School Reunion (TV story)

School Reunion was the third episode of the second series of BBC Wales Doctor Who.

The episode marked the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 Mark III, who was destroyed and replaced by a newer model at the end of the episode.

Synopsis
The Doctor meets an old friend, Sarah Jane Smith, and Rose discovers the legacy of being a Time Lord's companion.

Plot
At Deffry Vale High School, the headmaster, Mr Finch, notices a student waiting outside his office. She has a headache, and cannot simply go home because she lives in an orphanage. Mr Finch offers his sympathies that there is no-one to miss her, and invites her into his office; it is nearly time for lunch. The door closes, there is a flap of wings, and the girl screams.

The Tenth Doctor (under the alias "John Smith") and Rose have gone undercover in the school. He teaches a physics class. He asks a few simple questions, which only an intelligent student called Milo can answer. The Doctor advances onwards through higher levels of knowledge, finally asking how to travel faster than light. Milo answers each question without missing a beat.

Rose is working undercover in the cafeteria. At lunch, she complains to the Doctor about the last two days. He mentions that it was Mickey who alerted them to something odd going on and rightly so. Everyone at the school is well-behaved, and there is something odd about the chips. Rose eats a few, saying she likes them. The school menu has been designed by Mr Finch himself to improve concentration and performance. Another teacher, Mr Wagner, approaches one of the students, Melissa. He tells her Milo has failed him, so she is being moved to the top class. He also summons another student, Luke, but not Kenny, who is not allowed to eat the chips. The Doctor observes all this. He looks up and sees Mr Finch gazing down on the cafeteria floor, watching everything.

In the kitchen, Rose watches the other kitchen staff, all wearing gloves and face masks, bringing in a large barrel. Mrs Jackson, the head Dinner Lady, warns them not to spill a drop. Mickey calls Rose on her mobile phone, telling her about the massive UFO activity he has discovered around the area. However, his investigations are being blocked by something called Torchwood. Rose, in turn, tells him that the kitchen staff were all replaced three months ago with new personnel. As they speak, the barrel slips, spilling something over one of the staff who starts to burn. The rest usher her into a side room. As Rose starts to phone for an ambulance, Mrs Jackson tells her not to worry — the woman is all right, even as Rose hears screams and sees lots of smoke appear. Rose glances down at the barrel, which is leaking a golden, oily substance.

In the Maths classroom, Mr Wagner tells the children at their computers to put their headphones on. The screens flicker on, and the monitors begin to display a green rotating cube with rapidly scrolling, alien-looking symbols, and seemingly random text on the right. The children start to type on their keyboards with incredible speed.

Mr Finch escorts a journalist, Sarah Jane Smith, around the school. Sarah has been assigned to write a profile on him, and Finch explains that one of the policy changes he has made is free — but compulsory — school dinners. In the staff room, the Doctor is speaking to Mr Parsons, head of History, who tells him of the extraordinary knowledge of his students since Finch became Headmaster. One of his students has given him the exact height of the walls of Troy in cubits. Also, the day after Finch arrived, seven teachers came down with flu, and were replaced by strange new ones. The one the Doctor replaced however hadn't had the flu. She had apparently resigned when she won the lottery, despite the fact that she never played, claiming the ticket must have been posted through her door at midnight. Mr Finch brings Sarah into the staff room, and when the Doctor sees her, he smiles and introduces himself as John Smith. Sarah remarks that she once knew a man who went by that name. When she finds out that "Smith" is a new teacher, she asks if he has noticed anything odd. She has lost none of her inquisitive nature, and the Doctor is delighted, although he does not reveal his real identity to her.

As the Doctor wanders the halls in a slight nostalgic haze, Kenny goes into the Maths room. He sees, to his shock, a bat-like creature beneath one of the desks, which transforms rapidly into Mr Wagner. Wagner tells Kenny to leave, and the boy beats a hasty retreat.

That night, Sarah Jane Smith breaks into the school to explore, even as the Doctor, Rose and Mickey do the same. The Doctor sends Mickey to the Maths room and Rose to get a sample of the oil while he checks the headmaster's office. There are the sounds of flapping, the occasional shriek and winged shadows flitting across walls.

