Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (TV story)

Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? was the fifth story of Series 1 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, it made up episodes 7 & 8 of the series. It saw the introduction of The Trickster, a recurring villain of the program.

Synopsis
One day, Sarah Jane Smith exists, the next, only Maria Jackson knows of her. Instead, Andrea Yates takes her place, but Maria knows that Andrea has done something to remove Sarah Jane from the space/time continuum. Maria must uncover the identity of the "Trickster" if the human race is to survive.

Part 1
Sarah Jane Smith and Alan Jackson had picked up Clyde, Luke and Maria and stopped off in a park where Clyde practises his skateboarding. Alan, disapointed at what he sees, attempts to teach Clyde, by showing off his own skills. Maria, desperate to get her dad away from the skate park takes several photos of everyone. When taking one of Sarah Jane something odd happens. Sarh becomes very cold and cryptically whispers that someone just walked over her grave. As they leave a black cloaked, hood figure peers out from behind a bush. Back in Sarah's attic, 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 away the following day. After ditching the boys Sarah Jane gives Maria an alien puzzle box, that was given to her by a Verron Soothsayer, who told her to give it to the person she trusts the most and just to 'remember'. Sarah Jane states she is giving it to maria as she is the one person she trusts best. Maria attempts to open it that night in bed, but after becoming disappointed that she is barely getting anywhere she falls asleep holding it, as a mysterious cloaked figure approaches Sarah Jane's house. He holds out a hand and the lights in Sarah's house go out and her car disappears. Meanwhile the puzzle block glows blue in Maria's hand. The next day, after telling her dad if she was going to Sarah Jane's and realising her dad does not know (or at least can not remember) anybody named Sarah Jane Maria begins to get seriously freaked out. She crossess the road and finds some strange woman in Sarah's house who apparently knows her. After checking the photos from before and finding Sarah Jane is not in them, rather the strange woman, Andrea Yates, 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 as if she always has.

Maria searches her contacts and finds Sarah Jane, Luke and Clydes' numbers have all vanished. She warns everybody about the impending meteor, but no one will listen; Clyde doesn't even know her. After claiming to her dad she was lying about a woman called Sarah Jane she decides to go investigating. She finds a newspaper article from 1964 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 switch, though a bemused Alan claims he saw nothing. When Maria confronts Andrea, she becomes very angry, shouting at her. "I'm gonna work out how time got changed, I'm gonna find Sarah Jane, and NOTHING is gonna stop me!!!" Andrea throws her out and the panic stricken woman rushes to her attic and finds a second puzzle box. The cloaked figure appears and reminds Andrea of himself and what she agreed. She can't bear her memory and begs him to help her. He offers to make Maria disappear. Andrea dreads the thought of knowing she would have erased Maria, but the figure promises she will forget, as the whole World will. After Andrea accepts, he dispatches a Graske, who chases Maria. Maria comes to a dead end under a tunnel, and despite her attempts to dodge the gun, the Graske shoots a clip attached to a cord at Maria, and the clip catches on to her breast pocket. The Graske teleports Maria away just after Alan picks up the first puzzle box, which Maria had dropped. When Chrissie 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. She grabs a nespaper and sees the date, knowing July 13th 1964 to be the day of the accident. When Maria asks the two girls where she is, they introduce themselves as Andrea Yates and Sarah Jane Smith.

Part 2
After failing to dissuade Andrea from taking Sarah Jane to the pier, Maria is recaptured by the Graske and taken to join Sarah Jane on a white misty plain, known as Limbo. The mysterious figure summons Sarah and explains that he has removed Sarah Jane from Earth's timeline so the meteorite will destroy it and create the chaos on which he feeds. He removes his hood to reveal an featureless face, and a mouth with sharp, pointed teeth. He tells her how wonderful she is and that her life was so important to the Earth, but he found just the right time to 'snuff it out'. As he leaves he also mentions that he will proceed to remove the Doctor from time as well, to ensure nothing can interfere with his plan, much to Sarah Jane's dismay.

