Revenge of the Slitheen (TV story)

Revenge of the Slitheen is the title of a story in the Sarah Jane Adventures series. It is the second story of the series, and makes up the first two episodes of the first season.

Revenge of the Slitheen
Featuring:	Sarah Jane Smith Luke Smith Clyde Langer Maria Jackson
Main enemy:	Slitheen
Key crew
Writer:	Gareth Roberts
Director:	Alice Troughton
Producer:	Matthew Bouch
Release details
Release number:	1
Premiere broadcast:	24th September 2007
Format:	2 - 30 mins episodes

Synopsis

Sarah Jane Smith, investigative journalist and former companion to The Doctor, is back in a brand-new CBBC drama from the makers of Doctor Who. And in the first two-part story of the series she faces some familiar alien enemies of The Doctor as the Slitheen are back and out for revenge...

Plot

Maria and Luke start their new school but find all is not as it seems. Aided by Sarah Jane and their new friend Clyde, they find the Slitheen, old enemies of the Doctor, this time disguised as teachers, have taken control of the technology block and are trying to switch off the sun. Luke unknowingly gives the Slitheen the code to start the machine, and they start to absorb the power of the sun. Sarah Jane investigates the company controlling the science block, and Maria, Luke and Clyde investigate the school. Sarah Jane is attacked by a female Slitheen who disguised herself as a company secretary, Janine. Luke finds a secret room and is confronted by the Slitheen commander, his headmaster Blakeman, whilst Maria and Clyde are chased first by their Slitheen Science teacher, Mr. Jeffrey and then the school genius, Carl, unzips in front of them to reveal a child Slitheen.

They all manage to escape and head back to Sarah Jane's house. Clyde figures out that the Slitheen are allergic to vinegar, and the team head off back to the school with squirty bottles of vinegar. After Maria uses the vinegar to blow up the Slitheen commander Blakeman, they head over to the secret room in the block and Luke tricks the Slitheen by telling them the machine won't take the power of the sun. He turns the machine off and uses the Sonic Lipstick to cause the machine to malfunction. As the room explodes, the continental Slitheen, still disguised, escape whilst Janine is electrocuted and explodes and Jeffry and Carl are trapped. They beg for Sarah's help, and she tries to open the door, but Jeffry is killed when the technology explodes. However, at the same time, Carl escapes. Sarah Jane is highly affected by this, as she thinks Carl is dead. Afterwards, she tells Clyde about her travels with the Doctor, and then accepts him into the team, before sharing a long hug with Luke.

Cast

• Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
• Maria Jackson — Yasmin Paige
• Luke — Tommy Knight
• Clyde Langer — Daniel Anthony
• Alan Jackson - Joseph Millson
• Chrissie Jackson - Juliet Cowan
• Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
• Carl - Anton Thompson McCormick
• Mr. Blakeman - Martyn Ellis
• Tim Jeffery - Ian Midlane
• Janine - Imogen Bain
• Wendy - Pamela Merrick
• Reporter - Lachele Carl
• Child Slitheen - Jimmy Vee
• Adult Slitheen - Paul Kasey

Production crew

• Writer - Gareth Roberts
• Director - Alice Troughton
• 1st Assistant Director - Gareth Williams
• 2nd Assistant Director - Anna Evans
• 3rd Assistant Director - Sarah Davies
• Executive Producers - Phil Collinson, Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
• Producer - Matthew Bouch

References

• The Slitheen mention they ran into "interplanetary police", which is confirmed to be the Judoon.
• One of the Slitheen say "for the love of Clom", the home planet of the Abzorbaloff.
• Some of the aliens seen in Mr Smith's files include the Butterfly People, Bane, Macra, The Beast, Krillitanes and Abaddon.
• This is the first ever time that a Raxacoricofallapatorian child is seen.

Story notes

• The first episode aired on BBC 1 only. Episode 2 was broadcast afterwards on the CBBC channel, and was shown on BBC 1 a week later.
• Beginning with episode 1, The Sarah Jane Adventures adopts a format of 25-minute episodes (following its 50-minute pilot episode). This marks the first time a Doctor Who franchise series has used the 25-minute episode format since episode 3 of Survival concluded the original series in 1989.

Ratings

• Episode 1 - 1.4m viewers
• Episode 2 - 0.4m viewers (CBBC channel), 1.1m (BBC 1)

Myths

To be added

Location filming

To be added

Discontinuity

• No explanation is given for the absence of Kelsey Harper.
• How does Mr Smith know of Abaddon, The Beast or the Macra?

It is possible that he knew of Abaddon because of the events of TW: End of Days, The Beast because it had spread its influence all over time and space, but Sarah Jane never met the Macra, and the Macra lived in the future from the 21st century (but the Macra could be known to the Xylok).

Continuity

• The Slitheen family previously appeared in DW: Aliens of London, World War Three, NDA: The Monsters Inside and DW: Boom Town.

• The Slitheen in this episode are basically doing the same plan as they did in DW: World War Three, by blowing up the planet for fuel.
• This is the second time Sarah Jane has investigated schools with alien teachers (the first being DW: School Reunion).
• The Blathereen are mentioned, and they are a rival family which appeared in NDA: The Monsters Inside.
• The events of DW: World War Three are mentioned.
• Sarah Jane recalls the phrase "Slitheen in Downing Street", which is a direct quote from Rose Tyler in DW: School Reunion.
• Sarah Jane refers to School Reunion when talking to Maria's dad.

DVD, video, and audio releases

This was due to be released on a vanilla DVD along with Eye of the Gorgon on 17 March 2008, until the release was cancelled. It will feature on the Series One boxset, due for release on November 10 2008.

Novelisation

See Revenge of the Slitheen (novelisation)

A novelisation was released on 1 November 2007, written by Rupert Laight. The cover features Sarah Jane, Maria, Luke, Clyde and the Slitheen.

See also

To be added

External links

To be added