Sarah Jane Smith, trying to break into Mr Finch's office, notices she is being watched. She enters a store room and sees the TARDIS. She backs out of the room into "John Smith", who calls her "Sarah Jane", and she realises he really is the Doctor. They hear a piercing scream and run towards the sound, meeting Rose along the way. The Doctor introduces the two, and Rose is immediately jealous. The scream turns out to be Mickey, who opened a cupboard, only to be covered in shrink-wrapped rats. Sarah surmises the rats are for dissection, but Rose retorts that rat dissection hasn't been performed in schools for years, making a snide dig at Sarah's age. As they head for Finch's office, Mickey welcomes the Doctor to every man's worst nightmare: "the missus and the ex." The Doctor suggests that the rats may be food for something, and when they enter Finch's office, they find what: thirteen large, bat-like creatures hanging from the ceiling, asleep. They back out hurriedly, but as the door shuts, one of the creatures wakes up and shrieks. Outside, the Doctor says they have to go back in so he can use the TARDIS to analyse the oil sample Rose procured. Sarah tells the Doctor she may have something that can help him. In her car boot is an inactive and rusty K9 Mark III, with one of his side panels missing. Sarah explains that one day it had just stopped working, and she could not repair the advanced technology inside it.

Not knowing that they are being trailed by Mr Finch and another bat-creature, they go in Sarah's car to a nearby café, where the Doctor works on repairing K9. Mickey teases Rose about her jealousy, while Sarah asks the Doctor why he never came back for her. The Doctor tries to brush it off, saying that she was getting on with her life. Sarah replies that he was her life. The hardest thing was adjusting back to mundane life after all she had seen. She asks him why he could not have come back, and the Doctor turns serious and does not reply.

K9 comes back to life, and recognises the Doctor as its master. He smears some of the oil sample on its eye sensor, and K9 determines it is Krillitane oil. The creatures are Krillitanes, a composite species who take the best physical parts of other species they conquer. The Doctor did not recognise them because they had looked different when he had last seen them. He realises that they are doing something to the children.

As they leave the café, Rose asks the Doctor if Sarah is her future; that she will be left behind like all his other companions. The Doctor tells her he did not go back for Sarah because it would have been too hard;

"I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay, you wither and you die. You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on, alone. That's the curse of the Time Lords."

Mr Finch hears the phrase "Time Lords" and sends the other Krillitanes to swoop over them, although they do not harm anyone.

The next day they all return to the school. The Doctor sends Rose and Sarah to discover what is inside the computers, and Mickey to stay in the car with K9 as surveillance — a task Mickey compares to being "sent to the back of the class with the safety scissors and glitter". The Doctor himself is going to have a word with Mr Finch. They confront each other at the swimming pool. Finch confirms that he is a Krillitane named Brother Lassar, and that the wings are a recent addition to their form, having been obtained in the invasion of Bessan ten generations ago. What the Doctor sees as human is just a morphic illusion. Surprised to see a Time Lord, Lassar calls them as a race of pompous, dusty senators, afraid of change and chaos, and now all but extinct. He can sense, however, that the Doctor is different, but still refuses to reveal his plans, challenging him to work it out. Lassar says that they are not enemies. The Doctor quietly replies that he had much more mercy when he was younger. This is their only warning. Lassar smugly promises that the next time they meet, the Doctor will join with him.

Working on the computers, Sarah and Rose begin to argue about who has had more experience time travelling, yelling the names of the different monsters they have met. Both of them soon realise the argument is pointless and bond by comparing notes on the Doctor, bursting into laughter when he enters, much to his consternation.

Lassar tells the other Krillitanes that they are moving to the final phase. The school will be sealed, and they will become gods. Even though it is break time, the intercom calls all pupils to class and the staff to the staff room. All the pupils appear strangely happy that the break has ended early, except Kenny, who hesitates, but eventually follows the others inside. Meanwhile, the Krillitanes begin by devouring the rest of the staff.