Chrissie becomes angry at Alan, for apparently making up that they ever had any children. Alan sees she is missing from the photos and begins to realise that what Maria said was true. Alan accompanies Chrissie to Andrea's birthday party. Remembering Maria's suspicions, he questions Andrea, who tries to change the subject but eventually breaks down and takes him to the attic where she tearfully reveals the truth. When she was on a school trip in July 1964 she and Sarah had left the school group to explore on their own. After getting into the locked pier they larked around for a bit before leaning over the railings. Andrea leans on an open gate and tumbles down managing to grab a hold on an overhanging girder. Sarah Jane attempted but was unable to save her. A hoarse voice offered to switch the girls' places, and she, knowing she was going to die, accepted. The two girls immediately swapped places, Sarah Jane about to plummet, Andrea safe. After screaming in dismay, Andrea puts out her hand but Sarah Jane falls. The figure appeared and gave her the puzzle box, then removed himself from Andrea's memory, promising to always be with her though Maria’s questions had made Andrea remember. Alan was shocked at Andrea knowingly killing her best friend instead of dying herself. The figure appears in the mirror though Alan cannot see him. He suggests he removes Alan. Andrea apologises both for removing Maria and for what she is about to do. She grabs Alans puzzle lock, as a Graske appears. Alan is chased into the street by the Graske but knocks it down on his skateboard and ties it up. He then uses its snare device to bring back Maria.

Maria's photos return and Chrissie suddenly realises her daughter's existence. At Andrea's party Clyde switches on the telly, where he learns that a huge meteorite is in fact heading for Earth. The newsreader gets breaking news; that the intended missile strike has failed. Maria tells Alan to fire the snare again to return Sarah Jane. They return to the attic, where Sarah Jane appears in the mirror and explains that she cannot return while Andrea is there. Andrea is angry that Sarah Jane is 'the chosen one', 'the golden girl' and horrified that Maria and Alan will be wiping her life from existence. That she will be forgotten. Sarah Jane explains to Andrea that she was never forgotten, and that witnessing her death gave Sarah Jane the resolve to fight pointless deaths herself. When the figure reappears, named “the Trickster” by Alan, Andrea realises that she will die either way and intends to do something useful with her life. She explains that 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 saying remember me as she falls, while Sarah and Luke reappear along with Alan and Maria in the attic. Maria jumps up remembering the meteor, now only metres from impact and activate Mr Smith. The party guests have fled, but Clyde and Chrissie remain and are targets for the incoming meteorite. Mr Smith activates themagnetic buffer and the meteorite diverts at the last minute. Clyde and Chrissie are relieved to see it suddenly diverted from its fall. While in the attic the four cheer and sigh with relief. Suddenly Alan demands an explanation of his daughter’s involvement with aliens, monsters and supercomputers. The three look at each other and have no answer.

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
 * Maria Jackson — Yasmin Paige
 * Luke Smith — Tommy Knight
 * Clyde Langer — Daniel Anthony
 * Voice of Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
 * Alan Jackson — Joseph Millson
 * Chrissie Jackson — Juliet Cowan
 * Andrea Yates — Jane Asher
 * The Trickster — Paul Marc Davies
 * Krislok- Jimmy Vee
 * Young Sarah Jane— Jessica Ashworth
 * Young Andrea — Francesca Miller
 * Newsreader— Jason Mohammad
 * Voice of Krislok -- Philip Hurd-Wood

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

Filming locations

 * Clinton Road, Penarth (Bannerman Road)
 * Esplanade, Penarth
 * Penarth Pier, Penarth
 * Science Library, Cardiff University
 * Victoria Road, Penarth
 * Dinas Powys Skatepark, Cardiff Road, Dinas Powys
 * Park Place, Cardiff
 * Archer Place (Path under Bridge), Penarth
 * BBC Studios, Upper Boat, Tonteg Road, Treforest Industrial Estate, Pontypridd

Production errors

 * Sarah Jane lives on 13 Bannerman Road but a sign at the gates says '21'.
 * 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.
 * A meteor would fall through the atmosphere in seconds, not make the leisurely descent.
 * Andrea says she has been dead for 40 years, and she, presumably like Sarah Jane was born in 1951 as they're the same age, and as this story is set in 2008 that would make her 57, not 53.

Continuity

 * The Graske last appeared in the interactive story DW: 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 (SJA: Invasion of the Bane), the Slitheen (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen) and the Gorgons (SJA: 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, preferring that the Earth be destroyed senselessly by the meteor.
 * The Church of the Tin Vagabond was previously mentioned in DW: The Satan Pit.
 * 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 DW: The Five Doctors, and is a plan the Trickster himself enacts in DW: Turn Left. It creates an alternate timeline where many catastrophes happen to Earth (and Sarah Jane and her friends die trying to stop one of them) before he is thwarted by an alternate reality Donna Noble and Rose Tyler. That plan is enacted by his brigade and he doesn't actually appear.
 * 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).
 * The Verron puzzlebox later appears in The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith, also the next episode to feature the Trickster. (SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)

Home video 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 was published on 3 November 2008.