Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (TV story)

Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? is the title of a story in The Sarah Jane Adventures series. It is the fifth story of the series, and forms episodes 7 and 8 of Season 1.

Synopsis
One day, Sarah Jane Smith exists, the next, no-one in the world knows about her. Instead, Andrea Yates takes her place; but Maria Jackson knows that Andrea is working with something to remove Sarah from the space/time continuum; so when the Graske return, Maria must uncover the identify of 'The Trickster' if the human race is to survive.

Plot
Sarah Jane tells Maria, Luke and Clyde about a meteorite on course with Earth but reassures them that Mr Smith will be able to deflect it the following day. Sarah Jane gives Maria an alien puzzle box to cheer her up; she falls asleep that night holding it, as a mysterious cloaked figure approaches Sarah Jane's house. The next day, Maria finds that Sarah Jane, Luke and Mr. Smith have all disappeared, and she alone remembers them. A woman named Andrea Yates is living in Sarah Jane's house.

Investigating, Maria finds a 1964 newspaper report stating that a thirteen-year-old Sarah Jane Smith drowned after falling from a pier, where she was playing with her friend Andrea Yates. As Maria watches, the names of the deceased and the survivor keep switching. When Maria confronts Andrea, the panic stricken woman rushes to her attic and finds a second puzzle box. The cloaked figure appears and offers to make Maria disappear. After Andrea accepts, he dispatches a Graske, who captures Maria just after Alan picks up the first puzzle box. When Chrissy comes round he discovers his ex-wife cannot remember their daughter. Meanwhile Maria escapes from the Graske and finds herself on a beach promenade near two girls. As the first episode ends, they introduce themselves as Andrea and Sarah Jane Smith.

After failing to dissuade Andrea from taking Sarah Jane to the pier, Maria is recaptured and taken to join Sarah Jane on a white misty plain, limbo. The mysterious figure explains he has removed Sarah Jane from Earth's timeline so the meteorite will destroy it and create the chaos on which he feeds.

Alan accompanies Chrissie to Andrea's birthday party. Remembering Maria's suspicions, he questions Andrea, who takes him to the attic and tearfully reveals the truth. When she fell off the pier and Sarah Jane was unable to save her, a voice offered to switch the girls' places, and she accepted. The figure appeared and gave her the puzzle box, then removed himself from Andrea's memory; Maria’s questions made Andrea remember. Alan is now chased into the street by the Graske but knocks it down and ties it up, then uses its device to bring back Maria.

They return to the attic, where Sarah Jane appears in the mirror and explains to Andrea that witnessing her death gave her the resolve to fight pointless deaths herself. When the figure reappears (called “the Trickster” by Alan), Andrea explains she has changed her mind about the deal and throws her puzzle box at the mirror, smashing both. Back in 1964 Andrea falls to her death, while Sarah and Luke reappear in the attic and activate Mr Smith. The party guests, including Clyde and Chrissie, have learnt from television news about the incoming meteorite, and are relieved to see it suddenly diverted from its fall. The episode ends with Alan demanding an explanation of his daughter’s involvement with aliens and supercomputers.

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
 * Andrea Yates — Jane Asher
 * The Graske — Jimmy Vee
 * The Trickster — Paul Marc Davies
 * Young Sarah Jane Smith — Jessica Ashworth
 * Young Andrea Yates — Francesca Miller

Production crew
To be added

Story notes

 * This is the only Sarah Jane Adventures serial to date in which the Doctor is mentioned by name.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 406,000 (CBBC)
 * 1.2 million (BBC 1)
 * Episode 2- 633,000 (CBBC)
 * 1.1 million (BBC 1)

Myths
To be added

Location filming
To be added

Continuity

 * The Graske last appeared in the interactive story Attack of the Graske.
 * Sarah refers to the episode saying that there was Graske activity a couple of years ago.
 * Sarah mentions previous times she saved the Earth and thwarted alien invasions, including the Bane (Invasion of the Bane), the Slitheen (Revenge of the Slitheen) and the Gorgons (Eye of the Gorgon)
 * Sarah also mentions that she helped defeat the Patriachs of the Tin Vagabond. The Church of the Tin Vagabond was previously mentioned in The Satan Pit.
 * Sarah Jane has to move a book about UNIT to get to the puzzle box.
 * The Trickster threatens the Doctor when in limbo. He also wonders aloud what the Universe would be like if the Doctor had never existed.  This echoes some musings of the Doctors arch-nemesis, the Master, in The Five Doctors, and is a plan the Trickster himself enacts in Turn Left.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * Sarah Jane lives on 13 Bannerman Road but a sign at the gates says 21.
 * Sarah explicitly denies that the Earth created by her absence is a parallel world. However, it light of Turn Left, it is considerably unclear what this means.   If it's not a parallel world, then what is it?

DVD, video, and audio releases
To be added

Target novelisation
To be added