The Vault of Secrets (TV story)

The Vault of Secrets
Script release:	online here and here
Main character(s):	Sarah, Clyde, Rani, Mr Smith
Featuring:	Luke, Haresh, Gita
Main enemy:	Androvax, Men in Black, Mister Dread
Main setting:	Ealing, St Jude's Hospital, 2010
Key crew
Writer:	Phil Ford
Director:	Joss Agnew
Producer:	Brian Minchin
Release details
Story number:	20
Premiere broadcast:	18 - 19 October 2010
Format:	2x30 minute episodes
SJA television stories
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Next →	Death of the Doctor

The Vault of Secrets was the second serial of series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was written by Phil Ford, directed by Joss Agnew and featured Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Daniel Anthony as Clyde Langer, Anjli Mohindra as Rani Chandra and Alexander Armstrong as Mr Smith.

It saw the return of Androvax, and the Alliance of Shades made their live-action debut after being introduced in Dreamland.

Synopsis

When an old enemy, Androvax the Veil, returns to Earth asking for help, the gang face a dilemma — should they trust him? Or does the legendary Vault hold an even greater terror? A second threat arises, when android guardians threaten to destroy anyone who uncovers their secrets. As the battle between Sarah, Androvax and the androids reaches its climax, Rani has to save her mother from being caught in the crossfire. The Vault opens and the destiny of the entire Veil species is at stake. Is it too late to save them?

Plot

Part 1

A teenage girl enters an old asylum and approaches the Vault of Secrets. She tries to access it, but only has one disc and needs two. She is confronted by the Alliance of Shades. She runs, hurts herself and falls over. Androvax, the "destroyer of worlds", exits her body and escapes. The Alliance of Shades (a.k.a. Men in Black) arrive and scan the unconscious girl. They announce the Veil is no longer in her.

Sarah, Clyde and Rani are in the attic, speaking to Luke on webcam. Mr Smith interferes with a NASA space probe on Mars, as Sarah wishes to prevent the probe discovering an "ancient and deadly civilisation".

Gita and her husband Haresh have joined B.U.R.P.S.S. (British UFO Research and Paranormal Studies Society) after their encounter with the Judoon and Androvax. When the couple return home on Bannerman Road, Gita spots Androvax entering Sarah's front garden.

Gita gives Haresh a tyre iron and he goes to investigate. He encounters Sarah, Rani and Clyde. After speaking with them, he leaves. Unseen, Androvax enters Rani's body. Sarah scans for alien activity and realises Rani has been taken over. Sarah and Clyde chase her/him to the attic and order Mr Smith to contain him after he willingly exits Rani's body. Surprisingly, he asks for Sarah's help.

They learn Androvax is dying. Since they last encountered him, he has escaped a Judoon prison in a swamp. In doing so, he was poisoned by an alien swamp viper. He is dying slowly and intends to free a hundred of his people from cryogenic sleep in the Vault of Secrets. They are the last survivors of the Veil species aside from Androvax himself. Forty years ago, their ship crashed on Earth and was sent to the Vault by the Alliance of Shades.

Ocean Waters (B.U.R.P.S.S.'s founder) arrives with Minty at Bannerman Road to scan for alien activity by picking up beta particles. Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to deactivate this device.

The three of them go to investigate a mental asylum, where they find the base of the Men in Black. They discover Ocean Waters was abducted in 1972 and met the Men in Black. The Men in Black arrive to confront them. They activate their robotic hands. They tell Sarah that she must hand over Androvax and their disc or be incinerated.

The gang arrive home, where they agree to let Androvax use Clyde's body. They speak to Ocean and Minty. Ocean has the other disc needed to enter the Vault. She recalls past encounters with the Men in Black and Mister Dread. As Androvax grabs the two discs, the Men in Black arrive and tell them to prepare to be incinerated.

Part 2

The incineration is averted. Androvax escapes and enters Gita's body. Gita leaves to the Vault. She is followed by Mister Dread, Sarah, Rani and Clyde. Sarah Jane makes Mister Dread's car malfunction, so he acquires a new one (which he takes from a civillian by force).

They all arrive at the asylum, where Rani and Clyde rescue Gita. Androvax leaves and encounters Sarah. She refuses to help him because when the Veil are reawakened and leave Earth, the spaceships will make Earth explode, ending human civilisation. Androvax takes over her body.

Clyde jumps away from an incineration blast from two Men in Black causing the two men destroy each other. Rani explains to her mother about aliens and how she, Sarah and Clyde have met them. Mister Dread is placed into his capsule and made to sleep. Androvax goes to the Vault in Sarah's body. When Rani, Clyde and Gita run in at the point Androvax wants to open the vault, Androvax pretends to be Sarah. He/she lies to the gang, telling them that Androvax is dead and that they don't need to be worried about them and then opens the Vault, revealing many spaceships. Androvax leaves Sarah's body, and locks himself inside the Vault, which is hyper-dimensional making it bigger on the inside. The team awaken Mister Dread, who gives up four hundred fifty years of his energy powering the transmat device to move Androvax's spaceship into space allowing Androvax and his race to leave without destroying Earth.

Mister Dread is low on power and declares his mission terminated. He erases Gita's memory, lest she tell the world about their experiences. He goes to sleep in his capsule.

The team returns home. Ocean and Minty arrive to ask about the Men in Black. Sarah denies everything and Gita says she doesn't believe in aliens. Minty and Ocean say that the aliens have won again and leave.

Androvax is in outer space. He flies away to find a new world for his species. As the Veil ship departs, his voice can be heard narrating, "Somewhere, there is a new planet for the Veil. A new hope, it is the legacy of Androvax, a new beginning... a second genesis."