In the Maths room, the Doctor finds the computers fixed with a deadlock seal which even the sonic screwdriver cannot breach. Lassar seals all of the school's exits while Mr Wagner activates the computer program which the children begin working on again. Kenny is unable to get out of the school, but attracts Mickey's attention. Mickey reactivates K9, asking it if it has some way to get in the school. K9 reminds him they are in a car. Meanwhile, Rose, Sarah and the Doctor watch the symbols flash on a large screen, and the Doctor works out that the Krillitanes are trying to solve the Skasis Paradigm. He explains that the Paradigm is the God-Maker, the Universal Theory; whoever solves it will be able to control the building blocks of the universe — all of time and space. The Krillitanes are boosting the children's intelligence with the oil, using them and their imaginations as a giant processing device. Lassar appears at this point, asking the Doctor to join them, tempting the Doctor with the ability to change the universe, to save everyone, even restore the Time Lords. He offers Sarah and Rose the chance to travel with the Doctor forever, never growing old. The Doctor appears tempted, but Sarah tells him that pain and loss define them as much as happiness or love. Everything has its time, and everything ends, whether a world or a relationship. The Doctor picks up a chair and hurls it at the screen, smashing it. He tells Rose and Sarah to get out.

Mickey crashes the car through the front doors of the school and he and Kenny rush towards the pupils. Lassar shrieks, summoning the other Krillitanes, who transform into their bat-forms. Mickey and Kenny meet up with the others and run into the cafeteria, pursued by the bat creatures. Lassar tells them he wants the Doctor alive, but to eat the others. As the Krillitanes attack, a laser bolt shoots one of them down. K9 appears in the doorway, blaster at the ready. The Doctor tells K9 to hold them off while they retreat. However, K9's battery is failing, and Lassar tells the others to ignore "the shooty dog thing" and get the others. In the physics lab, the Doctor realises that the solution is the oil. The Krillitanes have changed their physiology so often that even their own oil is toxic to them now. The Krillitanes start bashing down the door. The Doctor tells Mickey to get the children unplugged and evacuated. Kenny triggers the fire alarm, the high pitched sound hurting the bat-like ears of the Krillitanes and stunning them long enough to get past to the kitchens.

Mickey unplugs the computers and gets the children out of the school. In the kitchens, the Doctor discovers the barrels of oil are deadlock sealed. The Doctor gets the others out while he and K9 stay behind. K9 tells the Doctor that the barrels will not withstand a direct hit from its laser, but as its batteries are weak, it has to remain nearby. The Doctor protests, knowing that K9 will be caught in the explosion, but the dog replies there is no alternative. Sadly, the Doctor bids his old friend good-bye, calls it a good dog and exits the building. The Doctor takes Sarah's hand and while she asks about K9, drags her away from the school. Brother Lassar and his brethren enter the kitchen in human form, searching for the Doctor. Lassar mocks K9 when he sees it, but K9 shoots a barrel, spilling the toxic oil over the aliens. Lassar snarls to K9 "you bad dog"; the dog replies, "Affirmative." The explosion takes out a large chunk of the school. The pupils cheer the school's destruction, and hail Kenny as the hero who did it. Sarah weeps over K9's sacrifice as the Doctor comforts her.

Later, Sarah enters the TARDIS, which is standing in a park. Rose suggests that Sarah join them, but Sarah declines, saying it is time she found a life of her own. Mickey asks if he could join them in the TARDIS. Sarah says they need a Smith aboard the TARDIS, and the Doctor agrees, although Rose does not look pleased. Before she goes, Sarah admits that she wants to stay, but as Rose asks her what to do, she reassures her that some things are worth getting your heart broken for. She adds that someday, if Rose needs to, she should find her. Outside, Sarah thanks the Doctor for her time with him. The Doctor asks if there has been anyone special, and Sarah tells him that there was this one man, who she travelled with for a while, but he was a tough act to follow. She asks him to say good-bye this time, and he does, hugging her tightly. Sarah watches the TARDIS disappears, and as it does so, a brand new K9 is revealed. K9 explains that the Doctor rebuilt and improved it. Happily, Sarah orders K9 home. They have work to do.

