Playtime (short story)

Summary
On a day trip to London with her aunt Lavinia in November 1963, Sarah Jane, a young girl with an enquiring mind, nips off to explore while her guardian goes off to buy sweets for her. Behind some double gates she finds a junkyard full of shop window dummies, broken chairs, picture frames and, strangely, a police box. Lost in her own world (during which she briefly pretends to be a reporter at one point), she suddenly remembers her aunt and races off as a car pulls up and an older girl runs into the junkyard.

Characters

 * Sarah Jane Smith
 * Susan Foreman (unnamed)
 * Lavinia Smith

Continuity

 * The story presents some of the events of TV: An Unearthly Child from the viewpoint of Sarah Jane Smith. The story can only work if it is assumed that the UNIT stories took place in the "near future". TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, which shows Sarah Jane as thirteen years old in 1964, makes this story impossible, unless changes to the timeline are assumed.