarah conducts a fruitless scan of the totem pole, Clyde removes the splinter.

With no alien threat apparent, the friends leave. Clyde returns home and, after dinner with his mum, goes to his room to work on his comic book. After completing the final panel of ‘The Silver Bullet’, Clyde signs his name and goes to bed, noticing as he does so that his finger is still hurting. As Clyde falls asleep, he fails to see his name mysteriously glow on his pictures and school certificate.

The following morning, Clyde visits Sarah to show her his completed comic book. She is full of praise – until Clyde says his name, and her attitude changes in a second. She is furious at Clyde for his teasing of Luke, and promptly throws him out of her house. Astonished, Clyde crosses the road to tell Rani what happened – but then Haresh says Clyde’s name, and he and his daughter become enraged. Rani spitefully tells Clyde she hates him and Haresh expels the bewildered boy from school.

Upset and confused to hear such venom from people he considers his friends, Clyde quickly walks away. Back at No.13, Sarah tears up all the pictures drawn by Clyde that she can find; Mr Smith voices his concern at her inexplicable anger, but Sarah calms down as Sky enters the attic. With Sky about to attend her first day at school, Sarah decides to return to the museum to write an article on the totem and the fish storm. Sky mentions Clyde – and Sarah’s attitude changes once more and she furiously bans her daughter from ever mentioning Clyde again. Sky is unaffected, and both she and Mr Smith are confused at Sarah's sudden hatred of Clyde. They ask her what he did that has upset her so much, but Sarah is unwilling to discuss the subject and orders Mr Smith to alert her if he sets foot on Bannerman Road again.

Meanwhile, in the park, Clyde phones Luke, only to discover that his best friend won’t talk to him either. Clyde meets his mate Steve, who asks him to join in a game of football; Clyde tactfully refuses – but then Steve says his friend’s name, and he too is overwhelmed with hatred. Clyde realises that people saying his name is what turns them against him. After stomping Clyde’s phone into bits, Steve and his mates prepare to do the same to their former friend, but Clyde runs for it instead.

Racing out of the park with the angry gang close behind, Clyde evades his pursuers by hiding behind some bins; once his ex-mates have run past, Clyde notices that his finger is still bleeding – and he makes the connection to the totem. Returning to the museum to look at the artefact, Clyde bumps into Doctor Madigan; he asks her about Native American curses. Before he can learn anything useful, Sarah turns up and causes a scene. Doctor Madigan tries to calm her, but then she says Clyde’s name and instantly turns against him and refuses to give him any information (making Clyde realise that his name affects anyone, not just people he knows) before having him frog-marched out of the exhibition hall by security guards, while Sarah phones the police to make a harassment claim.

Clyde picks himself up from the pavement and sees the homeless girl watching from nearby. He returns home, only to discover his mum affected by the curse after reading his name on some mail. Accusing Clyde of lying to her, Carla demands that he leave the house never to return; Clyde tries to reason with his mother, but when she opens the door to let in the police, he is forced to make a hasty exit out the back door.

On the run, Clyde tries to get some money from a cash machine, only to watch as the screen just fills up with his name, repeated over and over again. Night soon falls and a thunderstorm begins. Soaked through, with no home, no family and no friends, Clyde tries to find shelter in a doorway and begins to cry in despair at the situation he's in; all seems lost, but then Clyde finally gets a break: the homeless girl appears before him and offers to help.

Part Two
Clyde awakes to find himself lying on a makeshift bed beneath a bridge, in a ‘cardboard city’ occupied by the homeless girl who introduces herself as Ellie Faber, as well as a number of other homeless people. When Ellie asks her new friend his name, Clyde knows that he will lose her if she were to speak his real name; taking inspiration from a discarded pizza box, he calls himself “Enrico Box”. Ellie explains that she has been living rough for the last two years, after her father died and her mother remarried; she tells Clyde that there are other perils threatening the homeless: something called “The Night Dragon” causes people to disappear for no reason.

Sky is puzzled to find Sarah in the attic busily throwing away all of Clyde’s things; when she asks what Clyde has done wrong, her mother refuses to answer. Later, while eating lunch at school, Sky tries asking Rani about Clyde, but her friend just gets angry and storms off. At the museum, lightning begins to crackle around the Hetocumtek totem pole. Called in by Doctor Madigan to help, Sarah scans the artefact and finds it alive with alien energy – and then the totem’s eyes start to glow! Bustling Doctor Madigan from the room, Sarah urges her to close the exhibition.

Ellie and Clyde go out on the street to beg for money; unfortunately they aren’t very successful, so Ellie decides to get something to eat. Back in the attic, Mr Smith notices that Sarah is crying, even though she doesn’t know why; changing the subject, Sarah reports that the ancient totem is no longer dormant – something has caused it to come alive.

