Warriors of Kudlak (TV story)

Synopsis
Sarah Jane Smith tries to prevent Mr Kudlak from kidnapping children to fight in a war.

Part 1
Combat 3000, a new laser tag centre, has opened in London. A teenaged boy, Lance Metcalf, from Clyde and Luke Smith's school vanished after going there. 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 to master the art of telling jokes but can't quite do it, nor does he understand games. Taking him under his wing, Clyde takes Luke to Combat 3000. Sarah soon discovers that there have been mysterious storms at the time of the disappearances and that Mr. Grantham and a humanoid insectoid alien, Kudlak, are working for an unseen "Mistress". Luke and Clyde manage to survive Round One 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. Soon, Clyde and Luke manage to escape and 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 help her escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are then confronted by Kudlak...

But 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 escape Kudlak after creating a diversion, and return to Mr. Smith, who informs them of who Kudlak is and the background to his race. He is a member of the Uvodni race, and they were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the ensuing battle, but the Uvodni would not quit, and continued fighting. Eventually, Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave 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, or rather Mr. Grantham - abducted Clyde and Luke.

Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde rescue other children from their crates, including Lance and a girl called Jen. Mr. Grantham breaks into Sarah Jane's home, but is overpowered by 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 made by the Uvodni Emperor ten years ago which reveals an armistice has been made 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
 * Mr Smith — Alexander Armstrong
 * Mark Grantham — Chook Sibtain
 * Carrie Metcalf — Sarah Haynes
 * Wendy — Pamela Merrick
 * Lance Metcalf — 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

Production crew
To be added

Story notes

 * The Slabs were used by the Plasmavore to help escape from The Judoon they seem to be used by The Uvodni meaning that these could be drones of most intergalactic species. (DW:Smith and Jones)
 * Both episodes aired on the CBBC channel, and were broadcast a week later on BBC 1.
 * The events of this story appear to take place at a half term as the boy who is kidnapped (Lance) goes missing on a Saturday but the events in the story occur three days later. Yet Maria, Luke and Clyde are seen along with other schoolchildren to spend the whole day out of school. Either the first or second half term of the school year is possible. Given that Lance has only been at school 2 months but is seen by Clyde and the others as new to their school then it's more likely to be the second half term.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 425,000 (CBBC)
 * 1.0 million (BBC 1)
 * Episode 2- 397,000 (CBBC)
 * 1.2 million (BBC 1)

Myths
To be added

Location filming
To be added

Continuity
to be added

Discontinuity
To be added

DVD, video, and audio releases
This story was included in the Series One box set, which was released in North America on 7 October 2008; UK release is scheduled for 10 November 2008.

Novelisation

 * ''Main article: Warriors of Kudlak (novelisation)


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