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 identity 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. He also mentions thet he will proceed to remove The Doctor from Earth's timeline as well, to ensure nothing can interfere with his plan, much to Sarah Jane's dismay.

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
 * Newsreader — Jason Mohammad
 * Voice of The Graske — Philip Hurd-Wood

Production crew
To be added

Story notes

 * Both episodes aired on the CBBC channel, and were broadcast a week later on BBC 1.

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. Although the canonicity of the interactive story has yet to be established, Sarah does make reference to "some Graske activity" on Earth happening a couple of years before this story, a possible reference to Attack of the Graske.
 * 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). The Trickster indicates that he interfered with the course of events to prevent their various schemes in the absence of Sarah Jane. (Although unspoken, presumably this also includes any UNIT/Doctor-related incidents which she played a key role in resolving.)
 * Sarah also mentions that she helped defeat the Patriachs of the Tin Vagabond, an unchronicled adventure. The Church of the Tin Vagabond was previously mentioned in The Satan Pit.
 * Sarah Jane has to move the book 'UNIT: Fighting for Humankind' by Sarah Jane Smith 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.
 * Sarah Jane would later claim that a Verron Soothsayer gave her the Warp Star (DW: Journey's End);
 * The Trickster tells Andrea, "Waking or sleeping, I am always with you". The Black Guardian said this to Turlough in DW: Mawdryn Undead.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * Sarah Jane lives on 13 Bannerman Road but a sign at the gates says '21'. (Maybe with Sarah Jane gone, more people moved in on Bannerman Road and her house is now 21 Bannerman Road instead of 13 Bannerman Road)
 * Sarah explicitly denies that the Earth created by her absence is a parallel world. However, in light of DW: Turn Left, it is considerably unclear what this means. If it's not a parallel world, then what is it? (Sarah states in the story that this is the same world, changed.)
 * When Maria arrives in July 1964 on the day of the accident, a radio can be heard playing You Really Got Me by The Kinks. However the song wasn't released until August 1964. The song was playing on the radio, however, so perhaps it was being promoted in advance of its release.
 * Alan is the only character to refer to the Trickster by that name, even though he is never told it. It's possible he might have made the name up, except that the Doctor refers to the villain by this same name in DW: Turn Left. Alan does interrograte the Graske, with ample time for him to tell Alan the Trickster's name/title.
 * Why wasn't the Torchwood superweapon, utilized to destroy the Sycorax mothership in DW: The Christmas Invasion utilized against the meteor? The Trickster may have prevented its creation, or it may have been dismantled/destroyed as a result of the destruction of Torchwood 1 in DW: Doomsday.
 * A meteor would fall through the atmosphere in seconds, not make the leisurely descent portrayed here.
 * If Sarah Jane dies before she travels with The Doctor, then doesn't evrything that Sarah helped the Doctor with become undone?

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: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (novelisation)


 * A novelisation written by Rupert Laight, is scheduled for publication on 3 November 2008.