Ellie takes Clyde to a ‘soup kitchen’, where she introduces him to an old lady nicknamed ‘Mystic Mags’. Staring at the tea-leaves in her mug, the elderly lady warns that something bad is coming, something worse than the Night Dragon – and it has put a curse on Clyde. Worried that he will get Ellie into trouble, Clyde runs off; Ellie goes after him, not wanting to lose her “lucky charm”. Back at Bannerman Road, Haresh becomes worried about his daughter: Rani is upset that she has lost something special, but she doesn’t know what.

Sky pays a visit to Clyde’s mother, who is crying for no discernible reason. When Sky tries asking about Clyde, the woman becomes extremely angry; seeing Clyde’s name glowing on an envelope addressed to him, Sky realises that something has cursed her friend’s name. Back at the museum, one of the totem pole’s carved faces starts to move. Sheltering from the rain in an old building, Clyde burns his ‘Silver Bullet’ artwork to make a fire for himself and Ellie. He asks the girl about the recent ‘fish storm’ – perhaps it was a sign of something bad coming? Ellie tells Clyde that she had lost hope of ever reclaiming her life, but since meeting him her faith has returned.

Back at the museum, more of the carved wooden faces are now coming to life. Hearing Sarah and Rani discussing the totem's increase in power, Sky recalls how Clyde got a splinter in his finger. Both Sarah and Rani angrily tell Sky not to mention Clyde, however she persists and calls on Mr Smith and explains her theory. Sarah and Rani get angrier whenever Clyde's name is mentioned, and Mr Smith tells them this is proof of Sky's theory. The Xylok determines that the totem is using psychophonic programming to isolate Clyde, so that Hetocumtek can use the boy's energy to come back to life. To break the curse, Sky encourages Sarah and Rani to say Clyde's name; acting against their instincts, the duo repeat Clyde's name - and it works!

Now free of the curse, Sarah and Rani are able to recall how much Clyde means to them, and they resolve to get him back. Elsewhere, Clyde shows Ellie a sketch he has made of her, hoping he can make money as a street artist; flattered, Ellie kisses him and then goes to get them both a drink. Just then a familiar car pulls up, and Sarah, Rani and Sky rush out a envelop Clyde in a group hug. Clyde is overjoyed that his friends are now free of the curse’s influence, but when Sarah urges him to come and help beat Hetocumtek, he tells them he needs to wait for Ellie. But Sarah is insistent, and so Clyde reluctantly leaves, vowing to return for his friend as soon as he can.

Together they speed back to No.13, where Mr Smith hacks into the transmat system of a passing alien spaceship and uses it to teleport the totem pole into the attic. The artefact is now bristling with energy, its faces contorting in anger at the gang’s interference, and it fights back by sending a ferocious gale around the room. Refusing to give in, Clyde steps forward and repeats his name again and again – and the totem vanishes!

With his nightmare finally over, Clyde goes home and receives a heart-felt welcome from his mum. Sometime later, Clyde, Sarah and Rani go looking for Ellie, but can find no trace of the girl in either the ‘cardboard city’ under the bridge, or at the mission. Clyde is understandably worried, concerned that Ellie will have thought he abandoned her, and resolves to find her; however, after noticing a poster about a singer called ‘Ellie Faber’, he realises that he doesn’t even know his friend’s real name – and then a truck drives past, with the name ‘Night Dragon Haulage’ emblazoned on its side. Hearing Clyde’s surprise, a nearby homeless person explains that the company’s drivers often give lifts to people living rough on the streets... That night, Clyde lies in bed thinking of Ellie, hoping that she has found a better life for herself, and knowing that all he has left is the picture he drew of her…

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
 * Sky Smith - Sinead Michael
 * Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
 * Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti
 * Carla Langer - Jocelyn Jee Esien
 * Ellie - Lily Loveless
 * Doctor Madigan - Sara Houghton
 * Mystic Mags - Angela Pleasence
 * Max - Ewart Jones
 * Security Guard - Anwar Lynch
 * Steve Wallace - Elijah Baker

Story notes

 * This episode premièred Sky being included in Clyde's description of 13 Bannerman Road in the pre-titles sequence.

Ratings
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Rumours
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Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * According to Sarah Jane, Sky has only been with her for 'under a month' since the events of SJA :Sky.
 * Clyde's drawing that was put in the museum in SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge is seen on his bedroom wall.
 * Clyde's friend, Steve Wallace, previously appeared in SJA: The Day of the Clown and SJA: The Mark of the Berserker.
 * Clyde is seen reading a book about the French Revolution. (DW: An Unearthly Child, DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Timeline

 * This story takes place after SJA: Sky
 * This story takes place before SJA: The Man Who Never Was

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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