Cast

• Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
• Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
• Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
• Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar
• Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
• Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
• Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti
• Androvax - Mark Goldthorp
• Mister Dread - Angus Wright
• Ocean Waters - Cheryl Campbell
• Melvin Minton - David Webber
• Gill - Sophie Benjamin
• Van Driver - Perry Blanks

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies and Nikki Wilson

Written by Phil Ford	Produced by Brian Minchin	Directed by Joss Agnew	Director of Photography Mark Waters	Production Designer Keith Dunne	Visual Effects BBC Wales VFX
Make-up Designer Emma Bailey	Casting Director Andy Brierley	Music Sam Watts Dan Watts	Edited by Will Oswald	Special Effects Real SFX
Title music by Murray Gold

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Co-producer - Phil Ford Production Manager - Steffan Morris Location Manager - Gareth Skelding Production Co-ordinator - Hannah Simpson Production Accountant - Dyfed Thomas Script department Script Editor - Gary Russell Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Mike O'Regan 2nd Assistant Director - Sarah Davies 3rd Assistant Director - Delmi Thomas Script Supervisor - Nicki Coles Camera Operator - Martin Stephens Focus Pullers - Steve Rees, Mani Blaxter Paliwala Grip - John Robinson Boom Operator - Jeff Welch Gaffer - Dave Fowler	Art department Standby Props - Phill Shellard Standby Art Director - Beverley Gerard Graphics - BBC Wales Graphics Costume department Costume Supervisor - Barbara Harrington	Make-up and prosthetics Prosthetics - Millennium FX General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Nerys Davies Post-production Co-ordinator - Marie Brown Assistant Editor - Carmen Sanchez Roberts On-line Editor - Matt Mullins Special and visual effects Colourist - Jon Everett Sound Sound Recordist - Stewart Meachem Dubbing Mixer - Owen Thomas Sound Editors - Matthew Cox, Howard Eaves

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

Individuals

• Patrick Garfield's, Laura Selby's, Kathryn Warner's and Riley's memories were ereased by the Men in Black.
• Bowie is the dog of Ocean Waters.

Locations

• Sarah Jane Smith sabotaged a NASA probe from discovering a pyramid on Mars.
• Maidenhead is a town in Berkshire.
• The Judoon take Androvax to a prison planet in the Calysteral cluster.
• The Vault is located under the St Jude's Hospital.
• Androvax meets a Bouken pirate in the Judoon prison.

Organisations and institutions

• British UFO Research and Paranormal Studies Society is an organisation founded by Ocean Waters.
• The Alliance of Shades tries to keep the existence of aliens hidden from humans.

Cultural references from the real world

• Sarah mentions Dragon's Den.
• Clyde refers to Men in Black, and Rani refers to Will Smith.
• Dread introduces himself in a manner similar to James Bond.
• Sarah asks if Mister Dread called the AA, a reference to AA Travel Insurance.
• Once the two agents are destroyed, Clyde picks up the sunglasses and puts them on, saying, "Hasta la vista". He later say that they were "Clydenated". Both are references to The Terminator films.
• Gita mentions George Clooney and Jeremy Paxman. According to Rani she also claims to have seen Elvis Presley once.
• Clyde refers to Ocean and Minty as "Mulder" and "Scully", characters from The X-Files.
• The car that the Men in Black were driving was a Humber Super Snipe.

Races and species

• Sarah mentions there were ancient civilisations on Mars. She jams the transmission of Mars Rover to prevent it from picking up images of a pyramid. She also mentions that Mars is full of its own dangers.
• Gita mentions the Judoon and Androvax, though only by description as she does not know their names.
• Luke told Clyde that his university friends live off of baked beans and curry. Clyde says it must be like living with Slitheen.
• Androvax is bitten by a Moxolon Swamp Viper.

Objects

• The Men in Black have a Neuron-X Series 5 processor.
• Melvin Minton builts an alien detector.
• Two vault activator discs are needed to open the vault.

Technology

• Mr Smith uses his containment vortex for Androvax.

Other

• Sentons are a unit of measurement.
• The Men in Black have tritanic endoskeletons.
• Stardrive is a method of transporting spacecraft used by the Veil.

Story notes

• Androvax is also portrayed in this story by Elisabeth Sladen, Mina Anwar, Anjli Mohindra, Daniel Anthony and Sophie Benjamin. They portray Androvax when he is possessing their characters' bodies.

Ratings

Part 1 — 731,000

Part 2 — 606,000

Filming locations

• Upper Boat Studios

Production errors

to be added

Continuity

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• Androvax last appeared in TV: Prisoner of the Judoon in which Gita saw Judoon and him.
• Sarah went to the Mars pyramid with the Fourth Doctor in TV: Pyramids of Mars.
• Mr. Smith previously used his containment vortex on Mrs Wormwood in TV: Enemy of the Bane.
• Consequences of Sarah asking Mr Dread to erase Gita's memory will be felt in AUDIO: Judgement Day.
• Androvax's miraculous chance to save his kind from destruction was a feat later matched by the first thirteen incarnations of the Doctor by rescuing the Time Lords and Gallifrey at the end of the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

Home video releases

DVD releases

• This story was included in the Complete 4th Series DVD release (UK release: 31 October 2011; North American release: 6 December 2011).

Blu-ray releases

• This story was included in the Complete 4th Series Blu-ray release (UK release: 31 October 2011; not released in North America).

External links

• The Vault of Secrets at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• The Vault of Secrets at The Locations Guide