The Mad Woman in the Attic (TV story)

The Mad Woman in the Attic is the second story in The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 3.

Synopsis
The year is 2059. In the derelict attic of 13, Bannerman Road, an elderly Rani Chandra tells the story of the day she met the alien Eve, and her life went wrong.

Part One
It is the year 2059 and a young boy called Adam walks inside the dark, mysterious 13 Bannerman Road. It is no longer inhabited by Sarah Jane Smith, instead Rani Chandra. Mr Smith has died and the whole house seems to be deteriorating. Rani herself is falling apart, now an insane old woman. She sees Adam and tells him about the day her life ended.

In 2010, Rani is intrigued by some light formations. She goes over to Sarah Jane's. There, Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde are laughing about Maria Jackson, who is now a government agent. Sarah Jane says that it was just lightning, as Mr Smith had checked up on it. Angry, Rani returns home to sulk and finds an e-mail from Sam Lloyd. Her best friend before she moved to Ealing, who had lost contact with her. They investigate a closed funfair where people have disappeared, saying there's a Demon inside. Rani goes in to investigate, but Sam returns to his orphanage. Rani finds the caretaker, Harry and pretends she has a twisted ankle. Whilst in Harry's office, Rani hears a voice says 'Playtime has Began'. She then witnesses the people who disappeared walk out from the haunted house with red eyes, and begin playing on the rides. Harry is contacted by a red face in his mirror. The voice says, 'Playtime is Over' and the people return to the haunted house.

Rani makes her way into the haunted house and discovers a red alien called Eve. Eve is nothing but a child and the two talk with each other, Eve reveals that her race can allow people to see their past and future and manipulate timelines. She also reveals her race was killed in the Time War, her parents placed her in a Ship that crashed on Earth and Harry had raised her since. She then says that the people she possessed are her friends, as she is not allowed out of her room, because Harry loves her and believes people will do horrible things to her if they see her. Eve asks Rani if she wants to see her future. After viewing her old, insane self, Rani is upset and decides Eve needs to escape.

Part Two
Meanwhile, Clyde investigates into Rani's disappearance and finds Sam's e-mail. Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde go to the orphanage home and Sam tells them where Rani is. Sarah Jane and Clyde leave to find Rani, while Luke stays behind with Sam, who also has the red face in his mirror. Sarah Jane and Clyde find Harry and the face. The face scans her mind and shows her past and her future, the TARDIS in her attic. Sam captures Luke and the face does the same to him, who sees himself graduating from university at an early age. The face reveals herself to be Ship, the computer system that drives Eve's ship and that Eve's parents programmed her to keep her on Earth, where she would be safe. Sarah Jane and Clyde go to find Eve, who is escaping with Rani. Eve loves the outdoors and uses the power Ship gave her to control the people to send the rides insane. Rani gets angry at her and storms off, but Eve possesses her. Ship warns Eve that her energy will soon run out, whilst Sam arrives. Eve is dying and Sarah Jane, Clyde and Sam must take her back to Ship. They do and Ship absorbs her energy. Rani and the others return to their right minds and Harry and Rani go to Ship.

The coordinates are set for Eve to travel the stars with her newfound love, Sam. The two offer Harry to come and he happily accepts. The only thing that can power Ship is a black hole and Sarah Jane happily tells K-9 to come home, as the black hole he is monitoring is the one they are destroying. It seems to be a happy ending, but it is not all over yet. Ship decides to grant Rani a wish, she had previously said she wished Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde would leave her alone. Although she didn't mean it, Ship doesn't understand and erases Rani's friends from existence.

Back in 2059, Rani has finished her tale, but sees Adam's eyes glow red. He explains that he is the son of Eve and Sam and that he has come here to grant her a wish. She wishes Ship never took her friends away and time begins to correct itself.

The same scenario repeats, but with one difference, Ship keeps quiet and doesn't erase Rani's friends. Ship takes off happily with Eve, Sam and Harry, onwards to more adventure. The trio is joined by Luke and finds K-9 at their house when they return. Sarah Jane takes a photo of Rani, Luke, Clyde and K-9.

In 2059, Rani is living a very different life. She stills inhabits Bannerman Road, but is saner, Mr Smith is presumably alive and there are lights on. Two boys and a girl run in, hugging their grandmother. The children's father, Shuresh, follows and shares a hug with his mother. He asks her how her trip to Washington, D.C. was. She says it was great and she and Luke got to catch up with Maria. The family shares a happy moment. Sitting on Rani's cupboard is the photo of her, Luke, Clyde and K-9.

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
 * Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
 * Eve - Eleanor Tomlinson
 * Older Rani - Souad Faress
 * Harry - Brian Miller
 * Adam - Greg Sulki
 * Samuel Lloyd - Toby Parkes
 * Shuresh - Raj Rajani
 * Ship - Kate Fleetwood
 * Voice of K9 - John Leeson

Crew
to be added

Story Notes

 * Harry is played by Brian Miller, Elisabeth Sladen's husband. Miller previously appeared in the DW story Snakedance.

Ratings
to be added

Myths

 * Since Eve said about playing games in the trailer, some people thought she was related to the Celestial Toymaker or the Isolus.
 * People thought anyother fairytale creature will come such as the Pied Piper or Gorgon because that was the normal format.
 * People thought Sarah Jane would be classified as mad and Luke will have to live in a home. Unlikely, because after so many public invasions, one would have to be mad not to believe in aliens.

Filming Locations

 * Barry Island

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * When Eve scans Rani's mind a Gorgon appears: the Gorgon appeared in series 1, but Rani appeared in series 2. (This is a memory of aliens shown earlier in the episode not when looking at Rani's past.)
 * How can Rani narrate events which she is not a part of? She could not have found out from Sarah Jane, Luke or Clyde later on because they had been removed from time. (The only events she is actively shown to be narrating are ones of which she was a part, or which occurred while she, Luke, and Sarah were all connected to Ship.)
 * Clips of The Five Doctors is shown but Sarah was supposed to have forgotten about that adventure (It is unknown whether she remembers being abducted to Gallifrey or not. Regardless, the clip is of her prior to that, on Earth talking to K9MKIII.)
 * How did Rani get a new phone so quickly? (A Phone can be bought in a day - at least seven days have passed since the last story, as both are stated to be "Saturday".)
 * Why did Ship show Rani her far future and not Luke and Sarah's far future? (Ship showed Rani the biggest effect in her future and the biggest effect in Sarah Janes and Lukes.)

Continuity

 * Images of the Bane, Slitheen, The Trickster, Captain Tybo, and Kaagh are seen when Eve views Rani's thoughts.
 * Visions of Sarah-Jane's past include clips from DW: The Time Warrior (her first story), DW: Planet of the Spiders, DW: The Hand of Fear (her last regular classic story), DW: The Five Doctors, DW, The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
 * Clips from SJA: Invasion of the Bane, SJA: The Day of the Clown, SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and the next story The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
 * K-9 appears for the first time since SJA: From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love. This marks his first appearance in Series Three.

Timeline
to be added