The Last Sontaran (TV story)

The Last Sontaran is the first story of The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2.

Synopsis
Reports of strange lights around the Tycho Project's radio telescope lead Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde, and Maria into a terrifying forest encounter, where Sarah Jane comes face-to-face with her oldest enemy.

Meanwhile, Maria wrestles with a huge decision when her dad is offered a new job in America.

Part 1
At a radio telescope used by the Tycho Project's search for alien life, in rural Goblin's Copse, Lucy Skinner and her astronomer dad, Professor Nicholas Skinner, are observing the night sky when they spot strange lights floating in the sky. Professor Skinner investigates, but goes missing--so Lucy investigates, and is promptly captured herself.

The following day, investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith hears reports of the strange lights and, despite Mr Smith's assurances that strange lights rarely herald alien activity, decides to pursue the story. She recruits Luke and Clyde to help; Maria comes, too, though she seems sad and hints that she may be leaving soon.

In fact, Maria's dad Alan has been offered a job in America, at the head office of his firm. Maria is ambivalent about the news: happy for her dad, but sad that she must leave her friends behind.

At Goblin's Copse, the team finds Lucy, who tells them that her dad is still missing. But no sooner has she said so than Professor Skinner appears, though he seems strangely detached and unemotional, and orders the investigators to leave immediately.

Sarah Jane and her friends have no choice but to leave the observatory. Luke and Clyde have found a strange invisible spaceship in the woods around the observatory; when the cloaking field is disabled and Sarah Jane sees the ship, she immediately recognises a Sontaran ship--and, as the group discovers too late, its Sontaran occupant has just found them.

The Sontaran is Commander Kaagh, badly wounded when the Doctor defeated the Sontaran army in DW: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky. The only survivor of the botched invasion, he has vowed revenge on Earth for his people's humiliation.

The humans quickly manage to escape, with Kaagh chasing them. Outside the observatory, they split up: Luke and Maria crawl into a vent that pierces the observatory, while Sarah Jane and Clyde attempt to reason with Professor Skinner--only to discover that he is under mind control by the Sontaran. Kaagh's plan is revealed: he will use the Tycho radio telescope to take control of Earth's satellites, and steer them to crash into nuclear stockpiles on Earth, triggering nuclear annihilation.

Part 2
Kaagh shoots Sarah Jane, who sprawls, unconscious, on the floor. He then boasts to Clyde that she will be taken to Sontar as a prize, and he will be hailed as a hero instead of a laughingstock--perhaps even given a more honourable epithet, such as "Kaagh the Avenger".

Luke and Maria are hidden in a nearby vent, watching the scene unfold. They catch Clyde's attention and motion for him to join them.

Sarah Jane awakens to find that she is being held in a store room, along with Lucy Skinner, and that Kaagh has taken her sonic lipstick. Undeterred, she and Lucy start to build a device to jam the satellite, hoping that it will attract Kaagh's attention away from the observatory's control centre.

Luke, Maria, and Clyde provoke Kaagh into chasing them through the observatory's corridors and service tunnels; the teens escape into the forest and block Kaagh from getting out. They run to Kaagh's shuttle, where Luke uses the alien chemicals stored inside to synthesise a knockout gas that will incapacitate the Sontaran.

Sarah Jane activates her new invention; just as she expected, Kaagh soon appears to search for it. Sarah Jane and Lucy sneak out, and try to figure out a way to disarm the satellites.

Maria, not sure that Luke will be able to synthesise the gas in time, decides to ask Mr Smith for more information on defeating Sontarans. As Mr Smith is still in Ealing, she calls her dad and asks him to contact the computer. Alan does so, unaware that he has been followed into Sarah Jane's attic by his ex-wife Chrissie. Chrissie demands to know what is going on; Alan quickly brings her up to speed on Sarah Jane's alien hunting and Maria's role as her assistant. Chrissie realizes he is telling the truth as his lip twitches when he is lying. Maria's parents, fearful for her safety, decide to join their daughter at Goblin's Copse.

Luke tries to break into the observatory's main computers, eventually succeeding when he realises that Sontarans, who have three fingers on each hand, probably use base six mathematics. But Kaagh reveals that Lucy is a sleeper agent, activates the mind-control chip he had implanted in her, and instructs her to re-activate the transmitter. All appears lost--until Chrissie bursts into the observatory and attacks Kaagh's probic vent with her high-heeled shoe, incapacitating him more effectively than Luke's knockout gas was able to. The transmitter is de-activated, this time for good.

Kaagh is escorted back to his ship and ordered to return to Sontar, which he is only too glad to do; he is humiliated that he was defeated by "half-forms" (children) and a woman. Sarah Jane is relieved, even if she is not entirely convinced that the Sontaran is gone for good.

Six weeks later, Maria and Alan say their goodbyes to Sarah Jane, Luke, and Clyde, as they leave for their new life in America. As father and daughter pull away, Chrissie whispers to Sarah Jane that she was not entirely ignorant of her daughter's alien-hunting hobby.

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elizabeth Sladen
 * Maria Jackson - Yasmin Paige
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Commander Kaagh - Anthony O'Donnell
 * Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
 * Alan Jackson - Joseph Millson
 * Chrissie Jackson - Juliet Cowan
 * Professor Nicholas Skinner - Ronan Vibert
 * Lucy Skinner - Clare Thomas

Production crew
to be added

Story notes

 * This is Maria Jackson's last story. Actress Yasmin Paige is in her GCSE year, so chose to concentrate on her studies.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 0.7 million (BBC 1)
 * Episode 2 - 477,000 (CBBC channel)
 * 0.6 million (BBC 1)

Myths
to be added

Filming Locations

 * Back in series one, Alan Jackson's original house was set in a real life house on a normal surbuban street instead of in a studio. The first episode of the second series entitled The Last Sontaran has the house set in a studio and has been redecorated extremely accuratley by the production crew.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
•Why didn't Kaagh just use Lucy first rather than risk his first plan failing as Sarah-Jane had 45 mins to stop him?
 * The lack of reference to the earth being relocated suggests this episode may place before the events of DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, however in The Stolen Earth Maria and Alan are said to be in Cornwall, whereas they leave for America at the end of this storyline. It's possible Alan and Maria just happened to be visiting the UK when the earth was moved; also, lack of reference to the events don't mean they didn't already occur.
 * To add further confusion to where this story lies in relation to DW:The Stolen Earth / Journeys End, Chrissie Jackson is incredulous about the existence of aliens. Which she wouldn't be after experiencing the Daleks pulling Earth across the universe. As in Doomsday the Government probably made a cover story for this event. Sarah also explains in the following story that people will say anything to avoid facing the truth. Also, DW: The Runaway Bride gave us Donna Noble, a similar character (initially) to Chrissie, who had managed to remain oblivious to the Battle of Canary Wharf and the Sycorax invasion; in the case of Chrissie several previous episodes have established that she is rather dense when it comes to these things (Revenge of the Slitheen, Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?). And a very public Dalek invasion doesn't mean that aliens are showing up all the time.
 * When Kaagh's face is revealed his helmet slides open for him but in the posion sky and the sontaran stratagem all Sontarans take their helmets off by hand.(more advanced technology)

Continuity
to be added

DVD and Other releases
to be added