Cast

 * The Tenth Doctor - David Tennant
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Mr Finch - Anthony Stewart Head
 * Voice of K9 Mark III and IV - John Leeson
 * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
 * Mr Wagner - Eugene Washington
 * Kenny - Joe Pickley
 * Melissa - Lucinda Dryzek
 * Nina - Heather Cameron
 * Luke - Benjamin Smith
 * Milo - Clem Tibber
 * Mr Parsons - Rod Arthur
 * Mrs Jackson - Caroline Berry
 * Krillitane School Nurse - Susan Casanove

Story notes

 * According to Milo, faster-than-light travel can be accomplished by harnessing a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of 36.7 recurring.
 * Mickey Smith joins the Doctor on his travels at the end of the episode.
 * According to an interview with writer Toby Whithouse in Doctor Who Magazine #367, this episode had the working title Black Ops. The original storyline submission for the episode involved the Doctor meeting Sarah while investigating events at an army base neighbouring an isolated village. The change of location to a school was suggested by Russell T Davies. Whithouse later clarified in the DVD commentary that the original specification for the script, given to an unnamed writer, had been for a school; the writer had instead submitted an episode set in an army base, and also admitted that writing for Doctor Who was possibly "not for him", so that Whithouse had to write a script set in the school in a hurry.
 * This is the first time that companions from the original series of Doctor Who had appeared in the new series. Up to this point, there had been some minimal debate in fandom over whether the revived Doctor Who series actually took place in the same continuity as the 1963-89 series.
 * The K9 prop used at the end of the episode is one of the original props from the 1970s.
 * Finch's unusual turn-of-phrase "Forget the shooty-dog thing" (referring to K9) strongly echoes the dialogue patterns used extensively on Joss Whedon's television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is perhaps an intentional nod, as the actor who plays Finch, Anthony Head, is best known for his role as Rupert Giles on that series.
 * This was Anthony Head's first involvement with Doctor Who. In series 3 he would take over narration duties on Doctor Who Confidential and voice Baltazar in the animated serial, The Infinite Quest.
 * Although strongly implied in the case of Rose since at least DW: The Parting of the Ways, and discounting the unique case of one-off companion Grace Holloway in DW: Doctor Who, this episode marks the first time a companion has expressed having anything beyond platonic feelings towards the Doctor. Later, Rose, Martha Jones and Jack Harkness would make their feelings known as well. In a related vein, this episode marks the first time the Doctor has explained at any length how the departure of companions affects him, although he stops short of mirroring Sarah Jane's feelings.
 * In one scene Rose and Sarah break up with laughter when the Doctor enters the room, after spending several minutes comparing notes on the Doctor. To get a realistic reaction, David Tennant wore a fake moustache (unbeknownst to the actresses) as he entered the scene. Their reaction was caught in one take. (DCOM: School Reunion)
 * During the scene in the fish and chip shop when the Doctor and Sarah talk about her leaving him, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' by Joy Division, is played in the background.
 * Although this episode marked the return of Elisabeth Sladen and Sarah Jane Smith to Doctor Who proper, Sladen had in fact been reprising the role for some time in other media. Earlier in the same month School Reunion was first broadcast, the final episode of Big Finish Productions' Sarah Jane Smith audio drama series was released, which had been going off-and-on since 2002. Sladen also reprised the role in the 1995 independent film RP: Downtime, in two early-90s BBC Radio dramas with Jon Pertwee, and had also appeared in the 1993 pastiche, DW: Dimensions in Time.
 * Sarah Jane has a Volkswagen car in this episode. In The Sarah Jane Adventures she has switched to a Nissan Figaro.
 * Phil Collinson famously got to voice K9 as some scenes were recorded, including the one set in the chip shop. (Only John Leeson's voice was heard in the finished production, however.) According to Julie Gardner, it was a moment of supreme joy for the producer.
 * Phil Collinson also took a week's vacation during the filming of this episode, forcing Gardner to take over his duties for a week, something she claimed to have adored. (DCOM: School Reunion) She would later become the effective producer on The End of Time, when credited producer, Tracie Simpson, had to break away from the Russell T Davies production unit to work with Matt Smith and the Steven Moffat unit. (PCOM: The End of Time, part two)

Ratings

 * School Reunion - 7.6m viewers (39.8%)

Filming locations

 * The primary location for the school filming was Duffryn High School in Newport

Production errors

 * When Mickey takes the plug out, the childrens' headphones come off by themselves.

