Revenge of the Slitheen (TV story)

Revenge of the Slitheen was the second story of Series 1 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It is comprised of the first two regular episodes of the series.

The episode is notable for the introduction of the character Clyde Langer, as well as the Slitheen, who had previously appeared in the Doctor Who stories Aliens of London/World War Three and Boom Town.

Synopsis
First days at school are always difficult. For Maria Jackson and Luke Smith, the task of blending is made all the more difficult when their teachers turn out to be aliens from outer space, back for revenge!

Part one
Maria and Luke start their new school but find all is not as it seems. Aided by Sarah Jane and their new friend Clyde, they find the Slitheen, old enemies of the Doctor, this time disguised as teachers, have taken control of the technology block and are trying to switch off the sun. Luke unknowingly gives the Slitheen the code to start the machine and they start to absorb the power of the sun. Sarah Jane investigates the company controlling the science block, and Maria, Luke and Clyde investigate the school. Sarah Jane is attacked by a female Slitheen, who disguised herself as a company secretary, Janine. Luke finds a secret room and is confronted by the Slitheen commander, his headmaster Blakeman. Maria is underneath an IT desk while Luke's science teacher unzips in front of her. The only thing visible to Maria is his big green Slitheen feet. Maria runs away and is chased by Jeffery. She meets up with Clyde, who spots Jeffrey and runs away with Maria. As Carl, the school genius, saves them from Jeffrey, Carl unzips to reveal a child Slitheen.

Part two
They escape and head back to Sarah Jane's house. Clyde figures out that the Slitheen are allergic to vinegar, and the team head off back to the school with squirty bottles of vinegar. After Maria uses the vinegar to blow up the Slitheen commander Blakeman, they head over to the secret room in the block and Luke tricks the Slitheen by telling them the machine won't take the power of the sun. He turns the machine off and uses the sonic lipstick to cause the machine to malfunction. As the room explodes, the continental Slitheen, still disguised, escape whilst Janine is electrocuted and explodes and Jeffrey and Carl are trapped. They beg for Sarah's help, and she tries to open the door, but Jeffrey is killed when the technology explodes. However, at the same time, Carl escapes. Sarah Jane is highly affected by this, as she thinks Carl is dead. Afterwards, she tells Clyde about her travels with the Doctor, and then accepts him into the team, before sharing a long hug with Luke. She now knows that she's not alone in the world any more.

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Maria Jackson - Yasmin Paige
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
 * Alan Jackson - Joseph Millson
 * Chrissie Jackson - Juliet Cowan
 * Greg Blakeman - Martyn Ellis
 * Tim Jeffery - Ian Midlane
 * Wendy - Pamela Merrick
 * Janine - Imogen Bain
 * Carl - Anton Thompson McCormick
 * Trinity Wells - Lachele Carl
 * Carl Slitheen - Jimmy Vee
 * Jeffery/Blakeman/Janine Slitheen - Paul Kasey

Individuals

 * Sarah Jane is heard saying, "Give my love to the Brig" in a telephone conversation with a UNIT contact.
 * Clyde mentions High School Musical.

London locations

 * Sarah Jane investigates St Cheldon's Comprehensive School.

Organisations

 * Sarah Jane refers to UNIT.

Planets

 * One of the Slitheen says, "For the love of Clom", which is the home planet of the Abzorbaloff and the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius.

Species

 * The Slitheen mention they ran into "interplanetary police".
 * The headmaster Slitheen mentions the Blathereen, cousins and enemies of the Slitheen.

Story notes

 * The first episode aired on BBC 1 only. Episode 2 was broadcast afterwards on the CBBC channel, and was shown on BBC 1 a week later.
 * Beginning with episode 1, The Sarah Jane Adventures adopted a format of twenty-five-minute episodes (following its sixty-minute pilot episode). This marked the first time a Doctor Who franchise series has used the twenty-five-minute episode format since episode 3 of Survival concluded the original series in 1989.
 * Part 1 includes flashback footage from TV: Invasion of the Bane.
 * The character of Maria's friend Kelsey Hooper, played by Porsha Lawrence-Mavour in Invasion of the Bane, was dropped for the series as it was felt there were too many female characters in the show, so Clyde was created instead.
 * The American newsreader Trinity Wells (aka Mal Loup), who appears in numerous Doctor Who episodes, makes her first SJA appearance.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 1.4m viewers
 * Episode 2 - 1.1m viewers

Filming locations

 * Clinton Road Penarth (Bannerman Road)
 * Whitchurch High School Cardiff, Robinswood Crescent, Penarth
 * Cardiff High School, Cardiff
 * Mamhilad Park Industrial Estate, Pontypool, Wales
 * Coleg Morgannwg, Parc Nantgarw, Caerphilly
 * Unit A5, Pontypridd
 * Coldfire Construction, Ffordd-Y-Gollen, Tonteg, Mid Glamorgan

Production errors

 * When the unmasked Jeffrey is chasing Maria and Clyde and he says the line, "Children, come to me", the shot of Jeffrey is Birdseye, revealing the actor's head rather than the Slitheen's.
 * When Mr. Smith is showing them the American news channel, down the info bar at the bottom it reads, "the pacific ocean" instead of the "The Pacific Ocean".
 * When Clyde is squirting the head Slitheen, he realises that he has no more vinegar in his squeezie. However, in the previous shot, a good quarter of the mixture is still visible.
 * Mr. Smith brings up a world map before Sarah Jane asks him to.
 * The audio tracks containing lines of dialogue dubbed by the voice actors of the Slitheen are sometimes out of sync with the lip movements performed by the actors in the suits.

Continuity

 * Luke's quick assessment of the new technology block's area in order to deduce that there was a hidden area evokes a similar scene in City of Death where Romana II makes the same deduction. Given writer Gareth Roberts well-established love of the Fourth Doctor/Romana II pairing, this is almost certainly an intentional homage.
 * This is the second time Sarah Jane has investigated schools with alien teachers. The first was TV: School Reunion. Sarah Jane refers to this fact, sarcastically saying it would be ridiculous for there to be something unusual in a school. In both cases the leader of the alien group is depicted as impersonating the school's headmaster.
 * The Slitheen's tendency to flatulence while wearing a person's skin is featured more prominently here than in the Doctor Who appearances.
 * The Blathereen are mentioned; they are a rival family which appeared in PROSE: The Monster Inside.
 * The events of TV: World War Three are mentioned. The Slitheen also state that they are attempting to wipe out Earth in revenge for the loss of family members in that episode.
 * Sarah Jane recalls the phrase "Slitheen in Downing Street", which is a direct quote from Rose Tyler; Sarah Jane mentions that it was "something a friend said". This references Rose telling Sarah Jane in TV: School Reunion about her adventures with the Doctor in the Doctor Who episodes Aliens of London and World War Three.
 * Sarah Jane refers to School Reunion when talking to Maria's dad.
 * Much as she did in the pilot episode, Sarah Jane describes the Doctor to Clyde and explains how she used to travel with him.
 * UNIT are mentioned as handling the other Coldfire and Slitheen sites. Maria is familiar with them.

Home video releases
This was due to be released on a vanilla DVD along with Eye of the Gorgon on 17 March 2008. That release was cancelled. It is featured in the series one box set, which was released in North America on 7 October 2008 and released in the UK on 10 November 2008.