Warriors of Kudlak (TV story)

Warriors of Kudlak was the fourth story in the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was comprised of the fifth and sixth episodes of the regular series and it marked the first appearance of the Uvodni race.

Synopsis
Children have been going missing, but how? Will Luke and Clyde win Combat 3000? And who is the mysterious Mr Kudlak?

Part 1
A new laser tag centre called Combat 3000 has opened in London. Lance Metcalf, a teenage boy from Clyde and Luke Smith's school, has been reported missing after going to Combat 3000. Mr Smith tells Sarah Jane that twenty-four children have previously gone missing from all across England in places where other branches of Combat 3000 have opened.

Meanwhile, Luke tries in vain to master the art of telling jokes. He also does not understand games. Taking him under his wing, Clyde takes Luke to Combat 3000. Sarah Jane soon discovers that there have been mysterious storms at the time of all the disappearances connected with Combat 3000. Investigating, she and Maria further find that Mr. Mark Grantham and a humanoid, insectoid alien called Kudlak are abducting the children for an unseen "Mistress". Luke and Clyde have meanwhile managed to survive Round One of Combat 3000 and are challenged to make it to the door to the championships, facing other accomplished Combat 3000 players. When Luke and Clyde are very close to the door, they are attacked. Clyde and Luke manage to escape, but are locked in a room where they mysteriously disappear. Mr. Grantham points an alien gun at Sarah and Maria, but Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to allow them to escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are then confronted by Kudlak...

They have arrived too late to save Luke and Clyde. On a screen they see them transported to space by a transmat beam.

Part 2
Sarah Jane and Maria create a diversion, allowing them to escape Kudlak. Returning to Bannerman Road, Mr. Smith informs them that Kudlak is a member of the Uvodni race, who were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the ensuing battle, but the Uvodni continued fighting. Eventually, Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave the fighting to others. He was thus sent out as part of an Imperial Fleet to recruit "warriors" from other worlds. His ship was led by a Mistress, who kept the patriotism and bloodlust in Kudlak alive. After decades of recruiting (mostly human) children via Combat 3000, Kudlak and Mr. Grantham have abducted Clyde and Luke.

Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde find themselves on a spaceship. They manage to rescue other children from the holding crates in which they are imprisoned, including Lance and a girl called Jen. On Earth, Mr. Grantham breaks into Sarah Jane's home, but is overpowered by an electric shock. Back on the Uvodni ship, the children make their way to a shuttlecraft, but are again captured. Sarah Jane and Maria blackmail Grantham into transmatting them to the Uvodni ship, where they find and talk to the Mistress. When Kudlak brings the children to the Mistress, everyone is reunited. They discover the Mistress's true identity as a face appearing on a computer screen, with no real person behind it.

Kudlak is stopped by Luke before he kills anyone. Luke has discovered a message by the Uvodni Emperor from ten years ago, which reveals an armistice had been reached with the Malakh. As a computer, the Mistress has no programming to understand the concept of peace, so the Mistress buried the message and continued to command Kudlak as before, even though her missions no longer had any real point to them. With the truth revealed, Kudlak destroys the Mistress, releases the children, and swears to do what he can to reunite all the surviving recruits with their families. Back on Earth, Grantham has escaped, but Sarah Jane decides not to have him arrested.

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
 * Maria Jackson — Yasmin Paige
 * Luke Smith — Tommy Knight
 * Clyde Langer — Daniel Anthony
 * Voice of Mr Smith — Alexander Armstrong
 * Mark Grantham — Chook Sibtain
 * Carrie Metcalf — Sarah Haynes
 * Wendy — Pamela Merrick
 * Lance — Sonny Muslim
 * Brandon Butler — James Bellamy
 * Jen — Nadiyah Davis
 * Cashier — Chrissie Furness
 * Kudlak/Emperor/Mistress — Paul Kasey
 * Voice of Kudlak/Emperor — Silas Carson
 * Voice of Mistress - Tina Greatex

Story Notes

 * Both episodes aired on the CBBC Channel, and were broadcast a week later on BBC1.
 * The BBC Ninth Doctor novel Winner Takes All has a plot similar to this episode.
 * In Part 1, Paul Kasey is credited as playing Kudlak, Mistress and Emperor when only Kudlak appears and the Emperor is never even mentioned.

Part 1

 * 425,000 (CBBC)
 * 1 million (BBC1)

Part 2

 * 397,000 (CBBC)
 * 1.2 million (BBC1)

Myths
To be added

Location Filming
To be added

Production errors

 * If you look behind Luke as he puts on his suit you can see the scores from after the game when it hasn't even started yet.

Continuity
to be added

Timeline

 * This story occurs after SJA: Eye of the Gorgon.
 * This story occurs before SJAA: The Glittering Storm.

Home video releases
This story was included in the Series 1 box set, which was released in North America on 7 October 2008 and released in the UK on 10 November 2008.

Novelisation

 * Main article: Warriors of Kudlak (novelisation)


 * A novelisation was released on 1 November 2007, written by Gary Russell.