Continuity

 * When Sarah and Rose argue they refer to a lot of encounters with aliens. Sarah refers to meeting: Mummies (DW: Pyramids of Mars), "Lots of robots" (DW: The Time Warrior, Robot, The Sontaran Experiment, The Android Invasion, and The Five Doctors), Daleks (DW: Death to the Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks), Anti-matter monsters (DW: Planet of Evil), Dinosaurs (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs), and the Loch Ness Monster (DW: Terror of the Zygons)
 * Rose refers to meeting: Ghosts (DW: The Unquiet Dead), Slitheen in Downing Street (DW: Aliens of London/ World War Three), Dalek Emperor (DW: The Parting of the Ways), Gas mask zombies (DW: The Empty Child), and a Werewolf (DW: Tooth and Claw)
 * The Fourth Doctor left Sarah on Earth in DW: The Hand of Fear and this story is referenced on several occasions. It is revealed that Sarah Jane was dropped off in Aberdeen, rather than South Croydon in London. Sarah eventually realised that the Doctor had "goofed" and that she was not in South Croydon.
 * Sarah and the Doctor both act as if they last saw each other at the end of DW: The Hand of Fear. This ignores the events of DW: The Five Doctors.
 * The Fourth Doctor left K9 Mark III with Sarah in the spin off series K9 and Company.
 * The Doctor says "Correct-a-mundo", adding "A phrase I have never used before, and will hopefully never use again." In NSA: The Feast of the Drowned he used the phrase "Ace-a-mundo", and makes an almost identical comment on it.
 * Sarah has previously encountered two incarnations of the Doctor since leaving: the Seventh Doctor in DWM: Train-Flight and PDA: Bullet Time, and the Eighth Doctor in EDA: Interference - Book One.
 * Sarah speaks to the Doctor of events of DW: The Christmas Invasion.
 * Rose expresses surprise that the Doctor had travelled with other companions, but in DW: The Doctor Dances he states that he has "travelled with a lot of people".
 * K9 has been called a tin dog once before, by the Time Lord Drax in DW: The Armageddon Factor.
 * Although a well-established piece of information when relating to the original series, this episode marks the first time the revived series clearly recognised on screen that incarnations prior to the Ninth Doctor existed. There had previously been hints, such as the Ninth Doctor's comment in Rose about his ears, his reference to kissing complete strangers in DW: The Long Game, and his reference to the Cyberman head in DW: Dalek as "an old enemy". This episode does stop short of explicitly defining the current Doctor as the Tenth, hinting only that "half a dozen" regenerations had occurred since he and Sarah Jane last met (in keeping with the fact that it was the Fourth Doctor who left Sarah Jane on Earth). Up to this episode, there was still lingering doubt in some fan circles as to whether the continuity of the revived series indeed connected with that of the 1963-89 series, and this episode is considered the turning point in firmly establishing the connection.
 * Rose complains that the Doctor leaves his companions behind after a while, but in fact, out of 32 companions, only four have been left behind: one of whom got kicked out for bad behavior, another one the Doctor was terrified of, his own granddaughter, whom he believed to deserved a better life, and Sarah Jane Smith. All the rest died, were separated from him due to circumstances beyond his control, had their memories erased, or decided to leave on their own. Still other individuals (such as Grace Holloway) were acquainted with the Doctor only for the course of the current adventure but never travelled with him as companions. However, as Rose at this point is only familiar with Adam, Jack, and now Sarah Jane, her argument is accurate in this context.
 * Although not indicated on screen in this episode, nor on screen in any episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, the novelisation of the SJA pilot episode Invasion of the Bane revealed that the Doctor left Sarah Jane a sonic lipstick and other items in a secret compartment within K9. On screen, the sonic lipstick debuts in the Invasion of the Bane episode, but no explanation is offered as to where it came from. It appeared for the first time on Doctor Who during DW: Journey's End.
 * Sarah Jane says that repairing K9 is "not like getting parts for a Mini Metro". In KAC: A Girl's Best Friend, she had that make and model of car.

Timeline
For the Doctor and Rose For Sarah Jane Smith: For Mickey
 * This story occurs after: QR: I am a Dalek
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Girl in the Fireplace
 * This story occurs after: BFSJS: Dreamland
 * This story occurs before: SJA: Invasion of the Bane
 * This story occurs after: DWM: The Lodger
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Girl in the Fireplace

Home video releases

 * This episode was released as a "vanilla" DVD along with Tooth and Claw and The Girl in the Fireplace.
 * It was also released as part of the Series 2 DVD boxed set.
 * On a single disk by itself, it was given away with the purchase of a newspaper, as part of a promotion by The Sun (newspaper).
 * This was also released with Issue 9 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.